But as you can see, whilst I was dealing with the kit, Jag brought in something else for me to play with... Thankfully it still could fly.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Still going
Yep, it's still going, gave him (not that I have sexed it yet) a proper dose of Intracillin this evening. Last night the needle was really hard to push in, so I got a very small needle and syringe, and tried again this evening. It was still very hard, but then all of a sudden it became easy. We've had this a few times when we were injecting Devil Spawn, anyone know why, please post a comment.
But as you can see, whilst I was dealing with the kit, Jag brought in something else for me to play with... Thankfully it still could fly.
But as you can see, whilst I was dealing with the kit, Jag brought in something else for me to play with... Thankfully it still could fly.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Bunny Update
Well as you can see, the little one is still alive. When I got home, I had another look at the leg, and discovered that the foot was very swollen and hot (not a good sign), and the bone was sticking out!.
Options, well euthanasia (I have CO2 which works well) was one option, or the other was to amputate. The kit was very perky and not too disturbed by my manipulating the foot, so I got a clean scalpel and a pair of scissors, and tipped the kit upside down, elongated the back leg, and snipped the foot off. At this stage I was not feeling that great!
I quickly cleaned it up with iodine, and stuck a sticky plaster on it, then put it in a box out of the way so I could keep an eye on it until the bleeding stopped.
After speaking with a vet friend overseas I admistered a few drops of intracillin, it needed about 0.06ml, it was a real bugger to inject (which is probably a good thing!)
Anyway, it survived all that, and then about a few hours later, I caught one of our cats trying to eat the poor thing.... Jag the little sh!? had the lid off and was trying to catch it, but it kept hopping out the way!!!!!Jag got a timely shove off the bench.
Anyway, it's now out with Mom, and when I last looked it was hopping around the nest box and looking out the door. It's certainly got spirit! I have a feeling that if it survives, it won't end up in the freezer.
Options, well euthanasia (I have CO2 which works well) was one option, or the other was to amputate. The kit was very perky and not too disturbed by my manipulating the foot, so I got a clean scalpel and a pair of scissors, and tipped the kit upside down, elongated the back leg, and snipped the foot off. At this stage I was not feeling that great!
I quickly cleaned it up with iodine, and stuck a sticky plaster on it, then put it in a box out of the way so I could keep an eye on it until the bleeding stopped.
After speaking with a vet friend overseas I admistered a few drops of intracillin, it needed about 0.06ml, it was a real bugger to inject (which is probably a good thing!)
Anyway, it survived all that, and then about a few hours later, I caught one of our cats trying to eat the poor thing.... Jag the little sh!? had the lid off and was trying to catch it, but it kept hopping out the way!!!!!Jag got a timely shove off the bench.
Anyway, it's now out with Mom, and when I last looked it was hopping around the nest box and looking out the door. It's certainly got spirit! I have a feeling that if it survives, it won't end up in the freezer.
Bad news
Unfortunatly this morning when I checked the bunnies, I noticed that one of the babies, had put it's foot through the netting on the bottom of the cage, and had damaged it's back leg beyond repair (the tendon had snapped and the bone broken). This evening if it is still alive, I will consider options on how to help the little one. It didn't seem too stressed, whilst I was cleaning the wound it was drinking water off my finger. I'm thinking that maybe a lamb tail ring and iodine might be a good solution.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Tornado
Some of you will know that several years ago, (about 5 or 6), Steph bought me a model tornado (1:32 scale) for christmas, and whilst Steph is overseas this week, I've got it back out and doing a bit more (still only at step 8 of 60 something though).
Here's some photos so far.
Here's some photos so far.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Gee's I'm knackered...
This morning at 5 when I woke up (after not going to bed till 12), I had plans of getting up nice and early, and achieving heaps, alas, here is how the day went..
Once I got out of bed and had breakfast (around 7:30), I dosed the large tank with anti-algae stuff and plant fertilser. Because the algae stuff is removed by carbon, I turned the big filter off. Then I changed the bulbs on the lights and was quite pleased, I would start on the sheep by 8. I got the bike and trailer and went over to Julia's place. Before trying to catch the sheep, we quickly gave "Flo" and the other ophan lamb (who's name I can't remember) their vaccinations, as we know that there are some nasties in the soil around here (Clostridium perfingen we believe).
Once that was done, we started moving the sheep into the little pen, it looked like it was going really well, they were about 1 metre away from the entrance, so I moved in a bit closer and one sheep decided that it was a bad idea, and sheep being sheep, all of a sudden, they all thought it was a good idea to go somewhere else (OK, in this instance they are right, 'cause in a few days, they'll be in the supermarket!)
But it was bloody typical, the ring leader of the great escape was one of the black faced ewes..Those black faced ewes, are trouble, if a sheep is going to bolt, jump, you name it, anything you don't want them to do, it will be them. I'll be glad when we "rationalise" them into the freezer.
In the end we caught them in another part of the property, in a pen about 25m by 3m. Word of advice, that is too big, I spent more time chasing them than loading etc. After three and almost fainting, I can to that conclusion and we resized the pen down to 3x4, which was much more managable.
As you can see, they've put on a lot of weight.
Once I got out of bed and had breakfast (around 7:30), I dosed the large tank with anti-algae stuff and plant fertilser. Because the algae stuff is removed by carbon, I turned the big filter off. Then I changed the bulbs on the lights and was quite pleased, I would start on the sheep by 8. I got the bike and trailer and went over to Julia's place. Before trying to catch the sheep, we quickly gave "Flo" and the other ophan lamb (who's name I can't remember) their vaccinations, as we know that there are some nasties in the soil around here (Clostridium perfingen we believe).
Once that was done, we started moving the sheep into the little pen, it looked like it was going really well, they were about 1 metre away from the entrance, so I moved in a bit closer and one sheep decided that it was a bad idea, and sheep being sheep, all of a sudden, they all thought it was a good idea to go somewhere else (OK, in this instance they are right, 'cause in a few days, they'll be in the supermarket!)
But it was bloody typical, the ring leader of the great escape was one of the black faced ewes..Those black faced ewes, are trouble, if a sheep is going to bolt, jump, you name it, anything you don't want them to do, it will be them. I'll be glad when we "rationalise" them into the freezer.
In the end we caught them in another part of the property, in a pen about 25m by 3m. Word of advice, that is too big, I spent more time chasing them than loading etc. After three and almost fainting, I can to that conclusion and we resized the pen down to 3x4, which was much more managable.
As you can see, they've put on a lot of weight.
Because they had to go in two trips, in between I came into the house to get the camera, and noticed the floor was wet, about 1cm of the big tank had been leaked onto the floor. When I dosed the tank, I turned the filter off, and whilst it was off the back pressure was enough to seep through the seals!
After that,which took till around midday, I picked up Julia's dead orphan lamb and skinned and buried it. I then did the charming job of cleaning out the bunnies, which was long overdue. I had a quick hold and an attempt at trying to sex some of them, all I could tell is that some of them were either boys or girls, not both!
During lunch I was sitting there (feeling knackered and light headed), and then I noticed that the flying foxes were doing what I bought them for, cleaning algea.
In the afternoon, I gave the lambs a sanding, and they came up really well.
Anyway, I'm cooking tea (lamb chops, ha, we always get the upper hand!), and looking forward to a glass of red wine with dinner, and a few sherry's before bed whilst watching a movie, not sure what yet.
Later.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Not so farmy day
So that's what a day away from the farm feels like. Today Steph was heading off to Canberra for a week, so we drove to Wellington for the day. Not a great deal to report, except Steph has got to Canberra all safe and sound. Tomorrow I'm rounding up last years lambs, and sending them on their way, and I have a lamb to skin and salt (one of our neighbours orphan lambs there were trying to bottle raise). If I'm feeling keen I might try and catch our lambs so I can dock them, but instead I might play in the workshop, or start cleaning the office, we've decided that the office needs redecorating, there are too many holes in the wall!
Anyway, with 1 minute till tomorrow, bugger, it's now tomorrow, I might head off and get some sleep.
Anyway, with 1 minute till tomorrow, bugger, it's now tomorrow, I might head off and get some sleep.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Something....continued
Well, I was supposed to quickly upload the photos, and then after tea come back and edit it to contain the day's blog, but I got distracted trying to get the lamb tanning going (more on that later).
