Lambs out number babies

Top L Ti and baby rest Waynes daughter

7.31.19

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

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

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

At the week end we visited our latest great grandchild.  She was born on the 21^stand looks healthy, though she was asleep most of the time we were there.  Ti seems a very attentive Dad even though he is so young.  His mother in law and brothers in law are all staying with him to help.  Ti’s mother has very kindly let them all stay in her house for a month so at present they are all very comfortable.  Alvyn designed and built the house many years ago and it was odd going in it again after so long.  It was all very familiar, even Beth’s piano was just where she left it.

Our other great grandchild is off with Indi on her first holiday visiting a friend in Darwin. We will miss Indi. She often has a walk in the early morning with the baby and calls in to join us at breakfast time.  We will have to visit Wayne’s new daughter next.  They all grow so quickly that they change every week and it is easy to miss a stage.

More new arrivals

Flowers in my sun room jungle.

7.21.19

Apparently, we have a new great Granddaughter.  Bo has just rung me to pass on the news that Ti’s daughter was born in the night. I have not seen any pictures yet, so I have little to add but it is early days. This makes Al a grandfather for the second time and I suppose Pip is a step grandmother only a year after becoming a mother. The generations are getting very muddled.

We have also had a shower of new arrivals in the form of lambs that are arriving at the date they most often arrive (ie. during the tour de France).  There are now 7 lambs counting the one we are hand rearing in the shed who’s mother died.  We are letting the sheep graze the house site to give them fresh grass.  It is a bit of a nuisance doing this because it means opening and shutting gates every time we drive off. We also have to move the sheep out before dark so the dogs can have their run without scaring them.

The weather is varied. Yesterday it was warm and sunny, but we have big winds overnight and it is colder and over cast today.  The daffodils are in flower as is the native wisteria and rosemary.  The red-hot pokers are the brightest flower and the arum lilies are sprouting up. I can not remember if this is the usual time.  I do know that the potato plants are still growing well which means there have not yet been any significant frosts.  We still have lots of lettuce, turnips, silver beat and pumpkins to eat and we have had the broccoli that the sheep could not reach.

I am hoping Edd will get time to fix the garden fence soon so that the area is protected.  The first job, though, is to sort out the small donga. It has been used as a store room since Josh moved out but we now need it as an extra bedroom for when the permaculture group stays. Yesterday I sorted out and washed the good clothes that people have left there and put all Josh’s stuff into a box.  I am not sure why but there are rolls of barbed wire and other odd stuff that needs moving.  Edd is going to rearrange the fencing so that it can be reached without going through the chook paddock.

I finished the baby knitting yesterday, and now I really must sort out the accounts.  With jobs I hate I force myself to do at least one small bit a day so that eventually things get done. So, I had better leave off this now and make a start.

getting to know the rats in Brisbane

17.7.19

It is totally miserable weather. Rain overcast grey skies and lots of mud.  We have just got home from our visit to Josh in Brisbane where it is warm and sunny, I can see why so many retired people move to Queensland.  Josh and Bobbie met us at the airport and were perfect hosts. We stayed in a hotel just down the road from their apartment and went out every with them every day.

 I got to know the 7 rats by name and learnt about their different characters. Josh has amazing plant growing systems under led lights.  He has one system that can reproduce the light conditions anywhere on the globe.  He could even mimic a thunder storm (though it drove Bobbie mad.)  The rats tend to get sick, so they keep their living room at 25 degrees. They have a kitchen in one corner and a bed in the other. The apartment has other rooms, but they have no air conditioning so get unbearably hot in summer, so Josh has set up one for plants and they seem to be doing OK.

With all the different life forms space in the apartment was at a premium so most days we went off and did things outside.    We had a ferry ride up the river and went to a great market where we brought hats and cheese and we had a beach walk on Bribie Island where we saw thousands of small crabs appear out of holes in the sand and swarm towards the water.   Edd decided we should celebrate Bastille day, so we went down towards Surfers and had a picnic on a warm beach with French cheese and wine. 

On Sunday evening Bobbie had booked us into a water side, sea food restaurant. We sat on the veranda where the views were spectacular. Edd and I shared a lobster.  I have been wanting to eat lobster for years and this seemed the ideal occasion.  Actually, we ate out every night and worked our way through every style of food we could fit in, which was great fun. 

 Bobbie had to go to work on Monday, but Josh drove us up the mountain and we walked down a gully track and saw massive stag and elkhorn ferns growing on the trees. There were also orchids, but they were not in flower. The forest was surprisingly dry, but the canopy of trees cut down the light, so the ferns looked healthy.  The plants growing around Brisbane are beautiful and I could learn a lot of tips that would be useful in my indoor garden by seeing things in a natural environment. At the far side of the mountain the farming land looked very dry but the cattle we saw were in good condition.  

Bo had been milking the goats and doing the farm work whilst we were away. Unfortunately, the sheep out foxed her and had daily raiding forays into the garden and shed.  They have trimmed plants and eaten the broccoli and rocket, but they also mowed all the grass.  It needed doing and it is far too wet to mow. They have made a bit of a mess on the driveways too. Edd’s first job after driving back from the airport was to find the sheep and put them back into their paddock. I had to leap up at breakfast time and herd them back in through the lowest garden gate that they had worked out how to open. 

Babies

great grand child and grand child

Feasting with babies

9.7.19

We had our midwinter feast on Saturday. It was actually very warm and sunny, so it did not have much of a midwinter feel until it got dark and even then, the family complained the house was too hot.  We cut down a mistletoe clump from one of the gum trees and I added fake pearls to substitute for the missing berries.  I think Sylkie was the only person who noticed, she shot off really fast when she saw what she was sat under. Maybe no one else fancied kissing.

This year I brought a nine-kilo turkey. It took hours to cook but we put it in the wood oven, so it did not dry out. I say we, because I discovered it was too heavy for me to lift and I had to get Edd’s help to manoeuvre the thing.   Bo came on Friday and helped me with preparations. I am not sure if I could have done it all with out her help.   We had invited about thirty people but in the end only twenty came so there was no worry about having too little food. Danni arrived with several sumptuous deserts and Bo had entrée savouries and Al a salad. I had cooked the pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes.   It really made a very good feast and people ate heaps.

Al and Pele and Wayne and his family all stayed the night.  Edd cooked everyone a full English style breakfast so the party continued until nearly lunch on Sunday.   Ben was away looking after the olive trees, so Indi and baby Alice came down again to join us. It is the first time we have had all the younger family members together. Indigo’s Baby A and Wayne’s baby M are both eight weeks old and found all the people a bit stressful but Ella and Al’s son, baby P are starting to really play around the place.  Al’s son is now walking all the time and Ella is a very mature 4-year-old. She is getting too heavy for Sylkie to carry even though Sylkie herself has shot up in height.  Ti’s baby is due in about two weeks, but I think that is the end of this increase session. We will need a collective noun for babies.

Other babies have also started to arrive. The first lamb was born on the day the tour de France started and last night a second lamb was born but then abandoned. I have given it colostrum saved from the goats and left it in a small area with mum, but she does not look right, and I have little hope she will take to mothering.   She is about the oldest ewe so it maybe too much for her. 

This is not at all convenient because we have flights booked in two days’ time to take us to Brisbane for a visit to our youngest son, Josh.  Bo is going to look after the farm, and I had tried to get the work load as low as possible.  Feeding an orphan lamb adds considerably to the load.  It is also too short a time interval to offer the lamb for sale.  At least there is plenty of goats’ milk to feed it on.