Australian Talk.

[wbvs58]

A few photos
The first of the cattle in the paddock they have been in for last 5 days

I shifted them this morning, as you see them moving out over new long grass. Don't get the wrong idea, all my place is not like this, waste high in paspalum. This area is a bit of a soak from a leaky dam.

This is a nice shady cool dam

A couple of calves with the paspalum up to their heads

Ken

 

[jilleroo]

Fabulous photos Ken. Your cows look very happy in all that beautiful grass. I havent seen paspalum grass for ages but can remember the smell of it and how sticky the seeds are.
It's raining out here tonight, all the way from the W edge of this place to the E edge of our other place!! Surely it will make a mistake sometime soon...
Merry Christmas to you too Diana and all the best for the festive season! If any of your Canadian girls are at a loose end, they're welcome to visit here. I'm sure they'll have plenty of exciting stuff organised though.
Will try and post some pics, not sure what I have on the camera at present!

 

[melking]

Good morning Jilleroo. Are you ready for Christmas? Just a bit of time to go.

 

[wbvs58]

Glad your getting a bit of rain Jilleroo, I am a bit peed off with the wishy washy forecasts of late, always chance of shower and possible storm but nothing happens at best 2mm. We need a forecast that you can get your teeth into. I have noticed the ants are building fairly substantial dams around their holes, not the skinny trumpets they usually build, so that might be an indication of things to come. At least at the moment it has been cool and overcast and not drying things out.
This is the fence I had to fix yesterday, as you can see it is pretty rugged up there.

The dogs love going up there.

Off to do my shopping today then home to do some housework as may be getting visitors next week, I wish I knew for sure as I would not need to do it if they weren't coming.
Ken

 

[wbvs58]

Well I'm off to Brissie this morning, be back Monday, so will be off air for a couple of days.
Merry Xmas to all, Suzie, Jilleroo, Diana, Mel and Colin if your still out there somewhere and to anyone else who drops in occaisionally or just reads our little conversation. Stay safe everyone.
Ken

 

[jilleroo]

Melking I'm as ready for Christmas as I'm going to be! What about you? What are your plans for Christmas day? We will be going across to a town called Winton, 120kms further on from here. Somehow I have to cook the roast pork (will put it on about 3am as its over 7kgs) and take it and an icecream christmas pudding across - it will be over 40 degrees celsius!! We have a big Christmas lunch comprising a roast dinner but also lots of oysters, prawns and fish, followed by mango cheesecake, pavlova, christmas pudding etc. Bet that lot makes you feel queasy!
Lovely photos there Ken. Is your little dog a Jackie? My little JR x foxie is 13yrs and full of arthritis, as well as having udder cancer. She's the only little dog we've had survive to old age, the rest having been killed by snakes. Buffy was a wonderful snaker too but a bit smarter or luckier than the others obviously!
How was your week at work Suzi? Hope you have a well-earned break over the next few days.
No rain on either place out of that big area that came through. Last night we went to a christmas party the other side of your old place of employment Ken so turned off the highway and drove across through it. It's flogged bare as the boards as always - those black cows are like ants on it, piled on so thick, the grass clumps disappeared years ago, no one can work out what they live on.
It needs to be spelled for years to revegetate. The owners have a vast area of holdings up here and in NSW, they could well afford to give it a break, one would think. Anyway, we'll just mind our own business, never mind their's...
Yesterday I did a long post and put in a heap of pics, the CS feeders, molasses set-up, senepol bulls, garden, new gravel etc etc
but then it said it couldnt read the size of my photos....nothing was different to usual except I posted more. So will only try a couple this time and see what happens!
Merry christmas and a happy peaceful New Year to all on the Boards! Hope you get included in a nice Christmas lunch in Brisbane Ken with your family.

the senepol bulls fight every day

view across the paddocks here

 

[wbvs58]

Sad to hear that about "Lorraine" Jilleroo, I would love to have a look over it one day, if the Mitchell grass clumps are gone, what else is there for them to eat when the annuals are not growing?
I love seeing photos of your cattle, they always just ooze quality, you must be very fussy in choosing your bulls.
Yeh I think I've done enough to earn a meal ticket tomorrow, but it is tempting to turn left when I leave here and gatecrash your party Jilleroo, though I don't think I could fit it all in even if i just sampled a bit of all you mentioned.
Ken
Ken

 

[Suzie Q]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

Wow Jilleroo, your Senepols look HUGE.

Lovely photos Ken, your place looks so green.

We rested this farm when we first bought it. There was not one blade of grass here on the whole farm. We have had great grass up until the floods at the beginning of the year. We are still hoping for it to come back.

