Today has been another one out of the bag. The world seems to get a little bit crazier by the moment, but we have been blessed with the most gorgeous of days. We are forecast rain on Wednesday next week, lots of time between now and then! I had a lovely walk this morning. I deviated off the Loop Track into the bush and spotted a new lot of the beautiful blue mushroom that are so bountiful this time of the year. I can’t help but get down on my knees and take photos. I hope you don’t mind some more!!!
I have almost completed weeding the herb garden. Next job will be to get some soil to lift the level to the top of the retainer wall. It’s starting to look good and I am already thinking about which new herbs to plant in it.
Laurie shore our lambs this afternoon. We had to wait for the sun to dry out the moisture in the wool before beginning. It’s all hands to help. We don’t have a shearing shed, so Laurie shears down at out cattle yards. It’s outside and we use our generator to power the hand piece. Firstly we had to get to the bottom of our hill; Laurie drove the tractor with a trailer behind with all the gear we would need, Kayden rode his bike down, and I rode Holly. Hard case all our ways of transport!
Laurie shears the sheep and I sort the wool and put it into the correct sacks, (known as fadges). We have about 20 lambs and 20 adult sheep. The lambs were fully shorn and the adults were crutched, ( had the wool around their bums shorn). They also had a drench for worms. While Laurie was shearing, Kayden was the record keeper – recording the information that Laurie gave him, e.g. gender of sheep, condition of the sheep and ear tag number. It was a big job for each of us in the hot sun.
1. Bringing in the ewes, whethers and lambs
2. In the yards
3. Drenching
4. Wool comes off the belly first
5. Shearing down the belly and around the crutch
6. Up around the hind quarters
7. Kayden – the record keeper
8. Crutching a ewe
9. Out in the paddock after shearing
We were quite late finishing. Kayden hitched a ride up the hill with Laurie, while I saddled up Holly and rode home. It was pleasant in the early evening light to ride home up the hill. Holly was keen to get home as she knew there would be some hay for her. It’s been another busy, but highly productive day at ours. Looking forward to a good night’s sleep!
Wild4eva 
What a magnificent specimen Rata tree. So easy to see why it is your favourite.
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Thank you! It (the tree) has so many moods and colours, it is magnificent!
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