Yesterday as we had the tree protecting fences done (well kind of, they'll stop a lamb, but not a goat) we moved the lambs in to the paddock we resowed at the end of autumn, the grass in there was getting knee deep in parts (which is
really a bit long for the sheep), but it needs to be trimmed, and taking the tractor and mower in there would just destroy all the hard work planting it out, so sheep it is. We were expecting to have to herd the goats back out of the
paddock as normally once we open a gate, there are 4 goats going through it, but amazingly enough, we managed to get the sheep out of their paddock, through the goat paddock and into the next, without the goats moving.
After moving the sheep, we had a bit of a wander around, and wewnt over to see Markissa, but we left the bike on the other side of the paddock, big mistake, within seconds there were goats trying to eat various bits, and Monkey was
considering climbing on the bike, she got pretty close! So when we went back, I lifted Monkey on and went a short distance, she wasn't overly keen on that!
Once the sheep were moved, we had to also move the lamb house into their new paddock. I lifted it up so Steph could grab the rope underneath it and a big (about 12 inches long) rat dashed out and into the neighbours paddock. It just so
happened that they were on the way over to say hello etc. After a few minutes yapping, we started stamping around the nettles trying to flush the rat out, and she thankfully ran out of the nettles and back under the house. We decided to
leave her there and get Strider in on the act after the last time. Steph wandered up to the dog run, and brought them both down, and once we had Strider near the house we wound him up something terrible, and then I lifted the house. He
was in underneath it in a flash, and went straight for the rat, snap, but unfortunatly it wasn't quite enough and it started running across the paddock, with Strider chasing it and catching it. I ended up catching it and dispatching it.
Later in the day, we had the charming task of picking up alpaca poo, we're currently grazing them in a neighbours paddock, and consequently we collect the poo weekly. I must admit picking poo is up there on unpleasant tasks.
The rest of the day was actually quite restfull, I was going to spend some more time doing some moulding for the secret project, but, instead, I decided that the workshop was too much of a mess, and spent an hour or so tidying up, not
that it really made much difference.
In the late afternoon, Steph and I wandered around deciding what to do with our place, we've been offered a series of breedings to a very pretty stallion with exceptional bloodlines, for a very good price, so we've been considering that
and what stock needs to be rationalised to make space for a foal. Up till yesterday, we were considering selling the Alpacas, but the other option was to cull some sheep instead, we're currently running 5 permanant ewes, if we dropped
that to 2, that should keep up in lamb, and when we need some, we can always buy a small flock at the sales as grass permits (and it wouldn't be until next september anyway). In theory, we should be able to run 38 stock units, a horse
being 8, a foal about 4, the alpacas are around .8, goats would be about the same, and ewe plus lamb is 1. So if we had Markissa, foal, alpacas and the goats, that leaves us a surplus of about 18, but you would never want to stock that
high. So if we kept about 2 maybe 3 ewes, that still leaves us some margin, and thankfully Markissa is a "good do'er" and doesn't need a great deal of grass to keep condition (obviously that will change if she's up the duff).
One thing we did decided we would need to do was improve some fencing. We currently have a single electric strand as an internal boundry fence "protecting" the trees, that would need to be fenced properly (and if we've got foals around, then 7 wire and batten is best. So we measured up whats needed to do that, it's about 70 something posts, and around 2.5Km of wire, might try and get a post rammer, or a contractor for putting those posts in, 'cause that brings this spring's fencing task to about 110 posts (plus the tree protectors which most are not rammed yet)
In the evening, I tried setting up the next stage of the tanning of the lambs, the instructions stated that it had to have a pH of about 4, and unfortunatly I read the instructions wrong, and got my chemistry wrong, and added bicarb when I was supposed to be adding acid. Eventually I ran out of pH paper, and gave up. The lambs spent the night in the fridge, and then today I realised my mistake, I used water from the outside tap. It has a very high calcium carbonate hardness, which means it can buffer changes in pH very well (hence why it's good for the fish tanks). So I was fighting a losing battle anyway! Once I remade the solution with filtered rain water, it worked much better (and Steph brought home a electronic pH meter, which made it heaps easier).
Thats all folks, next week, the lambs are off to the works, Steph heads off to Canberra for a week (lucky girl), and I'll have to tend the farm by myself (but she gets to do the same later in the year when I head out to London for a few weeks, and the tickets are almost booked!
Yesterday as we had the tree protecting fences done (well kind of, they'll stop a lamb, but not a goat) we moved the lambs in to the paddock we resowed at the end of autumn, the grass in there was getting knee deep in parts (which is
really a bit long for the sheep), but it needs to be trimmed, and taking the tractor and mower in there would just destroy all the hard work planting it out, so sheep it is. We were expecting to have to herd the goats back out of the
paddock as normally once we open a gate, there are 4 goats going through it, but amazingly enough, we managed to get the sheep out of their paddock, through the goat paddock and into the next, without the goats moving.
After moving the sheep, we had a bit of a wander around, and wewnt over to see Markissa, but we left the bike on the other side of the paddock, big mistake, within seconds there were goats trying to eat various bits, and Monkey was
considering climbing on the bike, she got pretty close! So when we went back, I lifted Monkey on and went a short distance, she wasn't overly keen on that!
Once the sheep were moved, we had to also move the lamb house into their new paddock. I lifted it up so Steph could grab the rope underneath it and a big (about 12 inches long) rat dashed out and into the neighbours paddock. It just so
happened that they were on the way over to say hello etc. After a few minutes yapping, we started stamping around the nettles trying to flush the rat out, and she thankfully ran out of the nettles and back under the house. We decided to
leave her there and get Strider in on the act after the last time. Steph wandered up to the dog run, and brought them both down, and once we had Strider near the house we wound him up something terrible, and then I lifted the house. He
was in underneath it in a flash, and went straight for the rat, snap, but unfortunatly it wasn't quite enough and it started running across the paddock, with Strider chasing it and catching it. I ended up catching it and dispatching it.
Later in the day, we had the charming task of picking up alpaca poo, we're currently grazing them in a neighbours paddock, and consequently we collect the poo weekly. I must admit picking poo is up there on unpleasant tasks.
The rest of the day was actually quite restfull, I was going to spend some more time doing some moulding for the secret project, but, instead, I decided that the workshop was too much of a mess, and spent an hour or so tidying up, not
that it really made much difference.
In the late afternoon, Steph and I wandered around deciding what to do with our place, we've been offered a series of breedings to a very pretty stallion with exceptional bloodlines, for a very good price, so we've been considering that
and what stock needs to be rationalised to make space for a foal. Up till yesterday, we were considering selling the Alpacas, but the other option was to cull some sheep instead, we're currently running 5 permanant ewes, if we dropped
that to 2, that should keep up in lamb, and when we need some, we can always buy a small flock at the sales as grass permits (and it wouldn't be until next september anyway). In theory, we should be able to run 38 stock units, a horse
being 8, a foal about 4, the alpacas are around .8, goats would be about the same, and ewe plus lamb is 1. So if we had Markissa, foal, alpacas and the goats, that leaves us a surplus of about 18, but you would never want to stock that
high. So if we kept about 2 maybe 3 ewes, that still leaves us some margin, and thankfully Markissa is a "good do'er" and doesn't need a great deal of grass to keep condition (obviously that will change if she's up the duff).
One thing we did decided we would need to do was improve some fencing. We currently have a single electric strand as an internal boundry fence "protecting" the trees, that would need to be fenced properly (and if we've got foals around, then 7 wire and batten is best. So we measured up whats needed to do that, it's about 70 something posts, and around 2.5Km of wire, might try and get a post rammer, or a contractor for putting those posts in, 'cause that brings this spring's fencing task to about 110 posts (plus the tree protectors which most are not rammed yet)
In the evening, I tried setting up the next stage of the tanning of the lambs, the instructions stated that it had to have a pH of about 4, and unfortunatly I read the instructions wrong, and got my chemistry wrong, and added bicarb when I was supposed to be adding acid. Eventually I ran out of pH paper, and gave up. The lambs spent the night in the fridge, and then today I realised my mistake, I used water from the outside tap. It has a very high calcium carbonate hardness, which means it can buffer changes in pH very well (hence why it's good for the fish tanks). So I was fighting a losing battle anyway! Once I remade the solution with filtered rain water, it worked much better (and Steph brought home a electronic pH meter, which made it heaps easier).
