16th June, 2025

Woooo.... back to cold and wet weather. Snow somewhere and the critters happy to be inside. Had a couple of cracker frosts followed by lovely days, but now the fronts have started.

I put the last of the apples into the dehydrator today. My favourites when dried are the King David, the Cox's Orange Pippin was lovely and so were the Pink Lady. The last to ripen have been the Granny Smiths.

When I do the chores I generally have a posse. Three cats and a maremma. Yesterday I was carrying my farm basket back (with some potatoes from storage in the old chiller) and put it down to go and check the mail. Cats love sitting in things. This is Shadow.

The bunk is working beautifully, virtually no waste at all. I've worked out a routine and have some tweaks I'll make once I start my two weeks off work on the 23rd. Namely a little gateway so I don't have to climb over an electric fence, and good anchors for my lift ropes.

The sheepies are doing fine, they can get at grass the cattle can't, as well as having full range of the whole farm because they can duck under the one strand laneway fencing. Left to right Fang, Jonesy, Toot, Emmaline, Twinkle and Dea.

10th June, 2025

Another cold day. I don't know why I am surprised, we're not far off the winter equinox.

New chapter in "why I love living here"... I called the mechanic at Branxholm who does our cars to ask about a whining noise in my car. He told me to have my keys with me on shift at Woolies tonight. He came in, took the keys, brought them back half an hour later and said "It's the air conditioner drive. Probably not worth repairing, I took the belt off and the noise stopped, the belt is on your front seat". I asked how much I owed him and he shrugged and said "I might need some electrical work one day.".

A rainbow over Scottsdale

9th June, 2025

So cold today, rumour has it that there was a dusting of snow at South Springfield. Some sun later in the day and if you could find a sunny spot out of the wind it was lovely. I sat on the bench by the front door for a while with Finn and just let the sunshine wash over me.

I put muesli and lucerne chaff in the calf creep for Mae today. She likes the taste but might take a bit to figure out she can come and go and help herself. The feed bunk went into operation today too. It looks like it will work nicely, though there was some kerfuffle about finding places in the row.

A round bale stored under a tarp for rain protection. The bunks with gates and mesh laying down and haul ropes for lifting the mesh so hay can be put in the bunk and the mesh laid down on top. Electric fence closing the area off from cows so I can feed out in peace and the hay can't be molested.

A clearer shot of the mesh and gates lifted ready for hay. There are two proper mesh panels on order from Elders that will replace the gates and offcut mesh. The ropes are looped around tent pegs at the base of the concrete so I can get on with feeding.

The first use of the bunks tonight. Eloise and Mato have the hang of it. Their mums have had a tantrum about the newness of it all and gone off looking at the old hay feeding station. Come midwinter storms when they can step out of the shelter (behind the blue tarped bale in the first pic), eat and drink and go back inside, they will appreciate it. Maybe. Or not. You know how animals can be :-)

Juliet and I have applied for polling booth work for the coming state election. Not sure when it might be, but it's likely to be this winter.

8th June, 2025

A few frosty mornings with lovely warm clear days, nights are frigid. I'll take those warm days for working outside.

I had an eye check on Friday, all clear except for the very beginnings of cataracts. The Dr said that at the usual rate of development I probably have ten years before I need to think about them, but that my yearly eye checks will pick up any faster progression. I ordered another set of reading glasses for work and went home to muse on the subject of aging.

Speaking of aging ... the 75 year old septic has finally failed. We currently have sewage puddling in the back yard. Replacing it with a properly engineered and permitted new system is quoted at around $25,000. The bank wouldn't give us $10k for a zero turn mower so that was never going to be a goer.

So we thought laterally. Composting toilets have come a long way in the last 20 years and we can get one that is self contained, just a tray to empty once every three months of finished compost. A small fan and vent makes it odorless. We can get the one I am considering delivered here for $2660 total. So, at one tenth the cost of a new septic this will do us until my super comes out. If it works well I might not even get a new septic and save the cost.

The aurora showed up again this week, this is a view from Willow Lodge, taken by Tim.

4th June, 2025

We have had a variety of weather, cold, nice, dry, wet, frost, fogs. This was the view this morning as I headed off for work.

Mae is doing just fine. She's scarfing her bottle and has transitioned fully to milk replacer. This week I will see if she will move to a feeder, meaning I can up the amounts in her meals as the bottle only holds 2 litres. I will also introduce calf muesli once I set up a calf creep.

The new feed bunk is nearly ready, I just need to wash it out and add some mesh to hold the hay down.

