31st March, 2024

The weather today was pretty random, but when Thomas came over at 11am to help with some farm chores it was pretty hot and muggy.

We visited with the cows for a while, then took the dry feed block over the road to them. Then we did the major job for the day, rolling up and storing all the water pipe that had ended up in a pile next to the silo. Cows walking over it caused some kinks and squashed bits, but I'll worry about that when I go to use it. Now that it's all hanging in coils there shouldn't be any further damage.

After that we moved the little freezer from out the back of the craft room onto the covered area next to the dairy. I'll be storing feed bags in that. Then we moved Pete's fancy ladder over to the apple trees and I picked everything I could reach. Then we moved it around further and I'll pick again tomorrow.

Beaux from across the highway dropped over to return some of Geoff's tools that he had left at the dairy Beaux works at. He had some calf feeders in the back of his ute for sale, so I bought those, much cheaper than getting them new from the feed store. They're a bit old and sun dried, but they should do a couple of seasons each.

Kelly dropped over and swapped a pumpkin for a bag of rhubarb, and I sent Thomas home with a carton of eggs for Juliet. The artichoke flowers looked dramatic against the clouds this afternoon.

30th March, 2024

Still no rain, a hot one today. A nice breeze though.

I had an early shift, which always throws me out. Annie wasn't happy when I drove out without feeding her. Nor were the sheep for that matter, they look forward to their half bucket of apples each day.

It was pretty busy at work, but we had plenty of staff for a change and they really could have done without me. At least it was Saturday rates.

As soon as I got home I fed Annie, did the sheep, put on a couple of loads of washing, emptied the dishwasher and put the sprinkler on the front lawn, did the egg hunt, fed the chickens and cleaned up the kitchen. Then I dropped some pastries and the five teat calf feeder up to Robyn and had a forty minute nap.

Annie's bad quarter is now soft and normal temp, and what is coming out is normal milk. I don't know if there's not much because Abe is drinking again, she's not letting down, or the quarter has largely dried off. Time will tell.

29th March, 2024

Between the mastitis and Easter at work it's been another busy week. The weather has been cool and dry, I'm still watering but stretching the rotation out a little because it's not so hot. The forecast is for rain on Monday and Tuesday, but we shall see.

Annie is doing well, she gradually ate more and more and her demeanor improved and what was coming out of the quarter improved until she is now marching in for breakfast, cleaning it all up and eating hay happily. I am still milking out what I can each morning, but it's now just about back to milk.

I weighed up whether to put out a round of hay or silage, then noticed how much feed is across the road while I was checking on Jaffa and her group. So Annie and Belle and the rest are now over there too. They may as well stay there until settlement and save me a couple of bales of hay. Annie comes back over each morning for breakfast and milking that quarter, then back on the 75. She seems to be finding some mud to wade in because I had to wash her udder the last two days.

I am still wading through paperwork for the settlement. The pre settlement checks triggered a land tax assessment because there was rental data for the farm, suggesting I wasn't living here. I had a phone interview with the land tax investigator and advised that there were two cottages on the place. They asked for some documents, which I sent off, and they determined that there was no land tax liability because I had lived there the whole time and the area of land covered by the other cottage was below the threshold for it to be considered.

The groomer came and did Poppy and Finn. Last time Poppy took 3 hrs and Finn 1 1/2. This time Poppy was only 1 1/2 and Finn was 45 min. They both smell good and look like fluffy clouds, but the important part is that the grooming will help prevent hot spots and matting.

Work was madness in the week coming up to Easter. Easter Thursday is bigger than Christmas eve for the shop. This year we did $176,000, which is a record. We are all exhausted. We were closed today and I have a shift tomorrow, the Thomas is coming to do more farm work on Sunday, and then I am spending Monday doing as little as possible. Especially if it actually rains.

I picked some tomatoes from the vege garden, and rainbow chard is growing nicely. It looks like we have one pumpkin and the jerusalem artichokes are flowering.

