Blogs from the bed

Bet that got your attention, actually a fair few of the blogs this week have been from the bed. This evening, I didn't watch a movie, I decided to clean out the wardrobe, I found clothes from when I was about 15, and unfortunatly they didn't fit, my arms and legs are a bit longer (we'll ignore the waist issue), so since most of them are still in good condition, I'll take them to the op shop.

Don't really have much to add this evening, so I won't bother...

Only 12 hours till Steph's in Wellington

Translyvainain Tranvesites

Managed to finish off Evita this afternoon, picked up on a little joke in the credit which I had never seen before, in one of the scenes Eva had become a actress due to her connections, and the director had to put up with her and in the credits he was referred to as the "Intollerant movie director", or "exsasperated movie director", anyway, you get the idea of the character, well it was played by Alan Parker (who by the way directed Evita!).

Also just finished Rocky Horror, seem to be picking all the ones with cool soundtracks at the moment, not sure what I'll do this evening.

Only another few hours till Fee...

I headed to the sales at lunch, nothing much there, lots of cows and a few ewes with lamb at foot, and some pigs, dogs and a hen, but nothing worth bringing home.

Till tomorrow.

Another splendid day

Half past ten, and I've already clocked up several hours of work this morning, started nice and early at 6am - after a whole hours lie in..pure bliss. I must admit there is something very nice about programming whilst sitting in bed, with a nice coffee, the curtains wide open looking out on to a sunny, green garden where the trees are just coming into leaf etc, really adds a certain "thing" to working! The only downside to programming in bed is the kittens, whilst occasionally the code looks like a cat walked over the keyboard, when a cat does do that, it normally doesn't compile (as I found out this morning, pesky Jag, also he kept batting the touch pad and of course making the mouse cursor move and click..)

This morning whilst doing some automated testing, I strolled down the paddock to check on the sheep etc, all are doing well. The new grass growth is all over the three paddocks, a little bit lighter in the paddocks where the alpacas were for the last three weeks, oh well lesson learnt!

Whilst down there I also quickly tried the tail stock jacobs chuck thing Ken made me, after a minor modification to open the end of the thread, it worked a treat.

Oh well, back to working I guess as the compile has now finished.

Another movie in another evening

Just incase you missed the relevance of the title, it's based on the lyrics of a song from Evita "Another suitcase in another hall". Yep this evening I watched (well tried to) Evita. Just so happened that Mum rang me up as I sat down for dinner, such is life. Didn't start watching till after 8pm and at 9:30 I woke up. Normally I really enjoy Evita, it's another movie I think has a really good soundtrack, and I must admit I quite enjoy Madonna's and Antonio's performances but this evening I was too tired, and music often helps me sleep (I don't think the port I had helped either!)
As usual the stock are all OK, well mainly - the black hen, a good reliable layer, has been progressivly losing the feathers from her back, it's not moult as she is still laying and the feathers are snapped/plucked out, from what I've seen the other rooster we have jumps her at any available moment, so maybe he's being a bit rough, maybe his days are numbered aswell, maybe Strider can get him! I noticed today that the lambs were all over the paddock, and it was very cute this morning, there was a nasty frost last night, and the lambs didn't like putting their feet down!
Must remember to ring the vets tomorrow and organise the neutering of Galiano,Rapper and Monty as they are fighting more and more. Also I must thank Ken soon as I asked him to make me a piece for my lathe, and it arrived today. Haven't tested it yet, I'll do that tomorrow - should make my secret turning project a bit easier!

Heard from Steph a few minutes ago (via email), her conference is all finished and all that's left is shopping and sightseeing, maybe I should put a lock on the VISA card now! Sounds like it's been fun over there for her.

Hm what else has happened, not a great deal - I'm working from home tomorrow, which is good, is allows me to start early and consequently finish early which enables me to get into town etc which makes the weekend better (and that's really important this weekend).

