Wow, what a busy weekend, it all started on Thursday with a very quick change of plans. On Wednesday evening we noticed the Possums eyes had an opaque coating on the cornea, so it was decided that she was to go to the vets on Thursday. Come Thursday morning she was nowhere to be seen (until we were driving out of the driveway), so I quickly put her in the bathroom, and we drove to work. The vet appointment was made for the afternoon, and it turns out that she might have a problem with her eye lids. Anyway, that was Thursday. Friday was Matt's wedding, so Steph and I drove down again, and of course, attended the wedding, which was a nice ceremony, and reception.
Saturday morning we had some shopping to do in town, and on Wednesday we managed to get a puncture in the Safari's back tire so we also got that repaired. Oh and we went to an auction at the hospital, we only bought a fan.
In the afternoon I fixed the bassinet with a biscuit joint, and started cleaning up the workshop, meanwhile Steph was working the horse. In the afternoon, we went to Trish's 60th birthday party and spent a few hours there.
Sunday was equally busy, started off in the morning, once more at Trish's to say happy birthday (as it was her actual birthday), and then we went to the Gladstone Horse Sports. quite interesting to watch, and there were also lots of cute ponies etc.
After that Steph and I headed down to the beach to fly the kite. The first 'cast' was uneventfull, but the second cast reeled in 2 red cod (one fell of in the surf) and a nice kahawai that we got 4 fillets out of and had 2 battered for fish and salad for tea, very yummy!
Unfortunatly I forgot the camera so no photos of fish..
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
An update.
Ah, another weekend. This one wasn't too bad, it started on Friday afternoon with a trip to the doctors for another checkup,and as expected everything is fine. As the 11 weeks till birth isn't getting any further away I decided that this weekend. I should make a start on the nursery and it's furniture. In the morning we got three sheets of gib up, and have another 2 to put up. Once we ran out of gib we went into town to pick colours for the nursery. In the end we decided on a neutral yellow for the walls and then high gloss white for the framing and sides of furniture, and then some bright outragous colours for the shelves and drawers.
The previous evening Steph and I had done some sanding and ther bassinet was ready for painting so on Saturday afternoon I sprayed the bassinet, but ufortunatly the stand it was hanging from fell over and snapped a dowel joint.
In the evening we watched a dvd and I did some more long exsposure photography.
Sunday was shearing day, around 8am,Steph,Andy and I moved our flock of lambs into the yards and I then helped John move his flock too.
Around 11am paul turned up and then by about 4 we had finally finished. At least we now got another 6kg of mohair to sell.
Other than that, not a great deal is happening on the farm at the moment, but coming up soon will be fertalising the paddocks, spraying off weeds (we have a lot of penny royal which I am going to kill this weekend.). I'm not sure if we are resowing a paddock this autumn or not, but the scarey thing is that trees are already starting to lose their leaves.
The previous evening Steph and I had done some sanding and ther bassinet was ready for painting so on Saturday afternoon I sprayed the bassinet, but ufortunatly the stand it was hanging from fell over and snapped a dowel joint.
In the evening we watched a dvd and I did some more long exsposure photography.
Sunday was shearing day, around 8am,Steph,Andy and I moved our flock of lambs into the yards and I then helped John move his flock too.
Around 11am paul turned up and then by about 4 we had finally finished. At least we now got another 6kg of mohair to sell.
Other than that, not a great deal is happening on the farm at the moment, but coming up soon will be fertalising the paddocks, spraying off weeds (we have a lot of penny royal which I am going to kill this weekend.). I'm not sure if we are resowing a paddock this autumn or not, but the scarey thing is that trees are already starting to lose their leaves.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
An update - finally
I know there hasn't been many updates recently, but not a great deal has been happening on the farm. But in an attempt to try and get this back up to date here is another post.