We went around to Pete's for drinks and nibbles with Juliet, Shane, Sally and Mark. I made danishes using the more stable puff pastry and they turned out well this time. I think I could have added more of the cream cheese filling, but I did strawberries with chocolate, blueberries with biscoff, mulberries with caramel and mangoes with strawberry crunch.

24th March, 2024

I was a bit later doing the cows yesterday morning, but immediately noticed Annie had a swollen right front quarter. Locked her in and sat down with a bucket and she was full of what looked like melted butter and white snot. Looking at the symptoms, including looking miserable, being off food and walking slowly, I figure we have e coli mastitis.

By the time the quarter blows up the bug is already dying off. It's the toxins from the die off that are making her feel crappy. So there's no point in antibiotics, it's all supportive care and making sure she eats.

So, I milked her out four times yesterday, offered a small square of grass hay, her normal chaff and grains, apples and milk arrowroot biscuits. She ate slowly and not much and all and didn't drink. She turned down the apple and the biscuits, though her udder was a little less swollen each time. 

While at work last night I picked up kunzea cream, which is supposed to be good for pain relief and good against bacteria and inflammation. I rubbed that into her udder at the last milking.

This morning she came in voluntarily, still ate slowly but ate four times as much as last night. Still milking out fluid but there were no goobers today. I rubbed in more kunzea cream.

I offered her warm molasses water and she drank a bucket and half of that, and ate a packet of hobnob golden oat biscuits. She wanted back out with the herd so I let her out, and she went and ate some silage. I picked up a bale of lucerne hay from Scott Auton and offered it in afternoon when I brought her into the barn yard with Abe for the night. 

In the afternoon she finally ate all of her meal, drank some more molasses water, snacked on the lucerne hay and settled on fine meadow hay. Milk is starting to come back in her bad quarter, it's all looking good.

This is all that's left in her feed tub

 Tasting the lucerne hay

  Sharing with her calf, Abe

Home grown hay is best

22nd March, 2024

It's been much cooler, as if someone flicked a switch. I'm going to slow the watering rotation down as evaporation is lower.

I voted yesterday, one thing off the list. Dropped some easter eggs in to Siobhan and had a cuppa. Picked up dog tablets today, bought a lazy susan for the craft room and picked up a parcel from the post office, which is pointy mats to screw to posts for the cows to scratch on.

My first hoop to jump through has already arrived, and it's right out of left field. The Land Tax office supplies a search to buyers on settlement that there isn't a land tax debt attaching to the sold land. For some reason I have been picked for an audit. 

This means that I need to provide land use information from 2019 to now to prove that I have correctly not needed to pay land tax as the farm is my primary place of residence and has been used for primary production. This has to be provided quickly enough to allow them to provide the land tax search for settlement. If not, settlement can't happen. No-one saw that one coming, they've only had 6 years to do this ... I suppose I should be happy that it happened at this end of the 21 days and not two days before settlement was due.

The power is going out in the Scottsdale area on Monday, to allow TasNetwork to fix a pole problem. Woollies has a huge generator in the car park now that will supply power to the main area of Scottsdale, but we will be down. While fueling up the  quad and the tractor we also dragged out our little generator and fueled it up too. We tested it and took it up to the house and it will supply some power for the day. It won't run a kettle, but will run a fridge or microwave, so I will have it plugged into the fridge and just use the microwave for cuppas.

Billie and I swapped produce today, I gave her apples and eggs and she gave me tomatoes, rhubarb and zucchinis. I gave onions to Pete and to Juliet. Kelly is bringing pumpkins and I will share the rhubarb with her. Pete also gave us a pumpkin and Arfa from Ringarooma paid for some electrical work with another duck. The black economy is thriving.

The verandah at Pete's place, plans are for drinks and dinner on Good Friday.

20th March, 2024

Cold ! All the windows had condensation on them. The wind was chilly and the sun was only sporadic. Yesterday's rain was a grand total of 1mm. Today has had a couple of sprinkles, enough to add to the wind chill and not enough to make anything happy. It was snowing in alot of the higher places around Tassie, I was rather hoping for a longer autumn !

