Brrrrrrrrr!

Snowy Hills

Back in July I wrote and didn’t post -

Well, the brass monkeys are working overtime here in Bredbo and I’ve been too soft to face the cold of the computer table to up date my Blog – yes, I take total responsibility for the lack of communications.

-12.9 Degrees Celsius – cold enough for me. No hot water for morning showers all this week and last, the water in the washing machine was still frozen at 6pm the other night and we couldn’t wash the kids uniforms – the poor old Cook thought her brand new washing machine was busted. But it’s warmed up now, it was only minus 8.9 over the weekend – lucky us.

It’s even been to cold to chase of foxes with out ugg boots and beanie, suppose I should wear more, but my luminous white body is well camouflaged against the frosty grass and the shock and awe I reap on the fox - if it doesn’t kill him it’ll have him in therapy for years.

So when I left you all the Jeep was sitting in Pambula awaiting a new power steering pump and the trailer was outside Bega awaiting me to pick it up. Since then the Jeep is back on the road – just another example that a combination of lick, spit and a whole lot of Gaffa tape will fix anything. Of course this time I also needed to use super glue, my spit just ain’t doing the job these days. I managed to get down to Pambula and pick up the Jeep, grab the tailer and drop it off home, stop for a pee and get back to Canberra for an appointment before noon that day – which is quite an achievement for the old girl.

Unfortunately the Jeeps long term prognosis is not good. The radiator is showing signs of failure and I have to keep a close eye on the fluid levels, the gauges are all failing and I’ll really not sure what’s going on half the time – with the car. But the game changer happened the other day when one of the kids closed one of the back passenger doors and the front passenger door fell off. It gets really cold driving down the foggy frosty Monaro Hwy with an inch gap around the door. So sadly we are on the hunt for a replacement for the old girl.

I’ve got a step closer to getting prepared for the spring arrival of some bees. I have purchased a stack of timber to build my first boxes, Monika and her partner form the bee club came out the other weekend to help – but it was too cold to stand outside and use power tools so we opted for a cuppa in front of the fire.

School holidays are her and that has to be the Cooks favourite time of the school calendar – skiing starts when they go back, always a highlite for the term.

The Cook spent a week in Adelaide; I think the kids have just about recovered. The work load doubles for everybody when so goes and the cooking takes a noticeable down would spiral consistent with the amount of time she’s away. And don’t ask about school lunches – luckily the kids like (maybe now ‘liked’) vegemite. And I’ve got to find a better way of telling if shop bought ham is off as well.

And as usual with the drop in temperatures comes the colds, Harry and the Cook have both been suffering bad coughs and a nasty tummy bug. Luckily Ben and I stayed far enough away not to become infected.

I tried to do some fencing last weekend, but every time I bent a piece of wire it snapped – a good indication it was just too cold. I managed to get some done this weekend, the pigs are now totally surrounded by pig mesh netting – now I just need to get the electric back on and put in a few more steel posts and we should be right again.


Forward to now.

Snow has fallen on the mountains yesterday and for most of the day it was better spent inside. We had periods of rain, hail and ice and bitingly cold winds. Not that this allows us to rest, there was still pigs to do, things to fix, fences to check and general day to day jobs to do. One of my favourites is the weekly trip to the dump, never go there with out running into somebody and being ski season it’s a full on mission impossible just to get across the highway to get there. I swear it’s only two hundred metres down the road and takes half and hour.

We had a visit from James last week. He spent a few days helping out around the place, we managed to do some fencing, put in a corner post and steel posts – I’d recently purchased one of those pneumatic post drivers – why I didn’t do that sooner I’ll never know. The amount of time and effort this one tool will save is just mind boggling.

Other things that have been happening – we’ve picked up more roosters, and this time it wasn’t my fault. The cook was responsible this time – which takes some of the pressure off of me.

We had an NSF working party and put in a leaky weir to help slow down the water travelling down one of the erosion gullies. It took us all of two hours to collect the rocks from a non conservation site and an hour and a half to build. I still have to get some gravel to make a bed for the overflow and get some reeds during the spring to line the edges.

We also bought in a load of round bales of straw for the pigs. They weight about 500 kg each, getting them onto the trailer myself is a bit of a challenge but I’ve managed so far. It’s about a quarter of the cost of getting square bales from the feed store so well worth the effort. The biggest part of the cost is the transportation; thankfully we’ve found somebody whom delivers at a good rate.

I thought Belle the cow was going to calf the other day, her udder has enlarged and she seems to have dropped her belly. I found her on her own in the paddock, she ran off when I approached, but there was no sign of a calf when I looked around. I am hoping that it hasn’t come yet, but I’m still concerned that she may have lost it.

