8th October, 2023

Another gap, I need to get more focused on getting something down each evening.

The weather has been changeable, mostly dry but one day of rain. Which was snow down to 600m so nasty. But September was half the average rainfall, so it seems the drying up is starting.

I shifted Little Moo and Flora into the sheep shelter paddock as the cows are making a dent in the driveway grazing and she has a few teeth missing so could use the longer grass. A walk around the main paddock to clip grass off the fences has shown a need to get stock onto some of the smaller areas which are knee deep in grass. But who ? 

All animals need water, and I like mine to have shade and shelter. So do I set up a new alley to shelter and water and make them hit the deep grass, or do I open three areas and hope they wade into the longer stuff first. I bet I know how that will go ... so on Tuesday morning when I pull down the driveway fencing I will set up some alleys and get Annie and Flora onto the longer area. 

I should put Sorcha too, but I still battle with keeping calves in groups so they grow up with buddies, and my two calves need to be fed twice a day and introduced to muesli more effectively. Livestock tetris is something people with single age, single need herds never experience. Belle and Moose and Gizmo would be good up there too, if Belle wasn't in with the bull for the next three weeks.

The remaining pig has now ducked under the electric and is wandering the main paddock, so that's another reason to keep the two dairy calves close. The two beef ones have very attentive mothers to make sure a very large pig doesn't view them as potential dinner, but the bottle calves would be more vulnerable. The pig may have no such intentions, but I don't like courting danger. So Little Moo, Joey and Star will stay in the sheep shelter paddock for now.

I will try and set up the broody pen tomorrow too, though as a day off it's rapidly filling with "to do" list entries. I found an egg cache in the hay shed while I was moving the straw bales further back into the shed, so the dogs will have eggs with dinner for a while.

The job interview on Friday went well, I think. I should hear this coming week. The skin check in Launceston was clear. I'm on yearly checks now. And that afternoon we met Pete and Hardy and a couple of their friends for drinks and pizza at the Little River's Brewery. It was a long day, but I think a successful one.

Geoff picked up some green prawns on special and cooked a coconut milk soup with them for dinner tonight, I had planned on bacon from Leigh's pigs and eggs from our chooks, but we'll do that for lunch tomorrow now.

It looks like we'll be hosting veterinary students between November and February again. It takes some thinking to keep them busy and show them useful things, but it's worth trying to introduce young vets to rural practice as there is a real shortage of rural vets.