I've finished cleaning out the spilled hay in the boatshed so the feeding decisions go to "hay or silage" and "which paddock to put it out in". I don't know why this is causing me so much hassle to decide, none of the options are any harder than the others... Or maybe that's why. In the end I went with silage, towing a bale up to cowmahal and putting a hay ring around it. The cows will have a very full belly tonight, which will help with keeping warm for the calves and Annie, who is lighter than I would like.

I went down to the post office and had my ID form done, which they told me will be sent straight to the solicitor, so no need for a drive to Launceston. Down to the chemist to fill a script, pick up some needles and a sharps container and find a bottle of lysine.

Then to Phil's bottle shop to buy a nice bottle of wine, settled on a yellowtail brand "Jammy Red". Dropped some onions off to Pete, have a bag for Juliet too.

Notified my accountant (who will be tidying up the SMSF) and the bank of the date of settlement, 9th April. Now to wait for hoops to jump through as efficiently as possible.

Someone posted a recipe for fried scones on facebook today. It's funny how random stuff hits you in the feels. I miss Dad, fried scones was one of his things. Today would have been good fried scone weather.

 Towing the bale of silage

A hitch hiker

Wrap and net removed

A ring around the bale

And happy cows

19th March, 2024

It has showered on and off all day, but I doubt we got anything near the 10 - 20 mm forecast.

Mostly the same things I do every day, feed the cows and the sheep and the chooks. Didn't have to water any plants at least. Geoff dropped an invoice for electrical work off to Jason and came back with a couple of boxes of freshly picked onions.

I did alot of admin, ticking almost a dozen things off my to do list. And we had some electrical invoices paid so I paid a batch of bills as well. Last thing before going to work the solicitor handling the sale of the 75 acres sent me a bunch of forms to fill in because a new law came in on the 7th March. Yet another thing that has is a hassle because this has dragged on so long.

I need to send a copy of my rates notice and a form giving them consent to act on my behalf. And go to the post office and do a whole process with my birth certificate, drivers license and medicare card to get a photo taken and proof of identity before the lands office will allow me to transact property. I think it's easier to get a passport ! Then it takes a week to get the "identity report" sent back to me, and I have to get that to the solicitor. It might be worth the drive to Launnie to hand that over rather than risk it getting lost in the mail.

And the big news that got them acting on the identification and consent forms ..... drumroll.... settlement of the sale of the 75 acres will happen in 21 days ! This means that the land office has registered the plan and we are on the final leg of the journey. I am sure there will  be a heap more admin to do, especially around the tax office and the SMSF, but the plan registration was the last big hurdle. Assuming the post office ladies decree me as me.

18th March, 2024

Another day of forecast rain that didn't materialise. At least a breeze and cooler temps.

I fed the cows another lot of hay out of the boatshed, I think there is another days worth in there from the nearly eaten bales. Another dry feed block out for the cows and I gave the sheep the half eaten block in their paddock. They got 2/3 of a bucket of apples and the cows got 2 buckets. I ate one of the king david apples, I think I can start picking those on the weekend.

Robyn sent down the figures for Gizmo, Greenhams paid $1300 for him and she took that off what I owe her. That's down to $500 now, not far to go. I contacted John Rogers about Flora, her knees are bothering her more and more and I think I will have to make a decision for her before winter really bites. He and his wife were very impressed by the meat from Little Moo, so I thought I'd offer them Flora, as it would be a waste to just bury her.

While I was at Elders picking up the dry feed block and some calf pellets I had a conversation with the admin officer about work there. She suggested accounts payable positions, as many of them work from home. I don't know how often those come up, but that sounds like something I could do. As opposed to accounts receivable which is really debt collection and not something I think I would be good at.

I had a message from someone in NSW who was looking for straws of semen from Hawthorne Grove Zeus, a jersey bull from a couple of generations ago. My straws were with Ross Pedrana at Dubbo so I directed them there, and it turns out Ross is still holding 9 of them, so I agreed to sell them since the chances of getting them down here are remote.

17th March, 2024

We had the tiniest of sprinkles this morning, forecast rain not materialising again.