The horses have been causing problems, a brumby from next door has taken up residence with our three and continually leads them astray. About eleven last night the dogs started barking, I got outside just in time to see the horses galloping down the road towards the creek. The brumby keeps pushing the gate open somehow and letting everybody out. I think they spent five minutes helping themselves to the pig’s bread before they headed off as well.

I still haven’t had time or the space to start my Bee Boxes either. I have the timber, the tools and the screws – but alas not the time. I’d better get a move on before spring arrives, I may have to take some time off shortly to get stuck into this.

What’s bugging me?

I like to catch up on Landline every Sunday – but I don’t always get to. A couple of weeks ago they had a very interesting article about Samoa and how they are trying to convince the locals to eat more fresh food from their gardens and stop importing tinned food. It’s hard to believe that people would choose to eat tinned carrots over fresh, or spam over fresh fish. The change in diet has had many effects on the population’s health and well being as well as a dangerous reliance on imported food.

But it’s not just a problem in Samoa. We are selling off our agricultural land to foreign interests who are farming and exporting the produce with no return benefit to our economy or food security. It’s not just the fact that they own vast tracks our best land; they are also buying up the water. With the MBDA Draft plan out after the election, which rumour has it includes a 90% reduction in irrigated agriculture in the basin over the next twenty years, it’s hard to see the logic in this. Surely it’s in the Governments best interest to restrict the ownership of rural land and secure thousands of rural jobs by making these countries import food from our farmers?

Back so soon??

Another eventful weekend at Valley View. But before that – Thursday evening the Cook made her first Lasagne with homemade pasta sheets – how good was that?? I am a lasagne lover from way back and I’ve got to say it was the best I’ve had for years. Funnily, we were sitting wondering how long we needed to let it cook for when Italian Food Safari came on – and they were making homemade pasta for Lasagne – problem solved, thanks Maeve.

Friday afternoon I was in the feed store picking up some feed after visiting the local rural store. A bloke rocks up with a box under his arm and asks the guy behind the counter if he could task a rooster to sell. “Not a lot of demand for roosters in suburbia” say’s Jim, “you could advertise them in the paper maybe”

The guy looked a little worried; I asked him if it was a good looking rooster? So he gave me a look – he was a very nice looking young roosters. I said I’d take him, and the guy said “hang on and I’ll get the other two out of the car.”

So off I headed to Mrs D’s house trailer load of feed, fencing wire and three roosters. I picked up the new Khaki Campbell Drake and headed home. The drive gives a good amount of time to think up and rehearse what I’m going to tell the Cook. A number of reasons for increasing the number of roosters on the farm came to me along the way – all of them very lame. Finally I settled on the reasoning that if I keep collecting roosters soon there has got to be a shortage – and I will be able to corner the market, and yeah I know, she didn’t think it was a good excuse either.

So the kids settled in the roosters and drake – he took possession of the KC Ducks strait away, and I tried to make myself as small as possible whilst the Cook muttered something to herself. Funny thing was, she was cooking omelettes for dinner, which didn’t make it easy to change the subject – I even got heckled by the children.

Saturday I headed off early to the Love Grass workshop. It was an interesting meeting, managed to discover a new strategy for dealing with invasions but overall it was the same old same old and by the end I was wondering why I bothered.

On the way home I got to pull in at the local hardware shop and spend a little quality time window shopping for tools. I picked up a couple of odds and ends and headed out. I then pulled in to the supermarket to pickup date roll and milk. When I pulled into the car park I noticed two chickens scratching around in the bushes between the cars. I thought it was a bit strange, there aren’t many houses close by and the chickens looked well enough. When I came out they were still there and scratching around in the bush close to the car. So I walked over and picked up the bigger of the two – an Isa Brown. The other one was a Bantam – probably a Buff Orpington or something similar. I chased it into the bush and caught it also, so there I was standing in the bush with two chickens, one under each arm. What’s that saying – a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush – somehow I think it doesn’t apply here??

So I sat the two chickens on the back seat – on my jacket all the way home. I didn’t need to think up any wild to tell the Cook this time, which is lucky because I was all out of creative ideas after Friday. So this time when I rocked into the kitchen with two chickens under my arm I was greeted a lot more civilly.

Sunday was freezing – minus 8 Degrees C in the morning. I don’t go outside until it’s at least 5 Degrees C. Old Nev called us with some disturbing news - Matthew (my Brother) was off getting his Pony Club Instructors License this weekend. You'd need to know the family history for this but they must have got him drunk or promised him something to make him do that - I can't wait to see a picture of him wearing jodphers on his blog. If he doesn't have any I think the family should all chip in - can't have him doing pony club improperly attired, what would old Di say??.

It took a while to warm up – but by the time Land Line was over I was outside fencing. The ground remains cold, especially on cloudy days with out the sun, and by 6pm I was well and truly cold and ready to get by the fire. Luckily for me the Cook sent the kids out with a cup of tea and orders to give me a hand at about 4pm which helped me get the job done.

