No Rain, lots of Wind and plenty of blisters

Swainson Pea

One day I’m going to actually have holiday, the last time I took time off was when we moved into the farm. It never slows down, and even this weekend is full, Ben has his Birthday Sleep Over, there is the AGM for Land Care and a trip into Canberra on Sunday.

The last two weeks have been fairly productive, I’ve been able to get a lot of the posts into the ground out the back in the conservation area, the last few have been soul destroying with solid rock down about 18 inches. My arms ache, I’m sunburnt and in desperate need of a shave - I’ll be glad to head back to work, the kids reckon I’m a real red neck now. It hasn’t been all my work, one of the guy’s from the NSF has come out and helped and some others have also offered which is really great – and I will take them up on it.

We had a Grass Lands expert Rainer Rehwinkle come out yesterday to do a survey of some of Grasslands. It was a little windy, but otherwise a very pleasant afternoon. Rainer found over 60 species of native plants including orchids. He was very impressed with the quality and the quantity. I thought this was amazing because he only saw a small portion of the grassland we have. He’s asked if we would donate some of our Swainson-Pea seeds to the millennium seed project. Some of the seeds will end up in the National Botanic Gardens and the rest will be sent to the deep freezer in Norway where they are storing a collection of seed samples from every plant in the world – sort of a huge bio bank. I forgot to take my camera with me so went back today, but the wind was up again and the little flowers are hard to photograph in the wind. Whilst I was out there I stumbled upon two Shingle Back lizards and an Earless Dragon – which was slightly funny as Lauren, the facilitator from K2C was with us the day before and she spent hours looking under rocks for the little blighters.

I’ve also spent a bit of time spraying the Tussock Grass in the paddock next to the highway. It’s a wonderful job; the long Love Grass makes it difficult to walk and hides wombat holes really well. The paddock is a nice shade of pink however. I’m starting to think there is more to be done here then I can manage alone – between the farm and the conservation work there is barely a free or slow moment. I am going to need to get the local contractor in to boom spray some of the larger infestations of Tussock otherwise they’ll just get away and the problem will only get worse.

The Cook was in fine form this morning, I was in the Chicken Coup turning on the water and she was bringing up some scraps to the chickens. I wasn’t watching but she suddenly screamed and I looked up – just in time to see two very large brown snakes slithering across the yard. She had nearly stepped on them (maybe interrupted them is more precise), luckily the dogs weren’t around and the kids had gone to school. I think she’s looking a bit greyer this evening.

The Cook has been preparing the garden for the Bio Dynamic Course. It’s looking really good and a lot of effort has gone into it. It should look really good by November – and many thanks goes out to Mrs Duck for her donation of seedlings, they are doing you proud Mrs Duck and the Cook is very happy with them all.

Hey boy's - come here for a minute....

Our pig tattoo arrived the other day, in the mail, at last. It is a frightful looking piece of kit. They are what is known as a slap brand. It uses our Property Identification Code (PIC) and we apply it by whacking it against the pigs hindquarter. The tattoo needles penetrate the skin and the ink leaves an indelible pattern. I think I will need to have a couple of practice runs with this first – Kids – Kids – where are you??? I need you for a minute…….

To get a pig brand in NSW, you need to first apply for a PIC thought the LHPA – this is similar to the NAIS that the Americans are fighting against currently. Once you have that, they’ll issue you with a certificate. You then need to send a copy of your certificate to a Rural Supplier who stocks pig brands and they’ll make one up and send it out too you. Other states may have different ways of doing this. If you’re sending your pigs to a processor they won’t be accepted without a brand – it’s also the only way you’ll know if you’re getting back the pigs you sent.

I might be picking up my new toy this weekend. I’ve found myself a push along motorised garden vacuum for collecting this year’s acorn harvest – should speed things up a bit. I’m hoping to collect a lot of acorn this year, enough to last until well into spring. This will see me back and forward into town for the next few weeks every day.

The Cook has invited a couple of guys from Bush Heritage over for dinner tonight. I don’t think she expected to be three hours late getting home last night either. The Bush heritage guys are sleeping in the Scottsdale Shearing shed so a nice dinner, in a warm house, will be a real treat for them.

Unmeasured

It did rain yesterday – but I don’t know how much, the goats knocked my rain gage off the post. I’ve never seen goats so fat, Bendy wobbles from side to side when she runs like a half full water bladder, Nudge can't run up the side of the gully and Precilla is taller laying down then standing up – maybe we all need to go on a diet.

The rain we had was good, using the “Grandees’ rain gauge of chance” I figure we had about 15mm – but I’m not so good with the maths for that particular method. I heard on the radio that Murrumbateman had 64mm – lucky buggers, Cooma only had 2mm.

