A lovely warm day with a light breeze.
Nothing really happening today, just some house cleaning, bill paying and a nap.
The two vet students here for a couple of days work experience on farm arrived tonight at about 11.45 pm. They came across on the Spirit of Tasmania, day sailing.
A fairly sticky day today, which improved no end when a breeze came up.
Birds have discovered the figs, and have picked the smaller ripe ones to eat on top of the posts of the tree guard. I picked the biggest ripe ones and ate them, one for breakfast and one for dessert tonight. I could get used to this. Had a nice dark red plum too. I wish the golden peach had fruited this year !
It occurred to me mid morning that I hadn't yet washed my work uniform. Luckily that breeze that came up combined with the heat and it was dry in time for work tonight.
Watering continues, it was nice to do the herb pots by the front door as the warmth brought the scents out and the breeze wafted it inside. I am still to identify the best spot to plant my jasmine. I know some people are allergic or sensitive to the smell, but I love it. Maybe an arch over the central path in the front yard ?
More days of wind and cloud, not too hot but the wind has been enough to kill the grass growing in the manure sitting atop the concrete in the cow yards. Shallow rooted, the grasses couldn't access enough soil to replace what the wind was stripping out, despite being rewatered every morning by the milking cleanup. A salutary lesson on the drying power of the wind.
Star was on heat on Sunday, she was the centre of attention and took a while to come up for milk. She's nearly six months old now, which is pretty standard for a jersey x friesian. Generally dairy cows are bred at 13 months to have their first calf at 2 years old, so she won't be going near a bull any time soon.
Annie has nearly halved in production, or nearly halved in what she's giving me anyway. There's still plenty for Joey and Star and the house, but I now take 2L a day instead of 4L every second day to keep their intake more level.
The sheep are now in the barnyard/sheep shelter paddock and have their own mineral pan. They are hanging about under the plum tree when it warms up, and graze mostly in the morning and afternoon. They sleep so soundly in the middle of the day that I nearly stepped over them while they were snoring today.
Rumour has it the guy with the zero turn mower will be here this week to mow the driveway area. Just about time too, a snake and I gave each other mutual heart attacks while I was setting up the watering system for the ciders. He bolted one way and I bolted the other.
I rolled up the electric fence at the far end of the farm, after making the classic mistake of leaving power off it. I'll have to take out some sections that have been chewed by the calves. They're like toddlers, everything goes in their mouths.
There's a nice crop of jerusalem artichokes, some potatoes and lots of comfrey in the raised beds at the cottage. A sweet potato may or may not get going, the zucchini and pumpkin succumbed to the randomness of the weather and the snails, and two tomatoes are flowering but may not ever get enough heat to bear much, as usual.
The chooks are still on a go slow, getting three eggs every two days. That's quite enough for us, people who we supply eggs to are missing out though.
I have applied for a job as an admin officer at a farm company in East Minestone Road. The office is roughly 2km from home, 2 mins drive. I am not sure of the pay rate and hours until I get an interview, so fingers crossed the rates and hours are good.
I am sitting at around 95.6kg, gradually moving downwards. I was under 95, but had a couple of days blowout with almost nothing but carbs, so I'm not surprised at the uptick. I was very tired and eating more for the comfort than the nutrition, so a little more attention to my habits will get me back on track.
Australia Day. Not particularly sunny or cloudy, but very, very windy. With a high wind chill factor. Tassie summer. Sigh.
I went and collected Annie and the calves from Robyn's paddock and split her two herefords off on the way. Now my two will have all milk and no pellets for the next while, which will be more economical. Belle's group and Annie's group are all in together now, and I will shift the sheep into the barnyard and sheep shelter paddock so they can continue to have the Bioworma.
Jaffa and her group across the road spent the day camped in the remains of Leigh's shed. It was a bit of a windbreak and I guess they were as over the wind as I was by the end of the day.
I started watering the cider apples today. They are on a better soil and their roots are deeper than the dessert apples, but all those apples draw moisture to build and eventually even they need some help.
The broody hen is on her third night in the pen and is still fluffing up and growling at me when I go to feed her. Grumpy old thing.
I did some investigation and found out that the red lantern bush is an Abutilon or "flowering maple" also commonly known as a "chinese lantern" or "chinese bellflower". There's some information on the genus on this link Abutilon . The one on the right of the first three photos looks like mine.