Of course, for me the weekend ends when I get the kids on the bus on Monday morning. So after chores I stuck the kids in the Jeep and headed for the bus stop. We stopped to feed the sow near the gate and as is normal I turned off the car to give Harry the keys to lock the gate. Unfortunately when I tried to restart the Jeep it cracked a sad and refused to start. “Quick - start walking to the Bus” I said to the kids and raced back up to the shed to grab the spare battery and jumper leads. In ten minutes I had the Jeep going and managed to reach the kids just as they made it to the gate, I got a couple of dirty looks, but at least they made the bus.

Changing or renewal?

You know, the biggest teacher in life is experience, and with enough experience a person gains wisdom. It’s the wise man who knows how to divorce emotion from necessity and make decisions based on evidence and facts, not idealism and greed. What has this got to do with the farm – a lot, nothing, everything? All will become clear in the months ahead.

Not really impressed with the bacon we did recently. Way too much fat – I’ve never seen so much fat on our pigs before, I’m wondering if it has something to do with being summer pigs – most the others we’ve butchered have been winter pigs.

It’s possible I’ve got the carbo/protein balance all wrong in the pig ration - so it’s back to the drawing board. I think I’ll up the protein until the days are getting colder and see what happens. Also, I don’t think the butcher did as good a job as previously, the low nitrate brine may be an issue as well.

We’ve had our first frosts for the year. Two mornings so far – and one morning was below 0 degrees. The Cook is already complaining and a load of fire wood isn’t far off. Of course the first frost killed off the tomatoes, pumpkin and watermelon vines and all the other things in the garden that aren’t frost tolerant (like the Cook).

The Poplars have just started to turn yellow and soon I’ll be off collecting acorns again. I’ll have to go check out my favourite spots this weekend.

We had a very windy day on Sunday and spent a lot of the day in shelter. At one pint the chook dome (or humpy) was blown over and the chooks escaped into the garden – it took three of us to catch one rooster whom refused to go back in.

I suffered a another three in a row with flat tyres. This morning I had to change a tyre on the Jeep – like every year when the temp drops I have a series of fence issues with wires breaking and such as well – this morning was no different. So there I was trying to change a tyre, with a dozen pigs trying to help. Of course Fatso was the leader, she supervised everything I did and conducted a quality control test at the end – just to make sure. I ended up having to get the kids up to feed the buggers and fix the fence so I could finish changing the tyre.

We had the traditional School holiday sleep over with a bunch of young lads camping in the shearing shed. Glad it wasn’t me – much too cold to be sleeping outside. They had a ball, cooking dinner in a camp oven, roasting potatoes on an open fire and making damper. The Cook spent the time cooking cakes and biscuits and making hot milos.

Friends forever

We’ve had a little tiny bit of rain today, only enough to put a smear of mud on one’s boots and nowhere near enough to put water in the dams. It started to rain early this morning but we’ve still got no more then 3mm and it’s after lunch already. Well that was yesterday, now it’s today we’ve had 38mm. It all fell in about an hour, flooded out the pigs shed and softened up the house track, and made everything really humid.

I wrote stuff for the blog the other day, but the kids had used all my internet time so I just saved it, now I’m not sure where I was up to…… Any way, the alternator in the Jeep finally packed it in on the way home last night, so the Jeep gets towed to Cooma this morning. I was coming home from Canberra – on the busiest road in town at peak hour when it gave in. I had been carrying a spare battery with me to get me out of trouble and it came in very handy.

I’d pulled up at a traffic light at a major intersection – front car, just missed the green arrow previously. As I pulled up the car just stopped, “bugger”, I popped the bonnet, jumped out with my handy ratchet in hand and whipped off the battery leads. Dragged out the battery and dumped in the back of the car. Grabbed the spare battery – it was from the electric fence, and tossed it in, connected the terminals and quick finger tighten, shut the bonnet and back in before the lights changed. I don’t know what the people around me were thinking, but I’d bet it was the fastest battery change they’d ever seen.

So….., what else? I’ll get in trouble for this – but, oh well. The Cook found an egg in the chicken coup the other day, on the ground. This made her very happy because it meant she could make a cake. So off the kitchen she trundled, a little smile on her face, egg in her pocket. Of course as soon as Harry hears the words cake and make he’s into the kitchen – “Mum can I have the bowl?” The Cook has everything ready and breaks the egg into the batter – a shriek emanates from the kitchen and we pile in. Looking into the bowl all we can see is a tiny set of duck feet sticking out of the flour. It would appear that the egg had come from under one of the sitting ducks and the Cook hadn’t notice it was heavier then normal – Harry didn’t want to lick the bowl – who would have thought?