Thats all folks, next week, the lambs are off to the works, Steph heads off to Canberra for a week (lucky girl), and I'll have to tend the farm by myself (but she gets to do the same later in the year when I head out to London for a few weeks, and the tickets are almost booked!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Some fish in the tank
Well that's Saturday done....What's happened, well this morning I went into town to pick up the thicknesser, and some medication for our betta (a fish, who currently is suffering from Flexibacter,a fuzz on it's side). Whilst at the pet shop I picked up two paradise fish (see photos). Just after getting home, Keith and June (the breeders of Markissa), arrived, and we showed them around our place, and discussed a few horsey things.
After they headed off, we quickly finished some temporary fencing so that we can put the sheep in the sown paddock and they won't demolish the trees (one which had new leaves on, photos tomorrow, it's too dark now.) but we didn't move the sheep yet as the paddock is still a bit damp.
Then one the way back, we popped across to check on the 'pacas and other sheep. The lambs need to be moved on very soon, I'll probably investigate doing it next weekend, they have but on heaps of weight, so it should be quite good, we need to catch the smallest one for us, as christmas dinner.
After that, I spent the afternoon down in the garage making my "secret project", I've now done the tricky part, and on to the fiddly parts! I worked out yesterday that I need over 4m of mouldings (which I making myself). Over all I think there are over 77 individual pieces, and it's not from a plan, my own design...
Unfortunatly now (actually Sunday morning), the betta died (well I put him down last night, he wasn't improving). We had a look at the fuzz on the microscope (we have a proper scientific binocular microscope), and we could see the presence of large colonies of bacteria, and it looked like Flexibacter (round and motile)
During the evening, I went down to the workshop and made some more mouldings, the router is performing really well, it's a real shame that the router isn't table mountable, that would have been great (oh well I'll "need" a spindle moulder next)
Now to get dressed and do stuff....
After they headed off, we quickly finished some temporary fencing so that we can put the sheep in the sown paddock and they won't demolish the trees (one which had new leaves on, photos tomorrow, it's too dark now.) but we didn't move the sheep yet as the paddock is still a bit damp.
Then one the way back, we popped across to check on the 'pacas and other sheep. The lambs need to be moved on very soon, I'll probably investigate doing it next weekend, they have but on heaps of weight, so it should be quite good, we need to catch the smallest one for us, as christmas dinner.
After that, I spent the afternoon down in the garage making my "secret project", I've now done the tricky part, and on to the fiddly parts! I worked out yesterday that I need over 4m of mouldings (which I making myself). Over all I think there are over 77 individual pieces, and it's not from a plan, my own design...
Unfortunatly now (actually Sunday morning), the betta died (well I put him down last night, he wasn't improving). We had a look at the fuzz on the microscope (we have a proper scientific binocular microscope), and we could see the presence of large colonies of bacteria, and it looked like Flexibacter (round and motile)
During the evening, I went down to the workshop and made some more mouldings, the router is performing really well, it's a real shame that the router isn't table mountable, that would have been great (oh well I'll "need" a spindle moulder next)
Now to get dressed and do stuff....
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Now the blog's back I can fill everyone in on some more news, firstly SnowWhite kindled a good sized litter, a few white ones, a few black and even a few agouti, not sure where the agouti came from but they'll still be edable!
You can see the Littlebush stock calander if you want here. Here you'll see what and when we've done stuff, it's not complete yet, but I'm going to make a big push to finish it this weekend.
Last weekend, Steph and I took Markissa to Tielcy Park (an equestrian center in Palmerston North) for a saddle fitting clinic. We were expecting her to be a bit crazy, as in the paddock she is quite excitable, but once we sussed out how to
get her on the float (a bum rope, we tried a lungeing whip but that did not go down well) on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday when she was very well behaved.
Saturday morning, we got up nice and early (after not really sleeping), and I prepped the car, and Steph got Markissa ready. It took us about 5 minutes to load her onto the float, and then we headed off. We were taking it really slow 'cause it's been a long time since Markissa had last been taken for a trip. By the time we had got to Masterton (20 minutes normally), she had settled down into the ride. 2 hours later we pulled into Tielcy Park, and were expecting snorting, eyes on stalks and possibly some crazy behaviour (going by how she reacted when the Alpacas were brought in). After finding somewhere to park, Steph backed her out of the float, and lead her to the side, where Markissa promptly saw some grass and was nose to the ground....After speaking to Margo, we got a stable to put her in for the day, another new experiance...but she just walked in, and then found the hay! The most excitement from Markissa came from when she saw herself in a few big mirrors in the indoor arena, and then when one of the stallions from the same stud she came from walked past. She has a very deep and loud whiney (esp when it's in your ear!)
Steph and Markissa were the demo horse and rider for the clinic, and from the looks of things, this type of saddle fits reasonably well, a few adjustments, but nothing major, so that looks promising.
The trip home wasn't to eventful (which is a good thing).
In addition to the baby rabbits and the saddle, I've also made a start on the planting the big tank (see photos, a much better way to describe it).
Whilst on the subject of fish, one of my clown loaches died yesterday, and unfortunatly is was one of the older ones, so that sucks...
You can see the Littlebush stock calander if you want here. Here you'll see what and when we've done stuff, it's not complete yet, but I'm going to make a big push to finish it this weekend.
Last weekend, Steph and I took Markissa to Tielcy Park (an equestrian center in Palmerston North) for a saddle fitting clinic. We were expecting her to be a bit crazy, as in the paddock she is quite excitable, but once we sussed out how to
get her on the float (a bum rope, we tried a lungeing whip but that did not go down well) on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday when she was very well behaved.
Saturday morning, we got up nice and early (after not really sleeping), and I prepped the car, and Steph got Markissa ready. It took us about 5 minutes to load her onto the float, and then we headed off. We were taking it really slow 'cause it's been a long time since Markissa had last been taken for a trip. By the time we had got to Masterton (20 minutes normally), she had settled down into the ride. 2 hours later we pulled into Tielcy Park, and were expecting snorting, eyes on stalks and possibly some crazy behaviour (going by how she reacted when the Alpacas were brought in). After finding somewhere to park, Steph backed her out of the float, and lead her to the side, where Markissa promptly saw some grass and was nose to the ground....After speaking to Margo, we got a stable to put her in for the day, another new experiance...but she just walked in, and then found the hay! The most excitement from Markissa came from when she saw herself in a few big mirrors in the indoor arena, and then when one of the stallions from the same stud she came from walked past. She has a very deep and loud whiney (esp when it's in your ear!)
Steph and Markissa were the demo horse and rider for the clinic, and from the looks of things, this type of saddle fits reasonably well, a few adjustments, but nothing major, so that looks promising.
The trip home wasn't to eventful (which is a good thing).
In addition to the baby rabbits and the saddle, I've also made a start on the planting the big tank (see photos, a much better way to describe it).
Whilst on the subject of fish, one of my clown loaches died yesterday, and unfortunatly is was one of the older ones, so that sucks...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Blog's back
Sorry about that folks, a bit of technical difficultly with Google...but I fixed it (by chance) and we're back.
The last day of the holiday (and other stuff)
OK, a bit over due, but I had written something, but I forgot to save it, and consequently I lost it! Anyway, what did we do on Tuesday...The morning started with me down in the workshop nice and early on my project, prep-ing some more timber. Being typical holiday weather is was piddling down with rain, and we knew we had on of last years lambs to catch, yuck wet wool! After an hour or so in the workshop I went back up to the house, and Steph was just getting up, so after breakfast etc we waited for a fine spell and went out to catch the lamb. After a few rounds of the paddock, and not wanting to go into the race (where we could pen them) he slipped and at that point I ran in and grabbed him. Not the conventinal way to catch sheep, but it worked. Then I noticed a small problem in our plan, the stock crate was a good 80m away, and he was too big to carry. I ended up sitting on him, legs either side, arm around throat with Steph encouraging him to move forward, a few minutes later he was up and in the crate ready to go on a trip..
After dropping him off to Parkvale, we went into Masterton as there were a few bits I needed. After messing around in town for an hour or two, we headed home.
