Just posting a few catchup photos and notes.

Frank & Pippi, the light sussex chicks, are reaching teenagehood. I can't wait until they are too big to sneak through the house yard fence and I can rehabilitate my herb garden !

This galah is one of many species of birds that find our birdbath a good place to visit on a hot day. In the peak of summer we can have up to nine different species and fifty individuals all waiting their turn in the "pecking order" for a go at the water.

We've finished the sun break for the central bed, just in time. It cuts down both water usage and leaf burn. The beans in the bed to the left are burning off even though they have shade from 1pm onwards. I may plant some more in this bed.

Jack is now wearing a fly mask too. I didn't think he'd accept something on his face because he's partly blind, but he stands quietly to have it put on and taken off so he's now got fly protection too.

This young rooster showed up from nowhere. He seems to be a crossbred, barred plymouth being one part from the striping he has. The rest is anybody's guess. He has been following the hens around, much to Shadow and Bruce's annoyance, but has yet to have been in a fight. I think we might need to find him a home soon though.

This is Ziggy with his weaning ring. It slides in past the septum and sits like a clip on earring, not piercing the nose. When he tries to nurse the spikes poke mum and she kicks him off. It seems mean, but it lets the calf stay with the cow and she can still mother and lick him. Otherwise you'd have to seperate them, much more traumatic. He's now about nine months old and she'd be weaning him soon anyway.

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Flora went into heat on Thursday morning. There was much reciprocal  mounting and our hard-working vet came out and AI'd her with semen from the jersey bull Hawthorne Grove Zeus at 8.30 pm. He said she was pretty ready so fingers crossed !!