Another day of just about everything the BOM has to offer. No rain, though it did smell like it was coming in the evening.
I watered the silver birch, which needs a better sprinkler. The one I am using freezes up and I have no idea how long it's been watering just one patch. Did the fig too, and ate a lovely fresh ripe fig on the way back to the house.
I topped up the sheep minerals, they are eating the bioworma happily. I will have to be careful they don't overdose on the minerals. Perhaps have them side by side.
Robyn and I tried shifting the hereford calves back to her place but ended up with Annie and all five calves going for a run up her laneway. We got everyone back into the chicory paddock next door to my sheep shelter paddock and will worry about them tomorrow.
Here is a flower from the little bush in the side garden. I want to say lantern ? But I have no idea really. They hang down like a bell.
Reasonably breezy, but so steamy ! Headed up into the high 20s after lunch and when we hit 25 inside I turned the ac on at 21 and chilled the loungeroom for the dogs, kicking it up to 22 when they cooled off. Wonder how all those flock guardians in Qld and NSW are coping.
I would have moved the broodies to the broody pen early but it would have been pretty uncomfortable in there today. When I went to shift them once the temps dropped this evening there was only one actually camped. She should get 4 nights before it gets hot again.
Started watering again, especially the newly planted vines and the potted plants that dry out fast. I fertilised the succulents and noted that they probably need repotting before winter. I'll find a bag of cactus potting mix for them.
The hops are about to flower, they enjoy getting plenty of water on their feet and heat on their leaves. The passionfruit are still with me, the snails seem to have let up.
The sheep (or the calves) ate all the mineral with the biowormer, I'll top that up again tomorrow.
The back bedroom and office are now ready for the vet students that have booked in for a farm placement at the beginning of February. I haven't had confirmation that they are coming, but if they do the rooms are ready. If they don't, they are ready for guests.
Bit of a bleh day weatherwise. Not alot of sun or breeze.
I discovered that the dose of Bioworma per sheep would be 70g, or half a cup. Definitely too much to smear on a slice of bread, I mixed it in with their mineral blend and they seemed to find that interesting.
Still working the apple trees, the apples are getting bigger faster than I can thin so it's a matter of targeting the most bent branches first. The cattle are ecstatic.
The chooks have either gone on a mid summer break or there is a nest I can't find. I think it's a 50/50 bet.
Had a relatively quiet day as I returned to work that night.
Another day that started sunny and warm and went to cloudy and cold.
I returned the whippersnipper/brush cutter to Mitre 10 as it ceased working 20 minutes into it's first use. The manager will talk to the maker and get back to me. While I was there I picked up more fertiliser and did the fruit trees, veges and gardens.
I checked out the fig fruit while I was there and ate one small fruit, it was sweet but it wasn't dripping syrup. Here's a photo of another one I picked for identification. These two figs were quite soft, but not large. There are larger figs still on the little tree. From reading I think it's a "brown turkey". I might look for a "black mission" to plant as well, they seem to be the best ones for desserts.
The huon crab apple tree is bearing well, it's first crop. The pink lady is suffering a bit from coddling moth, but the granny smith is looking good.
I opened the Bioworma bucket, that was very well sealed and I think I nearly gave myself a hernia doing it. It's a fungus that kills barbers pole worms and is harmless to animals and soil. I will try feeding it to the sheep mixed into a paste and smeared on bread. It smells a little like aniseed, but it's mixed with livamol, which is a vitamin supplement often fed to horses and it may be designed to be attractive to them, many horse treats contain licorice.
On the sale of the 75 acres front we are advised that the Lands Dept has chosen one of the new plans as one they will accept for registration and it has been sent to Dorset Council for signing. They only took a few days last time so hopefully they will be as quick this time. Then off to Lands for registration. Is that a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel ?
A thunderstorm arrived suddenly at 3.30pm after a sticky morning with very little wind. I went down to the back door on the first roll of thunder only to find Poppy had already beaten me round to the front door. A finely tuned instrument.
I fertilised the citrus trees, but have run out of fruit and veg fertiliser so will have to get some big bags of that ready to do everything. At least the citrus and the craft room pots will have it watered in by this fall.
