wasn't there pigs here yesterday?

I’m sitting at the dinner table watching Ben run in circles around the lounge with the kitten trying to catch him, every so often the kitten takes a short cut and launches herself from the top of the lounge at Ben – luckily there hasn’t been any contact yet, but it’ll come, and I’ll wet myself laughing when it does.

We had a good storm this afternoon; at a guess I would say more than half an inch – I was in Cooma with Ben when it rained, there is mud everywhere and the back room of the house has had water in it as well. So, after the kids left for school I spent the morning crushing grain for the pigs and making up feeds, I topped up their waters and made sure the chickens had plenty of water as well – it was going to be a warm day.

I spent most of out the back putting in the last couple of strainers, that’s 20 with another five in the trailer waiting for the holes to be ‘improved’. Tomorrow it’ll be time to start putting in the steel posts – I can feel the aching shoulder muscles already, I suppose it’s character building if nothing else, plus now I have blisters on my blistered blisters.

You know how sometimes you do something – then in hind sight you realise you’ve made a huge mistake. We had a couple of piglets in a box in the house some months ago. They needed some warmth and looking after because they were too small and the litter was too large. Any way these are the pigs we’ve been using in the garden paddock to plough things up. Harry went out to feed them this morning and they were gone (at first I had a dread that they had been stolen, I’d been woken by what I thought was someone driving up the drive at 3:45am – couldn’t find any sign and I checked the camera this morning but it showed nothing). I went to investigate what was going on and found the little buggers had dug a tunnel under the fence and escaped – so it was more a ‘great escape’ then ‘a wooden horse’ – we found them a short time later back in the big pig yard. We probably shouldn’t have watched Hogan’s Heroes when they were in the house.


oh well no tears and they've gone to bed - quite time at last.

Now it rains

It was a little wet and windy today – just what we needed. The day started off slow but soon with kids galloping off to school and pigs to feed everything regained its momentum. The Cook had a well deserved lay in and I looked after the animals. We’ve recently reduced our numbers by about a dozen pigs and it’s made a big difference. Most of the ones that went were bigger pigs as well, so the feed is going a lot farther.

I spent the remainder of the morning after feeding dodging the Cook and her jobs – she was on the look out to put me to ‘gainful’ employment. As there is nothing to eat in the house until we can get to the shops again I headed up to the back 500 acres to have a look for weeds. Of course I found more than enough to be depressing. I haven’t been right up in the back corner adjacent to the railway line much, there’s a lot of tussock coming across the tracks onto our place, luckily it shouldn’t be too hard to get under control (famous last words). I was also trying to find any trace of our second Jersey Bull – no luck there, I’ll have to go see the neighbour and see if he’s seen him.

On the way back I came via the back of the hill behind the house, I ran into the Wedge Tail Eagles who were hunting rabbits in the grass ,I managed to get a couple of quick pics before they disappeared over the ridge. I also spotted a couple of new native flowers, I still can’t identify them – they weren’t flowering properly so I may go back on the weekend to have another look.

I don't know if there was something in the water here but some of the animals are a little odd today. The kitten thinks it's a lion and has been pouncing on anything that moves in the house from behind cover - and after seeing snakes it's not a pleasant feeling to have a kitten sink it's claws into your ankle. The fat dog has been doing that crazy dog thing running around with her tail between her legs all over the lawn. Fatso has been following me around all day - getting in my way when ever it is convenient for her and lastly George - he's joning in where ever he can and being a real dag.

When the boys arrived home they were put strait to work cleaning up the shearing shed, earlier in the day I’d found a blue birds egg on the grass up there and left it on a table. Anyway Ben found another couple and bought them back to the house. He’s quite the survivalist and pestered the cook to be able to break one of the eggs open and see what it look like inside. I was thinking it’d be a half grown chic or that it would be rotten. But low and behold it was just a normal egg, Ben asked if you could eat it, to which I responded that you could if it was a survival situation – so he wanted to try it. Out came the frying pan and Ben went to work cooking his egg, once finished he and Harry divided it and put it to the test – they both ate their share and decided it tasted just like ........chicken!

