13th October, 2024

Another sunny day with a mild breeze. By the late evening it was as still as anything, and felt quite comfortable, though when I breathed out I could see my breath, which suggests it's cold. The weather thingy says it's 8 degrees, but it feels nice.

Today I sprayed the driveway to try and reclaim some of the gravel back from the grass. Gray did some more on the silo steps and then we hooked in and did the back of the chook house. We pulled off all the old timber and replaced noggins where they had rotted out.

Charlie dropped by and returned the Waybill book and the three ear tags he was going to use for his steers as he's decided to keep them for a while longer. We did get most of his application for a PIC done, so he will be able to order his own Waybill book and ear tags soon. 

Another day on the hops paddock for the cows, they are very keen to go in and not keen to come out at the end of the day. There is maybe one or two more days grazing there, then I will have to look closely at what grass is available and perhaps open up some of the main paddock again, pending fertiliser delivery.

I cleaned the silo out for storage, but getting into it has been a matter of climbing a folding step ladder while balancing a storage tub and trying to climb under the band of steel that crosses the doorway to hold the round silo together. This will solve at least the climbing part and once we can access the silo properly we might be able to move the band to a better position. The first section of the silo steps.

The left hand side of the chook house was done a few years ago. The two halves are the same size, so I was able to count the palings and battens on that side to know how many to order for this round. There's enough to do the southern end as well, but that's been protected from the sun and the weather so we may not do that this time and do something else more urgent. This is after we've stripped the old timber off the back.

I found a dead feral cat in the driveway this morning, a big black tomcat. While I feel sad for the cat, he would have caused a few problems if he'd settled in, not least of them being that Sarge can't defend himself with no teeth and would have been a target for being bashed up. I think Finn must have killed him and it shows that he differentiates between the resident cats that he knows should be here, and strangers.

Tomorrow I will ring around the ag warehouse places to see who has 8 foot gates at what price, Gray may be able to dig the holes and set the new gate posts in ready if I can have the gates there to measure from. Geoff should then be able to hang the gates and program them. But I think it's going to be a special order and the work will be on the list for the next visit.

12th October, 2024

We've had some sunny days and some windy days, a series of fronts crossing the state.

I managed to kill a very nice boronia and a small jasmine somehow. I am not sure if it was water deprivation or the repeated chills (which the saffron and mulberry aren't loving either), but I am pretty sure both are toast. Same with the passionfruit. I guess I just keep planting things and those that survive are what I plant more of.

We also lost a chicken, old age I think, as many of the chooks have been here as long as I have.

I've had a few days off work with a bug, coinciding with me telling Janice I was resigning after a particularly difficult shift. There has been some confusion and I had to tell them I wasn't actually resigning (yet). I did lodge another two job applications though, so hopefully it's just a matter of time.

I put in one for part time work at a rural supplies store, Muir's, and one for work-from-home doing proof reading. No word on Elders or the Council yet.

Brad Hill and his team came and mowed and whippersnipped the driveway and Calab's garden, we can only hope that the next time it needs doing Geoff will be on his own zero turn mower and they will just go around with the whipper snipper. Hah.

Leigh brought his sheep over for shearing and broke the "long gut" in his shearing machine. That's the core of the machine that spins around and makes the shears cut. He also managed to leave a gate ajar and the cows all escaped down the Sledge Track and Jason had to bring them back up. They had a ball on their adventure but it could have had a bad outcome so I gave Leigh a lecture and will get a padlock and chain for the two road gates that aren't used regularly so that if someone needs to use them they will have to ask me for the key and I will therefore know to check them.

Gray is here for a couple of days doing odd jobs around the place. Today he repaired and put back up the cap from Calab's chimney, helped Geoff prune two apple trees, tied some wire back on the hop paddock fence posts, ran the cable for the internet into my craft room, and started work on the steps for the silo. 

Oh, and we figured out how to redo the automatic gate so that the arms are closed when the gate is closed instead of extended when the gate is closed, which will protect the arms more. With this worked out I can now order two gate posts and two eight foot gates and we will put new ones in. I will use the old seven foot ones around the farm.

We had another aurora display, not quite as dramatic as the last one, but still pretty awesome. I will put pictures up when I can get them off the phone.

The washing machine is playing up. I pulled all the removable parts out and cleaned them and put them all back together and it completed a cycle. I'll put another one on tomorrow and see if it's going to be an intermittent fault or my good clean out has solved the problem.

This is Beanie on the left and Annie on the right. Both are nursing calves at the moment so they get a little extra feed as the grass is still not coming on like it should. Belle is giving milk for the house and Tiddy is nice and fat. Sorcha and little Mato are doing well too.

