Lambs indoors and out

7.31.19

It is just plain beautiful today.  Warm, sunny, crystal clear blue skies and little white lambs bouncing round the paddocks. We had another one born today which makes a total of 13.  The orphan lamb is now in a pen next to the young does in the shed, but I have a little ewe lamb in the house. Her mother, the big grey ewe had triplets and I was not brave enough to leave them all with her, so I took the smallest indoors before night fell.  It seemed a bit much to expect her mum to protect all 3 from foxes. 

I am meant to be cleaning up in the house today because we have a school group coming tomorrow but I could not resist doing a bit of gardening as well. Edd is teaching at the High school on Wednesdays this term so I have had the day to myself.  The lambs need 4 bottle feeds a day, so I have kept pretty busy.   Now the season is changing we start all the tours and camps again.  This is usually the coldest time of year, but the weather Gods do not seem to know it.

The wattle trees are now in flower and the big tree in the chook pen was covered in yellow flowers and bees.  The Lucerne trees are just about to burst bud too. I have trimmed the tree by the small donga and Edd is putting up a fence so it can be reached without going through the chook pen.  I have started to clean it out. Everyone has been using it for storage and most of the stuff in there needs taking to the op shop, tip or other storage areas. Once it is empty, I can clean up and make good again.  We will need it for guests to stay in when the Permaculture group come in August, so I need to get a move on!My winter knitting

Oh deer

28.6.19

We have had a glorious week. Cold clear nights changing into warm sunny days with clear blue skies.  Luckily there is plenty of outdoor work as an excuse to enjoy working with the sun warming us and stunning views to make life even more enjoyable.  Why would we want to go on a holiday somewhere else unless it was to visit someone?

It is 6pm and dark now but still warm.  As I chop kindling to light the evening fires, I can hear a neighbour with a chainsaw, no doubt also with fires in mind.   Tonight, I have lit the wood stove to give some extra heat to the water.  This is the first time in three days because the sun on the solar panels has done most of the work.  The fire lighters have mysteriously disappeared, but they are not essential. I just have to be more careful without them.

Today I resumed a digging project to enlarge the growing space in the vegetable garden. I now have a flat area under a high bank that needs some sort of terracing. I am waiting for Edd to fix the fence before we can plant out this space because I am still worried about deer. Yesterday we found a huge samba deer dead by the old wooden shed. We could see no sign it had been shot or killed by violence. It had been scouring for at least a few days so was it sick, or had it been poisoned?

The next problem was what to do with it. It was far too big to bury, and anyway foxes dig things up from quite deep holes.  It took two of us to drag it onto the carryall at the back of the tractor, and I have now shut the goats away from that paddock in case it had some disease. We will have to do a bit of research.

Strangely enough Edd and I had gone to a Landcare meeting about deer last week end. They are breeding massively and are now in big enough numbers to do damage in the forests as well as farms and gardens.  The samba deer are the worst pest and have caused several road accidents locally. Driving up the road from Yarra glen after dark has now become a hazardous venture with the deer adding to the menace caused by kangaroos and wombats. I drive very slowly and carefully, with this in mind.

The next task is to prepare for the midwinter feast on the first week of July.   I have ordered a turkey and will do masses of vegetables to go with it.  I can make a crumble from the fruit I froze earlier in the year. Indi has not been well this week but hopefully she will have recovered by then.   I am eyeing off some mistletoe on the old drive. It has not got white berries like the UK plant, but I plan to remedy this by a cunning addition of some fake pearls I have harvested from a necklace I got at the charity shop.

winter in the valley

 Pumpkins ready for eating

MidWinter sun

Ella and new sister

Another new baby

May 11, 2019

Winter has arrived with the usual sudden change. After months of dry heat, we now have non-stop rain and chilly winds.  The good thing is that the water tanks and dams are filling fast.  We were getting dangerously low with our water supplies, but that problem is over.  We were lucky and got the goat shed cleaned out whilst the paddocks were dry enough to drive over with the truck carrying the deep litter. The restored ramps between the goat shed and milking room are now doing their job and keeping the goats feet out of the mud.

I have planted more vegetable seedlings, but we have had a setback. A kangaroo has discovered the garden and eaten all the straw berry plants.  I am really worried it will start on the vegetables next.  Edd and I blocked the openings into the ruins, but we need a whole extra fence to protect the garden on all sides. It has been such a bad time for plant growth that everyone is finding their garden has been under attack.  A friend down the road even had the leaves of her rhubarb plants eaten!