This weekend was quite a good weekend compared to the last one. On friday the kite arrived. I've gone and got a fishing kite, the basic idea is to use the kite to cast out upto 1000 metres of line, with up to 12 hooks. The idea was to go fishing with it on Saturday, but there wasn't even a breeze (well actually there was a slight southerly, but that's an onshore breeze, not quite what I needed. But I did fly the kite for an hour or so in the paddock to get a feel for the kit etc.
Other than that, on Saturday not a great deal was done, we finished the wood part of the tree protectors and fenced one of them off.
Sunday was better, still not enough wind (and going in the wrong direction) for kite flying, but all the same we went fishing, Andy caught a nice Kawahi, but other than that, there wasn't much action.
On the farmy side of things, we've finally sold our goat fleece, and the sheep have been moved back over to Julia's place for a couple of weeks, then they will go in the other virgin paddock.
I'll try and get back in the habit of posting on a Sunday evening...
This weekend was quite a good weekend compared to the last one. On friday the kite arrived. I've gone and got a fishing kite, the basic idea is to use the kite to cast out upto 1000 metres of line, with up to 12 hooks. The idea was to go fishing with it on Saturday, but there wasn't even a breeze (well actually there was a slight southerly, but that's an onshore breeze, not quite what I needed. But I did fly the kite for an hour or so in the paddock to get a feel for the kit etc.
Other than that, on Saturday not a great deal was done, we finished the wood part of the tree protectors and fenced one of them off.
Sunday was better, still not enough wind (and going in the wrong direction) for kite flying, but all the same we went fishing, Andy caught a nice Kawahi, but other than that, there wasn't much action.
On the farmy side of things, we've finally sold our goat fleece, and the sheep have been moved back over to Julia's place for a couple of weeks, then they will go in the other virgin paddock.
I'll try and get back in the habit of posting on a Sunday evening...
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Piggies gone bye-bye
Well, another weekend, and that means Connor is yet another week closer. This weekend, the weather was stinking hot (and humid). But enough of the weather, what happened this weekend. Well, it started on Friday afternoon with a trip to the sales, where we bought another 15 sheep, the grass is just growing so damn quick, we need to get the lambs in just to keep it under control! After picking the lambs, I headed into town to pick up a few things, but little did I know the brake light switch had failed, and slowly it had been draining the battery on the truck. Whilst in Pak-n-save, the battery was drained past starting point, and I needed a jump start before I went back to the sales and picked up the lambs.
Then on Saturday, Steph and I decided that we would do the fencing this weekend as the weather was quite foggy and cool (supposed to have rain). I went and got the post borer from the hireworld, and started digging holes, after the first one, which was pretty hard going, the farrier turned up and did Markissa's hooves, and checked Ajax's (Julia's (neighbour) new horse). After which Julia offered to help with the fencing, which was great as Steph can't really be on the other side of the borer at the moment. We operated the borer between Julia and I, and still it was pretty hard work (much easier though!), and by the end of the day, we had dug 17 holes (it got REALLY hot and humid). That even Steph and I rammed all the posts, and now later this week I'll start doing the stays and then I put up the netting and gates, and yea we will finally have a farmlett that is almost fully usable again.
This morning I had to take Pork and Bacon in, yep, we only had them for about 40 days, but by my estimates, they weighed about 150lbs and 220lbs. Then considering you get about 70% yeild, that's a heap of bacon! I had bacon this morning for breakfast, just to put in the right frame of mind before sending to the yards.
The rest of the day was a washout, just too hot, but Andy, Alex and I went finish in the late afternoon, and once more, we caught nothing (a few crabs, which are boiling now), but no fish.
Anyway, no photos this week, maybe on the fence is finished.
Then on Saturday, Steph and I decided that we would do the fencing this weekend as the weather was quite foggy and cool (supposed to have rain). I went and got the post borer from the hireworld, and started digging holes, after the first one, which was pretty hard going, the farrier turned up and did Markissa's hooves, and checked Ajax's (Julia's (neighbour) new horse). After which Julia offered to help with the fencing, which was great as Steph can't really be on the other side of the borer at the moment. We operated the borer between Julia and I, and still it was pretty hard work (much easier though!), and by the end of the day, we had dug 17 holes (it got REALLY hot and humid). That even Steph and I rammed all the posts, and now later this week I'll start doing the stays and then I put up the netting and gates, and yea we will finally have a farmlett that is almost fully usable again.
