Great Weather for Ducks

Or duck-ish things ...

Last month we took delivery of a trio of geese. With any luck we have two females and a male. I probably won't know until someone starts sitting.

Back in Dubbo we had a pair of geese that couldn't find their feet if you painted them pink. They didn't even know there was a second dam for two weeks until the day they followed some ducks over the whole five metres separating the two dams. They were named Burke and Wills, as they were terrible explorers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Wills_expedition

These guys are much more efficient and have checked their area out thoroughly. They therefore get to be named after much more successful explorers. Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth are credited with finding a path over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to the inland plains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1813_crossing_of_the_Blue_Mountains

Left to right : Lawson, Blaxland & Wentworth

There's been widespread flooding up and down the east coast of Australia, including Tasmania. There are blocked roads, washed out bridges and evacuations. With a 100m drop between the houses and the nearest river (the Brid River on the bottom boundary of the ex-plantation) we are unlikely to flood.

Easterly winds blow the rain straight into all the sheds and shelters, as they are designed to provide shelter from the prevailing westerlies. This means that alot more is wet and soggy than in normal rain events, but thankfully the animals have all come through ok. We even had a little ewe lamb born in the middle of it.

Trina took some photos from her back porch of the river.

From Forest to Pasture

When we purchased this farm 78 acres of the 100 acres total was under bluegum plantation. The lease had another five years to run, so we didn't make too many plans for that area. In a suprise move the plantation owners had to wind up the company and part of that process was to harvest all the trees.

So, in February this year the harvest started and we are now in the process of turning the land back to pasture. It will take a few posts to show what is going on, today is the "before" pictures.

This is the extent of the land we're dealing with. The plantation area is edged in green, and for comparison the area we have to use at the moment is edged in blue. The red arrow points to my house, for a sense of perspective. If you click on the image you can make it bigger.

A couple of google "street view" shots from down the Sledge Track, the middle one shows some of our current pasture on the left. We have a new boundary fence since then ...

These two shots show the plantation from our main gate right before the harvest started. You can see how dry it was this summer.

Nothing Sweeter Than Honey

I'd like to introduce O X & I.

A friend sent me an ad for beehives for sale and it seemed like a good deal, so I bought three. Six boxes high (two brood, two full of honey for winter food for the bees, and two for expansion in spring). We picked them up from over at Shearwater (near Devonport) and they were stopped up nice and tight for transport thankfully !

Arriving after dark we positioned them quietly on brick plinths and were just getting the third one level when we heard an agitated buzzing coming from the first hive ... one of the kittens had pulled on the cloth that was stopping the entrance and had managed to open one end ! Luckily a quick restuffing served to head off disaster and the three hives were unstopped just on dawn so that they didn't come out in the dark and get lost.

They are in the greenhouse, where they will be protected from the wind and kept a bit warmer in winter. I've removed some panels from the back section of the greenhouse so they can come and go freely. The markings on the front (O, X & I) are a nod to the theory that they might need a little extra help at first to pick which hive is theirs as they return.

Over winter I need to get a bee suit, smoker and hive tool for my own use. I also need to set up a couple of extra boxes and frames so that there are spare parts for any breakages.

Hopefully the bees will enjoy the orchard, vege garden, flower garden and 1,000 melaleuca and blackwood trees that have just been planted (well, a few years from now when they flower anyway) and help make sure everything is pollinated well. And a little honey to share with us would be great too !

On the windy days we've had lately they have stayed inside and all is silent. As soon as there is still warm weather they are out and about, exploring and cleaning. It's reassuring to see movement after days of silent hives.

This is Roger Wilson and I checking the on the bees, the hives seem to be healthy and active. They also seem to be relatively calm as the kittens were chasing bees down at floor level and we were opening boxes up top and no-one got cranky and no-one got stung.

Red Dirt Musings

The red soil of Scottsdale is amazingly productive. Drawn from basalt rock, you can grow just about anything in it. On white animals like sheep, chooks and maremma dogs it produces an orange stain jokingly called "scottsdale rust". It does make gardening a real pleasure.

One surprise was that the old cherry tree down by the loafing shed fruited this year. I was waiting for the cherries to ripen and was losing hope when a friend told me they were white cherries and this colour was as red as they were going to get. By this point the birds had been much smarter than me and there was only a couple of kilos left, but it was a nice bonus.

I planted ten varieties of potatoes this year. A commercial potato area, the red soil is ideal. I lost alot of spuds when the soil washed away from the roots of the potato plants, allowing the top layer of spuds to turn green. Next time I will make sure to re-mound. I still managed to harvest about 40kg of  a large variety of spuds.

Sapphire, red rascal, pink fir apple, kennebec, dutch cream, kipfler, royal blue, red royale, pentland dell & burgundy blush.

Added to the range this year should be moonlight, sebago, russian banana, purple congo, russet burbank and up-to-date.

Plenty of fish in the river down at the bottom of the farm, a previous catch was a blackfish, this one is a trout.

Prepping the garden now for winter veges, adding mulch in the form of waste hay and manure from the dairy.  I'll be forming the beds up with wooden edges over the next few seasons as the weeds are just as keen to grow as the veges are.

