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!