It has come back up on the hill. It doesn't get so cold up here, but we are still waiting for it to grow across the creek. I could lock them out of there for a while now that we have the round bales I guess.

We too are sick of the rain forecasts and then nothing comes. We didn't cut earlier because of all the rain forecast and they are still forecasting it but we cut yesterday anyway. Any longer and it will start to go off and if we do get it wet we can still give it to the cows, but no good for horses.

Hubby is still suffering poor guy. He went to the Doctor last week who told him he had an ear infection and that it was really inflamed. He gave him some antibiotics and told him to get such and such from the chemist.

He went to the Chemist and they didn't have any on site, because of new rules. ARGH. Those kind of rules are because of criminals and only end up affecting the innocent as the criminals just work another way around the rules.

So he didn't go back the next day because of work, and then when he did go back they just said you can't get them any more.

What it was I don't know as he couldn't remember. If he could tell me I would probably have a stock at home, but I didn't want to give him anything without knowing what it was.

He was supposed to go to the doctor Friday after work, but somebody bought a six pack for work, and where they park the cars now, the first one in is the last one out, so he couldn't get out.

Christmas Eve yesterday and he wanted to cut. I said I would cut while he went to the Doctor, but he wanted to cut and I still had to get Christmas presents and stuff ready for his Family Christmas Party in the afternoon, so I was quite glad in the end that he cut and I didn't.

When he came up he cleaned the mower and put it away which meant we were then late.

A lovely family party, next year it is going to be at the Newly Weds place of our Niece.

Christmas Day this morning and one of us will have to rake. I don't know how easy it will be to get him in to see a Doctor today, but I guess they will have to be open.

Something is still wrong. We went over Tamborine Mountain and when my ears popped with going up he felt a dull ache. I remember one time when I was sick when we went up there I felt absolute pain in my ears at that point. So I will have to try and get him into a Doctor today and see if we can't get the right medication for him.

I will go and see what photos I have on my camera.
MERRY CHRISTMAS.

 

[melking]

Merry Christmas to all my down under friends. At 4:30 in the afternoon hee, you will soon be waking up to christmas day. Thanks for all of your stories, I really look forward to reading them each morning. Have a great day and be careful! :santa:

 

[Suzie Q]

Awww thanks Melking.

MERRY CHRISTMAS for everyone in America for today.

A lovely day yesterday. Hubby raked while I readied the presents and everything for going to Mum's. He came up and had a shower and we left and picked Papa up and arrived at Mum's just as they were finishing lunch. I hadn't had anything when hubby had eaten so I had a few left overs.

Everyone loved the calendars I gave them. So much cheaper than before. I found a way to get them printed and delivered for $6.72 and that is cheaper than I could buy the paper and print them at home. I also got over $2.00 cash back through one of the survey companies so a win/win for me.

Hubby has decided after seeing my Step father that he is not sick at all. Mum doesn't know why they let him out of Hospital, but I guess it is because it is Christmas and he wanted to come home.

He seems bloated and when I asked was told that it is blood around his organs. He is not eating and not drinking much, just a mouthful, but I am not in the least surprised. He hasn't got anywhere to put it. He is going back to Hospital on Tuesday and Mum thinks they will keep him in again.

Wahhhhooooo for me. Down 14 kgs since the second week in August. A piece of mudcake and icecream at lunch time and dinner just because it was Christmas and this morning, (Yes I know not to weight every day!!) I have only gone up 100 grams and have the rest of the week to remedy that.

 

[Suzie Q]

A happy and sad couple of days. Hope was our first calf from Brody. Break Out our second and Onassis our third.

Chistmas morning brought us our first second cross calf with Break Out calving. We were watching and watching and watching Onassis as obviously something was happening with her. Just as we were leaving I did notice Harriot further down away from the others but then I noticed some others had also gone down there so I just thought they had all walked down from after eating. It never ever crossed my mind that she needed help.

We came home in the dark and I walked down yesterday morning to check on Onasis who was eating with a calf lying near her, and an Aunty staying with them.

I walked down further when I noticed Harriot and she was calving. I have been told to wait an hour and if nothing happens they need help. I can't get near her as the herd will follow me and waiting that hour is pure torture as you just want to help if they are in trouble.

So I came up and put up the electric fences in the front of the house, as the 'lawn' is now 4 foot high and I am worried about snakes. I locked them away from her and went back down with the quad.

No good, she needs help, and she was able to walk so I gently herded her into the yards and then went down and took over from raking so as hubby could come up. He pulled out a dead calf. Very sad as that is the first time in 8 years here that that has happened.