Once home I spent the afternoon, once more, down in the workshop building my project. It's still only parts, but it's coming along nicely, meanwhile Steph crashed infront of the TV with her horse tack, and spent a movie cleaning it ready for the saddle fitting clinic this weekend.
And in other news today.....Last night, as SnowWhite still had not made a nest, I decided to tweak the nesting box slightly, instead of just having an open topped box, I mounted the two boxes ontop of one another, and this morning there is a big nest made inside, so I expect she will drop today or tomorrow, if she hasn't dropped by this evening, I might set up the video camera, could be interesting.
On the tanning side, the lambs have now been in a pickle for 3 days, their not quite ready yet, but D.S. will need resalting this evening, and then one more salting, then she goes in the pickle (once dried and then rehydrated). We pick up the ram lambs fleece from Parkvale this evening, my tanning freezer is starting to get a bit full, I already have three sheep in there! I guess I need to catch up a bit.
Oh, a few photos for today, the new nursary rabbit hutch, the lambs in the pickle, and D.S. salting.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Another day, and another set of trials
Yikes, this holiday isn't really turning up to be very relaxing, but, saying that today's blog does end on a good note (for a change).
This morning I fed the bunnies, no kit's yet, but she isn't due to tonight anyway, so that wasn't a surprise. After doing a bit of house work, Steph and I trundled into town to pick up a few bits, and the scoria for the flower beds. Whilst we were in town, we also picked up a thicknesser for the workshop so that I can try and do something with the rimu boarding I aquired last year.
Once we got home, we spread the scoria out on the flower beds (in the rain), and then I went down to the workshop to play with the thicknesser, whoops, I mean work with the thicknesser...
It's so cool, crappy timber goes in, you let go and it spits out really nice boards...it has taken place as my second favorite tool (compound cross cut saw still being #1).
Anyway, I started on a project (no details till it finished).
Then as it started getting colder (and after Markissa had had her hooves trimmed by the farrier, I came inside, and Steph finished of a few things outside, including the bunnies, this is were the day went pear shaped, Snowwhite (the one due tonight) was missing!!!!! I mustn't of closed the door properly this morning, after a quick hunt around and a few naughty words, I found her in the wood shed, cold and wet. She had tried escaping from the wood shed, but thankfully it has a gravel base course that she couldn't dig through.
So now, we're sitting down to a nice cuppa and a blazing fire..
Till tomorrow (last day of our holiday).
Oh, here's the photo of the manager
This morning I fed the bunnies, no kit's yet, but she isn't due to tonight anyway, so that wasn't a surprise. After doing a bit of house work, Steph and I trundled into town to pick up a few bits, and the scoria for the flower beds. Whilst we were in town, we also picked up a thicknesser for the workshop so that I can try and do something with the rimu boarding I aquired last year.
Once we got home, we spread the scoria out on the flower beds (in the rain), and then I went down to the workshop to play with the thicknesser, whoops, I mean work with the thicknesser...
It's so cool, crappy timber goes in, you let go and it spits out really nice boards...it has taken place as my second favorite tool (compound cross cut saw still being #1).
Anyway, I started on a project (no details till it finished).
Then as it started getting colder (and after Markissa had had her hooves trimmed by the farrier, I came inside, and Steph finished of a few things outside, including the bunnies, this is were the day went pear shaped, Snowwhite (the one due tonight) was missing!!!!! I mustn't of closed the door properly this morning, after a quick hunt around and a few naughty words, I found her in the wood shed, cold and wet. She had tried escaping from the wood shed, but thankfully it has a gravel base course that she couldn't dig through.
So now, we're sitting down to a nice cuppa and a blazing fire..
Till tomorrow (last day of our holiday).
Oh, here's the photo of the manager
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Bad News
Unfortunalty yesterday, Devil Spawn had got worse, she was unable to reposition her self, and was not showing any signs of improving, so I phoned John (one of our neighbours), and he came over and shot her for us. After which I promptly skinned her, and did a very rough autopsy and she had intensive rotting about a hand lengths in, not pleasant....Oh well in the end we did the right thing, oh the other thing I noticed was her pelvis was very very tiny, In retrospect and with the knowledge of her pelvis size, maybe breeding her was a mistake.
After skinning, fleshing the hide (which is probably the best fleshing I've done), and digging the hole (and putting her head somewhere separate so we can get the horns!) we had lunch, and then I started on the job I was intending to do, which was set up the fish tank. After cleaning 240kg of river pebbles, and heaving a massive bit of driftwood in and about a dozen big boulders, the tank is looking really murky (I was intending typing "cool", but it's not yet, give it a day or to with the filter for that, and then I'll start heating it and thinking about planting it out.
Today I will hopefully get down into the workshop and cleanup after making the manger (photos are now on the camera, so they are getting closer), and I'm going to start pickling the lambs hides (first you dry them out with salt, rehydrate them in brine solution, pickle them in acid, and then tan them in another really salty solution with something else added), Devil Spawn will probably go in the pickle in about a week's time.
Anyway, time for a nice cup of tea.
After skinning, fleshing the hide (which is probably the best fleshing I've done), and digging the hole (and putting her head somewhere separate so we can get the horns!) we had lunch, and then I started on the job I was intending to do, which was set up the fish tank. After cleaning 240kg of river pebbles, and heaving a massive bit of driftwood in and about a dozen big boulders, the tank is looking really murky (I was intending typing "cool", but it's not yet, give it a day or to with the filter for that, and then I'll start heating it and thinking about planting it out.
Today I will hopefully get down into the workshop and cleanup after making the manger (photos are now on the camera, so they are getting closer), and I'm going to start pickling the lambs hides (first you dry them out with salt, rehydrate them in brine solution, pickle them in acid, and then tan them in another really salty solution with something else added), Devil Spawn will probably go in the pickle in about a week's time.
Anyway, time for a nice cup of tea.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Devil Spawn
Devil Spawn is still alive, this morning her temperature had dropped from 40.9 to 39.9, which is heading in the right direction. There is still a really nasty discharge from her bits, tomorrow I think we'll flush it with warm water and maybe explore a bit. We're keeping her dosed up on Calpro, and we've got more intracillin for Sunday (if she is still alive).
I managed to build the nursary rabbit run, unfortunatly I had one minor design flaw, it was 5mm too long to fit in the shed, so a quick mod and made it 2" shorter. Now SnowWhite has residence and hopefully she'll start nesting in the next few days. Hollywood finally realised she needed to build a nest and this morning was frantically building a nest in her feed bowl! Hopefully next time she'll get the birthing and nest building the other way around.
This afternoon whilst out (we went to the sales to see what was around, nothing of note), we picked up 530Kg of red scoria, and 320Kg of 6mm river pebbles, the scoria is for the flower beds, it looks REALLY good, photos tomorrow, and the pebbles are for the fish tank, I've decided not to do the whole sculpting thing, I just don't have the time, instead I'll just do a aquascaped tank, but still with many plants and the CO2 injector.
Anyway, this evening Steph and I are off to a french restuarant for dinner.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some good news about DevilSpawn.
I managed to build the nursary rabbit run, unfortunatly I had one minor design flaw, it was 5mm too long to fit in the shed, so a quick mod and made it 2" shorter. Now SnowWhite has residence and hopefully she'll start nesting in the next few days. Hollywood finally realised she needed to build a nest and this morning was frantically building a nest in her feed bowl! Hopefully next time she'll get the birthing and nest building the other way around.
This afternoon whilst out (we went to the sales to see what was around, nothing of note), we picked up 530Kg of red scoria, and 320Kg of 6mm river pebbles, the scoria is for the flower beds, it looks REALLY good, photos tomorrow, and the pebbles are for the fish tank, I've decided not to do the whole sculpting thing, I just don't have the time, instead I'll just do a aquascaped tank, but still with many plants and the CO2 injector.
Anyway, this evening Steph and I are off to a french restuarant for dinner.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some good news about DevilSpawn.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Not a good start to our holiday
Well, Steph and I were intending taking a week off, and having a very restfull week, but this morning things didn't go according to plan, Hollywood gave birth over night to 10 kits, but she never bothered building a nest, so they all died!, and then when I went to check DS, she was not in a good state. We've brought her up to a compound near the house so we can keep a closer eye on her, and we've put 6ml of Intracillin and 200ml (over 6 hours) of Calpro (vitamins and glucose etc). Her temperature is pretty high, but it did drop over the last 2 hours (down to 40.6 from 40.9). I guess we now just see what happens tomorrow and if she is still around, we'll get another dose of antibiotics for her.
