2 new girls and a new fence

I spent last Wednesday building a fence to keep the chickens contained down the back part of the property, to protect them from Reggie and also the other 2 dogs, who are starting to copy Reg and get too excited around them now. So, I have put a stop to it all, and penned them in. I clipped the wings on the chickens, and on the guinea fowl, but the guinea fowl still fly out anyway, but the dogs seem to leave them alone, so not a real problem at this stage. So they don't have as big an area to roam around in now, probably only the size of a normal suburban block to roam in, but I now let them out first thing in the morning instead of later in the day, as they can't come up on to the verandahs and poop all over them, which they tended to do when out all day with full run of the yard. But, I can now get some ornamental chickens to keep as well, without having to worry about them with the dogs. Belgian D'uccles are definitely on my list!

                                      
It is so wet around here, the ground is squelching under our feet. The sun is out today though, so hopefully things will start to dry out now. I am in the process of ordering in some dwarf bamboo's to put along this new fence line, to make the fence look better, and to also hopefully solve the problem of the wet areas along there, as the bamboo should dry those areas out. We also went out on the weekend and added 2 new additions to our cattle numbers. A lovely little jersey heifer, she is 18 months old, and came in to her first season last week. We will probably wait about 6 months or so before getting her put in calf, I will look at getting her put in to a Jersey bull and see if I can get a 2nd girl to keep the milk supply going for us once we start milking.

We also picked up a lovely little Hereford heifer, we may keep her to breed from down the track.

So at the moment they are in the front paddock at home, and we will take them up to the farm over the next couple of weeks.

So, lots to do around here today, flowers to order for a wedding next month, house and cabin plans to get to the architect, and a couple of bouquet preservations to work on. Also, some school lunch baking to get done, and need to get back in to cleaning out the sheds in preparation for our re-location to the farm a little down the track.

Where are you missy moo?

We are missing a cow at the property. There are only 15 that we have counted. Damian has ridden all over the property and can't find her at this stage. We have asked the neighbours to keep an eye out for her. Unfortunately because we don't have the crush yet we haven't been able to put coloured ear tags on our girls yet, which would make them easy to identify from the neighbours cattle, so we can only tell by the number on the smaller ear tags which is which. Hopefully she turns up soon. All of the boundary fences are in excellent condition and he couldn't see the fence pushed in anywhere, so it's a bit of a mystery at this stage. Damian also had the cattle grid installed yesterday, so now we don't need to get in and out to open a gate when driving in to the property...yay...

Things are pretty quiet around here at the moment, I have so much book work to do, and a couple of preservations to finish off...really not feeling like it at the moment, but it has to be done...so will kick myself up the bum later and get it done. I am looking at a course run through Milkwood permaculture for later in the year about market gardens, and another about mushroom cultivation, not sure if I want to drive all the way down there on my own yet, will put some more thought in to it as I think it would be worthwhile for the property. Anyway, have done the washing (better hang it out though) and the bathrooms and the floors today, so will head out to the office and try and get some things done before school pickup time.

Farm Update

I am back home today from the farm. The nights have been very chilly. Before leaving yesterday I was sitting in the caravan with woollen leggings, jeans, jumper, woollen jacket, socks, ugg boots, gloves, hot cup of tea and a hot water bottle just to start to thaw out! I enjoyed putting the logs on the fireplace at home last night that's for sure. Before I left I took a few photos to update here with. I am slowly getting the cows used to us. I have been putting a biscuit of lucerne and some molasses on the front of the quad bike and calling them up. They came up much quicker the 2nd day. There are 6 that are much quieter than the other 10, the 10 all stay back just checking me out, but they are all getting much better.

I don't want to get too attached to any of them, but I do want them to come for food when we need them to, and not be afraid of us. I also took a few random shots from up on the hill where we will eventually build the house to the view below. These are a couple of really pretty spots to overlook.

 I thought this timber stack would be a nice photo overlooking the mountains, if you look carefully you will see a little willy wagtail in the shot on the end of the stick closest to the top of the mountains...he flew in as soon as I started clicking away...what a poser!

 He was determined to be in these photos, he then flew to the other side and posed on top of another branch...

We are having some issues with council up at the property. We have a gazetted road which brings us in the 1.2klms from the main road which is in need of repairs to make it accessible in all weathers, Bundaberg council doesn't want to do anything at all to maintain their road, so it looks like it is up to us to ensure it is accessible in all weather, which is what we were expecting anyway, but you would think they could at least grade it or something...but no...not a chance at the moment. It does make it difficult though, because we then become responsible for the road in and for all future repairs. Oh well, may be an opportunity for us to name the road after ourselves..hehe...I'm sure the locals would love that! But at the moment it looks like council won't do anything for us, but then they want to dictate what we are able to do to the road to make it accessible to their standards, even though they won't bring it up to their standards themselves, make us wonder what we are paying rates for...talk about wanting everything their own way. So back home now, and I need to organise a few things to still be done around here. I seriously need to get back in to my routines, they are all over the place right now with dividing my time between the 2 properties...I need to make some yoghurt, do the washing, mop the floors, put on the slow cooker for dinner, as well as finish off the decorating and renovating around the place....energy, where are you?