14 October 2013

 

 

Wall of mist, Crabtree Road, early morning

 

Rain, snow, sleet, hail and cold winds are driving me indoors and hence I’m forced to abandon my fencing plans for the moment. The weather has been quite atrocious. We woke to snow on the hills this morning and we’ve had regular downpours over the last two weeks. Yesterday we just managed to run all Luke’s 9th birthday party activities in the few windows of opportunity between periods of rain.

 

 

 

 

Bruce, for the entire party

 

We started with present-opening and balloon fights indoors, then started on a round of putting on Bronte’s renovated course. On the second hole, the heavens opened so we ran for the tractor shed for piñata-bashing. Luckily that took an age, by which time the rain had passed. Bronte and Luke had as usual built an indestructible piñata which Luke and I had painted to Mona standards (we thought). The putting was eventually completed, but the tug-of-war competition was curtailed by snow. Enthusiasm un-dampened, the kids charged up the outside stairs and hurled water bombs at a target before tumbling inside and stripping off wet socks and coats.

 

We had hot pies, cakes, home-made biscuits, fruit and other party food, which kept them busy for a good half hour. When asked which was the best bit of the party Luke said ‘the food’ which pleased me of course! I’d had to make 2 cakes – one for his actual birthday on Saturday and one for the party, plus fancy(ish) icing and cornflake honey joys. Our two WWOOFs did sterling work helping keep the boys under control and making scrummy biscuits for the party.

Today, following a rubbish-run, we pulled down the balloon trail from the bottom of our road up to our front porch. The rubbish pile was larger than usual. As the goat float is currently occupied by Brian the Boar, we loaded the rubbish onto the back of the ute and the recycling onto another trailer (minus lights or number plate). Good job Bronte wasn’t here. It looks so much tidier in the tractor shed now. Unfortunately we lost rather a lot of paper en route and had to pick it all up on the way home – mostly from the bottom of ours and Crabtree Road. Luke turned it into a race of course and ran home in order to beat the ute, leaving me and Julis (our sweet Taiwanese WWOOFer) to pick up all the bits he dropped.

Needless to say, my birthday last week passed almost without notice! However, I did get some nice home-made truffles from the girls and brownies for dessert. They also laboured to make Chinese dumplings and salad for dinner, which were scrummy. Bronte bought me the perfume I’d requested (I’d just squeaked the last bit from my previous bottle on the last day of work before my holiday) and Dad and Bridget sent money – most of which I spent on Luke and animal food.

Girls starting out on a walk near our house

Luke has been at home for 2 weeks and I rather thought I was getting ‘rid’ of him back to school today. However, one of the parents at the party yesterday informed us that it was a ‘pupil-free’ day today – how annoying those are! However, it since transpires that it was in fact a school day! So Luke will have some explaining to do tomorrow. I’ve also had 2 weeks off work, for a break and to try and get some stuff done on the farm. Inevitably I haven’t done half of what I planned to do. With Luke at home the first week, the weather, birthday preparations and unplanned emergencies, I feel that little has been achieved. I get so very frustrated.

The WWOOFs are great, but as with all WWOOFs the opportunities for misunderstandings are infinite!  Selena, a French-Canadian, has been company for Julis. We also had Taiwanese Pei for a short while – quieter but equally pleasant. Selena is a great cook and very confident for an 18-yr old. We have very much appreciated them cooking our evening meals and clearing up afterwards. However, I can’t help but be dismayed by the amount of time WWOOFers now spend either on our PCs or on their own smartphones/ tablets or other devices. Even when travelling around with us, they tend to spend the entire time staring at screens rather than soaking up the present experiences. No further WWOOFers are on the horizon. We’ve had various enquiries, but either from people who then change their mind, or from single males or people whose English is not good (it’s just too stressful trying to convey the nature of certain tasks when it is difficult to communicate verbally).

 

I am rather dreading going back to work. The volume of work had built up considerably prior to my taking leave, which is why I was so keen for a break. In fact I intended spending a day of my holiday finishing up a couple of projects I was unable to complete before leaving. However, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to think about work (other than an uneasy feeling of trepidation at the back of my mind). I’m not good at handling the stress these days. Also I’ve had a cold that seems to have hung around for weeks leaving me coughing at night and wheezing through the day.