This morning I had to take Pork and Bacon in, yep, we only had them for about 40 days, but by my estimates, they weighed about 150lbs and 220lbs. Then considering you get about 70% yeild, that's a heap of bacon! I had bacon this morning for breakfast, just to put in the right frame of mind before sending to the yards.
The rest of the day was a washout, just too hot, but Andy, Alex and I went finish in the late afternoon, and once more, we caught nothing (a few crabs, which are boiling now), but no fish.
Anyway, no photos this week, maybe on the fence is finished.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Catchup with the photos.
OK, things are getting back to normal now, Christmas is over, and the list of jobs to do before Connor (yes it's a boy) is born is ever growing, and unlike most people ours contains some farmy jobs, we've got a few fences to put in, pigs and sheep to slaughter and some redecorating. This weekend Steph and I finally finished putting a fence around the last silver birch in the mound paddock, and we moved the Alpacas in (the grass is endophyte free so we shouldn't have to worry about staggers). Once the alpacas were out, I mowed the bottom paddock (from where they came). Other than that, the only other farmy thing I did was install a underground cable for the electric fence (it's been done by a normal temporary hotwire, but it's slowly burning through the wire! Whilst I was installing the cable I decided that I should also put the 20mm water pipe underground too, so it was a slightly bigger trench than first expected.
As you can see from the phtoto below, we have a new mouth to feed. On Friday I was sitting around cooling off after carting some computer stuff to the workshop from the house, and this little guy walked up to me. Reading up on hedgehogs, little ones out during the day should be helped along a bit, so he's currently in a rabbit cage and being feed up on cat food. Later on we'll release him into the vege garden to help keep the slugs down.
I've put in a few photos of the lounge now it's finished (almost), it's looking really good. All that's left is some wiring (telephone and speaker), the scotia and the alcatraves.
Next weekend its the Jet boat champs, so we might go to that, if not, it's a weekend of fencing.
As you can see from the phtoto below, we have a new mouth to feed. On Friday I was sitting around cooling off after carting some computer stuff to the workshop from the house, and this little guy walked up to me. Reading up on hedgehogs, little ones out during the day should be helped along a bit, so he's currently in a rabbit cage and being feed up on cat food. Later on we'll release him into the vege garden to help keep the slugs down.
I've put in a few photos of the lounge now it's finished (almost), it's looking really good. All that's left is some wiring (telephone and speaker), the scotia and the alcatraves.
Next weekend its the Jet boat champs, so we might go to that, if not, it's a weekend of fencing.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
It's been a while
OK, so a couple of weeks have passed since the last blog, and what's new... As I have previously mentioned, the lounge is now all finished (except for the scotia and alcatraves), and it looks really good. With that out of the way, we made a few sheep into sausages (I culled and dressed them myself). Oh and we had the 20 week scan with the baby (that was around the 14th I think). The weekend following that, Carisa,Andy,Alex,Mum,Dad,Amy and Nigel all came around for a BBQ and a look at Littlebush. Alex had the fun of "doing the rounds" first thing on Sunday morning feeding the rabbits,pigs and having a quick ride on the bike to check the horse etc.
Then it was back to work for a week. On Wednesday evening I culled SpitRoast the lamb and put him in a fridge to hang until Monday. On Friday evening I reassembled the tractor, and got it running quite nicely (turned out all that was wrong was the HT lead to the coil was loose), oh well.
We've been to three weddings, Amy's, Amy's (Stephs friend), and Steph's cousin Gareth.
I'll try and keep up to date again now things are getting back to normal.
Only 17 weeks to sprog sprouting.
