10th September, 2023

Almost a frost today, and mostly sunny. Icy edge to the wind but a good drying day.

Finn is not coming in for dinner and isn't keen on his bowl of fresh milk in the morning. He doesn't seem sick or off, maybe he's just filling up on all the bits of pig strewn around. He is hoarding the head, not sure if he is gnawing on it or just admiring it.

I moved Annie and the calves back into the barnyard/sheep shelter paddock where they are closer to the feeding area and dairy, reducing the time I spend walking to get their attention for feeding or milking. And making sure the calves are close to their muesli.

Sarge brought in a mouse last night. Showed me then promptly dropped it and let it run under the lounge. I wish they'd dispatch them before carrying them in !

I gave Poppy another brush today, 15 mins interspersed with treats. I am making good headway in the areas which are relatively untangled but blowing her winter coat, and today I started on some of the matted and dirty areas along her backline where she wallows in the puddles she digs. She looks so much better already.

I've started doing a load of washing on any evening that isn't forcast for rain the next day. If the washing is on the line for the whole day it stands a good chance of drying without needing the dryer. And it's one less thing to roll into the morning.

Tomorrow is my one day off before another five days of work at woolies. With so many off sick we are all pulling extra shifts.

9th September, 2023

Back to cold nights/frosty mornings. It feels like there's a random weather generator.

I reintroduced the calves to the muesli bucket. With all the doings around the hay shed they'd started avoiding their previously chosen lair. They're not hugely hungry for it yet, their milk is going a long way to filling them up. As they grow they'll want more to fill and will turn to it.

I was supposed to go to Launnie yesterday for a skin check, but I accidentally made an appointment for the beginning of October as well, so given the horrible weather for driving and how tired I was I cancelled yesterday's. The roads can be difficult when the rain is pelting down, and less than clear thinking is asking for trouble.

Leigh dropped off a pork roast, no crackle as he had to skin the pig (too big to scald) but will eat well nonetheless. Maybe done with a citrus and honey marinade....

I was worried the chickens would fret about the loss of the rooster, but they are fine. It's not like they have a stressful life or any shortages. They've kicked up a notch in the laying, time to sell a few more.

8th September, 2023

There was a thunderstorm last night, according to Poppy, the early warning system. And the rain came in hard and heavy from the northeast. Our rain gauge said 20mm and the BOM station said 1.2mm. I am waiting to see if that gets corrected or stands as an example of "patchy".

I only did the basics today, the weather was so nasty it invited a good long sleep in. I got up and fed the calves then went back to bed until around lunchtime. Milked, fed the chickens, collected eggs, emptied and filled the dishwasher. Caught up on emails and worked on my house plan until calf night feed.

Some days the weather is telling you to hibernate.

7th September, 2023

The day started foggy and windy, then went to lovely, warm and clear, and then to warmish but raining. Three for one deal. During the nice part Geoff did some mowing and I sat Poppy down for another brushing session. She's shedding her coat ready for summer so the more of that I get out now the fewer dreadlocks she'll develop. As it is she needs a heap cut out from under her ears.

Leigh has been moving the pig carcass around with the tractor, keeping it wrapped and in the shade in places where the wind can keep it cool. Unfortunately this is messing with all the setup I had for the calves creep feeder and the sheep foot bath. I will be relieved when the pig gets cut up small enough to go hang in his chiller.

Part of the messing involved letting the cows out into the part of the main paddock where the sheep are. This included the calves, who were delighted to find a new place to explore, new places to nap, and more company on the other side of the electric rope. Oddly, like the sheep, they are small enough to walk under the single line but stayed on this side. It was a bit of a walk going to get them for their dinner though. They might have to stay in the barnyard/sheep shelter for a few more weeks.

I had confirmation that my applications for the Sheep Connect NSW job had been received, which is always a nagging worry.

It seems the survey plan for the sale of the 75 acres was requisitioned. That means the surveyor was asked for more information or to fix a mistake. I knew that it was unlikely that he had done a good job on the plan when I saw the names of the original grantees misspelled twice, in two different ways. It's just one more slow down on an already ridiculously drawn out process, and so close to the end of the ordeal too...

