Bredbo Valley View Farm

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Archive for September, 2008

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snoozing

It’s the first of October, the days are getting warmer, longer and day light saving starts on the weekend. It’s a long weekend with special meaning – the end of snow season! No more idiots on the road speeding to the snow, stopping out the front and depositing their rubbish in our driveway or running over innocent wombats.

The cows took a walk over to our neighbour Buzz’s oat paddock yesterday. They enjoyed themselves for a couple of hours whilst the Cook was busy with the Greening Australia people. She finally had to saddle up old Phoe and go round them up. This is the part about being on the farm that she likes the best – up on her horse chasing the poor old cows around.

The new pony is settling in OK, seems to have found its place in the paddock and the pecking order. The people who brought it took away a rooster as well - good. I had a look at the baby chickens we hatched about six weeks ago this morning and they are growing well and looking healthy; the next batch of hatchlings is due tomorrow – can’t wait to see what we get this time.

Posted on on September 30th, 2008 in conservation, farming | No Comments »

Don’t foxes eat rabbits?

I went into town yesterday and on the way home I stopped to open the front gate, when I got out of the car, standing about 12 feet away, behind the car, was a young red fox. It didn’t seem very worried about me and started to walk towards me, I shouted at it and it just looked at me. Then I remembered that I had the dogs in the car, and so I opened the back door and let them out. The fox watched me the whole time and even seemed a little interested in what I was doing. The dogs bounded out of the car and bolted out onto the road – then ignoring the fox ran off towards the house – in the opposite direction, the fox still looking at me trotted off down the driveway towards the TSR dam. Obviously the dogs aren’t hungry enough.

We have a rabbit plague at the moment as well, I went out to the car this morning and there was nine rabbits on the front lawn, I then counted another five on the back yard and a couple under the silos. Not having a gun license yet – or a gun, I’m a little ham strung as to what I can do. I have rung a fellow in town, who hunts rabbits with ferrets, but I’ve not heard back from him yet – I think Ben would enjoy a good BBQ rabbit on the webber.

Sadly one of the little runty pigs we had brought into the house over the weekend died yesterday, it was a female and was a lot smaller then the others. It’s probably a good thing that it didn’t make it as it would have just been another small pig I couldn’t sell. The other two are going from strength to strength, they are eating from a bowl and scoff down weetbix and milk hourly. It’s much easier then the hourly bottle feeds we had the first runties on.

The cattle were missing this morning, I ‘m not sure were they have wandered off too. I’ll have to go down the end of the pig paddocks this morning to see if they have gone threw the fence and wandered down along the river – it never ends! Beccy the calf is going well and drinks up to six litres of milk a day now, Harry feeds her mostly and I think he really enjoys his new chore.

Posted on on September 30th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | 3 Comments »

Don’t foxes eat rabbits?

I went into town yesterday and on the way home I stopped to open the front gate, when I got out of the car, standing about 12 feet away, behind the car, was a young red fox. It didn’t seem very worried about me and started to walk towards me, I shouted at it and it just looked at me. Then I remembered that I had the dogs in the car, and so I opened the back door and let them out. The fox watched me the whole time and even seemed a little interested in what I was doing. The dogs bounded out of the car and bolted out onto the road – then ignoring the fox ran off towards the house – in the opposite direction, the fox still looking at me trotted off down the driveway towards the TSR dam. Obviously the dogs aren’t hungry enough.

We have a rabbit plague at the moment as well, I went out to the car this morning and there was nine rabbits on the front lawn, I then counted another five on the back yard and a couple under the silos. Not having a gun license yet – or a gun, I’m a little ham strung as to what I can do. I have rung a fellow in town, who hunts rabbits with ferrets, but I’ve not heard back from him yet – I think Ben would enjoy a good BBQ rabbit on the webber.

Sadly one of the little runty pigs we had brought into the house over the weekend died yesterday, it was a female and was a lot smaller then the others. It’s probably a good thing that it didn’t make it as it would have just been another small pig I couldn’t sell. The other two are going from strength to strength, they are eating from a bowl and scoff down weetbix and milk hourly. It’s much easier then the hourly bottle feeds we had the first runties on.