 

No Such Thing as Free Kittens

One afternoon I was working my way through the sheds looking for a hen that had gone to ground on a clutch of eggs. Standing in the middle of the hayshed I was scanning for crevices among the hay which might shelter a hen when I heard squeaking ... It was so unexpected that it took me a few minutes to realise it was ... kittens !!

Tucked at the back of some bales was a litter of four kittens, with their mother dead nearby. We suspect a snake bite or bait. A quick health check at the vet and we were the proud guardians of four 5 week old squeakers who have to be the luckiest kittens alive. If that chook hadn't hidden her clutch I wouldn't have been down to the hayshed for a month or more ...

Remember, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here they are the afternoon of discovery (Nov 27, 2015). Love those little pointy tails !

 About a month later at nine weeks old (15 Dec, 2015)

Ten weeks old (20 Dec, 2015)

Twelve weeks old (4 Jan, 2016) with some peas, they love raiding whatever produce I bring in from the garden. Small potatoes are a favourite because they roll well !

And six months old now (24 April, 2016) and from left to right Dusky (m), Sarge (m), Possum (f) and Hoot (f).

They are all vaccinated and desexed and very social. They were young enough not to have developed a fear of people and hungry enough to be very glad to see us. Life has turned out pretty well for these little barn cats.

Woodwork Projects

I've set up my woodworking shop in the greenhouse. The seedling trees are over-summering in here in the hope of an autumn break for planting. I'm also sprouting some ginger in here and hope to add turmeric plants as well.

BOOT JACKS

Modeled on an old one found in the saddle room, which has proven beautifully simple and ridiculously useful.

GATES

The vege garden gates were well and truly in need of replacement. Simple gates of paling and battens were good replacements.

NEST BOXES

I've needed to make a few of these. Some are used by broody hens sitting on eggs, some by hens with clutches of chicks, and some just for laying.

THE SHEEP SHELTER

A rain and windproof shelter in a paddock near the house. This has already been used as a lambing and calving shelter and proved handy for a sick-bay. The stock especially like the little verandah area at the front on frosty mornings as the sun falls right in there and it is sheltered from the prevailing winds.

Cheese and Fences

When there is a little surplus milk I like to make some cheese for the table. Generally a simple farmhouse cheese that is sort of a half fetta - half cream cheese.

Another fencing project is the stockyard area that attaches to the dairy. It was becoming more of a suggestion than an order and it was only a matter of time before some over-excited steer or overly greedy dorper went right through.

Replacement of the fencing with good wire and solid board sections, setting the new loading ramp into place and adding a number of gates has made it a series of yards that can be used to draft out groups of animals and load any size truck or trailer and even a horse float.

A Few Snippets from 2015

The next few posts will be catch ups from during the year that I didn't find time to post earlier.

Despite getting the tomato plants in at around Christmas time and therefore a very short growing season, we did manage a small crop. Some were put straight in the food processor and frozen ready for adding to slow cooker meals and some were dried for storage in olive oil.

 

A surprise visitor was a young ferret that put the wind up the chooks and made himself at home in the house via the back door between my feet. Obviously a pet, turns out he came from two farms over. No idea how he made it across so much farmland, but the kids were very pleased to have him back.

The Little Red Tractor

The newest acquisition is a 1957 Ferguson FE-35. A 35 hp diesel, two wheel drive with a PTO and 3 point linkage.

She is in great condition, having been looked after really well. With the four new tyres put on by the previous owner she should last us out.

She only just fits in the garage, but this will protect her from the elements and hopefully the cushioned seat from the starlings.

It's spring time in Scottsdale, and with spring comes lambs.

Here are Jonesy (plain) and George (speckled) with their Mum, Molly. Mum only has one side to the udder so George was adopted out to be bottle raised. I'll get a current pic of him soon.

 

This is Jonesy now at 8 weeks old.

Little Pocket, daughter of Min. 

Pocket was premature and nearly died at about 3 days old.

We found her nearly unconscious and cold right through. 

Here Geoff is warming her up so she can be bottle fed.

Me feeding her in the paddock. 

She spent her days with mum and nights with us.

 

She and I spent a week or so sleeping on the lounge.

 

After contracting an infection in one knee (joint ill) which required antibiotics and pain relief, she had bleeding in the joint (haemarthrosis) which required a splint and pressure bandages, and then an abscess above the knee with more bandaging and dressing ... 

Finally Pocket is nine weeks old and seems to be nearly healed. 

She has gone from 3 kg to 15 kg and is the ringleader of the lambs. 

This is Teddy, son of Emmaline. He is a big soft 8 week old. 

Cleo had twin girls, Snip on the left and Pippi on the right. 

Both small as is usual with twins, but bright and bouncy.

 

We lost one little fellow. Bella is a first time mum who didn't know what to do with her lamb (here with Geoff while the infamous Pocket hogs the cat's bed) and we took him in. He lived for 36 hours and then died suddenly. It's always sad to lose a little one, but it's worth trying.