I let the herd into the hops paddock today for half the day, it has knee length grass and they enjoyed the feast after having to work hard in the main paddock. I will give them that every second day and we might get a few grazes out of it. If the grass doesn't take off soon I will have to feed out my last six rounds, and then ask Robyn or Jason to rent a small area of grass. Surely proper spring has to arrive soon ?

6th October, 2024

Ok, weather-wise we've had one or two of just about every weather possible for this time of year. The two nice days were welcomed by everyone, especially the livestock.

The sheep have all stopped limping, so the antibiotic shot was able to treat their foot scald. Pickle is eating well and looks happier with that tooth out. The two calves haven't looked back, so the painkiller and local anesthetic worked well for them.

Jaffa is due soon, but hasn't really bagged up yet. She's pretty over the whole thing, she does get quite big in late pregnancy. 

The pet food butcher came and did Flora on Friday. He was very kind and gentle about it, he has pet cows too. He has a trailer with a winch so that I didn't need to borrow Robyn's tractor, Bruce, to load her body. He offered me $50, but since he came all the way from Launceston for one small cow and was very patient and kind I said I was happy to call it even. The only animals left that came from Dubbo are Poppy (maremma dog) and Jack (lowline steer).

Flora

No further word on the Council or Elders jobs. The sound of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds tumbling with regard to the loan for the mower.

Service Tas called and advised they'd like to appoint me, as I'd scored highest of all the applicants, but they couldn't find any way around the training at Hobart. Was I really, really sure it would be a problem ? Yes, it still was. They said they would definitely like to have me as I interviewed really well and "had an air of maturity". Which made me wonder what the rest of their applicants were like ! So in the end they said they'd contact me again before their next intake in February in case either my distance issues or their inability to train over the net had changed.

Jason came and looked at the herd, with Brax, his older son, tagging along. Brax and Joey had a good cuddle and Jason decided that as well as Freya and Zippy, he'd take Moose and Joey too, and maybe keep Joey as a companion for Billie's pet deer. That's four taken care of. Still no idea what I am going to do with Star.

Had the dinner at Launceston, at Stillwater restaurant. A place that would normally be outside my budget. It was a four course meal, absolutely delicious ! I bought Matthew Evans' books "On Eating Meat" and "Milk" and I'm six chapters in to the first one already. 

 

The view from the restaurant, the building right across the river is the Peppers Silo hotel, built in giant renovated grain silos.

I stayed the night at a pub in Launnie, small basic room with a bathroom down the corridor. But not a shared bathroom, each of the rooms had an individual bathroom in a row of bathrooms, with a shower, vanity and toilet in each one. Unusual arrangement, but it was all clean and fresh.

The corridor of bathrooms

My bathroom, toilet is tucked beside the shower

 

 

The bed, with a bar fridge bedside table

 

 

The rest of the bedroom 

The view from the pub room

While I was in Launceston I finalised my will, and bought a new mobile phone and a set of drinking glasses, unrelated purchases.

The electric rat trap I ordered online arrived and I've set that in the dairy. It spent a while not working because we had a power outage caused by a pole fire on the other side of Scottsdale. The power went back on about three minutes after Geoff got home from work and connected the generator up to the house. It's always the way. He's going to put an inlet point in the switchboard so the genny can power the house through that rather than running extension cords.

Belle's milk has been a little salty lately, and as I have plenty in the fridge I've been giving it directly to the dogs and chooks. The chooks are now laying enough eggs to supply us and some friends, they are getting plenty of protein and calcium.

Charlie borrowed some ear tags and the cattle waybill book, we are going to get him organised with his own PIC asap. Anyone with livestock has to have a PIC to buy and sell, so now that he is landed gentry he will have to get one.

The rubbish pickup once a month is working well, I put the bins out by the mailbox and he comes and empties them and leaves an invoice for however many bins I put out. I make sure they're nice and full with silage wrap and bale net, it'll take a while to get rid of all that but it's better than sending half empty bins.

30th September, 2024

Out of the last four days we've had one good, two middling and one crappy. I am liking those ratios a bit more than what we've been having...

The vet visit on Friday was a success. Tiddy and Mato (Sorcha's new calf) were castrated and had ear tags put in. Then the vet floated Pickles teeth (ground down the sharp edges) and pulled the split and loose molar that was causing irritation and cuts in her cheek. She's looking heaps better, eating more comfortably. He also gave the flock all a shot of long acting antibiotic to help clear up the long running cases of foot scald due to the wet and cold weather. We should see some results for that in the next day or so.