Spring has meant more activity on the farm. Although we haven’t had goat kids this year, the birds and bunnies are breeding happily. The geese have been hiding in the sedge sitting on eggs, with Arthur the gander on border patrol. So far we’ve only spotted 3 goslings (so green and cute) although one has since gone missing. Arthur was incredibly fearsome when we approached. I’ve seem horrid cravens* diving into the sedge around the dam – hopefully they are only eating unhatched eggs. It’s a trial keeping Rosie away from the dam, I’m sure she wouldn’t be able to resist eating the goslings.

We found 2 white geese that had been abandoned near the turning to our road. Two ‘wild goose chases’ have since come to naught. We tried to herd them up to our dam but just as we were collapsing with exhaustion they took to the air and flew back over our heads back to where we’d started. Luke fell whilst crossing the creek and spent the rest of the day on the sofa holding an ice pack on his knee (limping pitifully when getting up for anything). The geese are still where we found them and seem quite happy. Perhaps at some point they will hear ours honking and fly up to meet them.

We’ve incubated one batch of turkey eggs and have 7 surviving little eating-machines in the brooder cage in the garage. I have been putting a tall cardboard box around them overnight to ensure they stay within the warmth of the lamp (despite the difficulties of ensuring they don’t overheat). However, I completely forgot last night and found one poor little mite stiff and cold this morning – even though the thermometer below the lamp was at 38 deg C. I was really quite upset.

Water bowls in incubator to increase humidity for hatching.
Onion bag mesh is to stop  baby turks from drowning!

 

These little guys were showing signs of splayed eggs. I popped them into these
soap moulds overnight (with elastic bands to hold them in). Their legs were fine
the following day.

 

The little turkeys were particularly fond of out-of-date chicken roll and I’ve now acquired some similarly out-of-date Kransky (a meat and cheese smoked sausage). In addition, they are eating crumbles with stale milk or egg mixed in, plus chopped grass, clover and earthworms (whenever one is unfortunate enough to show itself). There are another 17 turkey eggs in the incubator, although I’m not too hopeful as we’ve had broodies that may have started some of the eggs before we began collecting twice-daily.

The anti-broody cage has been in constant use. Recently, I grabbed 2 turkeys that were piled together behind a small clump of cutting grass. Not knowing which was broody I intended putting both in the cage – however as I was taking them through into the next pen, one actually laid an egg there and then! Poor old bird! Clive the turkey gobbler has been particularly protective and attacks the girls when they go into his pen. I try not to laugh! I leafed through an Agfacts poultry leaflet this morning and it confirmed that the ‘key to snapping birds out of broodiness was discomfort and isolation’. Oddly we’ve only had one chicken broody this season so far (the same one, twice).

We’ve been collecting hens’ eggs twice daily for the last week and put 15 or so into the incubator with the turkey eggs this morning. That way all the eggs will hatch out on the same date (turkeys take 28 days to gestate, hens: 21).  I’ll need to renovate the old covered peacock run within the next 8 weeks so that the baby turks have somewhere to go without being eaten by hawks and cravens*.

In the hope of producing more piglets, we bought a new boar last week – ‘Brian’, a Berkshire:Great White cross. We had to go to Garden Island Creek which felt like the middle of nowhere. Brian is 5½ months old, pretty much able to start working, but the sows are having none of it. I had the idea of parking the float in the pig pen for a week so the girls could get used to him. I was concerned as he’s only around half their size at present. However, after parking the float (a trial in itself), it poured, snowed and blew a gale and I felt poor Brian would be awfully cold and miserable. Luke and I went out intending to sheet the float to at least to keep the rain off. Brian was desperate to get out, so I weakened and stupidly decided it would be OK to free him early. Peppa had spent the last day asleep alongside the float and we’d falsely assumed it was ‘lurve’.

 

Blaize with cream on her nose

As soon as Brian ventured out, Peppa and Blaize began nosing at him - and then pushing and biting. Brian ran around the pen squealing and then went straight through the 8,000 volt electric fence.  He let Luke and I approach him as he nuzzled at the grass and I managed to grab one of his back legs. For the next 20 minutes we gradually maneouvred and dragged him back the 60 or so metres to the float. Luke bravely held the marauding sows at bay except for one occasion when Blaize lunged at Brian and Brian leapt away and pulled me flat on the ground. I somehow managed to hold on and was dragged through the mud until I could halt him. It would have been fun to watch but was pretty stressful at the time! Eventually we got him up the ramp to the float, but at the 11th hour, he jumped off the top of the ramp sideways and my poor hands and lower arms were so tired I just could not hold on any longer. I collapsed on the mud on my back whilst the squealing resumed and Brian trotted off through the fence and up to the veggie patch.

