31st March, 2025

Quite a cold and windy day today. I put the insulators on the posts for the next section of the fencing and ordered ten electric fence switches from eBay. These will enable me to switch each section of fence off any time I want to work on it, or just not have it live if there are no animals near it to save power.

We are progressing with the chicken house windows. I have cut all the pieces to length and have assembles them using metal corner brackets, you can see how they fit within the current window. Next will be catches and hinges and then the plastic stapled to the frame.

 

Had dinner and drinks with (thai food from Anabels) with Juliet on Saturday night, just the two of us catching up. She has two lovely kittens and is busy building cat runs so they can get outside through the window without going near the road.

29th March, 2025

Sitting here while a little storm that seems to be sitting only over Scottsdale on the radar drops lovely rain on the roof. We needed it, it's been quite dry since the last post and the grass has been slowly browning again.

I got word from Billie that Beanie has calved, a nice angus bull calf. She's a good mum, and will raise a them a nice calf. Billie is interested in milking her but she doesn't have good hand milking sized teats. I think I will teach Billie how to milk on Annie when she calves, which should be in the next month.

 

I had a message from the manager at BWS saying that they didn't put anyone on just yet as business was slowing down, but that they would ring me first before doing any more interviews. I guess that means I am top of the list, but no joy leaving Woolies just yet.

19th March, 2025

We've had two decent falls totaling about 40mm and everything is suddenly green. If we can get rain regularly before it gets cold we might go into winter with grass. I've put out two round bales and the second one is lasting well. Assisted by the fact that half the cattle (the fatties) are out just on grass and only the dairy girls are on the bale.

I had the BWS interview last Tuesday but haven't heard anything yet. In the meantime the lady who was retiring from May Shaw suddenly decided not to retire so I and the other casual hired ready for her retirement are now on just one day a week each. Very frustrating and because she's still there we now won't be taking over her work, so we are just general dogsbodies. At least we are being paid $36 an hour for it.

One of the carers had a little of border collie puppies so she brought them in for cuddles for the residents and staff. Very tempting, but I wouldn't have the work to keep a border collie busy...

I've begun windows for the chook house. I had an old cafe curtain (clear plastic) blocking rain and wind from the east (the rest of the directions have walls) and it finally perished. So before winter I am going to build an alternative to provide shelter while still letting light in. This photo is of the other end of the chook house, which is yet to be re-fronted, but it gives an idea of the "before" of the area I am working on.

Here is a photo from the dinner we had at Mark & Sally's. Left to right : Tim, Pete, Sally, Shane hidden, Juliet, Mark and me, Geoff next to me but out in the kitchen when the photo taken.

We had nibbles with Pete and Tim and Tim's partner, Andrew, on Sunday night. It's a bit frustrating that our little house doesn't have room for a gathering. I feel a bit like we should have everyone over but there's no room.

Geoff and I did some more internal fencing, there are now two complete paddocks at the far end of the farm. The next one should be simpler, and I went out and did some groundwork for that today so we can do the next step on the coming weekend. We also put the towbar that Edwin made on the quad ready for the trailer he is building. It should be nice and low and carry all the things I need to use around the farm at a height that is easy to load.

I harvested the white potatoes today. I'm going to store them buried in straw in the old chiller that is used for stock feed storage. It's cool and dark. I think I'll do the dutch cream potatoes tomorrow. The jerusalem artichokes have not yet flowered so I don't know if they have made any tubers. The apples are nearly ready too, so I need to get out the dehydrator and the apple peeling doovie.

4th March, 2025

Just a quick one. No real rain, have the cows split into groups to clean up around the edges of paddocks before I lock the paddocks up to recover if (when !) it does rain and start feeding hay. We are doing better than most around us as we haven't had to feed out yet.

The manager of the local BWS (stands for Beer Wine Spirits, it's a liquor store) rang me today to ask if I would like to come in for an interview next Tuesday. I put a resume in there before Christmas as the word is it's a good place to work. They are looking for casual staff.