Annie gave me a scare, she had what looked like melted butter running out both nostrils yesterday. It looked like some kind of fast moving infection because she'd been fine the day before. And both nostrils is odd, it's generally one. But there was nothing there today so I think she might have been unwise about eating and coughing.

The pet meat guy will come and put Flora down this coming Friday. It's sad to see the old girl reach the end, but she's steadily becoming less mobile and a down cow will be a dead cow. Toot (the wether) and Jack (lowline steer) are also on the watch and act list. If Jack can lose some weight he'll go alot better. But getting ruminants to lose weight without getting fatty liver is an exercise in precision nutrition.

I applied for the job at the Council and hopefully that I will be short listed again. I also had a brief call with the Service Tas recruiters. They were after what my preferences were (part time) and whether two weeks full time training in Hobart would be a problem (it would). They are going to think about the training thing and get back to me. Then it's a matter of whether a position comes up in Scottsdale. The HR person at Elders confirmed today that no decision has been made on that job yet. If they want someone to start in November it will need to come to that point sooner rather than later.

Still now word on the loan for the mower. It comes as no surprise given every other time I have dealt with them. Hopefully it will be approved and hopefully it will be before the grass gets so long I have to pay someone with a big machine to mow it again.

I did some more fencing, reconnecting power and moving energisers, clipping plants off hot wires etc. I fenced most of the main paddock off and gave the animals the far end connected to the shelter by a laneway. The fenced off area will be added to the area to be fertilised. This will cost a fair bit this year, but it's something that needs to be done and will end up cheaper than buying hay because I've exhausted the soil. Always better to grow your own grass.

It looks like Jason will take Freya and Zippy in return for the haying he did for me in 2021 and 2023. His bull was their father (a speckle park) and he's watched them grow up since calving. He may also take Joey and Moose, but he'll have to take a look at them to see if they can fit in with his beef herd.

I'm off to Launceston on Wednesday to go to a dinner/presentation/Q&A and stay the night. I'm looking forward to the little break. I've moved my appointment for finalising my will to that day and I'm still hopeful I can get a cancellation to have my skin check with Dr Maggie that day too.

I need to look around for a new phone. My seven year old one won't be any good once they turn off 3G at the end of October. I need to find something sturdy, simple and not locked to a network. Time to start looking at reviews.

Sarge and Suzie (Shredder) cuddled up on the hot water system. I wish it was big enough to crawl in with them for a lovely long warm nap.

25th September, 2024

We've had a few mixed days; sun, rain, wind, cloud, still, thunder, fog and mizzle. Rumour is that the wind will be back again next week. Blah. At least we have finally caught up with the average annual rainfall, now we just need the sun to kick the grass up. A batch of fertiliser should go on in the next week or so.

Well, since they've had access to the grass the cows have left the remains of the last round bale completely alone. I possibly should have waited until they finished the bale before letting them at the grass... I added a green feed mineral block to the range the cattle and sheep have access to, there should be something there for everyone no matter what feed they are on.

Sorcha had a big bull calf yesterday. He's quick on his feet and not keen on humans, which will make getting him in so the vet can castrate him and Tiddy on Friday an interesting challenge. 

The vet will also be pulling a tooth in one of the sheep, Pickle. She's lost a lower molar and the upper one is beginning to overgrow without one opposite to grind against.

Flora is back in with the herd, and the sheep have access to the main area again too. Now the cows are on long grass Flora can keep up with the grazing and I don't have to worry about her getting knocked over in the melee around the round bale. Her knees are getting worse though, and the pet food guy from Launnie will come and shoot her in a week or so, so that she doesn't have to get on a truck or be injected with chemicals that make her body dangerous for scavengers. She won't know it's coming, she will be head down eating treats. It's a sad time, but she's starting to be in pain.

No news on the job front, but two positions have just been advertised. One is a part time administrator job at the hospital. The other is a part time customer service position at the Council. I interviewed for a similar position about this time last year, but they decided they needed a full time person at that point. I am going to apply again. It's 20 hours over three days a week, which is about what I do at Woolies. The pay rate is better, I get the hours over with in three days instead of four or five, and I am not on my feet all shift.

The possum is still finding ways to mess up the dairy, I think I will trap him or her and have Siobhan relocate them to a suitable forest. The rats are attacking too, now that the cats can't get into the dairy control room because I have closed it off from the possum. I've ordered an electric rat trap, since the eco-safe baits seem to be proving tasty but not fatal.