I blocked all the holes in the spare fuel tank with electrical tape and plastic pots (why are there so many holes into a fuel tank ??) and moved it into the back of Geoff's shed. One more pass to make sure anything in there belongs there and I can hit the broom and duster and start setting up. There are so many containers and "that could be handy" items in there already I need a shelf just for them.
I finally got a chance to make my pastries, a go-to recipe that I use because it works every time. Except this time. Massive fail.
The pastry got so wet and sticky as soon as it defrosted it was like handling snot, there was way too much filling, the rum and lemon flavoured filling tastes like disinfectant, the rose and vanilla tastes like sugar, the blackberries are sour and the strawberries are tasteless, and they stuck to every surface from the bench to the cutting board to the baking tray to the cooling racks.
I tried to use some extra buttery puff pastry, was it too fragile ? I used spreadable cream cheese because I don't have anything that will blend normal cream cheese, but I froze the spreadable in blobs so that it wouldn't become too liquid by the time the pastry was cooked. Turns out the blobs were twice the size I needed. And it seems that we must have close to 100% humidity here today, so the moisture was just wicking into the pastry as it thawed. Sigh.
Another cool day, not alot of wind and the odd shower. Not a good drying day, just as well the old dryer still works.
I cut another weedy shrub out of the poor raspberry patch, now the raspberry canes can fill out the gaps. Threw a bit of fertiliser on the pots down at the craft room and then humped all the boxes of electrical gear out of the craft room and up to Geoff's shed. Cleared a heap of floor space. Next I need to block the holes on the replacement fuel tank for the red ute and get that out to some other storage space.
I picked three buckets of apples off the cider trees for the cows. Those ciders bear so heavily, it's just amazing. When we are ready to make cider I think I might need a couple of drums. I bandicooted some new potatoes out of the vege patch, will roast those tomorrow night.
I also put out minerals for Annie's herd and Belle's gang. The poddy calves all have ringworm so I figured the minerals would help them throw that off, plus it won't hurt the lactating cows any to have minerals supplemented. I boosted Annie's ration by half a scoop of oats as I think she's just starting to drop weight, and it's always easier to keep weight on than try and get a lactating cow back up once they've lost it.
The cattle across the road were all up at the water troughs so I took some licorice over and gave Jack a treat and scratched Sorcha's back, checked on all my critters. Fat and happy.
I dressed the hot spots on Poppy and Finn, I think the humidity and damp has made it hard for their coats to dry through. I cut up an old sock to slip over Finn's front leg where there's a sore he's licking at
In the middle of the day I put Great British Bakeoff on and waded through some admin while Rosie the Roomba tootled around the kitchen and spooked the cats.
Another idea from the internet, the corner shelves alternate so you can put really tall books on the double height shelves. When I build my new house the bookshelves will be built in like this, partly because I have always felt nervous about my free standing bookshelves falling on me while trying to get at the top books. Plus it feels more luxury to have built in book shelves.
Back to sunny and hot. Poppy invited herself in to lay under the fan.
I sorted out all the cardboard and paper that is being stored for the burner, loose stuff into chaff bags and household paper into mesh holding rings. I moved all the soft plastic chaff and feed bags into the shearing shed where mice can check them out without messing up the dairy. Geoff loaded up the wheelie bins in the trailer and will do a tip run tomorrow arvo.
Annie had a bleed off today. Cows have a show of blood about three days after being on heat. It's hard to track a cow that isn't in with alot of other cows as there isn't much mounting, so the bleed off is something that can at least be marked on the calendar.
Abe's scrotum is coming away, the rubber ring has cut off almost all the flesh and something has bumped it. It's annoying him, but not a problem otherwise and will be gone in a day or two. I sprayed him with Repelex to keep flies away from it.
I checked all the sheds for eggs, as no-one is laying in the chook house at the moment. I found nests in the hay shed and implement shed, but no caches. There are three broodies at least.
The electricity authority will be swapping our house meter over for a smart meter, I'll have to sit down and work out how to be most efficient with the new off peak tariffs.
The curtains on the bedroom window were getting mould on them so I took them down and washed them, they came up really well, bright and fresh.
Dinner with Shane and Juliet and their family at the Thai restaurant at Anabels. Not quite the caliber of Lime Thai back in Dubbo before we left (the new Lime Thai is not as good) but better than Scottsdale has seen.
