Birds and Bees

Autumn is ‘the’ time of year here – lovely misty mornings, warm sunny days and cool quite nights. It would be nice if the whole year was like this.

I bet the bird watchers we had out on Sunday were wishing it wasn’t foggy. Bush Heritage and Greening Australia are doing a bird survey across the K2C area, they came out on Sunday to do the first autumn survey – unfortunately they came at 8am and the fog didn’t clear until past 11am. But, being true professionals they were able to identify a number of birds by call alone, it’ll be interesting to get the species list and have a look.

Fatso has been watching Hogan’s Heroes’ again – swear she could escape from Alcatraz that girl. I watched her on Sunday; she pushed the water trough against the wire, to short out the fence, then she squeezed out of a gap in the wire. She walked strait up to me and lied on her back for a belly scratch – absolutely no shame.

I headed into Cooma to start the April Acorn Hunt. My trees have a lovely crop this year, but the late rain has delayed the harvest a couple of weeks looking at the trees. I haven’t been around my other secret trees yet – give me something to do this week.

Anybody want a rooster?? We’ve got a couple of spare ones.

I went over an paid Mrs D a visit the other day and had a look at what her girls had bee’ n up too. She showed me her crazy hive frames – very interesting. I’d like to follow as natural bee keeping system as I can, and make as much as I can myself as far as hive boxes go. Mrs D has done a good job so far and I’ve offered to be an apprentice come spring so I can learn enough to confidently start our own bee hives.

I was supposed to muster the sheep on Sunday – I drove across the property and all I could find was Sheepie, Beryl and Mildred. Don’t know where the others have gone too. I walked up hill and down dale following the buggers for two hours before I lost them in a fold in the ground. They managed to sneak around behind me using dead ground – the damned things are so short in the long grass I just couldn’t see what they were up to. And I wasn’t walking up anymore hills that late in the afternoon. So, looks like I’m going back for another look next weekend.

White with two please.

Yeah I’m still alive, survived a sense of humour transplant. Things in general have worn me down a bit lately so I think it’s really time for a little holiday – if I’m lucky Santa might let me have one for Christmas. I was talking to somebody today and they asked when was the last time I had a holiday? and I couldn’t remember.

I read an article today about a judge who believes the internet doesn’t allow us to forget. His opinion is that in the past, pre digital days, people would forget bad things people had said or done and over time forgive them for their indiscretions. However, in today’s digital world everything lasts forever and nothing disappears over time. A bit like the Blog – here forever, don’t tell the Cook.
The farm is still here, pretty to very dry, no water in the dams and very little summer feed – lucky sheep eat rocks.

Speaking of sheep, you may recall we had a successful lambing this year, lots of little spring fella’s bounding across the dry, dusty dirt chasing down mum. I was lout fencing on the weekend, I’d missed going out there last week due to an injury, so I was keen to see the sheep and see how they were doing. I tracked them down the flats and into a small gully, I could hear Mildred’s bell tinkling away and smell the heavy sent of lanoline on the air. I creped over the rise, they usually bolt if they see me so I stayed out of sight. I did a quick count, and made a mental note that there must be more somewhere. I watched them for a spell then moved back down the gully. I looked around for more tracks and sign of the remaining animals but couldn’t find anything. Whilst I was snooping around the sheep began to move towards the river into the shade for the afternoon. I decided to take up a position overlooking the trail and count them into the paddock. We only have 24 so if I take off my boots I can keep track – thanks to those extra toes!!

So we lost some sheep. We had a couple of good litters of pigs as well – which is another story. One poor mum had ten piglets and was doing really well. One night we noticed she was down to eight – nothing unusual we lose a couple every once and a while. Anyway by the end of the week she was down to a single piglet and I couldn’t believe it. I searched around and couldn’t find any sign of what was happening until a couple of days later when I found a well worn path being travelled by an adult fox and three or four cubs. It must have been hunting lessons for the young ones. Anyway I have a solution in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again – looks like the old Yowie suite is going to get a run after a few years in the trunk.

Mrs Duckherder, your ducks are going fine and I’ll take a picture of them soon. Only three hatched but they are doing really well. The other chicks that we hatched are doing well also, we’ve been really lucky with them and there are some really nice looking birds amongst them. The Goose had a nest going for a while – but she dropped dead walking back from feeding one day – oh yeah, it’s never slow around here. It was a real shame, and it happened right in front of the kids. We tried to incubate here eggs but that didn’t work and we took them off life support the other night. Which reminds me, those eggs are still in the incubator.

