Ok, a bit of a catch up. Might not be photos of everything, actually probably no photos this post, but I'll get to them.
Weather has been completely random, from snowflakes in full sun with a rainbow, to wind and sleet and hot and sunny. You name it, we've had a bit.
Aimee is back from the UK here until mid Feb, and it's great having her around. She's working at The Hub in Derby again, and will start at the House Paddock in the new year. Finn is stoked to have her here, he's always remembered her taking care of him as a puppy.
The sheep got shorn, young Tony (Calab's lamb) got crutched and castrated. I built a shadecloth share area over the wires of the hops area and they do actually use it on hot days. I did have to reinforce it in the middle of a gale, Billie stopped by to help, I must have looked like I was losing the battle. The three silver birch in their paddock are doing great, one day will be decent shade themselves.
The cattle are still fat. I saved at least ten round bales in the new feed bunks. I now have about 17 left from last year. Tiddy, Belle's steer of 14 months old was sold and I am milking Belle. Turns out the little fatty was still getting 10 litres of milk a day. The dog and chooks are swimming in the stuff and the fridge is full. Mae is long weaned and is in great condition, in fact all three heifers are sausage shaped.
We are down to10 chooks. Some kind of respiratory bug that only took two. They are still laying more eggs than we can use so everyone is getting gift cartons. Even Finn is getting one a day. They are taking turns going broody, the last one was so mean and growly she drew blood when I picked her up.
I finished all the windows for the chook house, they worked well to keep out the easterly rains. Next step is to add hooks and chains to let them come open to vent on warmer days. I like the results so much I might work my way across the rest of the pens.
The raised beds are working well, everything but the pumpkin (didn't even sprout) and the basil (never easy to grow at the best of time) have really kicked on and I am eating fresh peas on a regular basis. Due to the cold weather the tomatoes have only just flowered, I doubt we will get a ripe tomato before winter.
The girl cat gang are doing well, Susie is on a diet. Seems to be the same one I am on, since we are both not losing much weight :-) Shadow is terrified of a new human in the house, she's never been one to take to visitors. At least now she's staying in the loungeroom while Aimee is here instead of bolting outside.
I am working alot more hours at the moment, retail christmas at Woolies and covering people on leave at May Shaw. Next week I am working eight shifts in seven days. After that it should get back to normal and I have two weeks leave booked in Feb.
The new floor in the office has turned out well, and I am half way through setting up the office. I think I will toss out about half the junk stored on the floor once I get into sorting it. I did the same thing to the little room at the front door where Poppy used to sleep. I took three wheelie bins of rubbish and 30 feed bags of recycling out of there, not to mention all the gear that was rehomed back to the sheds that it belongs to. Now it's got my gardening gear, proper recycling set up and pet cages and litter trays. And I can walk all the way in and access everything.
I started hormone replacement therapy, estrogel and a progesterone tablet. Thankfully the hot flushes have gone and the dehydration is about half. Not sure about the brain fog yet, probably being tired has a bit to do with that too.
Jason cut and baled out hay, we ended up with 40 4 & 1/2 foot rounds. I am not sure where I am going to store them all. Maybe put last years hay out in the weather and feed it first come winter. And I will have to rejig another bay of the hayshed to store stacked rounds, I can only store about 18 per bay at the moment.
I have started strip grazing the pasture I have left, for the first time I have passed hay cut with pasture still left. That is because all my fencing work let me rotate the herd and let areas recover instead of them regrazing all the pasture and keeping it low. I am back fencing the grazed parts and they will regrow if we get any rain. I have further fencing plans which will make it even easier to manage the pasture. And we might be resowing the Knoll Paddock next year with a good permanent pasture.
We had Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, a roast chook and veges with ham and trifle, and lots of rest. My favourite way to spend the break.
I think that's where we are at the moment. Photos to follow soon I hope.
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