Monday is the start of a whole new season

The Mountains from our front gate

We emerged from our three days of horrible weather without too much damage. A couple of our sheds are a little wind damaged having borne the brunt of the wind for the past days. We’re getting used to these pockets of inconvenience but they still disrupt the daily routine somewhat.

The three little pigs are still causing strife – the Cook has ‘named’ the smallest one Scruffy – so she’s off the menu, the other two are still contenders. Inexplicably the Boars spent most of the windy nights sleeping in the open, I have no idea why. The Cook spent hours yesterday feeding out green scraps, she’s still sore and stiff from skying with Ben on Tuesday and really enjoyed spending another day out in the cold wind. We also had to do the traditional ‘after a windy day’ electric fence inspection. There’s always something blown onto it on days like these and its best to fix it before the pigs find out.

The Jeep is finally repaired and back to full running order. I had explained to the mechanics previously that I thought it needed a new head gasket, manifold gasket as well as other various adjustments – this has finally all been done and it drives like a dream again, which isn’t bad for a fifteen year old car with 450,000km on the clock.

I’m expecting the river to get a minor flushing in the next couple of days with the rain we had – with any luck.

Tonight is the Upper Murrumbidgee Natural Sequence Farming AGM, so it’s into town for that. There are field days over the weekend with Peter Andrews as well which I will hopefully find time to attend.

Sunday

The jury is in and the wood fired roast pig gets full marks. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of the results for tomorrow’s Blog – there are heaps of left over’s, none for me however….!!!!!

The pigs spent a quite Sunday grazing over the river flat, with the goats and George of course. George raced the car down the drive when he saw the Cook return from her truffle lunch – and he beat her up the driveway.

The Cook had a terrific lunch and is full of enthusiasm for truffles again. This will mean more fencing and hard work for me – but she’s the boss. We will have to carefully decide exactly where they will be planted; I think the last spot was too close to the pigs and the power lines, so next time we’ll choose a better, smarter spot. Our soil and temperature are perfect for truffles here and there are already a number of growers close by.

I fixed the electric fence for the time being, just glad I don’t have a pace maker - yet. I think I need to go back around the whole lot and replace some of the work I’ve done previously. One big mistake I made was not being able to isolate individual paddocks. I think I can fix that without too much effort or cost. I also needed to use more steel posts in the hinge joint parts, the little pigs have no respect for that stuff.

I will also need to finish the front paddocks and put a hot wire around the river flat later on just to stop the young pigs getting too adventurous and heading for the highway.

Back again

The weeks I take pigs to Sydney are long ones. It’s only Wednesday and already I’m looking towards the weekend. So what’s been happening? Saturday I spent running around getting feed and dropping off a Turkey and feeding greens to the pigs.

The Cook reluctantly headed off to work for an extra shift on Saturday night, which left all of us boys at home alone. Sunday we started slowly, it was cold, but by lunch time we had post holes dug and pigs feeds made and the garbage taken to the dump. Whilst loading rubbish into the trailer I bashed my face into one of the trailers cross bars – no permanent damage, to the trailer. I saw stars and a bit of blood, but luckily I was ugly to start with – the Cook didn’t even notice.

At lunch time we were presently surprised to find the river had risen a few feet and was flowing for the first time since spring. The Cook suddenly realised she’d left the pump by the river and bolted down to the water hole to retrieve the thing – luckily the water hadn’t risen sufficiently to cause the pump to be submerged.

It was an early start Monday with two pigs off to be processed. One of them ended up dressing out at 93kg, a little more then I had anticipated, the other at 71kg. On the way into Sydney I hit a kangaroo, mainly panel damage and knocked out the blinker, I still need the steering to be checked as I think I may have bent a steering rod or something as well – but the Jeep keeps going. Skippy didn’t make it.

That evening I picked up some green feed and Dave presented me with a freshly killed and butchered sheep. I was quite amazed at his generosity. When I walked into the house with it Ben was rapped, he wanted fresh lamb chops for dinner and nothing else. Ben has been a little disappointed because we’ve done four pigs and he hasn’t tasted one yet. On Sunday we had somebody out here rabbit shooting, Ben wanted him to leave one here so he could try it – but he only managed to shoot one and wanted that for himself.

By the time I arrived home Monday it was 7:00pm and I still had to feed the kids, make up feeds for the next day, unload the trailer so I could pickup bread the next morning and pack the sheep away. By the time the Cook and I got to bed we were knackered.

When I arrived home Tuesday evening I found that a number of pigs that have escaped due to the electric fence not working had discovered the green feed. I had fenced it off with sheep panels, but they moved those and had a lovely feast of fresh fruit and veg. I am hoping the Cook has managed to get them back in today – their all sleeping in the meadow hay under the shearing shed and seem completely happy to wonder around the farm all day grazing and snoozing in the sun.

