30th May, 2024

The morning was still and warm, quite humid. It was if the land was holding it's breath waiting for the cold front to hit.

I fed the cows and sheep and then moved the sheep from the hops paddock into the piggery paddock/knoll paddock with Annie's group. It's not that the sheep didn't have shelter, they just won't use those sheds. So at least they now have access to share the loafing shed with the cows.

I picked up some more stock feed (the price !!) and filled my lyraglutide script and shopped for the meals I've menu planned for the next couple of days. Tonight was enchiladas, and I had to do a couple of tweaks to the recipe. They were some of the best enchiladas I've eaten, so I am quite chuffed with myself.

The rain started at about 5pm and there's plenty to come over night. The weather reports suggest high winds arriving in the wee small hours.

I finally got the back area vacuumed. It makes such a difference. But the area is getting full of objects in transit to somewhere else. I think I will spend a day making those objects reach their destination !

29th May, 2024

Monday I was on a mission for a few bits and pieces, and ended up with about half of what was on the list and double that amount of what wasn't. I did score some cheesecloth (for next time I make cheese) and a couple of new soft teatowels that I am going to make hop pillows out of. 

I was also looking for a pill box, and surprisingly (given the large number of older people in Scottsdale) I will have to go to Launnie for one. Same with my usual one-week-to-a page table planner for tracking work and appointments. Back to Officeworks for that when I pick up my map.

Tuesday I went to a Legendairy Ladies discussion about reading bull proofs. There is a "Good Bulls Guide" app for phones that unfortunately doesn't run on my old phone. Maybe I'll put it on Geoff's phone.

The compact food processor that I ordered from Harris Scarfe also arrived. It's Kenwood Multipro Go.

Wednesday started with a Dr's appointment to get a new lyraglutide script. The Dr wants me to move up to the .12 dose from the .06 dose to lose weight just a bit faster, but still within the range that will keep lowering my body set point. I have tipped into the high 93kgs, I'd like to drop at least another 15.

Thomas came over at 2pm and we moved all the broken pallets and random wood scraps from the feed bunks, sheep shelter paddock and barnyard into one sorted pile for use in the brazier I hope to buy for warming us up at our picnic table. Next week we might clean out the piggery.

Belle, Sorcha and Beanie have dropped enough weight to be healthy. I can see no difference at all with Jaffa and Jack. I don't know what it will take to bring them back to a decent weight without tipping them into fatty liver.

There is rain forecast for the next two days. It's supposed to be heavy rain and high winds, so I'll move the sheep in with Annie's group so they can share the loafing shed. I think I'll drop the light weight hay ring into cowmahal along with two or three small squares of the old hay.

26th May, 2024

I had a tiny sleep in today, before doing the animal chores and hooking into the housework. Three loads of washing, vacuum and mop the upstairs, tidying and sorting. Most of the day went by in small chores and catching up.

In the afternoon Stuart Burr dropped off some money for a drench I bought and we shared. I gave him some of the surplus dog food for his chooks, and he said he will choose us a couple of nice australorp pullets in spring.

25th May, 2024

Up really early to start at Woolies at 7.15am doing my second shift in the office. It went relatively smoothly, derailed in the last hour by a request from the manager for a list of current employees. You'd think a list of current employees would be a fairly simple report to run, the most basic of information. But no. 

Janice, my office teacher, spent the last 45 minutes of our shift pushing every button in the program, to no avail. We ended up doing the cash pickup from the registers late and knocked off 30 minutes later than our roster. I go again in two weeks, this time she'll stay home and just keep the phone nearby in case I get stuck.

When I came home fed the critters, watched an episode of Clarkson's Farm and had a bite to eat and then took a backpack of blackberry spray up to the far end. Now that Jaffa's gang have eaten it down I could see any rogue blackberry seedlings in the pasture and also sprayed wherever it was coming through the fence. I had enough spray to do the blackberry as far as my arm would reach outside the fence too. 

