Hello and welcome back to Jembella.
It's been awhile since I was here, and lots has happened, but it's the same old story...
"I'll write about today's doings after dinner tonight" she says, "it will be relaxing" she says.
However... the reality is, the late afternoon chores, dinner to prep, a glass of wine before dinner, the cleaning up afterwards, some more finishing off from the activity of the day (usually), customers calling in to pick up their orders, falling onto the sofa with a book or occasionally a particularly good TV program, shower, bed, sleep!
How to cover the past month? I think a pictorial journal will do the job, but it's going to be long, so I'll break it into two (or more) volumes.
The sheep were brought back to our home block for shearing, and I was reunited with my babies who are all now quite grown up and behaving like proper sheep. At the sound of my voice, each one wandered over to check me out, gave me a nudge, a sniff and enjoyed a chin scratch, but their attention spans were short and soon they wandered off to more important things, such as eating the fresh green grass and sniffing the bums of the sheep they hadn't seen for awhile.
The Barossa Pony Club celebrated its fiftieth year so, as one of the original members in 1967, I was invited to attend the luncheon celebrations. It was amazing to catch up with these folks again. One of them I would never have recognized, but the others are all still just the same, but fifty years older.
The October bee-keeping workshop was well attended and much enjoyed, by us all.
The next generation of bee keepers, gives us great hope for the future of honey bees.
Ilona showed great skill at de-capping, one of the most difficult aspects of extracting honey from the frames.
We got away to the beach for two nights to celebrate my birthday. It was our first time away in our (new to us) second hand Avan... a 'shake down' trip to give me the skills to set off alone on a road trip to Victoria the following week.
Anyone with a farm will understand the level of planning and preparation that was necessary for us to both get away at the same time.
Lavender's calf is due in mid December, so she needed to be dried off in October. A cow needs eight weeks to refresh her udder and give her body a break, in readiness for the next year of milk production.
I kept a close watch on her udder ad monitored her behavior, always fearful of the occurrence of mastitis, but it all went smoothly and she dried off with no problems.
OK that's enough for now because today my attention span is a bit like the lamb's!!
I haven't planted my pumpkins yet, so that is what calls me outside now.
Cheers and see you again soon.
Lovely to catch up with all the happenings on the farm. We understand if your blog posts lag, it must be such a busy life.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cheryl, I knew you'd understand how busy life can become.
DeleteHow wonderful to have future beekeepers coming along, Sally. Honeybees need that kind of hope! Lovely to see your photos of your farm life. Meg:)
ReplyDeleteThat young chap was 9 yrs old Meg and SO keen, as is his Dad. What a wonderful partnership they are.
DeleteI've never enjoyed traveling myself, but other's love it - so if it's what you like doing, it's nice to be able to get away. Cute little van to do it in. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the colour of your cows. What breed are they? They look a bit Jersey and a bit Brahman.
A part of me wishes I didn't feel the need to travel to keep my sanity, but the other part feeds off the challenges thrown up by stretching my capabilities. You were partly correct Chris, the cows are Jersey X Murray Grey.
DeleteIs that wisteria in your first photo? I planted one last year and was so close to pulling it a few weeks back because I thought it was dead. It came into leaf after our recent rains.
ReplyDeleteI hope everything goes well with Lavender's pregnancy.
Sherri, it is indeed wisteria that we planted approx 12 years ago. It's beautiful isn't it? but for part of the year it looks dead. This will be Lavender's third calf, and fortunately she has always birthed with no problems.
Deleteit was great to read the catch up, your farm is looking so lush!
ReplyDeleteawesome to have young bee keepers to take over from the rest; i'm seriously thinking about a hive but want to try that hive where you can take the honey straight from it (it has a handle) they are expensive, so it's why i haven't yet.
hope Lavender goes okay with her calving too.
it was great to see you again
thanx for sharing
Selina we are enjoying the last bits of green lushness but our summers are dry (unlike yours in the North) and our paddocks will be brown before much longer.
DeleteThanks for the catchup, Sally. As usual you have been very busy but I was pleased that you got away for a break.
ReplyDeleteThe break away from the farm together was lovely Chel, and my longer break in the next post, was even better.
DeleteThe blog are the best that is extremely useful to keep.
ReplyDeleteI can share the ideas of the future as this is really what I was looking for,
I am very comfortable and pleased to come here. Thank you very much!
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