Bee meeting tomorrow night - don't forget Duck Lady.......

First snow for the year

First snow for the year; and it’s only April. Hopefully this means a wet winter – but that will have to wait to be seen. On Sunday we had a major wind storm with gusts over 100kph, luckily we all survived. I don’t think any of the piglets are hanging in the trees – inside joke, we don’t have any trees.

So apart from a wet and wild weekend – over 20mm of rain, it was pretty quite.

Of course there is always something – I ended up on the side o the roadside again this morning. Fortunately I had a rescue team on hand – The Cook; and I was able to continue on with the chores and arrive at work in time to get a park. So what happened this time – I ran out of petrol! Cruising down the highway – I wanted to stop at Michelago but it was closed so I kept going, just didn’t get far enough. Luckily the Cook had left only five minutes before me. I was a little stressed out because I had no credit on my phone, so I dialled up and used my credit card – but that takes forever….. I was sweating on the Cook not reaching work before I had a chance to call. Luck was on my side! I got her just before she reached the car park and was able to convince her rescue me – now; of course, I have to include something really nice for an anniversary gift. I did see a great pink crow bar on another web site – I wonder if she’d like one of those?

I know she wants a new stove – don’t we all. And she muttered something about a new Bathroom. And I’m always getting the new kitchen and a dishwasher grumble – I don’t have a tractor, so you don’t need a dishwasher. Last time I said that the Ambulance man asked me if I was crazy or looking for a medal as he put in the drip.

Three little Pigs

Three little pigs have taken over our lives. It’s not good enough that I feed them separately, give them special treatment or let them spend the first few weeks of their lives in the nice warm house – now they have thrown the dog out of her bed. Every time we go outside they come running out from the shelter looking for food. They follow the Cook around like puppies and it drives her nuts.

This morning I had to feed them under the trailer because Maya the pony was trying to nick their breakfast. When I reappeared to do a couple of chores the three of them where sound asleep on the dog’s bed, poor old Shadow was lying on the cold concrete.

The Cook and I took a quick trip up the gully last night to check out one of our project areas. First we had to escape the piglets, and then George chased the car along the track for about three kilometres. He kept up well; he did better then the dog. He stopped at the dam and waited for our return, Shadow kept following us at her slightly slower pace. After a bit of an inspection and a wander about we headed back. At the dam, George leapt out in front of the Jeep and wouldn’t let us past. The Cook decided to get out and opened the back of the Jeep and both of them jumped in – if I ever doubted he thought he was a dog; I don’t now.

I was going to collect acorns this weekend but the weather was less then favourable, so looks like next weekend.

I finally finished the chicken’s fence on the Saturday with the top row of wire going up. I put over 1000 wire clips on the fence with pliers – and have the blisters to prove. Hopefully this will stop the fox for a short time.

We had another visit from the wild pigs on Friday night. At about 9:30pm I heard a sudden eruption of pig noise come from the river side of the pens, I raced out and grabbed the spot light from out of the car but by the time I got to the paddock all I could hear was a pig yelping down along the river. I wasn’t sure until the morning exactly what it was, I had a dreadful thought that maybe a piglet had been taken by a fox. But after roll call at breakfast I had accounted for all the piglets. I think what I heard was a wild pig that unexpectedly hit the electric fence.

Next week I’ll need to finish the pig houses. Drainage is going to be the next little problem I have tot deal with, and I need to build up the floors in the mother’s shelter.
Then I’ll have to think about putting in another fence around the river side of the pig yards.

Above average - at last!

I felt like a Roman Emperor returning from Gaul last night. Being a Tuesday I had a trailer full of bread on the back of the jeep, as I turned into the driveway across the TSR I could see the goats standing atop the rocky hills behind the house. They must have seen me drive in and started racing down the side of the rocky hill. As I pulled up at the gate both Shadow and George where waiting for me and followed me up to the house, by the time I got there, the goats had arrived and the pigs had all come in out of the paddocks. Everybody loves me!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon bought more rain and by 5:00pm we had received more them 20mm for the 24hrs. This takes our monthly rainfall above the average for the first time since June 2006.

So – next it’s the cold. ANZAC day approaches fast and officially that’s the start of the cold weather. All the farms around us have been busy planting the last few days in preparation and the past couple of days’ rain has paddocks starting to turn green already.

Tomorrow the DPI are running their Love Grass Field day on the TSR next door. I can’t go unfortunately, but the Cook has volunteered.

Dad - the pigs are out

Sorry – busy day yesterday and just didn’t get the time. I had the Tuesday bread pickup in the morning. I pulled up at the front gate and tugged on the hand brake and the brake cable snapped – just what I needed.