I saw a thread the other day about how people make their life special in small ways. Here is one. I think I could do this, with a good book for the gaps between people.

23rd February, 2025

Yesterday was hot and dry, despite a forecast of 80% chance of 5 - 10 mm. I was a bit disappointed but not surprised. But then in the wee small hours the heavens opened and we ended up with 12mm ending at about 7am. Everything is happy.

Had a lovely quiet day where I only did the essentials and had a nap as well. I prepared my salmon puff entrees and we took them to dinner with at Mark & Sally's with Juliet, Shane, Thomas, Pete and Tim. It was a lovely night. 

I usually add some balsamic pearls to the top of the salmon puffs, and wondered how they are made. Turns out you need oil, balsamic vinegar and agar agar. And you can make pearls with just about any liquid. So I think for christmas gifts I will make a variety of pearls. eg lemon, coffee, honey, strawberry and lime, blueberry, basil etc.

When we got home I went to hang out the last load of washing and heard one of my cows bellowing. That always bears checking out, so I grabbed a torch and headed out into the paddock to find Jaffa's calf, Eloise, on the wrong side of a fence. Moments like that I am glad my herd trusts me, as I opened a gate and walked Eloise towards it and Jaffa took the hint and headed up the fenceline to meet her. All the other cows came running to be in on the reunion, but Jack got left behind in the rush. So I walked up to meet him and showed him where the open gate was with the torch so he could rejoin the herd without having to walk the fenceline. 

Feeling rather pleased with myself, and enjoyed the walk in the cool night. On my way back I found three cats waiting in the long grass to walk with me. So my posse and I strolled back the long way sniffing the clean air and looking at the bright stars. We are so lucky to live here !

21st February, 2025

Nights are cold and wind is nippy, but the forecast for the weekend is heat wave again. No wonder the plants are confused !

I visited with Beanie and Co. up at Jasons and perused his old cattle crush. Apparently I have earned enough money from the sale of Beanie and Co. to him to pay for both the crush and next year's haying ! So a double win, Beanie gets a good home and I can replace the crush that Leigh took with him and have a safe way of doctoring the cattle.

I sent photos of that mystery thistle to Biosecurity Tas and they advised it was a california thistle. Nasty thing with holly shape leaves and stands about chest high. I hit it with lontral and metsulphuron so all the plants should be dead, but they said it is a declared weed so I will monitor the site for new growth.

Geoff and I dismantled the structure for the old automatic gate setup ready to put new posts and gates in and attach the openers. I feel that this is an important job to get done before winter, life is too short to let little luxuries sit in the shed waiting for repair.

Had a really big day yesterday... Juliet, Robyn, Billie and I went to a Garden Party hosted by Elders at Brigendoon Estate down near Longford. It was a lovely day, we traveled by bus so no-one had to play responsible adult, there was a string quartet, all drinks (alcoholic and otherwise) were free as was the morning tea and astonishingly amazing lunch. A wonderful time was had by all, especially Robyn who was fresh from a family loss and deserved a good day out. Billie also left baby Thomas with his dad and had a big time. Hopefully they'll run another one next year :-)

Billie, Jacki, a friend of Robyn's, Robyn, me and Juliet.

The lunch, hard to see from here but the huge table was decorated beautifully and laden with so many delicious bits and pieces, it was a grazing platter the size of a bowling club smorgasbord.

Click on the arrow to play the video I took at the Garden Party. Turn the sound on if you want to hear the quartet. We had just arrived and everyone was wondering where to go and what to do, we soon all got into the party vibe.

16th February, 2025

Crazy weather, one day it's hot and windy and there's smoke from the fires on the west coast. Next day it's frigid and there's snow on the nearest mountain and the wind is clear and cold off Antarctica. I think Tasmania has menopause... jumper off, jumper on, jumper off, jumper on.

So today Beanie and her calf Selkie and Annie's 14 month old steer Abe went to Jason's. That leaves me with nine cattle and six sheep. I'll miss Beanie, the big lug. She's very food motivated and pushy but she's fun to have around. Jason fed her a treat and was scratching her tail, she'll be looked after there. 