6th September, 2023

Someone was cleaning out the calf muesli overnight, so I set the calves up with a creep feed area. This is an area that adult cattle can't get into but calves can "creep" under a barrier and access. Their muesli is in the hay shed now and the cows are locked out of that. They have the loafing shed anyway, and the calves like the hay shed. 

I can start reducing their milk when they are reliably eating 1kg of muesli per day. That will be a while off, but everything they nibble now adds to their nutrition. The vet said they looked healthy and happy, so we'll keep going with things as they stand.

I took my subaru into Goodyear in Scottsdale to have the suspension checked out. I was told by another mechanic that I needed four shocks, new link rods and new boots. The roads in Tassie are quite windy so good mechanicals is essential for safe driving. 

The guy at Goodyear took it for a test drive and then up on the hoist, hit the right front suspension with some CRC and said no charge. He tactfully declined to speculate on the advice from the other mechanic, but I knew when he bounced the corners of the car when I dropped it off and he looked very confused that I had possibly been misled by the other guy. I'll organise an alignment and rotation for the tyres in a few week.

Leigh butchered one of the pigs this afternoon, which will leave the other two with more space and certainly reduce his feed costs. I think he's fed them a good six months longer than he needed to.

It was a very large pig. I took the liver, heart and kidneys round to Rob Taylor's as he makes pate and pies with those. He is after some pork fat for venison sausages too, so I gave him Leigh's number.

I put on a batch of slow cooker yoghurt with 3 litres of the shop milk that I bought for the 3L bottle it came in. Each one of those does a full feed for the calves, 1.5 litres of Annie's milk and 1.5 litres of powder.

5th September, 2023

The vet came in the morning to take care of the calves. Bull calves need castrating and any with horns need dehorning. I don't keep adult dairy bulls, they are too dangerous. And while horns are good in theory and probably essential in rangeland situations ... I've never had a cattle here with horns that didn't become an arse and a bully with the extra power they bring.

I did think Star might be polled, but the vet found some very small horn buds. So both Star and Joey were dehorned and Joey had his liabilities removed. They were sedated, given a nerve block (local) and some meloxicam (long lasting pain killer). Then the wounds were covered with alushield, an aluminium based spray that keeps off insects and kills bacteria. By the time they woke up the meloxicam had kicked in and they haven't missed a beat.

We also pregnancy checked Annie and Belle. Annie is estimated 4 - 5 months pregnant, which falls right between exposures to a bull and reflects the imprecision of the craft. I'll have to sit down and do some real cow maths to work out when I should dry her off based on the likeliest due date.

Belle seems to have slipped an early pregnancy, so she will need to go back with a bull soon. Getting her AI'd isn't a problem, but she's not showing overt heats so getting the timing right is difficult. And doing a synch protocol is expensive for just one cow.

Finn got his vaccinations and a check over, he's in excellent health, perhaps a little plump. The vet was hesitant when he found out he was going to vax a maremma, then realised it was Finn and figured it would be perfectly fine. Alot of maremma aren't properly socialised, Finn loves meeting people and the more pats the better.

4th September, 2023

Joey is now eating muesli after his milk, hopefully Star will watch and copy. I pulled all the baling twine out from around the old bales in their corner of the hay shed, calves will chew on anything. I also fed them in the hayshed tonight, carting everything down to them, as it was raining and I didn't want them to get cold and wet.

I checked the hops plants, and about half of them are showing shoots. This coming weekend I will prep the trellises and clear the grass from around them so there's less competition.

I went for a paddock walk and checked the power on all the fences, mostly sitting around 5.2 which is good enough to make the cattle think twice. Despite the fact that the sheep should be able to walk under the single line splitting the main paddock, they seem to be respecting it.

I fixed the loose palings in the fences of both cottages and the loose panels on the implement shed. There's still a couple of battens on the chook shed to do. One of the chooks lays an olive green egg, she started back up after a winter break today. She's not a prolific layer so that tells me that they should all be picking up soon.

I also took Poppy into the shade next to the greenhouse and spent some time brushing her. She has a dense coat that is shedding right now, and has a bad habit of laying in mud. She needs to be brushed for about 15 mins a day to keep her coat in order but can't be brushed when her coat is wet. The fur just stretches and knots. With the ongoing wet weather and her personal habits, days when she is dry enough to brush are few and far between. Maybe over summer we'll get her in order.

