October 2022 - we're rich!

Winter is most definitely behind us now. Sadly we said goodbye to Sarah, the greatest little pup, she will always be here in spirit. We will miss her always.

This spring has been a very wet one, the annual grasses have burst into action and are flowering already. It's completely impossible to keep up with it, but I am hoping the summer growing perennial grasses will take over afterwards, and we can try to keep those in their growth phase much longer.

Our sheep family has grown by two recently, bringing our flock to 10, and we have at least one more lamb on the way any day now. I sure hope you enjoy pictures of baby lambs.. :)

Star's lamb is a boy, and he looks just like his daddy, Chillie. He's 7 weeks old now, and Star is slowly weaning him off milk.

Sharon's lamb is a girl, and she looks exactly like one of the wethers.. coincidence maybe or perhaps he wasn't banded properly by the breeder? She was born just two days ago, and has a big appetite. Here's another photo, they're just lovely!

Marty and I enjoy giving the sheep attention and scratches, and moving them to fresh pasture daily is great fun. There is something about listening to the sound of sheep eating fresh grass that is very gratifying.

We have another couple of ewe lambs arriving tomorrow from the same breeder we purchased the first 5 from. They're mostly black and white, one with a little "blue" colouring. We also look forward to adding another ewe lamb from South Australia later in the month, she's brown and white. With all this rain and grass, we can use all the mouths we can get! The flock will number around 14 by the end of the month, and I'll be more than happy with that number for over the summer.

Otherwise, life here on our little farm is humming along, we're just doing what needs to be done as each need arises. Sometimes the world outside seems far away, and knowing what day of the week it is feels unimportant. We did go to the Henty Machinery Field Days though! It'd been two whole years since the last one, and it was quite a good day out. We brought home a few small Murray Cod fish for the dam, hopefully to balance out the tiny fish population a little. The tiny fish have done very well in the dam, and we've had success growing water plants and edge plants finally, giving the fish plenty of hiding and breeding places. It feels like an ecosystem now, rather than the big muddy hole in the ground we started with. We love spending time down there now, just watching all the life.

Until next time.

June 2022

 The weather has cooled down, and we find ourselves in winter suddenly. Some of the deciduous trees haven't caught up to the idea yet, and are stubbornly holding onto their leaves, while the tagasaste trees begin to flower early in their eagerness.

In the first couple of rotations around the farm with the sheep, we mostly thought about how the fencing worked. The most efficient way to move sheep from one spot to another was tricky at times, the reels and fence posts were puzzle pieces. Now that we feel confident about moving 8 sheep anywhere on our property, we look around and find the pasture has it's own needs. In order to give some areas more rest, we skipped whole areas on the farm and moved the sheep onto areas that some grasses were back to flowering stage again. We're experimenting moving fast through the south of the property, but if we go too fast, the north of the property won't have recovered. Because the days are getting shorter and colder, growth is slower, so we may have to slow them down again now. Given that the ewes may be pregnant, we're prioritising their health and full bellies. With all these considerations, we're both glad we started small!

Marty, Sarah and I are keeping warm and trying to get things done. Well, Sarah is concentrating on the keeping warm and comfy part.

Until next time.

Mostly Dry March, Happy Sheep and Happy Humans

It's been more of the same here on the farm, and that's been a good thing to be sure. The grass is holding up, despite this last month being pretty dry. We've only had a few millimeters of rain in total over March, but the forecast suggests we might get a good drop over the next day or two. I learned long ago to not get my hopes up when it comes to rainfall forecasts, and when something looks thirsty, I'll water it regardless of the predictions, because I've lost plants waiting for rain that never comes. For the most part, the ground is still fairly moist and the grass is still green in areas, and you won't get any complaints out of me!

The mineral feeder we made for the sheep is still holding up, there's a rubber flap protecting the greek yoghurt buckets from any moisture, and each one has a different thing in it. Seaweed is one of the most popular items, followed by salt. The charcoal and lime is occasionally eaten, and the magnesium and boron isn't needed as often. It gets bashed around a bit, and I was thinking of making a second one for the other side.

They're in an area that is a bit drier than others right now, as we're heading up the hill on our second rotation around the property. There's a plant called cat's ear that they love eating the yellow flowers off. The section we opened up today was full of cat's ear, and we watched as they ran from plant to plant eating all the flowers off! We might move them through this part of the property fairly quickly, depending on how the sheep go. I love the flexibility of this rotation system, the sections can be smaller, larger, around obstacles or through the trees. So much easier than poultry netting!!

Marty was happy yesterday, since a second wether has trusted him with giving him scratches. I told Marty that he might end up having to spend all day out there scratching each member of the flock! Haha, we love it though. It's been a terrific experience so far. Winter is just around the corner, and the sheep are starting to grow an extra thick wool coat in preparation. We're starting to put on jumpers / jackets occasionally too. It won't be long before we're splitting wood for the first fire again.

Until next time.

Spellbound summer

This summer on the farm has been the best one yet, with a massive amount of rain at the end of January. We had about 99mm (3.9 inches) in total, and although there hasn't been any rain in February yet, the grasses in some areas are looking very green and lush still. We decided that just 5 sheep weren't nearly enough, so found a few more mini meat sheep to join our little flock.

The trailer needed a few days worth of repairs before use, but it was a wrong turn down a very bad dirt road that really put it to the test! Luckily we found out on the way to pick up the sheep that the trailer's door wasn't secure, and we made sure it wasn't going to fly open on the way home, that's for sure! The trailer worked out just fine though, and we made it home with the youngsters in one piece!

It took only two days for the three youngest members of the flock to figure out how the system works. We set up the fence with two lines of polywire to begin with. I just realised that even though it feels like they've been with us for months, it's actually been less than 3 weeks! The whole flock are staying where we need them with just the one polywire now, and they're all very happy.

When Marty and I moved them to a new spot recently, we watched as they galloped around the area, springing into the air as they ran. The next day we stood watching as they were frolicking around their shelters, jumping and playing. I guess they're still young, and as I said, the grass is exceptional this year. There is one special sheep that enjoys getting scratches from Marty and I. He's very smart, knowing he's very unlikely to end up as dinner! ha!

Aside from sheep, Marty and I have practically changed our diets once again to take advantage of the plentiful fruit available right now. My fig jelly experiment didn't work out, and I ended up with a slightly caramelised fig syrup instead. There are a few green grapes ready now, the dark ones are on their way. A few pears made it into the kitchen this year, but did not want to ripen, so I poached them in syrup. The sheep knocked off some apples in their excitement to get to the lower leaves of the apple tree. We've never had more than an apple or two from the tree before, and this year there were many kilos of them! We preserved them in some Fowlers jars for later. The peaches are ripe right now and there is a big pile of them on the kitchen table ready to be preserved. Yikes! We've had a few passionfruit, little "cherry plums", and lemons of course. Much more food than we can eat, but the birds and bugs are helping to eat the abundance too.

The dam is full of tiny fish, insects galore and a little diving duck and her chicks growing fast. The dragonflies are helping keep some of the mosquito population under control, as the wetter weather has made conditions prefect for more than just the nice critters to have around! There have been plenty of frogs, mice and rats, and the snakes to eat them. There are plenty of spiders, and lots of wasps that feed spiders to their young in mud nests (which they love to make in the bathroom, I might add). It's been a beautiful summer. Although I do wonder a little, if Marty and I are maybe under a spell, and any other person looking at our home and how we live might think it's absolutely awful! :)

Until next time.