Thomas came back again and we did more fencing and hay moving. I connected up the soak charger and fixed up the silage fence. I am still turning over what pastures to stock and what to lock up. Jaffa and her mob were up at the top of the 75 acres so I visited with them and handed out biscuits.

I cut up the box of tomatoes from the Amish and put them in bags in the freezer, did a couple of loads of washing, gave the sheep half a bucket of apples and waded through a couple of admin tasks, including an NLIS cattle ear tag audit. Hmmm, I was flat out all day but it doesn't sound like much on paper.

This is the view across the Brid Valley from the knoll paddock to Jason's farm. That slice of green on the top of the hill is where he is irrigating, and is a reminder of what the area normally looks like.

And this is what my farm looks like at the moment, photo looking the other way from the one above.

16th March, 2024

A couple of big nights at work, didn't feel like working on the blog when I got home.

The weather has been cooler, slight breeze, but the UV is still way up there.

Still no sign of rain, today I noted some of the short grass on the knoll paddock was purple, which is a response to frost usually. That is bad, in that if we get early frosts the grass will go dormant before it can respond to any autumn rain, and there will be no grass growth to go into winter with. Hopefully it's a stress response to lack of water and we get rain before the frosts are too hard.

The red clay is also cracking wide open, which most people think is bad. But it means that instead of any rain running off like a terracotta tile, it will run into the cracks and filter into the soil. Organic matter also goes into the cracks and gets incorporated into the soil faster too.

Juliet's son, Thomas, is home from studies and at a loose end. She sent him over to help me on the farm and we did some more fence work today. He clipped the grass off another stretch of fence and I put the solar energisers out ready to add batteries and liven up more sections of fence. 

We also patched the fences around the hops paddock and put the sheep in there to eat it down. They don't like being in that paddock as they feel exposed, and they complain about there being no shade. There is shade, the old chook houses have enough shade inside and out for double the number of sheep. But that means they'd have to stop sooking and go looking for it.

I combined the two cow groups on the 25 acre side again, as I will have to start hand feeding properly now. At least Annie is yelling less now. One more day on the remains of Leigh's bale in the yards, then two days eating the remains of the two bales from the boat shed. Then onto working my way through the silage bales. There's probably five days in a bale of silage, and I have about 15 left. If I fence off most of the paddock it will get a chance to regenerate if it rains without them eating every little blade of grass as it tries to come back.

A third hops vine has now set flowers and will have its first small harvest this season. The smaller passionfruit has been eaten back by snails again. The bigger one is tall enough to suffer some damage and keep going, but I will have to bait the smaller one if it's to survive. The king david apple is nearing ripening for the fruit, I ate one yesterday and it was very close.

I gave a carton of eggs to Billie and Jason, as their chooks aren't laying. I'll probably be able to get them a carton a week. 

Poppy is doing well on the carprieve, it's removed a fair bit of the joint pain and she is alot more cheerful, but it's not done anything for her back end co-ordination and strength. Watch and wait I guess.

I think that's it for now.

13th March, 2024

A cooler day with a slight breeze most of the day.

Leigh left the gate to the yards open after he loaded his cattle so when I went down to feed Annie and the calves, Belle and her gang were already chomping on the left behind round bale. I am pleased that they are pleased.

Annie's gang are still eating the hay in the boatshed, behind a sheep panel. There is so little waste that I am thinking of building a bunk like the ones in the loafing shed that take small squares, but outside so I can unroll rounds into it. This will take some imagination and some engineering.

I dropped payment for the small squares of hay off to Scott Auton, a carton of eggs off to Pete, and bought a box of sauce tomatoes at the Amish stall. I'll dice those and freeze them for slow cooker meals in winter.

The new irrigation lines are working well, I was able to redo my watering schedule to spread the watering over a week, taking just the time to turn the water on and off most days instead of dragging and moving every two hours.

Here are some more photos of Spring Villa at Molong. 

A long while before we lived there.