The Cooks garden is going well, she has been away a bit lately and even with the blokes looking after it there appears to be life. Ben has been enjoying the strawberries and we’ve had a good supply of lettuce, radishes and assorted greens.
Got my ugly mug in the paper – must have been a slow news day. Mrs D spotted it otherwise it would have gone totally unnoticed.

The fence is taking shape and I’ve got over the blisters – now I just have calluses. I’ve spent alot of time and effort hammer posts into rock to make it work. I think next time I have such a bright idea – I won’t.

Snakes are out and about and we’ve seen a few to date. The Cook had a close call the other day and the kids have seen a couple too.

It's getting closer

Well we finally had a little bit of rain on Friday. Unfortunately we had our rain gauge run over by a mystery visitor the other day so I don’t know how much we ended up with. People down town were saying we received about 9 - 10mm, which is better then nothing - but nowhere near what we need.

Ben is a star; he got his picture in the local paper – again. It was to do with the seed balling day run last weekend.

The big black boar came back again Saturday – again the day after rain. This time we had arranged for someone to come out shooting that morning. They rolled up about 6am and the boar was standing in the paddock waiting. They couldn’t believe it, I had to pry the Cook from the bedroom ceiling when they fired their first shot, scared the hell out of her. I didn’t actually wake up – the cook had to shake me. Anyway the shooters missed the pig. I found his tracks latter in the day and there was no sign or evidence of him being hurt.

The Cook decided to make pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. Harry was going to somewhere for a sleep over and we need to make sure he is full before he leaves otherwise he eats people out of house and home. The Cook broke sic eggs into a bowl then added flour and milk – somewhere in there she got confused about wether she was making scrambled eggs or pancakes. Of course, we fear for our lives so we said nothing and just smiled and ate them.

We spent Saturday doing various farm chores, which never seem to get done. We had the Mums out grazing Saturday after the rain. They love it out the front at he moment lots of great weeds and sweet grasses to snack on.

The Cook showed me a huge egg she’d found in the chook pen the day before, she said she’d never seen such a big duck egg in her life. Then she said at first I thought it was a turkey egg until I realised we only have boy turkeys. I then pointed out to her that it was a goose egg – causing a little embarrassed laughter and a threat about putting it on the blog, which of course I take very seriously – and won’t say a thing….

Sunday morning was beautiful, we had a slight westerly breeze bringing in the warm inland air and by 10am it was 17 degrees. Sadly things changed by 5pm – back to 60kmph icy winds.

The fruit trees are all in bloom and the bees are going crazy all day. Hopefully we won’t get any heavy frost before the fruit sets. The sheep came down again and we have a few more lambs – one is coloured, with black legs and a black and white face.

We received a letter today saying that our Flora and Fauna Sanctuary had been approved and will be gazetted in the near future. They’ll send us out a copy when it happens. We received our signage the other day, but I still don’t know where I’m supposed to put it exactly.

The three little pigs are pressing their claim to the dog’s mattress. Last night we could hear a ruckus out in the mud room which turned out being Shadow trying to lie on the mat – on top of a piglet or two. I don’t know who’ll win this, but we’ve never had piglets wanting to live with the dogs before.

Whilst I was out clearing briars on Sunday George decided to follow me. He ended up chasing the car right out to the far end of the property. He was happy to graze around the car until it was time to go home. I felt sorry for him because it was getting late, so I let him get into the back of the Jeep and ride back with me.

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.

Lambs

Things just keep on getting busier and busier. We delivered our first processed pig to a local customer Saturday morning – or more like they came out and picked it up. Normally people come out to our place they might arrive an old ute or a flash 4WD, we don’t usually take a real lot of notice. But this morning was something different. We were standing outside; I had just arrived home from picking up the pig and the cook had just got off the phone The Cook says she can hear a car driving up the road, sounds a bit rough she says. As it comes into view we got our first look at the car and she said to me – better grab the dog that’s an expensive looking car, at first I thought it was a MG but as it got closer I could read the name – Masarati – holy cow...!!!!!
So the lady pulled up and we had a little talk, she took a good look at the pig,, figured it was big enough and we stuffed it into a big plastic bag and loaded it into the boot of her car. Next time I’ll ask more questions before I tell them how much I want for a pig.