I went to the NSF meeting last night, Peter Andrews visit is confirmed for the 7th of February. We are having a BBQ lunch down by the river at Valley View on the day. The Cook wants me to organise a pig for the day – I’ll see what I can do, but it is only two weeks away. Peter Andrews was on the Sky News Eco report this week as well. It was a very positive interview and a great credit to him and Sky for the manner in which it was conducted.

There was a lot of haze about this morning – it was almost like the tropical haze you’d see in Townsville. The temperature was above 18 Deg C by 6:30am and it is looking like more storms for this afternoon.

One of the mother pigs, I think it’s Myrtle, has turned up with a sore back leg. She’s lying down a lot and wont walk on the leg. She’s the second pig in the last six months to hurt herself like this. We have the kids giving her water during the day and we feed her separately. I think the uneven ground in the mothers’ yard is the cause; I need to have a bobcat come in and even out the ground.

It’s Australia Day this weekend. Which means Cancon for us, the kids are heading in to participate in the Magic card game competition. Sunday we have local visitors and Monday its Bush Heritage. Somewhere in there I need to clean up before the NSF weekend – its just one thing after another. The Cook is off to a Biodynamics workshop in a couple of weeks as well, I’ll be left behind to get the kids to school, feed all the animals and complete another list of jobs that’ll be attached to the fridge door before then.

The Devil you know.

Well looking Back on the farm diary I didn’t realize how much we had done over the past twelve months. Started out with the arrival of twenty-five piglets, the kid’s first yabby expedition and a visit from Aunty Iris. The Cook castrated her first piglets a month later, I engaged in mortal combat with a couple of snakes and drove to Townsville.

And that was just the first month! Things didn’t slow down at all - the Cook rescued sheepy from the river, We had our first visit from Bush Heritage and the Cook did her Soil Biology workshop. By the end of February we thought we had things well under control – yeah right! I had only just returned from Townsville when we had a visit from Gayle, I took in CMC Rocks the Snowy’s and the Cook milked the cow.

By April we started having trouble containing piglets so we weaned the first lot. We had a soil workshop on the property, Flopsy the pig was taken to the vet for an ear infection and we had our first frosts. I started collecting acorns for the pigs over Winter, we had our first ANZAC Day in Bredbo and had a visit from Mum.

We went to a lot of field days, met a lot of interesting people and spent an awful lot of money on pig food. By May we had almost eighty pigs and the Cook went to Adelaide with the kids. We also visited the Mountain Creek farm run by Michael Croft; which was a great inspiration to us, and Ben started playing Soccer. In May we also had our first piglets inside and our first piglet die.

By june it was winter well and truly, Rusty the Donkey died, we had problems with the school bus and the pigs opened a new paddock – thanks to some help from a couple of mates. In July we had the arrival of a new calf and another attempt to milk Belle. It snowed at home and things really started to cool off.

The rest of the happenings are on the Blog, too many to repeat here.
The kids had their first Christmas holiday sleepover with four mates from Canberra. Lots of computer play, water fights and eating. Tomorrows New Years eve, have a safe one. I haven’t updated the last couple of days due to the sleep over and no spare computers.

We found out who was our 2000th visitor, who was also our 1999. He logged off and on again just so he could say it was him - good on ya Maverick!!!

Todays picture is of a Blue Devil a native to these parts - it was very windy when I took the photo, cheers

What happened to Summer?

Things got away from me over the past couple of days – we spent the day at Scottsdale on Friday at an African Lovegrass Workshop. It was very interesting, apart from the fact that he people form the NSW DPI and the local Agronomist were particularly rude and obnoxious throughout the day. We met a couple from Candelo who have had a lot of success with using worm tea on their love grass to make it more palatable. We will be trying this in the pigs areas, just need to round up some worms.

We finally had a chance to catch up with a friend from way back as well. He share farms Ingellara, the Biodynamic farm down the road and we’ve been trying to catch up for months.

During the Field Day, as with all days at Scottdale it rained – we ended up with about 15mm over the weekend – nothing compared to Canberra’s 53mm. Then of course we have had a couple of days of wind, now everything is nice and dry again.

I was inside on Saturday having a cuppa and chat with Matthew on the phone, I remembered I needed to fill the pigs feeds with water so I dashed out side. I had only reached the gate when I noticed a huge Wedge tailed Eagle sitting on one of the ducks in the back yard. A second Eagle swooped down and landed on the corner post of the chicken yard. Luckily I was able to scare them off and save the poor duck – which apart from a couple of scrapes and a cut to the head came off OK. Of course she hasn’t left the chicken house since.

