21st February, 2025

Nights are cold and wind is nippy, but the forecast for the weekend is heat wave again. No wonder the plants are confused !

I visited with Beanie and Co. up at Jasons and perused his old cattle crush. Apparently I have earned enough money from the sale of Beanie and Co. to him to pay for both the crush and next year's haying ! So a double win, Beanie gets a good home and I can replace the crush that Leigh took with him and have a safe way of doctoring the cattle.

I sent photos of that mystery thistle to Biosecurity Tas and they advised it was a california thistle. Nasty thing with holly shape leaves and stands about chest high. I hit it with lontral and metsulphuron so all the plants should be dead, but they said it is a declared weed so I will monitor the site for new growth.

Geoff and I dismantled the structure for the old automatic gate setup ready to put new posts and gates in and attach the openers. I feel that this is an important job to get done before winter, life is too short to let little luxuries sit in the shed waiting for repair.

Had a really big day yesterday... Juliet, Robyn, Billie and I went to a Garden Party hosted by Elders at Brigendoon Estate down near Longford. It was a lovely day, we traveled by bus so no-one had to play responsible adult, there was a string quartet, all drinks (alcoholic and otherwise) were free as was the morning tea and astonishingly amazing lunch. A wonderful time was had by all, especially Robyn who was fresh from a family loss and deserved a good day out. Billie also left baby Thomas with his dad and had a big time. Hopefully they'll run another one next year :-)

Billie, Jacki, a friend of Robyn's, Robyn, me and Juliet.

The lunch, hard to see from here but the huge table was decorated beautifully and laden with so many delicious bits and pieces, it was a grazing platter the size of a bowling club smorgasbord.

Click on the arrow to play the video I took at the Garden Party. Turn the sound on if you want to hear the quartet. We had just arrived and everyone was wondering where to go and what to do, we soon all got into the party vibe.

16th February, 2025

Crazy weather, one day it's hot and windy and there's smoke from the fires on the west coast. Next day it's frigid and there's snow on the nearest mountain and the wind is clear and cold off Antarctica. I think Tasmania has menopause... jumper off, jumper on, jumper off, jumper on.

So today Beanie and her calf Selkie and Annie's 14 month old steer Abe went to Jason's. That leaves me with nine cattle and six sheep. I'll miss Beanie, the big lug. She's very food motivated and pushy but she's fun to have around. Jason fed her a treat and was scratching her tail, she'll be looked after there. 

I've got the piggery ready to karcher out, shoveled all the poop out and picked up the rubbish. I suspect Leigh was intending to bring his pressure washer down after taking his pigs but got sidetracked and forgot. We all think he's ended up with a brain injury from being knocked out twice in six weeks (working cattle in his yards) so I didn't bother trying to convince him it hasn't been cleaned. Once it's all cleaned Edwin will take off all the rusted fencing and weld on new mesh.

Here's some photos of the mulberry tree, if anyone has any ideas about possible deficiencies or overs I'll try some amendments. I have the clover in there as a natural mulch, water level indicator and nitrogen generator.

12th February, 2025

Wow ! Went from nearly every day to once a month. 

Move to Tasmania, they said, the pace of life is slower, they said.

Ok, at the moment I am working a full day Monday and a half day Wednesday at May Shaw. There should be more hours by the end of March. I haven't dropped any Woolies shifts yet as the extra money is helpful paying for the zero turn mower. I am also still talking to the hospital about some hours there. And I applied for the receptionist position at Ochre Health again and got knocked back again. I have a friend there and from what she tells me I probably won't apply again.

Loving the work at May Shaw, learning something new every shift and getting it all done. There is some enterprise bargaining going on and one our negotiating wants is apparently being able to order the hot lunches offered to the residents. I am all for that, they had bread and butter pudding yesterday and I would definitely have ordered that !

Gray and Nessa visited, it was lovely to catch up with Ness after so long. Gray fixed the run-out at the back of the dairy and put in a new gate to the yards. Today Edwin Hanslow got his welder out and in a typical Scottsdale black economy exchange for electrical work, fixed my loading ramp and ramp gate and made a tow bar for the quad.

We've also had another stretch of new fencing done, this one separating Willy's Paddock and the barnyard. Willy's Paddock is now combined with the Sheep Shelter Paddock and the old fence between them got rolled up and carted off to the tip for metal recycling.

The rain has gone away, and we are now doing the summer dry off. Alot later than last year, so I still have a little grass. Might have to start feeding hay maybe next week, maybe the week after. If we get the autumn break in March it will be a good season. 

I've kicked off the weed control with taking out the feral roses in the front yard. This week should also see another thistle spray. And in a couple of weeks it will be blackberries. I've spotted an unfamiliar species of thistle, a quite nasty one. I have sprayed all I could see, will take a photo of any survivors for identification and then spray again.

It looks like I have a good crop of potatoes and jerusalem artichokes. Apples are doing well and my little fig is fruiting beautifully. I get a couple of sweet juicy figs every couple of days.

Poppy, our old maremma, passed away last week. She finally got too weak in the back end to walk easily and I think her heart went as well, because she was panting alot for the last couple of weeks even though she was just laying around on a bed in the lounge room. Finn seems to be coping ok, we're giving him lots of attention.

My mulberry is struggling, the leaves are yellowing and folding up and I can't figure out what is going on. I drilled holes in the bottom of the pot to let water out, I've checked that that soil isn't dry, I've added a general fertiliser. I did put some blood and bone on a few weeks ago, maybe that was too much nitrogen ? The clover that is also in the pot is very happy.

The sheepies waiting for the shearer. 

Left to right Dea, Toot, Twinkle, Emmaline and Jonesy. Fang off camera.

A young bloke stacked this lot of silage for Robyn. He not only completely blocked the gate between our farms, he put it all up against the fence. Where my cattle could reach it. Luckily we saw the first bale get nibbled on and I was able to put up an electric fence before they moved on to the rest. He didn't think that one through.

Geoff's good friend George on the new rail pedal carts being promoted for tourists to use on the disused rail line at Lilydale. George isn't very well so it's nice to see him having fun.