Rain!

Today it rained and rained and rained. All day... non stop! The yards are quagmires and the Rivulet is a raging torrent!The little lambs had no intention of getting wet and huddled in the chook shed to watch the rain come down.

On my way back to the house l suddenly heard this' boom.. boom.. boom'! l had no idea what it could possibly be so l ran down towards where it came from which was the garage. There l found this massive horse determinedly trying to get into my car to get to the horse pellets that were on the back seat! Is a horse's sense of smell REALLY that good????? l was quite amazed and slightly bemused as l could see that he wasn't going to actually damage my car. So l quickly snapped a few photos before l shooed him off before he DID possibly damage it! l carried the horse food to the barn and that was the end of his interest! 

It also highlights how rather large he is!!!! Something l am getting used to until l see a photo like this!!

He was actually only rubbing his nose on the top of the roof, l can assure you l wouldnt have been standing taking pictures if his teeth had been out!!!!

Wattle time!

It's the time of year when forests turn yellow. A bit later for us up here being tucked into the hillside but all around us in the Valley is the usual stunning array of colour.

"It's July and the Winter sun is shining

 And the Cootamundra Wattle is my friend.

All at once my childhood never left me.

Wattle blossoms bring it back again................"

(John Williams)

Pom Pom Tree !!!

With the flourish of a chainsaw the Pom Pom tree is now pruned!!! It's a bit sad as it probably was a very old tree and it WAS pretty for maybe three weeks of the year....and the birds DID love it BUT.................................

It's now gone and HELLO house!!!!! A view we haven't seen before! The whole house head on! Admittedly it looks a bit grim right now! Mist, fog, cold......hacked down tree all piled in front in the paddock................. but we think the house looks lovely and l look forward to creating a bit more of a garden out there in what has been up til now, a very unused part of the place. Great!!

 And just photos of these two.......just because its sweet how they love each other so much!!!

Harness!

Today we began the first step of getting Clipper fully decked out in his work horse gear!!!! A friend called Joe came down with an assortment of collars, chains, reins etc to fit him out.
This is Joe with Eclipse's half brother Foxy!

A box of goodies!

 Unfortunately things don't always go to plan and Joe forgot the hames! A rather integral part of a set of harness as they are what the pulling chains get attached to!!! l had an old pair here but they were too small and broken in parts.

We then moved on and discovered that the bridle he had brought with him was way to small for Clips great big head! We tried an old piece l had but it was too old and too fragile and after a mishap or two it broke!!!!

Frustrating and not much success! Anyway Joe will be back NEXT Wednesday with hames and a bigger bridle so we shall see how we go. Clips tried to be most accommodating even when his huge head was being crammed into a bridle that clearly wasn't going to fit him!! A bit disappointing l was hoping to be pulling a tyre around this afternoon. Now l just have to be patient and wait for next week to come along instead!!

Frozen Clothes and Winter Sun!

Had to laugh this morning to find all the clothes on the clothes line as stiff as cardboard.

Especially Geoff's work clothes that looked like they were about to get up and head off to work on their own!!!

Once the frost melted however we had a lovely mild day which everyone enjoyed, especially the babies on the place. The little calf basked in the sunshine with milk all over her face!!

 And the little lambs.Relaxed and happy............

All fast asleep in the Winter Sun.

lf only l could have done the same.....................l picked up horse poo all afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and congratulations to Elle who had another baby girl lamb at Glen Huon last night! Our tenant rang Geoff this afternoon to say mother and daughter both doing well. Must be a year for the girls indeed! That's 4 lambs............. 4 girls.Have to be happy about that!!!

White sheep /Black Sheep?

Still getting plenty of heavy frosts! Interesting to see the black sheep on these cold mornings. They all have frosty white backs!

Never noticeable on  the white ones obviously, but Omar, Nigella and Dot all had a powdery dusting on them! Brrrrrrr!

 They don't seem to fazed by it though!

Sheep Moves

This morning before l headed off to work we loaded up our two old girls Elle and Louise to shift them to Glen Huon. Mainly as they are older and in need of a bit more grass and also to keep down the Spring growth that will erupt there again soon! The tenants  have a little girl so she was very excited about having two new pets to feed and pat each day. Geoff rigged up a cage to transport them in and on a very cold frosty morning off they went.