After this weekend, life at littlebush takes a turn for the better, daylight savings changes (honestl'y don't know if it starts or stops) and we get an extra hour in the evening. One of the first things I intend doing with the extra time is finish building the post and rail fence around the water tanks.

Also I found out today that we need to re-innoculate the lambs with 5 in 1 (pulpy kidney, black leg, tetnus etc) when we wean, and then 4 weeks later. Thankfully injecting sheep is reasonable easy compared to the alpacas (they are normally stropy buggers hence why Steph doesn't need worming or her vitamins this year!)

I think that's about all for today...
Bed time

The old ones are always the best

Just coooking dinner, and after last nights "Red October" I thought I would stick on "Top Gun" this evening, whilst the 80's fashions are so, well 80's, the movie is still really cool, with an awesome soundtrack as well.
This evening when I got home, I checked the horse, once more her legs seemed fine, but I gave her a bit more grass, the silly tart did her "I'll pretend to kick you", so I gave her a telling off...
Also I noticed that the alpacas had munched out all the grass, so I moved them down a paddock to beside the sheep, they really enjoyed chasing the birds.

The lambs are all still OK - oh and something I noticed on the way back up from the paddocks was that there was little grass shoots!

The soundtrack is just so cool, esp cranked up!

This evening I started working on a special piece of turning, but unfortunatly the glue didn't hold, try again later.

I'm going to feed the boys and watch the movie.

Contact from Steph

Last night once I got home I checked Markissa's legs, they didn't seem swollen (I could see muscle shape etc on the front legs, and they were only warm to touch), but I did notice a rub on her nose, not knowing what to do I wandered around the paddock with the phone till a found a "hot spot" and txt'ed Steph with the details, waited around for about ten minutes as the boys went mad (just incase Steph replied quickly), and then went and did dishes etc.
Once I stuck tea in the microwave, I wandered back out to the paddock to try and get reception again, after about 5 minutes and no txt, I gave up and went back in for dinner.
Watched "Hunt for the Red October", very cool movie.

Oh, yesterday I tried a new food, lambs tongue, before you all panic, it wasn't from our lambs. It tasted like corned beef (the stuff in the cans, not silverside), just that the tongues were unpeeled so they had a funny texture. I ate the whole can in a tongue and cheese sandwich, but I won't be buying it again!

Another 2 names have been suggested by Carisa, Freckles and Pepper. I think we only need 1 name, for the black and white one, the one which is mainly white with black legs and black neck will be eaten, even though she is a ewe ('cause her fleece is worth less). I was speaking with our shearer friend last night, and he's offered to assist us when it comes time to buy some more ewes, this time I'll get pure whites, and a white ram (if we can find one). I guess that means the black faced ewe should also be culled (hogget if we do it after weaning I think, mutton soon after that) otherwise we're always going be throwing a majority of down-cross (not black-cross, I had the wrong term previously) lambs, twins from "Freckles" (just taking anyname), would be enough meat for us each year.

Oh, the subject of the post, I had an email from Steph, her room was upgraded to one with a spa bath - very nice.....

Till later.

Another day, only 3 left

Just on the way home now, I managed to get hold of Steph this morning via "txt", she said her flight was long, but her hotel room was upgraded, what to I don't know.
This evening I'll actually be home whilst it's still light so checking Markissa's legs and moving her fence should be a bit easier than last night. I guess I also should think about dishes.
we've had a few more names suggested for the lambs, Flora and Fauna, they are a bit more on the mark, but since it looks like the ewes are the black spotted ones, and the rams the white, next year We might be eating three of them! Maybe if we want white fleece we shouldn't use ewes with black heads! At the moment our sheep breeding program is a bit of pot luck (if they are rams, our pot gets lucky!).

