Goodbye to the Merc!

A beautiful day today and as always the light that comes into the house in the morning  has me running for my camera! Today it was the bedroom that captured it and the morning sun shone across the bed in such glorious colour!

l headed off pretty early this morning for the Rivulet (with dogs and goats of course!) to spend the day cleaning up our designated 'Dan Care" area! It was pretty cool and damp down there. The sun doesn't get in much! l raked and raked and carted pile after pile to the bonfire to burn. The goats had a ball and spent the day browsing all the varied bushes and shrubs along the river.

It's hard in a photo to show all my hard work! All you see is trees!We have now cleared a big area of blackberries and these nasty little swampy shrubs that l have no idea what they are!

We are gathering the many moss covered rocks that are around and planning out a path to walk alongside the river. We will get there ....eventually!

About midday the tow truck driver came to collect the old Mercedes (Did l say we sold it to a Mercedes fanatic in Hobart who wishes to restore her??) . Small initial dramas when the driver refused to drive his very smart white truck up the drive as he would scratch the top on the Blackwood Trees that line it! Fair enough too! Luckily the old girl was facing the right way and the drive has a slight slope so the two of us managed to push her down the track to a dignified stop on the bridge! He then reversed back up the hill turned the truck around and backed back down!

Easy! Up she went! The driver was quite bemused l think by the whole occasion.......especially when l looked in the rear vision mirror as l cruised down the drive to see him following behind me accompanied by three goats!  Not something he said he came across every day!!

And off to her new home........sad .............................but hopefully to be resurrected to hit the tarmac once again............Goodbye old girl!

Looking after the Olds!!!

Yesterday we decided it was time to start looking after the older girls of our flock as the winter weather creeps in on us. Elle, Louise and Pookie got picked out as the Matrons of the Herd and are in the home paddock for the week getting lucerne and a delicious mixture of grains and molasses called Complete. Food Heaven if you are a sheep.... not a goat though..... l bought it originally as a bag of treats and indulgence for our overly spoilt goats but they have persistently turned their noses up at it so now it goes to the old girls! And THEY are not complaining!

Being away from their lambs (fully weaned but still clingy!) must feel like they are on some holiday camp! They get to sleep in the lean to at night if its cold, have an endless supply of hay on hand and a bucket of food morning and night! Elle was beginning to look a little bit sunken in the hips so now's the time to fatten her out a bit before she gets too thin. Not quite sure how old she is. Not terribly ancient, probably about 8 maybe. She's had lambs every year and this next lot will probably be her last before she heads to happy retirement somewhere.

Lovely misty morning too!

Television!!

We have bought a TV !! Well l actually bought it last Thursday but it only got out of its cardboard box yesterday! It has now been put on the floor in the room that will  (one day!) become the Library.Now that Winter is nearly upon us it will be nice to be able to watch TV occasionally!!! Not that we have seemed too enthusiastic so far! Maybe in another week or so it might actually get plugged in??

Sunday...

At work as usual today! l took this shot of this lovely old boat shed that l pass every morning by the side of the Huon River

When l came home Geoff and l went down to the OUR River to spend half hour or so clearing  up a bit more of the blackberries and scrub that goes down to the water. Found a bit of a gem when l cleared the brambles around the old car that nestles into the trees there to find it still has its number plate on!  WJA 196 with 19 TAS 54 at the top. Presume that means the year?

We dragged a pile of old branches, brambles and leaves up the hill and had a bit of a bonfire before dark set in.

We came back up in the dark (the goats were with us of course!) and fought with Toggles as to WHO got the goat nuts out of the bin...her.......or us!!!!

She's not growing up gracefully that one!!!!

Beautiful Morning...

Stunning skies this morning and a glorious rainbow hovering behind the goat shed!

 The dogs out for their early morning walk.

Waiting for the sun to come over the hill!

Wobbly grass!!!!

Another wet miserable day!!! This morning Pushka decided to downsize and curled herself around the pouffe in front of the fire.

 It rained relentlessly all day.... l even had to go and bucket water out of the fish pond as l  was worried l might lose a fish or two in the cascade of water pouring over the side!

l thought a bit of retail therapy was in order for the day so l took myself off to the Margate Tip Shop (ok ok so l'm easy to please!!!) l DID buy 'an object'..........l would have posted a photograph but no matter how many times l took photos of it at all different angles and in different places it still looked .....well sort of hideous............. so l have decided to leave it to the imagination instead....It's ...a...errrrrr....... candlestick (did l say that?) holder..........(yep, we don't have many of THEM round here.....)

It's sort of Gothic looking... metal...black...used to be an electric light fitting until l set to it with a pair of pliers and ripped all the wiring out. Now it can hold candles. It hangs off the ceiling but every photo it just looked like some sort of weird Alien Space Ship or something cheap and nasty..........(well it was only $5).......... Geoff hates it by the way!!!!!.............l am sure l will find somewhere to put it.........

Nowhere l think was glummer and more depressing then the Margate Tip today. It was cold ,windy, smelly and l was nervous Lilli was going to get carried off by an enormous scavenging seagull!

So anyway l then scooted around for some 'classy' shopping at the Margate Train only to be bombarded when l walked in by hideous loud screeching jazz music at a deafening level and THIS sofa!!!!  l mean!!.........what....??????????? Who would want such a thing??????? (Mind you... someone might say that about my candlestick if anyone ever got to actually see it....) So 6000 decibel jazz and scary zebra skin sofas made me skedaddle out of there pretty darn quick!

l came home to find the heavens must have literally opened in the Huon Valley whilst l was away. The Rivulet was a rushing torrent and all you can hear from the house is roaring water where the Rivulet meets the winter creek which is now thundering through our paddock!

Even the ducks looked miserable!!!!

As did the Mercedes awaiting its fate sitting down the drive!!

The evening finally did clear just as Geoff got home so we took the goats down to the River to see how fast it was flowing. Poor things spent all day hiding out of the rain in their shed!
Oh........ and the Wobbly grass!!! Amazing! l will have to video it tomorrow if it's still there. Geoff was walking across the Hay Paddock when all of a sudden the ground started to wobble.....literally wobble!! Imagine walking across a blancmange (or maybe a water bed then!) There was that much water under the grass it was like some massive swollen bladder about to burst!!! l have never seen anything like it! l will go down tomorrow and hope its still there and post my video of Wobbly Grass! When l walked over it l had visions of it suddenly bursting and me dissappearing into a huge blubbery hole!
It did eventually clear to a surreal, quiet ,warmish evening with the hills shrouded in mist. Very very picturesque.. We live in a beautiful place............

Wet Weather.....Warm inside!!

A very slothful start to my day off today. Mind you a nasty bout of Gastro the day before certainly didn't help matters! Fully recovered today but the wet dismal drizzly weather didn't really encourage me to do much except stoke up the fire!! Pushka felt the same and was snuggled up in a corner...

Lilli keeping a very unimpressed eye on her was doing the same........

And Treeka was fast sleep on the floor on her little pile of mattress, blankets and towels that absorb all the dirt and mud that she brings in every day!!!

l wandered outside during a dry spell and watched Auntie Jack give Blue a lovely long bath from head to toe with her coarse tongue! Very sweet.....

Blue was obviously feeling very neglected by her Mother! 

A couple of lambs wandered over to check ME out!

And so did the geese and ducks in a very solemn procession around the corner.

Apparently me leaning on the fence post taking photos was something worth watching in the Animal Kingdom today!

 l felt very watched!!!!...............................