During this trauma the girls were happily making scones in the kitchen, blissfully unaware of the mayhem outside. Luke summoned them out and despite being more wary this time around, Brian allowed me to get close and tempt him with the little turkey’s chicken roll. After gaining his confidence for some minutes I managed to grab him again. This time 3 other people leapt onto him! Selena fetched the Suzuki and her and I lugged him into the back. Then Julis and I held him in place and Selena drove into the pen and backed right up to the ramp. We practically rolled the poor pig head over heels into the float and sat on him while Julis and Luke raised and locked the heavy ramp. We snuck out through the side door and Brian heaved a huge sigh and collapsed sideways into his hay.

It was still raining but I was too exhausted to worry. However, I did finally get Brian more comfortable on Sunday morning before Luke’s party guests arrived. I tied a tarpaulin over much of the float to keep out the rain and gave him another bale of hay into which he can snuggle. Since then we’ve had another inch of rain and I’m not even sure I can get the float out of the pen. My tentative plan now is to either transfer him to the old farrowing pen (which needs repairs) or just leave the float where it is and string a new electric fence across the existing pen to keep the girls on one side and Brian on the other. Whether that would work I can’t tell - I really don’t want to lose another pig! The memory of poor little Winston still haunts me.

With the advent of Spring, the grass has begun growing in earnest around the house. It’s not of course growing where we’d prefer it to grow, ie in the goat and hay paddocks, owing to the continuing ravages of our pademelon plague. Hence I’ve spent much time mowing; heaving our heavy mower across slopes and hollows. It has become easier now that we have the ride-on – Bronte can do all the flatter areas. I’ve also mowed and brush-cut the remaining sections of the new fence route, which was then raked by the girls.

 

 

Jenny's mowing around the house

We’ve begun tackling the installation of reinforcements on the bunny fence. Between bunnies trying to burrow in and out and Rosie assisting by digging wherever she can sniff a bunny smell, we are subject to the occasional escapee. Rosie killed another tiny white one recently. I bought two rolls of aviary wire and angle-ground through them to create 6 rolls of shorter wire. The girls are fastening it onto the outside with netting clips and I’m coming behind to bind it tight to the wooden baseboard with nails and then tent-pegging it to the ground so it can be mown over. The girls started on the inside but contrary to my instructions they put the wire too far up the fence, rather than on the ground. Never mind, if we get a really good seal on the outside that should keep our bunnies in and wild ones out.

 

 

I’ve been doing a good deal more chain-sawing and wood-chopping. With the weather so variable we’ve been having more fires than might be usual in Spring. Just today, we gathered some more wood which I’ve chain-sawed and chopped. It’s not a large amount but I can only manage small amounts at a time – especially when some of the wood is like iron. There are large square lumps of dense Tas Oak which may have come from the parapet or base of the old bridge. Not only are they really difficult to cut through, they are almost impossible to chop. I sharpened both the wood-splitter and the chainsaw today, which helped somewhat.

With all the rain and mud, the goats’ hooves are growing fast and they are also getting foot problems from time to time. In a normal year, I would expect them to be much better by now. I trimmed all the hooves and treated their feet around 4 weeks ago and they now need doing again. I may set aside Thursday morning to tackle them. I can have the girls running around trying to catch the goats!

Went to Hollander Imports this morning in Hobart with the girls and picked up a load of fencing material for my new goat paddock. Not that I’m going to have time to install much before I have to go back to work. Hollander were miles cheaper than all other quotes I received – including Roberts and Mitre 10 in Huonville and two online farm material suppliers. They are ordering in Daikin braid which I’ve never used before. Daikin are a good brand so should be easily as good as the Gallagher Turbobraid I generally buy – Hollander quoted 100 ohms/km resistance which is around the same as 1.6mm steel wire.

