29th December, 2024

More wind, more frizzle. Frizzle is frittery drizzle. Enough rain to stop you doing anything useful but not enough to give the plants a good water. Bleh.

I slept in until 10am, got up and had ham and eggs for breakfast and then went back to bed. Got up at 2pm, jumped on the quad and went up to Robyn's to fetch Star back. She's been in with Robyn's heifers for a couple of months in with the bulls. I called her up, put a halter on and she followed the quad home. I am not sure if she's made friends there and will miss any of the other heifers, but she was glad to be home. Here are some pics of our progress. 

The mob of heifers she was in with, lining up to
watch us because nothing is as curious as a cow.

Being a good girl in the halter. She followed me home on the quad all the way, except for a brief detour to pose in front of the milking herd.

And finally back home with Auntie Annie and the gang

28th December, 2024

A few frittery rain squalls and alot of wind. Note to self : when I build my new house I will have a walled courtyard for sitting among herbs and scented plants out of the wind !

These are the peach tarts I made for dessert for the dinner at Pete's last week. They are a vol u vont case with the bottom filling made from cream cheese mixed with honey and brandy. The peaches were caramelised with butter and brown sugar and spooned in on top. Warmed in the oven so that the butter melted again and served with fresh cream.

This is the cow herd (minus Belle and Star). The oldest is at the back, Jack. Then ages range down to the newest calf, Eloise. All fat and shiny. Belle was out for milking and Star is still with Robyn's heifers, I'll have to get her back soon.

Here is Belle, my first full dairy cow and the source of much milk at times and not much milk at other time. Like now. Today I bought shop milk, it's just as well we can buy decent milk here.

27th December, 2024

So, the weather has been mainly dry with just enough rain to keep the grass growing. Temps mostly low 20's with the odd excursion down to snow weather and one tilt at high 20s. Last night was a windy and damp one and the morning misty and cold, but the bit of rain and the cool change was a welcome relief from the hot and muggy conditions.

Jason baled the second area and I got 22 bales out of that, for a total of 34. Three short of last year, but I did have a decent area grazed off. The second lot of bales have been moved into the barnyard ready for stacking, Bessie and I managed those. They are packed a little lighter and the grass was a little dryer when baled. I also know a bit more about an appropriate rev range for carrying, so it wasn't too bad a chore.

I no longer need to milk Belle every day, Tiddy is taking all she makes. Indeed, if I want milk I have to shut her away from him overnight to get a decent amount. I will probably have to make a decision soon about whether to wean Abe and go to milking Annie, or buy milk for a month or so.

We got the septic pumped out and the guy checked the pit over at the cottage. It was partly full of kids clothes, the previous tenant's small child being the habit of flushing her soiled short and undies. So that one got a pump out too. This should hold both pits until my super comes out and I replace both with new systems.

I heard back from Ochre Health, they appointed someone else. Which is fine, because I've signed the contract with May Shaw and filled out about a dozen forms and once those are finally processed by HR I might even get a start date. The pay rate is $35.26 an hour, which is casual rate. No word on the hospital job yet, though the person who interviewed me for that sent me an add for a part time job there as opposed to the relief casual that I interviewed for.

Geoff has got most of the main drive area mowed, some areas have had a second and third mow as the grass is growing back quickly. Once the initial four foot high grass is down the follow up mows take a fraction of the time.

The potatoes in the raised beds are going gang busters, the hops are doing well, apples of both cider and dessert varieties are happy. I am picking cherries, but didn't get any peaches or plums set due to the wind. I have jerusalem artichokes in abundance too, I do enjoy those fried.

CATCH UP PHOTOS

Geoff on the new mower

May Shaw and the NESM Hospital

 Jason baling the second paddock

(video, click arrow to play)

26th December, 2024

Where did the month go ?? Retail work at Christmas is all I can claim as an excuse. Will post properly soon and in the meantime here is my first mulberry on my dwarf tree that Robyn gave me.

