City Friends

WHAT A WEEKEND! Our FarmDay family were the best!

A family from Sydney came to spend time on our farm, we had never met them before and now I have made some very special friends.

They have helped us on the farm all weekend. The boys helped me feed the pet lambs.
We mustered up some cattle and moved a mob of sheep. We spent lots of time on the motorbike,

and even fed the bulls in the big blue tractor!

Dad shore a sheep

and we showed them how we get our wool ready for sale.

We had a sausage sizzle on the highest hill, and went exploring in the rocks.

The boys discovered lots of old bones. 

We even toasted marshmallows, YUMMY!

SOOOOOO much fun, they were the best.

Sadly they had to go home, they live very close to the beach so maybe one day I can go and visit them and collect seashells and build sandcastles.

NOTE: (If you would like to see more great photos of our weekend, Mum says to look under the Farm Day heading on the left hand side)

FarmDay

I am so excited......this weekend a family from the city are coming to visit us! All around Australia lots of families will visit lots of different farms. The family that are coming to our farm are from Sydney, they have 2 boys and a girl it will be great fun.

They will meet my pet lambs Skippety, Princess Fiona, Blackfoot and Angel. We have lots of things planned. I just hope the weather stays nice.

Pitter Patter Rain Drops.

Just what the farmer ordered said Dad.....RAIN.

Lots of thunder banging last night as I tried to go to sleep. And this morning when I woke up puddles everywhere. Rain makes most farmers happy, Dad says there is more money in mud then dust.....BUT I can't find it.

We measure the rain is a special container called a rain gauge, it is outside and collects the rain as it falls.

 I love to empty the rain gauge.

It is pyjama day today at mobile preschool, so I am not just out of bed .

BUT ready to go to school!  

We are raising money for people that have trouble breathing.

Last year we bought a bit more farm and lots of fencing needs to be done. The fences are to keep the sheep and cows in the one paddock. Yesterday we went fencing with Dad, the neighbour's cows keep getting in on our oats. Mum and Dad have to tie the wires together to make it strong. 

I can't really help with the fencing so I just go exploring, I discover lots of amazing things.

a wedge tail eagle nest...way up high!

a kangaroo hole.....naughty kangaroos!

The best part of going out fencing with Mum and Dad is the sausage sizzle lunch. 

Sausages are my very favourite food!

 

the camp fire

Green, Green Oats.

Do you remember the oats Dad sowed in March.....it stood straight and tall like soldiers?

It has grown much bigger and now the wether (boy) lambs get to eat it all up and get

  FATTER and FATTER!

 

These wethers went off to the market, and now another mob of wethers get to eat the yummy oats. 

After all the very cold frosty mornings it is starting to get a little bit dry, it would be nice if it would rain soon. The oats needs water to keep growing. Dad and PopPop have lots more wethers to get fat! Once winter comes the oats will not grow so much. It gets too cold!

PopPop says when it is cold he likes to eat rolled oats for breakfast. I am not sure about that.......

 

.......but it sure is fun to roll around and play in oats!

Good Morning Jack Frost!

When I woke up this morning someone had been to visit.....Jack Frost!!!

The whole farm was covered in a blanket of white ice. It was so cold..... Brrrrrrrr!   The temperature gauge said minus 1, that is less than 0. I am glad I was tucked up in my bed last night. I thought it must have rained or snowed, but Dad said the dew is frozen on the grass. It is like the whole farm was put in the freezer for the night!

  I don't think I would like be a duck swimming on that dam this morning, my webbed feet would freeze!

Four layers of clothes, some gloves, and a beanie and out the door. The dogs' water bowls were all frozen. And even the water troughs for the sheep and cattle were frozen.

 

 Dad broke the ice with a stick, look how thick it is! And very, very cold!!!

Most of the time after "Jack Frost "comes to visit it is a nice sunny day, it certainly was. A good to catch up with my pet lambs after some very cold days. At night my lambs sleep in the hay shed it is cosy and warm there. I feel sorry for all the lambs out in the paddocks when "Jack Frost" comes to visit. It would be great if they could all sleep in a shed at night too.

Blackfoot, KT, Princess Fiona and Skippety

My family of lambs has got much bigger, they are the best playmates. Dad has built them a special yard near the house so I can take care of them. They are fed milk 4 times a day. Skippety is growing much bigger, he is a dorset /merino lamb, they are the type we breed to sell for meat. Princess Fiona and Blackfoot are both merinos, they are bred for fine wool. I love my lambs they are my best friends! 

 

Skippety

I want my Mummy?

Cows have babies every year, so every year they have to say goodbye to one and get ready for another. They cry a lot when this happens, you can't hear anything but MOOO's everywhere. They can keep you awake all night! 

I understand why they cry........I would cry too if my Mum was taken away.

Dad and Mum have been weaning our calves. They draft the calves from their mothers, and have given them medicine for worms and lice, and a needle for diseases. We leave them in the yards for a few days. If we let them out, they will try anything to get back to their mums, they love them so much.  We feed them hay and they have a trough full of water, after a couple of days they are very quiet. I can feed them straight from my hands.

 Click to play

They do love the hay.

The calves will be taken out to the oats Dad sowed, so they can grow much bigger.  And their Mums...........will grow another baby to be born in August.

 

YUM YUM!

"ITS ALIVE" (Guidance Recommended)

The ewes have been lambing for 2 weeks, and we are having a few problems. We are checking the ewes everyday, straight after breakfast. Some ewes cannot get their lambs out because they are too big, we have been helping those ones. Sometimes we are lucky and the ewe and lamb are both alive. And sometimes the lamb is already dead but still stuck. And sadly sometimes they are both dead. Mum and Dad say I am a great help, I have even used my big muscles to help pull a lamb out.

Click to play

Some of the ewes are very old and maybe they are tired of having babies, we are putting out special licking blocks to try and help them. They are a bit like lollipops for sheep but in a big block. They have special ingredients, to make them extra yummy!

 

Luckily the weather has been perfect, lovely sunny days. Newborn lambs do not like cold, rainy days. 

Skippety is going really well, he is very strong. He has two other playmates now, Princess Fiona and Blackfoot, they are both merino lambs. Their mothers both died. Blackfoot has been sleeping in the laundry until he is strong enough to join the others, it is nice and warm there.

Red Sky Warning

When I wake up in the morning the I can hear all the birds chattering outside my window. And as I eat my breakfast the sun comes up over the hills. This morning the sunrise was really pretty. BUT my PopPop and Oppy say that is a sign:

"Red sky in the morning gives a shepherd warning"

Bad weather coming, I hope the ewes snuggle up tight with their babies tonight.

It rained overnight, but luckily the sun came out today.  Autumn is a pretty season, the trees in our garden are all changing colour. I love to play in the leaves and lay and watch the leaves fall.

Soon winter will come and the grass will stop growing. I don't really like winter, it's cold and I have to put lots of clothes on to play outside. Luckily the sheep have woolly coats on all winter!