Where, What, Why and When?

WHERE O WHERE have we been......down on the farm...busy as usual!

AND WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO.....farm work as usual.

A little more detail. It rained and by just adding water the countryside changed from brown to green and empty dams grew puddles. The dam cleaning came to a standstill. While the crops were sown.

BUT THEN THE RAIN STOPPED....AND IT HAS FORGOT TO COME BACK.

The countryside has once again turned brown and the puddles are slowly drying up.

We need rain and we need it yesterday.

The ewes are about half way through lambing and whilst the dry weather makes lambing a little more pleasant so too does green grass!

We have weaned all the calves from their mothers.

The crops are green but would really love a BIG drink of water.

and the dams are slowly shrinking away...making it difficult at times to get to water.

So why have there been fewer stories to tell....I have been very busy at school. So during the week I have very little time to get out in the paddocks and get down and dirty.

 I leave the house at 8:00am to meet the school bus and do not get back home until 4:15pm. the days are very short and it gets dark very early.

Weekends are spent helping out on the farm or resting up for the next BIG week of school.

So for that reason my blog is going to take a break...

BUT 

be prepared because I have someone watching and learning lots from me

 about what we do on the farm and in a couple of years Mum and I will start a blog for my little sister Erin, and you can watch and learn how Erin learns all about farm life.

Mud Glorious Mud!

Work with the animals on the farm has slowed down.

It is back to the dams...and mud glorious mud!

The tractors drag the scoop back and forth through the mud until they find the bottom of the dam.

Then it is time to call in a little more horse power. 

BUT this horse power does not have hooves!

We are lucky that PopPop has his very own bulldozer. 

It is his most favourite toy on the whole farm!

It can move alot of dirt.

Look at all this mud.....

We just need to get it finished before the rain arrives?

A few steers left to sell, this afternoon they got a special treat of oats.

A treat for me too......a close up with Clover, Freckles and Curly.

More treats....a ride in a.....

WOOHOO!!!!!!

Dad has been preparing some paddocks for sowing.

 He has had to burn some of the paddocks because they have to much old dry grass for the  combine to sow through. As soon as it rains Dad will be busy sowing oats for winter feed. 

The weatherman says there will be rain this week. 

That would make us all very happy and once again very busy!

I Spy with My Little Eye!

It has been very busy on the farm .

There are dams being cleaned out, cattle being sold, sheep going to market 

and lots of eye spying in animals tummies.

This week all the ewes on the farm have been scanned for babies.

All the ewes had to be mustered to the sheep yards for their appointment with the scanner.

Luckily Dad has finished the new yards, it saved the sheep alot of walking and Dad alot of mustering. Whilst getting all the sheep to the yards is a big job, scanning is a really important job on the farm. It helps us look after the ewes better. Ewes having twins need some extra special care. And those that are not having any lambs.....well....in a year like this....DRY, DRY, DRY the empty ewes have to go!

Scanning costs about 75 cents for every sheep. 

"Money well spent!" Dad says.

Dad is really pleased with his new yards.

 The sheep ran really well, about 600 sheep were scanned in one hour.

The man spied on 2209 ewes and in them he spied 2667 lambs.

The ewes joined to the rams quite well however this year not quite as many ewes will be having twins.

More cows to scan this week.

It seems we are spying on all the girls on the farm!

Where does a Little Farmer go for Fun?

A farm of course..... but a farm where all of my dreams came true!

A special surprise from Mum and Dad a weekend of horse riding lessons.

We travelled to a farm near O'Connell, not that far from Bathurst in New South Wales.

Yarrabin Guest Property, a farm with lots and lots of horses plus a few other animals. Chooks, pigs, sheep, dogs and  some very playful kittens.

I had lessons on three different horses: Milo, Coco, and Jock.

Milo is a pony. I learnt how to brush Milo, put his rug and saddle on, and lead him.

I also learnt how to be safe around the horses and that you must always wear a helmet.

I spent alot of time on Coco. Coco was a much bigger horse and very quiet. 

I learnt how to steer, and stop Coco in the round yard.

We even did a little trotting, that is hard to do!

Up, down, up down.

The next day I rode a horse called Jock even bigger.

I learnt lots about riding and looking after horses.

There is alot to know!

Riding is a little bit harder than I thought, sometimes the horse has a mind of its own.

Jock was a little hard to tell what to do, sometimes he was more interested in eating grass.

We went for two trail rides on the farm. I rode Coco one day and Jock the next day.

Coco was my favourite.

I was very sad to leave Yarrabin and our host/teacher Annie.

