foul weather

14.7.2011

BUILDING NEWS

It is foul. The weather, that is. Our brave builders are doing their best to ignore the constant drizzle and have started the brick arches on top of the solar room windows. Yesterday they core filled the pillars and set up their first two bays of scaffolding so they were all ready to start this morning.

Edd went down to Melbourne yesterday and fetched another load of second hand bricks so they have the materials to keep going at the moment. Al wants to have the cut off half and quarter bricks to build a pizza oven so that he can have a pizza party for his birthday. I have ordered a skip for the rest of the rubbish; it has begun sinking into the mud, which is not a good look.

OTHER NEWS

It is school holiday time so yesterday I took Bo’s green eyed monsters to the cinema. Al's X and Ti met us there and the kids conned me into buying an enormous bucket of popcorn. It was so big that when it was empty it completely covered a kid’s head! The film was not as bad as I had thought it might be and I enjoyed the graphics in the scenery. They were beautiful colours and referenced traditional Chinese art

It was Bo’s birthday yesterday and for the next few weeks she is the same age as Al. He came over in the evening to babysit so that Simon could take Bo out. Al's x is going to live in Al’s house and he is renting a place he can use as a house and an office in Warburton centre. Both India and Arden are coming back from Queensland and continuing school down here so he has a busy next few days getting them a home ready.

All the animals are suffering from the miserable weather. Yesterday we got all the sheep in and wormed them and sorted them into two small crofts by the shed. Luckily we are getting more barley from the brewery now so at present we will have to heavily supplement their grass diet. The ewes have been loosing weight and as they are due to lamb I have to try and reverse this trend.

Sharron is really growing and taking almost all her mum’s milk. In some ways this reduces our work because I can hand milk Donna and save us the task of cleaning out the milking machine. The little croft they are in is turning to mud and generally making their life miserable. They have free access to hay in a round feeder but we have brought some lucerne hay to give them something extra each day.

I have abandoned all hope of getting the goats out to graze and they are now living in their bedroom pens in the big shed. We still have plenty of hay bales left and they are looking fatter and more pregnant by the day. I will have to start working out the dates they are due. I am not sure we are really ready for an influx of new babies.