Each year I'll spray the infestation back a couple of metres, gradually gnawing the stuff back. Spraying happens in spring and autumn, when the plants are actively metabolising from the leaves to the roots. Thistles can be done all year round, but blackberry is seasonal. And it's actually illegal to spray once the plant flowers in case people come in and pick the berries later.

I had a brief nap and then brought the dogs in, because it's cracker night here. We didn't hear anything and the dogs didn't seem to hear anything, and Poppy is usually an early warning system for any kind of bang or rumble.

I've now watched all three seasons of Clarkson's Farm, and I love it. So many aspects of farming all rolled into each eight show season, a real eye opener for anyone who is unfamiliar with farming and resonating so much with anyone who lives it.

I came across this picture on the net. I think it would be a lovely house to live in... I'd like to incorporates some of the ideas into my one day new house.

24th May, 2024

On Monday I applied for my passport. I gave in and pushed aside my sense of bureaucratic injustice and went for pragmatic expediency. They told me 10 days to 6 weeks. Fingers crossed it's closer to the ten days, because if the SMSF is still open when the financial year ticks over at the end of June, it will need another audit and tax return, which both cost.

I planted the saffron bulbs in pots and put them out on the front yard path in the hope that sunshine would kick off chlorophyll production and they'd recover. When I watered them on Monday they showed shoots of green. I will add some fertiliser and mulch them so the bulbs stay a bit warmer over winter.

I walked the areas I have previously sprayed for thistles and did any that hadn't started to curl, and picked up any dropped but still edible hay at the hay ring and piled it on top of the bale. This is worth doing to get the most out of the bales, and doesn't take long.

Tuesday I cut the hop vines at the base so they wouldn't get pulled out by the roots and opened up the hop area for the sheep to graze. I fenced off the passionfruit as I think they would eat those.

Leigh came and took his crush to the farm he is now grazing his cattle on. He also took the two long gates and post he'd made a race with. I'll now sit with the yards as they are for a few weeks and plan where to put new structures that suit my management system.

Wednesday I did another round of thistle spraying, in the soak and around the houses and sheds. I'll leave that for another month and start on the grass and blackberries. Probably the blackberries first as they are heading into winter torpor fast.

I'm working my way through the reading pile, magazines, brochures and papers that I put aside for a "quiet moment". I figure if I take one item off a day I will eventually reach the bottom.

Thursday I went and picked up stock feed, had a visit with Siobhan who is recuperating from her operation, and picked up medications. The chemist advised that my lyraglutide script had none left on it so I need to make an appointment with a GP to renew that. Luckily I still have half of the last repeat left in the fridge so I have a couple of weeks. I am down to 93.9kg from 97.9kg. A slow drop of 4kg, but a drop all the same.

I removed the brackets from the bent automatic gates and put those and the bolts in a bucket. The hydraulic arms are now not under any tension and won't be further damaged if a cow leans on the gates. Next step is to work out where the arms are going to be moved to, if we are moving them, and measure the gap for new gates.

Charlie came and got three bales of silage and fetched down three round bales of hay for me, moving them from the top layer to ground level so Bessie could move them. Bruce doesn't have the greatest lights and it was well into twilight so I shadowed him back to Robyn's so no-one came up behind him unexpectedly in the dark.

It rained Thursday afternoon and night, we ended up getting 20mm. This is a lovely fall and with luck the grass isn't too cold to respond.

Today was cold and windy, but I tossed a couple of loads of washing out on the line to flap around. I shut Jaffa's group into the barnyard/sheep shelter/cowmahal paddock areas so the rest of the main paddock will get a chance to make the most of the rain.

19th May, 2024

Yesterday I laid out the reel and step ins to create a paddock around Cowmahal. This will give Jaffa's group access to the Cowmahal shelter, the barnyard and the sheep shelter paddock when they run out of grass up the far end. 

Now that I have a fresh bag of lucerne cubes I am transitioning the group off chocolate chip biscuits and onto the cubes. Jack still gets one piece of soft licorice with his treat.