The Cook went off to Canberra for a visit that afternoon – she ended up driving back in somebody else’s car – on top of everything else the Jeep hasn’t any lights now – and she found that out just before she went to drive home in the dark. She’s gone off to a truffle lunch today at Old Parliament House with a couple of her mates. So I’ve been left at home to run the farm.

So the big news for the weekend is – we have lambs!!!!!! Beryl and Sheepie amongst others came down into the house paddock this morning to show off their new babies. So far we have four of which two are female, I had to ring the Cook straight away, interrupted her lunch but it was just too exciting news to keep to myself.

So that’s it quickly for today, I’ve got feeds to make up and washing to do – have a nice Sunday.

A day at the show

It was a hot afternoon at the show. I arrived just on lunch time on the first day. Not a lot of the exhibits had opened and I was really there to look at the Goats and introduce myself to the bee people. The goat and sheep areas where adjacent to the gate I entered through so I was lucky not to have to walk miles to see them – it was also next to the diving pigs, unfortunately I missed their performance.

I had a walk around the goat enclosure and tried to ask a few questions. But I think the stress of showing and the heat made most people less then conversational. I really wanted to find out things like protein quality of feed for good milk and prices for good milk breeds – the Cooks reading this shaking her head. I found out that goats have a higher cream content in their milk than cows – something I didn’t know before. All the goat breeders had a mixture of breeds, nobody really concentrated on just one breed. I sat and watched the judging for a while, which was interesting, but I’m still not totally convinced I know a good goat form an average goat.

I watched the sheep judging as well, the classes where large and the judging was intense. Most classes I watched was for the Suffolk Sheep – I think the Merinos are judged on Saturday.

After an hour or so I decided to move onto the Bee stand in the pavilion to have a chat with the Bee Association people about their club and what I needed to do to get a site picked out and readied for a couple of hives. I met a gentleman named Pat and he spent a good amount of tie explaining the ins and outs of beekeeping and the benefits of joining the club. I think with activities such as beekeeping it’s good to gather as much information as possible before you leap in. I’m looking forward to attending the first meeting and learning more.

Saturday I spent most of the day running Ben around birthday parties in Canberra, so I wasted a good amount of the day. He enjoyed himself, he had a good time at the laser tag and won both his tournaments.

Back on the farm and we are still having problems containing the pig population. There are two larger pigs that continuously escape regardless of what deterrents I put in their path. Ben has marked these for processing at the soonest possible opportunity. Can’t say I disagree and I think the Cook is very keen to see the wiggly end of them.

Over the weekend they managed to get into the chook pen again and devastate the ducks laying boxes, they pushed their way into the feed shed and consumed the whole batch of evening feeds and have been pillaging in the potato patch as well. They look good, a nice layer of fat across the back and rather large hams, I mean legs – which undoubtedly will be their undoing. I spent hours working on the electric fence over the weekend. I’ve stained it and inspected it and cleaned the connections as well, but it’s still only working at about 50% of capacity – I even took a length of fence off the circuit. I am starting to wonder if the battery is starting to wear out. Luckily this morning only two had managed to escape and that was just prior to feed time. They both squealed when they pushed under the fence on the way in, so it’s working, they just seem to be ignoring it.

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.

Pleasant surprise

So this morning, the dust was settled and the pigs were content to snore through the early hours. It was another early morning for me – I took a quick picture of the sunrise for the Cook. I know how she hates the fact that she misses this every morning.

In the end it did manage to rain – about 7mm all up. Not bad, and at the moment, anything is gratefully accepted. It’s nice to walk out to the fresh smell of overnight rain, much better then the dusty smell we’ve had lately.

After yesterday’s sheep debacle, the sheep all ended up walking into the top paddock on their own – except for the two we wanted kept close and a straggler. A very good out come considering the effort that went into the failed attempted move yesterday.

I still haven’t found the Cook a new oven. Soon I won’t be able to call her ‘the Cook’; I’ll have to find another suitable pseudonym.

The garden is still providing us bounty for the table. Last night it was carrots, spinach and potatoes freshly harvested for the table. There are some very strange things growing down there – I need to photograph some for the Blog – I’ll make that tonight’s mission.

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.

Weekend well spent

I spent Saturday morning doing a job for a mate, collecting some free steel and taking Harry shopping. Saturday afternoon we brought the sheep in to be sprayed for lice and checked over. We managed to muster the majority, however; Beryl is lurking out there somewhere with here part bred Ram friend. Mildred is still wearing her bell - I'm seriously thinking about putting more bells on the sheep, they make finding them so much easier.