Bronte has been gradually planting some of his trees, mowing with the ride-on and burning things! Burning stuff seems to be his chief hobby at present. Not content with spraying and then burning all the sedge in the seasonal creeks, he’s started on areas of sedge elsewhere around the property. We now have a large unsightly black area behind the tractor shed. Luckily, he frightened himself a bit last time because the flames got so large! He’s also been down to the bottom of the block to inspect our really rough area. Everywhere is extraordinarily wet, but the good news is that all my hours of pulling and chopping fireweed, seems to have paid off. I had a horrid feeling that he was going to say there was no change, but apparently the area is much better. I am quite chuffed and hope that we can get some more WWOOFs to help us keep cleaning up all our land over the summer. I’ve noticed that huge thistles are already coming up in places.

 

Away from the farm, we’ve had a few outings. We took the girls to the Spring Festival at the Hobart Botanical Gardens a fortnight ago. The weather was reasonable and the gardens looked lovely as usual. Some of the stalls were interesting – Bronte was particularly taken by the solar-powered slot-cars. Luke and I were more interested in the food and the Punch and Judy. The latter was particularly horrid, since several people got eaten by the sausage machine and turned into sausages – although at least Judy and the baby were retrieved. After that, I drove the girls and Luke to the top of Mount Wellington. We’d taken 2 cars as we had 3 WWOOFs at the time. I’d fretted about the baby turkeys which had only been born the day before and eventually wore Bronte down so he went home early to check on them! Just as well, as the heat lamp was too low. It was cold and blowy on top of the Mountain as usual, so I sat in the car & did puzzles while the others looked around.

 

Luke and I both had a go on this mechanical bucking bull - thinking
it looked easy! It was impossible to stay on! The inside of my thighs ached
for a week afterwards. For some reason the guy in charge said to me: 'you're a
brave one, you'. At least made me feel as though I'd made a decent stab at it.

Top of Mount Wellington

Looking down on North Hobart from the top of Mount Wellington

 

I also took everyone for a hike to Billy Browns Falls the day before Pei had to leave. I’d forgotten that the walk is actually quite tough. I really struggled ascending the steep slope leaving the Falls and wondered if it was owing to my great age, since I had another birthday pending. It may also have had something to do with all the mowing I’d been doing in the days leading up to the walk. The Falls looked as spectacular as we’ve ever seen them and the forest was as varied and beautiful as I remembered. I swear some of the big trees had grown still larger.

 

A week earlier, Luke, Bronte and me went to see the Melbourne Victory A League soccer team play against Sydney Wanderers in Kingston. Quite a treat to be able to see a good soccer game so close to home. Melbourne Victory won 3:0 which was a good result. We didn’t see the first game which was Melbourne Victory reserve team vs ‘Tasmania’. Victory won 6:0. Melbourne Victory is now ‘sponsors’ of the Tassie ‘Victory’ soccer league and intend to play more games over here. We’ve had a quite dynamic chap in charge of Tasmanian soccer for the last year or so. He’s really increased the profile of the game. Unfortunately he’s now been poached by the NRL (rugby league I think). Luke’s soccer season has now ended – he was presented with a trophy of which he’s very proud. However, the A league season has just started – it seems Australia is running a summer soccer season, presumably so as not to be overshadowed by rotten Aussie Rules (AFL), which is a winter game.

 

Luke’s now started Little Athletics again on Saturday mornings and we’ve also signed him up for T20 bash – which will involve actual cricket games with the coaches coming out from Hobart. Bronte and me are alternating on Saturdays now – both of us being out of action for 3 or more hours each Saturday is just a waste of time. So they have to do without Bronte’s officiating skills on alternate weekends. Luke is facing stiffer competition now, from a girl in his age-group. She occasionally beats him in the races and high jump, although he always beats her at the throwing events. The discus and shot-put for his age-group are now rather larger and heavier than last year.

I haven’t yet mentioned my best news, which is that I’ve managed to sell both the Suzuki Swift and the old Ford Courier ute. I had to inch the prices down and ended up about $500 down on what I’d budgeted, but I’m just pleased to have sold them. The new ute is going OK, although I keep finding little annoyances vs my old ute – for instance it has a hand-brake between the front seats whereas before I had a nice space to put my hand-bag etc. Plus I’m not sure it’s quite as good off-road as the Courier. After parking the Brian trailer in the pig pen, I had quite a problem getting out. Not sure it always goes into 4WD when I press the button on the dash! Never mind, it’s reliable and useful and I’ve only got the one lot of registration, insurance and service costs to cover now.

