More sun ! Yay ! It's amazing what I am accomplishing on these nicer days. The uplift in morale is palpable. Helped along by the fact that I don't have to work on this three day weekend.
I planted a lovely red flower out the front and weeded a big section of the garden on the front fence. I reckon I can finish that bit tomorrow if the job at Robyn's (helping her with weighing and genomic testing of her yearlings) is finished before lunch. I also cut back the two wild roses that were trying to take over another section of the garden.
I gave Finn a good brush and got rid of a heap of mats, more brushing needed. Poppy needs it more but she has to be dry to brush. If tomorrow is sunny too she may not get so wet from the grass and I can give her coat a go.
I also put another random freezer poultry in the slow cooker, using the recipe that failed to compensate for a freezer burned bird last week. This week worked fine, the meat was tender in a nice thick gravy that lacked much flavour. So we hit it with the lancashire relish and worcestershire sauce and some bbq sauce and Geoff's secret ingredient, a slug of keens curry. The additions worked well and the dish is a success.
I cleared and cleaned another section of the dairy room, stowing the cleaned gear in the new cabinets. While they were drying I emptied and sorted two baskets of brushes and other grooming gear, combining them into a better suited one for storing in the old chiller.
The new milking machine is working smoothly and I have gotten into a good routine for setting up and cleaning. It's faster than the old machine and the claw (the bit that holds the four teat cups) cleans out completely with the CIP (clean in place) setup whereas the old machine had a metal claw that had a tendency to hold milk residues in the screw threads.
Clean in place is where you suck buckets of cleaning stuff and rinse through the machine as it is set up. Dairies use this in their systems. Some portable machines are CIP and some you have do take apart and clean in a sink.
The other big bonus is the lid is held on by suction rather than clamped by the handle. The old gasket was too thin and losing pressure and the new gasket was too thick and dense for my small hands to clamp. It was really this issue that prompted the purchase of the new machine.
When I have finished cleaning the dairy room I will clear out the dairy and karcher everything. Now that the starlings have been meshed out of all their holes they stay away from the dairy and I can get rid of all their poop marks with some hope of it staying clean.
Annie was quite low in weight when I weaned her calf, Ernie. He was nearly as tall as her and 9 months old so he was well due. She's putting condition on now and would be lovely and shiny if she didn't tend to lay in mud. I've done the research on the various feeds I have access to, to find out their protein and carb percentages. The saying goes "protein in the bucket, carbs on the back" so I've selected the lowest protein and highest carb mix. 1 part horse & pony pellets, 1 part crushed barley, 1 part crushed maize and 9 parts lucerne & oaten chaff mix.
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