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

28th December, 2024

A few frittery rain squalls and alot of wind. Note to self : when I build my new house I will have a walled courtyard for sitting among herbs and scented plants out of the wind !

These are the peach tarts I made for dessert for the dinner at Pete's last week. They are a vol u vont case with the bottom filling made from cream cheese mixed with honey and brandy. The peaches were caramelised with butter and brown sugar and spooned in on top. Warmed in the oven so that the butter melted again and served with fresh cream.

This is the cow herd (minus Belle and Star). The oldest is at the back, Jack. Then ages range down to the newest calf, Eloise. All fat and shiny. Belle was out for milking and Star is still with Robyn's heifers, I'll have to get her back soon.

Here is Belle, my first full dairy cow and the source of much milk at times and not much milk at other time. Like now. Today I bought shop milk, it's just as well we can buy decent milk here.

27th December, 2024

So, the weather has been mainly dry with just enough rain to keep the grass growing. Temps mostly low 20's with the odd excursion down to snow weather and one tilt at high 20s. Last night was a windy and damp one and the morning misty and cold, but the bit of rain and the cool change was a welcome relief from the hot and muggy conditions.

Jason baled the second area and I got 22 bales out of that, for a total of 34. Three short of last year, but I did have a decent area grazed off. The second lot of bales have been moved into the barnyard ready for stacking, Bessie and I managed those. They are packed a little lighter and the grass was a little dryer when baled. I also know a bit more about an appropriate rev range for carrying, so it wasn't too bad a chore.

I no longer need to milk Belle every day, Tiddy is taking all she makes. Indeed, if I want milk I have to shut her away from him overnight to get a decent amount. I will probably have to make a decision soon about whether to wean Abe and go to milking Annie, or buy milk for a month or so.

We got the septic pumped out and the guy checked the pit over at the cottage. It was partly full of kids clothes, the previous tenant's small child being the habit of flushing her soiled short and undies. So that one got a pump out too. This should hold both pits until my super comes out and I replace both with new systems.

I heard back from Ochre Health, they appointed someone else. Which is fine, because I've signed the contract with May Shaw and filled out about a dozen forms and once those are finally processed by HR I might even get a start date. The pay rate is $35.26 an hour, which is casual rate. No word on the hospital job yet, though the person who interviewed me for that sent me an add for a part time job there as opposed to the relief casual that I interviewed for.

Geoff has got most of the main drive area mowed, some areas have had a second and third mow as the grass is growing back quickly. Once the initial four foot high grass is down the follow up mows take a fraction of the time.

The potatoes in the raised beds are going gang busters, the hops are doing well, apples of both cider and dessert varieties are happy. I am picking cherries, but didn't get any peaches or plums set due to the wind. I have jerusalem artichokes in abundance too, I do enjoy those fried.

CATCH UP PHOTOS

Geoff on the new mower

May Shaw and the NESM Hospital

 Jason baling the second paddock

(video, click arrow to play)

26th December, 2024

Where did the month go ?? Retail work at Christmas is all I can claim as an excuse. Will post properly soon and in the meantime here is my first mulberry on my dwarf tree that Robyn gave me.

9th December, 2024

A series of windy days with alternating sun and cloud. Rain threatens every day, or perhaps I should say humidity rises every day. But the wind is keeping things dry. I have even been able to get through the washing despite only being able to do one load a day unless I want to provoke a leak.

Jason ended up cutting the second hay paddock on Saturday. It's going to be slow drying because of the humidity, but at least it's not getting any closer to aging out.

This is Jason cutting my paddock

The pale areas are Jason's hay paddocks on the ridge and
hillside opposite me

I opened a feed break for the cattle. We left a week's feed standing so that by the time the bales were done and put away I would let the cattle onto the hayed area to clean up the leftovers then close it off again to regrow like the first paddock. You can see the lighter green of that on the right of the photo above. The far end has grown back nicely so they can graze that for a couple of weeks. With any luck I will have feed to rotate onto through summer, unlike last year.

I'll need to set up a laneway again. I have the posts in to do a proper wire laneway fence but have not had the time or energy to do it. I will buy the bits and pieces and ask Cliff to do it and offside for him. That will be probably ten times faster than doing it by myself as even having someone to hold the other end of the wire speeds it up and he will be good at the actual knots. I can do an approximation of them, but it's a bit of a slog with small hands and large tools.

May Shaw didn't call today, the email did say "next week", but I guess I expected Monday to be the day for a call. I don't even know if the manager works on Mondays. I am just a bit impatient to start on this next adventure.

The zero turn mower is arriving tomorrow, and the NILS loan was approved today. Still no word on the mortgage addition. It's a pity I can't get machinery in to hay the main drive, I reckon there's a good two bales in it. At least with a good mower here it will become respectable again. And I can use the zero turn to slash around the buildings for fire protection. If I can learn how to drive it, they say it's easy once you get the hang of it, but it looks like dodgem cars to me !

6th December, 2024

A couple of warm days that were humid, a selection of rainy and cloudy days, and one cold day. The plants are loving the wet and warm combination.

Jason was going to try and cut my second paddock of hay this afternoon, but as I come home in the dark I won't know if he got to it until daylight tomorrow. We are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, but not enough to damage the down hay. Fingers crossed it got done because the grasses are going to flower now and will start to head soon.

The zero turn mower should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, I will have to remind Geoff to get a jerry can of fuel for it. He is very excited :-)

We seem to have a wave of technological failures striking the house. The washing machine is still alternately overflowing or working fine, the randomness making it hard to isolate and fix the cause. The dish washer is still struggling with the dropping water pressure, Geoff can't make any of the old laptops or computers play his old game disks, and now the electric squeegee that I use to suck up condensation on cold mornings has stopped dead. Oh, and the septic needs pumping out before Christmas.

