Australian Talk.

[Suzie Q]

I'm here. WOW Jilleroo if she was charging you in the yards, how on Earth did you get her on the bike and keep her there out in the big paddock?

I have caught up at Work, but alas I am not allowed to play on the Net. So I went out and asked the other girl if there was anything she would like me to do. Yes, she said. Can you finish mopping the floor!!!!

A huge floor and no vacuum so you are just moving the dirt around. It really should have been swept first. I changed the water a couple of times and it was almost like mud!!! Afterwards it did smell lemony.

We sold a fridge/freezer on Friday, so it looks like they can sell anything. I reckon they should sell Roombas and have one going around customers feet. I reckon they would sell HEAPS. You have one for 3 days before you realise you cannot live without it. Plus it would help with keeping the floor clean.

Maybe they could get a scoobie as well, but she said that the floor is so old that if you put steam on it, it lifts so that might not be so good. I am not sure how hot the scoobie gets, but it dries the floor as well instead of leaving it wet.

The mechanics are a couple of hundred metres down the back and when I went down there yesterday, I could feel that it was about to rain. Oh what a shame to be working inside out of the rain, sun, wind, mud, smoke, dust, etc, hahahahahahaha

The only bad thing so far is that I am starting to get leg cramps at night. That happened to me many years ago when I temporarily lost the use of my right arm and had to stop riding. Before that I was riding up to 8 horses a day at a Dressage School. A week or so after not riding I was falling out of bed with massive leg cramps. So I might have to start going for a walk morning and afternoon, which is okay now during Summer. Winter I might have to start using some of my exercise equipment.

Hubby has to work this morning. I am thinking of going to the movies. Maybe in the City and can visit Mum as well.

My step father is not looking good and it is looking like he won't come home. If he doesn't Mum can finally move into an over 50's Resort if she wants to. So big changes will be ahead.

Even if he does go home the changes will probably go ahead as Mum will not be able to look after him where they are now. My sister is a trained nurse and will come over from WA to help out if he comes home. He and Vicky can't stand the thought of each other!!! Let alone see each other, but she would do that to help Mum out, so that makes it a bit easier for me.

Bloody Typical!!!! All this time I could have gone and helped out, but now that I am working I would rather not make waves at work.

We should be bringing the herd up this weekend and sorting out cattle we want to sell to go below the house where there is quite a bit of grass.

 

[Suzie Q]

Well Mum was right.

My step father died at 5pm today. May he rest in peace.

 

[Sean M]

Sorry to hear that Suzie, my mum has been pretty sick for the last few months. Never a good thing.

 

[jilleroo]

So sorry to hear that Suzi. Condolences to you and your family.

 

[diana55]

My deepest sympathy to you and your mother Susie.

 

[diana55]

Its 12.35pm Saturday in Waikiki. Excellent flight with Hawaiian airlines, fast through customs and our room was ready when we arrived. Have a small view of ocean from the balcony in one direction and hills the other way. Warm and humid. Yes..I know..you are all wondering why I'm typing this and not out enjoying the sights.My husband is snoring his head off as he didn't get much sleep on the plane. I on the other hand slept well. We departed Sydney 9.20pm and after having dinner and watching half a movie, I was tired so it was like sleeping at my normal bedtime. Anyway another 30 mins snooze for the DTD (designated truck driver) and we are going to lunch. Fly to Denver on 10th for 5 days at NWSS to see the Angus shows and sales (I'll find you a good bull Ken....one of the Canadian ones I think-my niece saw him in August and said he was the best bull calf she had seen). Back here to Waikiki after 1 day & night in Vegas to see Le Reve (cirque de soleil)for 6 nights. Its a hard life isn't it?
I'll check to see if there any Murray Greys at NWSS Sean. I know they do breed them in the states but not sure how many people show them.
Melking, just going to Denver this time. If we want to visit cattle ranches I prefer warmer weather so probably do that in middle of year-not this year though.
Thanks for the answers Jilleroo.
Bye for now.