I looked up slow cooker recipes for milk caramel, the dulce de leche ones were all for using a can of condensed milk. So I looked for cajeta recipes (which is caramel made with goat's milk) and because you don't get canned condensed goat milk they actually showed how to do it in a slow cooker from liquid milk. 

I have a small slow cooker in the cupboard, about 2 litres, so I did an experiment with 500ml of milk and cooked it down to about 200ml of caramel sauce. Normally I do 4 litres in a saucepan. It takes about 2hrs that way and the slow cooker was about 8 hrs, but you have to stand with the saucepan and stir while the slow cooker is turn on and check once an hour.

3rd September, 2023

We moved the last of the round bales out of the loafing shed, where they were subject to cow predation, to to boat shed, where they can be locked away safely. Bessie is now in the boatshed too. She has an oil leak, and it might be time to do a full oil/coolant/fuel check. Plus cut the bale net that's wrapped around the PTO.

The rooster, Franklin, was put down today. The attacks have been escalating and it was getting difficult to feed the chooks without getting done over. Once his spurs got sharp it was going to be dangerous. I am not sure if the hens miss him or not. They did follow him around, but they're pretty comfortable free ranging anyway.

I visited all the sheep and cattle today, handing out scratches and chin rubs. I don't see much udder action with the girls, they may be pregnant to the little speckle park bull after all. Those with angus in their breeding are starting to shed, they look pretty moth eaten.

I set up a second calf feeding station at the chook house gate, moving the one from the sheep shelter. That opened the shelter up for Annie, Little Moo and Flora too, who will probably enjoy the straw bed now that the calves have decided to camp in the hay shed.

Leigh's old ram Jack, who had been living with the cattle on the 75 acres, was also put down today. He was starting to pack it in and was limping badly, so rather than let him go down hill the hard decision was made. This will make it easier to visit the cows on the 75 side, as Jack was a grumpy old bugger and was keen to headbutt all female people. He had a go at Siobhan and me, and put Adeline on her backside a couple of times. He never took on the blokes though.

2nd September, 2023

Nice spring in the house today. A gentle breeze, good drying weather.

I closed off the ryegrass paddock for hay, if it doesn't suddenly get dry before it gets warm we should have either hay or silage off it this year. It's also time to look at fertiliser or lime. When you take hay off every year it's a net export of nutrients. It would be great to get a load of manure to spread over it.

We had a lamb roast dinner with Shane and Juliet and family tonight. Shane set up his telescope and we had a good look at the blue moon. It's amazing how much detail you can see with good magnification. He also took some photos of a small aurora. Apparently 2025 will be the peak, so the southern lights will be building up over the next couple of years and we might even be able to see them from the farm. It's nestled a little low at the foot of the Sideling to see the lights.

The calves are routinely turning up at the back of the chook house and I have to let them through the back yard to their feeder at the top gate. I might as well move the feeding station across to the chookhouse gate and save everyone a bit of time.

Sarge has licked himself another booboo. It's down one arm so his coats won't cover it, so he's stuck with blue cones for a week while it gets cream applied and heals.

I sent off my job application for Sheep Connect, fingers crossed !

1st September, 2023

Hello Nice Spring ! I would love to think you are here to stay, but ....

Not alot to report today, besides a good job replanting my pinball wizard carnation where the pipe exploration went through the middle of the garden. 

The wiltshire sheep agisting in the hop paddock have gone home, just when one of them lambed and they were going to be interesting to watch. The ram did have spectacular horns. They had eaten the paddock right down though, and were going to have to be fed hay soon.

I went to pick up a filled prescription from the chemist, only to find the tablets didn't require a script and weren't even pharmacy. They said they wouldn't be surprised if we sell them at woolies. Hmmm. Why did the doc write me a script ?

We're using up the gas in the cylinders before Elgas comes and takes them. They won't supply any more gas until we have a compliance plate and we can't get a gas fitter to come and do the inspection. We have a reverse cycle unit installed and gas is getting more and more expensive, so we gave up and cancelled the gas supply account. As a bonus the r/c does cooling as well, which the gas doesn't give us.

Mind you, we only need the cooling for a handful of days each summer where we don't get a breeze.