Steph all gone bye bye

This morning Steph and I got up normal time and drove to Wellington in the Civic as her flight out of Wellington left around lunch time, and we like to see each other off. So around 10ish we went to the airport and had some breakfast/lunch. The flight she was going to go on had weight issues so she was put on one 30 minutes earlier, and probably by now she is in Perth.
On the way home I had dinner with Thomas, Theresa and Cara, all are good, ended up getting home around 10pm, at which time I moved the fence for Markissa, and the stupid chooks were sleeping on the gate, not in their house, maybe it needs cleaning!

Pesky Cats

Since the previous post, I did manage to get down to the shed and first prepare a piece of timber (cherry and pine) for my next project, unfortunatly photos can't be done for a while, Steph's got the camera whilst she's in Perth. Not only did I prepare some stuff, I started on a macrocarpa bowl, I was going to use cherry, but whilst cutting the slab to size with a table saw, a piece came off and bounced off the back wall at around 40Kmph, I decided to finish that once I get a bandsaw.
Steph brought Markissa over, but unfortunatly her feet were swollen hence no riding, another day maybe.
We did find a few farmy things to do, we checked the goats hooves, need a trim, but otherwise OK, and instead of keeping the chickens in their run, we've decided to try and keep the chooks out of the dog run instead, so we changed a bit of chicken fencing around to make it harder for the chooks to get in.

Just got back from dinner at the pub, and now we're going to bash monsters for the night, but when we got back, I had to put down a chick (starling) 'cause Jag brought one in and broke it's wing. I only noticed it when I stood on it and it squeeked!.


Till later..

How to work up an appitite

Quarter to ten, haven't had breakfast yet (just about to), and I've just finished moving the last bit of the cattle yards we pulled out to make wasy for the shed to the pile of poles and concrete lumps beside the main gate. That now means down by Steph's tack shed and the water tanks is basically tidy again.I think we need to hire a tip for all this concrete, or maybe a scrap metal place (and get rid of the roof beams and ute bed at the same time).

There isn't much else planned farmy wise for the rest if the day, so I should manage to get down to the lathe.

So far Alex has suggested "Bacon" (I think Carisa needs to tell Alex where bacon come from), and "Amelia Jane" for the splotty sheep. Neither of those really seem to jell for some reason, I was thinking more along the 101 dalmations line for a name (ie Pongo, Perdita,Lucky etc)

Breakfast time...

Already integrated into the rest of the (cough) flock! 

Spot the odd one out! 

The first pair of lambs. 

Splotty and her sibling 

The rest of the day

After the morning, we headed into town for lunch/shopping and to get Steph a new suitcase for her trip to Perth on Monday. One the way I realised that there was only a few days left of the fishing season and I should go out once more to see if I want to renew my license, well I trundled down to the nearest river, and on my second cast lost my lure, so I re-kitted up and after about 45 minutes, I got another lure caught up in a tree, so I cut my losses and came back home to do farmy stuff. Looking around I realised that I hadn't finished harrowing one of the bottom paddocks, so I jumped on Tom and zoomed down and started on that for an hour (till I ran out of gas, it's one hungry beast). Thankfully it started using the reserve tank and I got it back to the shed OK.
Steph didn't ride today, just lunge, I'm sure she'll eventually get around to doing a blog soon.
After I've cooked dinner (pork chops and salad), I'll post the photos we took this morning.

Very productive morning

Spent the morning as planned turning the compost with the tractor, all went well, only almost went through the fence twice! Took around 4 hours all up, and next time I think I shall move the compost to the middle of the paddock instead of beside a fence where I can only get at it from a few angles.
The lambs are all still alive and healthy. We have now verified that the first two lambs (from "Not pretty but pregnant") are both rams, we were hoping for ewes but it turns out that they might have a black spot (which makes their fleece worth less), so eating them is the next best thing! As for the splotty (yes it is a matthew-ism, but would make a good scrabble word all the same, feel free to use it!) lamb, it looks like it's a ewe, so it will probably end up being a pet thing. I always said I would get a Dalmation, didn't think it would be a sheep though. The other lamb, we're still undecided as to the sex of it.
Once Alex comes up with a suitable (not beef, chicken or any other type of animal, whilst slightly funny, I'm not shouting "come here Cow" when we only have sheep in a paddock!) name for the splotty one it will be named!

