Sunday, August 29, 2010

Poddy Calf

This is Terry, so named after the local dairy farmer we picked him up from.
He is a holstein poddy calf.


He is just 3 weeks old and is very big for his age. 
He drinks milk out of a bucket and he is living in my orchard.

He is a little bit cute :)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Recycling Scrap

Yesterday was a big day with the scrap men coming to clean up all the piles of junk that had been left here.  It really was exciting to see all our hard work in collecting, sorting and stacking scrap paying off as it was loaded onto the truck.



Scrap is saleable so it will be interesting to see what this ends up being worth.
I think the biggest benefit will be in having this place more habitable and in knowing we recycled on a large scale.



The truck got bogged and had to be pulled out by the excavator.


We will have more to go at some stage because there is still junk to be cleaned up, fences to come down and sheds to knock over. Given this truck was full when it left we know we have made a good start!

edit: We removed 9.2 tonne of scrap in this load.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The renovation list is getting bigger...


The almond trees are beautiful in full flower and there is a hint of Spring in the air.
In spite of this I am tired and feeling blue.

Our shower leaks through the wall so I need to rip the tiles off, water proof and tile it properly.
Same with the upstairs shower.

When the plumber looked into the issue I had with the main toilet he discovered it has been double trapped and there is an air lock issue that can't be fixed without jackhammering the cement floor and doing the plumbing again.

I have leaking taps, blocked gutters and still need to organise the new septic that Council have told us we need.

My kitchen sink water does not get away very well and to fix it we need to plumb it into the new line.

I am not feeling motivated and it is ganging up a bit.
I still love it here in spite of all these issues.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Twins


Twice as cute!

We have 2 sets of twins amongst 8 lambs. 
The herd is growing.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Eye Spy...

Lambs!


We had three lambs born last night!
Our first since moving so it is a bit exciting!


They are Wiltshire Horn sheep which self shed their coat so no wool for my spinning wheel.  On the plus side there is no crutching or shearing either so these girls are easy to look after.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Ford 4000


The Mr. proudly drove home his 'new' tractor and slasher on Tuesday.  He is quite chuffed with it!
It is a Ford 4000 which is about a 1965 vintage tractor, one day I will take note of the serial numbers and work it out properly.  The slasher is almost new.

The best thing about it is we already have several implements for it that the vendors left here.  The Mr is dreaming up uses for the rear bucket, scarifier, jib and rotary hoe.  I hope he chooses to start by removing the 4 oleanders in the side yard and pulling up the old stump in there too...


Sunday, August 8, 2010

Yards


The Mr designs sheep and cattle yards for a living.  Can you tell?

The beds have been placed to form a wing to help get the sheep through the gate.

This was how the yards were when we moved in. 
They have been added to the list of things to fix...

Monday, August 2, 2010

2010 Rain Record

Somewhere to record our rainfall in 2010 from July 10th when we moved in.

DECEMBER (124.25mm / 5 inches)
(1st-5th) 56mm
6th ~ 5.5mm
9th ~ 18mm
10th ~ 14mm
14th ~ 1mm
16th ~ 8.25mm
19th ~ 5mm
23rd ~ 3mm
25th ~ 1mm
26th~ 12.5mm

NOVEMBER (137.25mm / 5.5 inches)
1st ~ 13mm
5th ~ 1mm
6th ~ 5.25mm
7th ~ 20mm
8th ~ 1mm
9th ~ 5mm
10th ~ 11.5mm
11th ~ 25mm
(12th-14th) ~ 4mm
15th ~ 18.5mm
16th ~ 16.5mm
18th ~ 2.5mm
19th ~ 7.5mm
(29th-30th) ~ 6.5mm

OCTOBER (106.25mm/4.25 inches)
2nd ~ 23mm
15th ~ 18.5mm
21st ~ 26.5mm
22nd ~ 9.25mm
24th ~ 21.5mm
31st ~ 7.5mm

SEPTEMBER(52.5mm/2.1 inches)
2nd ~ 1mm
3rd ~ 4mm
4th ~ 14mm
9th ~ 28mm
10th ~ 0.5mm
14th ~ 5mm

AUGUST (63.75mm/2.55 inches)
1st ~ 2.5mm
2nd ~ 1.5mm
10th ~ 5.25mm
11th ~ 4.5mm
12th ~ 4.5mm
18th ~ 14mm
19th ~ 5mm
22nd ~ 19mm
23rd ~ 4.5mm
24th ~ 2mm
25th ~ 1mm

JULY (74.5 mm/2.98 inches)
9th-26th ~ 21mm
27th ~ 18mm
30th ~ 35.5mm