This idea was on the internet, I think it's a great idea for stairs or a deck on a farm house.
I checked on the 75 acre cattle before the next falls of rain, which clocked in at 18mm and temps low enough to run the heater.
Beginning the next stage of the preparations I moved the tubs and bottles and bags out of the craft room and into the silo. Once I clear out the odds and ends that have crept back in for random storage I can give it a sweep and dust and start arranging the furniture and stuff on the shelves.
Lunch with Robyn today at the new place "Ferns", which is old Rhubaba under new management. The service was very disorganised and the food wasn't great. I'll give them a couple of months to sort things out then try again.
I dropped in the fill my liraglutide script, have to pick it up tomorrow as it needs to be brought up from Launceston.
The rain and high winds didn't come in last night. There was a two minute shower at about 7am, then nothing until mid morning, which then set in for 16mm. Saves watering for a couple of days.
Rosie the Roomba did the kitchen today, she's quite efficient on the smooth surface, and put herself back on the charging dock when she'd run out of power. I reckon a tour every second day will make a big difference in the kitchen.
Annie is dropping production or Abe is taking more milk, not sure which and either is equally likely at this stage of the lactation. Calves go through growth spurts and their milk consumption surges with it. If it keeps up Robyn's two hereford calves will go back to her when the pellets run out next time. The extra month on milk has helped them catch up to their herd mates. I will just have Joey and Star on the milk then, and can probably stop feeding them pellets until they are old enough to wean completely.
Kelly and I were hoping to have lunch at the new patisserie, but it was packed out. So we went down to the Beehive and had toasted fingers and chai lattes there. It has a good atmosphere. Lunch with Robyn tomorrow will be at the old Rhubaba now Ferns. It will be our first meal there with the new owners.
The back bedroom is now ready for the visiting vet students, and I can move onto setting up the bed in the office. Two together is a little inconvenient, but some of the youngsters prefer to travel together.
I put a beef brisket into the slow cooker at lunchtime and we had that for dinner. Roast veges in the air fryer. Tomorrow we can sop up some of the gravy with garlic bread for lunch.
Ok, it's been a bit of a haul. Five long shifts with plenty of hard yards, but I am now on a week off.
What's been happening ? I finished painting the faces of the doors in the craft room and now have to take them off their hinges to do the edges, once the paint is dry enough not to stick to whatever I sit them on for that job.
The hops that have survived the winter are now growing, two varieties are well up and already growing across the wires, two are coming back after a snail attack, as are the passionfruit. The cherry and pear slugs are making a mess in the orchard, next year I will paint the tree trunks with lime or chalk and see whether that stops them as advertised.
We have had some rain, and are supposed to get another fall tonight. There is plenty of green grass under the dried long grass, but I need to get that knocked down so the seeds can rejuvenate the pasture. I am still thinning the apples so they don't break the tree branches, two buckets every two days to the cows and sheep.
The fig has figs on it, I need to google when they ripen and how to tell. The plums are getting close to ripe and I should be able to take new spuds soon. I pruned the rosemary and bay tree by the front window. The bay leaves smell wonderful, I am thinking of ways to use them about the farm, maybe hang them in rooms that need a freshen. I also took out the cotoneaster in the raspberry patch and pruned back a bush that was making access to a tap quite a scramble.
Rosie the Roomba has proved to be as horrifying to the cats as any other vacuum cleaner, life is hard. I am preparing the back rooms for the next pair of vet students that are coming on farm placement. Also working my way through the house cleaning and cleaning out the fridges and freezers a bit a day.
We've had our covid boosters and hair cuts. Not related, but just ticking off a few things. Took Shadow for her vaccinations, she'd been on NEAST's account so I didn't get a reminder last year for her, so she has to have the double kitten vaccine again and then go to yearly boosters. At least she's been transferred to my name now so that should be fixed.
Having lunch with Kelly tomorrow and Robyn on Thursday, and I think dinner with Shane and Juliet on Friday night.
My new mini drone has arrived, both the controller and hand set have been charged but I have to await the arrival of a phone from Aimee to use it. The phone interface has to have an operating system of 7.0 or above (mine is 6.0) and RAM of 2GB (Geoff's is 1GB). So I am contenting myself with reading the instruction manual.