The cattle were missing this morning, I ‘m not sure were they have wandered off too. I’ll have to go down the end of the pig paddocks this morning to see if they have gone threw the fence and wandered down along the river – it never ends! Beccy the calf is going well and drinks up to six litres of milk a day now, Harry feeds her mostly and I think he really enjoys his new chore.

Posted on on September 29th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | 3 Comments »

Pig mustering

The weekends over and it’s time to get back to work. I managed to fix a few things around the farm, couple of fences and stuff. The seed is all planted and there is the chance of rain in the next few days.

We had to separate Dahlia from the other mum’s on Saturday; her piglets weren’t getting a fair go at the milk and looked like starved Ethiopians. Unfortunately when we separated her, four of Snappy’s piglets decided they would rather move in with Dahlia. So now we have three of Dahlia’s piglets in the house, she has ten suckling off of her and Snappy only has five – but she’s very happy.

Didn’t get anything done in the garden – by the time we’d finished Saturday and with the wind blowing a gale again Sunday there wasn’t any time. I did move some fertilizer and straw down to the garden for this weeks chores.

Big news however, we’ve managed to procure 35 Merino sheep. Our first flock! I was hoping to get horned Wiltshire sheep, but I couldn’t refuse the offer of free sheep. So Sunday we head off to collect them from the other side of Canberra.

Nearly forgot - Happy birthday Mum!!!!!!! from all us down here!!! XXX OOO

Posted on on September 29th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | No Comments »

Pig mustering

The weekends over and it’s time to get back to work. I managed to fix a few things around the farm, couple of fences and stuff. The seed is all planted and there is the chance of rain in the next few days.

We had to separate Dahlia from the other mum’s on Saturday; her piglets weren’t getting a fair go at the milk and looked like starved Ethiopians. Unfortunately when we separated her, four of Snappy’s piglets decided they would rather move in with Dahlia. So now we have three of Dahlia’s piglets in the house, she has ten suckling off of her and Snappy only has five – but she’s very happy.

Didn’t get anything done in the garden – by the time we’d finished Saturday and with the wind blowing a gale again Sunday there wasn’t any time. I did move some fertilizer and straw down to the garden for this weeks chores.

Big news however, we’ve managed to procure 35 Merino sheep. Our first flock! I was hoping to get horned Wiltshire sheep, but I couldn’t refuse the offer of free sheep. So Sunday we head off to collect them from the other side of Canberra.

Nearly forgot - Happy birthday Mum!!!!!!! from all us down here!!! XXX OOO

Posted on on September 28th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | No Comments »

More to do.

It’s Friday at last – and the Cook has my weekend all planned out for me. I need to get some more gardens ready, there is a little bit of fencing that needs doing down at the oats paddock and I need to check out how the planting has gone. We’ve got Max coming for a sleep over as well.

We ran into the Greening Australia guy at the servo last night on the way home, he’s coming out on Tuesday to look at a couple of new sites for seeding, hopefully we can sort this out soon. I forgot to mention that he DPI/TAFE people came out last week and had a good time. Apparently one of the young lads got bitten by an ant on the finger, the girl in charge said he should show it to the Cook as she is a nurse. The Cook took one look at it and told the fellow that amputation was the only cure and she has a small axe which could take care of finger that size – understandably he sought a second opinion.

The new runties are doing OK, they are drinking from the bowl which is good. Hopefully over the weekend we can feed them up and get them putting on weight.

Posted on on September 26th, 2008 in conservation | 1 Comment »

More to do.

It’s Friday at last – and the Cook has my weekend all planned out for me. I need to get some more gardens ready, there is a little bit of fencing that needs doing down at the oats paddock and I need to check out how the planting has gone. We’ve got Max coming for a sleep over as well.

We ran into the Greening Australia guy at the servo last night on the way home, he’s coming out on Tuesday to look at a couple of new sites for seeding, hopefully we can sort this out soon. I forgot to mention that he DPI/TAFE people came out last week and had a good time. Apparently one of the young lads got bitten by an ant on the finger, the girl in charge said he should show it to the Cook as she is a nurse. The Cook took one look at it and told the fellow that amputation was the only cure and she has a small axe which could take care of finger that size – understandably he sought a second opinion.

The new runties are doing OK, they are drinking from the bowl which is good. Hopefully over the weekend we can feed them up and get them putting on weight.

