RIP Buttercup :(

Well a new day, and another curve ball thrown....I noticed yesterday afternoon that Buttercup didn't come up with the others for food, which I thought was unusual. This morning, she didn't come up either. I had a feeling something wasn't right, as she was the only one that hadn't come up. So Kasey and I went looking for her...and found her....very, very dead.  I have been away all week, and Damian hadn't noticed that she wasn't here, so we're not sure how long she has been missing. She looks to have been gone at least a few days. She was here before I left to go down to Brisbane.  I have no idea what has happened, as it's really hard to tell when there isn't much left. I was only saying to Damian yesterday afternoon that I would like for him to build me a milking shed so I can start to keep her around the house yard more and start feeding her up and start milking her soon... sigh....not much I can do about it....
Now that we are getting the water sorted here with the new bore, our next focus is on fencing. We need to start fencing off some paddocks, and fencing the animals away from being right next to the house better, and building some smaller yards etc, so that's the next important step for us. Then we will be able to focus on improving the pastures. I don't think I'll look at getting another milking cow until we do this.

 Rest in peace Buttercup

The bath tub brooder..

A friend gave Damian 24 fertilised eggs a few weeks back, all the light sussex breed. So in to the incubator they went. They are all hatching at the moment, and so far we have got 18 hatched and another 1 on the way. One has died in it's shell, and the remaining 4 haven't shown any signs of doing anything yet, so we're not holding out for those to hatch. It is day 21 today, so we'll see. That's probably one of the best hatching rates we've had to date. The person who gave us the eggs said he spritzes the eggs with water in the last couple of days to keep the shells moist, so we tried this along with the higher humidity we normally do in the last 3 days, so not sure if this is the reason why we have ended up with a higher than normal hatch rate, but we'll certainly do that again.
I usually put the chicks in a large cage I have here with the brooder light, but the chicks flick the wood shavings all over the ground, and it makes a really big mess. The man who gave us the eggs says he uses an old bathtub as a brooder, which we thought was a great idea, and we have a few old baths around here, so Damian set about making a stand and putting a mesh lid on the bath, and......ta dah!

He has made it nice and high for easy access, and to keep the dogs out of it. He also cut a hole in the mesh at the top for the brooder light to be able to poke through so we can keep it high enough for them. They seem nice and happy in their temporary home.

These 2 have hatched in the last couple of hours, with another one on the way, which is the egg on the right with the pip marks in it....

We went to the markets this morning to get some fruit and veg, and I picked up the huge basket full of lettuce and herbs for  $8!!   I thought that was way too cheap, but apparently that is what she sells them for.

I just got back from a week in Brisbane with the big kids yesterday afternoon, and friends of ours on the Sunshine Coast did a big garden clean out while I was down there, and gave away all of their agaves, so I went and picked up some of what they had, and planted a few down in Brisbane and the rest will be planted up here...it's about the only type of plants that grow well here at the moment, hopefully as Damian now has the bore sprinklers working it will keep things a bit more lush and green and we will be able to have better luck with the gardens. I also did a big garden clean up while in Brisbane and pulled out a heap of wild iris, and bought just a fraction of them back up to plant here as well.

So, lots of planting to be done over the long weekend. Kasey had a fantastic week at her horse riding camp and is looking forward to going again, I said she may be able to go to one of the Xmas holiday camps. She was keen to show me how much she has learnt today, as she can also do a rising trot now, so she saddled up her horse and we went down to the yards for her to have a ride. Unfortunately, her horse had a flip out on her again, and bucked her off.....again...so Kasey promptly announced she is never riding Magic again, to which I said, "I don't blame you, I wouldn't ride her again either", ...so we are on the hunt now for an OLD plodder for her....she wasn't hurt, she has a grazed elbow, but that seems to be all, luckily. Poor kid....We also seemed to have solved the crow problem, we have closed the doors in to the house area of the chook pen, and there is a small access door that the chooks use to go inside. Since closing the doors, we are no longer losing any eggs, so the fridge is finally starting to fill up with eggs again. Next project here for me will be for Damian to build be a small corrugated vegie garden with a shade cloth roof so I can grow some vegies, it's too hot without the shadecloth, so I am hoping I have some success with growing some veg again sometime soon.

Stone the flamin' crows...

We have been losing all of our eggs lately, every last single one of them! We haven't been able to pinpoint what has been taking them, so we installed a hidden surveillance camera in the chook pen which takes motion sensored pictures. It took a few days, and I thought the problem had gone away as no eggs were being taken, and then all of a sudden, they were all gone again, this time with photographic evidence...