Then it was back to work for a week. On Wednesday evening I culled SpitRoast the lamb and put him in a fridge to hang until Monday. On Friday evening I reassembled the tractor, and got it running quite nicely (turned out all that was wrong was the HT lead to the coil was loose), oh well.
We've been to three weddings, Amy's, Amy's (Stephs friend), and Steph's cousin Gareth.
I'll try and keep up to date again now things are getting back to normal.
Only 17 weeks to sprog sprouting.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Some News
it's been a bit hectic for the last week, what with getting the lounge painted, carpetted and having another scan yesterday. Later on I will post photos of the lounge now it's finished, it looks amazing.
The baby is fine, all healthly.
The baby is fine, all healthly.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Another 2 lambs "done"
Lamb number one took about an hour and a half, the second was done in an hour.
Here are some photos of the day's fun.
Here are some photos of the day's fun.
Hare
Well, yesterday evening I was about to go down to the workshop to do some cleaning up, when I saw a hare in john's paddock. Needless to say, John is now one young hare down.. It skinned really easy, and it's frame is more like a rabbit, the meat is quite a different color to that of old hare, should be quite nice. This evening Steph is cooking tandoori hare. We're going to use one of the older ones for that. Also last night I collected another 4 prime lambs. I'm slaughtering two today, and then I'll get them butchered.
Pictures etc later.
Pictures etc later.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
The start of the week off.
Yikes, that was only the weekend...It started off with a trip to the doctors on Saturday morning as I had an infected finger. Last week whilst filleting fish, I slipped and sliced the skin off the knuckle, but then on Monday it swelled right up, and by Saturday, it had receeded, and was getting worse, so now I'm on a week long course of two antibotics. Before that though we went to the inaugral Wairarapa Farmers Market. Found a nice cider and bought 4 bottles, bloody annoying that I couldn't drink it though. After doing a few things in town, we came home, and then headed over to Julia's to merge her sheep and ours into 1 mob, and then move them to the front paddock. The whole operation went like clockwork.
Later that afternoon, I had decided that it was time for the all the buck rabbits to be culled. I had practised sexing bunnies a few days before, and Steph and I went out and one by one, sexed and culled as nessecary. Out of the eight original kits, there is three legged one (which is a girl, but also the runt, so we don't want to breed from her), the first one we had (which was a girl), 4 bucks (now in the freezer), and 2 more does; I left the does so Alex could see our bunnies, hopefully this Friday we'll have another litter born.
Out of the 4 rabbits, we got around 6kg of meat, about 500g was rib cage and flaps, which I boiled for the pigs. I've left one as a whole carcass, and the others were jointed, ready for meals.That evening, Steph and I went around to Julia's and Andy's for dinner for a "table warming", their dining room furniture had just arrived, so we had a nice meal, damn shame I couldn't touch the wine though...
Then we come to today. The plan was that if the weather was fine, we would go fishing. We weren't sure where, but somewhere different. So around 9:30, the weather was fantastic, and the webcam at Castlepoint showed a reasonably calm sea, so I suggested we headed out there. Both Steph and Julia decided to come along for the trip. Once we got to Castlepoint, we headed up onto the rocks behind the lighthouse, and proceed to fish (in the 2m swells off the cliffs). As you can imagine, it wasn't easy, or productive, and I lost two sets of tackle. After a while of that, we decided to head back, and try somewhere else, so we went 4km up the coast, and then found this road that headed further along the coast (whereas the one we would normally take heads inland for Masterton). Having never been down there, I decided to take a tiki-tour, and several kms down the road we found a spot where we could fish, still didn't catch anything though.
After an hour or so the tide was coming in quite fast, so we started on the trip home (stopping in Masterton for icecream). Upon getting home, we pushed our way through the sheep on the driveway (Rex was grazing his cull ewes on the driveway so as to try and get some of the grass down), only to find a dead one (oh and a turkey sitting on eggs).