I continue with the lyraglutide, starting weight 97.8kg and now jiggling at just below 96kg. That's in a month at 0.6mg, slower weight loss is easier to keep off so I haven't done the staged increase up to 3.0mg even though it seems I would be losing weight faster and more satisfyingly. To be fair, nearly a kilo a fortnight isn't that bad anyway.
Sarge brought in a huge rat last night, nothing slowing him down.
I think that's it.
Spent a good 4 1/2 hours with the mobile groomer today. Poppy took 3 hours and Finn took 1 1/2. They both are now free of matts, squeaky clean and clipped underneath to help stay cool in summer and around the back end for cleanliness. And they smell a heap better too.
POPPY
FINN
A sunny day with a nice temperature and a gentle breeze.
I picked yet more apples for the cows and sheep, I think I'll be thinning apples right through to ripening, as the apples get larger I'll have to thin again to save the branches. Lucky critters. One year I might organise a pair of pig slips and we can have apple and milk fed pork.
A day of making phone calls and ordering things and booking appointments, it will be good if I am on top of the admin before my week off, clearing time for doing whatever I feel like.
I bought a honeygold mango home from work. Years ago you could walk into a supermarket and know instantly they had mangos by the smell. Now they are all only half ripe and barely tasty, hopefully this one is the least worst.
The drizzle finally settled in and we had about 8mm on and off all day. Enough to hold off watering for a day or two.
I thinned another three buckets of cider apples and a bucket of granny smith, and cut off a branch of the granny smith that had broken when the rain took it just that bit too far over the weight threshold. The cows and sheep are loving the baby apples.
I spent most of the day doing six months worth of filing. I made a very big dent in it and sorted out last financial year's paperwork from this current one and put it away. I still have the usual random instruction manuals and letters and calendars to sort through, and all the tax/accounting pile. With the SMSF and payment plans and BASs there's alot going on there.
I also arranged for covid boosters next week, using the new polyvalent vaccine. We dodged a bullet after having lunch with Shane and Juliet on christmas day then finding out they had covid, so I'd like to keep the immunity topped up with the exposure at the supermarket.
The forecast afternoon rain didn't materialise until well into the small hours, and the forecast dropped dramatically overnight. From 60mm over two days to 10mm. Nice work BOM. I planted the new hop up by the grapevine based on expected rain, so I'll have to keep the water up to him. I'll do the jasmine next week. I trimmed the dead stuff off all the succulents so they are looking nice.
I folded the six loads of washing I crammed through yesterday (because it was going to rain) and picked two buckets of apples off the cider trees. I am thinning the crop by two thirds as the branches are already bending. I don't know why the cider apples grew so much faster and crop so much heavier than the dessert apples. I shared one bucket between Belle's herd and the sheep. Tomorrow I'll start splitting them three ways, including Annie's herd.
Another coat of paint on the back for the front craft room door, folded all the accumulated feed bags and collected the eggs. It looks like there are four chooks laying, after a heap went broody. They will come back on the lay soon so I will have to keep alert for new nests.
I took some nice t bone steaks out to defrost last night and they are beautifully marbled, even the ones Geoff cooked to his taste (well done) were really tender.
Sarge got a good brush, he's shedding because of the spike in hot and humid weather and I got a heap of fur off him. I did the other two but they are able to keep themselves groomed (he's missing part of his tongue) and there wasn't much on them.
It was a little steamy today, with almost no breeze at all. About mid afternoon the wind picked up and dropped the temps nicely and I was able to dry four and a half out of six loads of washing I did today.
Roda came in and cleaned and vacuumed while I sorted and tidied and the house is now looking better for my first three day weekend in ages. I did another coat on the outside face of the back door of the craft room, I will do a coat on the inside tomorrow if it rains.
I did the washing today because it's supposed to close in by lunch time tomorrow and rain quite heavily. Geoff speculates that an el nino event will now have to be defined a bit differently, it seems climate change is making them hotter but not necessarily dryer down south. North west Victoria is flooding again. Alot of farmers here are getting a second cut of fodder, but are doing it as silage again as the regrowing grass and clover are green and juicy.
