I'm the King of the Castle (well, Top of the Haystack, anyway)

This sheep has worked it out- when the competition is strong, you have to seek out opportunities others have missed!

Tackling neglected vines with only You tube to guide us!

So we bought the farm......and with it a few already insitu problems. Apart from the lack of sheep-proof fencing, the lack of pig-proof fencing, the lack of Coffee-the cow-proof fencing, the lack of dog-proof fencing and the complete lack of a poultry house and run (and with nearly 200 birds waiting to fill the stomachs of the nearest hungry fox)............the most pressing problem was the neglected vineyard. Along with the beautiful cottage, the stunning river views, the gorgeous undulating hillsides, the thick stands of tall white gums and the close proximity to the city, and the aforementioned problems, came 6,500 vines- right at the front of the property where every passer-by could see and comment on their progress or lack there of. Embarrassing. The shame of being mocked by our fellow landowners would compel us to at least have a go at tending the vines.

Being complete amateurs in viticulture, we were most reluctant to take on the task of rejuvenating our newly acquired vines. They were in desperate need of some help as they had not been pruned or reticulated for a couple of years.  We left them as long as we could, hoping that they would magically sort themselves out. This did not happen. So with great trepidation we watched every available You Tube video on grape vine care and set out into the vineyard armed with very little knowledge and about the same amount of hope. We decided that we had left it too late to prune the vines (secretly sighing with relief that we did not have to bungle our way through that task). That would just have to wait until next year- we were so disappointed! (teehee). We decided to just train this year's growth over the wires (seemed easy), fix the broken reticulation (we could probably manage that without too many difficulties) and let nature take its course (hey, not even our problem from that point forward). We planned to be on top of it all next year, reading, studying, buying new shears and other paraphernalia which would somehow assist us with our struggles, then promptly forgot about the vines and started planning our next holiday to Europe (yeeehah!).


Below: The neglected vineyard in need of some tender loving care, and quite possibly expert attention. Unfortunately what it was about to get was some amateur quick fix therapy and a little more neglect! One day we will replace the missing vines......

We spent the next few days on our hands and knees replacing drip heads and hose lines and contemplating removing the vines and setting up horse agistment in their place.

Hard at work replacing blocked and broken drip sprinkler heads and split pipes. 

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation!

Well, if you have been reading this blog over time, you will have come to understand that life on a broadacre farm in the middle of nowhere didn't end up being the dream life G and I were hoping for! Decisions had to be made! Finally we decided there was nothing more to be done than move away from Morilla and buy a smaller property closer to the city. Call it a failure. Call it a lesson. Call it whatever. After a while 'hanging in there' just makes you look and feel even more of a loser! Time was wasting and we realised we didn't have as much of it to waste as we used to have!

Enter Castle Hill.

We first saw Castle Hill on the internet and both agreed it looked very pretty. Tall trees, river at the bottom of the block, undulating land, lovely lake like dam at the front of the property, established vineyard and olive grove, pretty little rammed earth cottage overlooking the river. Pretty and only 40 acres- managable without becoming an administration hassle, but still plenty of room for our menagerie and space between us and our neighbours. Seemed to be just the ticket for us. So we went and took a look. But this time we went with both eyes wide open and a list of must haves and preferables.

The Victorious Lamb- poor one-eyed Walter

Poor Walter the lamb was attacked by a fox when he was only a few days old and had his left eye damaged. The skin around the eye was torn up and his tear duct was torn. His eye was so badly injured that poor Walter was blind in his left eye. He had several bites on his head and one on his side, but Walter was victorious and managed to escape the fox's clutches- probably with the help of his mother. When we saw poor Walter we had to decide whether to shoot him or try and save his life. We watched Walter for about 15 minutes to assess how he was doing. Walter was just walking around like he didn't have a care in the world and then went to his mother for a drink. We decided that he had a real fighting chance of survival and took him to the vet. Unfortunately, this decision made Walter an orphan, as he was hospitalised away from his mother for several days and because he had such a large complex wound he would not be able to be placed back into the paddock where the wound would get dirty and he may infect other sheep with the nasty bacteria that were infecting his wound. Walter moved into our house, with a lamb nappy and an eye patch.

Above is Walter's 'good side'. Below is Walter's 'bad side'.

This is Walter's injury after surgical debridement by the vet. A nasty gaping wound- you can see his eye on the very top of the wound- unfortunately it is blind and would have to be removed at a later date, according to the vet. The rest of the wound is a large tear in his face that required a little plastic surgery!