Today I moved a bale ring to the piggery paddock and put one of the good new round bales from out of the hayshed into it. I wasn't sure Bessie and I could move these bigger bales, but they've lost just enough moisture since being baled in December. I will need to use Bruce to lift down the bales that have been piled on top, but Charlie may do that for me when he comes to get silage next.

Last week Geoff picked up a batch of surplus and damaged bags of dog biscuits. I will be giving the chickens a bowl of those (for the protein) each day. The better quality brands will be used for our dogs. This will save some money for the next month or so.

This is an aerial view of the tiny house development on the edge of Scottsdale. They will each have a small courtyard lawn and deck. This is a great idea and they should do more of them.

17th May, 2024

I got up a bit early again and did most of the animal chores before getting ready for an 11am to 4pm shift. Aimee headed off for a week long road trip with her dad and aunt.

Home from work and did the final chores before going to Kendall's with Kelly and Derek for dinner. The food was fine, but we were the second to order and still waited an hour for our meals.

We went from there to Little Rivers for a couple of drinks, catching up with Geoff there after he knocked off at 6pm. We introduced Kelly and Derek to Shane, Mark and Sally.

Jason came through work and we organised to catch up after the weekend to arrange a young bull to cover Beanie and Annie. This time I have to remember to put a hot wire in front of any gates a bull might want to bend.

I sat down and read through the astonishingly complex manual for the new microwave. Thankfully when I drilled down into it the instructions for basic operation are pretty much the same as the old one. Set the power level and the time and hit start. I don't think I am all that likely to use alot of the other functions, but I'll read those instructions when I need them.

16th May, 2024

Tuesday started with another meeting with the accountant to try a different path to rolling out the SMSF. That started out promising and foundered on the rocks of a missing passport once again. We pulled a duck out of the freezer to defrost and picked the last of the apples before turning the house upside down in one last search for the expired passport. I guess I am going to have to apply for a new one.

Wednesday we had lunch with Robyn at the Branxholm pub, a nice large meal. We came home and prepped the duck (Arfur had paid for electrical work with it) by stuffing it with lemon and garlic and basting with a rich sauce as it roasted. It was delicious !

Today Aimee and I did all the animal chores early and headed off to Launceston. It was a big day, we returned a circuit breaker and picked up an 3 gang architrave switch for Geoff at AWM. Then to Officeworks where we bought a cradle to hold Geoff's new phone in his car for hands free and organised to print and laminate the air photo of the 25 acres remaining, for farm planning.

Next stop was JB Hifi where we bought a factory seconds microwave, and window shopped food processors. Then Bunnings for a traffic cone (Geoff wants to work on the driveway) and a 36 pack of cat food cheaper than the supermarket. We then hooked down to Petstock Country and bought a bag of lucerne cubes (Yay !! Been looking for those for years) and then across to KMart for a week's worth of basic black tshirts.

That took us to a late lunch at Malaylicious, malaysian food. Aimee had laksa and I had marinated chicken that was fried and then tossed in a sweet and savoury grainy mix. No idea what that might be called in malaysian, on the menu it was "cereal oatmeal chicken". It was delicious anyway.

We had a little time before Aimee's hair appointment so we went window shopping, ending up with macarons at a dessert shop. Aimee got her hair cut, coloured and styled and I napped, read and daydreamed. We found a lost phone in the toilets at our car park and handed that into a nearby shop, and finally got home around 8pm. 

The new microwave is a couple of generations more advanced than our old one, which was on its last legs. Geoff is deciding whether to make another mail box out of it. I think it might end up in the dairy as a small rodent proof storage safe.

13th May, 2024

It rained on and off all day, so I made a list of all the possible admin jobs and started tackling them between dry spells. Plus I vacuumed and steam mopped.