 And recently after renovations

12th March, 2024

The day started hot and still and muggy, but a cool change came in at about 2.00 and made life alot more pleasant. I was sitting listening to an integrated parasite management seminar when I felt the breeze pick up and the temperature change and my wind chimes go bing.

Leigh yarded most of his remaining cattle from across the road and loaded them at about 3pm for sale at the Powranna Yards. He now has perhaps one weaner across the road that he couldn't round up and the rest of his cattle have gone to another farm. He left a round bale in the yards to feed them, and Belle's group can finish that off.

I went into Scottsdale to pick up stock feed and fill the car up with fuel. The BP service station that we have an account with is closed to repair one of their underground tanks so I had to fill up at the other service station, which is a bit shell shocked at the doubled trade on top of all the tourists. 

The town is full of caravans and motorbikes and mini buses with bike racks on the back. The motorbikes must have been part of a large ride, I am very over them zooming past my house as most of them don't seem to have a muffler.

One of my favourite cheeses is Blue Castello. Woolies had a "Light Blue" version in stock tonight so I bought one to taste. It's kind of like a young standard blue where the blue mould hasn't spread far yet. 

Gippsland Art Gallery is holding a "life's work" exhibition of works by Annemieke Mein. I have long coveted her book "The Art of Annemieke Mein". She's a textile artist, google her name and then click on "Images" on the search results page to see some of her beautiful works.

"Frog Down Under 2"

11th March, 2024

And another day of hot steamy weather and no breeze. If I'd known all I had to do to stop the ridiculous winds we'd been having was buy a wind chime I'd have done that back in spring. In sailing terms I think we are in the "doldrums" instead of the "roaring 40s".

Today the air conditioner is on and the dogs and cats are stretched out under it. I had a sleep in and fed Annie and the calves early. I put the sprinklers on the vege garden, olive trees and front yard and retreated inside to the cool. I can't imagine our water bill this summer.

I backlined the two calves with cydectin, they are a bit pot bellied and their hair is standing up. Although they have been on milk for about 7 months and are getting protein pellets every day, the current drought is hard on their growth and they are grazing close to the ground and possibly picking up worms. Cydectin is dung beetle safe, so it shouldn't do any harm even if they don't have worms.

I had a three hour shift in online, Chloe was there when I started and she taught me heaps more useful information in ten minutes than the others had in hours. Each time I hit a snag we worked through it and I filed that away for next time. I even worked out two different tricks in the computer system by myself. In the end all the stuff ended up in bags ready to go and the paperwork was done and it was all ready for the morning.

10th March, 2024

Hot and steamy, top of 30 I think, not pleasant anyway. The few spots of rain did nothing but increase the relative humidity from 94% to 97%.

I finished clipping the 240V fence and connected it all up to power. There is some evidence of the cattle leaning on it to get at the soak grass, so the connection is just in time.

I picked two buckets of apples for the cattle, interrupted by the discovery of a large huntsman wanting to claim a bucket for a house. I used a branch to gently flick it off then ran the other way with my buckets. I am happy to let them live, but I like a good separation between me and them.

I finished the cider irrigation line and put that on, that and the orchard ones will save quite alot of time. There's a sprinkler on each tree so they will get water directly to their roots.

Geoff and I (and the cats and dogs, and probably the chooks, cows and sheep) had a nap in the hottest part of the day and then cool showers before going to Derby for dinner with Shane and Juliet. 

The restaurant was under new management and appears to be struggling with organisation. The entrees came out at the same time as the first two meals. Those two mains were finished by the time the last main came out, the chilli con carne was minus the chilli, and they messed up the drinks order. We went across the road to the Hub for dessert, nutella and strawberry calzones, and they showed the difference experience makes in customer service.

Setting up the irrigation run at the ciders

9th March, 2024

The forecast was for heatwave conditions, but by midday the temps had only reached 20 and there was sea fog and mizzle. By 4pm it had cleared and cranked up to 28. No wonder the plants are confused.

I separated Gizmo from Belle's herd and after breakfast put a halter on Annie and led him and her (as she is his mother) up the lane to Robyn's. Annie was keen for an adventure and pulled me all the way. We popped one of Robyn's tags in Gizmo as he had lost the one I put in him, and let him in with her herd of beefies. He will go with 20 odd of her stock on Wednesday and the proceeds will pay off some more debts.