A year on

It was a lovely weekend, the sun shone; we had warm days and freezing nights. The boys had a sleep over to go to this weekend, so the Cook packed them off early Saturday morning. I had the day to myself, after feeding and doing all the general farm stuff of course. So, there wasn’t much time for anything apart from feeding, making feeds and sorting the green feed. I’d only just finished doing the green feed when Dave called me and said he was bringing out another load – great.

We spent an hour unloading a ute full into a pen, then we decide to have a cuppa. When we’d finished and moved back ventured we found the pigs had made a cunning escape from pigopylus and raided the feed pile – it was too late to do anything about it, so we just let them all out to feast. There were a lot of fat and round pigs by dinner time. We heard nothing out of them that whole night – apart from greenhouse gas emissions.



Sunday was National Tree day and I spent the morning at Jacks Gully helping to plant trees. By midday t was time to head home and I arrived back just before the Cooks mate Jane turned up with the kids and a new Goat. So now we have four goats – although this one likes to hang around horses more then the other goats.

The three poddy piglets are growing quickly, they followed us around all weekend squawking and grunting – worse then the boys. The Cook did a lot of cooking and we are now resupplied with ANZAC biscuits for the next few days.

The Cook, Jane, Max and the three little pigs - looking for the goat

To top off the weekend we had high winds, up to 100kmph. The winds were caused by a cold front moving across Victoria – by this morning we had a full on dust storm raging. The pigs movable shelters lived up to their names and weren’t to be seen, the bread trailer – all 1.2tonnes of it was blown across the paddock and ended up resting against a fence post next to the pig shed.

Dust storm this morning

I nearly forgot - on the way in to town this morning I spotted these characters taking shelter from the wind.

On another note the blog has been going for a year now – over 7000 hits and 245 entries later - thanks everybody….!

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.......

Well below zero

A happy pig

We had a nice weekend; unfortunately I had to go into Cooma to do a couple of jobs on Saturday and the places I need to go where shut for the weekend, I don’t recall them shutting for previous long weekends. It was also the start of the snow season so the Police were every where. I was eventually pulled over twice for random breath tests. The first time was in Bredbo on the way home and the second time at Berridale – by the same Police officer.

On Sunday morning I was taking a shower, the window to the bathroom was open and I was looking out across the paddocks. I was amazed at how mild the winter had been. The first winter we had I would have frozen solid in ten minutes with the window open in June. Later I drove into Canberra to pick up the weekly pig feed. Unfortunately the feed guy took the day off also and I wasted a trip. I headed home and did some cleaning up instead – by 4:00pm it was dark and raining, cold and windy – winter had arrived.

Sunday Afternoon on the farm

Monday was the real highlight. The morning was bright and clear, I had to take a couple of pigs up to Jindabyne for a lady. I went out via East Cooma and through Dalgety to stay away from the snow traffic. Harry came with me and we had a nice time. Somewhere out on the plains we came across a drover pushing a mob of cattle across along the long paddock. He was ridding a stunning little buckskin mare which the Cook would have died for. I dropped of the pigs – there was no loading ramp so I backed the trailer up to a dirt mound, the pigs jumped off the trailer and we walked them up to their new home. It was surprisingly easy. They settled in very quickly and were reunited with a weaner the lady had taken from us when she came to look at the pigs earlier.

Some of you may remember an American magazine called “The Western Horseman” It was a magazine about life on the range land in the American West, full of Cowboys and Buckaroo’s and tails of hard horses and harder cattle. A lot of the magazine was made up of picture essays about the range lands. I remember as a kid I used to wait for the monthly magazine to arrive, and then wait until our father had read it so I could have a turn – it was probably the only thing I read for years apart from the required reading at school. I used to love the stories about the Rendezvous of Mountain Men that happened every autumn.

Anyway, Tuesday night I arrived home late. I needed to pick up the bread and had to get feed and straw as well. By the time we had unloaded the feed, fed the pigs and given them all straw for the cold evenings ahead it was 9:00pm. The Cook arrived home a little later after a long day shift and went strait for the heater. Just before we went off to bed it started to rain, just a little and only for a few minutes. The Cook had come in and cursed the cold but I was surprised it had rain because the sky was clear earlier.