During the dry spells I clipped the fenceline in the knoll paddock, set up an electric fence around the silage, picked up stock feed and more lick blocks, went to the post office and chemist, and got everyone fed and checked on. We are getting one or two eggs a week at the moment. And Abe had cleaned out Annie's left rear quarter for me so I didn't have to milk.

Aimee came back from her Dad's tonight and will be her until Friday. We have a few more visits to make, and a trip to Launceston, and a duck to cook. 

Sarge went to the vet for booster shots today, he is in good health and the vets are always glad to see he is still doing well.

12th May, 2024

It was pretty cloudy today and there was just enough rain to stop the last load of washing from drying. I've been slowing down the watering rotation as plants settle down for winter and the evaporation drops, so this will add another day to the rotation.

This link leads to a 12 second time lapse photo of the aurora showing how the colours move across the sky. Click : Short video of the aurora from Scottsdale

This one was taken by a friend from our sheep shelter paddock towards Launceston. The building in the photo is our old greenhouse and there is no lighting inside, the glow is from the aurora.

11th May, 2024

Friday was a day spent day doing admin, it was a slog with lots of small details. There's still lots to do to bring it all up to date. Then a long closing shift and to bed relatively early as I had to get up early this morning.

The early rise was for my first office shift ! They brought me in at 7.15 am so I could learn the tasks that need to be done each Saturday. I'll be doing every second Saturday and someone will let me know whether it's a 7.15 start or a 6.45, when the interdepartmental wrangling is sorted out.

I'll be doing cash handling and payroll and ticketing for the time being. With any luck I'll get more regular shifts if I turn out to be efficient or at least accurate.

When I got home at about 11.30 am it was spitting rain again. All up we got a whole 1.5mm. I milked for the house again, it's nice to have creamy fresh milk.

The other big news of the day was the fantastic aurora that arrived at about 7.30pm. I hung the washing out by it's light, it was all the way above my head with beams of light and blushes of colour coming and going.

From my farm on my old phone that could hardly see anything...

More colours

This is using the phone that operates my drone

 

Other people's photos

At the Thumb in Scottsdale

 

Southern Tasmania

Bruny Island

Northeast England

9th May, 2024

Yesterday was another nice autumn day, today had scudding clouds and a short space of spitting rain. Not enough to measure. 5 to 10mm is forecast for tomorrow, we shall see.

After spending more time yesterday trying to get onto the help line for MyGovID, I did some internet searching and found an ATO question forum. I asked about MyGovID and super rollovers and they suggested either trying the process through the "combine super" function of Geoff's MyGov, or contacting Australia Post, who are the hosts of the rollover portal that my accountant uses, to see if they have an alternative ID option. Since I did my ID for the land transfer through the post office, that might be usable as an alternative.

In the meantime, today the accountant and I tried the combine super function and we are now awaiting the formal notification to arrive by email, hopefully with further instructions.

Annie's milk was becoming sweet again so I milked for the house this morning. It will be nice to have lovely creamy milk in my tea and on my porridge again. Yesterday she was full on all the quarters, but Abe was busy chasing Star around, who was on heat, so I can assume he was just distracted. It would be unusual for him to wean himself.

I put three big tyre tubs in the sheep paddock, feeding them their snack by hand was like being surrounded by woolly hippos and mugged... so now I mix it with chaff and divide it between the tubs and me feet remain unstomped. I also put another mineral block in their holder as they had finished the last one.

I haven't been able to do an office shift so far, because I need a 10hr break between shifts by law and I finish work on Friday night 9 1/2 hours before the start time for a Saturday office shift. Every second Friday I do 2pm to 7pm, so if either the office shift or my contract can shift by one week I could do the office shift after my earlier Friday shift. Otherwise it would be off the table, sigh.

I've been chasing lucerne cubes, and had been unable to find a source. These are 2 inch cubes of compressed lucerne that the cows love. They make great training rewards. I went onto facebook and the Hay and Feed for sale page and asked if anyone knew where to get some and was given a number of shops, including one in Scottsdale that I haven't used for feed. 

