Goodbye Autumn!

A beautiful morning. Misty, sunny and cold! A real Autumn day for what is in fact the last day of Autumn!

Eclipse survived his first night very well and once his (purple!!!) rug came off he went for a wander down the driveway. It's nice standing on the front veranda and seeing our horse peeking at me through the trees!

l wormed him today so am keeping him close at hand for the next day or so to carefully examine his droppings to get an idea just how many worms come out! Hard to do in a big paddock. He didn't mind a bit and spent a large part of the day asleep outside the barn door.

He knows the food is in there he's just too polite to go in uninvited!

The rest if the day he just ate...and ate.............. oh and l rode him!!!! l put on my old bridle which doesn't really fit him and scrambled on top of an apple crate and jumped on! Very high up!!!!!! l plodded (literally!) down to the gate then with much kicking and flapping managed to rumble up a trot on the way back. Very uncomfortable l must say as his backbone was very prominent and each stride seemed to go on forever! No doubt it will be better WITH a saddle on! Fun though!!!

We took the goats down to the River late this afternoon to collect some kindling for the fire. This was Toggle's face when she saw Eclipse in the drive!! NOT impressed! Not quite ready for a proper introduction yet!!

l gathered a boring bag of tree bark, sticks and gum leaves. Toggles however thought it was fascinating and stuck her head right inside to have a good rummage around to see what l had been doing!!! Whoever coined the phrase 'Curiosity killed the Cat' obviously never owned a goat!!!

Arrived!!!

He's huge and he's beautiful! Well mannered but massive!!! He's thin but he will grow!!! Here are a lot of photos!!!

 Meeting the cows!

l bought his head collar for my Clydesdale the last time l went to England in 2002. When l sold all my heavy horse gear before l left WA this was the only thing (apart from my saddle and bridle) that l couldn't bear to part with! Fits perfectly!



More Fame!!!!

You know, some people might THINK that our little town in the Huon Valley is a backwater to end all backwaters.....BUT.....today... AGAIN....we were bombarded by fame, lights, cameras and ACTION as Matthew Evans of 'Gourmet Farmer' fame swanned around our store with his entourage of cameras, sound men and little people running around with disclaimer forms in case any of us should appear on his Show advertently or INadvertently!!!

To those who don't know who or what he is........... here is a link!!!

http://www.matthewevans.net.au/

Again my dislike of the subject makes it difficult for me to enter (with any enthusiasm!)  into a detailed description of who he is and what he does!!!!  In a nutshell.... he's an ex (apparently savage!) food critic who left Sydney to relocate to a farm in Cygnet ( small town not far from here!)

His 'adventure' into self sufficiency has been documented into a TV series now l think into its third season on SBS television. He's a bit of a wally really................we think.............We tried watching his shows but from memory we gave up by about the second one!!! Anyway he graced us with his presence today. How do we cope with all this fame???

One thing that DID make us all laugh here was that as he strolled up and down the aisles with his shopping trolley , one of the little SBS minions had to run along in front of him turning all the balloons we have all over the place (advertising and promoting Channel Nines The Block ) AWAY from the cameras so the Channel Nine logo wasn't visible in THEIR camera shot!!!! Ah the politics of television!!

Wet and New Yards!!

Well the place is getting wet now! The Rivulet is roaring and  even the Platypus has taken to higher ground! We have both come across him further up stream in the wide shallower ponds near the river pump. Obviously the water is calmer up there then down by the bridge! The goats find it more and more difficult to cross the winter creek that flows through the paddock when we go for a walk! Faithful little things that they are though they teeter on the edge and complain, bleat and grumble but always manage without too much trouble to leap across and join us on the other side!

And we have just about finished the yards which we are very happy with!!! We now have two reasonably decent sized half out, half undercover yards. One for the sheep and one for the cows. Horse ones to follow!!!!!!!

We have made them very adaptable so we can also run animals right past them straight into the loading ramp area just by opening both gates.The fact that all our animals follow us faithfully with a handful of nuts in a tin is by the by. ONE DAY we might have feral animals here that we need to run in with whips crackin' and dogs barkin'...and we will be prepared!!

Delay!!!

Well much to my frustration Eclipse is now arriving on Wednesday!!!! A few issues with transportation has resulted in a change of plan. l now go up there and collect him myself with the help of a gentleman by the name of Joe who owns Eclipse's half brother. (Haven't met Joe yet but he sound like a nice enough bloke!!!)

