26th July, 2023

Big day. Massive day. Didn't get lunch til way late and was lucky to get breakfast.

The weather was pretty random, some drizzle, some sun, some wind, some cloud. Mostly dry, though, which enabled the big day.

So. It started with me getting up early to milk because I was to go to Launceston for a Dr's appointment. While I was milking I got a message saying my Dr was sick so the appointment was cancelled. Since I'd taken the day off to go down I was unamused, lost a day of leave for nothing. Turns out it was just as well.

Just as I was finishing up milking Leigh arrived to move hay around, because Bruce is going back to Robyn this weekend to clean out calf sheds ready for calving. We used Bessie to move a heap of round bales out of the loafing shed and stack them in the boat shed. Then he used Bruce to roll out a bale over the road and put one spare in the corner paddock. That left Bessie still in the loafing shed so I figured I'd build some ramps and bring her out tomorrow. 

Then just as Leigh left, Beefy arrived to mow the front and back lawns of the house yard. Quick scurry around ahead of him to move any obstacles, including rose prunings and sprinklers I'd forgotten I'd left out. And a conference about how best to deal with Toot, now that he's lost nearly all his front teeth as well as having arthritis in his front legs. Just as well he has free access to hay, as he won't be grazing with no teeth.

Then just as Beefy left, Phil Chapple arrived. I'd asked Phil to fix the hand brake on Bruce before he went back to Robyn as a thankyou for the loan. That went well and Bruce can now be parked without being turned off and left in gear. Phil went to look at Bessie's fuel leak so he'd know what it was when he came to do a service, and he decided to fix it today.

I had to quickly organise the ramps to get Bessie back out of the loafing shed and into the sunlight, another job I don't have to do tomorrow I guess ! He pulled the fuel pump apart and the culprit was an o ring on the kill switch bolt. With that fixed he found a washer to take some of the play out of the throttle cable, cut down a bit of foam to stop the oil bubbling out of the dip stick spout and tweaked the kill switch lever.

He then tightened all the loose bolts on the wheels and steering and took a list of all the bits waiting for the service (amp meter, brake lock, and manual fuel pump lever) along with the usual oil filter change etc. It was good to have her not dribbling diesel and she'll start so much better now that there will be fuel in the system to start with.

Then I hopped in the car to go and get the wheel from the quad bike that was in at the Suzuki dealer getting the tyre fixed. Put that back on and parked the quad in the shed so it wouldn't get rained on. Fed the chooks, put the still slightly damp washing in the dryer, threw the dishwasher on, and sat down to lunch at about 4pm.

Tomorrow Bryce the handyman comes to look at the doors for the new craft room. Once weatherproof doors are on I can start putting crafting gear down there. Going to the Breast Screen caravan on Friday. And then hopefully Daniel the fencer will come on Sunday and build a set of stairs to the silo (for easier access to the stored tubs) and hang some gates and put some fence posts in. Some weeks nothing seems to happen and some weeks are like everything is action stations.

Just as well I was here to co-ordinate all of it !

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