We walked the sheep down to the impound paddock to give them a couple of nights of Apple Cider Vinegar treatment. The sheep don’t seem to mind it and will drink a bathtub of the stuff in an afternoon. The horse won’t touch it; they stand at the trough, push the water around with their noses and refuse to drink. The cows are little sensitive to the taste of it as well.

By Sunday, after a well deserved sleep in, it was back to real work. I had to replace the carbie on the fire pump - I’m glad that’s working again. The Cook spent a lot of the day in the garden, we built a leaky weir down in the gully close to the road and I cemented in the Cooks new Hills Hoist.

After feeding last night I went for a walk around the horse paddock, I found a number of half eaten loaves of bread, a collection of egg shells and a good amount of Fox poo – all fresh. Seems the foxes are still about, just picking different targets now.

I just niticed the coiunter is working again - beauty!!!

To hot to type

The Cook had a little bit of drama coming back from the coast yesterday, so things have been a little waylaid. She came up over the range from the coast and overheated the Jeep. Nothing serious, just slowed her down a bit – didn’t stop her going shopping however.

I walked up the back to check on the sheep last night and all seem to have survived shearing OK. Little Mildred, or Milly, was hanging with the mob. Her bell could be heard all the way down the hillside. George followed me the whole way like a dog, I don’t think he’s realised he’s really a sheep yet. Thankfully the Cooks garden survived her absence – helped by the fact I left the drippers on all night and day, by accident.

Everybody was sunburnt, tired and grumpy last night and bed was the best place to be. It never went below 25 Deg C all night – but we were all so tired nobody noticed. We’re expecting a cool change tonight, with any luck.

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?

Here's looking at you

It hit Thirty yesterday – damned hot out here on the Monaro.

The Cook went off horse ridding with her mates last night, she went down to where the Murrumbidgee meets the mighty Bredbo River. She says there’s lots of water down there so we will probably take the boat down for a run this weekend. We’ve had it since mid last year and it’s probably about time I made the time take the boys down and test it out.

The pigs need daily mud baths in this weather. The boys have been filling their wallows for the daily pilgrimage – makes them happy so it’s the least we can do.

Looks like, providing it doesn’t rain, the shearing will happen this weekend. Only about 30 odd sheep so that shouldn’t take long. The cattle along the river should be moving up to the back of our place some time today but we’ll see what happens.

You’ll swear the eye’s on this pig follow you around the room – spooky hey!

The Shear Ignominy

Well we finally talked somebody into doing some shearing - not all the sheep but the most needy. The rest will be done in a fortnight. One of the Rams was flyblown on the belly but the rest were OK.

I found the flyblown one down under a tree this morning and thought I could give him a clip with the hand shears - I now have even more respect for the old timers. Those shears are so hard to use! you have no idea if you've never tried. It took me an hour just to get through the matted wool along his back - The Cook ringing someone we know and graphically describing what I was doing was what secured us a shearer - thank god.

Earlier in the day I had gone into town to pay some bills and get a hair cut - boring stuff really. Whilst I was away the Cook and our brood fed the pigs, lamb, calf and chickens - by the time I arrived home they were all flat out in the lounge room watching DVD's.

We had a family measure session tonight - Harry has grown another two inches since October (he's only about three inches shorter then me!), Ben has grown about an inche; no wonder none of their clothes fit them.

The garden has really suffered in the winds we've been having. We had to use the large water tank on the trailer today in an attempt to resuscitate the potatoes - we put almost 750lts of water on them today more tomorrow, hopefully it will work. I've been watering whats left of the pumpkins by hand which is quite laborious.

The Cook has managed to germinate a number of native seeds into seedlings. We're hoping to be able to plant these in Autumn. None of the seeds that we planted with Greening Australia seem to have germinated - I need to have a closer look at them tomorrow.

Spinning yarns

Poor old Beryl is losing all her wool - due to her earlier fly blown drama Beryl has started shedding her wool. She's leaving it all over the front lawn, in clumps, sheets and wispy little trails. I love animals! The cooks horse knocked the front off the metre box as well, another thing to fix.

We had 5mm of rain today, three seperate storms past by us and we only recived the edge or tail end of each. Canberra recieved 25mm from what I hear. I love Christmas - Hugh FW is having a marathon on the lifestyle channel - all the River Cottages in one day, twice over.

The wind and rain kept activity slight today so not much to talk about. Tomorrow I hope to get some design for the new pig paddocks done and a little photography out the back - see what happens!

