10th November, 2024

SUNDAY MORNING 

A quick zigzag between driving rain, high winds, lovely sunny days and gentle breezes. Random weather as usual in Tasmania in spring. Today is one of the nice ones. 

I was going to spray on Saturday because I had the whole day off, having declined any more office shifts, but the weather was foul. Despite liking the office work the turnaround of an early shift after a long late one that is often tough going was too hard. So I will try to spray the thistles this arvo, and maybe walk Star up to Robyn's yearling herd to go in with the bulls that are in that herd, as they are bulls that are good for heifers. Hopefully barley grass spraying on Monday. Perhaps. So much to do.

Finn dealt with the possum that had been trashing the dairy. Not the end I wanted, but I had given up on trapping as there had been no sign of the possum for a week or more. I guess that means I can open the windows in the dairy room again and get some good drying and fresh air.

I opened up access to the hay shed for the sheep on the rainy day, and found a new nest in the top of their round bale. We seem to have three or four chickens laying, and the three that have just come out of broody jail will probably have been laying before going broody (though hens can go broody after no longer laying and they are all up there in age) so we probably have a 50% free loader rate.

The sheep spent Saturday night in the loafing shed and I got up early and moved them to the shearing shed to clean out before the shearer comes to shear and do feet and deal with Pickle. 

After the vet's hail mary shot of high potency antibiotics she did seem to improve, but it's become clear that the mess is progressing and it won't be long with the warmer weather before it becomes fly blown. She's cheerful, mobile and has good appetite right now, so it feels sad to take this step, but that could change any day and at least she won't have suffered.

The washing machine is overflowing if I run a second wash too soon after the first. It overflows on the rinse fill. Based on when and how the overflowing occurs, we suspect the air pressure tube that signals the machine to turn off when the rising water pressurises the air in the tube enough to set off the switch. To look at it we'll have to move some freezers out of the laundry and set up the washing machine outside and take the back off it to run it. Until we have the time to drag everything out I am just doing one wash per day on woolies days and one in the morning and one in the afternoon on non woolies days.

The dishwasher is suffering from the reduced water pressure in the laundry, it takes several goes to fill its tank enough to set up the cycle. I think the old water pipes are slowly filling with corrosion and with the lower mains water pressure due to irrigation starting is enough to step over that threshold. Water pressure is higher at night so I put it on when I get home from work and it usually finishes in time to open the door for drying by the time I go to bed.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Well, that was a wipeout. The shearer arrived late, 11am instead of 9am. He sheared Jonesy, after I took a blow to my knee moving the sheep into the pen. Then we went to trim Jonesy's hoofs and he kicked out and knocked the shearer's hand and he cut his left hand open with the trimmers. Off to Accident & Emergency where it took 30 mins for the doctor to arrive, 15 good stitches and alot of local anaesthetic that I reckon hurt more going in than the wound. The Dr did a good job though, was thorough and careful. Ah well, it's slow but at least it's free.

He will get the stitches out in a week and should be able to shear again in two weeks. Missed everything critical luckily. I paid him for the visit so he has some money to eat with and he will come back and do Pickle asap and shear the rest when he gets the clearance.

I sprayed the whole place for thistles, which demonstrates how far I have come. Once upon a time I spent several days in any one paddock, now I can get all the thistles in one hour. The blackberries are putting out new leaves so I can do a pass on them too now.