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?

The Cooks on fire

The council weed man is here today, I should’ve taken his photo for the Blog, but I thought that it might be a little confrontational.

It cooled down over night after reaching 33.9 Deg C during the day. The cattle have moved down to the pastures along the river where the poplars shade the grass – but I think they’ll be fighting the sheep for the shade.

The goats still hang around the house, they don’t seem to keen to wander off to anywhere. Sometimes they head up to the rocks and the boys have to rescue them, but other then that. The Wedge Tailed Eagles were around again last night. They came right down over the house and circled around only metres above the trees – looking for slow chickens I suppose. I also saw the pair of Red Rump Parrots yesterday on the pump and Yellow Crested Black Cockatoos this morning. I ‘m going down to the pump tonight to see if I can photograph the parrots – hopefully I’ll have a picture for the Blog tomorrow.

Everything is drying out again, the river has receded to a slow dribble and the ground is hard. Last night we had a huge dust storm that lasted about an hour, we came in for dinner feeling hot and gritty.

Yeah, the Cook put on another great meal last night; she did a fabulous stir fry chicken, what made it special was that all the veg came straight from the garden. She was down there picking vegies only minutes before they were cooked - and it tasted divine.

I just took a break for a minute and rang around for some fencing stuff I need for the weekend – there is more then $2 difference in the price of steel posts. They are all the made in China type, and range from $5.59 each to $7.20 - that’s outrageous!! And there is a difference of over $50 in a 1500m roll of 2.5mm wire – pays to shop around!

Todays picture is from last night at feed time - everybody wanted a bit of the action!

You make me laugh

It’s been hot again today; I think it went to 33Deg C. Luckily there is a cool change on its way. At least no matter how hot it gets we always have cool nights and mornings. Pigs have been wallowing and the horses and cows are lying in the shade of the poplars.

It’s Wednesday already and it looks like we’ll miss out on rain again this week, be nice to have a couple of inches rain right about now.

Hopefully I’ll able to pick up some fencing material for extending the pig park. When Dennis, the guy who ploughs and sows our oat paddock, was over the other day he made a mighty fine suggestion about putting the pigs onto our garden area and using the current pig paddocks for the garden. The Cook and I thought it was such a good idea that we’re straight onto it. In reality it doesn’t appear that we’ll get too much out of our potato crop so we may as well move on.

I’m also starting to plan out our water reticulation – but moving the garden requires a reassessment of some elements, I might get to that after I have a sleep.

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!

Start of a brand new week

Just for the record - we have offically entered our tenth year of drought.

It was a busy weekend. Finally had time to finish all those jobs I wanted to do over Christmas, fenced the cattle out of the veggie patch, cleaned up around the silo’s and removed all the rubbish from under them, attacked the pile of scrap metal down at the old pig pens – so what’s next – The Cook will fill me in soon enough!

I took the boy’s bow hunting the other night – every time I go out the back I see a fox, not this time! Kids loved it though – boy’s doing boy’s stuff. We tried to rescue the potatoes but I don’t think that’s a happening thing, not enough water earlier on was the problem. We are still getting a couple of spuds per bush but nothing like what we should. Our biggest problem is that there is just not enough plant material in the soil to hold the moisture – a common problem across the farm, so we are going about working on a solution. Of course, like everything else, it’ll take time but be worth the effort.

The Cook has managed to graze the apricot tree fruitless, she’s hopeless – I caught her sending Harry up a ladder to get the last few out of the top of the tree. Her sister is coming for a stay this weekend, always a pleasure. I’m sending them all down the coast for a couple of days, that way they can’t gang up on me about stuff. I’d rather have to feed the pigs on my own then be subjected to that again.

Our first pigs are supposed to be going for processing this month but I’m having trouble finding somebody who makes tattoo brands (slap brands) for the pigs. They have to be branded on either shoulder before we can send them off. It’s totally painless but makes the carcass with our PID number. I’ve been making them mud baths the last few days as things heat up, yesterday it almost made it to 30 Deg’s C and we’re forecast for warmer days up to 32 Deg C by Wednesday. No chance of rain either until at least next week. Probably rain when the girls go down the coast – I’d put money on it.

We had our first good look at he oats since it rained before Christmas. We had a slight hope it would grow the last couple of inches we needed to get it mowed, but unfortunately not. On the up side this will help the low soil carbon issue in that paddock.

Well, I need to get back to the ‘To Do’ list, it’s longer then the brown snake in the chook pen at the moment – which isn’t very healthy.

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.

The fox returns

We had visitors today, Kev, Judy and Christine - It's always good to see these guy's. They come out every now and then for a look around and BBQ. I took Kev for the Cooks Tour around the farm, we went around most of tbe boundary and up to the high spots with the best views. Christine fed George fromn the bottle and thought that was just great and now wants to start some chooks off in her own back yard - great idea.

On the farm side we had the pony yarded for a couple of weeks due to her overeating problem, she's slimed right down and now looks a lot better, she was very happy to be released back out with her mates this afternoon. The Goslings are spending their first night alone out in the chook pen. The dogs chased off a fox this evening so I hope they will be alright. We lost another chicken and rooster to the foxes this morning as well - just can't win with the damned things. The boy's and I even went bow hunting yesterday afternoon but saw no trace of a fox.

The apricot tree is providing a bountiful harvest. We've had our first fruit off it this year and they are just devine. The cook was planning on making some jam, but she can't stop eating them. Of course Shadow, the dog, waits under the tree all day to snaffle the ones that drop before the Cook can pick them.

We were lucky enough to get a double load of bread this week which has made the pigs very happy, lots to eat and drink - they'll think it's Christmas!