A bit of a flurry of activity around the place lately. Spring is starting to show itself but there is no doubt plenty of winter left.
With the first daffodils starting to show, we needed to get onto the construction of our roadside stall. My handy friend Clayton came out and in no time we had one whipped up, I just need to get a roof on it and then get it painted. It is anticipated that we will be selling other goods such as walnuts and quinces from it as well. There will be a picture when it is finished up.
Earlier in the morning of the stall making we had a spreader truck come around and put a bit over a tonne of lime over the paddocks. Unfortunately no picture of this as he was pretty quick and I was busy making sure stock were out of the way as well as opening and closing gates. We don’t think our paddocks have had anything put on them for many years, so we had a soil test done and the advice we got was to raise the pH a bit and that might unlock some of the nutrients in the soil. So this was a first step and we’ll have to see how it goes.
There has also been another set of twins born. Their mother doesn’t seem to be quite as maternal as the other ewe but the lambs seem to be doing ok despite this. The four lambs have had rings put on their tails and the one boy has had one around another part of his anatomy. I certainly feel for the poor bugger, can’t be nice, but they seem to get over it pretty quick. The sheep have been eating much more hay and lucerne this season, we were getting a bit low so Noah and I went and picked up 10 bales from a neighbour who owed us some in exchange for the help I gave him bringing it in last summer.
I am also hoping we have more success with our vegetable garden this year as I believe I have made it Toby proof! A gate has been installed at either end which will hopefully do the job.
The other thing we finally got done was getting the sheep shorn. The plan had been for them to be done before lambing, but due to a combination of early arrivals and some bad weather, it didn’t get done until this weekend. A friendly neighbour came round to do it and did a fine job.
So now we just have to wait for the wool cheque to arrive! One thing that the shearer did point out to us that the matriarch of our flock probably doesn’t have a lot of years left on the property. Her teeth are getting pretty worn, so we probably won’t put her out to the ram again as she may not be able to eat enough to sustain a couple of lambs. That news was a bit sad, but she will be left to live to a good age even if she isn’t breeding.
We think we are getting organised, still plenty to be done though. I’ll leave you with a picture of our neighbour going past our place in the weekend.
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A Cottage in Clarkville 
Good to hear Noah is helping out around the place – carrying on the Miller upbringing philosophy! No TV in the day time for him – plenty of ways to help! I hope he helps inside doing the vacuuming and bathroom duties!
Comment by Hayley August 23, 2010 @ 8:39 pm