Another Day working in the garden

Jenborg put the boot in today and got me out in the garden. I haven't done much gardening lately so it was good to get out. I got the Vegi gardens renewed with fresh soil and mulch so we can continue our winter plantings. I also restarted the paving. This is a sore issue in the house at the moment. I like doing the paving, it's like fencing, it's hard to do and takes allot of effort, but it's very rewarding to look back on. It's just hard to find the time during the winter months to do it. The lambs don't help, they where all over me today as I tried to lay the foundation bricks for the paving. Stepping in the cement, nibbling my ears or is that slobbering. Cinderella was a great help, she laid the cement and kept the lambs off as I put down the bricks. Cinderella loves cementing, it must be the mud thing. There aren't many times you get to make things out of mud with your Dad.

Back to work tomorrow. Spraying crops, fencing and feeding sheep

Another Day Making Apple Crumble

This is not something I do every day but last night I made apple crumble. It's not that I set out to make it, it just happened. After dinner Jenborg and I peeled a few apples to have for sweets. I placed them in the microwave and then Jenborg got on the phone. It was somewhere in the second hour of the call my stomach commanded me to make crumble.

I do allot of cooking, but I have never made apple crumble. Having already made the apples all I had to do was make the crumble. This is not going to be one of those stories where every thing goes wrong and the kitchen burns down, no, the crumble was great. One night and two more helpings later it still tastes great. (I also made custard) In fact I made it so big we will be eating it all week. Who would have thought you could get so much satisfaction out such a little thing.

Recipe
1 kg peeled and chopped apples (nuked in microwave)
Placed in an over proof dish so the apples come half way up.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp all spice
3 wheat bix (crushed up fine) or use rolled oats
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
Mix topping stuff in a bowl and spread on top of apple. Place in oven on high and remove before the top burns. Enjoy.

p.s. if you like the crumble more than the apple, double the recipe, I Did.

Another Day Feeding Sheep

As I was feeding the sheep today I started to get the feeling that soon the farm would be back to normal. No more feeding sheep, pasture growing and fit sheep running around. It's going to be another month but it's coming. This is the third difficult season in a row and it had started to make me question every thing I have done in the past. I have been running a high input high stocking rate system for the past 10 years and in 9 out of ten years it has been successful. We use rotational grazing, perennial pastures and late lambing, all to maximise profits. All the things that every benchmarking survey, consultants report and research program has proven to maximise returns, we have done. They where right, it does maximise returns, except when it doesn't rain, two years in a row. On the other hand cropping has been a great success. Implementing the best practice approach has yielded great returns regardless of the year. At times cropping has been stressful, but nothing like farming sheep. The sheep are totally reliant on you providing all there feed, when they lamb and when they are shorn. With cropping if it doesn't rain, you don't put the crop in. Your not committed until it rains. With sheep all the the husbandry decisions are made before the season starts, before it rains. This is ok in a normal year when it rains at the normal times, but in a drought when it doesn't rain you can't just say ok we wont run sheep this year. Your committed and you have to see it through.

Having been through the past two years I can see why many farmers run very conservative stocking rates. Sometimes it may be the things that happen to us over a short period of time that shape the rest of our lives. Despite how I may feel at the moment,I don't think I am one of those people. I look over what I have achieved over the past decade. The farming system, including the way the farm looks, the stock and there performance and the life we have made here. It's all of those things that will fire me up in three weeks time when I stop feeding and will keep me going as I attempt another 20 shots at this farming game.

Another day and the last of the wethers for sale

We have two buyers for our wethers today. One month ago we were beging people to take them and how we have two buyer lined up at the door. I will be happy to see them go, as it will free up alot of feed for the ewes who are due to lamb in three weeks.

The last few days the wind has been blowing endlessly and I am happy to see it calm down today. I don't mind the cold or the rain but I just hate the wind.

Another Day and it's Cold

30 mm of rain has fallen over the past three days. The feed is really starting to grow now so by the end of the month we should have all the sheep on pasture. Today we drafted up 2000 single bearing ewes (ewes with only one lamb in gestation) and took off the poorer 25% and put them onto 2000 kg DM( dry matter) (a measurement of pasture quantity. On average, single bearing lambing ewes require 1200 kg DM and twins need 1800 kg DM) This should give them a good boost before lambing begins in about 4 weeks. The other 1500 go back to the holding paddock to be fed wheat for a least the next three weeks while the pasture gets a chance to get to 1200 kg DM.

We put the wethers we shore two weeks ago in the shed as there is a sheep weather warning out tonight. It's very cold, wet and windy outside, even with the fire cranked up full we are having trouble keeping the house warm. Tomorrow it's going to be a Max temp of 12 and a min of 5 with 45 km/hr winds. Winter has arrived.

