Accidental tourists

It was very foggy this morning, and there was no traffic noise. At about 6:15am the South Care Helicopter could be heard flying around the area looking for somewhere to land. The Cook had been up all night making cakes for a function today and set off towards Canberra a little before 7:00am, only to return home ten minutes later. Unfortunately there had been another fatal accident just outside town involving the mail truck and a car.

So, as the Cook had to be in Canberra before 10:00am we loaded up the Jeep and trundled off towards Jerangle - along the dirt road from hell. I was thinking of going the Tharwa way past Bililingra, but the road probably hasn't been graded all snow season and Mt Ginnini had 57mm of rain on Monday. We took the road down to Michelago that crosses the Tinderry Ranges - it's a lovely drive but it took us over two hours to get to Canberra.

Anyway - back to the pigs - when I went out to feed the pigs Rose is standing in the pen digging a ditch. It's about six feet long and over a foot deep - I haven't a clue what she is doing. I don't think it's and escape attempt as it runs parallel to the fence. Of interest though is that she was being supervised by one of the runties - I suspect they would be capable of attempting to take over the world.

Beccy is drinking well - Harry had to come back and gtet more milk this morning because she was so hungry.

23mm of rain

At last – some rain that I can actually talk about. Yesterday and last night we received about 23mm of glorious rain. It started around lunch time yesterday and was still raining off-and-on until 4:00am this morning. Now we are expecting a few days of warmth and sun – not chill and wind like normally would happen.

This should bring on both the potatoes’ and the grass, I think the pigs were grazing on green shoots this morning already.

I got mugged by the goat mafia this morning – they saw me fixing the pigs bread ration and decided they should be entitled to some as well. We’ve even got the cattle joining in, Bella loves bread and as soon as she see’s you near the stash she’s strait over. I'm going to have to come up with a smarter way of doing this.

Oh yeah - if your reading this - STOP!! go outside, and fill up your car with petrol, now!! The price of oil jumped over $26 US dollars a barrel last night.

Windy - windy - windy

The wind howled across Bredbo all Saturday until about 9:00pm. It must have reached nearly 80kph, the pig shelters ended up across the paddock and other odds and ends ended up scattered across the place.

The new piglets have settled in and are piling up with the three weeks old, some of the older ones are stealing milk from the new mum which is always a concern. I had to feed a couple of the new piglet’s cow’s milk from a syringe because they had dehydrated a little – this is a lot easier then having them inside.

Sunday was a better day, not as much wind and a lovely 22degs. I had a chance to do some digging in the garden and started to put in a new bed. Beccy continues to do well, she only eats a lot in the evening, but she’s back to drinking more then 2 litres.

Friday I picked up the seed and fertilizer, and I may have broken the Jeep. The trailer ended up at about 1900 kgs, the Jeeps towing load is supposed to be 2450kgs. After the first hill the oil pressure in the engine dropped right down, I’m not sure if it was because the oil over heated or I blew a gasket, hopefully it was the oil. It took me nearly three hours to get home; I was followed by the police for a while and then an ambulance with its sirens and lights on. I was mighty glad by the time I got home.

Todays photo shows the difference between new piglets and two week old piglets. Its amazing how much they grow in a couple of weeks.

A dozen or so.

I hooked up the trailer this morning and headed off to the feed store to pick up the seed for the oats paddock. I didn’t stop to check the pigs, they were up and snuffling around, the roosters were crowing and the horses were standing, hopefully, at the feed shed gate.

What I didn’t notice were the twelve new piglets Dahlia had just delivered in the boars’ paddock. 12 – 12 – 12 !!!!!!!!! It’s only her first litter – it’s supposed to be a small litter, you know six or maybe eight – not twelve!!!!! Happily they and mother are all doing well. The live-in Midwife is happy – because she missed the whole thing as well – except for the placenta munching, glad I missed that. Seen too many of those just lately.

Beccy the calf seems to be doing a lot better. She’s drinking now and we’ve been able to get the scours medicine into her as well. The cook was afraid she wasn’t going to make it after yesterday mornings little episode – but the kids fed her last night and things seem to have turned the corner for her.

Last night I went to the Cooma North Primary Schools production of Aladdin, it was great!! A real credit to all the teachers, parents and students – I enjoyed every moment of the show, especially the Villain and the Gene, they were my favourite characters. The costumes were excellent and the sets and lighting outstanding - well done!!

She went out the back for a pea.

Cold again this morning, my hands froze feeding the pigs. I’m just amazed at how cold it is in the morning and how warm it can get during the day. We had a visit from some students doing an Animal Science course yesterday; they were looking for reptiles up in the rocks. Apparently they found something – but I have to keep it a secret for now. We have the DPI coming out tomorrow to do some soil testing as well. Hopefully they find some soil – but I’m not sure if there’s any left after the recent winds we had.

The feed store rang yesterday and the seed has arrived – I’ll need to pick it up tomorrow after work. Today’s picture is of a native pea found up in the hills behind the house, this was taken by our Cook last week.

Hot and Cold

Beccy the calf appears to be going well. So far she has survived so we are pretty confident once we get the scours medicine into her she will start to improve more. Being a twin it is likely that she will be infertile and talking to Matthew last night even pouting her to a miniature Galloway wouldn’t be advisable. So looks like the cook has got herself another pet to look after.

It was pretty cold this morning around minus 5 degrees. But it could also be the last minus morning we have this year. The rest of the week our maximums are all above 15 degrees. However; it does seem we will be having a few more frosts before winter properly ends.

We’ve lost a couple of the young chickens; I hope it’s not the fat black dog snacking. Most of them do appear to be roosters, so any chickens in the brood are precious to us at the moment. Of course, our resident hatchery manager has things under control with another clutch of eggs under incubation.

Todays photo is one the Cook took of the Alpine Phebalium I was talking about the other day. She took this on her walk-about she did last Thursday.

Up at the rocks.

Blimey it was cold yesterday afternoon; the kids got a little wet walking home form the bus, but that can be marked up as character building. The calf was a little cold so we moved her to the yards and she had a restful night in the hay. She has started drinking out of a bucket which saves all the mucking around with a bottle. It snowed last night as well, when I got up this morning there was snow right along the spine of the ranges to our west.

Forgot to say a big thanks to James, all his help was very much appreciated whilst he was here last week. I finally moved the remains of the old pigsty he and Harry demolished on the weekend. I also had an opportunity to try out the jacket he brought from over in the west – very nice, fits much better with out a jumper or three underneath.

It was extremely windy last night as well, I had to go down the river this morning and pick half a dozen piglets out of the poplar trees. They must have blown down there last night whilst they were sleeping. I also had to rescue Bendy the goat from the gully next to the house where she had got herself stuck. When I left this morning the cows were all facing into the wind which makes them look like they’ve just had a face lift. Some times it hard to leave in the morning.

The oats go in next week, I’ve got to somehow get two tonnes of seed and fertilizer off the trailer and undercover on Friday night – guess when it’ll rain next!

And Fiona, you can start feeding the piglet wheatbix (or porridge), milk and an egg in the next few days, they do much better on it and if you get the cheap stuff it goes further. We found they like boiled rice as well. At about six weeks old you can start feeding them soaked grain or pellets the same as it’s mum gets.

Todays photo is a lovely study taken by the Cook on Thursday. She went for a little wander up the back whilst I was in bed sick ('snoring my head off' was the technical term she used). I think this is a lovely shot capturing some very interesting early morning light and tones amoungst the ancient rock formations and wattle trees.