Annie was just as keen to walk home at a fair clip so Robyn gave me a lift back behind her, saving me quite a slog. I tidied up the bale Annie's group have access to, it's behind a barrier so there is little waste, and moved Belle's group's dry feed block up by the water trough.

I had a good nap in the early afternoon and then started the fence clipping. The electric fence is off so as not to spark a fire, but it's so dry the cows will be pushing through it into the soak area soon. So I will have to clip the grass off the fence and turn it back on asap. I've done about half of the section powered by the 240V energiser, hopefully to finish that section tomorrow. 

We had a nice glass of wine as the sun went down, sitting at the new outdoor table. The cats think it's a great place to loll about too. I found another nest in the hayshed, not too many eggs so still fresh. I put some fake eggs in that to keep them laying there now that I know where it is.

My new wind chimes

8th March, 2024

I lashed out and bought the fittings for the cider irrigation and laid out the pipe ready for the spray heads. I also bought a bag of hose clamps and clamped all the irrigation lines, as some were popping. This should make the watering more predictable. I also bought cydectin pour on for the calves and I'll give that to them this weekend.

I figured it was a good day for waste management and emptied all the bins and recycling and put more cardboard down in the storage shed for when the fire ban lifts. Presumably after rain.

We slipped up to Bridport in the early afternoon and had afternoon tea with Barb and George. They are having a garage sale this weekend and we came home with a few items, including a boot puller onner for Geoff and a set of wind chimes for me.

We stopped in at Little Rivers for a couple of drinks with Pete before heading home for semi-home made pizza. This is when I take a base pizza like a cheese and spinach and add all the other interesting items. Then Geoff went up to Jason's to continue work on a 3 phase power point.

I sent my resume and references to the Tasmanian Farm Innovation Hub, and I think next will be the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture.

This is the outdoor setting Pete passed on to us. It was there when he bought Willow Lodge and possibly there when Dean and Ross bought the place. I suspect it once had two bench seats and the two short ones were for the ends. I might pick up another bench seat somewhere, perhaps the tip shop.

7th March, 2024

Forecast for 23 today, felt warmer because there wasn't much of a breeze.

I am working on extending my irrigation system so all I have to do is turn taps on and not spend too much time dragging hoses around that may or may not be the one that's long enough for a given situation.

The hops and silver birch now have hoses that are allocated just to them. I need to do one for the vege garden. The fig has its own, bottlebrush has its own. It's really the orchard and cider apples that need extension. 

I added more hose to the orchard one so that it can water both rows in one go. Next to create a loop for the cider apples to do the same. That will save damaging them and the sprayers by dragging them around the farm. I have to remember to get hose clamps, the fluctuating water pressure can pop the connections and end up not watering the plants and giving a square meter of grass a flood irrigation.

We headed over to Pete's at about 4pm to help him move some furniture around. Wine and nibbles afterwards and we came home with an outdoor setting. Nowhere really shady to put it, but it has a lovely big table and we can entertain outside in good weather.

Here's an idea for garden decorations, chicken mesh ghost figures. Remember you can click on the picture to make it bigger.

6th March, 2024

It was slated to be a hot one and did eventually get there. It's so dry for Tasmania. Robyn next door will be drying her cows off early because she has no more irrigation water for the pastures and it's green grass that makes milk. I have seen the same with Annie, she has plummeted from five litres surplus each day to none at all. So I am just feeding her in the bale to keep condition on her.

I put out the new dry feed block and the cows hit that immediately. They also enjoyed a couple of buckets of apples. I think I have two weeks of apples left and then the trees will be starting to dry leaves out ready for autumn. I picked up more chaff, if it goes another week without rain I will stockpile Annie's feed and pellets for the calves and feed will get hard to source.