We kept her in the yard and she was eating and drinking and I went to let her out above the house and another hoof. So we put her in the race again and this one was a lot easier to pull out, but alas was also dead. This was our first set of twins, and I have learned what I have read on here time and time again. They people hate twins. The first calf had one leg bent back. The second one came out hind feet first.

In the mean time Onassis and the Aunt separated and the calf belonged to the other cow not Onassis.

I brought the herd up and let the day olds and their Mum's back out. It looked like maybe a calf with Onasis but until I see it drink from her I won't know. It also looks like Hope has calved, but again until I see it drink it is a bit hard to tell.

We put red tags on the boys and blue on the girls which is a tip I picked up from this forum and the boys will be steers from now on.

 

[jilleroo]

Suzi that's tough about the twins....it wouldve been fun to have had them born alive and well, you couldve given them such great christmassy names!! We have several sets a year and have very rarely had trouble like the set we pulled the other day.
Never mind that "wait an hour" rule - you had been out, you didnt know how long she'd been in trouble, always err on the side of caution. In any event, if the calves were dead, she mustve been labouring for quite a long time, couldve been 12 hours or more so it wouldve been too late already. Don't fret over it.
I see another heifer springing here who looks like she's packing a set of twins...that will be the third lot out of this batch of heifers. Hubby saw another set in the cows last week but said they looked fine. Cheer up, Suzi - that's life on the land, as we all know only too well. You do a great job looking after them all.
Had one nice thing happen, for a change! A silly charbray heifer had calved last week, unassisted out in the paddock. She and others needed to be shifted, due to the new fence we were finishing. To cut a long story short, she ran off without the calf and it was 12 hours before we could reunite them, stinking hot weather 42 degs celsius, all bad. She acknowledged the calf, it was just on dark, so I left them together. Never saw the calf again but saw the heifer everywhere, all over the 3000 ac paddock with her mates. No sign of being sucked, I was really cranky and upset that the calf had ended up perishing. Looked for him as best I could, checked watering points, other cattle etc but eventually gave up on him. Cursed the silly heifer every time I saw her.
Anyway, of course, this morning, there she is on water with him happily sucking her.... Had to take back what I'd called her.
Even after all these years, I can still be so wrong - which is nice at times!
We had a good christmas day in Winton but so many people and too much food - very hot needless to say. I'd put the leg of pork on at 3.30am and by 4.30 hubby had had to go outside, said the smell of it cooking made him feel sick! He had brekky outside too! Then we had the smell of it all the way across in the car, so we had the windows down. Hubby had been well and truly "porked" (as the ads on TV say) before we even got to eat it. The icecream plum pudding was very inoffensive by comparison and tasted delicious, due to a good slug of rum being added to it.
I spent some time up at the cemetery after lunch "visiting" with folk we've lost including a neighbour's little boy who died at christmas 10 years ago. It was a shocker at the time, so very very sad. I try and place something new on his grave each year, and all the things are still there, unbroken. Then I visited some elderly ill folk who were home alone but still do the full christmas deal, all the decs and food....they were so pleased to have a visitor, I had to eat some more ... oh dear!!
Visitors coming later but am going to do some more painting now. A big morning tomorrow shifting a part of a fence to connect to the new one, and its all a goer.

 

[Suzie Q]

Thanks Jilleroo. I am not sad. Being a farmer we get hardened to things like that. I did feel a little bit sick after pulling the second one out and stoking the fire that we cremated them with. Not enough to lie down, but by the time I had retrieved my camera for a friend to get a photo of his new purebred bull I felt okay.

Hariot is eating. Some placenta (?) still there so she might need some doctoring yet. I have just set up the electric fences and let them out above the house to get some grass.

Huibby raked this morning and is now putting up back rubs for the cattle.

I am doing house work = going online for Box Day Shopping!!!!!

2 presents I will tell you about when I receive them and can photograph them. Way too much money, but it cheered me up a bit and now that I am working and we are going to sell some cattle we should be in the black again soon. Mum also gave me $500.00 for Christmas. I didn't spend that much and will put the rest off the credit cards.

 

[wbvs58]

Well I'm back on air again, sounds like you all had a good Xmas, sorry about those calves Suzie, but that 14kg sounds good, keep up the good work. I've got a bit of catching up to do, I'll talk some more later.
Ken

 

[melking]

I finally remembered to take a photo of the palmettos I have been fighting.

 

[melking]

Here is a better picturee of the endless palmetto patch.

 

[melking]

Here is what we saw when we were leaving the ranch to come into town.

 

[Suzie Q]

What are you fighting it with, Melking?