I've got the piggery ready to karcher out, shoveled all the poop out and picked up the rubbish. I suspect Leigh was intending to bring his pressure washer down after taking his pigs but got sidetracked and forgot. We all think he's ended up with a brain injury from being knocked out twice in six weeks (working cattle in his yards) so I didn't bother trying to convince him it hasn't been cleaned. Once it's all cleaned Edwin will take off all the rusted fencing and weld on new mesh.

Here's some photos of the mulberry tree, if anyone has any ideas about possible deficiencies or overs I'll try some amendments. I have the clover in there as a natural mulch, water level indicator and nitrogen generator.

12th February, 2025

Wow ! Went from nearly every day to once a month. 

Move to Tasmania, they said, the pace of life is slower, they said.

Ok, at the moment I am working a full day Monday and a half day Wednesday at May Shaw. There should be more hours by the end of March. I haven't dropped any Woolies shifts yet as the extra money is helpful paying for the zero turn mower. I am also still talking to the hospital about some hours there. And I applied for the receptionist position at Ochre Health again and got knocked back again. I have a friend there and from what she tells me I probably won't apply again.

Loving the work at May Shaw, learning something new every shift and getting it all done. There is some enterprise bargaining going on and one our negotiating wants is apparently being able to order the hot lunches offered to the residents. I am all for that, they had bread and butter pudding yesterday and I would definitely have ordered that !

Gray and Nessa visited, it was lovely to catch up with Ness after so long. Gray fixed the run-out at the back of the dairy and put in a new gate to the yards. Today Edwin Hanslow got his welder out and in a typical Scottsdale black economy exchange for electrical work, fixed my loading ramp and ramp gate and made a tow bar for the quad.

We've also had another stretch of new fencing done, this one separating Willy's Paddock and the barnyard. Willy's Paddock is now combined with the Sheep Shelter Paddock and the old fence between them got rolled up and carted off to the tip for metal recycling.

The rain has gone away, and we are now doing the summer dry off. Alot later than last year, so I still have a little grass. Might have to start feeding hay maybe next week, maybe the week after. If we get the autumn break in March it will be a good season. 

I've kicked off the weed control with taking out the feral roses in the front yard. This week should also see another thistle spray. And in a couple of weeks it will be blackberries. I've spotted an unfamiliar species of thistle, a quite nasty one. I have sprayed all I could see, will take a photo of any survivors for identification and then spray again.

It looks like I have a good crop of potatoes and jerusalem artichokes. Apples are doing well and my little fig is fruiting beautifully. I get a couple of sweet juicy figs every couple of days.

Poppy, our old maremma, passed away last week. She finally got too weak in the back end to walk easily and I think her heart went as well, because she was panting alot for the last couple of weeks even though she was just laying around on a bed in the lounge room. Finn seems to be coping ok, we're giving him lots of attention.

My mulberry is struggling, the leaves are yellowing and folding up and I can't figure out what is going on. I drilled holes in the bottom of the pot to let water out, I've checked that that soil isn't dry, I've added a general fertiliser. I did put some blood and bone on a few weeks ago, maybe that was too much nitrogen ? The clover that is also in the pot is very happy.

The sheepies waiting for the shearer. 

Left to right Dea, Toot, Twinkle, Emmaline and Jonesy. Fang off camera.

A young bloke stacked this lot of silage for Robyn. He not only completely blocked the gate between our farms, he put it all up against the fence. Where my cattle could reach it. Luckily we saw the first bale get nibbled on and I was able to put up an electric fence before they moved on to the rest. He didn't think that one through.

Geoff's good friend George on the new rail pedal carts being promoted for tourists to use on the disused rail line at Lilydale. George isn't very well so it's nice to see him having fun.

10th January, 2025

Happy New Year !! It looks like an interesting one....