Robyn and I went to dry cow seminar in Derby, where there were lectures, a meal and some games. I came top of the quiz and won a canister of dectomax along with the kit to use it. I don't use injectible wormers on the cattle so I gave that to Shaelyn and her family to use as Robyn already has a canister.  There were also a couple of different padded satchels, one of which is the perfect size for my smart phone and one which has a heap of pockets like an apron. I'll think of a use for that. And a cap. In summer ag prizes include caps and in winter it's beanies. I give the caps to Geoff and I keep the beanies.

Here's some of my small squares loaded on the carryall ready to move.

And all 30 stowed safely in the hay shed. A shed full of hay makes a farmer feel more wealthy than a wallet full of notes.

5th March, 2024

A bit of a warm day, no rain in sight.

I headed off for Launceston right after breakfast. With Annie having no milk for me it's no longer important to get her milked out at any particular time. My appointment was at 10.45 am but I had to leave some extra time for road works.

So, they did an echo cardiogram and a sonogram before I exercised, then had me walk on a treadmill at increasing slope and speed until my heart reached 141 beats per minute then did the ECG and sonogram again. The results are that there are no leaks, no valve problems, no sign of any artery clogging and the heart seems to be just fine. So I can go ahead and get into some more intense exercise without worrying about dropping dead.

After the test I went to a few electronics shops to find a new phone for Geoff, as his old one is 3G and won't be any good after the end of June. He has a tradie phone, which has a tough rubbery case. That style of phone is long gone, the closest I could find is an Opel Rugged for $269, which is pretty cheap for a phone these days.

Then I browsed cat trees, picked up some dog food and some dog treats before going to Bunnings to buy a hose and look for copper flashing for Geoff. They didn't have any, so he'll have to get some copper sheet from Rankin & Bond. Then I went to Blue for lunch, it's changed menus and was pretty disappointing. This seems to happen to me alot. Back to Pierre's for lunch next time. Then I dropped some returns off the AWM, the electrical supplier, and went home.

I guess all the exercise and shopping wore me out as I had a cuppa and a nap before feeding Annie and the calves and milking out about a litre of milk. I took the opportunity to split Annie and Abe and the calves back into the barnyard with the hay bale and will get Flora in tomorrow. With fewer teeth Flora needs free access to easy food and is an adult cow for company for Annie. Handed out apples and fed the chooks and then spent the evening working my way through emails that needed action or noting.

The farm (and the whole district) is looking very dry. King Island, which we think of as being wet and windy, is now drought declared. I skipped watering today but will pick up the rotation tomorrow. I picked some tomatoes from the bushes in the raised beds, finally.

4th March, 2024

The wind finally died and the temperature is lovely. If it wasn't so dry it would be a perfect day.

This is the first day of my week off, which is supposed to be on sick leave as the dr gave me a certificate to try and rest my foot. For some reason woolies put it through as annual leave despite the certificate. It would be nice not to have some complication to fight every time I ask for something not routine.

I tested Bessie to see if she would start and she did, so I unhitched the hay forks and hitched up the carryall (yay me !) and shifted the hay into the hayshed six bales at a time. Much easier than taking them one at a time over uneven ground on a removalist trolley. These will be used on occasions when I have one or two cows needing supplement but not enough to get out a round bale.

I fueled the car and picked up a dry feed block for the cattle. There's still no muesli, so Annie is getting golden oat biscuits as her treat. There's no real point in milking with Gizmo in with her, I got enough milk for a glass with breakfast. The spare milk from a few days ago that I set to clabbering for the chickens is done and I served up a big bowl of it for them. They'll eat that over the next couple of days.

With the grass mowed I am picking up a whole lot of fallen apples to give the cows, leaving the ones on the trees as they will stay fresh. I fed two buckets out and then filled another two buckets ready for tomorrow as I am off to Launceston for my heart stress test.

3rd March, 2024

Aaarrrgghhh ! The wind ! Not particularly hot but the wind was strong enough to tear a sheet of roof off the silver shack at the back of the house.

Charlie dropped around with Bruce to pick up another bale of silage and put one out for me while he was at it. I combined all the sheep and cattle that were on the 25 acres and let them all at the bale. The sheep were pretty "meh" about it, but the cattle hooked right in.