Had afternoon tea with Juliet, Robyn, Brit and Billie (and baby) on Monday arvo. We are going to make it a regular thing. Juliet is the mother of Thomas, who is working for Robyn. Brit is the sister of Charlie, who used to work for Robyn. It was quite a Tasmanian "six degrees of separation" thing.

21st September, 2024

Aaarrgghh ! More rain, more wind, more cold !

I shut the newly planted pasture off from the cow this morning and rejigged the electric tapes so that they have access to new grass, but are away from where the trees have come down over the fences. I am down to six round bales, which is about 18 days feed, so something has to give. Hopefully this miserable cold weather will stop so the grass will grow before I run out of hay.

I tried a couple of new flavours with junket. Salted caramel icing flavouring, not hugely successful. And chai latte sachets, which was really nice. 

I have booked myself something special. "The Gourmet Farmer" was a series on SBS where a food critic decides to become a farmer in Tasmania and it follows his adventures. He's written a couple of books on raising your own food, and his new one is about Milk. He's giving a Q&A session in Launceston over a dinner at Stillwater with a milk based menu. So I booked myself a place and booked a basic room at a pub to stay overnight, and moved my two next appointments in Launceston to that day and it will be a big day/night out.

The vet is coming on Tuesday to take out a tooth for Pickle, one of my ewes. She will castrate Tiddy at the same time, and I think we will put in an ear tag while he is out to it.

No news on the jobs, no discernible progress on the mower funding.

Pauline, the manager for the front end, scored herself a new job. She goes in five or six weeks, which will turn the front end upside down. She has been working there about 12 years and was ready for a change. I am pleased for her, but the fallout is going to be quite dramatic as we go into the christmas chaos without her. I won't be going for the job, no-one needs that level of stress.

16th September, 2024

Just had the two nicest days in months. This followed snow falling on the Sideling and the Diddlums on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty spectacular, clouds rolling across the ridges with snowfall puffing out in front. It didn't last long though, all gone the next morning.

The two nice days have been really pleasant though, and quite productive.

Abe turned the tap on at the piggery and was drinking directly from it. 10 points for clever ways to get a fresh drink, zero points for potential damage to the tap. So I put a pallet in front of it and hope that out of sight is out of mind.

The rat activity in the dairy has escalated so I put out predator-safe bait. This stuff won't harm raptors or wildlife (or cats) that take baited rats. So far the bait has been gone each morning, I don't know how many feeds are needed or if there are alot of rats. There is still stuff being knocked over so something is still wandering around in there.

I am down to eight round bales, which is maybe a month left of feed. The grass is starting to grow, but I will have to lock the knoll paddock off on the weekend because it was seeded today. Scott Auton direct drilled an italian ryegrass, clover and chickory mix. 

I also broadcast a pasture mix into the bare areas around the hay rings. The areas around where they've had hay will be full of seeds from the hay, but the areas around silage won't as the fermentation process kills seeds. 

I've changed out the batteries in the solar fence chargers because the cloudy weather will be draining the batteries. Freshly charged ones will keep the fences hot. I picked up the remains of silage wrap and rolled up the electric fence around the silage storage area in the knoll paddock and Scott included that in the pasture planting.

I went to a "Paint and Sip" thing at the Little Rivers brewery on Saturday night. The picture to paint was a very basic highland cow. I think I did a passable imitation.

Speaking of highland cows, Sorcha is now making up an udder and showing goo. I think maybe a calf in the next two weeks.

I have been making all sorts of things with the extra milk, farmhouse cheese, yoghurt, junket and chicken cheese. Chicken cheese is a basic cheese just made with rennet, and you drain and press the curds and feed the block to the chooks for protein and calcium. I flavoured the junket with some of the strawberry syrup from Robyn, it was lovely. I am thinking caramel flavour for the next one.

11th September, 2024

I have invented a name for the current weather : drizmal. Everything is soaked and we could really, really use a nice fine few days to kick off the grass growth. I am down to nine round bales, which is approximately 27 days feed. I was hoping for an early warm spring, but it looks like we have the kind of cold long tail to winter that is designed to maximise the work.

I put a couple of kilos of strawberries in the fridge, Juliet made strawberry jam from hers and Robyn made strawberry syrup from the ones I gave her. She gave me a jar of it and I might have to find some creative ways to use it. Pancakes spring to mind...

I have put down two basic farmhouse cheeses. Back in Dubbo I used to make one of these every day. A litre of milk, a blob of starter and a couple of drops of rennet, then into an old "easyo" container for the day, cut the curd in the evening and put it in the hoop to drain overnight. This creates a cheese that is a little like fetta without being as salty. It's delicious in an egg pie.

