Half Day Off!

A beautiful start to the day with stunning light shining through the budding Walnut Tree.

The sort of day you wished you were at home and not at work.............The sort of day one might possibly wish one's work might burn down so one wouldn't HAVE to go???

Well.......that almost happened to me today!!! A light blew up in the ceiling and a roof beam caught fire!!! Fire Brigades...dramas......smoke....... and standing on the pavement  ...then............we all got sent home!!!.......... Yippee!......... Did l  really wish that this morning out loud????

 

 

Hungry Wallabies!

Parts of the garden are looking very pretty at the moment,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Flowers everywhere

And dogs..............

Azaleas.....

Bulbs! Iris????

And lots of these pink things!

And the huge Willow that Geoff felled the other day??? Not much left now! The Wallabies have stripped it bare. So much for me thinking l had days worth of animal food sitting there!!!

Darn Critters!

Max is not happy!!!!

Last lot!

Still on the lamb theme!! All finished now though with the last lot born today. Nigella here had this beautiful little black girl the same night as Monster lamb was dragged into the world. She is such a nervous shy Mum however , we never get to see her lamb properly for a few days. She finally decided this morning that it was time to introduce her baby to us and the rest of the crew.

 She is just gorgeous!!!!

The big fellow is doing well . Mum pointed out yesterday how thick his legs are compared to Dot's skinny stick ones!

And this morning our final hurrah!  Becks (who never had a lamb last year) excelled herself as a first time Mum by producing two beautiful, racy looking black twin girls! Just fabulous! Well done Becks indeed!

Ten  healthy lambs in twelve days out of six ewes. Six girls, four boys. A great result. Well DONE Omar!

So after we admired our beautiful lambs for a while we moved on to more pressing matters...literally!

One of the old Crack Willow in the Rivulet has cracked!

 Onto the fence! This unfortunately is going to be an ongoing problem we will come across again and again. These wretched trees (beautiful as they may be) are designed to crack,break, fall and take root where they land.

They are fairly dangerous to cut up as they are so unpredictable. A huge thick trunk can break off at anytime when chainsawing as they are so fragile. So a sharp eye and a bit of experience needs to be the order of the day. l supervise of course!!!(and take photos!!!)

 All done. Pressure off the fence, and lots and lots of goat tucker!!!! 

Yum!!!!!!!

Lilli and lambs

Lilli just loves baby lamb time. She fell in love with one we had once at Glen Huon. They used to play chasey around the cars. Lilli running one way chasing the lamb, then the tables would turn and the lamb would chase her. It was so sweet! Each batch of lambs we have had since, she always hopes there might be one that will play with her!

 But they never do............

 They just stare at her..............!

Poor Lilli!

Monster Lamb!!!

Yesterday afternoon (late) l went up to the top of the hill to check on the lambs and the Mums to be. Dot was nowhere to  be seen. l searched around and finally found her hiding at the top of the paddock amongst the bracken and the blackberries. She seemed OK. Just a little stressed maybe. All became apparent though when she turned around and there protruding out of her 'rear end' was half an enormous face!!! Just the nose showing and no feet. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Panic stricken l texted Geoff. ...............Where are you??????????????.................5 minutes away came the reply. l ran back down to the house to try and find (in our totally disorganised library) the book on abnormal lambing presentations. Of course l couldn't find it.............l found one on goats but it only had written stuff..... not the perfect drawings of the weird, freaky, horrible situations l was TRYING to find!!!! Luckily l heard the old Ute chuntering up the drive,so l  ran back out and with Geoff in tow we went back up the hill to assess the situation.
Still one ENORMOUS half head protruding and nothing else. We decided somehow we had to catch her (which was going to be a problem in a 5 acre paddock) Luckily, fate was on our side and she headed into such thick blackberries and dense thicket to try to avoid us she had no choice but to turn around .....straight into the arms of Mr Dixon.......Ace Sheep  Catcher ...................l do have several other photos of most humorous situations of Geoff catching sheep.............some of which perhaps you will remember. ......but luckily (for Geoff) it is too late  in the evening and l have had one too many Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs to be able or capable of being able to remind you, by finding them!!!!!!!! ANYWAY...... to more pressing matters.........there we have it...............Geoff straddled across poor old Dot with this huge bulbous nose ( and by now thankfully,two little front feet) hanging out of her back end. Poor Dot...... Poor lamb. His little tongue was lolling out to the side. Heaven knows how long he had been half hanging out. His tongue was turning blue and it wasn't looking good. We got Dot into a more comfortable position and then l had to do it............... It was quite amazing really. l had NO idea what to DO but l had a vague idea what NOT to do. Thank you James Herriott. All your books, TV series and feature films all came together all at once. DON'T pull too hard...you can dislocate the lamb's head,legs,shoulders...... DON'T hurry.... wait for the ewe to help..... remember to breathe....and don't worry.......the state your clothes will end up in will ALL come out in the wash!!!!.......... With Geoff feeling her tummy ,we worked together and before too long, out slithered this ENORMOUS little boy. Floppy,yellow and HUGE!!! We quickly took off out of there to let them bond. Which they did immediately. What a little cracker he is!!! Great big ears.Thick strong legs...small wonder Dot couldn't get him out!!!! Within minutes he was on his feet. He was born bigger then all  the other lambs we have that are nearly a week old!!!  Here he is about one hour old. What a little ripper indeed!!!

Wet!!

Sydney swelters and down here in Tassie it's rain rain rain! Sitting here at the computer and it's bucketing down outside. Everything is totally waterlogged, including the poor little lambs! l hope we don't get a baby today! l keep going out to check but all seems quiet out there. l am sharing the table with an enormous bunch of tulips today. A girl at work brought them in as her father grows them commercially but this year for some reason he didn't pick any! She brought in an enormous armful so most of us went home with a bunch or two to brighten up our houses! Amazing to think that in the early 1600's at the peak of tulip mania, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman!

And my latest treasure! l love it! It's about a foot high and yes......it's a candlestick. When it has a candle in it, it glows bright  red through the mosaics. Just gorgeous! $4 a bargain indeed!!!

More!

Little Girl delivered two little boys yesterday afternoon. One black, one white. Still no black girls but we still have the three black ewes yet to lamb! The little white one is very tiny

 Omar is so proud!!!!

Oh yes and Lala had second one! An hour and a half later out came another little girl. So we have three sets of twins! A good start!

 There really is nothing cuter!