Ok, weather-wise we've had one or two of just about every weather possible for this time of year. The two nice days were welcomed by everyone, especially the livestock.
The sheep have all stopped limping, so the antibiotic shot was able to treat their foot scald. Pickle is eating well and looks happier with that tooth out. The two calves haven't looked back, so the painkiller and local anesthetic worked well for them.
Jaffa is due soon, but hasn't really bagged up yet. She's pretty over the whole thing, she does get quite big in late pregnancy.
The pet food butcher came and did Flora on Friday. He was very kind and gentle about it, he has pet cows too. He has a trailer with a winch so that I didn't need to borrow Robyn's tractor, Bruce, to load her body. He offered me $50, but since he came all the way from Launceston for one small cow and was very patient and kind I said I was happy to call it even. The only animals left that came from Dubbo are Poppy (maremma dog) and Jack (lowline steer).
Flora
No further word on the Council or Elders jobs. The sound of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds tumbling with regard to the loan for the mower.
Service Tas called and advised they'd like to appoint me, as I'd scored highest of all the applicants, but they couldn't find any way around the training at Hobart. Was I really, really sure it would be a problem ? Yes, it still was. They said they would definitely like to have me as I interviewed really well and "had an air of maturity". Which made me wonder what the rest of their applicants were like ! So in the end they said they'd contact me again before their next intake in February in case either my distance issues or their inability to train over the net had changed.
Jason came and looked at the herd, with Brax, his older son, tagging along. Brax and Joey had a good cuddle and Jason decided that as well as Freya and Zippy, he'd take Moose and Joey too, and maybe keep Joey as a companion for Billie's pet deer. That's four taken care of. Still no idea what I am going to do with Star.
Had the dinner at Launceston, at Stillwater restaurant. A place that would normally be outside my budget. It was a four course meal, absolutely delicious ! I bought Matthew Evans' books "On Eating Meat" and "Milk" and I'm six chapters in to the first one already.
The view from the restaurant, the building right across the river is the Peppers Silo hotel, built in giant renovated grain silos.
I stayed the night at a pub in Launnie, small basic room with a bathroom down the corridor. But not a shared bathroom, each of the rooms had an individual bathroom in a row of bathrooms, with a shower, vanity and toilet in each one. Unusual arrangement, but it was all clean and fresh.
While I was in Launceston I finalised my will, and bought a new mobile phone and a set of drinking glasses, unrelated purchases.
The electric rat trap I ordered online arrived and I've set that in the dairy. It spent a while not working because we had a power outage caused by a pole fire on the other side of Scottsdale. The power went back on about three minutes after Geoff got home from work and connected the generator up to the house. It's always the way. He's going to put an inlet point in the switchboard so the genny can power the house through that rather than running extension cords.
Belle's milk has been a little salty lately, and as I have plenty in the fridge I've been giving it directly to the dogs and chooks. The chooks are now laying enough eggs to supply us and some friends, they are getting plenty of protein and calcium.
Charlie borrowed some ear tags and the cattle waybill book, we are going to get him organised with his own PIC asap. Anyone with livestock has to have a PIC to buy and sell, so now that he is landed gentry he will have to get one.
The rubbish pickup once a month is working well, I put the bins out by the mailbox and he comes and empties them and leaves an invoice for however many bins I put out. I make sure they're nice and full with silage wrap and bale net, it'll take a while to get rid of all that but it's better than sending half empty bins.
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