I have started at May Shaw. I did two 4 hour shifts last week and will have two 4 hour and one 8 hour shift this coming week. Hopefully they will settle on what day and hours I will do regularly as soon as possible so I can drop some Woolies shifts. As it is, next week I do four Woolies shifts as well as the 3 May Shaw ones and it will be quite a busy week.

The job looks interesting and varied and challenging, with backlogs and opportunities for improving procedures and documenting stuff. If I still have my old skills and haven't started slipping into incoherence I will be right in my element. So far the two shifts have been orientation and I think one of next week's is training. I can't wait to actually start getting my fingers right into the work !

It's a big facility, 61 beds (and residents) and 110 staff and it looks like a really friendly and caring place to live. Hopefully it will be a friendly place to work.

We had another round of aurora spotting. Apparently it wasn't as big an event as the last one I saw, but the atmosphere has been "primed" and the actual display was much more intense. This is the first time I have seen the wiggly curtain effect. This was from my back door.

We had two visiting veterinary students briefly. They were intending to stay a week but at the end of the second day there was a family tragedy and they flew home. I have two more coming in February. They are generally interesting guests and enjoy meeting the animals. 

Today Robyn and I went blueberry picking and I came home with 10kg. I will get some big ziplock bags and freeze them in batches of 500g. I still have half a bag left from last year. I think I have eaten a good 500g today.

I made a shade house for the sheep in the hops paddock. They don't want a bar of it because they hate that paddock. But they are going to be there over the summer once they are shorn (which is happening tomorrow morning) and will at least have the shade there if they choose. I made it using eight star pickets with polypipe arches, and then cable ties to hold the shade cloth on.

The hospital job became a bit confusing. Two different people came up to me to congratulate me on getting the hospital casual relief job. I had not heard anything from the hospital, but I was shown a copy of the hospital newsletter saying I had been given the job and would be starting on the 13th. I suggested that if someone wanted me there on the 13th the best course of action would be to tell me !

So I emailed Kayelene, the lady who interviewed me, and let her know what the situation was from my end. And that having signed the contract with May Shaw and starting there on the 7th I would have to decline an offer if one were actually made.

She asked me not to be hasty, and to find out my permanent May Shaw shifts first and then get back to her because she had a project that she was really keen to get me to work on. If she could fit it in around the May Shaw days she was certain I was the person for the job. So when I get some idea of what is going on I will call her and we will talk. They pay over $40 an hour for casuals, so I am at least interested in finding out how many days the project will take. It's a once-a-year clean up of all their paper records and requires attention to detail and accuracy.

So, many months of no success at finding jobs and now I have more than I know what to do with !

Gray, my ex brother in law, and Nessa, my niece, will be arriving tomorrow for a few days here before Nessa flies back to Canberra. It will be lovely to catch up with her.

I potted up the dwarf mulberry and I hope it enjoys the new space. The rest of the plants are growing and bearing, picking raspberries and thinning the apples. I bandicooted some lovely new potatoes and we had them roasted in ham fat. And the Amish have pod peas again so I have been eating plenty of those straight from the pod.

The animals are all well, there's still plenty of grass and after a fall of 16mm last week and more rain coming on the weekend we might have grass into Feb. If the autumn break comes in March we may not need to feed out hay until June. What a contrast to last year when we were feeding out by the end of March !

I think that's all for now.

29th December, 2024

More wind, more frizzle. Frizzle is frittery drizzle. Enough rain to stop you doing anything useful but not enough to give the plants a good water. Bleh.

I slept in until 10am, got up and had ham and eggs for breakfast and then went back to bed. Got up at 2pm, jumped on the quad and went up to Robyn's to fetch Star back. She's been in with Robyn's heifers for a couple of months in with the bulls. I called her up, put a halter on and she followed the quad home. I am not sure if she's made friends there and will miss any of the other heifers, but she was glad to be home. Here are some pics of our progress. 

The mob of heifers she was in with, lining up to
watch us because nothing is as curious as a cow.

Being a good girl in the halter. She followed me home on the quad all the way, except for a brief detour to pose in front of the milking herd.

And finally back home with Auntie Annie and the gang