Summer Sheep work.

During the summer we have to take advantage of any cool days, even damp ones, to bring the sheep in to check them out. As usual there were two small late lambs that needed vaccinating and tagging. Some of the older lambs had lost their tags so new tags were attached. A couple of older ewes had the same problem. These were a little tricky trying to guess their ages for tag colours. We're not good at checking sheep teeth to determine their age! We removed the ram and some really old ewes so we can feed them extra rations. Luckily Missy was visiting so we removed her ram lamb from her, we need to deal with him! It stayed cloudy which made the job more pleasant.

Night time passion.

We'd just gone to bed when there were screams, squeals and grunts coming from close by. We knew they were from Koalas. I've heard the joke about Echidna's, 'how do they mate, carefully' but Koalas don't seem to like getting together by the noise they make. It continued on and off all night. In the morning we found one of the Koalas resting in a gum. It stayed all day, ate a bit and slept a lot!

A few weeks before Sue had heard lots of grunting down near our garage. On that occasion it was a male and female kangaroo, she said they could have found a more private location to do it. So it's been busy out in the country.

Even Emu's get hot!

Errol having a nice drink of water. Even Emu's find two days of around 39 degrees hard, particularly the first hot days of summer.

Lerps.

The gums aren't looking the best, patches of dead looking leaves all over them. These are lerps. Lerps are the protective cover made by the nymphs of the jumping plant lice or psyllids. Adult and nymph psyllids are both sap suckers and heavy infestations of nymphs can cause significant leaf drop and defoliation in trees. These outbreaks occur after a succession of dry conditions.

Nymphs excrete honeydew on the leaf surface. The sugars and amino acids in the honeydew crystallize in the sir to form lerps, as can be seen in the photo.

Maggie- icing.

 The clicker training is working! We are able to keep a damp flannel on her knee for a few minutes now. Next is to move onto ice. Our next problem is how to remove the Fentanyl patch on her leg without having our hands bitten!

Shearing.

Don't be fooled by how peaceful it all seems. We had a frustrating morning. It took 50 minutes to move these sheep out of one field. 50 minutes! It used to take Maggie  5 to 10 minutes. The little b.... knew where the gate was but would they go through, no. The shearer was due at 10.30 am and I thought they won't be in the yards when he arrives. Once they kindly left the field they actually just went from field to field and into the yards like sugar wouldn't melt. Tired mostly likely but whose fault was that. So the four woollies got shorn and our kind shearer even did the 5 lambs that needed marking. The rest were vaccinated. We're going to miss Maggie! She barked and howled from her crate and now has a red spot on her bottom from swiveling around wanting to come and work. It's been a busy few days.

Hay making.

Well that's another job done, hard work, well not for me but for Chris! Yesterday he raked the hay and he was back this morning baling. We're lucky that he fits us in while also doing his own fields. I had a message from him telling me he baled 24 round bales and thought it was good quality too. Earlier this year we had the field fertilized, then during the winter sprayed for broad leafed weeds and finally a booster at the beginning of spring. Looks like all this has paid off.

Maggie's home.

Maggie is a sorry sight. They shaved all the way up her leg and across half her back. She's allowed some weight bearing but we help support her too, with a towel under her body. We are asked to ice the knee a few times a day. Now this sounds simple enough but not with Maggie. This is a dog that has never, never laid down beside us not even as a puppy. Our first attempt went badly, she  went berserk, fighting to get away in the confines of a crate so we stopped. We'll give her a day then I'll try just putting a face flannel on her leg then rewarding with a clicker and some yummy food. We're also expected to stretch her leg! There are fun times ahead.

Maggie's woes.

I suppose we've been lucky. A recent study by the Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences found that Tripawds maybe susceptible to future orthopedic conditions after an average of 21 months. Maggie's occurred after 2.5 years. Now we think about about it there were some warning signs, the latest being fluid on her knee. So when she went lame when moving some sheep it wasn't a surprise when the Vet told us her cruciate had torn. A visit to the specialist confirmed this. Poor Maggie! At least Tripawds having TPLO's isn't unusual these days and they have a good recovery rate, but Maggie isn't the best patient so it will be a slow process and then she'll back on all three legs.

The sun isn't shining!