 

My FOUR cars before I sold the 2 on the right

Not a very enlightening photograph, but I was so proud of
having replaced and fixed this tail light prior to selling the ute! Also
finally managed to find the source of the water splishing about in the panels
and get rid of it by removing rubber grommets from under the sills.

*Evil forest ravens (otherwise called ‘crows’).

Thursday 12 September 2013

 

Taken at 6.00am in case it had melted by the time it was light!

 

My desire to share the excitements of the last couple of days has finally overcome my desire to either sleep or crochet in the few minutes of peace between work episodes (of various types). Opened the curtains at 10 to 6 this morning & it was a sea of white outside! Snow everywhere – not just on the hills but on our deck and as far as you can see down the valley. Quite amazing. Proper snow too, not slushy, mucky stuff. Luke terribly excited: “Wow, that’s really awesome Mum”, and later: “it’s really beautiful, as you open the windows it makes a big picture”. It was similar yesterday morning, but there was less and wetter snow. Luke and I ran around throwing extra grain to the birds and getting a very sorry-for-himself peacock back into the run. He’d got out somehow and had been stalking miserably around the run for two days. He was awfully bedraggled, his newly growing tail dragging through the wet snow.

Prior to the snow, it had really felt like Spring had arrived. The most robust of my bulbs had struggled triumphantly out and the crack willow had budded with a burst of fresh green almost overnight. The pussy willows were covered in sticky, furry buds and my little pear tree was a froth of white blossom. I don’t know how the local orchardists will cope with this late snow and frost. If there has been enough snow they may be OK – the snow should blanket and insulate the blossom to some degree. The welcome swallows are back – a week earlier than last year, they’ll wonder what’s hit them. The frost was such that it was with difficulty that I melted 2 inches of snow and ice off the windscreen of my new ute ..

 

.. Yes! My new ute. Finally spotted a ute on Gumtree last week that looked perfect: a Holden Colorado, 2010, 93,000kms, full service history, flat-tray, dual-cab, 3l turbo diesel, for $22K ‘negotiable’. I immediately rang & arranged to go up to Carrick (just south of Launceston) the following day, a Friday. Luke opted to come with me so we gave him a day off school (he did have a cough ..) and he and I set off at 7.30am. It was a quite exhausting day – over 6 hours of driving. But it was a successful visit. I bought the ute for $21K, we visited an Alladin’s Cave of metalwork art and had fun singing to CDs, playing I-Spy and ferreting in a tiny café-cum-junk shop in Campbell Town. Luke was supremely uninterested in the ute, but blown away by the metalwork art! The ute runs lovely, it doesn’t break stride in 5th gear when going up steep Huon Valley hills, has a lovely quiet cab, excellent waterproof covers on the seats for the dogs, a bull-bar and tow-bar etc. Of course, having found nothing for weeks, I spot 2 similar utes for less money in Sunday’s paper. I hope they had very high mileage!

 

The guy I bought it from is an agent for Europcar. The car had been used by someone working for 2 years on the new windfarm in the north of Tassie, commuting in it each day. It’s got the usual little marks and a tiny dent that you might expect, plus a missing bar that protects the back rear light cluster, but nothing material. The guy drove it down yesterday for me to the Hobart Europcar office & Bronte kindly drove me back yesterday evening to pick it up. This morning, Luke and I sat in the warm interior and pressed a button to put it into 4WD – that’s right, ‘pressed a button’. In the Courier I had to select 4H or L on the extra gearstick then clamber out with a pair of pliers and lock the front wheel hubs. I’m just not used to such luxury.

I’ve got the Suzuki Swift onto a few online sites. I need to sell it and the ute pretty quickly to cover the $10K loan I took out & repay the bit I’ve borrowed from our joint savings account. However, I don’t want them to go too cheaply either. So far I’ve had a few texts – one guy who said he was coming to look and then changed his mind and 2 others that I think are probably scams. They said they wanted the car & could I send bank details by e-mail. One had a most convoluted story that he probably hoped was convincing, but all it did was make me suspicious. I said to Bronte that when someone actually phones with an enquiry then I shall feel more confident.

