Gymkhana Update

 The local Pony Club had it's Gymkhana after the rain that ended the week of camp.  Possum had a lot of fun and came home with about 10 ribbons.  The pony was very well behaved and Possum smiled all day, even in the bareback.  

She is already talking about the next gymkhana she could go to, there will be no stopping her soon!

Blue didn't ride, his pony is still recovering after a visit to the vet.  He should be back in the saddle soon.

October in Pictures

 

Black Cockatoos moved in and made a mess as well as plenty of noise.

 

The orchard is drying off, but looking good.

 

The lucerne needs rain, but is holding its own well enough at this point.

Pony Camp - Day One

Possum's first day of pony camp today.  When we drove in she said 'I am excited, but also a little nervous'.  The nerves disappeared very quickly when she ran into friends. 

Peppy the pony was ready to go and I gave Dad the lead today because he is working for the rest of the week so it will be all up to me then.

The icy pole was a highlight! 

I don't know how many children there are at camp, but in Purple Troop there are 8, and they all had fun.

Monty Roberts

Colin and I went to see Monty Roberts  perform.  I was not sure what to expect from his show but it was actually really good.  He certainly has a presence for that kind of live performance which helps a lot.

He worked on a variety of horses with different problems and it was interesting to see what he did in different situations.  He did some join up but there was also a lot of advance and retreat pressure stuff; much what you would expect really.

He spoke a lot as well.  I didn't realise that Monty works closely with people such as returned servicemen and prisoners, I always thought it was just about the horses.  I was wrong.

I was nice to have a day out with no children underfoot and do something different together.  It does make you appreciate your own horses more when you go to events such as this one.

In other good news, we came home to discover Bill had popped over and sown some lucerne for us.  Now we need more rain :)

Waiting for the Rain

Twice over with a set of disks and then once over with the harrows.

Now we are waiting for rain...

Veterinary Update

Today Mister Music had his second handling.  This is the first time he has had a head collar on and the second time he has been on a horse float.  Shame this all came about because we wanted to take him to the vet, but good in that he was an absolute superstar! He floated, led, got needled, drenched and gagged and he was really well behaved for all of it given the amount of handling he has had.  He is 10 months old now.

Lily came to the vet too.  She had to have a check up and some follow up treatment for some secondary complications.  We bought Mister Music home and left Lily in town; we will pick her up tomorrow.

Edit 5pm: The vet called back to say he was having no luck with Lily on the current treatment plan and that the next step is to operate; she is booked in for Tuesday.  Cross fingers for her please.

New (to us) Stuff

On the weekend we went to a large clearing sale on the Liverpool Plains.  You know it is going to be a large event when the clearing sale has photos up on it's own blog of items for sale.  They even had real coffee in the form of a mobile van so I was very happy.  There was about 500 people there which is very big for a clearing sale.

The Mr was happy as he bought a 3pl spray unit with a 700 litre tank, 6 metre boom and a spot spray attachment for his tractor.  This will be great around here to tidy up the weeds that inevitably keep growing.

   

He also came home with a fire trailer set up ready to go.  It has a 1000 litre tank and an old Honda motor. This will be great for those days we are burning anything and also great for watering trees.  We were both happy with with the day, especially myself with the coffee side of things ;)

Next up on my wish list: a little disk plough, a seeder, a generator and a post hole digger please.

Enjoying the Creek

OK, I admit it; I went nuts on the photos today, but the sun was warm and the creek bubbled along joyously and it was hard not to love the moment.

The water is so fresh and clear, even after the recent rain.

We packed a picnic lunch and instead of packing drinks for the children I put in two empty cups so they could scoop up their own water straight from the creek.  They loved it, and only two gumboots and one sleeve fell in while they played in the water.

  

This stretch of creek is just a 2 minute stroll from our house.

Perfect.

First lamb for 2012

Yesterday we found the first lamb of the season.  I joked that rough weather must have been on the way  and Amy coined the term RadarLamb.  

RadarLamb was correct.  Last night storms crossed from the North West of NSW all the way to Sydney. We even had a little hail here before the rain crashed down.

All dry and happy here again this morning.  This ewe is a first time mother from our 2010 drop of lambs not long after we moved in, she is a Wiltshire Horn; the lamb is a Wiltshire Horn x Dorper.

Down to the Wire

It feels like we will be cleaning up here forever!  

This afternoon's job was another load of wire to the tip when we did our run in.  I do miss having a rubbish service, but there are other benefits to living away from it all.  Amazingly none of us sustained anything bigger than a small scratch while we loaded this lot of tangled mess.  Wire is not fun to sort out when it is a jumble of tangles and sharp bits.  I think another load of wire will clean up this pile, then we can move on to the next job on the list, whatever that may be..

Playing with Fire

We decided to burn off 8 acres that is due to be worked and sown in the next little while.  We had fire breaks done and there was little to no wind so the conditions looked pretty good when we started.

Of course, 60 seconds after tossing a match in a gusty wind sprung up and we got a little busier than intended keeping an eye on things but it was still all safe, just a little rushed.

Then the wind died back down and the next paddock was lit and burnt as well.

It got pretty hot at times and even though you know every precaution has been taken and the fire is under control it is still a stressful thing to toss a match into a dry fuel source. 

The end of day beer has never tasted so good!

The Great Wall

The Mr has been busy out in the workshop.   

He has framed up some walls and put in a few interesting angles. 

 He has also reinforced some sections.

He bought a lot of 19mm ply, drilled a lot of holes and then we painted it.

The colour is Gooseberry Fool.  I like it.

Cant wait to show off the finished project!

Autumn

Overnight the Paulownia trees dropped their leaves all at once.

We have had wonderful Autumn weather here for awhile and now we have the bare trees to match.

It is so fun playing in the leaves.
I am glad I don't have to rake them all up!