I've Been a Bit Crook

For anyone not Australian that means I've been sick. So I haven't been keeping up with my daily blog, but I have been doing the odd thing on the farm in the last few days.

I've still been keeping up the sheepfeeding every second day (today was sheepfeeding day) and haven't had any real problems to mention. Well I did have 1 problem I should mention. I lost the drive belt off the side of the sheep feeder somewhere, rendering it useless unless I could either find the lost belt out in the paddock somewhere where it fell off, or find a belt to replace it... I found a belt to replace it, but it did delay feeding the one of the mobs, the mob at 5 roads, for a day. Hope they didn't mind. I did open up a couple of extra paddocks for them as well. Maybe that would make up for the delay. The 2 paddocks are the middle paddocks here on the home block, and they have been eaten down pretty well earlier on, but since then a few summer weeds have emerged and the ewes will clean them up no worries.

Monday I spent most of the day shearing for one of the neighbours. That is the day that I was just starting to feel a cold coming on, and let me just say grabbing a handpiece and going shearing didn't help it at all.

Ok quick weather report - the last few days have been the usual beautiful autumn days. Lovely and sunny with very little wind. This time of year we struggle to keep the windmill over on Bob's going and keeping up the water to the sheep over there, simply because there isn't enough wind. Usually this area is renowned for how windy it gets, but March and April are the non-windy months. There is an aire of excitement in the air (does that make sense? - I must still be crook, not thinking straight) anyway, yes the excitement is the prospect that the season break (which is the first significant rain event for the season) is forecast for the next few days. Looks as if it will be a real change of season with good rains of anywhere from 20 to 50mm, cooler temperatures in the high teens (degrees Celsius)(at the moment temps are in the mid 20's) and a South Westerly wind pattern for a while. This is a very exciting prospect for anyone on the land, and especially in this area as we have experienced 3 drought years in a row and are looking forward to the new season.

So a few of the odd jobs that have been going on are repairing gutters, and downpipes. Bob's shed had a few leaks in the gutter right above the super (fertilizer) shed door. Not a very good spot for a water leak as water and fertilizer do not mix. So Bob and myself patched that one up today. And I've been working on downpipes on the house.

Yesterday afternoon there were alot of flying ants swarming above the trees in the area. We have always said that flying ants meant that rain is on the way. Lets hope so.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I've been up to.

This old girl was down after lambing and just needed a little help to stand up. After about 10 minutes the feeling returns to her legs and slowly I can get her walking again. After stumbling and falling a few times, eventually she walked away and went over to the other feeding sheep. I did see her fall over 1 more time, but this time she was able to get up by herself. Finally a success story! I'm pretty sure I managed to save this one.

This is a group of lambs just playing around as I roll up with the sheep feed. As you can see each day there is more and more lambs.