After cleaning all the gear and feeding the pigs (who haven't eaten all their food), I decided to head up into the hills for a walk (but was lazy and took the bike to get to the starting point).
After an hour or so of walking across a really hilly paddock I came across a hare, and after 4 shots, I had hit her (found out later, I had actually hit her twice, as I had put a hole through her ears!). Once I had collected the hare, I decided to sit and just relax for a while before heading back to the bike (and home).
I eventually wandered home, skinned, gutted and jointed the hare, gave the boys the head and feet (which they really enjoy).
And now it's bed time...
Later that afternoon, I had decided that it was time for the all the buck rabbits to be culled. I had practised sexing bunnies a few days before, and Steph and I went out and one by one, sexed and culled as nessecary. Out of the eight original kits, there is three legged one (which is a girl, but also the runt, so we don't want to breed from her), the first one we had (which was a girl), 4 bucks (now in the freezer), and 2 more does; I left the does so Alex could see our bunnies, hopefully this Friday we'll have another litter born.
Out of the 4 rabbits, we got around 6kg of meat, about 500g was rib cage and flaps, which I boiled for the pigs. I've left one as a whole carcass, and the others were jointed, ready for meals.That evening, Steph and I went around to Julia's and Andy's for dinner for a "table warming", their dining room furniture had just arrived, so we had a nice meal, damn shame I couldn't touch the wine though...
Then we come to today. The plan was that if the weather was fine, we would go fishing. We weren't sure where, but somewhere different. So around 9:30, the weather was fantastic, and the webcam at Castlepoint showed a reasonably calm sea, so I suggested we headed out there. Both Steph and Julia decided to come along for the trip. Once we got to Castlepoint, we headed up onto the rocks behind the lighthouse, and proceed to fish (in the 2m swells off the cliffs). As you can imagine, it wasn't easy, or productive, and I lost two sets of tackle. After a while of that, we decided to head back, and try somewhere else, so we went 4km up the coast, and then found this road that headed further along the coast (whereas the one we would normally take heads inland for Masterton). Having never been down there, I decided to take a tiki-tour, and several kms down the road we found a spot where we could fish, still didn't catch anything though.
After an hour or so the tide was coming in quite fast, so we started on the trip home (stopping in Masterton for icecream). Upon getting home, we pushed our way through the sheep on the driveway (Rex was grazing his cull ewes on the driveway so as to try and get some of the grass down), only to find a dead one (oh and a turkey sitting on eggs).
After cleaning all the gear and feeding the pigs (who haven't eaten all their food), I decided to head up into the hills for a walk (but was lazy and took the bike to get to the starting point).
After an hour or so of walking across a really hilly paddock I came across a hare, and after 4 shots, I had hit her (found out later, I had actually hit her twice, as I had put a hole through her ears!). Once I had collected the hare, I decided to sit and just relax for a while before heading back to the bike (and home).
I eventually wandered home, skinned, gutted and jointed the hare, gave the boys the head and feet (which they really enjoy).
And now it's bed time...
Friday, December 01, 2006
Another hunting trip
Last night since we were in the middle of a power cut, I took the rifle for a walk (most people take dogs!) . I started up the hills to try and get a magpie or two, but after a while I stumbled on the hare's again (4), I took 4 shots, and came back with 1 hare (oh well). This time the shot went through the front of the chest and out the opposite side around the back quarters. It yeilded 1.7Kg of meat.