I went there today and they sold the last bag of their last order three days ago (I have been looking for six months and missed by three days !) but they should be getting more soon and I have put my name down for two bags.

Geoff is liking his new phone, it has a very large screen and he can even watch movies on it with our Netflix or Amazon Prime accounts. That will be handy if he wants to watch one tv program and I want to watch another. He can even put headphones on. He has also added an app that helps him calculate cable sizes for electrical work. 

And it has a "find my phone" feature that I can go on my laptop, log in and it shows where his phone is. Not enough definition for around the house, but it does show to about the nearest 20m. And I can make it ring from the computer to help locate it by sound if it is in the house.

I visited with Siobhan, who has had an operation, and then Geoff and I had dinner with Kelly and Derek at Lords Hotel.

Sandra Henderson "Bush Bounty"

7th May, 2024

On Monday morning we had a leisurely start, I milked Annie's left back quarter again, and we picked up some stock feed and leafy greens and then Aimee headed back to Rosebery where her Dad lives.

Today was a nice day weatherwise, but almost a complete loss on other fronts.

I didn't get time to do the calves, sheep, far end cows or chooks. In fact, Annie's feed and milking was the only farm work I had time for.

The reason being that I wasted a whole day chasing red tape to try and roll the money from the SMSF back into Geoff's First State Super account.

It started well enough, with the accountant saying that if we could get the forms and identification stuff done we could maybe even do the payment today. However, in order to get a confirmed ID from the tax office to do the rollover I had to get a MyGovID certificate. I raced home to get my birth certificate and added that to my driver's license and my medicare card. That brought me up from "basic" ID to "standard" ID, but the process we wanted to do needs "strong" ID. OK, what identifications are the options for that ? A passport. And ONLY a passport. Nothing else.

What do people do who don't have passports ? They ring a helpline. I have no idea if ringing that helpline works because we couldn't get past the "we're madly busy and won't be answering the phone" message. No option to email or use a web form. They're probably madly busy with all the people who don't have passports because they put a stupid system into use without considering half the population.

They did give the hint that if your passport expired less than three years ago they'd take that. I do have a passport that expired two years ago. So back home, and I turned the house upside down. Emptied sock drawers, waded through piles of papers, checked every shelf and every hiding place. That passport is nowhere I can find. SO DAMN CLOSE AND YET SO FAR ! The curse of the farm saving continues. Every single thing that could have been reasonably expected to go right continues to go wrong.

After giving up for the day I went back into Scottsdale and picked up Geoff's new tough phone, required because Telstra is turning off 3G. Remind me again how all this technology is making our lives better ? And then went for a cuppa and hot chips with Kelly so we could both vent about our bad days.

While I was searching for my passport I found the saffron bulbs that Robyn gave me. They are sprouting. I need to plant them asap.

5th May, 2024

Another flawless autumn day.

I had a 9am to 2pm shift so I was up early. It was quite busy at work, 42 click & collects alone. My feet are still sore but thankfully I don't work again until Wednesday night. Janice, the office manager at work, asked if I wanted to train for the office. It would be a shift every second Saturday, 6.45am to 10.45am. In my sleep cycle this would be the equivalent of a 3am rise, but it could be the start of a move to a less physically demanding job.

Aimee and I went for lunch at Loud Iron after work, then we fed the cows and sheep. Udesh gave me a big bag of bananas that were a bit far gone so we distributed them among the cows. There was some consternation with only Annie hooking in and eating all that were offered to her. I guess she has become used to eating whatever I drop in her manger.

We noticed Annie had her left rear quarter over full again today, after being the one non empty quarter yesterday. So I milked some out and noted that it was salty, which is a sign that the quarter is not being emptied. 

I have no idea why, because Abe is big enough to take all her milk and she is not showing any sign of pain that would make her kick him off that teat. But either way, I milked out as much as I could while she ate and I will continue to do that until he either started clearing the quarter again or the milk tastes sweet.