I gave the calves another feed of mixed milk and pellets, and this time Star dived in and Joey got all waily waily because I wouldn't shovel it into his mouth.

Scott Auton dropped off 30 small bales of this years hay, which I will move into the hayshed tomorrow.

I did a three hour shift at work, supposed to be training with online. Tyler figured out that if I worked there he'd be finished too early and have to go help out on the front end so he told me I wasn't needed and I did the rest of the shift on front end. I did manage to do the computer training for online, which really consisted of a cartoon figure saying try not to tip the trolley over for five minutes. The only worthwhile part of the shift was that it was at double pay.

The hops have yielded quite well this year. I need to put on another batch of fertiliser before they start to dry off so that they go into winter with good reserves in the roots. I need to look up some more recipes or uses for green and dried hops.

2nd March, 2024

Another busy few days. No rain, hot and cold, plenty of wind. Keeping the water up, hate to see the Tas Water bill at the end of the quarter but trees take a while to grow and it's better to keep them alive.

I've been taking 5 litres a day from Annie, with the back quarters varying quite considerably. I have a bucket turning into clabber for the chickens and I poured 5 litres in with the calves pellets and chaff today. I had to milk at 12.30pm as I had a shift from 9am to 12pm. The calves were horrified at first, the liquid not being how pellets are supposed to feel. But some face stuffing got Joey eating the mash, and he's as close to a rock in intellect as I have seen in a calf. Star wasn't having a bar of it, but hopefully she'll come around watching him eat.

I found an egg cache right next to the feeding area for the chooks. The cows have eaten that corner down because it's a bit greener thanks to the grey water channel from the house, revealing a spot that I didn't even see. Those eggs were too iffy even for the dogs, so I took them down the paddock for the crows, if they want them.

I went to a climate change seminar at Winnaleah on Wednesday night that was focussed on northeast Tasmania. It was very interesting and gave me alot to think about with preparing the farm to become 25 acres and sustainable into the future. Specifically there is likely to be less winter rain and more summer rain, in more intense falls. This means I should be taking steps to slow the flow of rain across the landscape and retain it on the farm long enough to soak in properly. I might need to put in a few contour banks.

I think Poppy's tablets are starting to work, she's getting out and about more and seems a little less stiff.

Beanie's calf, Selkie, managed to get in with Annie's group somehow, so I shifted Beanie in with them for the night and then worked the two of them back out the next day. This ended up with all Annies group bouncing around in the hay shed and I had to do some roaring and hay fork waving to get them all out.

I hadn't seen my cows over on the 75 acres for 48 hours so I took the quad and went looking for them. Turns out Leigh had closed them into the bottom dam pasture when he wanted to bring his calves up for marking and hadn't let them out. They had food, water and shade but checking on them meant either a long walk or a quad ride as opposed to seeing them at the water troughs at the top of the hill every day. So I let them out and made a note to check if I don't lay eyes on them every day.

Charlie came around today and hung the gates in the ranch gateway and the boat shed. It's great seeing some progress around the place. Brad Hill came and mowed all the driveway with the zero turn mower and it's all tidy and clean now. The Jensen boys came and mowed the front and back yard and did some of Calab's too.

The ciders, and Sarge

 

 The circle

The orchard

The front yard

27th February, 2024

A pleasant day with a cool start. Mostly overcast.

I milked 5 litres again and the fridge is full. I will have to start finding other ways to use it. Not enough to use the machine, only enough to frustrate the calves, the chooks and dogs will have to step up to the mark. Chooks can only drink a certain amount of liquid milk, but if you clabber it (which is a sort of self starting yoghurt) they can use heaps of it.

Elders didn't have any calf muesli, so there are going to be some disappointed cows for the next few days. Time to stock up on bagged feeds as the dry continues feed will be harder to get.

The snake hasn't been back in the water trough since my surprise, I will continue to check.

I picked up the carprieve for Poppy and gave her the first dose. I think it made a difference already even though the vet said it might take up to a week to kick in.