Tuesday morning front the front gate looking back at the house

At about 3:30am the goat decided to seek shelter under the eaves of the house – right under our window. I put up with about an hour of her ringing her bell until I had to go outside and move her on. I jumped out of bed and the full moon was shining through the window so I ducked out the front door bare footed only in a t-shirt. I jumped down off the veranda ankle deep into fresh dry snow. That woke me up! I pushed the goat out of the yard and went straight back to bed, my feet freezing. I did wake the Cook and tell her it had snowed which I think she appreciated.
So After I had my shower this morning and while the moon was still up, I wandered around outside with my camera. I watched the sun come up, reminded me of many mornings in the Army freezing on the Pucka Range whilst on piquet duty. The snow was only an inch deep but the ground was frozen solid. As the sun rose and you could see more detail, it all reminded me of the photo’s I used to see in the Western Horseman Magazines all those years ago.

As a by the way, all the roads south and west of Cooma are still closed – it’s 2:00pm. We shouldn’t get anymore snow however – and all the piggies are fine.

Old fella's

OK – so we have a market, what other considerations are there? I‘ll talk about those next week; so keep coming back. It’s important you have some idea about what you need to do to get your pork to the table.

I stopped on the way home last night to look at a number of apple trees that grow along the old highway. I pick apples from the trees for the pigs and was wondering how many there were on the ground as it’s getting close to picking time. The trees aren’t that far from where I saw one of the dead pigs beside the road.

I drove down to the trees had a look around, I couldn’t find a lot on the ground – not much on the trees either, well not as much as usual. I walked down to the oldest tree near the old railway line and started picking a couple when I noticed some thing dark and low in the grass moving slowly out of the corner of my eye. You’re all thinking another wombat story – but wait. I jumped about a metre in the air thinking it was another pig – okay maybe not a metre, no fat jokes James.

After my heart went back into my chest, I settled down and had a proper look and discovered it was an old narley black Wallaroo. He was moving around the tree eating the fallen apples. I think he was deaf because he didn’t seem to notice me at first. When he did, he moved away slowly and then froze – still as stone until I left. I decided that he needed the apples more then me and I moved onto another tree. I went back later and he was still there so I took a picture of him. He’s got a lot of grey coming through his coat and his ears show the scares of many fights.

So I took a bag of apples home for the pigs, they were very happy; apples are one of their favourites. The sheep have started to come down for feed in the mornings as well – they’ve discovered the bread. As soon as they see us moving around they come streaming over the hill like wildebeests stampeding on the Serengeti.

The Cook was out helping the DPI get their sheep back today. They found all twelve, one’s staying on the property and adding nutrient to the soil – the rest they’re still trying to muster ;) We never had any problems getting them down to the yards. They are putting them back onto the love grass trials area for a few days to finish their survey.

Down the pub - AGAIN

Things are a little hectic today – it’s been windy and dry. The Temperature has crashed, we had a high of about 15 Deg C today, but otherwise a beautiful Autumn day.

I found Archer the dog on the veranda of the Pub this morning – you would think he’d know by now that it doesn’t open until much later. He was there at 6:30am, I think he’s got a serious problem!

The Cook is on a course and I’m off to pick up feed, a never ending job. Luckily we finally have our pig brand organised and all things porky will shortly swing into action.

No more rain.

The rain didn’t quite make it down as far as us. We ended up with a little bit of drizzle this morning but nothing much else. I finished two sides of one of the pig outbuildings, a few more modifications and we should be ready for an improved and more comfortable winter for the pigs this year.

Once I’ve finished this project it should nearly be acorn collecting time again. I’m planning on a big collection this year to carry us all the way through winter – which equates to approximately one bag per day or 400 bags. Normally a bag weights in at 25kgs so I’m looking for about 10 tonnes of acorns, which is about 10 trailer loads – last year I gathered about 3-4 trailer loads.

Then it’ll be time to get the garden back into shape for spring – after that I have plans to …………… Can’t say too much about that yet!

The young chickens keep escaping from the chicken pen. This weekend we’ll spend sometime collecting rocks and making the bottom of the fence pig proof. The piglets keep pushing under the wire and last week they stole a whole clutch of eggs from under a broody duck.

The house is full of animals again, we had to evict a bunch of chickens to look after a sick piglet and there are already a gathering of chicks and ducklings sleeping next to the bathroom.

I took a walk up to the NSF site to collect a pair of sunglasses one of the group left behind last week. George, Shadow and Archer all came along for the walk, George lasted the entire way and I am sure he thinks he’s a dog. We ran into Mildred who is still wearing her bell, she makes a lovely tinkling sound as she bolts across the flat.