Lunch time here now so I'll have me cup of tea, and then head into town (we're out of food). This afternoon Steph's going to try to ride, and I might head down to the lathe, so there should be another post this afternoon (with some new photos of the lambs, and Steph riding maybe!)

Lambs, all four of them

Well, another night (not too cold, only about 4c) and when we checked on the lambs this morning, the first two were up and feeding, and the black faced ewe had taken hers under the three wattles in the middle of the paddock where the other sheep sleep. I walked across to the trees to check on them, and the splotty one was up and feeding, but I couldn't see the white one, it was asleep beside the other ewe (not sure if she's pregnant). Anyway, it lifted it's head as I got closer so it seems OK. We'll have a proper look tomorrow and take some photos in good light.
Only a few days until Steph heads of to Perth, so this weekend we're having to forfeit going on a alpaca farm tour of the Paraparaumu coast, which is a shame, but I doubt we would be home in time for packing/dinner and unwinding since we have to drive to Wellington on Monday.
There are quite a few jobs on the list weekend, there are quite a few wool sacks left around the garden full of weeds (and have been for a few months, so they are probably heavy) that I want to take down to the compost pile, along with turning the pile ofcourse. In the same paddock is all the waste branches to burn. No doubt Steph will want to ride (hopefully she'll make a post regarding that), and I wouldn't mind doing a bit of wood turning, I have a particular project that I need to start and finish reasonably soon.

Mum and the two lambs 

Mum, can I eat grass yet! 

New Splotty Baby from black faced mum 

Another 2 lambs

Just got home to find another two lambs, I guess we were right, she did lamb within a week or two!

Photos to come up after dinner.

Lambs prepped for their first night

After going to the dentist (and actually being seen!) I decided to move the Alpaca house and goat house down to the sheep paddock for the lambs incase it gets really cold. Put the new battery in Tom, and he fired up straight away, one very happy Fou. Trundled down to the first gate at which point whilst it was idling it stopped. Not sure why, maybe still to cold (I put the choke back in), but I couldn't get the damn thing to start. As you can imagine I was a tad annoyed! So I went back to the shed and got the bike battery I recharged this morning and some fuel and started trying to get the "Honda Huntaway" going. After taking the spark plug out, giving that a clean and filling the fuel tank and installing the charged battery it started (a bit chuggy), but after a while it ran smooth, one down one to go. Gave it a quick go (from the side of the tractor, not the seat) - no joy. Decided to do some research on the net regard Fergy TEA30's, turns out that you should be sitting on the seat and the clutch depressed so as to disenage the PTO, so with this new knowledge I went back down and filled the fuel tank with another 5 litres (just incase), and this time it started. Ofcourse due to changing to things at once, I don't know if it was out of gas or if it was the clutch, should be easy to test next time I use it. Once it was going again I had to decide if I wanted to risk moving the houses or just bringing it back in. I figured that the lambs might need the house 'cause it's going to be cold one tonight, so I moved the houses down, and got it back up all OK. Anyway Steph's just got home, so I should go.

Not Pretty and Pregnant, episode II - The Attack of the Lambs

After going down and checking on the lambs just now I noticed that the black faced ewe is also bagging up (teats and udders getting bigger) considerably. I guess within a week or two we'll have more lambs, going by the size of her, and it's her first I'm expecting a single.

Hiding along the side of the paddock. 

Basking in the sun, I think the lamb in the top left corner is a ram... 

Mum and lambs doing fine

As you can see I walked down to the paddock around 7:40 and took some photos. Mum and lambs were ok, they were a bit wobbly on their feet (but at only  few hours old, what do you expect). They were both feeding (which is good), and with the warmth of today they should get a good start.

"Not Pretty, and not Pregnant!" 