9th December, 2024

A series of windy days with alternating sun and cloud. Rain threatens every day, or perhaps I should say humidity rises every day. But the wind is keeping things dry. I have even been able to get through the washing despite only being able to do one load a day unless I want to provoke a leak.

Jason ended up cutting the second hay paddock on Saturday. It's going to be slow drying because of the humidity, but at least it's not getting any closer to aging out.

This is Jason cutting my paddock

The pale areas are Jason's hay paddocks on the ridge and
hillside opposite me

I opened a feed break for the cattle. We left a week's feed standing so that by the time the bales were done and put away I would let the cattle onto the hayed area to clean up the leftovers then close it off again to regrow like the first paddock. You can see the lighter green of that on the right of the photo above. The far end has grown back nicely so they can graze that for a couple of weeks. With any luck I will have feed to rotate onto through summer, unlike last year.

I'll need to set up a laneway again. I have the posts in to do a proper wire laneway fence but have not had the time or energy to do it. I will buy the bits and pieces and ask Cliff to do it and offside for him. That will be probably ten times faster than doing it by myself as even having someone to hold the other end of the wire speeds it up and he will be good at the actual knots. I can do an approximation of them, but it's a bit of a slog with small hands and large tools.

May Shaw didn't call today, the email did say "next week", but I guess I expected Monday to be the day for a call. I don't even know if the manager works on Mondays. I am just a bit impatient to start on this next adventure.

The zero turn mower is arriving tomorrow, and the NILS loan was approved today. Still no word on the mortgage addition. It's a pity I can't get machinery in to hay the main drive, I reckon there's a good two bales in it. At least with a good mower here it will become respectable again. And I can use the zero turn to slash around the buildings for fire protection. If I can learn how to drive it, they say it's easy once you get the hang of it, but it looks like dodgem cars to me !

6th December, 2024

A couple of warm days that were humid, a selection of rainy and cloudy days, and one cold day. The plants are loving the wet and warm combination.

Jason was going to try and cut my second paddock of hay this afternoon, but as I come home in the dark I won't know if he got to it until daylight tomorrow. We are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, but not enough to damage the down hay. Fingers crossed it got done because the grasses are going to flower now and will start to head soon.

The zero turn mower should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, I will have to remind Geoff to get a jerry can of fuel for it. He is very excited :-)

We seem to have a wave of technological failures striking the house. The washing machine is still alternately overflowing or working fine, the randomness making it hard to isolate and fix the cause. The dish washer is still struggling with the dropping water pressure, Geoff can't make any of the old laptops or computers play his old game disks, and now the electric squeegee that I use to suck up condensation on cold mornings has stopped dead. Oh, and the septic needs pumping out before Christmas.

Jason spoke to Phil Chappel, the tractor repair guy who specialises in Fergie tractors and confirmed that Bessie should have no trouble lifting 5 ft bales if she is working right. So I will ring him on Monday and book a home visit to check her over.

On the jobs front, I had the interview with the hospital for the relief admin on Wednesday. As it's a government job it could take until after Christmas for anything to come back. It's also short notice relief, in that they could ring at 6am and say they need me, with no guarantee of hours in any given week. The pay rate is $40 an hour, but it's probably not going to work as I still need a reliable income.

The lady who interviewed me for the Ochre Health job has apparently departed without notice and cleared her desk, taking all her interview notes with her. No-one at the surgery reception has any idea what is happening with the position in the short term as the management try to figure out what they can salvage.

And I was offered the May Shaw job today !! As I was already at work when they tried to ring me, they left a message with the offer and said they'd catch up with me next week to talk in detail. This job is one day a week before new year with another day or two a week likely in the new year as someone is retiring. 

I am happy with three 8 hour days a week, that will be as many hours as I work at woolies over in three days. Leaving me 4 days off. I would probably still do one or two shifts a week at woolies until we pay off the mower. Here's hoping they're offering a good pay rate, as they were a bit uncertain about the pay as it would be dependent on the skills of the successful applicant. Hopefully I am very skilled !

Here is a little personal philosophy for the day.