I ordered Geoff a new tradie phone, as his old one is 3G and won't work after the end of June. The new one is an Opel Rugged, which is the most affordable tough phone. I might even get one for myself if it turns out to be easy to use.

The three different types of hops in separate bags, finishing the drying process before I sew some into pillows. I will put some in the chook nests too.

4th May, 2024

Aimee and I took advantage of another lovely autumn day to visit with the Amish family in Springfield. She got to know them quite well when she was living with us a few years ago and they were delighted to see her. We have fresh apple pies and tea and then went for a walk around their farm.

We did a couple of loads of washing and put some apples in the dehydrator and then I went to work to do a five hour online shift. This turned out to be a bad idea on top of yesterday walking all day at AgFest and my feet were well and truly sore by the end of the night.

In addition I have a small infection on the big toe of my right foot and the irritation of the two days in shoes hasn't done it any favours. I am applying tea tree spray and wearing slumbies (sort of a loose sock with a sole) that have alot of room around the toes to avoid pressure and irritation.

Star and Joey as nine month olds. They are now at the age that I wean my calves that are on cows, I have been giving them calf pellets to make up for not being on mothers, and I should wean them now by schedule but the grass isn't giving enough protein so they will stay on the pellets for the time being.

3rd May, 2024

I got up early to get on the road by 8.30am for AgFest. Aimee met me at the site gate and we spent a lovely autumn day looking at things and eating and buying odds and ends. I bought a Ridgeline polar fleece tshirt (so warm and comfortable !), a pair of slumbies, several cheeses, truffle salt, nougat, tasmanian tea and some garlic and herb butter.

My favourite exhibits, valais blacknose sheep. A breed from Switzerland, new to Australia. These are a handful of F1 weaners, which are crossbreds.

 This is an older sheep, a purebred.

We were home about 5.30pm and late doing the cows. Annie made sure we knew she was annoyed. Once the critters were done we went to Little Rivers for a couple of drinks and then home for a quiet night.

2nd May, 2024

Alternating clouds and sun, the breeze was all over the compass.

We did the oil, water, tyres & coolant in my car ready for the trip to AgFest. All was normal, but I topped up the water and coolant.

Mainly housework today, getting everything tidy so that I have more time to spend with Aimee.

I was in the middle of getting ready for work this afternoon, when I passed my calendar and noticed I didn't have a shift written in for today. If I hadn't noticed I would have shown up !

Here is my passionfruit cloche, a big old coffee jar with room for the leaves to spread.

1st May, 2024

Two lovely autumn days. Crisp and clear, blue skies and gentle breezes. Quite warm if you are out of the wind. AgFest is forecast for the same conditions and it will be nice not to be in wind and rain there for a change. It's almost guaranteed to be bad weather most years, last year they had to tow alot of cars out with tractors. Luckily there were heaps of tractors there on display.

I put a bigger glass jar on the passionfruit as a cloche, giving it room to grow a little before the cold sets it back, in the hope that it will put enough into the roots to come back in spring.

I picked the handful of huon crab apples on my small tree, and those are in the dehydrator at the moment. The huon crab has a red flesh and is a cross between a dessert apple and a crab apple, with a lovely crisp flesh and a taste a bit like a cox's orange pippin.

I have been eking out a salt that has finely ground licorice root added to it, which I use on steak. I had a brain wave while sorting out a cupboard, as I came upon a packet of black adder tea. I am going to try adding some of that to a nice salt and see if it's anything like my licorice salt. The ingredients of the tea are licorice root, fennel seeds and oil, peppermint leaves and aniseed. My salt is just licorice root and sea salt. I could maybe even add a smidge of hops...

I fixed some loose battens on the chook house today. The cafe blind that has been protecting the front in winter from the easterlies has finally perished and I think the next job for Thomas and I will be pulling it down and replacing it with some clear greenhouse plastic. The clear plastic of the blind allowed sunshine in to warm the coop on winter mornings while still keeping the rain and wind out, and the light also helped keep pests down.