In an attempt to be a bit more successfull with the rabbits, I'm building a big nursing cage, 2m long, hopefully I'll have it ready for the weekend when Snowwhite is to drop.
On a plus note, we did manage to round up the sheep (which escaped yesterday!), and the other lambs are still doing fine.
In an attempt to be a bit more successfull with the rabbits, I'm building a big nursing cage, 2m long, hopefully I'll have it ready for the weekend when Snowwhite is to drop.
On a plus note, we did manage to round up the sheep (which escaped yesterday!), and the other lambs are still doing fine.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Still going
I caught DevilSpawn this morning, and her back end was still quite swollen, but Steph had a look this afternoon and she thinks it looks just like a big hemotoma. One thing I didn't mention yesterday, was that one of the lambs when I skinned it had a massive hemmorage around the throat internally, which makes me think it was first out, and was presented incorrectly, and was killed during birth, and then the one behind suffocated whilst she was struggling with the first. Oh well, anyway today we moved the alpacas across to Julia's (our new neighbour) paddock, we have absolutly no grass left except for the lambing paddock and the lamb raising paddock (which has trees that need fencing off). So as to make the management of the alpacas easier, I made a manger, photos on Thursday (I forgot).
This morning whilst I was feeding the bunnies, Ruben bit me, I had handled the girls (Hollywood is due on Tuesday), and then him, I think he thought my hand was a girl and sunk his teeth in!
This morning whilst I was feeding the bunnies, Ruben bit me, I had handled the girls (Hollywood is due on Tuesday), and then him, I think he thought my hand was a girl and sunk his teeth in!
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Bad news
This morning when I went down to check Devil Spawn around 6am, she was still alive, but no lambs, so I did some cleaning in the barn, and then when Steph got out of bed we went into town to pick up some fence posts (another 40). By the time we got back there still wasn't any lambs, and she was still walking funny!
Later on in the morning I bumbed into Rex, and whilst we were chatting I mentioned Devil Spawn, and he offered to have a look. Once he finished with his flock, he came over and we caught her, and he had a feel inside, didn't like the feel of it as it was very tight, he couldn't get his hand past the pelvis. I tried as I have slightly smaller hands; I got past the pelvis, but couldn't find anything! We then wondered if she had dropped the lambs already, so I did a quick scout around the paddock, and unfortunalty I found two dead lambs.
Normally you put your lambs out for the dead lamb man...but because they were so small they weren't worth anything, so I skinned them and they are now in the garage being salted. The really sucky thing is we wanted two black ewes, and that's what they were! Shit happens.
Hopefully the other ewe will do better...
Later on in the morning I bumbed into Rex, and whilst we were chatting I mentioned Devil Spawn, and he offered to have a look. Once he finished with his flock, he came over and we caught her, and he had a feel inside, didn't like the feel of it as it was very tight, he couldn't get his hand past the pelvis. I tried as I have slightly smaller hands; I got past the pelvis, but couldn't find anything! We then wondered if she had dropped the lambs already, so I did a quick scout around the paddock, and unfortunalty I found two dead lambs.
Normally you put your lambs out for the dead lamb man...but because they were so small they weren't worth anything, so I skinned them and they are now in the garage being salted. The really sucky thing is we wanted two black ewes, and that's what they were! Shit happens.
Hopefully the other ewe will do better...
Friday, August 04, 2006
Devil Spawn Spawning
This evening when we got home, Devil spawn was in the process of getting ready to birth, we checked her again at 8:30, and she was still moving around, but not very comfortable.
This is the first time we've been around for a birth, and hopefully we haven't disturbed her too much, I guess we find out tomorrow morning we check her first thing.
Her bits were a bit red, engorged and VERY loose, we're hoping everything is OK and doesn't need intervention.
Will post the outcome tomorrow, and if it's good, photos too.
Fingers crossed.
This is the first time we've been around for a birth, and hopefully we haven't disturbed her too much, I guess we find out tomorrow morning we check her first thing.
Her bits were a bit red, engorged and VERY loose, we're hoping everything is OK and doesn't need intervention.
Will post the outcome tomorrow, and if it's good, photos too.
Fingers crossed.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Tree Hugging.
Another really good weekend. Yesterday we planted the last poplar poles, and started building 2mx2m "compounds" for each of the silver birch, plane and oak trees (so as to stop the goats destroying them). With each tree needing 4 holes (to about 800mm deep), and another 5 holes for the poplars, that's alot of dirt needing moving, about 35 lineal metres! Armed with such a daunting number we hired a post hole borer, and got up really early so that we would have lots of time to do them as we had friends coming around at 2. Amazingly enough we had all the holes dug in less than an hour. There is a good side to having so much rain, but then there is always a down side, most of the holes filled with water by the time we went to ram them. Oh well, a job for another day. The posts are in the holes all ready, just keeping our fingers crossed for a few more days/weeks of pleasant weather (ie spring, albeit just past mid winter at the moment).
After giving up with the post ramming, I decided to finish (well start) the post and rail fence behind the water tanks which I started last september (see http://littlebush.blogspot.com/2005/09/sunday-day-of-rest-yeah-right.html), I don't think it's too bad, a post and rail fence inside a year!
And today, we moved the sheep from one neighbours place, to the others (I say we, I should really say Rex (the local farmer) did it with his dog, ours today were useless. The only other thing of note today was that I did a bit of pruning in the paddocks with the chainsaw, just removing low branches so I don't get hit in the head whilst driving around on the tractor.
Anyway, that's enough for today.. Next weekend we'll hopefully ram a few posts and have more photos of more lambs. Also this week coming I think Hollywood should drop her babies, so fingers crossed.
Enjoy the photos.
After giving up with the post ramming, I decided to finish (well start) the post and rail fence behind the water tanks which I started last september (see http://littlebush.blogspot.com/2005/09/sunday-day-of-rest-yeah-right.html), I don't think it's too bad, a post and rail fence inside a year!
And today, we moved the sheep from one neighbours place, to the others (I say we, I should really say Rex (the local farmer) did it with his dog, ours today were useless. The only other thing of note today was that I did a bit of pruning in the paddocks with the chainsaw, just removing low branches so I don't get hit in the head whilst driving around on the tractor.
Anyway, that's enough for today.. Next weekend we'll hopefully ram a few posts and have more photos of more lambs. Also this week coming I think Hollywood should drop her babies, so fingers crossed.
Enjoy the photos.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Lamb update
Just a quicky, we checked the new lamb this morning on the way to work, and he's still alive and with Mum, so things are looking good for him. Obviously photos on the weekend.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
And another
It's so much better not having to drag out the modem cable etc...anyway back on to the subject, we got another lamb, no photos yet as it was dark when we got home, but a big boy with black point ears. Only one, and when we got home he was on the road side of the fence and had been away from mum for a while (not sure how long), but Mum took him back OK and hopefully he'll get a feed and be OK, find out tomorrow I guess...
On to tea...
On to tea...
Monday, July 24, 2006
Fash Internet and Lambs
This weekend a fair bit happen, first on Saturday, Steph and I went for a swim at our local pool and I then went and got some timber and the remaining 13 trees.
After getting home we planted the 4 plane trees and 3 of the poplars, despite the surface being like slurry,underneath is quite diggable which made for a slighty more plesant job.
Once lunch was out of the way we mounted a wifi aerial on the outside of the barn, as broadband was going to be installed on sunday.
Sunday morning I got up nice and early and finished building the firewall ready for when the dish was put up, and then I went for a stroll down to the lambing paddock as it was a nice morning and I was hoping that we would have some lambs, which we did...
Then soon after the guy came around to install the dish, and after about two hours we had a dish and a broadband connection:
Anyway, there was more, but I'll write it later..
Hopefully this evening we'll find more lambs.
After getting home we planted the 4 plane trees and 3 of the poplars, despite the surface being like slurry,underneath is quite diggable which made for a slighty more plesant job.
Once lunch was out of the way we mounted a wifi aerial on the outside of the barn, as broadband was going to be installed on sunday.
