Mud and cows

We have had quite a few cold, windy and wet days up here at the property. It's our first indication of where the track in needs to be improved to enable year round access regardless of weather. There are a few places at the beginning of the track that are black soil which is becoming quite soft. Also one other area just before an area already repaired that could do with some gravel also. The rest of the track isn't too bad other than coming in our gate. The previous owner said it was very slippery in the wet, he wasn't exaggerating!

We are now leaving the cars outside the gates, and quad biking it in and out of the property, while we wait for things to dry out a little. We are hoping to be able to get a machine in on the weekend to install a cattle grid here and have gravel either side to fix this area. If it's too wet, we will need to wait another week, and hope for no more rain between now and then. 

The cattle are now out with full access to the property, Max and Diesel went down to the small paddock and chased a few of the girls, who ran through the fence to the small paddock, which meant 10 out on the property, and 6 remaining in the smaller paddock, so we let the remaining 6 out to join them, they are now all exploring the property and finding their way around. 

These two girls were coming up to say hello, and then Max and Diesel happened...they chased them....which is a pity, so I will try again tomorrow, this time the dogs will be tied up.

There has been some very chilly nights, in the caravan it's been pretty cold through the night. I bought a hot water bottle and tried it out last night, it works brilliantly, so I will be using it again tonight. Off to cook dinner now, and after work out some more plans to put in place for around the farm.

Our first cattle adventures have begun

We have been up at the property for the last few days, and we have purchased ourselves some cattle. 16 Heifers, 10 of which are brahman cross, and 6 are charbray cross. These girls are about 6 months old, and we will keep them for about 12 months, and we will keep any really nice ones for breeding. We had to first get in a ramp, we had the yard panels which came with the property, but needed the ramp. We went out for lunch to some new friends who manufacture cattle yards, crushes, ramps, trailers etc, who were introduced to us by our very good friends who already own property near ours and we have purchased a ramp from him and put in an order for a crush for ear tagging and injections etc down the track. Here is the sparkly new ramp ready for action

First girl coming off the truck

 And the rest of the girls coming off the truck.

We are keeping the girls in these smaller yards for a few days while they quieten down a little and get used to us and we will start to sweeten them up to us with some molasses treats as well, and then we will move them in to the smaller paddock for a couple of weeks to further their interaction with us and with our yummy molasses to hopefully make them happy to come in to the yards when we need them to.They can then go out to the rest of the property to graze as they wish. They all seem happy enough in here for now, and are very slowly getting used to us.

Damian and Michael have now finished their work in WA, and Damian has started a new job in Bundaberg today which is only a 40 minute drive from the farm, so he is going to stay at the property during the week, and will come home on the weekends or I will go up to the property on alternate weekends and school holidays, which will work out great while we are building the shed and we are also looking at building a small cabin to live in while we build the main house, and the cabin will later be used as extra bedrooms and car accomodation, allowing us to build a slightly smaller main house as we will have extra bedrooms etc in the cabin, rather than building a larger house with the extra bedrooms for when the older kids come to stay or we have guests. So, it's been a busy couple of weeks back and forth to the property organising things and slashing the farm and mowing the orchard etc. We absolutely love the town though, it's so relaxed and the people are lovely, so we can see ourselves fitting in nicely once we get up there full time.

Just sharing a wonderful video..

This video is currently getting heaps of views on youtube, and it's no wonder, if it doesn't make you smile, then nothing will.

It's a man from the US - Isaac's proposal to his girlfriend Amy...he went to so much effort....lucky this wasn't around when Damian popped the question or else he would have had some work to do!

Isaac's live lip dub proposal