Dot has babies

17.9.2009

Things are really happening now. Steve has arrived and marked out the sheds and Mike is digging out the footing trenches with one machine whilst his mate is making massive round holes for the big shed foundations with Craig’s digger. Apparently Edd’s friend Trevor and his son are coming down today to do the concreting.

I have my eldest grandson, Arden, staying this week because he has school holidays. Josh has let him sleep in his donga and Arden is putting up with Josh working nights and keeping funny hours. His main aim is to catch the huge gold fish he is sure are in the big dam. So far he just keeps loosing his bait. He thinks he has seen big black eels who are the suspected culprits here. This takes up a lot of his time but he has also done some helpful jobs in the garden and feeding animals.

We have three new babies. Dot had triplets last week; two does and one buck kid, all sable coloured. Fortunately they are all polls so we have no dehorning to do this year. Mum and kids are thriving well and have their own private pen in the polyhouse. The chooks are laying more eggs too. Someone must have told them spring is here.

The first days of the week were beautiful. Warm, calm, sunny, weather totally suitable for the enjoyment of garden work. Mike has transported some topsoil left over from the shed site to replenish the soil around the old house site. I also raked down the topsoil onto the excavation cut, as instructed by Mike who likes things to end up looking right.

29.9.2009
The happy spring weather did not last long. We have had about the worst time for the whole winter. It has been windy, cold and has poured down with day after day of rain. Any normal year I would be in my nice cosy home looking at all this water with joy but as there are no roofs to catch it, and no cosy home it is hard to be anything but miserable. The only thing stopping me feeling very sorry for myself is that our neighbours on the hill have the rain as well as the wind blowing through the shed they are living in. Luckily our dongas are dry so I have to admit that by comparison we are well off.

The poly house floor is now a black swamp. Luckily the goats have built up enough deep litter to be on a dry island but getting to them is a bad experience. I do the morning milking and at last Edd’s leg has healed enough so that he can do the evening feeds. At least this way we only face the horror once a day each. The other good thing is that Mike put the stone down on the new road so we can still drive close to the dongas .

The men all worked last week despite the rain. Ben and his father, Trevor, (Edd’s friend), poured the slab for the machinery shed last Friday in appalling conditions. The forecast suggested Friday would be the best day for the week but this was wrong and instead it was the worst day we have had for years. We decided to keep going because all the plastic and reinforcing was in place ready to go and the thought of it all filling with water was worse than a rough floor finish. Craig lent us a pump to pump the water out of the footings that had filled up. That worked OK. How would we manage without Craig? He is always willing to lend us the right piece of equipment to overcome our latest insurmountable hurdle. Ben is the sort of young man that one would rather like to keep. He seems capable of doing a brilliant job against all odds and at the same time, behaves charmingly. Up to now I have not found a concrete specialist who does not have to be avoided during and after work. Because of this I have had all my small concrete jobs done by Gary or Andrew from Merrie’s clan. It is not really their speciality but at least they are pleasant to have around. Gary seems capable of doing any practical job if one is really stuck