We separated some of the pigs so the couple that are due to farrow any time now are in paddocks on their own. The fence was off when I arrived home and most of the pigs where out. It had been a windy day and Tiberius’s tin shelter had blown across the wire – once I get the shelters completed I can remove the tin shelters from the paddock, which will be nice.

Unlike Sunday night the pigs all went strait back into their paddocks with out any drama. The new piglets are chunky little blighters (“probably” no reference to Anna – for all you Queenslanders out there) and seem to have discovered the fun parts of pig life. A couple of the weaner pigs broke into the chook pen yesterday and stole all the eggs from under a couple of sitting ducks, that’s another problem to fix this weekend.

Where are the horses?

We haven’t seen the horses for a couple of days, their up the back in the old Lucerne paddock enjoying the cooler weather. I watched the three goats walk back along the track to the house last night after spending the day out there as well.

The Jeep is back on the road after a couple of days at the garage – it’s nice to have it back in action. I’ve been doing some thinking about a couple of winter projects, shouldn’t say too much – the Cook might be listening.

We’ve got two piglets in the house/barn now – both with coughs. But they just keep the ducklings and chicks entertained. We had to give one of the piglets penicillin the other night, the poor little thing struggled a little and those needles are awfully long – but I shouldn’t get any nasty infection for at least a week! Have I told you about the night the Cook wormed me for heart worm – maybe another time.

We missed a good lot of rain that travelled down the coast over the last couple of days, but, there’s always tomorrow.

Everybody should have Backyard Chickens

I love the River Cottage TV program with Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall – We’ve seen episodes time after time and never tire. There is one continual theme throughout the series “anybody can do this” - and it’s true anybody can. But what is this? Raise pigs, grow vegies, be self sufficient?

Well really I don’t think it’s any of these single things. I think that the ethical treatment of animals is very important and we do everything that we can to make sure our animals are treated well. I also believe that everybody should strive to become more self reliant when it comes to food. It doesn’t take much – start small, a hanging pot of cherry tomatoes on the veranda, some mint under the tank stand or lemon grass in the garden. Once you start the bug will bite and you’ll be off. I don’t know how many people I know in Canberra who have plum trees and don’t even eat the plums! It’s worth giving it a go – look at the young lad keeping bee’s on his roof in the West End.

I’ve been amazed at the number of people here, where I work, who have chickens in their back yard. The free range egg market is red hot and people line up for the chance to get fresh, free range eggs.

Having said all that – I have a paddock full of pigs I need to get sorted out. It’s time to start eating pork, nothing more to it. Probably work better if I could find the Cook a new stove – but one thing at a time. No good letting a small thing like an oven get in the way. So, this time next week – I am aiming at having the pig processing wheels in motion.

Bee’s, there’s a thought. I had a hive lined up the other day but I lost the phone number. I’ve put an add in the local classifieds to try and find some – lets see what happens. Worms is the other thing – I don’t have any, that I know of, but I will need some soon.

This morning was bread pickup. The Cook is doing a course in town so I had to take her with me. The Jeep is in Cooma having a faulty fuel pump replaced – so we had to take the little car. I can usually fit a good load in the small car, but normally I’m by myself. Anyway, the Cook and I packed the car to the gunnels with bread and jumped in for our trip into the city. The poor old Cook – now a year older, had to squeeze in and be carefully assisted into her seat. As we zipped around the various roundabouts she became lost in a pile of bread until all you could see were her arms flailing about. I forgot she needs air sometimes. Luckily I didn’t roll the car – ha ha! She didn’t like the joke either. We finally arrived at our destination where she struggled out of the car, bread rolling out of the car on to the road everywhere. It took us twenty minutes just to get it all back in. And then I found out somebody I know saw us – what a laugh.

Piquet goats

It finally rained – 10mm over Thursday afternoon and evening. Of course there is always something to take your mind off the rain - On Thursday the Cook was half way home when she got a call from the eldest, he’s at home having just finished school. The call went something like this

“Hi Mum”
“Hi Harry”
“Mum, the cattle are all on the highway”
“What?”
“Yeah, they are up near the Bridge”
“How do you know?”
“There’s a policeman here – he told me”
“What? – Is he sure they’re ours?”
“I’ll ask him”

So Harry puts the phone down and starts asking the patient Police Officer twenty questions – it goes;
“How many are there?”
“Four”
“What colour are they?”
“Three cream and one black”
“What sex are they?”
“Two bulls and one cow and a calf”
“What colour is the cow?”
“Cream”

Harry comes back on the phone”
“Hey Mum – they’re ours!”

So the Cook speeds home and in the only rain we’ve had for weeks has to round up the cattle and get them back on the farm – ruining her work shoes.

So how did the cows escape? Somebody had come into the property and opened all the gates – all the way to the main road. Not only where the cattle out but most of the pigs had escaped from their paddocks as well. For a while I couldn’t find all the small pigs and I thought they had been stolen – but they ended up being in the hay shed sound asleep in a piggy pile.

