Farm update...

Damian was off work for 2 weeks, so it was a good chance to get a few things done around the farm that he hasn't had the time to do...not good for the wallet though as he only gets paid when he works. He built some shelving in the shed so we could tidy it up and get everything up off the floor. We also had some turf delivered last Friday which has gotten rid of the mud and dirt right outside the front door...ahh...bliss, it is so nice not having mud dragged all over the place. We still have a couple of little sections that we didn't quite have enough turf to finish off, but we have planted bits of grass throughout those areas, so they should grass over fairly quickly hopefully.

We also finished the fencing off around the house yard area, we have run barbed wire and quite small snake mesh, about 5 mm square mesh, so it should hopefully keep most snakes out, I am sure we may still get the occasional one, but we are hoping it keeps out the ones that accidentally end up in the shed area just on their way through to somewhere else.  It has also been an opportunity to start on a few small gardens to make the front area look a bit more homely, we are still finishing off the garden edging with rocks, we have lots here, I am just waiting for Damian to get back from Gladstone so he can drive the bobcat around while I put rocks in the front bucket, much easier that using a wheelbarrow!

The guinea fowl have started to hatch in the incubator, 3 hatched out yesterday and 2 others that were chirping died in their shells, they were a couple of days early, so I am thinking they may not have been quite strong enough to get out on their own...I know it is apparently not good to help them out of their shells, but I think I probably should have pipped the shells for them so they could do the rest on their own. The remaining 4 are not showing any signs of hatching yet, so I am not confident on those, we will see what happens over the next couple of days.

 (First egg pipped)

(Nearly there )

 (Just hatched)

 

(Drying out)

 

(3 Fluff balls)

We also have another new addition to our household, Stella, she is a Bichon Frise and will be a mate for Kasey's pup Sam. She is quite shy, but hopefully after another week or so she will be used to us and be playing with Sam.

 Kasey had a school disco last week, and she went as Catwoman...I have never seen so many little girls dressed as catwoman in all my life...I wonder what the attraction was..it was almost a catwoman parade! We just made her mask out of black cardboard and attached ears to a headband, and finished off with some diamantes, cheap and easy and I think it looked ok.

We have lots of family joining us here on the farm for Easter, so it should be a nice few days. I am hoping to get lots of reading done and some new dishcloths crocheted up. School holidays are here already....yippee, I can sleep in! I am looking forward to it...

Chook sagas...oh...and other stuff...

It's been an eventful few days around here as usual. Kasey was taking Max for a walk yesterday afternoon and came across a large carpet python on the driveway, about a metre and a half long. Damian went out to move it on with the broom, but it climbed up behind the grill of his car, over the engine bay and along the chassis rail, where we lost sight of it. We are hoping it came out overnight, otherwise it will be travelling around a bit. One of the plymouth rock chickens came down really sick late yesterday afternoon. She was all limp and had her eyes shut and was dribbling, we thought she was dead, but she wasn't. I put her in a box to see if she would start to recover but she showed no improvement overnight and seemed to be getting worse, so we had to give her the chop...first one we have done...not nice, but it had to be done, as she was suffering too much, at least it was quick. It was so sudden as she was totally fine yesterday morning, I would say she has been poisoned, either by a snake or spider, possibly even a toad?? Otherwise we have had some mushrooms pop up over the last few days, she may have eaten one and perhaps it was toxic...really don't know, it's all just guessing really. Such a shame as she was quite tame and would sit with me. That's 3 chooks we have lost over the last couple of weeks, Kasey's little pet chook was found dead one morning under their feeder, again a total mystery, we think her head may have got caught in the feeder? Then we lost Bertha the day before yesterday, but she died of old age, she was a good 10 years old!

(Bertha is the black Australorp chicken pictured here)

Damian spent today putting a couple of farm gates on the ends of the verandah in front of the shed to keep the horse and cattle out. Once the area in front of the shed is fenced off it will give us a house yard to keep animals out, and keep the dogs etc in when we need them to be.

He also installed the door at the top of the stairs a couple of days ago to keep the dogs out from upstairs, Max kept sneaking in while we weren't looking, and I found him curled up on our bed all wet and muddy, and that was the straw that broke the camels back, and the door went on. Still needs to be finished off, but it is keeping the dogs out which is the main thing for now.

I went and had my hair done today, I needed a change, and it was getting too long, so I went shorter and a little curly...I'm liking it a lot...

I'm off to a sewing retreat this weekend so I am leaving Daddy at home to look after Kasey and I will go and visit Michael and Toni while I am down there, it's Toni's 20th Birthday on Sunday, and I need to give her her present. So I will have 2 full days of sewing and socialising to do...yay...