 Neither were too fussed about it.

And were more interested in the sheep nuts lying on the ground then what was happening.

 Cold mud and wet!

 The big fellow watched with interest from his cold frosty paddock!

Saddles and Gates

Pookie took her little girl (yes another girl!!!) out into the big wide world early today.. She's a strong little thing, leaping and bounding about the place first thing this morning. Amazing. 12 hours old and ready to take on the world. (she thought she was anyway!!!) Big difference in size from having one or two lambs. She is almost as big already as Lala's twins and she is 4 days younger.Pookie being hand reared of course is a wonderfully calm, placid Mum and no doubt her lamb will be the same.

l then spent some of the morning building a gate in between Clips and Max's yard. This stops me having to lead Max all the way round the Apple Shed as l can now walk straight through which saves me all of probably 3 minutes!!!!!!!!!!! THIS is very important when time is an absolute premium in the mornings before work!!! Anyway l have decided  that gate hanging sucks... mine was crooked which is very annoying...and it wobbles..........which is also annoying...............................but it opens and closes so it will do for now!!!!

l then whizzed off to a local suburb and bought a job lot on some horse gear (divorce breakup......very sad and l felt like a bit of a vulture..... but never mind...) l scored this lovely little pony saddle for Max amongst other things..

Brought it home and plonked it on the pony's back.He is now ready to do pony rides for friends and relatives, nephews and nieces........He just doesn't know it yet!!! He looked very smart and Clips seemed quite jealous...

 l gave him a go with it but it was a bit small!!!!!..................

We fed the animals in the late afternoon and left the gate open by mistake. Lala brought her two little girls in to see what the feed shed was all about!

Just another day!

Another one!

This morning l let Lala out into the paddock with her lambs. They thought it was great fun and in between bouts of sleeping in the sunshine and feeding,they had great games together with sometimes all 8 little legs off the ground at the same time!

 Exhausting though!!!

When Geoff got home we took a walk up the top of the big paddock as we hadn't been up there for a while. When we were at the top we noticed a sheep tucked along the fence line of the paddock we had just come from. When we thought about we realised it was Pookie as we hadn't seen her when we had walked through. We went back down to check her out and there she was with one little lamb! It was getting cool and the lamb had been born quite late in the evening and was still wet and very cold so we hoisted her up and slowly made our way down to the yards. It's a nice feeling knowing their first night is snuggled up in warm bed as opposed to a wet paddock!! Pookie had a feed, a drink and some hay and settled down for a rest beside her new baby.

 Yep, hard to see, quite yellow and tiny but there IS a lamb in that hay!!

Roof!!

The roof has begun..............................!!!

Baby Girls

The baby girls are doing well. They are totally adorable as all baby lambs are.This one is especially sweet as she has a floppy ear. l am not sure if it will straighten, its been like that from day one.

Her little sister is slightly bigger and stronger.

 Just as cute!!!

But wait..there's more!!!

l was quite fascinated this morning with the droplets of rain that were sitting on top of one of the bird baths. It looked quite beautiful. Like lots of little diamonds l thought. And luckily l DIDN'T drop my camera into the water!

The little calf is doing well. It's so hard to get a good photograph this time of year. Everything seems grey and lacking colour! The subject being all black doesn't help either!

And to separate her from the 'creche' is even harder!! They are a close knit little bunch this lot!

And have a look at this!!!!! What a sad sorry little sight! Born this afternoon. Under the Macracarpa Trees. Lalas first! Bit of a surprise (for us as well as Lala l would imagine!). We thought she looked a bit restless this morning and along these two came about 3.30pm this afternoon!

Yes. Twins! Very cold, a tiny bit yellow. And l think both girls!!!

They are snuggled up in hay tonight in the lean to shelter. They were wet and covered in mud and needed a bit of TLC  on their first night out!

And an interesting swirl of mist hovering around today. Quite eerie really!!

Can almost hear them banjos playin'!!