4th November, 2024

The wind continued today, I have a very low tolerance for wind by now. Over it. 

I set up three strips of grazing into the main paddock ready for when the withhold ends tomorrow. The herd is still in the hops paddock but I will bring them back tomorrow and give them the new grazing.

I need to get a thistle spray in this weekend and spray the grass on the fencelines and the barley grass patches as well. I have a three day weekend this week and should be able to hook right in. It's probably not far off having to do the next slice of blackberry battle too.

This photo shows the line between the grazed and ungrazed grass and the knoll paddock over the fence which will be cut for hay.

This photo is facing the other way, each slice will be about eight feet wide. The green blobs in the distance are wrapped silage bales at Robyn's that Jason cut and baled yesterday.

3rd November, 2024

A windy day but not too cold, it's clouding over now. We've had a mix of cold and warm, even close to a frost. I think they just spin a wheel and whatever it lands on is our weather for the next 8 hours.

Jason sent me the weights for the four weaners he bought from me yesterday, the two younger ones were about 340kg and the two older about 440kg. All in all they were worth about $4500 and that will be offset against the haying Jason did for me in 2021 and 2023. Depending on how he costs it, I might even have some towards this year's.

I moved the herd to the hops paddock for the next 24 hours to give me time to set up the first slice into the grass in the main paddock. That's about knee high now and I will give them 4 metre wide slices while the far end, sheep shelter paddock and barnyard grow back. Hopefully we won't need to take too much of it, because it would be nice to have some as hay. This area was fertilised back in October and the withhold period ends on Tuesday.

Jaffa was looking a bit cagey on Wednesday so I figured she'd calve on Thursday. No calf, maybe it was just moving around. Lunchtime Friday she appears with a heifer calf that's clean, dry, drinking easily and hopping around. Clearly not a newborn ! I suspect she calved on Wednesday night or Thursday morning and hid her. I have named the calf Eloise.

The bank manager rang me on Thursday and asked for some more recent pay slips. Sigh. I wonder if we'll get approval for the mower before Christmas ?

No movement on the job front, other than to find out Lynda at Woolies also applied for the Council job and also didn't get an interview and they are also dodging her. Which made both of us feel a little bit better.

30th October, 2024

The weather has become gradually more pleasant. Days are warm, nights still cold, but the wind often loses that nasty edge. If we can stay with this I will be happy...

Robyn let me put the cattle into her dam paddock, which is just through the gate at the far end of the main paddock. They've about eaten that out now. Jason will be taking the four weaners on Saturday, and I have some small square bales left that I can stretch out until Tuesday. That's when the withhold period for the fertiliser that I put on the pastures expires and I can start feeding that. 

I will keep the hay paddock locked up, and also lock up as many of the other small paddocks as I can. Hopefully they will grow back before I feed off too much of the main paddock, as the more hay I can put up the better I will feel about this coming winter.

On the job front I have active applications in with Muirs and May Shaw and I am about to drop off a resume and cover letter to BWS. I called the council and asked for a quick feedback chat but they have been dodging me. On a whim I called Cyberlutions to do the same and ended up with the managing director and he said he'd send a note to their HR bod. I think I will also contact the post office and ask for some feedback there.

Pickle is eating and looking cheerful and snarfs up calf muesli with great gusto, but her face is still weeping pus and blood and smells bad. I think it must be a cancer and I have arranged with the shearer to put her to sleep in November. I will miss her, it's always the sweet ones. My common sense bone tells me to do Toot at the same time, who is having trouble with his shoulders and getting very bow legged, but my soft side is putting that off as he is still quite cheerful.

We had a lovely drinks and nibbles with Pete, Juliet and Shane on Sunday. Pete's headed back to Sydney for another operation to repair the damage the last one did. Hopefully that will go well and he can come back here to recover.

Robyn and I attended a Legendairy Ladies lunch at House Paddock today. The presentation was about nutrition (for cows) and how to balance fiber and energy and protein for different stages of a cow's year. It was very interesting. Lunch is supplied and the lady next to me had eggs benedict on sourdough with bacon. That looked amazing so I might drag Geoff down there for breakfast one day.

