Post in for the stock yards

permaculture AGM, school camp and a wwoofer

ctober 28 2014

We have been so busy. First we had a wwoofer for two weeks who helped us cut all the daggy wool off the sheep’s rears and worm them. Then last weekend we had the AGM meeting for the local permaculture group here on Sunday. We lit the big pizza oven and everyone helped roll, prepare and bake pizzas at the same time as office bearers were elected. This left us with plenty of time for a house tour and a party.

I was getting very hot cooking and was very relieved when my Grand son turned up and took over. He came with Al and when everyone had left the men finished digging the holes for the yard poles and got them all in position. We have waited months to borrow the digger from our neighbour, who is also flat out building, so we were thrilled to get this work done before the it had to go home.

The next day the Montessori school arrived for their camp. Unfortunately a massive storm struck just as the big bus arrived but it was pretty easy to unload everything into the big poly house and stay dry until the storm passed. We really got off very lightly. In Melbourne lightening burnt one house down and shorted out the power for much of the transport system. Trains did not run and lights did not work which caused significant delays and problems.

Today the camp kids have divided up into groups for various construction activities. We have one group helping Edd with the yard rails, One group painting the pergola in the ruins, one group building board walks to get the goats to and from the milking shed with dry feet and another group repairing the top chook pen and sorting out where and how to make a shed.

In the afternoon the kids are doing science projects. I have one group who have designed an experiment to discover the optimum temperature to split milk into curds and whey for cream cheese. I have given another group recycled take away containers to collect scats and I think we have a group looking at the state of various water sources. I am not sure about the rest but everyone is very busy.

Some boys have brought rods to try and catch gold fish in the big dam. My gold fish-feeding plot took an unexpected turn. I managed to get a group of large fish to come each day to be fed but our activities were noticed by a heron. The heron turned up at the dam each day and my gold fish disappeared. I know that the reason for feeding them was to trap them and get rid of them but now that the heron has got them I am actually sad because I became quite fond of them!

October 16 2014

Spring is up to the usual tricks. One day it is 30 degrees and all the seedlings are struggling and two days later we are bringing the seedlings into the sunroom at night because the temperature is dropping towards zero! The records seem to show less rainfall than average but we are getting enough to keep the ground damp and our tanks are full. The young trees we have planted are doing well at this stage. It seems that one of the sugar maples that I planted by the front gate is really a gingko tree. Oh well, I tried.

The last goat, Erin, has kidded and we have sold over half of the other kids. This year none of them went for meat. This is good but we do worry about whether they will be properly cared for. Goats have a reputation as hardy creatures that eat anything but this is not true and in a confined area they die if they are not given the right food shelter and care.

We have selected four kids to rear on as herd replacement and six to rear to sell, all but one male. With the kids gone we have lots of milk and I am back into full cheese production. We have had a Japanese girl staying for the last two weeks who has helped me get the kids and goats into a routine. She also helped us catch all the sheep so that they could be drenched, crutched and marked. They had got very dirty with all the spring grass but they look much better now and they are all fat.

Everything is at full steam at this time of year. Edd has a seed-raising project on the table outside our front door, (above sheep height) and has already got pumpkins and zucchini ready for planting. The tomatoes, snow peas and broad beans have flowers on and we are eating the cauliflowers, broccoli, and swedes.

Birds with attitude and birthdays

Note the horrid spurs!

Birthday girls in the ruins

October 2 2014

Yesterday my youngest grand daughter had her sixth birthday and her mum. Bo, invited all the girls in her school class to a party. The only venue large enough was the poly house, but my grand daughter was a flower girl there when Al got married and she was very keen to have a party a bit the same.

Once again the straw bales got arranged into chairs and tables but this time pink helium balloons on long strings were allowed to float up as high as possible and could be pulled down when needed. The weather was dry and mild so most of the time a herd of small children ran in circles around the farm. The goat kids were a big attraction, but the sheep took one look at the balloon-bearing hoard running at them and took flight led by Zulu Warrior. He obviously decided he was no match for what was coming!

I was very glad that the sheep had chased off the peewits. I had discovered that these birds are really called spur-winged plovers because they have large yellow spurs on their wings! Some people think the spurs are poisonous but the Internet says this is just a myth. Even so, having these birds mount swooping attacks on anyone going out of or coming into the house is not much fun.  The Internet recommended wearing a hat and protective glasses but I look enough of an idiot already without doing that!

Bo made a three-tier cake to go with the wedding theme, and some of the girls dressed as brides or flower girls. Playing at weddings, though, was obviously not as much fun exploring the farm at speed. At least everyone would have gone home well exercised. I was anyway.