The Rain Finally came.!!!

We made a quick trip up to the farm this week as we had purchased a cool room. We had been  keeping our eyes open for one for some time and this one just happened along and was the perfect size  for us and was  within our price range that we had  allocated.

When we do our butchering up at the farm we usually do a couple of sheep  at a time to make it worthwhile, and now being able to hang the  carcasses for a few days  will make the meat taste even better. Also it will be  fantastic when we have large gatherings for keeping  food and drink cold. It will take so much pressure off my house fridge.
We will need to add a few more solar panels and an  inverter of it's own as we want to keep it on a separate  "grid" to the house.
When we arrived, there had been 26 mm of rain the night before, the place was still very bare,but we knew it would pick up soon.

Our next door neighbour(my husbands brother) has a better block down the road a few kilometers, and we keep a few of our sheep and a couple of cows there while the conditions are so bad on our smaller properties.  As we had driven  past on our way  to our place we had noticed a small new calf by himself, so after the brother in law  helped us to unload the cool room we went for a drive down to check it out.

She was a very sweet little calf, but sadly the first time mum was no where to be seen.We hung around for a couple of hours there  hoping that the Mum may  come back.We wern't

 sure which one it was and the boys did a bit of a scout around to try and identify her,meanwhile, my sister in law and I  had some very friendly horses  come up to say hello. They were lovely.

They eventually found the mother of the calf and decided to lock them up together  into the yards  so that she may begin to nurse him overnight. We raced home and got some hay for her and a big  container for water and left them overnight. That night we had three  storms pass over and we recieved another 27 mm of rain. Next morning the brother in law went to check on the mum and bub and they were ok, and the calf was still alive, but to my brother in laws shock, two of his best animals, a steer and a lovely cow were laying dead under a nearby tree, struck dead by lightening during the storms of the night, the tree they were under was smashed and charred from the lightening..
 And then the rain came again.

Just so lovely to see the tanks overflowing again...not all are full to the top, but most of them are.
Brian continued to hand

feed the sheep, as he hoped that by doing that , that the sheep  would have full bellies and may leave some of the new shoots alone for a couple of days...I think it worked a bit, they certainly seemed content. The babies born last month are growing, especially the singles. The twins arn't doing as well, but hopefully will pick up once there is a bit of green feed.

While we were up there, I also took the opportunity to sort out a few more preserving jars. I had purchased these green plastic stacking boxes from Aldi and had these shelves down in the shed holding used paint tins, so combined the two and scored myself  a  good new storage area for some of  the empties.

And speaking of green, within 48 hours of the  first lot of rain, we had beautiful new green shoots   all around the place. The photo below is on our front lawn,....I am so happy.
With a bit of luck, when we go up next I should be able to post some  photos of a wonderful green  farm, I certainly hope so anyway.
That final night we were there we had the most glorious sunset, we were in the kitchen doing the dishes and my husband pointed it out to me through the kitchen window, so I raced out and captured it's last golden rays through the trees as it was setting behind the rocky hill  on our boundary.

We headed home yesterday morning, back to the rat race, back to work and routine. Sadly when we arrived home we had a message from my Brother in Law to let us know that  the dear little brown calf unfortunately hadn't been strong enough to make it through the  second night and they had lost her.
So sad,I hope there is more success  with the others. They already have had 4 healthy calves, with  a few more still to  deliver, all we can do is hope for the best outcome.
So, until we catch up again,
best wishes to everyone,
Cheers,
Jane.

The ever expanding flock of sheep.

I thought today I would write about our  beautiful (well maybe not always in looks) sheep.
We started way back soon after we first purchased our little place. We thought that sheep,rather than goats would be the wisest choice for us to have as we have to leave them alone for weeks at a time and goats are a little too clever for their own good and are brilliant escape artists.
We just happened to be driving past a house here on the coast and saw a sign for 6 sheep for sale,so we went to check it out.
They were 5 merino X ewes and a Poll Dorset ram, all fairly young for $30 each.
So we purchased them and took them up to the farm the next day.We decided not to give these sheep names and we did very well  with that until the first lambs arrived.Who were promptly named Sweet Pea and Daphne.