I found this interesting gate online when looking for pictures of stiles. I think I would like to work one into my cattle yards. Getting in and out quickly can be an exercise because I am a bit shorter than the average farming bloke that the yards are designed for.

23rd October, 2024

The warm days ended with a crash today, some parts of Tassie are getting snow and the rest is getting the wind off the snow.

I called Elders about the job, and they confirmed that for "business reasons", which in most places means "trying to make our budget look better", they will be holding all the applications until February and then progress as normal. So nothing will be happening there until next year.

I had an email from the Dorset Council saying I wasn't successful in that application process. I didn't get an interview this time. I will call them and ask for a quick chat about why I am not being successful, as this is the third job I have applied for with them and they keep telling me how well I interviewed and they want to keep my application to hand for more positions, but not giving me any of those positions when they are advertised. If there is a logical reason fair enough, but I'd like to stop wasting my time if they are just trying to be politically correct.

The vet came back out to check on swelling on Pickle's face, the sheep that had a tooth removed. He feels that she either has a bad bone infection in her jaw, or bone cancer. He's given her a shot of exceed, a strong antibiotic, which will make a difference if it's an infection. If there's no change in a week it's probably time to put her to sleep. It's always the favourites...

The dogs were groomed again today, Poppy jacked up at standing for so long so the groomer finished her off laying on the floor. The carprofen helps with the joint pain but can't cure the back weakness. Her time is approaching too, she struggles more and more with getting up and down. Old age sucks.

Here is the back of the chook house, the left side was done a few years ago and is now weathered. The right side is now weather and wind proof and will last for another few decades. It's a very sturdy chook house.

The two eight foot gates to replace the bent ones in the automatic gateway have arrived at the ag shop. I will pick those up tomorrow probably, and buy the posts when I have paid for the timber used in the chook house and the silo stairs.

19th October, 2024

We've had an interesting week. Mostly cloudy, but Friday saw 70mm of rain and today was 23 degrees and clear, cloudless skies with a perfect breeze. I went to a baby shower at Bridport and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for the seaside.

The chook shed and the silo stairs have been finished. I have put a barrier of sheep panels around the stairs so the cows get used to them being there without being able to "explore" them. By the time I remove the panels it will be old hat. I think I will paint the stairs "Scottsdale cottage roof red", a nice deep red that will blend in with the sheds.

While I was down the far end of the farm checking on feed conditions, I saw a black cat in the brush around the soak. This may be a relative of the tom that Finn killed. I thought it was Shadow at first, but it ran instead of coming over to say hi.

The feed situation is still balanced ready to go either way. The rain yesterday followed by the sun today has done the grass the world of good. The fertiliser I ordered went on on Thursday, and there was enough grass to hold it despite the heavy rain so it all dissolved and went into the ground. Robyn has said I can use her little dam paddock to put the cows in to rest the main paddock if the pasture is slow to recover. With any luck that will let me hay both the knoll paddock and the main paddock and put away a good amount of hay.

Here are the photos from the recent aurora event, I tested all the phones in search of a decent picture. I think most of the problem was operator error, but the best pics were on my drone phone. This one was the aurora over Robyn's farm.

And this one I think is a related phenomenon known as a STEVE. It is caused by the same solar wind as the aurora but the light comes from heating in the upper atmosphere.

On the jobs front, I received an email from Elders HR telling me that "Due to changes in the business this role will not be available until early 2025. We would still like to keep your application on file as it is still under consideration for this role, however we wanted to let you know that we may not have any movement for some time."

This is unusual, so I will call them on Monday to find out what is going on. I think there have been 34 applicants for the job at Muirs, so I won't hold my breath there. No word on the Council job or the work from home one. I found out that was advertised Australia wide so I've pretty much written that off.

Arfur at Ringarooma gave Geoff another duck in return for electrical work. I think we might start declining the ducks. Arfur is getting very old and his plucking skills are not improving. Plus we are not very skilled at cooking them and while I love well cooked duck meat, what we are producing tends to be dry and chewy. Might as well not waste them.

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.