Sunday morning I got up nice and early and finished building the firewall ready for when the dish was put up, and then I went for a stroll down to the lambing paddock as it was a nice morning and I was hoping that we would have some lambs, which we did...
Then soon after the guy came around to install the dish, and after about two hours we had a dish and a broadband connection:
Anyway, there was more, but I'll write it later..
Hopefully this evening we'll find more lambs.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Lambs on the way
No photos this weekend, all that there is really to photograph is masses of mud, and pregnant ewes. After losing the lamb the other week, we decided to vacinate the lambs with 5-in-1. Since the protection is passed on to new lambs if the mother has been vaccinated within a month, we checked the ewes and wee going to hold out vaccinating them until they bag up and relax in the back quarters (see last years photos!). Two of the big ewes had already bagged up, the black faced girl was looking very "relaxed" and ready. We've moved them all into a paddock we've been keeping aside for lambing, hopefully this year we'll get 7 lambs, 2 from each of the big girls and 1 from devilspawn (who is pregnant to winston, she's also bagged up and is starting to look more ready. We intend putting the lambs and ewes into the newly sown paddock once things dry up a little bit, just to top the grass to make it grow a bit stronger. But before we do that, we're going to need to protect a few trees we planted this weekend. We've put in several scarlet oaks, down either side of the race to make a kind of avenue. also behind the large mound we plant some silver birch (which should shoot away pretty well). Next weekend, hoefully, we'll we planting some plane trees to offset the oaks, and and bunch of poplars to provide shelter.
Then we've got to build the goat proof tree protectors.
It now looks like my trip to the UK has been put off to the end of october, hopefully, things will warm up and dry out in time for me to sow the paddocks before I go.
Yesterday(Tuesday) we had some guys out trying to install broadband for us, we have to go with a satalite system, and it ended up having to go on the end of the barn, so that means 80m of cabling to be dug into the ground! So it's not there yet...
Then we've got to build the goat proof tree protectors.
It now looks like my trip to the UK has been put off to the end of october, hopefully, things will warm up and dry out in time for me to sow the paddocks before I go.
Yesterday(Tuesday) we had some guys out trying to install broadband for us, we have to go with a satalite system, and it ended up having to go on the end of the barn, so that means 80m of cabling to be dug into the ground! So it's not there yet...
Friday, July 07, 2006
Very Wet
For the last few days, both Steph and I have been working from home. On Wednesday we drove into town (in the honda civic), and several times on the way, we thought "hmm, it's pretty wet, hopefully the roads are open". The roads were open, although several times we encountered police making sure that drivers noticed the big puddles on the road. Once we got into work, we started keeping an eye on the river levels, and it started getting higher and higher, at which point I phoned our local council and found out that things were worse over here, so we both decided that heading home was the best thing. Three hours and a very long route home as we wanted to avoid certain roads, turned out to be the right thing as there were some huge puddles/fordings that I would not have been happy crossing at around 10pm at night.
On Thursday morning, I checked the river levels and the weather warnings, at which point we went back to bed, and then spent the day working from home with the occasional rescue of sheep, fixing drainage issues with Tom on the neighbours place, and making sure all the animals had enough hay to keep them warm.
This morning though, we got up, decided the Safari was the best bet, and started driving to the train station. At the top of our road, we found several big slips, and by the time we got to the other end (all 6Kms away) we discovered that the road there was closed...So we turned around and now working from home.
Around 10am, the clouds parted and blue sky was visible, now (1pm), it's sunny and warm and another weekend is near.
On Thursday morning, I checked the river levels and the weather warnings, at which point we went back to bed, and then spent the day working from home with the occasional rescue of sheep, fixing drainage issues with Tom on the neighbours place, and making sure all the animals had enough hay to keep them warm.
This morning though, we got up, decided the Safari was the best bet, and started driving to the train station. At the top of our road, we found several big slips, and by the time we got to the other end (all 6Kms away) we discovered that the road there was closed...So we turned around and now working from home.
Around 10am, the clouds parted and blue sky was visible, now (1pm), it's sunny and warm and another weekend is near.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
A not quite so farmy weekend.
Another weekend, and unfortunatly another dead sheep. Two of the lambs have now died,
probably due to clostridal disease. We're now going to move the lambs on very promptly
so I'm going to organise that for this weekend hopefully. We'll move on the 10 largest
and then try to fatten the other 8 up a bit more for an extra week or two.
Anyway, the weekend was pretty busy, on Saturday we had a Mid Winter Christmas Party with
Steph's work, it was fancy dress, and the theme was farming. Really easy for us, I threw on
my gum boots,my wax jacket, and my leather hat, and I was set. Steph went as a hunter, all in camo
gear, with a hunting horn I made out of one of Winston's horns, and a big pink unicorn strapped to her back!
That basically took all Saturday, and Sunday was spent doing shopping etc, then we had a visit from one of Steph's
friends through work. Admittedly we didn't get a great deal done, such as measuring out for our tree planting or
installing the shields between the hutches in the rabbit house, but we'll just do that next weekend.
Just before we were going to head out to the pub for dinner, Steph called me on the radio and told me about the
dead ewe, so I quickly dug a hole and threw her in....I'm getting reasonably speedy at digging big holes.
I did manage to take a few photos this weekend, so here they are (none of the dead sheep of course!)
probably due to clostridal disease. We're now going to move the lambs on very promptly
so I'm going to organise that for this weekend hopefully. We'll move on the 10 largest
and then try to fatten the other 8 up a bit more for an extra week or two.
Anyway, the weekend was pretty busy, on Saturday we had a Mid Winter Christmas Party with
Steph's work, it was fancy dress, and the theme was farming. Really easy for us, I threw on
my gum boots,my wax jacket, and my leather hat, and I was set. Steph went as a hunter, all in camo
gear, with a hunting horn I made out of one of Winston's horns, and a big pink unicorn strapped to her back!
That basically took all Saturday, and Sunday was spent doing shopping etc, then we had a visit from one of Steph's
friends through work. Admittedly we didn't get a great deal done, such as measuring out for our tree planting or
installing the shields between the hutches in the rabbit house, but we'll just do that next weekend.
Just before we were going to head out to the pub for dinner, Steph called me on the radio and told me about the
dead ewe, so I quickly dug a hole and threw her in....I'm getting reasonably speedy at digging big holes.
I did manage to take a few photos this weekend, so here they are (none of the dead sheep of course!)
Monday, June 26, 2006
Another weekend, and this time I now I have something to write about because my shoulders ache, I have some cuts on my hands and we’re both knackered.
Saturday morning was reasonable normal, with a trip into Masterton to do the shopping etc, but whilst we were there we paid a trip to Arakura nursery (a local council operated tree nursery), after chatting with the guy we came away with ideas on what to plant this year. We’re hoping to turn the paddocks into a park like area, and he suggested silver birches, plane trees, oaks and ash to name a few. So once we work out how many we need, we’ll head back an get some to plant. We’re hoping to have that done before I head off to the UK.
Once we got home, we decided to move the sheep from Jenny’s paddock to another neighbors paddock. Unfortunately there was no easy way to get them across so we used the stock crate. First though we crutched and drenched them, hoping the drench would give them a better chance at gaining the last few kg’s they need before slaughter. Whilst we had them all in, we checked our ewes that should be pregnant. They are huge, still a while off, but they were massive (one might be a bit obese even, how I have no idea as they haven’t had that much feed).
We caught the first 12 and threw them in the crate and then ferried them over to the other paddock (using the bike), there was 1 lamb though that needed to be put in another paddock as we’re slaughtering it for the freezer next weekend or the one after. Once the 11 lambs were out of the crate, I started the bike again to take that one lamb back to our paddock, it spluttered and died. After several minutes hard pulling I found out that the tank was empty, so I switched to reserve (or so I thought), and gave it a few more pulls. One pull was a tad too hard as I snapped the pull cord! In the end I went and got Tom, put the bike on the cargo tray and the trailer on the tow ball, and took the bike back to the workshop (hoping I could repair it), and then the lamb down to the race. Getting back out of the paddock was hit or miss, it’s been very wet this winter, and what with the paddocks already all churned up by the rotavator in autumn, they are like two large mud pits. With the extra drag of the trailer, the tractor tyres were spinning and we weren’t going anywhere fast, but moving…just. Patience was a virtue here as I just sat tight and waited till the ground got a bit firmer and then managed to turn around the gate and head back out to the other 13 lambs. On inspection the next day the ruts I left were over 12 inches deep. Looks like I’ve got some serious rotavating and harrowing to do come spring.
