winter solstice

22.6.25

 

We are preparing to host a family midwinter feast to celebrate the passing of the year’s longest night. It should be this weekend but Al is still at a conference over seas and will not be back till next week. This has worked out for the best because Edd and I have been struggling with a virus that has slowed us down.

 

Progress has been made. Edd has got a good water flow to our house by gravity and has almost finished installing a new pump which will service us and the donga.  We have a couple who are moving into the donga when the house they are renting is sold. It is impossible to find affordable places to rent in this area. Mostly people use the unoccupied places for air B and B, which is more profitable.

 

There has been very little rain and the wild life have encroached ever closer. Our neighbours have no stock, but a herd of Kangaroos graze there and no grass has been able to grow. Something got into the bed with the broad beans I planted, and I am not sure if any will survive. We have never had to cope with this level of attack before. I now have to keep all my vegetables under nets so that there is something left for our meals.

 

One positive is that Merlin, the new buck has recovered and is now back with his two does.  He was really fading, but with extra care he has fully recovered.  We also have the hafflinger, Wally back. He has been living with Indi and doing a useful job keeping the grass down around the house she rents.  Now there is no grass, and at 26 years old he needs extra feed. Hay is now very expensive and hard to get as no-one has enough. If we are lucky, we might just manage. We are so grateful for the barley we get from the brewery.  The sheep eat a lot everyday so keep them from starving and we use it with lucerne chaff and oats for the goats.

  

odd weather

 23.5.2025

 

He weather is definitely odd.  At the start of the week, we had nights when it dropped to minus five degrees C, which is the coldest we have every experienced here. The NSW coat has horrific floods with cows swept out to see and 50,000 people on evacuation alerts. Several people have died and there has been huge efforts to rescue people off their house roofs. 

 

SA and Vic have still areas where drought is the problem.  On a more personal level things keep breaking here.  Last night the pump we use for house water broke down and the gravity flow failed as well. The new buck suddenly stopped eating and looked very ill. Maybe the sudden weather change got to him.  We now have him shut in a sheltered pen away from his companion does so that he does not have to compete for food. He is still up and eating hay which is a good sign.

 

Edd has spent the week trying to fix things. He has replaced the headlight on my car that was broken by the deer and has got someone here to replace the windscreen. I could now drive in the car which is a big relief. Now Edd is trying to tackle the water supply.

 

The second Persian sheep had her lamb last night. The NSW storms are heading our way so I put her in the shed with the other sheep with lambs. Once the latest lamb is a bit stronger, I can move these sheep onto the old drive where there is still a little grass left.  Luckily, they follow me if I have a bucket of food. At least they usually do.

 

The new chooks are laying but we have terrible problems with wombats who refuse to let a little thing like a fence stop them. They bulldoze holes under and through into the cook pens every night so we need to check and block up holes every morning before we let the chooks out.