My friend came to help us bale last night and she brought me a Christmas present of a baseball cap with lights in it. Hubby loved it and promptly stole it!!! LOL

It was great for him picking up hay. I bought him one for his head prior with elastic no cap, but it was too tight and gave him a headache so he hasn't used it. This one can be tightened or loosened to fit.

I gave her a weed brush. It was brand new and had never been used, but I picked up 2 for $8.00 from the Swap Meet at Beaudesert. I know I paid around $50.00 for mine. I gave one to her and one to my Mum.

My firend LOVED it. I also gave her a rotary peeler. It will peel virtually anything automatically. Put a 9 volt transformer on it and it will peel a potato in one second. Which makes peeling potatoes for potato bake and things like that for parties very fast. That ends my 'store' of presents for people and now that I am working I will be able to buy Christmas presents and build it up again.

We baled while I listened to the radio of rain reports coming in. The Gold Coast was hit with 94 klm/hr winds and 30 mm. We received nada and we baled 255 small square bales, which are now undercover on the truck and the trailer. They will have to be unloaded, but no hurry so we didn't get up and do it this morning.

My friend that comes and helps us is LOVELY. She is over 70 but very athletic and still there with her mind. However she has found as she gets older that she is starting to lack self confidence and decision making is very hard for her.

So I give her little pushes here and there. Last time we mentioned her driving the truck with the loader, and she fled!!!! This time as she had had time to think about it I sat beside her while she drove it. I told her it was a game, it was fun and exciting and there were several challenges for her to get through. By the time she relaxed into it she was enjoying herself.

You just have to drive the truck in first gear up beside the bales on the ground, which are in a straight line, and manouvre the truck so as the bales go up the elveator, which is like a conveyor belt.

It only took half an hour or so and when she had finished she really felt like she had accomplished something and had been of more of a help than just driving the tractor pulling the trailer. Which of course is not true. Driving the tractor might be slow, but it is much easier for us not having to climb up on the tractor and move it forward all the time.

Since driving our tractor with us, she thinks she now has the confidence to drive her tractor at home.

Last night I also took her in the tractor with me while I baled. She wouldn't have a go, but she might next time now that she has had time to think about it. I showed her how easy it is, you don't even have to use the clutch in the Case. She was amazed at how easy it is. The Case is much bigger than Davey so it is just the size worrying her at the moment. Once she gets over that there will be no stopping her.

Baling is easy when everything goes right. When everything goes wrong it can be very stressful and physical, but touch wood with our experience now, better equipment and hubby being a mechanic, we will never experience something like that again. Touchwood

255 bales, touch wood, without a hitch. No rain. The baling twine didn't ball and break like it did last time with the same one. All good.

I have just been up and let the herd in the front of the house again. I can hear them munching outside my window as I type.

 

[wbvs58]

Looks like some sort of little palm Mel, it seems to proliferate by suckers. What is your tractor your using Mel? I bet it is a battle controlling the regrowth. Do you live on the ranch Mel?
Hey Suzie, what are you using in your backrubs?
Back to some serious work today, I'm moving onto spraying the blackberry at my other block, I haven't done it for a couple of years and have a few regrowth clumps, not real big, but should make spraying a bit easier as I don't have to look too hard to find them.
Rain has been a bit scarce here of late, I have the cattle up the back still, a real lot of feed there, but every morning when I go out they are down the bottom at the gate bellowing to go through.
The long range forecaster from The Land agrees that high chance of above average rainfall until about June, but reckons that we will get it in a couple of large events interspersed by some long dry periods. We hope that one of those dry periods come soon.
I'm about to start organising my life a bit better, declutter things, make things simpler. I want toget a blackboard to list jobs to do, especially the small jobs, and a notebook to take with me all the time and list things in. My brain gets very cluttered easily then I can't remember anything, so organising things better will help, well thats the plan anyway, maybe a New Year resolution.
Ken

 

[Suzie Q]

I will find out about the backrubs for you Ken. Some kind of oil like peanut oil or something from memory.

I became very organised by using the FLY lady website. FLY - Fully love yourself and is for people who hate housework. She helps by giving you little things that help to organise your life.

One of them is to mark everything on your calendar. Check it twice a day. Once in the morning to see what you have to do that day and once again in the afternoon to check what you have to get ready for the next day. What it comes down to is what is on the calendar gets done and what isn't on there doesn't exist!!!!

Another thing she suggests is to use a timer and boy does that work. If you have a horrible job to do just do it for 15 mintues. When the timer goes off you can stop or just set it again. 15 minutes a day and it will get done. 0 minutes a day because you don't want to do it - it doesn't get done at all.