Oh, on the piggy front, they are still around, no more escape attempts.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
First blood
Last night despite the wind, I went out with the rifle for a quick walk. Proved quite fruitful with my first hare being dropped, it was from about 50 yards across a gully. The hare was killed with a through and through head shot using Winchester high velocity ammo.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I had dawned on me recently that there hasn't been much farmy stuff in the blog recently, this is mainly because we haven't really done a great deal around the place. We've been really busy with the redecorating, but finally this weekend we got around to doing something.The weekend started on Thursday with me doing a few hours on Thursday evening because I couldn't sleep, and this reduced the amount I had to do on Friday (as I wanted to get to the sales). I had spent Thursday evening running an electric wire around the bottom of the orchard in preparation for pigs (we're hoping to get two). On Friday morning (around 5:30am) I started working, and because of the previous evening's efforts and the early start, I was finished by around 10am, which was great. Arround 11am we headed into the sales, Julia (our neighbour) came along aswell. There were a few pens of interest, a sow and 7 piglets, and another of 4 porkers, some lambs (but there were too many, the pens were 9 and 10 sheep). We hung around till the end to make an offer on the piglets, but unfortunatly they had all already been sold. But we didn't go home with an empty trailer, Julia picked up a pen of a 4 tooth, 2 tooth and each had a lamb.
After dropping the lambs off at Julia's and doing the drenching and vaccinations for them, we headed into town, we first went to "Hunting and Fishing" to get their new catalouge. Unfortunatly with it being fishing seasion, there was much in the way of specials on rifles. But I got talking to the owner, and after about a half hour, he offered me his Brno 2E, it's a very well made, very accurate czech rifle. It was made in 1989. After shopping etc (at the new Pak'n'Save) we headed back to the shop to pick it up.
When we got home it was too windy really to try it out, but later that evening the wind dropped away completly and Steph and I headed over to John and Trish's. John has quite a lot of experiance with firearms, so I got his opion on it, and he helped to sight it in. At 25 yards he was putting the bullet through the previous one's hole!Just before the light started fading, we tried it at 50 yards, and it was shooting high by about 1", and I had a grouping of around 1" aswell.
Saturday morning, rifle in hand, I went for a stroll to get me some dinner....oh well, I came back empty handed. I saw 1 rabbit and another hare, but the rabbit was too far away (and it was the first one, so I left it alone), and the hare was on the skyline, hence not a safe shot.
I got back around 8am, and Steph was just getting up. We had breakfast then started on making the tree protectors in the mound paddock, they've been rammed in for ages now, but I hadn't got around to putting the timber around the top. Within a few hours, we had all the timber done in the mound paddock.
Later that afternoon, we headed over to Julia's and Andy's for a coffee (tea actually), and Andy,Alex and I had a plink at Alex's targets with the rifle, I scored 6 and 8 (lower=better), Alex got a 6 and a 4 (I think), and Andy hit the bull twice! I've decided I need more practice.
Around 5pm I drove to Lake Ferry to try and catch some dinner. Upon getting to the beach there wasn't a person in sight (a very bad omen), but all was not bad, within a few minutes I was pulling in my first red cod. A while later, a tourist came over and we started chatting, and just as he was leaving, I got a fantastic bite (rod creakingly good), unfortunatly I lost it! That managed to get the tourist's attention again for a short while (whilst I got another good few bites). After he decided that he was going to go and get his rod, I hauled in another 3 red cod (threw 1 back). Finally got home around 8pm, and quickly filleted the fish (and managed to slice the skin of my knuckle,which is now VERY sore and swollen).
Sunday morning, I thought about heading out for another strole but decided I was too tired, and we had offered to help John and Trish move their bulls from their place down the road to a set of yards (ready for the van). At around 8am, Steph and I jumped on the bike and headed up to John's. The plan was to get the 4 bulls out of the paddock, and onto the drive, then he and I would drive them down the road, and as we got close to the other yards and driveways, John would zip ahead, and head them off, and I would then drive, meanwhile Steph and Trish were in the car slowing traffic etc down, and keeping a general eye out for us. After arming ourselves with big sticks, we started pushing the bulls out onto the road, once on the road it was basically easy, espcially when they started trotting and if you could keep them going. Occasionally they would stop and have a munch at a tree or the verge, but a few loud shouts and lots of waving the stick got them moving again. After about 20minutes, they were 900m further north and in cattle yards ready for the truck.
As the weather wasn't great, Steph and I quickly headed out to the paddock and started putting up the netting around the trees, it took us two attempts (we got rained off), but by around lunch time,we had three compounds all finished.