Hopefully as well we have just scored a little friend in the shape of a three year old grey Welsh Mountain Pony gelding. He has an old leg injury which makes him unsound for every day use so as a companion and occasional pony ride giver his life here should be ideal. HE arrives on Saturday. We can have him on a months trial as his owner wants to make sure that he is quite suited for us before we commit to him! Very nice!

We are looking forward to meeting this little fellow!

The Block!

Today at work we became( for a few hours) part of one of Australia's most popular reality TV shows!!! The Block! This is the link to it and what its all about.
http://homes.ninemsn.com.au/theblock/
As a non television watcher l was totally nonplussed by the whole event and even having to describe the Show is a little bit tedious! In a nutshell  it is commercial television at its best (or worst!!) and a hundred or so people turned up today to get 'Dale and Sophie' to sign autographs  and to see their reality stars in the flesh!
l personally was more entranced by Breeze the Dulux Dog! She (yes she's real!!!) was only 15 months old and  she sat as still as a statue on this platform for two hours whilst chaos reigned around her!

This was the other end of the Store...people.......noise......giveaways and games

Photos galore for the local newspaper and TV Stations...........

 And people queuing for autographs..........

While over at MY end of the Shop Breeze quietly posed next to the pretend Dulux Dog...........not quite as big..... but she sat up as straight as she could to TRY to be!

And finally sat down exhausted after her big famous day!!!!

The human stars were out there somewhere.........l think!!!

Timber!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Geoff dropped off the timber for the sheep and cattle yards.

He also dropped off some timber pallets....................might come in useful one day.................

Sort of like all the long thin wooden sticks he brought home the other night................!

There's LOTS of "useful' timber  here too...............................do you see a pattern forming???

Here's all the old bridge timbers (that l must admit we have used a few................!)

And these were the latest arrival in the hardwood department. Not so useful really......rather rotten but should make good firewood!!

Ahhh and round the corner of the barn we have a few more pallets..............you can never have too many pallets!!!!...................Geoff says!

Then we go into the barn...................where there's more wood....long stuff.......................!!

And short stuff........................never know when you might need short bits!

And last but definitely not least......................MEDIUM bits!

Yep! No shortage of wood around here!!!!!!

Eeeeeek!

Well Geoff and l are now proud (very proud!!!) owners of a 17.3 hh black Shire called Viewfields Total Eclipse!!!!! Yep... we bought him. l took Geoff up to see him last week and again l was overawed by his size and his gentleness. Geoff was too!!! He is skinny and the vet check we had done has revealed sharp neglected teeth so hopefully a visit from a horse dentist will knock out those wolf teeth and enable him to get big, round ,fat and shiny!!! The race is on now to finish yards and build him a shelter............and to find him a friend!!!!! He arrives on Monday..
This is a photo l found of him on Google with the lady who bred him. At some Show as a yearling l would say from the size of him!

So life is going to speed up even more here now!! Earlier mornings with rugs, feed, mucking out yards, farriers.............. here we go again! Am l mad?????

The Cherry Tree out in the orchard is now completely bare. It's a very very old tree and we are not sure how many years it has left before it falls over! The branches are covered in Lichen which becomes all the more apparent when the leaves are gone.

It reveals the side of the house we don't generally see much of! This side of the house is where we are going to build a long veranda (one day!!!) down the side for long Summer evenings and shelter from the worst of the weather in the Winter months.....(0ne day!!!)

Wind and A Windfall!

Last night the wind howled and roared. We woke this morning to relative calm but not much left on the Walnut Tree!

The higher the tree the lesser the leaves! Just a few left now at the bottom. The top is bare as bare!

The Quince Tree leaves are still hanging in there though!

And today we received a rather sad but amazing letter in the mail from the Local Livestock Agent...... The three doomed Drakes l sent off to Market fetched a staggering $65 combined!!!!! Who on earth paid $20,and $20 and $25 for them!!! Madness!!! l was expecting about $2 for each if l was lucky!!! l called in to the butchers on my way home to ask what it would cost to buy a dressed duck from them and he said about $24 , so even he couldn't understand why someone would pay so much for live ones!! Did it mean they all went to happy homes??? Probably not ...........but it was a nice surprise anyway!!! Thank you boys!!