 

I need to clean both cars today and get a few more pics of the Suzuki onto the websites – I only had old ones to put up there & apparently you are meant to show clear photos of the registration plate. So it’s animal feeding, finding out how the peacock got out, getting firewood in and cleaning the car today, amongst the usual washing, cleaning, cooking stuff. But – more luxury – I actually don’t have to go into Huonville this afternoon. Luke’s soccer season has finally finished which means no soccer training on Thursday afternoon and hence no tearing around madly this morning in order to make it to school by 2.30pm and then getting the groceries, mail, animal food, DVDs, library books etc. I can do it at my leisure tomorrow – whoopee.

Clean ute!

Luke's soccer team

 

I’m on another of my starvation diets. I’ve put on around 4kg of the 6 or so I lost over a year ago and was starting to get that sinking feeling when putting on my work skirts or looking in the mirror with no clothes on. Unable to stand the pain of constant weight-watching, nor as I discovered, this 2 days fasting, 5 days eating routine; instead I’m just going for the full-on eating hardly anything for a week or two (just breakfast, apples, pears & carrots). Am also doing sit-ups, because despite the farm-work my tummy muscles have gone awfully slack. I blame Luke.

Much has happened over the last few weeks. Before our few days of warm weather it had remained bitterly cold. With Bronte out of action following his operation, I was obliged to do all the wood-chopping, chain-sawing and carting. When we were perilously close to running out of wood in the tractor shed, I armed myself with chainsaw and sharpened wood-splitter and parked the farm Suzuki on our new land, alongside the creek, where there is a large pile of wood of all descriptions: felled pines, large timbers and parapet from the old bridge, wattles and tas oaks. I started with two huge rounds of ancient tas oak and managed to split them down. Just those 2 comprised a full Suzuki-load. Then I chain-sawed whatever was in reach and within the capability of the small chainsaw. I hauled back 2 more loads to the tractor shed and split the lot ready for the fire. I cursed the cows as I slid around in the mud and their poop, in drizzling rain. It took around 4 hours but I amassed a big enough pile to possibly last out the winter.

 

 

I had moved the pigs into a new, bigger and drier pen, but they were having difficulties with their newly-mended 44 gallon drum feeder. The mud was such in front of the feeder that their little legs sunk in & then they couldn’t reach into the feeder! So over a couple of days I bodged them some hard-standing using two old sacks of cement which had been in the garage since I did the last mammoth hard-standing effort over a year ago, half a pallet, some pierced, decorative concrete blocks (that Bronte had for some reason acquired from the tip shop) and gravel left over from the drive. Remarkably it seems to be working and I see the pigs happily troughing at all hours now.

 

 

 

 

After they had been in the new pen a few days, I went out to get the farm Suzuki to get ready for the big feeding session – and found Peppa pig standing by the tractor shed looking at me! It appears that when Luke and I had fed them previously, we’d forgotten to flick the switch on the energiser to turn it back on. Peppa was hungry and crafty enough to work out she wouldn’t get zapped and had gone on the run. By the time I had all the food ready she’d set off over the brow of the hill towards our neighbour at the bottom of our land. I had to chase her in the Suzuki and lure her back with apples & cooked potatoes. I’ve been diligently remembering the energiser since then and have heard a squeal occasionally as she tests the wire with her nose.

 

 

The birds, goats, rabbits, cat and dogs are all doing well. No bird losses over winter touch wood. I have finally fixed the currawong ravages to my net over the peacock run, although a largish hole remains around a wattle that needs to be patched. It is perhaps where Pasha made his escape. The guinea fowl are much tamer now and chirrup happily when I come with their food. The female peacock is so tame that she was under my feet while I fixed the net. Only Rosie-dog upsets them all. When she runs around the pen, the guinea-fowl set up a terrific racket. The turkeys have begun laying again. I’ve got a batch of 18 eggs in the incubator, due early October. One turkey has gone broody, so looks like I may have to bring the broody cage into play again. Two female geese have gone missing. Luke nearly trod on one in the sedge and leapt into the air when she hissed fiercely at him. I assume they are sitting on eggs.

The rabbits have been doing what they do best and there are now dozens of them. I shall have to thin down their numbers at some point. Also, wild rabbits (or perhaps escapees) are digging into the pen from the outside, aided and abetted by Rosie. This leaves holes which the babies use to escape. I’m fighting a rearguard action at present, blocking holes, but need a more permanent solution. Perhaps more aviary wire that I bend out at the bottom and peg into the ground.