BUT I did get to take home a very special thing.....

one of Coco's horse shoes.

Hopefully I will go back to Yarrabin soon, it was the best place for a little farm holiday!

Patiently Waiting.

It's been raining, not pouring but it has rained.

The smell of rain is very welcome, and the sound of water running down the pipes into our water tanks is like music to the ears. 

Pitter Patter rain drops, ever so gentle. Slowly soaking into the dry, dry earth.

This morning it was lovely and cool after the showers overnight. 

Mum and I went walking and discovered just how dry and thirsty the ground really is.

Enormous cracks in the ground. Waiting for lots of rain.

We have to be very patient farmers. We rely very much on mother nature.
The rain will come when it is ready.

Back to some stock work, the weather has cooled down.
The bulls left the cows six weeks ago so now it is time to take a sneak peek inside the cows......to see if they are having babies.

We have been busy mustering up cows, the man is coming tomorrow to scan them.

All the cows are in the yards waiting.

Not so patiently they are very noisy!

These cows still have big calves drinking milk from them, we have to separate them while the man peeks inside to see the new calf growing. 

They miss their big babies.

It does not take long to look in all the cows, they go through very quickly.

The man has a special screen just in front of his eye, this is where he can see the baby calf.

Do you remember my pet calves? Three of them are girls.

Today they will find out whether they will soon be mums. 

Stella is first to come through.....waiting....

Yes! Stella is pregnant!

Then Queenie.....bad news.... empty. Queenie will be sold.

Last of all Stinky.....waiting.....

Yes! Stinky is pregnant! 

There are nine cows not in calf, they will be sold.

The summer has been so hot and dry with not much rain, we cannot keep stock that are not producing more animals. Sadly they have to go. 

A Farmers Summer Uniform....?

Firstly what does the farmer look like....well...

the farmer can be a boy or girl,

the farmer can be young or old or very, very old.

In the summer the farmer has to dress cool, BUT also protect him or herself from the scorching summer sun.

So his or her uniform looks a bit like this

From the top, 

A HAT

the bigger the brim the better!

 A SHIRT

with long sleeves and a collar...and don't forget to tuck it in!

SHORTS or JEANS with a BELT with a BUCKLE

SOCKS and SOCK PROTECTORS

to keep those spikey grass seeds out!

AND BOOTS all shapes, styles and sizes..

My boots to the left.

Erin's boots to the right .

AND Redbacks for Mum and Dad.









There are a couple of accessories that are never far from hand in the summer.

A WATER BOTTLE and plenty of SUNSCREEN

Slip, Slop and Slap 
ALWAYS ON OUR FARM!

Who Let the Dogs Out!

A word of warning...you may not like what you are about to see!

Today we discovered something awful....our wether lambs are being attacked by dogs!

We are not sure if someone owns the dogs or the dogs have no owners.

But we are not very happy about what they are doing.

The dogs are injuring the sheep and then leaving them to die.

It is very cruel.

Our farm dogs are always put back in their kennels when they are not being used.

If dogs are let roam around on farms they can get themselves into ALL sorts of trouble.

The dogs that have done this better watch out....

We spend alot of time and effort caring for our animals....

we definitely do not want this happening again.

Dad is moving the sheep to another paddock where we hope they will be safer.

It's all about WATER!

WATER....we cannot live without it. We need it to survive.

So do all the animals on our farm.

Every few days dams are checked all over the farm.

Dams are slowly shrinking away to puddles of mud.

When it gets to this level the animals cannot get in to drink water, without getting stuck.

Stuck in the mud and unable to get out.

Most of the dams on our farm are bigger than this and the animals can still get to water easily.

But the dams on our new farm are much smaller and very old. 

Over many years the dams collect alot of mud, and need cleaning out.

So a VERY MESSY job begins.....silt scoopng.

It is a little like a game of tug-o-war using....

two tractors, a very long wire rope and a big, big scoop!

The scoop is dragged back and forth through the dam, each time removing piles and piles of sticky, icky, gooey MUD!

A tractor on each end of the rope pulls the scoop in and out of the dam,

UNTIL all the mud is out. 

Once the mud dries out PopPop will bring in his bulldozer to make the dam even better.

I spent some time in the small tractor with Dad, but after a while it was time to explore.

Look what I found!

I also found another little playmate...my little sister came see what was going on.

I think she had better stay away from that big pile of mud!

Moving on, the pipe into the big dam that feeds all the water troughs needs replacing.

My own private beach...

Now I just need to master the swimming!