The really big event has been the birth of our next grandchild.  Bo, Sylkie and I drove down to Melbourne to greet her on Monday evening a few hours after she was born. She looked very peaceful and has lots of dark hair and her dad’s eyes.  Indi  , Ben and their baby came to lunch today when Al came with Pele to see me with mother’s  day flowers. Al was very thoughtful and brought Indi flowers too.  Arden, who is staying in the donga, also joined us so we had a big family gathering.  I was not sure how many were coming so I made a big pan of soup and a plate of cheese. Al brought bread, olives and meat so there was plenty to go around.  

Indi’s baby has a little knobbly chin, but Wayne’s baby has the family chin dent.  This is the wrong way around, because it is Indi’s baby we are genetically related to and not Wayne’s! Pele, who is one year old,  is the uncle of Indi’s baby so we are getting a family web rather than a family tree structure.  In the end it is just wonderful that all  the babies are healthy and have arrived safely. 

The end of the dry season

May 5, 2019

We have made it through a week that could have been disastrous and come out triumphant.  Our first Great Grandchild , a little girl as yet un-named, arrived safely on Friday evening.   Indi started labour on Friday morning when we still had twenty students here.  Luckily, the fence posts in gravel pit paddock were laid out and put in on Thursday, so work had finished around Indi’s house. Another lucky thing was that the weather was perfect so that a blow-up birthing bath could be set up on the veranda. 

The weather had been fine and dry until Wednesday evening when we had a big Thunder storm and massive rain fall.  We all woke in the night with the loud thunder claps. I got up and put the house lights on in case any campers needed a refuge, but the kids stayed put and actually seemed to enjoy the storm.  They were even cheerful next Morning.   Most were able to continue their main tasks out-side, but I took my gardening group into the house and we dyed wool and made biscuits.  This time the dying was much more successful. The artificial dyes made the wool strong blue and light teal and the onion and avocado skins turned the wool a lovely gold colour.

This round of camps has been really good. Lots of work has been done cheerfully and willingly and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Last week the ramps in and out of the goat shed were taken up, cleaned out and relayed so that now the wet weather has arrived the goats can come and go without tramping through mud.  The big tank there was checked and found to have doubled the amount of stored drinking water we had.  That was just in time because stores of water were worryingly low.

Now we can relax a bit. The kids are weaned, the big goats are drying off, the trees and gardens are getting enough water without extra  work.  We have no more bookings due and the hour change means we can get the evening work over by 5pm if we get going well. I can now spend time on craft projects and Edd can learn how to use his new welder.

Wall art

April 8 2019

Wall art from the conference and camp 1

Dusty and smoky

March 10, 2019

The valley has been full of smoke from the bush fires in the ranges and all of Victoria has been under health alerts for air quality. The distant hills are invisible, and the close ones are blurred.  There is still no rain and the paddocks are turning to dust that whirls upward with each gust of wind. Many houses have been lost in these fires but luckily no people. We have not been under threat, but we monitor all that is going on very closely.

All we can do is try to carry on as normal.  Edd has plumbed up the dam water system so that we can now pump dam water into the new plastic tank.   We can  then use it for watering the plants by the house and the fruit trees.  It makes the job of keeping plants alive much quicker and easier especially as now two people can water at once.   I would love to put plants in Toby’s garden around the new gazebo, but just at the minute they are safer in pots. 

Edd’s next job is to fix the fences so that we can move the horses and goats up onto the hill. There is no feed left in the gravel pit paddock and they are driving Indi mad trying to raid her vegetables.  She also has to open and shut the paddock gate every time she goes anywhere, and this is a big ask at now she is so close to giving birth. The dam in the hill paddock is broken and empty so we will need the horses to have access to the small dam . This means having an electric wire on the top of the fences below the dam, so they do not knock them over.  The hafflingers do not like taking “no” for an answer and barge right through fences if it is possible.

Today Dan and I pulled out most of the zucchini because they were going down with mildew.  We also need somewhere to start the winter crops.  We also pulled out the sweet corn which has also been harvested.  It was not as good a crop as last year even though we put in more plants.  On the other hand, the pumpkins have gone mad and taken over everywhere.   This year some are very large, green and warty.  They are probably from our saved seed and may or may not be edible.  Pumpkins are inclined to cross pollinate with anything, so we often get unexpected results.

At least one of the sheep is bagging up and looks heavily pregnant.   We have just started feeding them brewers grain which they are very happy about.   Even the sheep who turned their noses up at grain last year have dived in with enthusiasm today.    We have now weaned the buck kids  and are winding down the milk for the doe kids.  The goats are producing much less now, and it will soon be possible to go down to once a day milking. None of them has come into season yet so it looks as if we may have another year with late kidding.