It was only about 12 months later that we had a phone call from out neighbour to tell us that our beautiful ram  had died near his shared boundary fence with us. He suspected snake bike at  he had seen a big  Eastern Brown Snake  lurking around in the previous few weeks.
We happened to mention to a friend  who is a full time farmer that we had lost our ram and he very kindly offereed for free  if we were interested a new ram. The only thing was it was a Damara breed.
So we went and picked him up in Dubbo,We named him Roger(no idea why, it just popped into my head at the time)
Roger quickly got to work and produced some very colourful off spring that looked more like goats than sheep. We called our first one Honey due to her beautiful honey colour. As his babies grew and the flock started to expand we referred to them as "The Mottly Crew".

The  Damara influence tended to produce a fairly tall, light sheep that was very timid and flighty and after a couple of years our farmer friend(god bless his heart) offerred us another ram. He had himself changed breeds and was now fully running Dorper Sheep.
So we offered him Roger back and were told he was no longer required and to pass him along to some else, which is what we did.
So then we went  and picked up Cassanova, named in the hope that he would successfully romance all our ewes, which I am happy to announce he did, with great speed.

Soon after acquiring Cassanova, we heard of a young hobby farmer who had been involved in a car accident that was selling up his small flock as he was still in rehabilitation and didn't expect to be able to continue on his block.We went and looked at them. They were DorperX Damara ewes, but were advised that they would make a good breeding base with our Doper Ram. So we purchased 6 ewes for $360.( money well spent as it turns out) Our farmer friend in Dubbo also gave us 3  young Dorper ewes( They had thrown a little back to merino,so he didn't want them for breeding)
We arn't looking to breed purbreds, we just breed for meat and our own personal use.We are also pleased to say that the young farmer made a full recovery and is back into farming in an even bigger way, such good news.

Then just over five months later we celebrated our first babies.

There have been many more born since.I just love the baby lambs and how early every morning and in the evening they get frisky.Sorry to bore you with the pics, but I just had to include the next few photos.They are not very clear, but just cute!.

We really like the Dorper breed as they are a good heavy meat sheep, and they don't have to be shorn.
As your crosses get closer to pure Dorper they have less and less wool on them.
They constantly rub themselves on fences,gates, posts ,trees and sheds to "rub off" their Hair/wool.
The lambs are born hairy, more like a goat kid rather than with the tight white wool curls of other breeds.

As they get older, their hair/wool in some of them just forms like a saddle on their backs. We have had to trim a few but not too many. They are clean on their legs, necks and underbellies and are an excellent breed  to have as they don't seem to get fly or lice problems as much as other breeds.

We  always hand feed our sheep when we are there, it keeps them quieter and gets them to come to us more easily when we need to yard them for drenching and when we need to  butcher for meat.
No matter where they are on the place, my husband just starts calling and banging a bucket and they come running.

So far we have been lucky, considering all our time away from the farm, we have had only minimal losses, we had a tree limb fall in a storm  on one good ewe , lost a couple to Barbers' Pole worm and a few to just old age.We also have been lucky that we haven't so far had to poddy any lambs.
Our next door neighbour has done a few, but one "special" one he had is called Bouye...Bouye thought he was part of the human family(and still does) I will add a quick pic of Bouye the day he discovered his Father's brocolli garden....he was not a favourite child that day.

About 6 months ago, we felt that we may be getting close to inbreeding,so our ever wonderful friend in Dubbo once again came to our rescue and swapped cassanova for anothe ram. We named this one Colin after our friend,
At about this same time, things were pretty dry on our block so we seperated the wethers and Colin off and moved them to my brother in laws larger block down the road.

Our numbers had grown too quickly, so we have given the girls a season off and have only last week brought Colin back to our place to the girls again.He seemed pleased about that.
We love our sheep, and yes I am very matter of fact as to why they are there, but our idea is ,they are here for a purpose,and that it to feed us, so we give them the best life we can until that time comes.
I personally don't watch them die, I just can't do it. I grew up on a farm and saw and helped   my father butcher sheep for meat regularly, now I have a choice. Once they are dead I have no issue helping and  the cutting up, and the  processing is sort of honouring the animal for what they have given us. I always appreciate the animal for it's full worth, and waste very little.
We love to sit and watch the sheep, they are content and happy, or at least I like to think they are.

We need to reduce our numbers a great deal, we now have approx. 40 sheep, realistically we need to get that number down to 20-25.
So I guess I know what I will be doing on the next trip to the farm.....maybe canned  lamb meatballs in sauce , that would be a new  experiment for me.Will keep you informed.
So until we meet again,
Cheers to everyone,
Jane.