Oh, I managed to pull the pump apart dry it out and get it going again - and only two screws left over!! I'll work out were they go one day.

Thunder but no rain

I woke to the sound of thunder this morning - unfortunately the storms missed us but it did rain elsewhere on the Monaro. Being Tuesday it was bread day so there wasn’t time to stand around and enjoy the tropical morning. Harry's at a sleepover so there’s picking him up as well.

Last night we ended up with a bit of a mess. There was a calf in the pigs paddock, pigs in the garden with the goats, sheep in the horse paddock and cattle in the sheep paddock – and nobody knows why. It’s probably good it hasn’t rained, the sheep are being mustered today and hopefully crutched. It’s rained every time we have wanted to do this – well maybe, I should pay more attention!

Trundling down the road this morning I spotted my two eagle pals sitting in a tree over looking a lovely flock of Border ewe’s and lamb’s – they were kind enough to pose for a photo, so I obliged. If you didn't know, you can click on the images to make them bigger.

BTW - I get my new camera tomorrow - can hardly wait!!! it's a Sony a350 with twin lense kit.

The Eagles have landed

Sometimes things just happen that don’t let me achieve all my daily tasks. Yesterday, being Tuesday and bread day, I went into town. The Cook asked the kids to clean out the Goslings cage, fair enough; the kids take them out onto the back lawn. Empty out the goslings and take to the cage with the fire hose. Number one sibling and his younger brother, having a good’ol time with the hose neglect to keep a good eye on the Goslings – and they escape. Too where they have no idea, a quick look reveals nothing, so they decide to go inside and wait until I get home.

Anybody see the hole in their plan. So I get home, and am greeted with – “hi Dad, we’ve lost the goslings!” What!!!! So out into the yard we go – searching the bushes, down the river, into the pigs pen and all round the chicken coup – nothing. It’s nearly dark so I crack a whopper and tell the kids find the goslings or don’t come inside – now that got their attention. Anyway, long story short, they were in the Cooks Garden under a zucchini bush.

I didn’t get in to the house until after nine pm so I was a little tired and I still had to cook dinner. But that’s another story.

Anyway, I was heading down the road this morning when I saw three eagles circling over the flats across the river. As I moved closer one of the eagles dove out of the sky and grab a lamb in it’s talons, flew off and landed on a nearby dam wall – too far away for me to help the lamb, and take a decent photo.

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.

Escaping pigs

I got quite a surprise this morning. Walked out of the house to run into town and pick up the bread, normal sort of Tuesday thing. I got to the back gate and noticed that the rubbish bin had been knocked over and garbage was spread right across the lawn. As I walked out of the gate and picked my way through the bin contents I noticed something familiar – yet strange.

Across the entire area we use to park the cars was a mass of black lumps – it was very early. I stopped for a second to have a second look when I realised it was all of our pigs. Somehow they had escaped from their paddocks and decided to spend the night asleep on the lawn.

As nice and cute as it all sounds they were now standing between me and their breakfast – holy @&%^# Batman. A mad dash across the paddock and a leap into the back of the trailer I started throwing bread out into their paddocks to lure them back – it was a brilliant idea and worked a treat! So luckily I survived.

George the lamb is getting better now as well. He was sick for a few days and we thought we would lose him, but luckily he’s fine.

He's got a sheepish look

So the Oats are going to be ploughed in. Can’t harvest them and their not high enough for making decent straw from – looks like I just bought $5000 worth of mulch! That’s farming. Still – wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, except maybe fishing.

Looks like the fellow who wanted the weaners is back; got a message to call him – luckily I’ve got a whole stack of those to go. There might be a few going locally soon as well – people’s interest is picking up. But I don’t hold my breath. It would be nice to thin them out before Christmas.

The Cook is taking the pony out to inspect the tree seeding we did before the rain – I hope this goes better then the Oats.

There are a few ducks laying at the moment, Ben has been colleting a half dozen eggs a day. I need to find a good recipe for salting them so the Cook can make use of them (luckily she only looks at the pictures!). I think the West Australian set are hiding for some reason – they haven’t commented on anything for weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Nearly forgot The Cook won the door prize at the field day on Sunday - a free years entry into NSW National Parks, that'll be good for next sky season.

I’ve borrowed the Cooks little digital camera I gave her for Christmas – it’s OK for happy snaps, but not as good as my Sony DSC F717 was for hires shots. Today’s picture is of George the poddy lamb.