9th July, 2023

The weather today was substantially nicer. Still VERY windy, but the sun was out until early afternoon and all the critters were enjoying it. Including me.

I moved Flora and Little Moo into the sheep shelter paddock as Flora is losing teeth (she's about 15) and Little Moo has back problems. They will be good company for each other and that paddock has its own little shelter. They and Jack are the last of the six cattle brought down from Dubbo. Big Moo's back went last winter and she was put to sleep, Seika went with her calf to a new home and Ziggy fell down a ravine in a freak accident last year.

Little Moo has a date with the butcher at the end of August (he's 13) as his back issues are now making his life harder and because we can't trim his feet (lifting them hurts his back) his feet are getting over grown and affecting his movement as well. This is a vicious cycle because it changes the angles of his legs which in turn makes his back worse. So in the end it becomes a welfare issue.

I tried a new brand of chook pellets, but I have found it to be dusty and it won't run properly in the feeder so it's back to SFD from Nutrien. You'd think a chook pellet was a chook pellet, but apart from the ingredients even the size and texture make a difference in how useful it is in a free range situation. I use a rat and small bird proof feeder so the chooks can come and go and still have feed in nasty weather, so the pellets have to be nutritious, palatable and free flowing.

We are getting an egg a day, from one or the other of two chooks still laying. Given that's it's midwinter that's not so bad. As the days get longer more will start laying and I will have to start actively hunting for eggs. They are getting extra protein whenever I have leftovers or out of date stuff, and I will start making clabber from some of Annie's spare milk soon. This will help them feather out properly and prepare for egg laying.

I put an ad up on Gumtree to get rid of the old bain marie in the sheep shelter paddock while the glass is still intact. Free to someone who might like to use it for starting seedlings or for passive heating.

The longer it stays there the sooner some critter will step on the glass. If it doesn't go within a fortnight I'll scrap it for safety sake.

Found a leak on the hot water system this week, by kneeling down to get something out in the back section and getting wet knees. It seems to be the pressure adjustment valve that makes the mains pressure stable. Geoff has tried to tighten the fitting but it's still dripping so that means shutting off the water and taking it apart and resetting everything. Sigh.