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. 

Going green!

Thankfully we don't look like this any more. Over the past month we've had regular showers turning us green. It looks nice but the thought that entered my head was what was growing. It's hard to tell from looking at two tiny leaves what the forb will grow into. Something useful or a weed! Well the plants have got bigger and a lot prove to be something we don't want growing on our fields. Which means broad leaf spraying is required.

This is cape weed.

Sheep sorel.

Wild geranium.

Sheep sales.

Well that's our second group of lambs of to the sale yards. As usual they were reluctant to go up the ramp onto the truck, trying to turn around on the ramp and clogging it up. Sheep under, on top of and facing the wrong way! So we had to untangle the bodies. Then there's the paper work, health statements etc, also to untangle.

Patterns in Nature 3.