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!

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. 

Back to Work.

A couple of days off for Christmas cheer, followed by some light rain....it is back to work.

 There is more harvest to be done.

Today we are helping get trucks, augers and field bins to the paddock and I get to ride in the big truck.

We do not have as much crop to harvest this year.

 And the summer is hot and dry so the grain will not be spoiled by rain.

No need for big harvesting machines....this little guy should do the job.

Bad thing for me is...I cannot have a ride on this harvester.

Bad thing for Dad is there is no cabin that means no air conditioner, no radio.

AND lots of DUST and ITCH.

The new dams are nearly finished. Just a little bit of mud to move!

This is the bottom of the dam

This is the top of the dam...Can you see me? 

This dam will hold ALOT of water, when it is full.

 I wonder how much rain we will have to have to fill it up to the top. 

Maybe we could get some fish for the dams.

It would make a great home for fish. 

DAM, water, DAM, water!

It is really, really dry on the farm.

 We have not had a good fall of rain for a very long time.

There is still feed in the paddocks BUT some of the dams are VERY, VERY low!

Warm days and hot winds drop water levels in dams very quickly.

A new job for Dad and PopPop is to check the dams in every paddock. 

If the dams get too low it is very difficult for the stock to get to the water, the edges get very muddy.

Over time the dams can collect alot of mud and sometimes big storms can cut gullies in the banks. On the farm that we brought there are two dams like this. Dad is making the most of the dry weather and making these dams bigger and better!

 A big bulldozer is busy at work.

This is the dam before....

and the gullies around it....

and this is the NEW dam....

Now all we need is the water to fill IT!

The next dam on the list....

and more gullies....

Dear God...please send us some rain....AMEN

Autumn Days

A beautiful autumn day....great to be out in the sunshine.

Time to get to work on my garlic garden....first I need to put some really good dirt on top. A trip to the shearing shed...for some sheep poo will do the trick.

Later in the autumn it will be time to plant the bulbs.

The rain has been lovely, it has made the grass grow like crazy!

BUT it does bring some headaches with it.....

some of the sheep are getting fly blown and some sheep have sore feet from standing in the water. The roads on the hills have big gullies in them, and the fences at the creek crossing are all washed down. The paddocks are so wet we can't drive anywhere....we can only get around on the motorbikes. The animals really would like to see a couple of weeks of sunshine. So would I and so would Dad.

It is hard to know what job to do first?

Forces of Nature!

What a week of CRAZY weather!

It has been pouring rain everyday. We have been stuck inside all weekend.

We have had over 200mm, that is HEAPS. Everything is soaking wet!

The water is running off the hills everywhere,

down into the creeks

and off to join the rivers.

Lots of people living along the rivers are flooded, some of that water comes from our farm.

Yesterday there was a short break in the weather, Dad put on all his wet weather gear and headed off on the bike to check the animals and the dams. The animals are not enjoying the rain, even the DUCKS have disappeared from the dams.

I wonder where a duck goes to keep dry?

The turtles are even in trouble, Dad found 2 turtles blocking a drain pipe in the dam.

All the water went over the bank of the dam instead of through the pipe.

PopPop's roads are a mess, the water is so strong it washes gullies everywhere.

There will be lots of roadwork to do when it dries up.

The wind is very strong too, with the ground so wet and the wind so strong the trees even have trouble hanging on.

The big gum tree at our mailbox fell down yesterday and blocked the road.

Dad, PopPop and I went down with the chainsaws and tractor to clear it away.

I need to get to school tomorrow SO we need to move it.

A new day today.....I wonder what mother nature will send us.

I woke up really early this morning and saw the most beautiful sunrise!

It was so orange it looked like a fire.

and then the rain came back!

Webbed Feet?

The last day of summer?

Rain, rain and more rain......the farm is SO soggy.

Not much to do but try and stay dry.

My chooks are not even that fond of the wet....I let them out this afternoon and they returned at once to the yard.
I think they to have had enough of the wet summer.

I think ONLY the DUCKS would be enjoying today!

I Hear Thunder!

Springtime brings stormy weather, thunder, lightning, wind and rains.

Overnight a storm blew in and we had a good fall of rain. We are very happy to get rain on our farm at this time of year, the grass is still green and the spring will last a little bit longer. Lots of other farmers are not so happy about rain now.....my cousins have all started harvesting thir crops.....and they do not want rain....no, no, no!

Rain can still create headaches on our farm too, stormy weather makes it really steamy and WOW do the blowflies like that. Some of the meat lambs' bottoms have become dirty and a bit smelly. The perfect home for flies! It is really 'gross'! Flies are really cruel if we do not treat these animals the flies would kill them.

'GROSS'!

Another small draft of lambs are ready for sale....the meat lambs have not got as fat as quickly as we would have liked. The meat buyers say they are too woolly now and they need to be shorn....Mum makes a phone call to see if the shearers can come back. More work!

Mum and Dad are disappointed that all the meat lambs need to be shorn, Mum says:

" it takes the icing off the cake"

 I am not sure what she means by that?

The rain has kept Dad in the workshop this morning, he is busy building some new sheep yards. Mum and Beau have been moving some sheep to new paddocks, and checking stock to make sure they are all happy.