Sunday was quite, a little bit windy and cold. I spent a little bit of time cutting down the old Love Grass tussocks in the front paddock and the Serrated Tussock down by the creek. Unfortunately when I picked up the mail this morning I had a warning form the Council that I was getting a weeds inspection after New Years – yippeeee can’t wait!

The Cooks Potato patch is looking good - in todays picture.

Bean there.

I’ve a lot of catching up to do. Firstly the garden – it’s looking great, the vegetables are coming on and things are really looking good. George is fine, he’s fully recovered form his illness. The Pigs are back in their paddocks but they have destroyed all but three of our truffle trees. And lastly, the Bull is back from the river and living with his mother again – she’s really an old cow. The fly blown sheep known as Beryl is doing well, but I haven’t finished mowing the lawn.

Still no new camera! Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Old Ted, the Bin Laden look a like, from Dubbo is supposed to be coming down for a visit tomorrow – but I haven’t heard from him yet. Matthew and Fiona went to visit Maryborough – haven’t heard from them either; and the Western Australian Nomads are moving to Karratha. I can’t keep up with it all!

The Cook can’t cook at the moment because she hasn’t an oven. But, I’ll keep looking in the papers and see if I can snag another bargain. We are spending a fortune on biscuits and snacks for the kids (yes the kids, not me – the kids!) and not having a stove also means no fresh bread or duck egg pavlova’s.

On the weekend when we were out at Jerangle we had the best feed of fresh Black Angus Steaks I’ve ever had. The guys up there really have a great place and their cattle were in peak condition – better then what I can say for my pigs at he moment.

Our cow is looking good, the Cook put out one of her Biodynamic licks the other night and the cow just goes crazy over it. The sheep tucked into it as well, I suspect there could be some fine tunning to do to the recipe before it is perfectly matched to our pastures.

Speaking of the Cook, she’s over in Braidwood today at a Serrated Tussock field day, then on Friday we’re off to a Love Grass field day – she’ll be all weeded out by the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get a heads up on what the developing story is with controlling these pests – I bet they don’t discuss the organic options.

Today spic is from the garden, enjoy.

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Didn’t get a lot done this weekend. The shooters came out – I think they are a little green – shot at a couple of foxes, but they didn’t hit a thing. As they were leaving the bloke that was buying the weaners arrived, he left empty handed, the pigs were too small for him and he only wanted to give us $55 each – bugger that, on your horse mate! People happily paid more for smaller ones. I wasn’t happy after spending an hour catching the little devils – and I seem to be the only one who can. I suppose it helps to be able to think like a pig. I’m not as young, thin or fast as I used to be either and by the end of it I felt like I’d done a marathon. Of course there was absolutely no sympathy from the Cook. I then went out and mowed the lawn for three hours.

The NSF guy’s came out late n the afternoon, I think the scale of our project was enough to make them think. I’m confident they liked what they saw and we’ll see were it progresses from here. We had a look at the project on the adjacent property, it was massive, it would be interesting to see the contrast between the two if we can get it all up off the ground.

Harry and I saw a fox on the way into town on Saturday – and this was whilst the hunters were still wandering around. There was a dead fox cub on the highway this morning, just out the front, so they are definitely breeding.

Sunday we went up to Jerangle with the Obie’s. The Cook has a friend up there that has about 500 acres and a house. It was lovely country – much different from ours. They have lovely trees and basalt outcrops and lots of green grass – very envious! After we arrived home I mowed the lawn for three hours.

We also took delivery of our first Geese – photos of these to come! And I’ve still got three hours of mowing to do.

Asleep at the wheel

Sorry, we had visitors yesterday and sort of threw me right out. Our visitors were from Bush Heritage, we had some discussions about what we are going to do with the conservation work and where to start. We’ve come to the decision that we need to tackle the Tussock Grass on the back sections and thicken the native pastures to increase the ground cover.

The Bush Heritage folks are really keen to help us restore the property back to its original landscape. We had a chat about the NSF side of things as well. Luckily they seem pretty open minded about this and are willing to give it a try. The next meeting of the NSF is Thursday week here at he Environment Centre at ANU in Canberra – guess where I’ll be?

I went out to the Rural Store at Hall and picked up a new water trough for the pigs yesterday as well. I’m pretty confident that he pigs won’t run out of water before we get home now. The new trough is about three times the size of the old one and I’ve put both of them out with the gang.

One the baby Boars ate the lat of the corn seedlings yesterday. The fence went down for a couple of hours, unfortunately. We plan to plant some more this weekend – should only put us a month behind, but lack of rain is the big thing. The creek is really low – wish my camera worked, I’d show you all. I’m thinking I may need to start digging the channel out from the main stream – looks like I know what I’m doing for the next week.