complicated weather

January 3 2017

We are having unusual weather in that there has been tropical storms and other rain events that have complicated hay making and kept the grass green.  The blackberries that usually die off in the summer dry are having a field day and springing up lush and fast everywhere.  Today I have mowed the fire breaks round the old house site and the sheds. The blackberries in the fence lines need to be dealt with later.

In the garden the pumpkins grow about a metre a day! We have had a glut of zucchinis that go to the market and Bo’s restaurant, and the tomatoes that have formed a thicket. Yesterday I harvested more beans for freezing and the garlic which needs processing and freezing as ice cubes.  The physic garden is doing well and the plants are mostly looking strong.

Edd moved the wood from the tree that came down in the camp area and I began mowing where it had been. We can see right back two the fence now but there are several tree stumps and still more logs to move before we can prepare to reclaim the area as grass. 

The goats gave huge amounts of milk up to Xmas but they have just passed the peak and are slowing down.  We will not have much surplus until we wean the kids in March.  Vesna had a bad accident yesterday and injured herself trying to squeeze through too small a gap.  We have put Mona in the yards to try and reduce the pressure on her because she has not recovered properly since having triplets. I am trying to dry her off but she keeps producing lots of milk and we cannot let her get mastitis.

The buck, Turnbul, is now in the refenced buck paddock and the horses have eaten down the grass left in all the small crofts. They now need mowing and then we can move the goat kids out doors.  At this stage we have 7 female and 7 male, but we will not keep all the males.  I am planning to send all the goats down the big gully to tackle the blackberries once we get the hill paddock fenced again.  The young neutered males can keep at this jib all winter.

We have been lucky with the hay. Indi and friends helped us get bales in and we dodged the un-forecasted rain.  We still have bales to pick up from the shed we put them in and we have round bales to sort out down Steels Creek road. Other people have not been so lucky and lots of hay has been ruined.  Still it is a bumper year with round bales thickly covering every paddock.