I am applying for another part time job. This is the ad :

We have a private advertiser who’s seeking a Stakeholder and Administration Coordinator. The role will include:

• General office administration duties
• Database management and use of software programs
• Management of stakeholder relationships
• Assisting a range of clients with administrative-type tasks
• Connecting and communicating with various stakeholders
• Working with a small team to deliver small and large local events
• Fun content creation and public relations tasks

All training will be provided for the role, so both entry level and experienced candidate are encouraged to apply.

The agency has no further details, it's all hush-hush. They will only be contacting the people they wish to interview so unless I am a strong contender I guess I'll never know. The reason, apparently, is that they wish to avoid the pressure to appoint friends of friends and relatives of relatives. Fair enough.

2nd June, 2025

On a pretty regular basis I remember why I love living here.

Robyn helped me treat Annie, Beefy Millwood took on the hardest task, Jason took her body away for me, Calab fetched milk for Mae. None of these people had to step up, it was all kindness.

Also this week Jason found one of his cows out on the road and was struggling to get her back in without letting the others out. Calab stopped on his way to work and helped Jason nab the wayward bovine.

Scott kindly set aside 30 small bales of hay for me, even though I know he will probably be a little short himself by the end of winter.

On a side note, recently I was on the front cover of the local paper, with friends and neighbours, in an article about the highway upgrade that will be going past our place. This week my suggestion to the consultation was also in the paper. 

26th May, 2025

We've just had 30mm of rain. The sky is crying for Annie too.

It's also been cold and windy and having Star in with Mae to keep her company as they share a shelter with deep straw bedding and hay walls has helped ease things for Mae and kept her warm too.

The rest of the herd are finishing off the last of the grass (unless this rain comes just before the ground temp drops too far for grass to grow) and I am clearing out the old feed bunk ready to eke out the hay over winter.

When they eat free-choice from a ring, big eaters like Jaffa just stand and eat and drop hay and walk on it. She didn't get to the shape of a hippo by walking away from food. There's alot of waste and I don't need them to get too fat. 

Putting out a certain amount each day into the bunk keeps dropped hay contained where they don't step on it, and they get to fill up twice a day without simply eating themselves into bowling balls. It is alot more work than putting a round into a ring once every three or four days, but I spend alot of time picking up hay and shoving it back in the ring anyway. And it is better to spend a little time each day and make it through winter.

Here are some photos of Mae, and one of the milk Calab (the tenant from the cottage) drove all the way back to the dairy he works at on his day off to bring for Mae. The little caravan sink pump is my idea to get the milk out without tipping a heavy container and risking spilling it everywhere. Works a treat.

25th May, 2025

 

Farewell my beautiful Annie

1st August, 2019 to 23rd May, 2025

 

Annie calved on the 4th of May, a lovely heifer calf we've named Mae. 

 

Despite being in great condition and seemingly perfect health before calving, Annie came down with milk fever and then pneumonia, and then ketosis and finally liver failure. We fought for three weeks to save her and she fought for three weeks to live, mothering her calf the whole time.

 

Finally, the blood test results came back from Launceston and the verdict of liver failure on top of everything else, and her not having eating almost anything for two weeks, made the final sad call.

 

Mae has taken to the bottle and I will look after her and be her mum for Annie. She has had a great start, and is fat and sassy. Alot of the condition Annie lost so fast went into giving Mae the best.

 

Annie was one of those cows that seek you out for love and responds with a cow hug, wrapping her neck around you as you stand beside her. She was my buddy and I will miss her so much.

 

Annie liked her food, especially apples and pears. She was a busy cow, always paying attention, but never naughty like Belle. Her glossy black hair always smelled warm and sweet and she delighted in giving a good bath with her scratchy tongue. She came to me from Robyn's dairy next door, via Aimee and was hand raised here.

 

Mae is her first heifer, she'd had three bull calves that she raised with great enjoyment. Mae will stay with me now, she is half angus and may not make a house cow, but she is family.

14th April, 2025

Quick update, not much rain, weather hot/cold/hot/cold/windy/still. Working most days, did a spring clean on the house and feels nice to be tidier.

New trailer just arrived for the quad bike, will carry six hay bales or fencing gear or a calf, or a person sitting. Really solid, made of steel. Tyres are solid so can't go flat. It was made by Edwin Hanslow, the gentleman that processes our poultry when we want them done, and does farm welding as his day job. Dad would have loved it, the same sort of workmanship.

 

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 assembled 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.