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.