The hops that are left are growing the best they ever have, with two of them already growing along the overhead wires. The other two are quite small still, having been hit by snails and have to start from scratch again. The black passionfruits are kicking off finally with the extra heat and water.
Young Suzie (aka Shredder) decided that it was even more fun to demolish a paper bag from the inside.
All ok around the place. The bloke with the zero turn mower will probably do us next week. I think I will organise for the boys to come back and mow the front and back lawns again next week too, after the rains that are forecast for Sunday and Monday. I think I'll get them to help me prune the huge rosemary tree and the bay as well.
I caught up with Jason this morning, he's going to follow up with the surveyor on Monday. He mentioned that the spray company with the helicopter that did my thistle and blackberry spraying (and everyone else in the district) has become a no show after being sold. Apparently there are a number of people in the district that have now set up with spray drones. While they are around $40k to set up, a spray rig for a tractor can cost even more and a drone can go where a tractor can't.
I have the next three and a half days off, first priority is getting the washing done tomorrow because that looks like the very short window of opportunity with the rains coming. It might be a chance to bake those danishes I've been planning.
I saw these on the internet yesterday, I wonder what they used for the legs ?
Just normal summer temps again today. It was very overcast and heavy, and the smell of rain was in the air, but nothing further on that front. At least all that watering I had done opened up the soil to receive some of that heavy rain.
I was a bit late to milking as Leigh's pig was out again. She went for a walk down the highway and then was either put back on the 75 or made her own way under the fence and down to the dam for a mud bath. Either way, Leigh was done with the risk of her getting hit by a car and finally got round to putting her in the freezer.
Here's an item I found on the internet. It appealed to me.
The day started off quite hot, I think it reached 27. We had both dogs inside this time, Poppy just walked in behind me and headed upstairs. I guess she knew what she wanted.
Then at about 2pm getting ready to go to work I looked out a south facing window and couldn't see the farm buildings next door. The temp dropped 10 degrees in about 15 minutes and the rain came in like a bear. It was quite localised though, South Springfield got 67mm, we got 56mm, Scottsdale got 25mm, Jetsonville got 12mm and Bridport and Nabowla got nothing.
We had a leak in the roof at woolies, sheer volume of rain overran the gutters.
A sunny day, reached 25, which is hot for most in Tassie. Poor Finn needed the air conditioner as his furry coat makes it hard to cool down inside where there isn't much of a breeze. Outside there was a steady wind, getting pretty high by evening. Tomorrow is due to be 27 and that's going to make many complain, but there should be a cool change and some rain by evening.
Today I did another coat of paint on the front door of the craft room, cleaned out the air hose on the milking machine and thinned the fruit on the pink lady apple. Geoff cut out the cotoneaster that had taken root in Calab's back yard, that will have to be burned.
Sarge had his annual dental check and clean, as he doesn't eat hard food any more to clean his teeth. Tayla across the road brought over some wallaby bones for the dogs, Finn claimed a tail and is likely to defend that for the next week.
I made up the filling for the pastry danishes I am hoping to cook. I am using spreadable cream cheese as I don't have a mixmaster to beat the ordinary cream cheese. In order to not have it melt and run off when being baked it's now in the freezer in two batches of 16 blobs each.
One has vanilla and rose, and the other has coconut, rum and lemon with chocolate drops. The vanilla and rose ones will have strawberry crunch sprinkled over them. When it comes time to cook the pastries the vanilla and rose ones will have berries added and the coconut, rum and lemon will have mango.
An overcast day, but no rain. A very pleasant temperature but the UV was quite tingly.
I went on with the watering, and decided where to plant the new hop and the jasmine. The new hop will go along the fence on the highway boundary, between the bottlebrush and the grape. The jasmine will go down by the dairy where it can grow over the apron and chiller to the craft room.
We stacked all the hayshed gates and the new six foot gate waiting to be hung on pallets by the hay shed, that will keep them out of the dirt and stop them rusting. I sprayed all the thistles I'd found during the last couple of days, only to find another one the hard way when I was fixing a leak in the hops water line.
I did another coat on the inside of one of the craft room doors, they're looking good. I'll have to take them off their hinges to do the edges, and take the handles off to seal around them.
I also did four base maps for marking up barley grass control areas and tracking which areas are locked up for seeding each year. I will also use them for fencing planning and water line layouts.