Another Day Away

Jenborg decided at the end of this week it was time to get away for a break, and that was just what we did as we descended on the sleepy town of Denmark for the weekend. I'm not sure the town was ready for us as Cinderella and Za-za preceded to destroy every cafe and shop in the town. I don't think we are bad parents, or neglectful it's just that they don't get to play in town that often and they (and probably us) are not sure of the proper protocols. The staff at the coffee shops give us that look, the one which says "oh boy here we go" but one older lady sitting nearby made a nice comment about how full of life the girls are. This was as Za-Za was ripping up the paper and dropping it on the floor but before breaking up a cup cake and scattering it about the table and floor.

Needless to say we had a great time. The girls loved the beach and managed to get naked despite it being only 14 degrees. Spot the farm girls. Jenborg was happy as she had managed to distress me. I was happy as we all had a great time.

Another Day and the farm is looking green

This morning was one of those times when you realise just why it is you put up with all the crap farming can dish out. I was up the back of the farm digging strainer holes (yes we did another 30 today, 22 tomorrow and where finished) when I spotted a log nearby and stopped for a cup of tea. I pored the tea, looked up and there it was. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky, I could smell the wet earth from the 20 mm of rain the night before, the sun was glistening on the canola leaves, I could see the surrounding farm land all the way to the Stirling ranges and all I could hear were the birds in the trees nearby.

Then my bloody phone rang, as if on cue just to spoil the moment.

But it was a great moment, even for the small time it lasted...

Another Day and 15mm Rain

It rained tonight. The biggest fall this year. Normally by now I would be complaining that we have had too much rain and we can't spray the crops. This 15mm makes nearly 30mm over the past week. I feel things are starting to turn around and we should have some good feed by the end of July.
I spoke to a good friend who works in a government department today, as he was wanting some advice on transporting ewes and lambs from the north of the state to the south coast. The state is in category two drought emergency, which means that the government can direct its staff to assist farmers directly in managing there stock. They are trying to get some protocols up for transporting stock, particularly ewes with young lambs at foot. At the moment it is illegal to transport stock 30 days pre lambing or lambs under 10kg. Due to animal ethics concerns, (the stock suffering where they are) this has been relaxed. The conditions are so bad up north that the stock will just have to be moved to where there is green feed.
As much as I might seem to complain about the lack of rain, I am very thankful for what we have had.

Another day fencing

I dug 30 holes today and cemented a strainer in each one. Not a bad effort if I say so myself. Each hole is 4 feet deep (holes are measured in feet, Why? because to measure the depth of a hole you place the shovel in the hole, place a mark on the handle at the top of the hole , then place the shovel on the ground and placing one foot in front of each other measure the length from the shovel tip to the mark on the handle. Thus feet are the most practical way of measuring holes.) and each strainer is 7 feet long by about 1 foot wide and made from white gum tree trunks. This may sound like a monotonous and boring day but it is quite refreshing to get out in the cold and do a whole day of physical work after spending the last week in meetings looking out the window wishing you where somewhere else.

More grain comming

Today I ordered another 50 tonnes of wheat to feed the sheep. When I ordered the last 50 tonnes, I was sure it would be the last. But the sheep are still hungry and it's now getting too cold to grow any feed so the gain will have to keep flowing. The sheep are looking good and the lambs are fit and well, so it's not all doom and gloom. It's just not right somehow than you work so hard the year before to grow and sell the grain and then find yourself buying it back 6 months later. As I finish this post I can hear Jenborg warming the milk for the lambs. They will soon be happy, tails flapping and heads bobbing.

Rain at last

13 mm of rain has fallen over the past few days bringing much relief to the very dry pasture and crops. More rain coming on Wednesday, I hope it buckets down. We need it. This is our second dry year in a row and we are getting sick of feeding sheep in the winter. Nothing however like it is up North where they havn't had any rain for two years.
We have two pet lambs at the moment, Tippy and Bickie. Both abandoned from there mums. It's just the season we are having. If a ewe thinks she can do better without the lamb she will just walk away. It doesn't happen very often, just natures way of surviving I guess. Cinderella and Za-Za love them, and they make great pets. I made them a little house out of the wood shed today instead of doing the cementing as mentioned in the last post. It is Sunday!

geez i feel tirexd today. i nearly fell asleep at the table when we had guests for dinner. after a week away attending meetings and conferences and now stopping, it seems as though i have hit a brick wall.
today i am going to brave the outdoors and do some cementing work in preparation for jenborg to do some mosaicing in the garden.