By the time we had move the last 13 lambs across, it was getting dark and I decided to start repairing the bike.
Removing the cover for the pull cord showed the problem (as if we didn’t guess), the cord had snapped inside the housing. So after pulling that out etc, and then working out how it was put togther and disassembling it, I worked what to do, unfortunately I forgot to thread the rope through one of the holes first! Then the spring wasn’t sprung enough to rewind the rope, so I took the center casing out…whoops…the tightly wound metal string became desprung. This was really annoying because initially I had no idea on how to respring it. But with two nails, lots of cable ties and several attempts I managed to respring it by hand, holding the spring together with cable ties. Once it was tightly coiled, I put it back in the case, and started snipping the cable ties, letting the coil expand. That’s where I called it a day, and headed back inside for a nice coffee and a shower.
Sunday started out with finishing fixing the bike, which with Steph’s help only took a few minutes, we presprung the rewinding mech and then feed and tied off the pull rope. Once the bike was complete, I cleaned up all the dead branches that has been sitting around our property for several months, and moved all the other wood debris into a fire pile.
As I was pretty puffed from moving all the wood around, I decided to walk over and check the sheep and goats. Whilst over there I had a chat with the guy who was chopping down some trees for them, and he mentioned that there were some logs around the back of the property that might be good for turning etc, and that I should have a look. It was at that point Steph realized that the alpacas were having fun in the front garden. I had built a temporary fence across the back garden so that they could have some more grass, but they had knocked that over and gone for a walk around the garden, but the main problem was that all the gates were open, and Steph was still on Markissa’s back! After a few minutes of chasing alpacas around the paddocks, we managed to get them back into their paddock and fix the fence so they couldn’t get out again.
Finally it was lunch time….After lunch I took the bike and trailer over to look at the timber, and after an hour or so I came back with two rounds (about 3 foot in diameter), and a slab about 6 foot long and 2 maybe 3 foot wide. Heavy is about the only description that I can think of….One of the rounds had a nasty split right down the middle that I thought might be fixable, but upon picking it up and putting it in the shed for drying, it split right down the middle into two parts, “Bugger” I thought, but then I realized that it would make 2 tables that fit together and that could be quite cool.
After that I decided that I would start making the next couple of bunny hutches, so I spent a few hours in the workshop cutting and ripping timber down into preset lengths and then assembling one hutch. So Snowwhite and Hollywood are now both in the house, I hope to start Rubin’s hutch this evening…
Next week when the light is better I will take photos of the hutches, but by the time I was finished, it was all dark.
Oh, other photos I need to upload is the white lamb’s rug and the finished Winston.
Till later…
Saturday morning was reasonable normal, with a trip into Masterton to do the shopping etc, but whilst we were there we paid a trip to Arakura nursery (a local council operated tree nursery), after chatting with the guy we came away with ideas on what to plant this year. We’re hoping to turn the paddocks into a park like area, and he suggested silver birches, plane trees, oaks and ash to name a few. So once we work out how many we need, we’ll head back an get some to plant. We’re hoping to have that done before I head off to the UK.
Once we got home, we decided to move the sheep from Jenny’s paddock to another neighbors paddock. Unfortunately there was no easy way to get them across so we used the stock crate. First though we crutched and drenched them, hoping the drench would give them a better chance at gaining the last few kg’s they need before slaughter. Whilst we had them all in, we checked our ewes that should be pregnant. They are huge, still a while off, but they were massive (one might be a bit obese even, how I have no idea as they haven’t had that much feed).
We caught the first 12 and threw them in the crate and then ferried them over to the other paddock (using the bike), there was 1 lamb though that needed to be put in another paddock as we’re slaughtering it for the freezer next weekend or the one after. Once the 11 lambs were out of the crate, I started the bike again to take that one lamb back to our paddock, it spluttered and died. After several minutes hard pulling I found out that the tank was empty, so I switched to reserve (or so I thought), and gave it a few more pulls. One pull was a tad too hard as I snapped the pull cord! In the end I went and got Tom, put the bike on the cargo tray and the trailer on the tow ball, and took the bike back to the workshop (hoping I could repair it), and then the lamb down to the race. Getting back out of the paddock was hit or miss, it’s been very wet this winter, and what with the paddocks already all churned up by the rotavator in autumn, they are like two large mud pits. With the extra drag of the trailer, the tractor tyres were spinning and we weren’t going anywhere fast, but moving…just. Patience was a virtue here as I just sat tight and waited till the ground got a bit firmer and then managed to turn around the gate and head back out to the other 13 lambs. On inspection the next day the ruts I left were over 12 inches deep. Looks like I’ve got some serious rotavating and harrowing to do come spring.
By the time we had move the last 13 lambs across, it was getting dark and I decided to start repairing the bike.
Removing the cover for the pull cord showed the problem (as if we didn’t guess), the cord had snapped inside the housing. So after pulling that out etc, and then working out how it was put togther and disassembling it, I worked what to do, unfortunately I forgot to thread the rope through one of the holes first! Then the spring wasn’t sprung enough to rewind the rope, so I took the center casing out…whoops…the tightly wound metal string became desprung. This was really annoying because initially I had no idea on how to respring it. But with two nails, lots of cable ties and several attempts I managed to respring it by hand, holding the spring together with cable ties. Once it was tightly coiled, I put it back in the case, and started snipping the cable ties, letting the coil expand. That’s where I called it a day, and headed back inside for a nice coffee and a shower.
Sunday started out with finishing fixing the bike, which with Steph’s help only took a few minutes, we presprung the rewinding mech and then feed and tied off the pull rope. Once the bike was complete, I cleaned up all the dead branches that has been sitting around our property for several months, and moved all the other wood debris into a fire pile.
As I was pretty puffed from moving all the wood around, I decided to walk over and check the sheep and goats. Whilst over there I had a chat with the guy who was chopping down some trees for them, and he mentioned that there were some logs around the back of the property that might be good for turning etc, and that I should have a look. It was at that point Steph realized that the alpacas were having fun in the front garden. I had built a temporary fence across the back garden so that they could have some more grass, but they had knocked that over and gone for a walk around the garden, but the main problem was that all the gates were open, and Steph was still on Markissa’s back! After a few minutes of chasing alpacas around the paddocks, we managed to get them back into their paddock and fix the fence so they couldn’t get out again.
Finally it was lunch time….After lunch I took the bike and trailer over to look at the timber, and after an hour or so I came back with two rounds (about 3 foot in diameter), and a slab about 6 foot long and 2 maybe 3 foot wide. Heavy is about the only description that I can think of….One of the rounds had a nasty split right down the middle that I thought might be fixable, but upon picking it up and putting it in the shed for drying, it split right down the middle into two parts, “Bugger” I thought, but then I realized that it would make 2 tables that fit together and that could be quite cool.
After that I decided that I would start making the next couple of bunny hutches, so I spent a few hours in the workshop cutting and ripping timber down into preset lengths and then assembling one hutch. So Snowwhite and Hollywood are now both in the house, I hope to start Rubin’s hutch this evening…
Next week when the light is better I will take photos of the hutches, but by the time I was finished, it was all dark.
Oh, other photos I need to upload is the white lamb’s rug and the finished Winston.
Till later…
Monday, June 19, 2006
Catchup
Ah, once more I've been very lazy about blogging, in my defense we've only just got the projector back (hence blogging from the lounge on a Sunday afternoon can continue), and what with it being winter, not a great deal is happening. But to fill in a few blanks with what we've been up to recently. Firstly all the animals are fine, one of our sheep died a few weeks ago, not sure why, du if you have livestock, at some point, you always have deadstock!. The weekend following I buried it in the paddock where I've been tilling it over ready for spring, well I dug a big hole, threw it in and then started filling it back in. I decided that it would probably be easy using the tractor and the FEL to push the dirt back in - dumb idea. It was fine until I also thought that going over the top with the rotavator was a good idea. The soil was ofcourse uncompacted and the front of the tractor fell into the hole and it took a fair bit of jiggling around to get the tractor out...Later that weekend I had to use the tractor to drag the neighbours ute out of a paddock 'cause he also got stuck, the boys had a great time running around rounding up the cows and Gandalf was espcially pleased when he found an entire sheep carcase...so many bones just for him! He wasn't too impressed when I called him away from it.