Mum and children all hungry. 

Our lambs 

Lambs.

This morning "Not Pretty but pregnant" gave birth to a set of lambs. Apparently Mum and Lambs doing fine. Photos ofcourse coming soon (when I drag myself out of bed!)

Tom misbehaves again

Last night it was a tad chilly, (well there was snow on the foot hills this morning!) so I decided that I would get out Tom and pick up the goat house and bring it up to the yards (where the goats are because they escaped from the paddock they were supposed to be in (how surprising). Once we got home, I quickly changed my clothes and trundled down to the shed, and turned on the fuel, hooked up the battery etc, jumped into the seat and tried starting the tractor. Unfortunatly the battery was flat again, I'm guessing it's a old stuffed battery (hmmph), thankfully I'm in town tomorrow at the dentist so I'll pick up a new battery then.

Look how high it can go.... 

Ah, cleaning up the fun way! 

Just cruisin' 

Adjusting the FEL height 

Tractor in the shed, just before starting 

It's alive....

Woke up this morning around 6:50 due to kittens playing, and realised that is was really tipping down (exactly what we need for the seed), but then I remembered that Tom was abandoned down by the compost pile with nothing but a tarp for cover, so at 7am we went out and put some liquid gold into Tom's hungry belly, and put the battery back in. It was reluctant to start (I guess the fuel was having to work through the system), but then it burst into live and we got going. The paddock was already quite muddy, but the tractor didn't even think twice about it!.

It's now back in the shed. Getting it in there is fun, you reverse to the brink of the hill and 'cause the brakes aren't all that good, as you start rolling (slowly, with the brake on hard), you slip it into first - just in case! I don't really want to knock the shed over.

Breakfast time, and I'll put photos up later today.

Tom the Tractor

This morning around 11am, the tractor arrived, and I quite happily drove it the 1km from the loading ramp down the road to our place. We hooked up the mower, and it seemed to fit, and had a bit of a play. Then we trundled off to town to vote and get tea. Upon coming back I started turning the compost with it, and unfortunatly I ran out of gas, and then flattened the battery trying to get it started again. Well I now have gas, and the battery is on charge so hopefully tomorrow, we'll being going again.
It seems to be the day for hardware to stop working, the bike didn't want to start this morning either, sigh....
Anyway, all the timber is now stacked on the other side of the shed, and Steph even went for a ride in the paddocks today on Markissa (first time out of the areana).

Till tomorrow.

Strider, the slaughterer!

Ok, reasonable high gross out factor, but this was really good for Strider. Whilst moving all the timber in the shed, I noticed Hopper paying particular interest in a bit of steel framing, and thought she has saw a mouse, and that was that...As the timber pile got smaller, I noticed some rat poo (rat poo is about 4mm in diameter, whereas mouse poo is only 2mm, thanks Steph!), and I found a little nest. OKK I thought, I'll bring the rat trap down, and deal to it that way.
At one point I needed to move the steel and underneath it was a reasonable brown rat, not huge, but big enough for me not to want to grab it by the tail!. So Steph and I got the boys all worked up and then I stuck a long piece of timber down the other end and forced it out, Strider was on to it in a flash, and with that bite (he's perfected on chickens), disabled the rat instantly, I had to kill it, but at least it couldn't move.
We're both really proud of Strider and his "farmeyness", maybe he's got a chance after all.
Anyway, here is the proud puppy and his quary.

Super Seeded

The tractor came, did his stuff (with lots of reversing, and a bit of fence ripping out 'cause he didn't fit), but now in a few weeks time we should have grass again, and if by magic it has just started raining!

The tractor they brought was their smallest one, and it does about 40Kmph which isn't really too bad.


This is what our paddocks now look like, all nicey cris-crossed.


Whilst the paddocks were being drilled, the guy from Norwood came with the mower, it's a nice shiney 1.2m PTO driven topping mower, very sturdy (read heavy), and of course bright red to match the tractor (photos tomorrow!).



