A lovely warm day with a light breeze.
Nothing really happening today, just some house cleaning, bill paying and a nap.
The two vet students here for a couple of days work experience on farm arrived tonight at about 11.45 pm. They came across on the Spirit of Tasmania, day sailing.
A fairly sticky day today, which improved no end when a breeze came up.
Birds have discovered the figs, and have picked the smaller ripe ones to eat on top of the posts of the tree guard. I picked the biggest ripe ones and ate them, one for breakfast and one for dessert tonight. I could get used to this. Had a nice dark red plum too. I wish the golden peach had fruited this year !
It occurred to me mid morning that I hadn't yet washed my work uniform. Luckily that breeze that came up combined with the heat and it was dry in time for work tonight.
Watering continues, it was nice to do the herb pots by the front door as the warmth brought the scents out and the breeze wafted it inside. I am still to identify the best spot to plant my jasmine. I know some people are allergic or sensitive to the smell, but I love it. Maybe an arch over the central path in the front yard ?
More days of wind and cloud, not too hot but the wind has been enough to kill the grass growing in the manure sitting atop the concrete in the cow yards. Shallow rooted, the grasses couldn't access enough soil to replace what the wind was stripping out, despite being rewatered every morning by the milking cleanup. A salutary lesson on the drying power of the wind.
Star was on heat on Sunday, she was the centre of attention and took a while to come up for milk. She's nearly six months old now, which is pretty standard for a jersey x friesian. Generally dairy cows are bred at 13 months to have their first calf at 2 years old, so she won't be going near a bull any time soon.
Annie has nearly halved in production, or nearly halved in what she's giving me anyway. There's still plenty for Joey and Star and the house, but I now take 2L a day instead of 4L every second day to keep their intake more level.
The sheep are now in the barnyard/sheep shelter paddock and have their own mineral pan. They are hanging about under the plum tree when it warms up, and graze mostly in the morning and afternoon. They sleep so soundly in the middle of the day that I nearly stepped over them while they were snoring today.
Rumour has it the guy with the zero turn mower will be here this week to mow the driveway area. Just about time too, a snake and I gave each other mutual heart attacks while I was setting up the watering system for the ciders. He bolted one way and I bolted the other.
I rolled up the electric fence at the far end of the farm, after making the classic mistake of leaving power off it. I'll have to take out some sections that have been chewed by the calves. They're like toddlers, everything goes in their mouths.
There's a nice crop of jerusalem artichokes, some potatoes and lots of comfrey in the raised beds at the cottage. A sweet potato may or may not get going, the zucchini and pumpkin succumbed to the randomness of the weather and the snails, and two tomatoes are flowering but may not ever get enough heat to bear much, as usual.
The chooks are still on a go slow, getting three eggs every two days. That's quite enough for us, people who we supply eggs to are missing out though.
I have applied for a job as an admin officer at a farm company in East Minestone Road. The office is roughly 2km from home, 2 mins drive. I am not sure of the pay rate and hours until I get an interview, so fingers crossed the rates and hours are good.
I am sitting at around 95.6kg, gradually moving downwards. I was under 95, but had a couple of days blowout with almost nothing but carbs, so I'm not surprised at the uptick. I was very tired and eating more for the comfort than the nutrition, so a little more attention to my habits will get me back on track.
Australia Day. Not particularly sunny or cloudy, but very, very windy. With a high wind chill factor. Tassie summer. Sigh.
I went and collected Annie and the calves from Robyn's paddock and split her two herefords off on the way. Now my two will have all milk and no pellets for the next while, which will be more economical. Belle's group and Annie's group are all in together now, and I will shift the sheep into the barnyard and sheep shelter paddock so they can continue to have the Bioworma.
Jaffa and her group across the road spent the day camped in the remains of Leigh's shed. It was a bit of a windbreak and I guess they were as over the wind as I was by the end of the day.
I started watering the cider apples today. They are on a better soil and their roots are deeper than the dessert apples, but all those apples draw moisture to build and eventually even they need some help.
The broody hen is on her third night in the pen and is still fluffing up and growling at me when I go to feed her. Grumpy old thing.
I did some investigation and found out that the red lantern bush is an Abutilon or "flowering maple" also commonly known as a "chinese lantern" or "chinese bellflower". There's some information on the genus on this link Abutilon . The one on the right of the first three photos looks like mine.
Another day of just about everything the BOM has to offer. No rain, though it did smell like it was coming in the evening.
I watered the silver birch, which needs a better sprinkler. The one I am using freezes up and I have no idea how long it's been watering just one patch. Did the fig too, and ate a lovely fresh ripe fig on the way back to the house.
I topped up the sheep minerals, they are eating the bioworma happily. I will have to be careful they don't overdose on the minerals. Perhaps have them side by side.
Robyn and I tried shifting the hereford calves back to her place but ended up with Annie and all five calves going for a run up her laneway. We got everyone back into the chicory paddock next door to my sheep shelter paddock and will worry about them tomorrow.
Here is a flower from the little bush in the side garden. I want to say lantern ? But I have no idea really. They hang down like a bell.
Reasonably breezy, but so steamy ! Headed up into the high 20s after lunch and when we hit 25 inside I turned the ac on at 21 and chilled the loungeroom for the dogs, kicking it up to 22 when they cooled off. Wonder how all those flock guardians in Qld and NSW are coping.
I would have moved the broodies to the broody pen early but it would have been pretty uncomfortable in there today. When I went to shift them once the temps dropped this evening there was only one actually camped. She should get 4 nights before it gets hot again.
Started watering again, especially the newly planted vines and the potted plants that dry out fast. I fertilised the succulents and noted that they probably need repotting before winter. I'll find a bag of cactus potting mix for them.