We search around but couldn’t find any reason for the gates to be opened and nothing had been stolen.

I made it home a little bit later; I had to rent a ute to get the pigs trailer of bread home after the Jeep broke down – so I wasn’t aware anything had happened.

It’s the Cooks birthday this weekend - happy birthday Cook --21 again!!!!!! She’s having a weekend off (after she does the laundry, cooks dinner and washes the dishes) – so are we all. I had to get the Jeep in to Cooma this morning so we could get it repaired. Luckily I was able to convince it to start after a half an hour of effort. The Cook needed to pick me up so I shouted her a Bacon and Egg roll for her birthday. I also so gave her a new pair of gumboots!

She has been cooking all afternoon, she is using the River Cottage preserves book to make some dill pickles – hopefully, the newest book from River Cottage arrives early next week – it’s the bread making one, problem is I still haven’t found her a cooker.

George - he's getting big!

The Jeep broke down again – that’s why no Blog yesterday. I spent all my time in town hitting it with a hammer! Fuel pump is shot, not bad – 15 years service, 420 000 km. I’ll need to get it towed to Cooma so we can get it fixed – another job for the fridge list. Hopefully I can have this done before next Tuesday.

The horses made life a little bit harder last night as well. Phoe disappeared somewhere just before dusk and we couldn’t find her anywhere. After a lot of searching, in the dark, we called it a night – this morning the Cook found her in the next door paddock happy as Larry with her silly trotter mates.

Some of the young chooks are looking a little bit scrawny as well, it might be worms, I’m not sure. Anyway, we’ve bought them into the house to be fed for a few days, the Cook has the wormer out and we’ll see how they go – it may have had something to do with heat as well.

We’ve had clouds and the BOM has forecast rain for the last few days - but not a drop has fallen anywhere near us. There is rain over Bredbo on the radar picture today – but it’s not making it to the ground. At least the humidity should be high enough to stop the grass burning if there is any lightning.

The heat is on.

Even though we lived in Canberra in 2003 I can’t imagine what it has been like for the people in Victoria over the weekend. I watched a little of the reporting on Sky news – it’s still hard to comprehend the scale of this disaster. You can donate to the Victims through the Bendigo & Adelaide Bank.

It puts into perspective everything that Peter Andrews was talking about on the weekend. We need to cool down the landscape to bring back the rain. Peter had a “Mad Scientist” friend from CSIRO with him. He was very complimentary towards NSF and could explain the “science” to minuet detail which enlightening.

We looked at two properties apart from our own on the weekend, one up at Jindabyne and then Ingelara. The Jindabyne property was very impressive. The owner had spent a lot of time on his project and had access to good materials and equipment. Ingelara are still working on the planning aspects of their project.

We took the group up to the gully line at Valley View first up on Sunday morning. It was hot and because of the risk of fire I couldn’t take the vehicles all the way to the source. We stopped a couple of times under the shade of the willow trees and Peter explained the landscape and why it had degraded to the level it had. He was very positive that his methods would work on our landscape, and we could see the remnants of the old wetland areas in the soil profiles. This gave me a little more heart and encouragement. Luckily we also had our local plant contractor with so he could get instructions first hand from the expert. The about ten members of the NSF group from Canberra attended and we met many new friends and lovely people. Most of these guys volunteer their spare time to help people like us carry out NSF projects – their help is invaluable.

We ended the trip with a BBQ under the poplars down by the river, the Cook had done marvellous things in the kitchen and everybody left fed and watered.

After Valley View they headed off to Billilingra, we needed to tidy up first and missed that bit of the day. It would have been interesting as they are our neighbours and both projects back onto each other.

Ingelara was the last property, we’ve been down there before, and it’s very nice. They have a lovely lake and their backdrop is spectacular. On our way home we drove into thick smoke which was coming from the east. One of the blokes from the NSF had been called out to the local RFS for a fire at Jerrangle. By the time we had reached Bredbo the smoke was very dense and both of us were starting to worry – our property is only a few kilometres from Jerrangle. I decided to stop at the fire shed to ask what was happening; thankfully it was the change in wind direction that was blowing smoke in from the Bega fires – nothing for us to worry about. I still went outside and checked the horizon before I went to bed

We continued to have new arrivals over the weekend with one of the sows having her first litter – five piglets in all. Some of them look rather nice, well marked and good confirmation. All the pigs now have proper shelter and we can start to move the dongers out of the paddocks. By winter the shelters will have walls on three side and be ready for what ever winter brings this year.

