Oct 6th 09

You will have to excuse the lateness of my updating. My host providers updated their servers and I have had major problmes updating. I have done this page about 6 times.

Hopefully it will show up ok.

The cold wet weather continues. We are having a very late season, great for the pastures but a bit of sunshine would be welcome.

There was one day when it came out quite hot, and my daughter dug out her shorts and waded in the creek, and the dogs collapsed in heaps after their run. However the next day the ‘winter’ was back.

Oh well it will warm up soon enough and probably hit us like a ton of bricks, so I am not complaining as I much prefer the cool weather.

The clover and capeweed is at last starting to flower. The wildflowers are very late this year though. Kangaroo paws are beginning to flower, but no sign of the spider orchids, cowslips or donkey orchids yet.

We have had a bit of a break form farm work but are getting ready to jet our sheep for protection against blowflies. When it does warm up the flies will come in waves, and a warm wet sheep is a prime target.

In the meantime I have been catching up on a bit of gardening and cleaning up. The verandah looks better for a once over and the yard got a re-organize too.

Here is our latest project. The ground in our yard is clay and much too hard to grow anything so we now have two raised beds where we are going to grow vegetables. The baby tomatoes have germinated in the house and we will plant them out as soon as it warms up. Also we will probably grow some celery, silverbeet and herbs there as well.

My other garden, which is near chook pen is looking good and enjoying the rain. The slugs are also enjoying the lower leaves but I am not concerned as I don’t like to use any chemicals so they are welcome to them.

The dogs are getting a bit bored, as none of them have been worked. I did a bit with Leena a week or so ago, but haven’t got around to doing any more.

Dogs at rest and play.  

Not sure what was happening here. I think Leena was going a bit fast and ran into Rio who just gave her a warning as no-one was hurt.

So as they are all looking for something to do, baby ducks are a prime target. The mother duck takes of with her broken wing act which draws s,ome of the dogs away but the rest do notice the baby ones running through the grass. So I have been getting a bit stern with them. I hate to see the ducks harmed. Once the babies are in the water they are safe. The dogs just do laps around the edge or try to swim out to them but off course they just dive under the water. Quite funny actually.

And to keep us occupied we have hatched out 60 chickens in the incubator.

Some are eggs from my Aracaunas and some are Isa Brown eggs I got from my brother.

We put them in separate boxes and interestingly the Aracaunas are much more animated and friendlier than the Isa Browns. I think Isa Browns are just bred to be an egg laying machine, while the Aracaunas are a more utility hen, suitable to free range, go broody. (the Isa Browns dont) and generally live a more functional life.

As soon as they are a bit bigger we will move them outside to a big pen under lamps, but we will continue to compare the two breeds for interest.

And as it is school holidays I have my daughters help. She loves looking after the chickens. Kids do have uses.

Samantha is eleven now, growing up too fast. She had three friends over for a birthday sleepover and they have started listening to rock music already. Sigh!

Sam and Balto having a wrestle.

They had a bit of a band going and sang at a recent quiz night. They were quite good and it was a lot of fun.

She will be at boarding schol in a couple of years. I dont like to think about it too much, it is just too soon.

The Margaret River Three sheep trials looms and as usual I have done no training.

Also I have been informed that I have to have a go at judging as I now have over 1000 points in three sheep trialing. Once we reach that tally we all have to judge. I decided that as Marg River is an unofficial event it might be the best place to start.

We start shearing in a few weeks so things will be busy again. But it will give me a chance to get some of the young dogs working and earning a living. Or not.