Anyway – more plans to make, need to get in amongst the weeds soon as well. I’m sure the Cook has something lined up – especially after the one gum boot for valentines and one gum boot for her birthday debacle!!!!! That reminds me – I need to find a cake. It’s never too late to make up the lost ground.

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.

Eagle eye'd

Pretty hectic last night – the Cook was on a holiday, with a sleep over at a friends tossed in. Hopefully she’ll be back fresh and full of life ready to get stuck in! We floundered without her.

After getting home and having the traditional – “it’s over 35Deg C out there hour long nap” I jumped into feeding and watering. We had to catch a couple of small pigs a bloke had ordered out Bungendore way, then it was cooking dinner, bathing kids, making lunches, ironing uniforms and what ever else I had forgotten.

We did get about 2mm of rain – in a storm. The rain was cold as ice and, as you would expect, only lasted as long as it took us to feed the animals. Better then nothing!!

The two eagles are back and where flying low around the front of the property in the afternoon. I think they had an eye on the chooks, but ended up moving off to the north.

So I was up at day break to take the pigs into Fyshwick (BTW – I don’t make these names up, in case your wondering). There they were picked up and I went off to collect the bread.

Thanks for all the comments on the Blog every body!!

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.

Drought is the only news

Heres todays ABC news stories about the Monaro from ABC Rural;


The previous generation had the best of it says Monaro sheep and cattle breeder

Todays forecast rain could be a life saver for the dry south coast and Monaro. Many Monaro producers are this week making critical decisions on selling stock as water runs out. Andrew Hain is on the dry Monaro plain near Cooma. "We are the third sand dune from the airport" he jokes. Mr Hain says the previous generation had the best years on the land. However he believes the ongoing drought is part of a cyclic weather pattern that will change, eventually. "In my lifetime 1968 started the droughts, and they have followed on with monotonous regularity" he says. Mr Hain says the adverse conditions make producers strong. "There will be some tough decisions made by the end of November" he says.

Running out of water on Monaro

On the western Monaro plain, toward the mountains, Gordon Crowe is farming in the drought at Rocky Plains. He says he is making critical stock decisions this week as stock water is running out on one of his properties. Mr Crowe is a conservative stocker and still has dry feed on the property. As yet he has not had to buy feed for his sheep or cattle.

40 year drought

Dave Jardine also farms at Rocky Plains, where the dry conditions are making producers consider the stock levels yet again. he says the drought conditions have been with the district for most of the past 4 decades. "Since 1967 - 68 we've been in one long dry period" he says. He says his farm has fared better with rain this year and has had 12 inches of the average 34 inches a year. "It's been a long time since that average" he says. He says farming on one third the rain makes them resilient and canny farmers.

Record Drought

Monaro, far south coast and southern tablelands are in the grip of drought. Near the Victorian border around Delegate, David Mitchell is preparing to feedlot core breeding stock as a drought survival strategy. He will put the first 3,000 of an anticipated 5,000 breeding ewes into on-farm feedlots to survive this drought. Mr Mitchell says this years lack of rainfall is a record breaker. "Unless we get 90 mm by the end of the year, this will be the lowest rainfall on record" he says of the 82 years of rainfall records on his farm.

Big cattle selloffs

As dry conditions continue in the states south, livestock selloffs are underway at large regional saleyards. Leann Dax reports over 30,000 cattle were sold at Wagga saleyards yesterday. The Monaro is holding it's 2nd special drought store cattle sale later this month at Cooma.

Loaves - but no fishes please.

How the weather changes - it was snowing on the hills this morning and we had the fire going last night it was that cold. Poor Ben has school photo's today and had to wear summer uniform, he was most unimpressed.

I had to pick up the pig feed in the little car yesterday - and it was packed. Poor old Cook had to sit on the roof, which was fine because I couldn't hear her complaining out there. She made me pick her up down the road from work so nobody saw her, with me that is!

The pigs had reorganised themselves when I got home, all the mum's and piglets are in one area now, and I don't know who is drinking from whom any more.

Feed time this morning was a free for all with the goats, horses and cattle all pitching in to help out. Animals came running from all directios to try and get a share of the fresh bread - luckil;y Shadow was ther to organise things for me.