The hops are about to flower, they enjoy getting plenty of water on their feet and heat on their leaves. The passionfruit are still with me, the snails seem to have let up.
The sheep (or the calves) ate all the mineral with the biowormer, I'll top that up again tomorrow.
The back bedroom and office are now ready for the vet students that have booked in for a farm placement at the beginning of February. I haven't had confirmation that they are coming, but if they do the rooms are ready. If they don't, they are ready for guests.
Bit of a bleh day weatherwise. Not alot of sun or breeze.
I discovered that the dose of Bioworma per sheep would be 70g, or half a cup. Definitely too much to smear on a slice of bread, I mixed it in with their mineral blend and they seemed to find that interesting.
Still working the apple trees, the apples are getting bigger faster than I can thin so it's a matter of targeting the most bent branches first. The cattle are ecstatic.
The chooks have either gone on a mid summer break or there is a nest I can't find. I think it's a 50/50 bet.
Had a relatively quiet day as I returned to work that night.
Another day that started sunny and warm and went to cloudy and cold.
I returned the whippersnipper/brush cutter to Mitre 10 as it ceased working 20 minutes into it's first use. The manager will talk to the maker and get back to me. While I was there I picked up more fertiliser and did the fruit trees, veges and gardens.
I checked out the fig fruit while I was there and ate one small fruit, it was sweet but it wasn't dripping syrup. Here's a photo of another one I picked for identification. These two figs were quite soft, but not large. There are larger figs still on the little tree. From reading I think it's a "brown turkey". I might look for a "black mission" to plant as well, they seem to be the best ones for desserts.
The huon crab apple tree is bearing well, it's first crop. The pink lady is suffering a bit from coddling moth, but the granny smith is looking good.
I opened the Bioworma bucket, that was very well sealed and I think I nearly gave myself a hernia doing it. It's a fungus that kills barbers pole worms and is harmless to animals and soil. I will try feeding it to the sheep mixed into a paste and smeared on bread. It smells a little like aniseed, but it's mixed with livamol, which is a vitamin supplement often fed to horses and it may be designed to be attractive to them, many horse treats contain licorice.
On the sale of the 75 acres front we are advised that the Lands Dept has chosen one of the new plans as one they will accept for registration and it has been sent to Dorset Council for signing. They only took a few days last time so hopefully they will be as quick this time. Then off to Lands for registration. Is that a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel ?
A thunderstorm arrived suddenly at 3.30pm after a sticky morning with very little wind. I went down to the back door on the first roll of thunder only to find Poppy had already beaten me round to the front door. A finely tuned instrument.
I fertilised the citrus trees, but have run out of fruit and veg fertiliser so will have to get some big bags of that ready to do everything. At least the citrus and the craft room pots will have it watered in by this fall.
I blocked all the holes in the spare fuel tank with electrical tape and plastic pots (why are there so many holes into a fuel tank ??) and moved it into the back of Geoff's shed. One more pass to make sure anything in there belongs there and I can hit the broom and duster and start setting up. There are so many containers and "that could be handy" items in there already I need a shelf just for them.
I finally got a chance to make my pastries, a go-to recipe that I use because it works every time. Except this time. Massive fail.
The pastry got so wet and sticky as soon as it defrosted it was like handling snot, there was way too much filling, the rum and lemon flavoured filling tastes like disinfectant, the rose and vanilla tastes like sugar, the blackberries are sour and the strawberries are tasteless, and they stuck to every surface from the bench to the cutting board to the baking tray to the cooling racks.
I tried to use some extra buttery puff pastry, was it too fragile ? I used spreadable cream cheese because I don't have anything that will blend normal cream cheese, but I froze the spreadable in blobs so that it wouldn't become too liquid by the time the pastry was cooked. Turns out the blobs were twice the size I needed. And it seems that we must have close to 100% humidity here today, so the moisture was just wicking into the pastry as it thawed. Sigh.
Another cool day, not alot of wind and the odd shower. Not a good drying day, just as well the old dryer still works.
I cut another weedy shrub out of the poor raspberry patch, now the raspberry canes can fill out the gaps. Threw a bit of fertiliser on the pots down at the craft room and then humped all the boxes of electrical gear out of the craft room and up to Geoff's shed. Cleared a heap of floor space. Next I need to block the holes on the replacement fuel tank for the red ute and get that out to some other storage space.
I picked three buckets of apples off the cider trees for the cows. Those ciders bear so heavily, it's just amazing. When we are ready to make cider I think I might need a couple of drums. I bandicooted some new potatoes out of the vege patch, will roast those tomorrow night.
I also put out minerals for Annie's herd and Belle's gang. The poddy calves all have ringworm so I figured the minerals would help them throw that off, plus it won't hurt the lactating cows any to have minerals supplemented. I boosted Annie's ration by half a scoop of oats as I think she's just starting to drop weight, and it's always easier to keep weight on than try and get a lactating cow back up once they've lost it.
The cattle across the road were all up at the water troughs so I took some licorice over and gave Jack a treat and scratched Sorcha's back, checked on all my critters. Fat and happy.
I dressed the hot spots on Poppy and Finn, I think the humidity and damp has made it hard for their coats to dry through. I cut up an old sock to slip over Finn's front leg where there's a sore he's licking at
In the middle of the day I put Great British Bakeoff on and waded through some admin while Rosie the Roomba tootled around the kitchen and spooked the cats.
Another idea from the internet, the corner shelves alternate so you can put really tall books on the double height shelves. When I build my new house the bookshelves will be built in like this, partly because I have always felt nervous about my free standing bookshelves falling on me while trying to get at the top books. Plus it feels more luxury to have built in book shelves.
