Grumpy Geese!

l spent a considerable amount of my days off this week painting pickets................yes................. l HAVE learnt. l will never ever EVER build a picket fence again without painting it first!!

l have done one coat and l have another to go.................Looks great though!

This is the last leg left to do. l pulled all the palings off and have a mish mash of barricades up (until l get the pickets) to keep all the Wallabies out.

If only sheep were good guard dogs they could chase them off for us!

The geese certainly make more noise! Here is a rare moment of being able to get close up to the gosling.

It's difficult when its Dad is so bossy!!

He never takes his eye off you!!!

They certainly don't make you feel welcome!!

A bit rude considering l have had them since they were a few weeks old!!!

And just as you start to think you are getting on top of things.......................along comes 6 tonnes of NEXT Winter's firewood! All needing to be carted away and stacked! We took the dearer but easier option though this time and went back to split wood as opposed to buying in the whole logs. Still.................there's a fair few wheelbarrows worth there!! (sigh!!)

Spring Fever!

Spring is definitely in the air!!!!

 And a timely reminder of the destructive capabilities of goats!!!

Hobart Show Day

The rest of Australia seemed to be hot today. We weren't! Of course not! It always rains on Show Day! We sat in our damp little hollow. Lush cool and green with trees and flowers dripping with rain.

The little gosling is doing well and  now has TWO mummies! The other goose is still siting on 4 eggs and is just as good a Mum apparently as it's real one and it snuggles under one or the other whoever is warmest!!!

Geoff worked away in the rain putting a gate inbetween the orchard and what is to be his new orchard and potato patch!!

 Lilli didn't shift from the fire hearth!

The horses sat in the rain with their rugs on....Just another day in Tas!!!!

 

 

Duck Sheds....

Today l built a duck pen! It took me ALL DAY!! All l thought l had to do was nail 5 pallets together and stick some tin on the top and it took me ALL DAY!!!! This building lark can go jump!!!! Doesn't help when every tool you want/need/forgot is a 5 minute walk away!!! Nailing the pallets together was easy.....(sort of) then l had to work out overhang, rain, wind, leaking, draughts, HOW to attach the tin................and so it went on!!! Where is Geoff when you need him??? l don't mind doing what l am told ( don't laugh Geoff when you read that bit!) when we build something..... but having to work it all out myself????????????????

ANYWAY .........l did it and it's pretty solid, l don't think it will leak, l don't think the wind will blow it away and l think its quite snug!!!! l even got creative and added two funky little green pointy bits of tin at the front to give them a bit of privacy!!!

The duck who is still sitting on her eggs is in the second bay all wrapped up in a dog crate hopefully not too stressed with the move. l shall let her out tomorrow when she is settled with the change of scenery. In the next few days l will run a dividing fence down the middle so l have a secure pen for two lots of ducklets and /or geeslets at the same time.

The little duck with hatched kidlets thought it was ok! l wouldn't want to have to do that every day though!!!!

 And slowly my massive plant less flower bed is getting a bit of colour. Pink Boronias.......

and this...................it's some bulb thing.......................there's just one and its purple and pretty.........but l don't know what it is.

And with Geoff's dad visiting for a week we are spoilt every night with delicious food. How lucky to have another fabulous cook in the house! Thank you Keith!

Hatchlings!

Today was hatching day!! Four gorgeous cute (for now!) fluffy ducklings.

And only one gosling sadly. Two eggs were not fertile and one poor little gosling hatched but then got squashed by its Mum which was a great pity. So my Sebastopol breeding aspirations have died..................never mind. Hopefully this one will be magnificently curly whatever it is!

 Not quite Swan Lake but trying!!!!

 It's difficult to get a photo of it as all l seem to see is its bottom.....and its Mum's too!

Mind you..it was very hard to get close to it full stop with its noisy, bossy, officious and very proud father in the way!

Little Lizzie watched the kerfuffle from her viewing platform!

Tink ate in strange ways!

 Toggles just ate.............as usual!

And l finished my picket fence!!!! Ok........... not painted but finished ......sort of!

It's all finally starting to look very smart!!!

And Treeka looked intelligent as she watched Geoff's ute come up the driveway! Her favourite time of the day!

Magical Max!

This morning started off just beautiful. The light through the budding Walnut tree was gorgeous.

The day actually ended up quite cold with heavy rain showers and a spectular hailstorm in Huonville this afternoon!

The weather aside...............it has been noted by a much loved family member that
Viewfields Total Eclipse (shown below looking absolutely stunning shiny and black!!!) gets all the limelight and his wee little Welsh Mountain pal doesn't get any!

This is probably true although with the enormity of this little fellow's personality it's a wonder he isn't blazoned across the blog at least once a week with his antics! l never seem to have the camera around at the right time (for a change!!) Feral ponies and cameras in hand don't really mix that well l suppose!

Put anything within his reach and he will eat it! Here he is waiting for Geoff to approach with both the head collars in his mouth

Amazingly he picked the correct one to hand to him!

Clipper's mane and tail are severely depleted..................Vaseline and Cayenne pepper didn't deter him....he just sucked it all off in a day!

 He has to HOLD everything!

We forget sometimes that he has only just (last week) turned three

We just love him...............cheeky little monster that he is!!

15 years

We have just got home from an Awards Ceremony at the Tasmanian Fire Service Training Complex to give Geoff (and several other members from our Brigade  and others) the National Medal in recognition for 15 years 'diligent service within an organisation that protects life and property at some risk to their members'

Geoff didn't see it as something quite so gallant. He marvels that he was able to sit in a Fire Station for 15 years, drink beer and then get a medal of recognition for it! He might be being silly but l was very proud....................!!

And on a funny note................when Geoff went up on the Podium to collect his medal from the Chief Officer Mike Brown apparently Mr Brown said as he was pinning it on Geoff's shirt............'You also did a great job running Qantas"!!