The original idea was to go fishing around 3ish on Sunday, but because of the weather, we didn't. This did mean I could cull on of the rabbits for dinner. I had previously picked out a large grey/agouti rabbit that was to be the first. I culled it, and then skinned and gutted it. After gutting, it yeilded 1.125Kg of meat. The hide is currently being salted in the garage.
Whilst tea was cooking, I had a 45 minute section where nothing needed to be done, and since Steph was in the lounge playing the computer, I went for a stroll with the rifle. Didn't even go far, and then I saw a hare, as I brought the rifle infront of me and went to cock it, I realised something was missing, the magazine, it had fallen out....I had a look around but couldn't see it.
On Monday I ordered a new one, and this evening (tuesday), if the weather is fine, John, Trish, Andy, Alex, Julia,Steph and myself will go out and have another troll through the paddock, hopefully I'll find it,
Anyway, almost at Wellington, so till another time...
After dropping the lambs off at Julia's and doing the drenching and vaccinations for them, we headed into town, we first went to "Hunting and Fishing" to get their new catalouge. Unfortunatly with it being fishing seasion, there was much in the way of specials on rifles. But I got talking to the owner, and after about a half hour, he offered me his Brno 2E, it's a very well made, very accurate czech rifle. It was made in 1989. After shopping etc (at the new Pak'n'Save) we headed back to the shop to pick it up.
When we got home it was too windy really to try it out, but later that evening the wind dropped away completly and Steph and I headed over to John and Trish's. John has quite a lot of experiance with firearms, so I got his opion on it, and he helped to sight it in. At 25 yards he was putting the bullet through the previous one's hole!Just before the light started fading, we tried it at 50 yards, and it was shooting high by about 1", and I had a grouping of around 1" aswell.
Saturday morning, rifle in hand, I went for a stroll to get me some dinner....oh well, I came back empty handed. I saw 1 rabbit and another hare, but the rabbit was too far away (and it was the first one, so I left it alone), and the hare was on the skyline, hence not a safe shot.
I got back around 8am, and Steph was just getting up. We had breakfast then started on making the tree protectors in the mound paddock, they've been rammed in for ages now, but I hadn't got around to putting the timber around the top. Within a few hours, we had all the timber done in the mound paddock.
Later that afternoon, we headed over to Julia's and Andy's for a coffee (tea actually), and Andy,Alex and I had a plink at Alex's targets with the rifle, I scored 6 and 8 (lower=better), Alex got a 6 and a 4 (I think), and Andy hit the bull twice! I've decided I need more practice.
Around 5pm I drove to Lake Ferry to try and catch some dinner. Upon getting to the beach there wasn't a person in sight (a very bad omen), but all was not bad, within a few minutes I was pulling in my first red cod. A while later, a tourist came over and we started chatting, and just as he was leaving, I got a fantastic bite (rod creakingly good), unfortunatly I lost it! That managed to get the tourist's attention again for a short while (whilst I got another good few bites). After he decided that he was going to go and get his rod, I hauled in another 3 red cod (threw 1 back). Finally got home around 8pm, and quickly filleted the fish (and managed to slice the skin of my knuckle,which is now VERY sore and swollen).
Sunday morning, I thought about heading out for another strole but decided I was too tired, and we had offered to help John and Trish move their bulls from their place down the road to a set of yards (ready for the van). At around 8am, Steph and I jumped on the bike and headed up to John's. The plan was to get the 4 bulls out of the paddock, and onto the drive, then he and I would drive them down the road, and as we got close to the other yards and driveways, John would zip ahead, and head them off, and I would then drive, meanwhile Steph and Trish were in the car slowing traffic etc down, and keeping a general eye out for us. After arming ourselves with big sticks, we started pushing the bulls out onto the road, once on the road it was basically easy, espcially when they started trotting and if you could keep them going. Occasionally they would stop and have a munch at a tree or the verge, but a few loud shouts and lots of waving the stick got them moving again. After about 20minutes, they were 900m further north and in cattle yards ready for the truck.
