Wood Time!

We decided to get our wood delivered a bit earlier this year. We usually get it at the end of Spring, but this year decided to not only get it earlier but to also let it season outside a bit longer rather then put it straight into the wood shed. Sooooooo AFTER getting badly bogged in the paddock and having to have a huge truck come and pull him out (no photos.....it seemed a bit inappropriate to take pics when l think he just wanted to go home and have his tea!!!!!)................We ended up with our heating for the Winter next year.

Whatever you look at it, it's a big pile...............

Best get started then l suppose..........................

Ho hum....that will do..............until tomorrow. l  am sure it will still be there!!

Just enough time in the day to load up the wheelbarrow with a couple of fast growing Evergreen Alder trees for future stock shade in the paddocks. (((Possible to do now without an 18hh horse with an 8 foot reach on him!!!)))). Barrow , trees, grow tubes (to keep the darn wallabies away), spade, mallet, staples, mulch..........think that's everything!

Oh dear.......................

Stand in the paddock and double check on Google that Alders DO love heavy water logged clay soil..................yep! They do! Thank god for Google!!!

 

Done!.... Protected, mulched and ready to grow...possibly 9 foot a year if looked after well!

Are you there yet???

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm l think it has a long way to go!

But one day........................!!!!

 

 

 

Arrived!

Safe and sound.

An epic 6 day trip from one end of Australia to the other AND over a stretch of sea!

l think the big fella would be very happy if he KNEW he was at his final destination... Well sort of...........His new owners are waiting to move next week to a new property they have bought since emigrating to Australia from the UK 9 months ago..

80 acres of beautiful pasture.

Clips will be an even happier boy when he sees what's in store for him.Three big Shire friends and lots and lots of baths!!!

 

 

Companion for the Companion...

With the big fella gone ..........we were left with a pony. Maxie was bought solely to be a paddock mate for Clips............Now with Clips gone the tides had to turn, and Maxie became the pony in need of a friend...

He was a very sad lost little pony who missed his best mate of four years badly. 

Very sad. He seemed so small in the paddock all on his own.........

l had to spend most of the day in the yard  with him to hold his hand.........or for him to hold mine...............or my tee shirt...........

Of course we  had no choice but to find Maxie another friend. And fast. So after some enquires and asking around locally we discovered, and arranged to take on this little fellow.

Welcome Inksy to Candlestick Farm!

Inksy...(or Stravinsky as is his full name!!) is a Shetland pony. He is 14 years old and comes from a family who loved him dearly but whose children had long since outgrown him. He is tiny and incredibly quiet and gentle.

As displayed by his rather unorthodox arrival in the back of a 6 x 4 trailer!

 Nothing fazed him much on the very short trip to his new home!

His late afternoon arrival certainly perked this little boy up!

 

And after years of being paddocked on his own, little Inksy was pretty excited too!

Well..........as much as he SEEMS to be able to be excited! He really is terribly quiet! Or is that because we are not used to such a docile pony after living with the terror for so long?

Early days.....separate for now.........they will be best paddock mates soon l am sure................

 

A big sad week.........

A big and fairly traumatic week for us here at  Candlestick Farm. After literally  months of deliberation, procrastination and mind changing.......... we finally decided to sell the big boy Total Eclipse and on Monday morning he headed off on a transport truck to make the long trek up to his new owners in Queensland.
Sad isn't even the word for it really, but after 4 years we decided that our lives have veered off onto different paths and he was just sitting there in the paddock, getting older by the day and not really doing much at all............These horse need to work. Every day. They thrive on routine, on knowing what there lives are all about, He was hitting 10 in 2016 and if he didn't do anything significant THIS year, we would have had him as a great big (expensive!) paddock ornament probably forever.
NOT that that would have been a BAD thing......( had we had another 20 acres!!).....it just seemed such a waste of a beautiful horse.
Sooooooo to cut a long story short. Clips has gone to become a Drayhorse Shire.
http://www.drayhorseshires.com/
He will be famous! It will be amazing to see him join this team of black Shires to become some of the most well known heavy horses in Australia! He will do weddings , funerals, shows and special events! He will be immaculately looked after and cared for and finally get to do what he was BRED to do!
The couple who have bought him used to own the same business in the UK
http://drayhorseshires.co.uk/
They emigrated to Australia late last year. They are now starting their highly successful business here and luckily Clips has become part of their team. He arrives up there on Saturday! So incredibly sad....... we have shed a few tears and we will miss him a lot..............but also very exciting and we can't wait to see him in a team of four in all his finery..........

Always beautiful and always a place in our hearts.............

Lilli Walking!

It was a beautiful day for a walk yesterday. It even warmed up enough for Lilli to want to come too! l DO have to carry her up to the top of the hill but she sooooooo loves trotting all the way home!

Although l think she felt it later on that night !

And maybe that wasn't such a good idea????

And that maybe she is getting too old for that sort of thing ???

Hmmmm???

Beautiful Light

A glorious morning, with the sun pushing up over the  hill in front of the house. Sending beautiful rays of light down towards our very cold frosty home!

Very frosty!!!

l have two glass honey pots hanging (yes, at the moment with good old baling twine!!!!) on the veranda. The Sun in Winter without the grape vine covering them, turns them into big almost iridescent balls of light.

l just love them!

They look like they are glowing!