The goats had a fit one Spring-like morning. I lay in bed and watched them racing around in circles, chasing each other in and out and around the huts, springing in the air with all 4 legs off the ground, butting one another and wagging their tails. They obviously felt the change in the air. I’d never seen them go quite so made before. It has been quite windy too, which can make them frisky if it’s not too cold. I’ve started on the hay that’s been kept in the shipping container. I love the warm, cooked grass smell in there – it reminds me of hot, dusty days and rippling meadows. The goats seem to appreciate the better-preserved hay. I am giving them 6 bales on Sundays now, instead of the usual 4, to discourage them from eating too many of the few brave shoots of grass that escape the pademelon ravages. It is just this time of year when they can get tummy upsets and pick up big loads of worm eggs.

Luke and I performed a rescue mission on a neighbour’s goat last week. It had apparently been acting unwell and mopey. We gave it a dose of worm drench, several doses of my magic goat formula and tidied up its feet and treated it for any foot bacteria. I actually used my thermometer for the first time (stuck it up its bum) and it had an elevated temperature. I prescribed lots of willow branches – the bark seems to do wonders for goats. Anyhow, it is apparently feeling better now. No idea what was wrong with it!

Rosie-Dog had a scabby snout and I’ve been treating her with zinc cream. She tries to lick it off but her tongue won’t quite reach. So then she tries with her front paws. However, it does seem to be working – again no idea what caused the scabs, but she’s always poking her nose in holes, mud and other unspeakables. Bruce has had a haircut, much to his annoyance. He was looking hot and hairy when we had our few mild days, so I tackled him with the scissors. It took about an hour, but despite him trying to bite me on various occasions, he did get a fairly severe trim. Luke got the same treatment the following day, but with the shears this time. He does look much neater now!

 

We’d been looking at old photos of Luke as a baby and young toddler. You forget how unbelievably cute and innocent they are. All smiles and curls and gurgles. I do hope I appreciated him enough at the time. The horrors of living in a caravan, with no family or friends around, a baby I wasn’t sure what to do with and Bronte out working on the house most of the time, may have overshadowed my pleasure in him – which is real shame.

Poor Murphy got shut outside for several hours in 2degC recently. What a commotion when he did come in – wowwing madly at us and prowling around disgustedly. He’s really not made for cold weather. Rosie got shut in the garage too one evening. She shot out like a catapult when I opened the door. Murph’s now lying on the desk under the lamp, his tail on the keyboard, in hyper-purr mode.

 

Bronte and Luke finally had their bonfire in the goat paddock. There had been a build-up of sticks up there from browse I’d cut over the winter. Luke had been itching to burn it and when we tried before it was just too wet. This time they had a raging inferno on their hands. Not satisfied with that, they’ve been out every evening burning the dead sedge in the seasonal creeks, which Bronte had sprayed. I can see the attraction because once you grasp the weed wand (it has a gas cylinder & once lit is like a long gas torch), it’s hard to resist burning something!

I’ve been continuing with my crocheting and have totally neglected all the mending. I’ve pulled more patterns off the net and am planning to make a sort of ‘sampler’ blanket. I have tackled my pillow though, sewing it such that it has a thick section where my neck is and a hollow for my head. I’ve been suffering a long time with sore shoulders, particularly my right side. Whilst I can’t cure that, the pillow does seem to stop the pain spreading into my neck and head, which is a relief. It’s not perfect, but certainly an improvement.

We had our federal election last weekend, which was an awful damp squib. I had planned to vote Labor, but when they started sending genuine refugees to Papua New Guinea and reneged over the forestry agreement in Tasmania, I changed to Green. At least I had faith in the candidate who stood in our electorate, she’s a lovely, intelligent lady – a progressive Green. Labor got back in again in our electorate (marginally), but the so-called ‘Liberals’ unfortunately won convincingly overall. I think people will live to regret their decisions. Tony Abbot doesn’t believe in climate change, has no problem with live animal exports, is planning major cuts in public services, has no truck with people of less intelligence/ opportunity than himself and intends to radically slow and emasculate the roll-out of the National Broadband Network (so badly needed). At least good old Andrew Wilkie got back in in Hobart – he’s an independent, the only person in parliament who seems to have real integrity and principles.

