By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
Well, as predicted, it was another busy week on the farm – a busy week in a Covid haze. I am improving but still sneezing and snuffling, so nowhere near 100%.
We have had some glorious winter days on the farm, starting with ripper frosts followed by clear blue skies and spectacular full moon sunsets. We have enjoyed these with the beautiful and now grown-up young lady, Holli Powell, and her family this week. I have known Holli since before she was born, as I like to tell her. I met her parents Nikki and Darren when they first came to Warwick and bought a beautiful Jersey Cow, Bella (No. 9), from me. We were instant friends and later, when they moved to Goomburra, they bought the straw bale home I had tried to talk John into buying before we bought Clintonvale. John had been adamant he was not buying a straw house, recalling the tale of the three little pigs, and there was no budging him! We all had so many adventures together and Holli came to stay with me on many weekends and holidays from around the age of five years until to our move out to Glenlyon. Holli and Clare would go with me in the old F150 to the Highfields Pioneer Village and all the community events we attended with the animals. We celebrated birthdays, weddings and funerals together and even though the family now live on Lamb Island we stay in touch. We had a wonderful week and Nikki, who is really fabulous with interior design, made some changes to the cottage for us, really taking it to the next level!
Another exciting event took place last Sunday when Kermit the bus arrived at home. There is still a fair bit of work to make Kermit habitable but Nikki gave me some great ideas to work with. Richie and I will be taking a “minication” for a couple of nights down at the water’s edge as soon as it is ready.
The brand new Lister shearing machine has arrived and Richie was hoping to dig a trench this weekend amongst lots of other jobs but he too is under the weather with long Covid, so one step at a time! I have also been able to arrange for Warwick’s own Danny Aspinall to shear a sheep at Jumpers & Jazz on 30 July. Judy from Warwick Spinners will also be on hand to spin the wool as he shears. I am not sure which breed of sheep we will use yet. It will either be an English Leicester or a Shropshire.
One extra-naughty sheep, and it wasn’t Bronte for a change, broke into one of the chook pens this morning, completely destroying the door. It is definitely time for those pesky sheep to go somewhere but exactly where is still the burning question. We only have so many paddocks. Cows, in particular Varina, have also escaped and created havoc in the garden, yet again. They are testing my patience at the moment and have been threatened with a one-way ticket off the farm!
Richie came back after feeding everyone this morning and informed me we had our first kids of the season. I rushed out to have a look and, sure enough, there was Sadie (one of the milkers) and Snowflake (my original feral goat, around eight years old now, with one kid each. Snowflake’s was white with a caramel head and neck and really curly coat. Most ferals have a bit of Angora goat in them and this is where it has come from. Sadie is a Toggenberg cross we bred ourselves and she is the colour of chocolate ripple ice cream. Her kid was a caramel colour all over. I think both kids are does. I went puffing and snuffling for a walk through the dam paddock into the next hill paddock, and snuck up on two more feral cross goats that had also just kidded. Both had twins. I didn’t go to close as they were ready to take flight as soon as they spotted me.
Tom and Lottie are heading back for a visit after an absence of about 14 months. They are going to be so excited to see the new kids. They both spent a lot of time handling and milking the goats last time. I am a bit embarrassed that all the goats, except Unihorn, have become a bit feral now from lack of handling. I’m not sure how long Tom and Lottie are staying but fingers crossed it will be for a while and they can get the goats’ manners back in order again! It will also be great if they can come to Jumpers and Jazz with us.
The Mingoola auction is now running and I have placed some bids. It’s funny how you don’t know that you need things until they come up at an auction and then they seem really important. I have placed bids on nine items, so we will see what happens on Monday when the auction ends. I will let you know next week.
Richie is down at the shearing shed with the backhoe and I have heard some unmentionable words so I had better finish up here and see what is going on.
I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the beautiful days.
