One week at a time

Our Farm in 1995 - the good years

The weeks are going by and the jobs are stacking up. Thursday night, after my umpteenth early morning was the Bee association meeting. Various people spoke about ideas and issues they had come across in the recent past. It was all very interesting and I heard some good ideas. The Duck Herder was there and it was nice to catch up. She’s got the inside scoop now and knows what I don’t put on here.

Whilst I was at the bee meeting we had some poor chap hanging around town waiting for me to get home. He wanted to buy a few pigs for gastronomic reasons. He finally gave up and went home, but luckily called back the next day.

Friday morning was cold, and because we had evicted the last young piglets from the house the fire hadn’t been left burning all night, funny how the cook can’t wait for the piglets to leave and is then the first person to complain once they are gone. That night I picked up a load of green waste from Dave, six 44 Gallon drums full. I thought the trailer was going to pull off the car at on point, but with a little luck and at eighty KPH I finally arrived home – to find they’d already eaten dinner…!!!!!

Saturday morning started early with pigs going first thing. It’s getting a lot easier to get them loaded and away now we have a little bit of experience behind us. We trucked out six boars, the Cook sent me straight into town to buy Harry a new pair of boots and a new battery for the electric fence. I was a little shocked at the price batteries have risen since I purchased the last one, they’d gone up about 50%.

By the time I arrived back home there was just enough time for a cup of tea when Dave and his family showed up. I’d forgotten he was coming out to shoot foxes. So we toddled off up into the hills, whilst Dave’s wife and kids waited at home for the Cook to return from Cooma. We saw a couple of foxes but they were a bit quick for Dave and have managed to live another day. I haven’t been out shooting with anybody in a long time and it was interesting the different approach between a civilian and military way of doing it.

So I didn’t get home until after dark and the Cook hadn’t fed anything – so I was out until late feeding the starving hoards. By the time I got back to the house it was well and truly bed time.

Sunday morning was another early one, I took a breeding trio out to Burra. When I arrived the people asked me how I was going to unload them and get them into their new yards. Because our pigs are very trusting and haven’t been mistreated, they are very easy to handle, so we just opened up the back of the trailer and they jumped down into the paddock. After a quick sniff and graze they followed me straight into their new home. The people who took them didn’t expect them to be so friendly.

I had to be back in Bredbo by noon so I could make the dump before it shut, the Cook likes me to deal with the household rubbish, so she was very keen I wasn’t late. I got that job done and then fixed the pig fence and installed the new battery. We fed out some more green scraps, filled waters and refilled the grain bins before having a break for lunch.

The boy’s are going for a sleep over Monday night and I’ll be late home so by the time I had the feeds made up and the waters done and everything else it was after dark. By dinner time I was ready to drop, we had a late dinner and I hit the hay before 10:00 O’clock. The Cook took her usual nap in front of the fire before coming to bed late.

We were woken at 6:00am by the phone, the people who I delivered the pigs too wanted to let us know how they were settling in – at 6:00am, they thought I’d be up! But unfortunately for me it was the first morning in ages I was able to sleep in - because of school holidays, no appointments and the Cook was on days off. Anyway they were really happy with the pigs, couldn’t believe how quite and good natured they are and just love them – it was nice to know, but it could’ve waited until 9:00am.

We’ve become members of the Slow Food Movement as well. They are organising a regional group based on the Monaro and we thought it would be good to be foundation members of a group in our area.