I hope they do something about the education system in Australia. It has recently been shown to be one of the worst systems in the developed world and well below most Asian countries. I can well believe it. When I see what they teach Luke it baffles me. A bright kid is quite capable of being taught how to do sums without the complicated steps they take kids through these days. Talk about holding good kids back. Plus the lesser-able kids don’t get the chance to shine amongst their peers, and are in with the rough and tumble of mixed ability and mixed aged classes and lack the one-to-one attention they need. No teacher can possibly create lessons that meet the requirements of such mixed classes – it isn’t humanly possible. I’ve been sent a school parent-survey form, so I can feel a bit of a rant coming on.

The school had its book fair a couple of weeks back. As usual Luke had no idea what book character he wanted to dress up as and refused to apply his brain to the problem. He’s been reading lots of the Terry Deary Horrible History books of late and in the end I suggested he went as a Viking. We had a mad scramble the night before. I converted an old cap into a Viking helmet, Bronte made a foil shield and axe, one of Bronte’s old shirts without the sleeves did as a tunic, an old leather belt of mine went around the middle and my great-grandmother’s ostrich feather stole did sterling service as a Viking cloak! He looked quite convincing in the end. I had to take him into school that Thursday morning and endure an endless array of kids in character costume before Luke got to say his piece. It was quite a fun occasion for the kids however. The Horrible History books are great – Luke loves them and learns a surprising amount, some of it undeniably gory! I love the television show, it’s a scream.

 

We had a ‘Science Week’ here in Tassie, although it passed by with little fanfare. They did have an open day at the Grote Reber Museum of Radio Astronomy which I’d been keen to visit for some time. It was fun to see the huge dishes and Bronte listened to a long lecture on black holes and the expanding universe. We looked through telescopes and saw a sun-spot on the moon and saw people eating marshmallows frozen in liquid nitrogen. Local farms and wineries had stalls there so we ate lamb sausages and home-made brownies.

 

I excelled myself on the cake front last weekend. Bronte had invited a work-mate and his family over for ‘high tea’. He’d looked up ideas for little rolled up sandwiches of smoked salmon and cream cheese and I was in charge of cakes. I decided to do extra since people are always bringing in morning tea at work and I’d never taken in anything. Luke and I made cream slices with the puff pastry I’d kept frozen from when I made rabbit pie, butterfly cakes, flapjacks, walnut brownies with fudge topping, scones and mince pies (I found a jar of fruit-mince in the cupboard). Needless to say there was heaps too much, not only for the high tea, but also for everyone at work. I carted it all in including heaps of cream and home-made jams, but still ended up bringing some home (much to Luke’s relief). I was told that I ‘was a proper old-fashioned cook’ – apparently most Aussies buy frozen pastry and use cake mixes. A guy who I don’t think has spoken to me since I joined, informed me that my brownies were ‘quite delightful’. However, the cooking and the socialising, pleasant though both were, were quite exhausting – so don’t think I shall be doing either ‘high’ or ‘morning’ tea for some time to come!

Bronte has been busy planting trees, now that he feels more up to digging and bending, and he and Luke have been making bridges. Bronte suddenly got seized with the notion of making an arched bridge over the seasonal creek in the sedge bowl, which would take the weight of the ride-on mower. I’d made a lovely job of cleaning and tidying the garage, but now there is a rig holding treated pine planks in an arched shape in the middle of the floor, for me to trip over all the time. He’s been steaming them with the wallpaper stripper. I’m sure it will be quite impressive, but Bronte’s purism may mean it will not be strong enough to take the mower (he refuses to use uprights under the arch span).

Inspired, Luke also picked up the cordless drill and made his own little bridge out of pine planking from Bronte’s old ‘cottage style’ bed which I’d dismantled in another tidying fit a year or so ago. He made a remarkably good job of it. However, a misunderstanding led to tears and howls. He thought his Dad was making a bridge to go over the main creek, so insisted that his bridge be balanced on rocks across the creek. It worked a couple of time and then kersplash, it tipped and Luke fell heavily into cold water and hit his hip on a rock. Poor little mite, my heart ached for him! Anyhow, we now have it across the seasonable creek as a footbridge between the 7th and 8th holes on the newly reinstated putting course. Bronte mowed the course, replaced the flower–pots in the holes and put out the flags before our guests arrived last week. We all had good fun putting and remarkably I came 2nd after Bronte, despite my erratic playing.

 

 

Jenny pulling face in kitchen