An Ordinary Weekend

We loaded three of our young cows onto the trailer and brought them to this new paddock on Sunday morning. (No pics of the loading or the trailer ride.. way too preoccupied with our task at hand to pause for a photo shoot.)
They loaded easily even though none of them had been onto the trailer before. Treated with kindness from the very beginning of their lives with us, they have no reason to doubt or not to trust us.  Bubble and Lavender are both young heifers and possibly will be kept for future breeders to add to our small herd or they will be sold to a breeder or possibly they will be grown on for meat. Klaus, the young steer went with them to the new paddock. He will be butchered here on our farm in October when he is twelve months old.

One of the fences looked a bit flimsy so we put a temporary electric fence along that side. Anything that could touch the hot wire had to be cleared out of the way so it doesn't short out. The hot wire is powered by a small portable solar unit and is worth its weight in gold.

Because we both work during the week days, weekends are jam packed with the endless tasks that need doing around the farm. Morning tea is a tradition that we must have on weekends. Home made biscuits of course.

I picked the last of the pumpkins from the vines we planted back in September last year. The vines need to die off before picking the pumpkins. This is when they have matured and grown to their fullest. Try to snip them off the vine to retain the stalk so they will keep longer. If stored in an airy place they will keep for ages. This lot will supply us for the entire year ahead.

Soon the chooks (chickens) will be allowed access into the fenced off area where we grew our summer vegetables. Our Summer patch has 50% shade cloth covering the whole area which stops scorching and drying out in the hottest summer conditions that we have here. This protection from the elements  is also probably why the tomatoes are still ripening.
 I needed to transplant some rhubarb plants from the Summer patch into another garden so there was a rhubarb and apple pie that required making from all the stems I had to cut off.

The apple trees were pruned. Brian is the master pruner, while I'm the laborer who picks up the leftovers.

The last of the tomatoes are going into the pot with apples, onions, garlic, vinegar and spices for a few more bottles of traditional Barossa Tomato Sauce. Every self respecting Barossa cook makes at least one batch of Tomato Sauce during summer. It's just a bit disconcerting (and tiresome) to still be making it during winter!
A batch of soft cheese (Quark) is draining in the background.

Last of the daily chores is milking Daisy and feeding the bobby calves. The single stand portable milking unit makes life much easier.
Aahh... must be time for a glass of red. Cheers!