The saying was 'make hay while the sun shines', much more suited to the English climate than here and certainly not today's weather when our grass was cut. In fact we were waiting for this drizzle to go away! After the dry winter we did wonder if the grass would grow enough to cut, but the high nitrogen in the booster we had applied and the bit of rain over the last month did the trick. The grass and clovers were thick and up to knee height which was pleasing. Now to see how many bales are made.

Blue Iris.

The white Iris are nearly over and now the Blue Iris have popped up. After the dry and cold winter I wasn't sure if I'd see any this season.

Lamb marking.

It was a perfect day for it, even though the sheep were a little tricky to bring into the yards. The snakes thought so to! Two red bellied snakes had to be avoided when pushing the sheep. The sheep would have preferred to stay in the hay field rather than continue on to the yards. The lambs were then drafted away from their mothers and suffered the indignity of being placed on their backs, ear tagged, vaccinated and tailed. There were 17 lambs, lots more girls than boys. We'll have to do it all again in a month for the lambs second vaccination.

Iris

My white Iris have appeared.

Oh no, not again!

I just went up the back to fill in where the kangaroos had been digging under the fences. Our ewes like to use these as well and it seems one of the rogue rams did too! I didn't expect to have baby lambs looking back at me. Five very young lambs. There's a couple of large looking ewes so there could be more. This happened last year too. Feeling annoyed.

I prefer chooks!

I admit it, I'll be happy when the lamb returns to the flock. I know everyone thinks lambs are cute but after hand rearing this one I have great sympathy for ewes. Over the last few years I've learnt a lot about chickens, but recently I've decided they have far more brains than the lamb. Ours come over when ever we are around and like to help when I'm weeding. They talk to us. Also the chooks are useful members of the farm providing eggs. Even the latest pullets are friendly. Another few weeks it will be bye bye lamb!

Continuing adventures of Missy.

You'll be glad to hear that Missy spent all winter on the property living with the older ewes and rejects. Even her lamb from last year has been here. But as the photo shows sometime before coming home she visited a ram. Not ours though. There's a feral group of Dorper sheep living on our neighbours place. Those ewes had lambs last year, some were ram lambs who have grown into full rams because no one checks and marks those lambs. This is a growing problem which will have to tackled. The neighbour is a dairyman so it's not high on his jobs to do. The last thing we need is a whole group of rams looking for ewes.

Didn't think it through.

Putting another chicken house inside our vegetable area seemed the perfect way to solve our chicken problems. Each group had their own space but could see each other. Then Sue decided to plant her spring seedlings. Well the pullets were delighted! Fresh new growth, flying onto the edge of the planting boxes to eat. We were madly shooing them away while quickly building fencing around the seedlings. Hopefully these will be a deterrent. We may have to tie string across the beds like they did one hundred years ago to keep the birds away.

Spring!

Chook chaos: the remedy!

Our remedy to the chicken problem was to buy another Chook house. This will live in the vegetable garden with the two new pullets. They will get used to this and then be able to use the enclosed area as their's. The older four will remain outside. Most of the vegetables are grown in raised beds which we'll protect, when there's any vegies. Hopefully everything will settled down now.

Hay booster.

We decided to help the hay field after the dry winter, hay booster has higher nitrogen levels than just using Super-phosphate. Hopefully we'll get a good number hay bales by doing this. Last year the field was to boggy and it wasn't done.

Birthday Chooks.

Who would have thought that the arrival of two pullets would cause such consternation! My niece didn't know what to get Sue for her birthday so decided on a couple more chickens. The egg supply has been a bit poor over the last few months so some new blood was welcomed. We made a separate pen for the new pair which was inside the existing chicken house so they could see each other. Well the first day there was lots of noise! Loud clucking etc. One of the older chickens wouldn't go to bed. That meant walking past the pullets. The next night all four had retired inside the wood shed, even though that's where the lamb sleeps. Each had to be caught had put into the chook house. Luckily tonight everything seems to have settled. What with the lamb and now the pullets their beaks have been put out of joint!

Eggs!

We have two Bantam X Australorp chickens, who since summer have had a number of excuses not to lay eggs. It's either to hot, to cold, we're moulting or we've broody! So I was surprised a few days ago to find a white, small egg in the nesting box. Since then we've had one a day. How long this will last  before one of the above excuses returns we'll see.

