Wandering through August and September

 

In August, as we loomed closer towards lambing the second mob of merino ewes, and weaning the two six month old calves, it was becoming more apparent that we wouldn't get our week at the beach in the caravan. 

The previous three weeks had been wet, not complaining about that, but definitely was not conducive to a relaxing time at the beach wrangling two wet dogs in a teeny tiny Avan.  Then the weather cleared, we made plans to go, and the entire state of SA went into a week of lock-down. Thanks Covid.

When the lock-down was over our ewes had begun lambing and when Brian suggested I should go away for a few days on my own, (was my cabin fever showing?) I jumped at the opportunity.

A pet friendly Air-BnB cottage at the beach on the Yorke Peninsula was hastily booked, a few supplies loaded into the car, and the following day Meg and I hit the road.

Four days with my best four-legged mate. We walked and explored, I slept and read a lot, ate meals at odd times, and generally had a complete shut off from the busyness of farm life. 

 Mid August, calves weaned and a return to milking Honeysuckle and Poppy twice daily.  I didn't realise how much milk those big calves were consuming each day. 

On the evening of weaning day I milked seventeen litres from Honeysuckle. The following morning I milked eighteen litres. So her foster calf was drinking more than thirty litres of milk each day!  Aha, that would be why he was growing so big and fat.

Poppy also milked more than I realised, with fifteen litres per day over two milkings.  

What could I do with more than forty litres of milk every day?

Welcome to Lucy, the Angus cross calf purchased at three days old from our dairying friends.

She is the fourth foster calf for Honeysuckle during this lactation since her own calf was born in June last year (2020). Her milk just keeps coming. 

She isn't due to have another calf until mid next year (2022) if her latest attempt at AI (artificial insemination) is successful.   Her body condition is good, she enjoys babies, so it's the logical solution to grow another calf. 

Using the electric separator to take the cream from the milk.

Making this much butter every day.

 

A year's supply of butter. This is only one of the freezers.

But still there's too much milk so..........

We ordered another calf, and came home with these two.

 

Quarantined from Lucy and the other cows until their poos are a solid consistency and any signs of bacterial infections are ruled out.

And separated from each other at feeding time because Bambi (foreground) is a guts, gulping his milk quickly and then butting Blackie away from his. 

 

 

 

September and bee season is upon us again.  The weather has been cool, with just one day last week warm enough to begin harvesting honey. 

Lambs are dropping. There are lots of twins and this blurry photo is of Meri, one of  the rescued lambs from last year.  I didn't want to get close and upset her.

The hens are laying more than we can deal with so the incubator is full. 

There will be chicken meat for the freezer and replacement laying hens.

 

The days are flying by too fast.  When the sun goes down and all the chores are done, this is where I'll be. 

The granny square rug is almost finished and there's a lovely silver grey sheep fleece ready for spinning.

 

Thanks for dropping in, I hope you're finding some joy in your days despite what's going on out there in the world.  I'll be staying safe in my bubble for awhile to come. 

Cheers for now, Sally XX

 

 

Let's Do This

 

It's been awhile since I wrote. The format on Blogger has changed, so I'm negotiating my way around this with my very limited computer knowledge. But challenges are good for us, so they say.

Hello again, after a whole year of no writing it's time to get back here. Well... actually the prompting from well meaning friends is giving me the impetus to push through this pain barrier.

Laptop on the kitchen table, the wood stove is cooking a leg of lamb from the sheep processing we did last week, and our state is going into lock-down again this evening.

There's no excuse that I don't have time to write.

Let's do this.

In briefly re-capping our year, I'll do a story with photos.

On Christmas Eve,  our neighbor started a fire with his angle grinder which quickly enveloped a large portion of our grazing paddocks. 

I ran up that hill from our house to move cattle out while Brian joined the throng of CFS trucks, water bomber planes and volunteer farm fire fighters who appeared out of nowhere.

The flames were right behind me as I moved the cows and a four hours old calf to safety.

After the flames were out we stayed awake all night, on watch, comforted by the flashing lights of CFS trucks full of volunteers working through the night. 

They gave up their Christmas Eve to help us and the many other landowners who were affected.

The following day, Christmas Day, we had a very ill cow that required all of our attention and prayers. 

A wonderful friend who is a vet came to our aid, and neighboring dairy friends supplied us with the medications required to treat her.  

She was up and moving about, feeding her calf again by nightfall.

We had lost half of our grazing land, most of our fences, but there was much to be grateful about. 

We didn't get a Christmas but we had a fridge full of Christmas food that sustained us in the following days of recovery, along with the many offers of help and condolences from community and friends far and wide.

The property where the fire began had been sold, the old owners were about to move out.                   The new owners came to our aid, allowing us to lease a section of their land adjoining our property.     A life saver. Somewhere to put the cows. Another blessing.

 

I was feeding out hay to them in the wheelbarrow, six barrows a day and a distance of roughly five hundred metres across to the leased paddock. 

We had talked about getting a small side by side with a tray on the back, for those times I need to get up the hill in a hurry and to cart hay and firewood, do paddock work etc. 

Brian saw this for sale on Gumtree and we snapped it up.

All the summer things; 

Beekeeper teaching and consulting.

Harvesting fruit and preserving.

 

 

 

Crushing grain for chickens and livestock in the grain crusher that he found in a friend's paddock. 

It's older than me and took many hours of restoration, but it works beautifully.

Eight days post knee-replacement surgery in April.

I stayed in a hotel in the City while he was in hospital. I'd been looking forward to a break away from the farm but was itching to get back after three nights.

His recovery has been good with very little pain, and was back at work after ten weeks.

It was an excellent breeding season from September until April, with almost eighty chicks hatched to these Pekin hens. I sold most of the new hens when they were big enough to leave their mums. 

In late April this hen disappeared and returned three weeks later with a dozen chicks.

In late April, one week after Brian's return from hospital, I leaned into the bottom of the cow's feed bin and broke a rib.  Rest for six to eight weeks they all said!

I was the one caring for Brian and running the farm during his absence from heavy work, so it was inconvenient but together we got through it, in our tag team kind of way, and a bit of occasional help from family.  

I was forced to adjust the way I work here, learning to take things at a slower pace, and moving my chores around to suit me. 

I learned to crochet, thanks to dear patient Inge, and Utube.... and discovered a new meditative calm in my days.

Wherever you are I hope you're finding your way to calm in these strange times. 

Thanks for visiting here, and now that I seem to have almost got this sorted out, I promise to see you again soon. 

Leaving you with a drawing from my current favourite illustrator Charlie Mackesy.