Patiently Waiting.

It's been raining, not pouring but it has rained.

The smell of rain is very welcome, and the sound of water running down the pipes into our water tanks is like music to the ears. 

Pitter Patter rain drops, ever so gentle. Slowly soaking into the dry, dry earth.

This morning it was lovely and cool after the showers overnight. 

Mum and I went walking and discovered just how dry and thirsty the ground really is.

Enormous cracks in the ground. Waiting for lots of rain.

We have to be very patient farmers. We rely very much on mother nature.
The rain will come when it is ready.

Back to some stock work, the weather has cooled down.
The bulls left the cows six weeks ago so now it is time to take a sneak peek inside the cows......to see if they are having babies.

We have been busy mustering up cows, the man is coming tomorrow to scan them.

All the cows are in the yards waiting.

Not so patiently they are very noisy!

These cows still have big calves drinking milk from them, we have to separate them while the man peeks inside to see the new calf growing. 

They miss their big babies.

It does not take long to look in all the cows, they go through very quickly.

The man has a special screen just in front of his eye, this is where he can see the baby calf.

Do you remember my pet calves? Three of them are girls.

Today they will find out whether they will soon be mums. 

Stella is first to come through.....waiting....

Yes! Stella is pregnant!

Then Queenie.....bad news.... empty. Queenie will be sold.

Last of all Stinky.....waiting.....

Yes! Stinky is pregnant! 

There are nine cows not in calf, they will be sold.

The summer has been so hot and dry with not much rain, we cannot keep stock that are not producing more animals. Sadly they have to go. 

A Farmers Summer Uniform....?

Firstly what does the farmer look like....well...

the farmer can be a boy or girl,

the farmer can be young or old or very, very old.

In the summer the farmer has to dress cool, BUT also protect him or herself from the scorching summer sun.

So his or her uniform looks a bit like this

From the top, 

A HAT

the bigger the brim the better!

 A SHIRT

with long sleeves and a collar...and don't forget to tuck it in!

SHORTS or JEANS with a BELT with a BUCKLE

SOCKS and SOCK PROTECTORS

to keep those spikey grass seeds out!

AND BOOTS all shapes, styles and sizes..

My boots to the left.

Erin's boots to the right .

AND Redbacks for Mum and Dad.









There are a couple of accessories that are never far from hand in the summer.

A WATER BOTTLE and plenty of SUNSCREEN

Slip, Slop and Slap 
ALWAYS ON OUR FARM!

Who Let the Dogs Out!

A word of warning...you may not like what you are about to see!

Today we discovered something awful....our wether lambs are being attacked by dogs!

We are not sure if someone owns the dogs or the dogs have no owners.

But we are not very happy about what they are doing.

The dogs are injuring the sheep and then leaving them to die.

It is very cruel.

Our farm dogs are always put back in their kennels when they are not being used.

If dogs are let roam around on farms they can get themselves into ALL sorts of trouble.

The dogs that have done this better watch out....

We spend alot of time and effort caring for our animals....

we definitely do not want this happening again.

Dad is moving the sheep to another paddock where we hope they will be safer.

It's all about WATER!

WATER....we cannot live without it. We need it to survive.

So do all the animals on our farm.

Every few days dams are checked all over the farm.

Dams are slowly shrinking away to puddles of mud.

When it gets to this level the animals cannot get in to drink water, without getting stuck.

Stuck in the mud and unable to get out.

Most of the dams on our farm are bigger than this and the animals can still get to water easily.

But the dams on our new farm are much smaller and very old. 

Over many years the dams collect alot of mud, and need cleaning out.

So a VERY MESSY job begins.....silt scoopng.

It is a little like a game of tug-o-war using....

two tractors, a very long wire rope and a big, big scoop!

The scoop is dragged back and forth through the dam, each time removing piles and piles of sticky, icky, gooey MUD!

A tractor on each end of the rope pulls the scoop in and out of the dam,

UNTIL all the mud is out. 

Once the mud dries out PopPop will bring in his bulldozer to make the dam even better.

I spent some time in the small tractor with Dad, but after a while it was time to explore.

Look what I found!

I also found another little playmate...my little sister came see what was going on.

I think she had better stay away from that big pile of mud!

Moving on, the pipe into the big dam that feeds all the water troughs needs replacing.

My own private beach...

Now I just need to master the swimming!

From Farmer to Fireman.

Not alot has been happening on the farm during the hot, hot weather.

We have been in lockdown. Trying to limit the use of anything that may start a fire.

That includes all machinery even the motorbikes and farm utes.

The days have been extremely hot and the wind just never stops!

 We had been lucky most of the week UNTIL....Saturday...when FIRE!

Dad is a member of our volunteer fire brigade....so he was called up.

Dad grabbed his fire gear and he was gone quick as a flash!

The fire was about 10 kilometres from our farm, but we were told to watch and act.

The wind is so strong and gusty it could take a fire anywhere!

Dad said that there were hundreds of fire fighters on the ground fighting the fire. 

A grader and bulldozer were also busy pushing up tracks to form a firebreak to try and stop the fire.

There were planes and helicopters dropping water on the fire too.

The fire burnt 435 hectares and sadly a few sheep and cattle were caught in the fire.

There have been some terrible fires this summer.

Everything is so dry. 

There is more hot weather forecast this week followed by some storms. 

Fingers crossed we stay lucky.

And hopefully very soon we get some rain to cool things down!

Heatwave!

It is summer and it is really, really HOT and very, very DRY!

There has been no rain on the farm for a really long time. 

The grass is brown and crackly, the dirt is dry and dusty.

The feed for the animals is quickly disappearing, so too is the water.

Time to sell off some animals. 

Woolworths have taken another load of meat lambs at $4.00 per kilogram. 

 My other pet lamb Racer was on that truck, he made $97.00.

The last of the lambs will go to the sale yards this week. They are either too heavy or too light for Woolworths. 

So we will try our luck in the sale yards.

There are steers fat and ready for sale too. 

When the days are SOOOO hot, Dad and PopPop start work early.

 They mustered the steers early this morning for weighing.

Today it is a little cooler so I am off to help too.

 

All the steers are tagged and weighed. My job is to organise the ear tags.

Some of my pet calves are in this mob.

Curly, Clover and Freckles they have grown up very big. They are not as big as the ones that had their Mums to feed them but they are good. They weigh about 400 kilograms.

 I think they remember me?

A man is coming to the farm this afternoon to check the steers and make sure they are good enough to sell. If they are good they will go on the truck tonight.

More animals will need to leave the farm, as the feed disappears. 

I wonder who will be next?

While it is hot in the middle of the day Dad works in the shed. 

Henry Ford is broken down. His radiator that keeps him cool is leaking.

 Dad has had to pull Henry apart to get him fixed.

I do what I can to help...but it is pretty compilcated!

Henry Ford has alot of work to do soon, he has to help prepare all the paddocks for sowing.

But that will not happen until it rains.....I wonder when that will be.

Time to head back inside for me....too stinking hot! I am going to find a fan!!!!