As the weather wasn't great, Steph and I quickly headed out to the paddock and started putting up the netting around the trees, it took us two attempts (we got rained off), but by around lunch time,we had three compounds all finished.
The original idea was to go fishing around 3ish on Sunday, but because of the weather, we didn't. This did mean I could cull on of the rabbits for dinner. I had previously picked out a large grey/agouti rabbit that was to be the first. I culled it, and then skinned and gutted it. After gutting, it yeilded 1.125Kg of meat. The hide is currently being salted in the garage.
Whilst tea was cooking, I had a 45 minute section where nothing needed to be done, and since Steph was in the lounge playing the computer, I went for a stroll with the rifle. Didn't even go far, and then I saw a hare, as I brought the rifle infront of me and went to cock it, I realised something was missing, the magazine, it had fallen out....I had a look around but couldn't see it.
On Monday I ordered a new one, and this evening (tuesday), if the weather is fine, John, Trish, Andy, Alex, Julia,Steph and myself will go out and have another troll through the paddock, hopefully I'll find it,
Anyway, almost at Wellington, so till another time...
Piggies
Last night we picked up two piggies (and no they are not Pinky and Perky). Just found out from the neighbour that they have escaped and are playing havoc with the horse....
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Uneventful weekend
Not a great deal happened this weekend, the plan was for me to go work on Sunday morning and evening, so Saturday was spent doing things like taking the rubbish to the tip, and just general stuff. Then we drove to Wellington and checked into the hotel, had a meal, and around 10:30pm I was rung up and told not to bother going in. I headed in for an hour on Sunday morning to do a little bit. Then today, after we got back (around lunch time), Steph worked Markissa, and then around 3pm I drove back down to Lake Ferry with the plan of doing some fishing, but unfortunantly the swell was too great and fishing was pointless. Thankfully I had caught a few fish on Friday afternoon, so all was not lost.
Not a lot of farmy stuff recently, the sheep are all fine, and growing really well; the rabbits are coming on nicely, Hollywood never gave birth, so next it's Snow White's turn again, the alpacas and goats are still around and doing OK. We have a few trees to finish fencing off next weekend, and then we can start to think about grazing the new paddocks (the grass is coming on really well), unfortunatly we have some penny royal in the paddocks so we need to either spray that off,or apply a significant amount of lime to combat it.
Not a lot of farmy stuff recently, the sheep are all fine, and growing really well; the rabbits are coming on nicely, Hollywood never gave birth, so next it's Snow White's turn again, the alpacas and goats are still around and doing OK. We have a few trees to finish fencing off next weekend, and then we can start to think about grazing the new paddocks (the grass is coming on really well), unfortunatly we have some penny royal in the paddocks so we need to either spray that off,or apply a significant amount of lime to combat it.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Saturday
Well, this morning Steph and I played around with the conservatory, and roughly assembled it so that we could see how it went together and so I could measure it, because I am currently modeling that and the house in a 3D computer program.
Also after lunch when the GIB arrived we started putting it up, and as you can see, we've done about 1/2 the room.
On the farmy side of things, we've got an extra rabbit now, one of the cats brought in a baby bunny and left it alive in their food bowl! So it's now out with the others.
Then in the evening before tea, I quickly mowed the top paddock (the one with the new grass to try and get it to grow better, and to expose the Penny Royal, which we will need to spray off soon.
Anyway, till tomorrow.
Also after lunch when the GIB arrived we started putting it up, and as you can see, we've done about 1/2 the room.
On the farmy side of things, we've got an extra rabbit now, one of the cats brought in a baby bunny and left it alive in their food bowl! So it's now out with the others.
Then in the evening before tea, I quickly mowed the top paddock (the one with the new grass to try and get it to grow better, and to expose the Penny Royal, which we will need to spray off soon.
Anyway, till tomorrow.
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