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.