Now all that's done, I can get on to stacking all the decking in the shed again, it fell over last week. I might even get to play on the lathe this afternoon.

Neffing Nefa valve

Well, the plumber has just finished, I hate to think how much it's going to cost, we first fixed the nefa (or ajax) valve washer, and he mentioned then that it might not be the problem due to the amount of rust and junk in the valve, anyway, taking the cheap option we reconnected everything, and turned the water on, well we had fountains coming out of the roof, so we replaced the nefa valve (@$109). Whilst he was working on that I dismantled the valve, it was gross, it's suppose to look like the little square in the middle!
At least the new one is a bit more maintainable, the washer cover is just a twist cap and it's nice and shiney!



The weather has turned slightly with a few drops of rain, but fingers crossed it will be OK for this afternoon.
I took the roller I made out of concrete and ATV tyres down into the paddock this morning to see if it would work, slowly but it did make a dent, until the wood frame started giving way, and since the truck is wider than the roller, I was making ruts with the truck wheels..The front end loader on the tractor should knock those over.

Blimey,Limey

Got up at 6am this morning as we had branches,stock and an alpaca house to move out of the paddocks ready for spreading, which was either at 7:30 or 10:30, well it was 6:50am he turned up.. Thankfully I was just moving the alpaca house to it's resting place, and had already harrowed the horse paddock (with the truck 'cause I left the bike power on all night and the battery was flat). Got to use the nice new snig chain for pulling around a big gate for the harrows. Once the paddock was harrowed, I zipped through the paddock which was softest and got stuck! Oh well, I engaged 4wd and mosied my way out. I only hit one fence post and had a bit of fun sliding around.  Whilst I was doing all that Steph was making a temporary fence in the neighbours paddock where are sheep were going, and moving the alpacas and goats.
Once we were both ready, I got the "Safari Sheepdog" and moved all the sheep into the top paddock, and then zipped around to the other gate to stop the escape..We got them in the yards nice and easy (except "Pretty but not pregnant" went down the race instead of through the gate...silly sheep).
The actual liming took about 20 minutes, and it looks like our gates are too narrow so I except that when the drill comes we'll have to pull out a fence, thankfully we intended replacing a part of the fence anyway. One thing we didn't expect was that the gates need to be clear above aswell so Steph and I quickly ripped some branches out of trees around the gates.
It seems that 4 tonne is almost perfect, he did the all the paddocks and one paddock got an extra strip...Purrfect.

Till drilling time (not tilling time, would sound cool though).

Sad but true

One day till the paddocks get resown! It's kind of sad that both Steph and I are looking forward to tomorrw when the drill and lime truck comes! Thankfully it looks as though the weather is going to be perfect, soil temperature rising (11.7<T<17.5) and the Metservice have forecasted a nice day tomorrow, with some rain for the weekend, it couldn't be any better.
All that's left to organise is where to but the ewes, I'm going to ring John this evening and see if I can but them in his bottom paddock for a few days.

Got hardly any sleep last night,we had several power cuts so radios were coming on and off, worrying about the fish tank, but with that much water there is a fair bit of thermal inertia and it doesn't cool down too quickly.

Not pretty but pregnant! 

Monumental Cockup

Well, I went to the dentist, introduced myself and then sat down, 45 minutes later I realised that today was the 14th, not the 21st when my appointment is.....
But I sold the wool, got about $2.50/Kg which covers shearing marginally, apparently wool prices aren't great at the moment, oh well.
Bought the seed today, ended up getting 50Kg, so we can sow at a rate of 33 to 35 Kg per hectare (and of course the seed only comes in 25Kg bags!)
Also bought my tractor bits and paid for the mower which is being delivered on Friday.

I'm watching.... 

And my second tractor part, a nice and shiney 5m snig chain 

My First Tractor (part anyway!) 

Bully says "Wow, I'm a boy, I never knew what was under all that wool!"