November 25 2016
We have had a cool wet
week. At least the weather encouraged me to stay indoors and sort out all the
laundry and accounts. We had quite
a backlog of this sort of work that accumulated whilst we spent our time with
the school kids. The rain has also had a profound effect on the vegetation and
we have more growth in the grass than we have ever had before. The stock are failing to keep up with
the growth and we have paddocks full of long grass everywhere.
The trees are also
growing fast. We are a bit of a
home for abandoned trees. Last
week we acquired four olive trees that were breaking out of their pots in the
restaurant beer garden. They were in wine barrels and two totally collapsed
when we tried to move them so Edd had to dig holes on the hottest day so far to
get them in the ground. The mandarin
tree that the school planted is still alive and we hope the olives will survive
too.
With all the lush
grass the goats are giving loads of milk. We are feeding 10 kids but we still
have heaps left over for making cheese.
Rosie kidded this week and had a boy and a girl that were really huge. Her udder is huge too; it is a wonder
that she can walk at all. This is
the first year that we have had this scale of production but hopefully
everything will settle back after Xmas.
I have been selling goats but still have more than we need.
November 13
Once again we had a
dry sunny week for the second school camp and a great deal of work was
done. These kids are totally
amazing. The vegetable garden has been refilled and planted out with the new
seasons vegetables and we have a physic garden that includes a new wicking
bed. The fallen trees have been
moved off the fences and the last pile of dead trees left from the 2009 fires
has been sorted and moved. The shelter shed has taken on a new look too with
the last of the upright posts painted green and some fantastic new murals.
Edd and I were pretty
tired when everyone left but three days later Edd was wishing they were all
back so he could have the help! We
even found two lads who took on the weed strippers and cut down all the long
grass on the slopes and other places that I cannot reach with the ride on
mower. Now I would employ those
guys any time!
Even with the camps
finished for the year the farm work carries on relentlessly. On Monday Melissa, our oldest goat,
kidded. She was starting to go
into labour at the morning milking time so we put her in a separate pen and
gave her peace to get on with it. By the afternoon several hours had passed and
she seemed to be no further on.
She was standing up and not even trying, which is a bad sign. I managed to get a hand inside her and
found a kids foot in the birth canal.
I soon located a second foot and a nose so the presentation was
correct. The only solution was to
pull and ease out a very large buck kid.
Amazingly he was still alive and later she delivered a much smaller girl,
so all is well.
We sold several kids
and goatlings during the camp and I now have 4 more to kid and about 5 more
goats to sell. The camp took down
the old barrier that separates the shed from the young goats paddock so that we
can now clean up the area and then let the kids outside. We will have to put up a temporary
fence and move the buck, Turnbull, to the other side. The wether, Abbott, has been sold as a pet. He really did have a lovely nature so
we have tried to choose him a good home. He was so friendly and nice natured
that I really miss him.
Yesterday we did get
some time away from the farm because we were invited to a friend’s work place
at a local winery for an alfresco lunch.
A mixed bag of vineyard workers, wine makers an artist and us as cheese
makers all brought our produce to share and enjoyed a long lazy lunch until we
had to drag ourselves away for the evening milking. We had been tasting some amazing and interestingly different
wines and special food and learn about them. It was like being back in France.
As soon as the camp
left the rain returned and we had a very wet weekend. We were so lucky that the camp was not this week because
Monday was awful too. It is warming up again now so we will have to complete
the job of cleaning out the pool and patching the worn bits. The lining got very badly damaged in
the fires and is a real patchwork but we might get another years use from it.
We will try anyway.
