January 2023

 The summer is finally warming up, and although we don't love the heat, there are many plants that do. The summer growing grasses in the pasture are now happier, and the rain that overwhelmed the ground earlier has left some areas quite hard. Still, we can see an improvement since we started grazing only a year and a couple of months ago now. I have read that things become much better by year 3, though.

The photo above was taken earlier in the season while the spring grasses were dominant. The sheep love to rub all over their shelters and rest under them. They're light weight enough that we carry them to each new grazing area that doesn't have a good sized tree, which is most areas still!

We named Sharon's lamb Vicky Winters, she's on the left in the picture above and growing up very fast. Her Daddy, Chilli is right next to her, with Star and her (and our) first born ram in the background. He's almost 5 months old now.

The flock heading over to chow down on some fresh prickly lettuce. There are 13 here now, and we're still expecting a new ewe.. her arrival date has been pushed back to the 18th of January. She's coming all the way from South Australia, and there have been some logistical issues and flooded roads causing the delay. No worries!

This is the new mineral feeder, made from an old pallet, replacing the old greek yoghurt containers. We keep the rubber flap off when there's no chance of rain. It gives everyone a good opportunity to casually choose what they'd like to eat. The most popular supplement is still the kelp meal, but the copper was essential during the wet spring. I credit the copper for keeping the flock free of worms, we haven't needed to "drench" and everyone is alive and healthy.

The second ram lamb born, we nick name the ram lambs Rammy the First and Rammy the Second. This little guy is just over 3 months old and already looks like a mini version of his dad, with wrinkles on his nose and a love of scratchies!

Vicky is 4 days older than Rammy the Second, and she's looking great and is very healthy. Her Mum is eating prickly lettuce in the picture above, right beside her.

Chillie is great, we got lucky to have such a lovely mannered ram. He just loves scratches and would just about stand around all day getting them. It makes life so much easier having very tame sheep. If there's a seed (or 100) bothering them, we can get them out. If they need some foot care, we can get close enough to tip them upside down. When it was very wet, there was a couple of sheep who's hooves needed a trim, and we did it right there in the paddock without having to stress them out. No need for sheep handling facilities or races, and it's funny, but they forgive us pretty quickly, especially when they feel much better after having it done.

Moving the sheep to a new area is as easy as reeling up the fence a bit, calling "Sheep Sheep Sheep!" and they bound over and race in to see what new food they can find. We could manage pats and scratchies when there were only 4 or so that enjoyed it, but now nearly everyone enjoys some attention. Each sheep has their preferences, some like neck scratches and others prefer the other end. They're all intelligent and individual, but thankfully they do tend to follow Dark Wether when he leads. There have been quite a few times the fence has been knocked over by kangaroos, and the sheep aren't where we last had them. It's no stress at all to call for them when Dark Wether comes to us with the rest of the flock in tow.

It's exciting to see our land is still pretty green when our neighbours properties look as dead as ours use to be at this time of year. Sure, much of the green is "weeds" but the sheep don't seem to mind. Right now we're giving them large areas and moving them daily to keep the impact fairly light, just a bite off the top of the plant and move on, where-as in Spring we had them in smaller areas moving many times a day, to create more of an impact and putting much of the grass on the ground. It works out well for us too, moving once a day, about an hour before the sun goes down and things are cooler.

So, our lives right now consist of lazy summer days and enjoyable sheep moves in the evenings. Mornings are when I get some gardening done, watering before it gets hot, planting, repotting etc. I feel like we're getting away with something..! ;)

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.

Dreaming of a green Christmas..

 It's late December, and for the first time in a long time, the pastures are still green this late in the year. We have had some very decent rain, and the dam rose considerably. We have also been mowing some areas much more frequently. We can't really get to it all, but the areas mowed are all still green, while the majority of the land turns brown as the very tall spring annual grasses die off. We've also finished the sheep watering / solar energiser / fence supplies cart.

 

With the cart finished, we didn't have many more excuses to not get sheep. A breeder not far from us had some Harlequin mini meat sheep available, and we went to talk to her and see the sheep. After a couple of weeks deliberation, we decided to take the leap and give them a try. We've had the flock of five for a month now, and we have been learning how to fence a little better every day. They have learned all about electric fencing now, and so have we!

Marty and I welded the panels together after our awesome neighbour showed Marty what his look like and sold us the metal for us to weld some too. They worked to keep the sheep contained while learning about electric fencing. These young sheep were smart and learned all their lessons by day 2, so on day 3 we opened up a small area just outside the pen using 3 strands of electric fencing on the outside and 2 lines for the inner fences. When it was clear the smart sheep wouldn't attempt to cross 2 wires, we used 2 on the outside fence. Now we've moved down to the back fence, we're trialing a single line with the physical fence on the other side, and 2 wires everywhere else. So far, no sheep seems interested in escaping, they seem quite happy moving into a new area every day or more often than that if the spot is lacking in green feed.

The watering cart has been working out just fine, although it is possible to make the whole thing live and get a mighty zap. Like I said, we're learning all about electric fencing too. The sheep are getting quite comfortable with the grazing system and with us as well. We bring them edible weeds, poplar and grape leaves, wormwood branches and things from the garden. They run to us and rummage through the offerings. We also open up new areas, so in their eyes, us humans are good news. They've grown in just a month, their bellies are full and they've got energy to run and jump. They're about 6 months old.

Recently it became much more of an encumbrance to, well.. shop. We have been pairing down what we need to get from the outside world, aside from food. I am lucky to have come across the JADAM method of making liquid fertilisers. It's easily comparable to commercial fertilisers, only not as concentrated. I use it more generously too, because it costs so little to start and nothing to make, and the plants are noticeably happier as a result.

The Sebago potatoes we planted in the shadehouse back in August are mostly harvested now, and I packed the biggest potatoes in straw in a couple of milk crates. We don't have a cellar, but our kitchen does stay fairly cool thanks to the thick mudbrick walls and high ceiling. If they sprout, we'll have to re-plant them, because they do taste nice, and they are dense and firm. We have plenty of garlic and herbs, so my next plant challenge is carrots. We started eating raw carrots and drinking orange juice after listening to and reading the great Dr Ray Peat talk about their benefits. Otherwise we've been ordering our lamb directly from the butcher, saving by buying a whole carcass, and getting quite practiced in cutting up a whole lamb ourselves. We save even more by having beef or lamb heart in our stew and boiled beef kidney occasionally as well.

So we continue in our quest, at a snails pace it feels like, but even small steps are still progress, and we won't fail if we don't give up.