Posted on on September 25th, 2008 in conservation | 1 Comment »

Animal house

There is never a dull day on the farm. I went out to feed the pigs this morning and thought I’d take a look at the piglets in their huddle. I don’t usually do more then check them quickly and make sure they are all there. I talked about the ones I’d noticed that were a little scrawny on Monday. One wasn’t looking too hot and the other was still looking thin, so I grabbed them both and gave them a couple of feeds from a syringe again, but when I had a look at one I found that it had a bad cut around its head, I think it had been either stepped on or bitten by one of the mums.

There was no blood or anything, but it doesn’t look that good - so we’ve got piglets in the house again. I hope we can pull these guys through, I hate seeing them in poor condition or hurt.

Todays photo was taken by the Cook on our drive yesterday at the top of the Tinderry Range.

Beccy is getting more demanding and is drinking really well. The sheep has taken a liking to the bread and will walk right up to me and stamp her foot demanding I give her bread in the morning. After yesterdays scenic tour we arrived home to find the cook had left the lights on in the little car, so as well as every thing else I had to recharge the battery over night ( she did ask me if I noticed the lights on – as we drove down Jerangle Rd).

Young Ben is getting a Principals Pennant tomorrow at Assembly – he’s very excited – so well done Ben.

This photo is of the two watch dogs waiting for the kids to leave for school so they could snatch a couple of duck eggs for breakfast - not half obvious are they!!!

Oats get sown tomorrow - I hope.

Posted on on September 25th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | 1 Comment »

Animal house

There is never a dull day on the farm. I went out to feed the pigs this morning and thought I’d take a look at the piglets in their huddle. I don’t usually do more then check them quickly and make sure they are all there. I talked about the ones I’d noticed that were a little scrawny on Monday. One wasn’t looking too hot and the other was still looking thin, so I grabbed them both and gave them a couple of feeds from a syringe again, but when I had a look at one I found that it had a bad cut around its head, I think it had been either stepped on or bitten by one of the mums.

There was no blood or anything, but it doesn’t look that good - so we’ve got piglets in the house again. I hope we can pull these guys through, I hate seeing them in poor condition or hurt.

Todays photo was taken by the Cook on our drive yesterday at the top of the Tinderry Range.

Beccy is getting more demanding and is drinking really well. The sheep has taken a liking to the bread and will walk right up to me and stamp her foot demanding I give her bread in the morning. After yesterdays scenic tour we arrived home to find the cook had left the lights on in the little car, so as well as every thing else I had to recharge the battery over night ( she did ask me if I noticed the lights on – as we drove down Jerangle Rd).

Young Ben is getting a Principals Pennant tomorrow at Assembly – he’s very excited – so well done Ben.

This photo is of the two watch dogs waiting for the kids to leave for school so they could snatch a couple of duck eggs for breakfast - not half obvious are they!!!

Oats get sown tomorrow - I hope.

Posted on on September 24th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | 1 Comment »

Accidental tourists

It was very foggy this morning, and there was no traffic noise. At about 6:15am the South Care Helicopter could be heard flying around the area looking for somewhere to land. The Cook had been up all night making cakes for a function today and set off towards Canberra a little before 7:00am, only to return home ten minutes later. Unfortunately there had been another fatal accident just outside town involving the mail truck and a car.

So, as the Cook had to be in Canberra before 10:00am we loaded up the Jeep and trundled off towards Jerangle - along the dirt road from hell. I was thinking of going the Tharwa way past Bililingra, but the road probably hasn’t been graded all snow season and Mt Ginnini had 57mm of rain on Monday. We took the road down to Michelago that crosses the Tinderry Ranges - it’s a lovely drive but it took us over two hours to get to Canberra.

Anyway - back to the pigs - when I went out to feed the pigs Rose is standing in the pen digging a ditch. It’s about six feet long and over a foot deep - I haven’t a clue what she is doing. I don’t think it’s and escape attempt as it runs parallel to the fence. Of interest though is that she was being supervised by one of the runties - I suspect they would be capable of attempting to take over the world.

Beccy is drinking well - Harry had to come back and gtet more milk this morning because she was so hungry.

Posted on on September 24th, 2008 in berkshire pigs, farming, free range pigs | No Comments »

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