We've sent another two lambs off the the big freezer in the sky, and we should be getting them back on Wednesday, along with the hides. Oh, I finished tanning Winston, and he made quite a nice rug, and I also tanned the lamb we used for suasages, the leather came out really even, but not quite supple enough, maybe I didn't use enough leather lube. The only downside with the tanning method at the moment is that it uses chrominum as it's main thing, and it stains the fleece slightly blue, the next hide I'm going to try washing/soaking in sulphuric acid for a day to try and remove the chrome color.
Hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday Snowwhite and Hollywood will have babies, during the weekend I made two nesting boxes out of plywood and now it's just a case of seeing if they drop!
Hm, what else...we've moved the goats onto a neighbours paddock as it's hiller and dryer, which is better for their feet. Hopefully they'll do well over there, and we're going to move the rest of the lambs overthere next weekend, we need to get a little bit more weight on them before we move them on permanantly, and Jenny (our nieghbour) where they have been grazing has finally sold and has 4 weeks.
On the tank front, the Co2 controller has some hardware issues, and I need to rebuild it. I'm going to design a PCB for it, and hope that sovles some of the issues. I've yet to do anything regarding getting the internal glasswork ready either, ah, time is short....
That reminds me this Wednesday is special to Steph and I, it's the shortest day of the year, so it means it only gets better from then on....(and of course, happy birthday to Sophie (if I remember correctly)).
Well that basically fills in all the blanks....
Till next time (hopefully this weekend if something exciting (like baby rabbits) happens).
We've sent another two lambs off the the big freezer in the sky, and we should be getting them back on Wednesday, along with the hides. Oh, I finished tanning Winston, and he made quite a nice rug, and I also tanned the lamb we used for suasages, the leather came out really even, but not quite supple enough, maybe I didn't use enough leather lube. The only downside with the tanning method at the moment is that it uses chrominum as it's main thing, and it stains the fleece slightly blue, the next hide I'm going to try washing/soaking in sulphuric acid for a day to try and remove the chrome color.
Hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday Snowwhite and Hollywood will have babies, during the weekend I made two nesting boxes out of plywood and now it's just a case of seeing if they drop!
Hm, what else...we've moved the goats onto a neighbours paddock as it's hiller and dryer, which is better for their feet. Hopefully they'll do well over there, and we're going to move the rest of the lambs overthere next weekend, we need to get a little bit more weight on them before we move them on permanantly, and Jenny (our nieghbour) where they have been grazing has finally sold and has 4 weeks.
On the tank front, the Co2 controller has some hardware issues, and I need to rebuild it. I'm going to design a PCB for it, and hope that sovles some of the issues. I've yet to do anything regarding getting the internal glasswork ready either, ah, time is short....
That reminds me this Wednesday is special to Steph and I, it's the shortest day of the year, so it means it only gets better from then on....(and of course, happy birthday to Sophie (if I remember correctly)).
Well that basically fills in all the blanks....
Till next time (hopefully this weekend if something exciting (like baby rabbits) happens).
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Hopefully normal bloggin resumes next week
For the last few weeks I've been without the projector, hence unable to use the computer in the lounge (and thus blogging has been erratic).
There isn't much to report at the moment, I've finished tanning Winston, and his rug is now in the lounge, and I have a strip for a wrist support at work. Steph's rabbit is currently being tanned. All the animals are fine and dandy. For those who haven't heard, I'm headeding back to the UK next month(ish). Other than that, there isn't much real news.
Hopefully next week I get the projector, so things should continue as before with weekly blogs and photos.
There isn't much to report at the moment, I've finished tanning Winston, and his rug is now in the lounge, and I have a strip for a wrist support at work. Steph's rabbit is currently being tanned. All the animals are fine and dandy. For those who haven't heard, I'm headeding back to the UK next month(ish). Other than that, there isn't much real news.
Hopefully next week I get the projector, so things should continue as before with weekly blogs and photos.
Monday, May 15, 2006
The last week
Well, after the last 6 days, I'm completely knackered, what with some nasty dentistry on Tuesday, Wednesday off due to pain, Mum's graduation on Thursday, Friday was reasonably relaxed, Saturday we drove to Hawkes Bay for Mothers Day, and then driving back to Littlebush on Sunday. And to top it off, last night we had torrental rain, and we were up arund 1am with the noise (and this morning my jaw still hurts!). Grump Grump
Later on when I get the photos organised, I'll upload a few of the graduation, and Colin going for a flight in a Tiger Moth.
Must get on with work...
Till later.
Later on when I get the photos organised, I'll upload a few of the graduation, and Colin going for a flight in a Tiger Moth.
Must get on with work...
Till later.
Monday, May 08, 2006
No Photos this week
Once more a reasonable good weekend, Saturday was spent clearing the drive of leaves etc, and Steph hemmed the new curtains as they were a bit on the long side. Other than that, I can't really remember what else we did! The only other thing I can think of is that we did a bit of spraying with the new boom I made (and it worked), and I finished of the CO2 solenoid controller microcomputer I've been making (and it worked).
Sunday (being a bit more recent), I can remember what we did a bit better, we started off the morning cleaning Monty's backend as he was quite daggy, and then we caught the sheep which we're having on Saturday for dinner. Whilst Steph was out taking the lamb to the meat works, I did the house work, and played around getting the CO2 bubbles to the correct rate.
Once Steph came home, and we had cleaned the trailer, we realised that we had a big 4x4 and a muddy paddock that I was soon to till over and resow. After a few minutes of doing donuts and basically making a real mess (I managed a 720 degree donut in the safari whilst it was in 4wd mode!). I'm not looking forward to cleaning it though. Later in the day I took Winston's hide out of the bucket of tanning solution, and gave it a good wash and pegged it out to dry, this was made much easier with a compressed air nail gun... Meanwhile Steph was hemming the last curtain. Then to round the evening off we watched the orginal KingKong until the projector died.
Once it comes back, I'll post some photos..
Sunday (being a bit more recent), I can remember what we did a bit better, we started off the morning cleaning Monty's backend as he was quite daggy, and then we caught the sheep which we're having on Saturday for dinner. Whilst Steph was out taking the lamb to the meat works, I did the house work, and played around getting the CO2 bubbles to the correct rate.
Once Steph came home, and we had cleaned the trailer, we realised that we had a big 4x4 and a muddy paddock that I was soon to till over and resow. After a few minutes of doing donuts and basically making a real mess (I managed a 720 degree donut in the safari whilst it was in 4wd mode!). I'm not looking forward to cleaning it though. Later in the day I took Winston's hide out of the bucket of tanning solution, and gave it a good wash and pegged it out to dry, this was made much easier with a compressed air nail gun... Meanwhile Steph was hemming the last curtain. Then to round the evening off we watched the orginal KingKong until the projector died.
Once it comes back, I'll post some photos..
Thursday, May 04, 2006
The weekend
A little bit late, but such is life. Since it was quite a while ago, here are the highlights. On Sunday we started trying to till the last two paddocks, but whilst we were doing that, we noted that there was grass coming back through already - which was hindering the tilling. So on Sunday we borrowed our neighbours 100L sprayer and using a wand sprayer sprayed out best we could, in addition to this I've also been building a boom attachment for the trailer so we can do the next paddock much easier. On Saturday we brought the fish tank stand up from the shed and put the tank back on it, now just for the sides and the internal features and we can start filling it.
On Friday I collected the sausages from the butcher, and we got about 480 sausages, as you can see, it's a fair few.
On Monday (our wedding anniversary), we went to Palmerston North and spent a pleasant day there, followed up by a nice meal in Martinborough.
Other things that happened was I managed to finally get my CO2 bottle for the fish tank, now to make a quick CO2 contrller until the eQuarium is ready.
On Friday I collected the sausages from the butcher, and we got about 480 sausages, as you can see, it's a fair few.
On Monday (our wedding anniversary), we went to Palmerston North and spent a pleasant day there, followed up by a nice meal in Martinborough.
Other things that happened was I managed to finally get my CO2 bottle for the fish tank, now to make a quick CO2 contrller until the eQuarium is ready.
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