Jason spoke to Phil Chappel, the tractor repair guy who specialises in Fergie tractors and confirmed that Bessie should have no trouble lifting 5 ft bales if she is working right. So I will ring him on Monday and book a home visit to check her over.

On the jobs front, I had the interview with the hospital for the relief admin on Wednesday. As it's a government job it could take until after Christmas for anything to come back. It's also short notice relief, in that they could ring at 6am and say they need me, with no guarantee of hours in any given week. The pay rate is $40 an hour, but it's probably not going to work as I still need a reliable income.

The lady who interviewed me for the Ochre Health job has apparently departed without notice and cleared her desk, taking all her interview notes with her. No-one at the surgery reception has any idea what is happening with the position in the short term as the management try to figure out what they can salvage.

And I was offered the May Shaw job today !! As I was already at work when they tried to ring me, they left a message with the offer and said they'd catch up with me next week to talk in detail. This job is one day a week before new year with another day or two a week likely in the new year as someone is retiring. 

I am happy with three 8 hour days a week, that will be as many hours as I work at woolies over in three days. Leaving me 4 days off. I would probably still do one or two shifts a week at woolies until we pay off the mower. Here's hoping they're offering a good pay rate, as they were a bit uncertain about the pay as it would be dependent on the skills of the successful applicant. Hopefully I am very skilled !

Here is a little personal philosophy for the day.

30th November, 2024

More rain, this time an unusual easterly. Lots and lots of it. The wind is occasionally high, but not as bad as the big winds we had a month or so back. Hope it doesn't flatten the grass that is ready for cutting ! I won't need to water for a week at least.

I bit the bullet yesterday and paid $4500 towards the zero turn mower on two credit cards. I'll do another $2000 on Monday on a third, and NILS Tasmania said they'd lend me $2000 on a zero interest loan since I paid the last one back so I have a good rating. Even if BoQ do finally add to my mortgage I'll use that to pay the credit cards back and keep the zero interest loan as that's better than the mortgage rate let alone the credit card rates.

You can see how long the grass is by the picnic table

28th November, 2024

After some dry weeks we have had a good fall of rain. 43mm this morning with a few small falls since.

Jason packed away my hay before the rain came, always a good feeling. We'll be cutting most of the main paddock in the coming week.

Carrying the last two big bales and the little half bale. It's so quick when your tractor can carry three. 

Stacking them in the shed, easy with front lifts

It looks so green next to last years hay, hopefully another dozen to come

I turned the cows into the hayed area and they were so happy that Belle refused to come in for milking yesterday. I know she heard me because the cows next to her looked up, but she just flapped her ears like a hippo and went the opposite way. She was keen for breakfast this morning though.

On Tuesday I had an interview for the receptionist job at Ochre. I think it went well. I have an interview for the hospital job on Wednesday coming. I received an email from May Shaw saying that they hadn't forgotten me, the interviews were continuing with the last one on Wednesday coming and that they would then be in touch with all the applicants.

While I've ordered a ham from Josh at Ringarooma for christmas, we're curently enjoying a triple smoked ham from Woolies. It's Australian pork, which isn't so easy to find at the supermarkets today (unless you go to the local IGA or House Paddock here and you can get Scottsdale Pork), triple smoked and not pumped full of water. We soak the ham bag in vinegar to help preserve the ham and the combination of smoky ham and vinegar is one of my favourite smells.

23rd November, 2024

The weather is heavy and looming. One weather source says rain is decreasing as it approaches but the northeast should get the best of it. Another says we will be lucky to get anything with the rain going to the south. It seems everyone is pretty good at getting the temperatures in the right range, but the rainfall is all over the shop. 

The theme of recent years is that good falls forecast a week away almost always become nothing or nearly nothing by the time the day rolls around. It's frustrating enough for me trying to plan watering, I can't imagine having to plan irrigation for commercial crops, or when to cut or harvest.

Jason did indeed bale the hay yesterday afternoon, we ended up with 11 1/2 bales. I moved three of them into the barnyard to dry out a bit more before we stack them into the shed. I had to leave the rest in the paddock as Bessie is struggling to lift them. Jason came down and we did some trouble shooting. We solved the steering problems by adding air to the front tyres, and checked the engine oil, hydraulic oil and coolant (all ok). Then we worked on setting the ideal revs for the motor. 

Bessie will lift the bale all the way up but there is a whining noise from the 3 point linkage that sounds like the gears are slipping so that she has to rev harder to keep the lift. This means she is running too hard and hot. Jason will bring his big tractor back to put the bales away in a few days and the full service I had been planning for Bessie probably needs to include the hydraulics.

I have six rounds left from last year, used about 40 as I began feeding in January and went right through to October. Hopefully another cut from this paddock, though that would be a first in ten years. And maybe a few bales from the main paddock. The bales we just cut are beautiful, Jason says the best hay we've cut from here. They are lovely and green and smell great, which I put down to the fertiliser and the extra seeding.

These are today's bales, under a loomy gloomy sky that didn't rain.

This is a view across the cut paddock to the main paddock where the grass is still standing. I think we will cut all of that area too.

I repaired the irrigation line to the bottlebrush trees and grapevine. The person who whippersnipped the front fenceling managed to damage about half the sprinklers. I think I might spray the grass out from underneath the trees so they don't need to be trimmed. Clover and other flat weeds can remain , I'll just use a grass specific spray. I might do this around the fruit trees too, as whippersnipping too close can end up ringbarking trees and other people aren't as careful as me.

I slipped into town to pick up some medications and stock feed and bank some cheques. The power company sent us two $80 cheques because we had a blackout, one for the dairy meter and one for the house meter. Handy, but banking cheques is a chore and I am surprised they didn't just put a credit on the bills.