Dams.

Back in June we were worried about the lack of rain. Our dams were just getting lower, but after six weeks of regular rain there has been a big change. The creeks finally started to flow and the dams to fill. Our main dam is full and the front dam is slowly getting there.

Raising lambs.

I can understand why the ewes quickly walk away from their lambs as they are bruisers! They head butt your legs looking for a teat, even biting at your trousers. Milk goes everywhere until they latch on and start drinking. So far we haven't killed this lamb, our record hasn't been good in the raising of lambs so it was a possibility, however she's drinking 275mls now. We put the lamb in a dog crate which is covered by a horse blanket in our wood shed. The chooks aren't pleased as they like to hang out in the wood shed. Initially the lamb wore a coat but that has now come off.

We were told not to give it a name and we probably won't as she's not very likable!

Soursobs.

We all know the yellow soursob which luckily we don't have a lot of, however we do have the pink flowering variety. This is Oxalis purpurea also a native of South Africa. The yellow variety is a noxious weed in South Australia and was introduced to the state from South Africa in 1841. Oxalis is toxic to breeding ewes, while it doesn't produce seed any soil disturbance allows the bulbs and bulbils to spread. We have a small area near one of our gates of this pink variety and I do keep an eye on its spread. The animals don't seem to eat it.

Bio security.

As part of our bio-security plan we had to choose a location for our dead stock. So we've been going around the property collecting the old bones to take to the new location. These bags contain what we've found so far. Now we haven't just been leaving bodies where they fell, we would move them, usually into the trees but the foxes would move the bones all over the property. We've even found sheep legs in the garden! The dogs always enjoyed these until we removed them.

Velvet nose!

BJ is always on the look out for food, especially this winter which has been frosty and cold. I wanted a close up of his face but not quite this close! His nose is beautifully soft and the lips wobbly. Unlike the rest of him which is wiry.

A hole!

This is not what I want to find when we're waiting for the ewes to lamb. The beginnings of a hole with lots of canine paw marks around, obviously a fox. We have seen a russet red, healthy looking fox around the property. The cheeky animals always stops to look back at us. There's another older hole that looks like it's been freshly opened, so we don't want anymore! I've been back to check on this and lucky this new hole hasn't got any bigger.

Waiting.

It's that time of the year when not much is happening. We seem to be waiting. Waiting for the ewes to lamb and the rain to fall more regularly. At the end of May two of the ewes had a lamb each which was a bit of a shock. Our ewes tend to lamb at the beginning of July. These two early birds mean we have to catch them and ring their tails. If we wait they'll be much to big! Luckily both are girls so that's all that needs doing. As for the rain, there's been some falling but not enough for the creeks to start flowing. As the photo above shows our dams are quite low which will be a problem if the levels are the same when the summer returns. BOM mentions the possibility of continuing low rain fall levels and an El Nino, quite depressing really.

Force of Nature.

We were out when Monday nights thunderstorm hit. It was a short but intense storm. On returning home we found the house in darkness and the safety switch had triggered. Slowly returning the power we found our phone was burnt out but otherwise everything else was fine. Next day walking across a field there were pieces of timber lying about. This baffled me until I saw this gum tree. It had been hit by lightning, blown to pieces, a huge split down the trunk and the branches spread beneath it. I'm glad the field was empty! Lots of wood to cut and maybe we'll need to cut the trunk down too. No sign of burning though. Natures power is amazing.

Scratching?

Oh no! Now is this just an itch or something more serious. Mites or lice! Lice are usually treated after shearing by top lining, however with shedders this proves tricky. Shedding usually happens at spring time so that would be the best time for us to treat the problem. Hopefully the scratching doesn't get worse.

kangaroo pouches!

Kangaroo pouches are for rearing their young, or so we told. However I think they serve another purpose, somewhere for the kangaroos to carry their fencing pliers! With these they can pull out staples, cut wire and reshape interlocking fencing. The other thing they love doing is twisting electric lines across other parts of the fence so the system shorts out.

I'm surprised none of our sheep found this hole that I spent the morning fixing. The ewes would have easily walked out onto the road without even having to bend over.

The repairs will be a challenge for the Kangaroos, I hope, or they'll found a new section of the fence to attack with their pliers in stead.