Birds and blossoms

                                                                               Kereru - Native Wood Pigeon

Spring must have arrived, we will just forget about the forecast for Snow Monday night!   But the wood pigeons are back in numbers.  They love all the new buds on the elm trees at this time of the year, and at times I'll get 6-8 eating the buds off the weeping elm right outside the office window.  Apparently they are delicous to eat, especially when they've been gorging on fruit all summer, but that is now illegal thankfully.  Dumb birds, but beautiful.
There are also 2 pairs of Blue Herons nesting.  We have had some in the trees behind the house for many years, but now there is another pair in a pine tree across the river - they are so good to see poking around, except that they make a noise a little like a crow (which we don't have).
The blossom is coming out too, and won't be long before the willows are greening up so warm weather on the way.  Except we have had to buy a truckload of hay just to get the cows through until they go out onto the hill in the middle of September.  Insurance in case it really snows again.

OOooops First Lamb already

                                                                   Arrived September 1 (1st day of Spring)

but we're not supposed to start lambing until the end of the first week of October.  We lamb then because that is when the grass has started really growing (hopefully) and the weather is more settled (not always), but seriously it is the best time for here.  Any later and things can start to dry out and the lambs don't get the good start they should, and we do get storms at all times of the year here.  I remember one December having 10cm of snow fall.

This ewe (note she is uncrutched) was supposed to be "dog tucker", meaning the Boss was going to kill her to feed to the dogs as she didn't look like she'd survive the Autumn, let alone the Winter!  So where did he put her, but with the dog tucker Rams - and obviously they were not on their last legs at all were they!!

Crutching time

Actually should've been done about 10 days ago, but we had to let the ewes pick up after standing in snow for so long.  They are looking good really, and everything has been through the shed with no problems - well none for the ewes anyway, just quite stroppy and full of themselves according to the shearers.  They reckon we should've shorn them just after it snowed when they were still civilised!  And they have yet to do the hoggets - so that is a real treat, will feed them well (shearers that is).

                                                                                       The Belly wool coming off

                                                                                                   All finished

We belly crutch to keep the ewe clean of dags (poo stuck to wool)  over lambing and up to shearing, although some often need a dag (just chopping off the woolly poo) in the yards before shearing; to expose the udder properly so the lamb has no problem finding the teat and milk supply; with no warm belly wool hopefully the ewe will go to a drier spot to lamb (dreams are free!); and to speed up shearing.  We want to speed up the shearing as the ewes have their lambs on them at that stage, and the faster they are through the shed and back with the lambs the better. 

The hoggets just get what we call a "buttonhole", that is just around the anal area and down the legs a little, but not around the udder area.  With breeds of sheep that have a woolly head the shearers will do an "eyewig", around the eyes and up the forehead to stop the sheep becoming woolblind (not being able to see due to wool covering the eyes), there are fewer breeds these days requiring this as people try to breed woolly heads out.

The last decade crutching has really only been for animal health reasons, as the price we have obtained for the wool has only covered 1/3 of the shearing costs, hopefully this year with a lift in the wool prices this will change.

Rory - You Pillock!

                                                                              Note the 2 wires between Rory and I
How did he get in here?  A little area fenced off so horses will not chew the trees (which he has proceeded to do), with no gate.  Somehow Talisman Farm RoryO'Moore  managed to get himself in, but at least he didn't cut himself, or get caught up in the wires.  I fed him while I opened it up with fencing gear.  And it is now left open, as otherwise he'd do it again, and we probably wouldn't be so lucky in the injury stakes.

The next day Rory was up the top of the terrace, and there was a rock sitting there, and of course what else is a young horse supposed to do with a rock??  Well you give it a shove with your foot of course, and as it moves you do it again, then lo and behold it rolls over the edge and down to the bottom with suitable noise.  That was very satisfactory, so you shake your head and go looking for another one, but unfortunately there wasn't one that would move.  So nothing left to do but go back to grazing.

I am enjoying having Rory here (belongs to no. 2), but hopefully he does leave in one piece.  He has learnt a lot of valuable lessons whilst he's been here - how to ford flooded streams safely, how to dig through snow to pasture, how it's not really that wise an idea to go too far into a muddy dam (you almost get stuck and it's very cold afterwards), how to ignore larikin dogs screaming past on their initial run of the day, and best of all how to come straight off a very steep 50m terrace at speed and clatter through the stones at the bottom without breaking your leg (although he has given himself a splint doing that)!  So although it is going to be a sad day when he leaves to be broken in, there will also be a BIG sigh of relief!!

A little Whoopsie!!

                                                                        Tractor versus Gate - Tractor wins!

The Boss had a little whoopsie the other day and you can see the result.  No. 1 daughter will be pleased though as she and I bought a gate to replace this hard to open one about 6 years ago.  The new gate somehow never went up - IT WILL HAVE TO NOW - as is VERY hard to open properly now.

Flattened Garden ...

... and a Wedding here at the end of October "sigh" Murphy's Law in action again.

Don is looking for trouble.

                                                                                                        DON

Don, "the Bosses" very cocky 18 month heading dog is just looking for trouble at the moment.  When you run a team of dogs they have to establish a pecking order - and cheeky Don is ready to  challenge it.  He seems to think he should be higher up than my dog Cruise, who doesn't go looking for a fight, but won't back down if one comes to him.  Cruise and Jake (the big Huntaway dog) have a very uneasy truce,  Jake has had a few goes at Cruise and probably in an all out fight would win, but severe injuries would occur.  Jake has put Don in his place months ago when to put it mildly Don was just being a teenage "pain in the arse".  However the showdown with Cruise hasn't happened yet.
I have stopped a few situations as it has been at times when Jake has been present (he would love to get in there too and probably hates Cruise more than Don), or it is afterhours for the vets, and you can never discount the fact that one dog may end up there for stitches.  However, I think Cruise being the heavier, more mature dog will win, so will just have to leave Jake behind so they can have it out and we have peace in the camp.
Dogs aren't as vicious with each other as Bitches when they start to fight which is good.  The bitches do it very rarely as body language seems to work very effectively, but they really get into it once they start.  The worst we had for fighting was the Jack Russell "Patch" in her younger days, thankfully she is far too old and toothless to be any trouble these days.  As one Vet put it on yet another visit for her  - "the heart is bigger than the brain!!".

And it is a beautiful sunshiny day here today - yay!!