This season's lambs

Triplets! - Cerys makes up for her poor lambing record

Cerys, the fat chick of the sheep world, finally got lucky and got laid. Amazingly enough, she also got pregnant after two years of inability to produce an offspring. After a very long labour and a lot of discussion about whether we needed to call a vet or take matters into our own hands and reach for the Vaseline, Cerys gave birth to three healthy little lambs. She looks a little defeated in these photos! I guess she is thinking: "Why me? I was doing alright without this little 'life experience' "

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A couple of things we have learned from Cerys:

1) Fat sheep are not healthy sheep. Being fat reduces fertility, increases pregnancy risks, makes labour difficult and can make for big lambs- too big to be delivered naturally without risk to lamb and mother.

2) Never count a ewe out simply because she has failed to get pregnant the first time she is joined. She may need an extra year and a bit of a diet change!

3) Give a ewe who has had triplets at least a year's grace from lamb bearing to recover and rebuild condition- she probably needs two years if you are actually concerned about her welfare and not just her money making capacity.

4) Ewes who have multiple births need to have supplemental feeding to keep up with the milk demands of the lambs- these ewes lose condition very quickly.

5) The more lambs a ewe is carrying, the greater the risk of complications during labour and the higher the possibility the ewe will need assistance to lamb. Multiple lambs can get tangled up in each other during the birth.

Rosie and the Lambs

Our beautiful (now deceased) English Mastiff, Rosie, acting as a foster mother for the orphaned lambs. She was the gentlest, sweetest natured and quietest dog I have ever known!

Pinkerton versus the world

The world's bravest cat

Pinkerton the cat has been teaching the dogs to respect a cat's authority since they arrived in the house, but on this day she decided to give them a group lesson. Holly, the 4 year old German Shepherd, took off and went into the back garden as soon as she saw Pinkerton. Holly is very aware that things can get ugly when the cat gets a notion to take on the dogs.

Ivy, the German Shepherd, and Dan, the American Bulldog, are both 10 months old in these photos and have already had quite a few individual lessons from Pinkerton on how to behave around cats. This group lesson is both confusing and exciting Ivy, who does not quite know what to do. Ebony, the very unfortunate 5 month old refugee Poodle from Perth was never destined to enjoy life on a farm with three other much bigger and older dogs, but this day she was most unhappy. Now the cat was also trying to dominate her. How far down the pecking order could she actually go, she wondered?

Pinkerton is irritated that Ivy still hasn't quite learned the lesson

Dog well retreated behind the tree, Pinkerton surveys her territory and gives all the dogs the 'evil eye' to remind them of what will be waiting for them if they ever get cheeky enough to challenge her supremacy.

Pinkerton, you are my hero!

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumper over (and broke) the (brand new) fence

Oh no, here she comes and we are in this paddock with the newly planted trees and we really shouldn't be in here eating them and trampling them into the ground. Let's get out of here before she sees us.

Hey! How did you guys get out so quickly? Wait for us. She'll flip out again if she finds us in here.

She's seen us. What do we do now?

Come on you sissy, jump the bloody thing. We aren't waiting here all day. She might have a rifle with her this time

Stuff it. I'm outta here. She'll never believe that we ran out of grass over here.

Wait for me.

 Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have eaten so many of those trees- my gut has got stuck on this thing. 

Phew. That was close. Compose yourself and act as if nothing happened. She'll never suspect a thing.

Love a (Muscovy) Duck

Once we (thought we) had mastered the art of chicken management we were keen to expand our skills to other poultry types. So we bought ten Muscovy ducks and seven Pilgrim geese from a local farmer. I will talk about the geese later. Today I would like to share with you the joys (and drawbacks) of having ducks in your life.

We got ten young Muscovies and they moved in with the chickens. We soon discovered that they were great "sitters". They would be walking along and just drop onto their bellies and sit, like their legs suddenly stopped working. At first we were worried they had some kind of leg weakness but, as we have come to learn, all Muscovies like to sit- a lot. They have heavy bodies and like to take a load off. The drakes especially are big, heavy birds which seem to find walking a huge encumbrance, and really get a waddle on just to go from A to B. They do not like to run and you can in fact cause them leg injuries if they are forced to run. This is why you must never chase them to catch them. If you want to catch a Muscovy you must trap them suddenly and unexpectedly, or round them up slowly so they do not have to run.

They were happy in their new home and grew surprisingly quickly. Two weeks later they looked like this