Of course not everything went smoothly – last night when I went up to turn off a tap, I caught a fox trying to get to the chickens; I hope we wont see him again for a while. And this morning I had to take the kids to the bus, this was after finding out there was no pig feed made up and having to prepare that for the next couple of days. Once I’d done that and fed the multitudes we all jumped in the Jeep – I was late, of course. Jeep wouldn’t start – again. Out with the hammer, we arrived at the bus stop just as the bus did; eldest jumps out of the car and realised that he didn’t have his school bag!!! So it was back home and get it and try and catch the bus up down the road. Of course there’s no petrol in the Jeep either. By the time I arrived at work there were no car parks so I had a nice little walk through the rose gardens.

Todays picture has the Cook listening to Peter Andrews under one of our willow trees - true NSF heaven.

Almost stuck at home

At the end of the day it’s how you feel inside that matters most. I was in the middle of Wednesday Morning Breakfast when I received a call from the Cook – she makes sure I take my phone everywhere, which I hate. And those that are familiar with the Blog will know the problems we’ve been having with the Jeep.

“The car won’t start” she says,
“That’s no good” I reply – she has to go to work and drop the kids off at the Bus, she’s always late, so this is important.
“You’ll need to find the air filter under the bonnet” I say,
“I found it” she says,
“Now get a bottle fill it with petrol and pour about 50ml into the small pipe”
“OK” She goes off and does what I’ve told her and comes back,
“What next?”
“Go around the back of the car and bang on the fuel tank a couple off times with something heavy” now, this doesn’t do anything except make her feel good.
“What now?” she asks
“Get in and drive”

She was so happy that she can now fix the car, a little more independence!

Todays picture is of the pig that was trapped under the trailer on Sunday – he was a big one, not one of the new piglets.

Running of the Sheep

She’s a warm one today – it’s only lunch time and it’s reached 32Deg C already. The weather bureau has issued a storm warning, but the radar shows everything is missing our little slice of heaven. I decided last night that the sheep needed to be moved back out to their paddock. The Cook is home today and she thought she’d move them with the kids. I received a call about an hour ago “The sheep are every where! We can’t get them out of the impound paddock!” It’s forty sheep and a half acre paddock; I wonder what she’s doing?

We have had Peter Andrews’ visit confirmed, hopefully we will have some rain between now and then. There’s a Natural Sequence Farming meeting this week and I’ll find out more then. We are still having problems with the Jeep – I think it’s the Cylinder Head Gasket, I’d better order one from the US and get the whole thing fixed before its too late and somehow I think its something I’m not going to be able to do myself.

The animals all ended up drinking their apple cider vinegar as well – can you imagine the faces they would’ve pulled!!! The Cooks now brewed her famous Biodynamic animal lick ready for the sheep – apparently it fixes the lack of sulphur, which is what leads to infestations of lice.

It costs what?

Eventually I’ll learn. Yesterday was a long day, made longer by a wait for the NRMA man at Michelago. I had taken the Jeep into town to pickup feed and on the way home decided to stop and pick up ‘The Land’. I couldn’t get the Jeep to start again, I figured out it must have been the fuel pump – didn’t waste all those years in the Army for nothing, and called in the man. Luckily I was correct and with a little bit of hand waving and black magic the Jeep was started and transported the feed and myself back home. I rang Jeep to find a price for a new fuel pump - $850, you’ve got to be joking – so I looked up a place on the net, in the US, for a part - $64, that’s more like it. How do people get away with charging 14 times the cost for a part? Even with $50 freight I’m way ahead.

The Cook drove out to the scene of the disaster to see what I was up to ( I was asleep – of course, bugger!) ; she had spent the best part of the day with the weed man and wanted to fill me in on what had happened. Luckily the weeds man was only after Serrated Tussock this time – and we have enough of that on its own. But we are both glad that was all he was after this time. Of course in the process of cleaning one up the others will get cleared as well.

So, unfortunately that’s another job for the list on the fridge.

I am picking up another poddy lamb tonight – a girl friend for George, I’m seriously thinking of calling it Mildred. George had the Cook laughing yesterday afternoon. She drove off down the track he decide he wanted to go as well, so he cased her down the track, he clocked over 30kmph! She had to stop and the lamb bolted around the car in giant circles very pleased he had made her stop. He started dancing a jig on his hind legs and bunting the car with his head – he was very pleased with himself!

On the way down the drive last night, once I had made it home, I saw a fox sitting in the middle of the drive, he just sat on his back side and watched me drive up – once he realised I wasn’t going to stop and was actually aiming at him he decided that he shelter of the willow tree was probably a better place to be.

So - no picture of the Red Rumped Parrot today, maybe over the weekend. We are shearing this weekend so I’ll see how we manage updating – I have to get some goo shearing shots.

Happy Birthday to the Nomadic Ladies out there in WA! Big move in progress so they probably aren’t checking the Blog at the moment – We all hope you have a wonderful day (no sarcasm implied).

Todays picture wa taken by Ben - can you guess what it is?