Robyn and I took Billie and baby to the House Paddock for afternoon tea on Monday, we had a nice visit and I bought some bacon and mushrooms to cook for lunch tomorrow.

We lost two trees down in the soak a couple of nights ago, one snapped off and one went over roots and all. Both fell on the fence so there will be fence repairs to do. I have asked Charlie to cut them off the fence for me, and he might be able to help repair the fence. Otherwise I will set aside a Sunday to work through it. I have the tools for it, I'm just a bit slow and have to think through each step so as not to have to undo it and start again.

This is the spindly snapped tree that must have been a bit twisted by the wind. The shearing motion is pretty rough and often takes branches off. In this case the smaller tree just snapped, you can see how the remaining trunk is split.

This is the one which has gone over roots and all. It's on the edge of a pool of water so I think it's just gotten too wet to hold up against the wind.

8th September, 2024

We have another front rolling in, a prospect that makes me feel a little dismal. I wonder if I am getting the spring version of winter blues. Working outside in this weather is wearing a little thin.

The dishwasher was showing the same error message tonight, which was a worry until I tried to have a shower. The water pressure was so low it was more of a dribble than a shower, so my guess about the water pressure being to low was right.

The latest possum was trashing the dairy control room each night, so I've blocked his/her access points and that seems to have kept the critter out. Unfortunately, the cats can't get at rats and mice in there now so I will have to set some traps. Finn chased it up an apple tree so I put both dogs inside for a few hours to allow it to come down and get away. But then I discovered it's been eating our eggs too. It's not being a good tenant, but possums are difficult to relocate without them being attacked in the new territory so I am not sure what to do.

Udesh in the fruit and veg dept at work alerted me to a pallet of strawberries that had been condemned due to too many bad fruits among them. They were going to be put in the skip. With Kahlia's consent (manager of fruit and veg) I got in touch with Karen and Red Dirt Cafe. The cafe provides meals and company to the needy, homeless and lonely, and runs on donations from local businesses and farmers. They salvaged 45kg of strawberries and are going to make compote and jam to use in the cafe.

Staff picked up some trays of strawberries too, I got one for Juliet and one for me and will share a third between Robyn and Kelly. Strawberry smoothies with jersey milk are in my future !

6th September, 2024

We survived the polar cyclone with only one sheet of tin off the chook house roof, the paling fence over at the other cottage blowing over, and the glass in the doors. We were very lucky and didn't lose power. Some areas are going to be at least next week before getting power back. 

It's been raining most of the time since, though I did get one day of sun and breeze and worked like a navvy getting the washing done and dry. Not sure how that's going to work this weekend though, it's forecast to be dismal.

I got word that I didn't get the Contact Centre job with Service Tas. This is the one out of all the public service jobs I applied for that I really wanted. A little despondent about that, but it is what it is. I thought the interview went well, particularly the role play customer service phone call, but I will call next week and find out where I went wrong.

I'm wading through the documentation for the loan extension for the ride on mower, hopefully that will be finished early next week, maybe even ending with the funding before the end of the week. At least the water line in the dairy was a quick fix, there was enough slack to cut the chewed section off and just move the joiner down a bit. I greased up the whole line with vicks, not only will it be hard for rodents to walk on now, the eucalyptus smell will be a deterrent.

The animals are still all camping in shelter and venturing out only for hay. Flora, the 18 year old lowline cow, is in with the sheep because she got knocked over at the bale ring this week. She's in two minds about this, as she prefers to be with the cow herd, but she's enjoying easy access to a round bale and a pile of straw in the hayshed for a bed.

I rearranged the hayshed, dividing it in two and giving the sheep and Flora one half and their own bale and keeping the other half for the remaining rounds, grass squares and straw. They were knocking the piles over when they had access to the lot. It was a big effort, lots of fancy work with Bessie the tractor and dragging some big gates around to form barriers. Most chuffed with myself.

I also shifted a pile of fencing and Leigh's harrows away from the truck loading ramp, where they'd been dumped (not by me !) so that I can access that with the tractor now and load stuff onto a ute if required. There's no point having a good loading ramp blocked up with random stuff.

The dishwasher stopped working, so I pulled out all the bits I could and cleaned them and put it back together and it worked. Not sure what the issue was, I suspect it had more to do with low water pressure than anything I did, as the mains were quite low in pressure over the weekend.

I'm getting 10 litres a day from Belle, just milking the back quarters and leaving the front ones for Tiddy. I've dug out my recipes for dulce de leche (like caramel but from milk), mozzarella and haloumi, but so far I've only had time to make three batches of yoghurt.