One down and Three to go!

Christmas came and went....no horse delivered BUT a brand new bike!

The crops are ready to harvest and the rain has cleared. So it is time to get busy AGAIN!

Dad finished one paddock of oats on Christmas Eve. He was very pleased with it, last year it was a paddock of weeds, and now he has harvested lots of oat grains from it.



Stubble left behind....



and a picnic with Dad under the shade of a gum tree

 We went west for Christmas and saw my cousins....and do you know what the best part was....

they have horses.......YEEHAAA!

More crops to harvest when we get home, but we are getting a bigger harvester to come and help get it off a bit quicker. There are plenty of other jobs waiting to be done.

Who is the BOSS?

The big boys came back home today.....hopefully they have made lots of baby calves with the cows.

They were ready to come home, they ran all the way and made lots of noise!

They were all put into the bull paddock, then guess what happened next!

FIGHTING, FIGHTING, FIGHTING.....

they have been apart for 7 or 8 weeks. Now they have to work out who is the boss again!

They are very strong, I would hate to get in the middle of that fight!!

The bulls have a special fence all around their paddock to make sure they behave, it is electric.

If they touch it, they get a ZAPP, and they know to stay put!

In 6 weeks, a man will come and look inside the cows tummies to see if they are having babies. Then we have to wait until August for the babies to arrive.

Bumper Garlic Harvest!

Garlic harvesting got underway today.....a really dirty job after the rain yesterday.

Mum digs the garlic bulbs and my job is to clean all the dirt off them ready for drying.

Some of the bulbs are enormous. They really like good, rich dirt.

The chooks are very excited about the harvest, they cannot wait to get in and clean up all the grubs.

After the wheelbarrow is loaded up, in come the chooks. It will be like Christmas time for them!

A really dirty job....a bath under the garden tap and a change of clothes.

The garlic is put in a dark, dry place until next year.

Then I will sell it.....more money for my horse!

My harvest is over and Dad still has not got started on his....it keeps raining!

Ripe and Ready!

Finally some of PopPop's oats is ready to harvest.

Dad checks the truck that will carry the oat grains to the silos to be stored.

Plenty of air in the tyres.

The header is ready.......and off it goes.

PopPop loves to drive the header, I think it is one of his favourite jobs, until it gets really hot. There is no cabin on the header so there is no radio or air conditioner. The dust from the oat seeds can be really itchy. It doesn't sound like fun to me! Our header is old, BUT it gets the job done. The new headers we pass on the roads are much bigger and have cabins.

The header cuts the seed heads from the stalk of the plant, and takes it in and sorts it all out. There is a big box behind PopPop where all the oat seeds are collected.

The header throws all the stalks and rubbish out the back.

When the box is full of oats PopPop empties it into the truck.

Loaded up..... the truck will empty all the grain into the silo. We will use it to feed the lambs or the steers or plant the seeds next autumn to grow more feed.

Feeling a little like Christmas

HOW MANY SLEEPS?

It is beginning to feel a little bit like Christmas. We have put the tree up and decorated it with all the trimmings....now we wait.....patiently!

I have only one special request of Santa Claus....a horse. I have been a really good girl all year. I have helped Mum and Dad on the farm so I think I should make the good list.

Each year the road we live on celebrates Christmas with a party. This year we had our party in the fire shed. We decorated the shed with Christmas trees, tinsel and bright lights. There are lots of people that live on our road BUT not many children.

It is nice to see everybody and catch up.

 My PopPop and Oppy

Christmas is an exciting time. I will get to see my cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles. I can't wait.

There are still plenty of jobs to do on the farm. The oats is nearly ready to harvest, maybe the end of this week or next week. We need some nice hot weather to make the seeds ripen hard. The triticale may not be ready until after Christmas.

The bulls and rams are nearly ready to come home. And there are lambs ready for sale!

Dad and PopPop have got plenty of work to do!

This week is my last week at preschool.....we are doing a special performance for the Mums and Dads. Then we graduate READY for big school next year!

Green around the Edges.

Summer has finally arrived, the oat crops are slowly, ever so slowly changing colour.

They have turned from green to brown.

BUT are still not ready to harvest, there are still green seeds.

This oat crop is right next to our house. When the wind blows you can hear the oat seeds shaking in their jackets. I think they are a little like maracas. SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!

Dad and PopPop have been making sure the harvester is all ready to go.

 We just need some real summer weather to make the grain ripe.

Have you ever been bug hunting.....on Sunday Dad and I had an adventure.

We went to the big dam at the back of house hunting for bugs. The dam was full of amazing bugs: tadpoles, frogs, baby dragonflies and little bugs that have oars like boats. We bought home a few and set up a little aquarium, it was great. I even took them to preschool for show and tell.

A Week of Headaches!

WELL......sometimes nothing goes to plan!

We were planning to take a couple of days break from the farm this week and go to Sydney to see our wool sold. BUT Mum and I have both been sick with a very nasty tummy bug.  So we have been in lock down!

The wool tested very well this year, it is very soft, very clean and nice and strong. The wool sold quite well, Bella's wool made $11.16/kg and she cut 3.5 kilograms. Mum says she nearly cut $40.00 worth of beautiful wool. We still have some more wool to sell, so maybe next time we will get to Sydney. We just need to stay away from those nasty BUGS!

The merino lambs did have some worms 640 worm eggs per gram of poo. Three different types of worms brown stomach worm, black scour worm and some barbers pole worms. So they all got their dose of medicine this week. Some extra men came to the farm to help drench the lambs, they want to make sure that the medicine works. They will be back next week to test more poo!

Today Oppy found that there was a bull missing....

the fence was broken....he had escaped to the neighbours farm!! OH NO.......

I was feeling a little better this afternoon and decided the fresh air might help so I went with Dad and PopPop to help do the repairs.

That is BIG hole DAD!

That rascal bull broke the wires and the fence post. But Dad, PopPop and I were on the job!

and soon it was as good as new!

Dad was taking the last load of wool to the store this morning and the truck broke down on the highway. He had to wait hours for a tow truck to come and load the truck and take it the mechanics.....not a very good day!

Now we have to wait for it to be fixed!