Darn crow !! I'm not too sure how we are going to fix it, we've never had a crow taking our eggs in the 20 odd years that we have had chooks...I think Damian might have to get handy and build some rollaway egg laying boxes so that the crow can't get to the eggs...one day soonish we may build our proper chook pen as this one was always meant to be temporary...hmpff...we've also lost 2 chickens over the last few weeks, we lost our little polish girl a few weeks ago, and in the last few days our araucana has disappeared as well, both of them have just vanished...no feathers, no anything....another mystery...it's getting to the point of keeping them locked up all the time...
It's the start of school holidays tomorrow, Kasey is off to a horse riding camp for a week, and Damian and I are heading away for a couple of days for our 25th anniversary...yikes....25 years....wow...where has the time gone??

Peppers' journey so far.....

Last weekend we rescued a little pony from being sent to slaughter at the doggers. I don't know how she has ended up there. She is an absolutely gorgeous little girl, but she is so scared of humans. When I went to the yards to pick her up, we had to corner her in a small yard, and she just shook when I went near her. She was pretty grubby, with mud caked on her and when we got her home, we gave her a good scrub and she was so good. Still very scared, but no nastiness in her at all.

Above is how she was when we picked her up, she is the same colour as her face all over, so you can see how dirty she is. After her bath, I gave her some food and let her go in the front paddock which is about an acre. She wouldn't let us back near her after that. The next afternoon we rounded her up down the back to a small yard, and managed to corner her in a little laneway, where I did a bit more handling with her, and Toni and Kasey both sat on her and she took it all in her stride, as we found out she had been broken in.

The next day I approached her a few times in the smaller yard, and already she is starting to improve, and did not have to be rounded up quite so much, she stood in the one place and let me approach her, still very nervous though.  If she was in a larger yard I don't think I would have succeeded.  The next day with some very patient coaxing, we loaded her up on the float for the 4 hour trip home. She wasn't too bad, took about 15 minutes to get her on, but she went on slowly and calmly, and was really good for the whole trip home. When we got home I put her in our cattle yards for the night, fed her and rugged her. The next day (yesterday) I put her out in the BIG paddock with the other 2 horses and crossed my fingers she would come back. Yesterday afternoon I tied the big horses up while they were eating, and sat and held a bucket of food and she eventually approached me and had some dinner while I held the bucket. (In the middle of all of this, Doughy our bull decided he wanted the food and I had a bit of a fight on my hands as he can get a bit nasty if he doesn't get his way, Damian and the dogs had to end up moving him on) I did the same this morning, and she came up to the bucket pretty quickly, so from running away terrified to eating food out of a bucket from me in a few days is a really big step for her. The next steps will be to get her relaxed enough to actually let me touch her while she is eating from the bucket... I'm not going to rush her though....I'm still shaking my head as to why and how she has ended up being sent for dog food, she is only about 5-6 years old, and will be an excellent kids pony with some training and patience....

Welcome to our family Pepper....

Hertie Gertie...

Yes??

Have you been in to the molasses bucket?

ummm....no....what makes you think that?

Remind me again why we have animals??

lol....lucky he's cute and loveable.....naughty Sam....

Kasey's first horse

When we moved up here, we promised Kasey that we would get her a horse. It has taken a while to find the right one for her, at the right money, and at the right time for us to have the money as well. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago on the local notice board, I saw a little filly for sale who sounded perfect. I rang about her and went out to see her. "Magic" is the right height for Kasey, about 13 hands high, 5 years old, Quarter horse x whaler, broken in and pretty quiet. I went all over her, touched her everywhere, tugged on her tail, touched her teats, picked up her feet etc, and she took it all in her stride. The guy rode her around and she didn't have any desire to take off or do anything silly, so I decided she would be pretty good for Kasey's first horse. She had only been on a float twice in her life, but she went on really easy when we picked her up. She has taken to kicking out though, and she booted poor Kasey right on the side of her knee, she screamed, as you would, and has a nice bruise to show for it. She is obviously still quite unsure of her surroundings here, so I am putting a little of it down to that, and my horse Ziggy has been giving her a bit of a hard time as well, so she is a little nervous, but I am currently working on teaching her that kicking is not the done thing. Other than this little bit of an issue, she is a nice little horse though.

I have said to Kasey that to be around horses, you really do have to become pretty tough, and unfortunately the odd kick, or foot getting stood on, or falling off is all part of the process. You learn to become really aware of what your horse is doing and the tell tale signs, you learn to wear proper boots, and you learn to stay on pretty quickly! Kasey is not allowed to be around her horse unless she is wearing her boots, and she is not allowed to ride without both boots and her helmet. Kasey is still quite uneasy at the moment. I am going to sign her up for a 1 week horse camp over the next school holidays, so she can learn a few more skills and make new friends as well. Kasey had her first riding lesson today, I started her off down in the yards on a lead line, and at the end of the lesson, I let her ride up to the shed with me walking behind her. All went well until Ziggy decided to go a bit silly, and Magic got a bit worked up, but she didn't do anything other than become a bit quick. Kasey got a bit scared, so I walked her a bit, and then she got off, so next time Ziggy will be tied up and we will go out of earshot.