Rain!

At last! Lots of it too. Nearly 40 ml over two days which is brilliant. The garden is sighing and the tanks are all overflowing. Hopefully dousing some bush fires up in the North of the State but sadly no doubt doing some damage to crops and harvest as well. You can never win!

But the sheep are happy! Only shorn a week ago l think the rain feels a bit tickly on their skin !

We still have them around the yards to settle Withavee down so they were lucky to spend the two very wet days under cover if they wished!

He didn't mind at all either!

This poor fellow got stuck on the wrong side of the gate and couldn't get back to the shed! l just happened to notice him standing there very wet and bedraggled! He was most grateful to get back to the warm chook house!

And l never saw the horses all day! They were both in there somewhere!!

These girls had nooooooooo intention of going out! The spent all of the second rainy day in their house watching it teem down outside! 

And ate! It was a bit of an expensive Hay day!!

Sat around chilling.............

Dozed............

And slept..........

A lot!

Fat spoilt little things they are!

Cow Shed!

Geoff and l are in the process of building a sheep/cow shelter up in what is now the top paddock. It's the only paddock without a single tree and only gets shade when the sun is high enough to throw shadow from the trees from the property next door. Having only wee tiny cows means we can make very good cheap shelters out of  recycled pallets from work! We made one originally for the goats and then discovered that the cows loved it so we have made several more now in other paddocks. This is the last area that needs one to protect them for Summer and Winter!

With goat supervision of course!

Whipper Snipper needed first to get rid of all the bracken and blackberries!!

The Farm Dogs enjoyed themselves as usual..................

So half hour later we have a wonderful messy higgledy piggledy mish mash of colours

Two separate section in case the cows get possessive and won't share with the sheep!

That will do at first! Next we need more bracing, cross bearers, then the roof ...then pine palings around the sides to hide all the pallets and give full protection from the wind and rain.

Geoff being the ultimate scrounger and scavenger already has the tin for the roof from an old shed that blew down at work. But that's a job for next weekend!

A long way from home but they will eventually be as snug as bugs in rugs!!!

Courtyard Progess.

More work on the courtyard this week with the return for the corner post going in.

With an interested audience of course!

At the moment this area is their walk through to get to the duck pond. They won't be terribly happy when it's all closed off. We shall have to work out another route for them to be able to get to the water!

As usual it looks like Geoff is doing ALL the work! He DOES do most of it l admit, but l hand him stuff.....bang in nails...drill in screws and cut wood up!! AND take all the photos!!

Blue board going in..... It just a fence really l suppose with cement sheeting on one side and timber palings on the other!

And the top bit!

Done! Still the ridge capping to go on and the final paint finish.....yet to be decided !

And timber fence panels at the back of course!

 

Withavee The Second

Yesterday Geoff and l went and picked up our new ram.  Our first orphaned baby one died sadly last Winter, but this boy is big ,strong and about 6 months old. He does in fact come from the same farm as all our girls originally came from.. Yarded ready for us when we arrived.

Loaded onto the back of the ute without any problems. He is a Southdown cross which are primarily a meat breed. Because of this they are relatively lightly fleeced compared to the heavier wool breeds. This suits us and we are looking forward to his first lot of lambs!

It was pretty dry out there. Felt more like Western Australia!

Loaded up and ready to go. He has a sweet typical Southdown brown nose!! (Aside from the purple spray tag that is!!!)

Taken from inside the cab as we were driving home. l think he quite enjoyed the trip!!

Home in one piece and down the ramp he came.

Geoff then went and got the rest of the flock so we could shut them up in the yards together for a few days. A poor quality shot as he was so far away but it makes me smile. Yes, you guessed it.....he had a rattle tin of wheat. Who needs Sheep Dogs!

A newbie!!! How exciting!

Sheep are generally gentle, accepting creatures. A few head-butts from the young wethers but the girls were kind and  rather indifferent to him.

We have called him Withavee . The lamb that died was Steven with a v. Named after the friend of ours who breeds them, so we have named this boy just the With A Vee.

 Welcome little fellow! You will be fine!

Candlesticks and Rain!

How are these for funky?? I found them this afternoon in one of my favourite local second hand shops. Not quite sure where to put them yet... but they look quite fun wherever they go!!

l think l might have to bed them into a concrete base once l have decided where they are going to live as l have no doubt every morning l will find they have been knocked over by a wallaby , possum, bandicoot, cat or dog!

And at last........rain.... Well sort of.... a dribble really. Not even 1 ml so far.....but it's damp...it's misty and everything is cool and breathing again! Hopefully heading for a wettish week so fingers crossed we do!

So refreshing after quite an eerie week being bathed in a golden glow from all the bushfires  up North.

It was quite weird. Morning sunlight felt like evening as everything was pinkish and yellow like the sun was about to go down.

And evenings felt like an enormous thunderstorm was about to burst.....but it was just smoke.

Let us hope they are getting some of this rain up there too.....

 

 

Cracked Ground

Geoff and l were doing a bit of fencing yesterday afternoon when l came across this crack in the ground. It seemed to be quite deep so l found something to  stick in it to see how deep it actually was.

 Very very!!!

Nearly 10 inches into the ground it went! That's a big crack! Almost separating us from our neighbours. Glad l didn't drop my fencing pliers down there!