 

[wbvs58]

Thats sad news Suzie, sounds like it was not unexpected. Sorry to hear.
You sound all revved up and ready to rock n roll Diana.
I had a visit from the people that used to own this place yesterday, I think the old girl was suitably impressed by the changes but they are the most unanimated people going, it was hard to tell.
I went out to dinner at the Vets place I did a bit of work for last night. Two of the girls I worked with have just had babies, one of them has had two in 12months, wow has her life changed. It was a nice night, but babies were a bit much for me to handle, not that I handled them.
Yesterday I pulled out the two bulls I was using here and now have them together behind the house and all the cows are together now. I was anticipating a bit more trouble with the boys, they only got their heads together for about half an hour and are now pretty good mates. They seem to know when their job is done and seem to be happy to be away from the women, for now anyhow.
Looks like it might be a warm day, I might get the pto sprayer out today, I have a bit of blackberry up behind some rocks that I can't reach with the quad, I'll do that then use the rest of the tank up on some big clumps on the bit up the back that I lease, I've been threatening to do that for a few years now but something always gets in the way.
Ken

 

[ANAZAZI]

Sorry for tour loss, Suzie.

 

[jilleroo]

Wish I was in Waikiki too, Diana! Would love to be doing what you're doing - enjoy looking at all those beautiful black cattle.
I've heard of Coors - I used to get a Western art mag from the States. Now I get Western Horseman - its way cheaper to order it from over there than buy it at the newsagents. They had a special deal for the mag's 75 years - $1.50 an issue plus freight, a bargain, so I got two years worth. There's a painting on most covers and always some nice light reading inside. I wonder if many people in the states get our Outback mag?

Three day sickness has struck. 44 degrees celsius again today. Have carted water to a couple but they're still too sick to drink.
Pulled a calf at lunchtime. So hot for the little heifer, just pulled it out to save her the effort. Crows were perched on her back, a grim scene in the extreme heat! Both are doing okay now, just checked them.

Our calved heifers are in a paddock somewhere between 3-4000 acres, maybe more, not sure. There is a beautiful big full dam on the creek, surrounded by large shady coolibahs. The dam's backwater is also full - this also has plenty of coolibahs and, indeed, the whole creek which runs the length of the paddock is lined with coolibahs. Where do the bulk of the heifers and calves water?? On a little borewater trough which has a couple of straggly whitewoods near it. They cross the creek to get to it. They jostle and push to get into the sparse bit of shade and some of the black calves have their tongues hanging out today. Yesterday I had to bike some of the youngest calves into shade. This is nothing new - whatever cattle we have in that paddock always shun the dam for the trough. Except the char stud cows - those girls luxuriate in the dam and trees! Tomorrow we're going to go out at daylight to try and muster the bulk of the heifers down the creek and hope they head into the dam. Charolais calves are very heat tolerant but the baby brangus are not.

 

[wbvs58]

Jilleroo, you paint a very nice descriptive picture of that dam on the creek. It is hard to reason why they rest where they do sometime. I guess that 3day is a fact of life every summer where you are, but the heat and lying out in the sun would certainly add an extra dimension to it. When we had it here two summers ago, I found that I would only notice them a bit sluggish at the end of the first day, they would be down all the second day usually in amongst the trees, the following day they would be up by the morning and start to tack onto the herd and graze. I think our milder conditions certainly helped them. They really fell of their milk and being at the end of their lactation never came right back and calf growth rates dropped.
I didn't do what I planned today, I was feeling pretty flat, I got the cows shifted and chased around for a bit more lovegrass. I want to do a bit more work in the shed, but its getting a bit hot (29C), sorry Jilleroo, I'm a bit of a wooss, I probably need to buy one of those large industrial fans for the shed, it just needs a bit of air moved.
Ken

 

[Suzie Q]

It was hot here as well. How about putting some feed down where you want them to water, Jilleroo? I have experienced the same 3 day sickness as Ken. I have never had a beast that didn't get up when I went to it. I would move them into the shade rather than have them lie out in the sun in this heat.

Silly heifer, hasn't she read the manual about calving at night rather than in the heat of the day?

Yes very shocked, Ken. About how fast he went downhill and died. He was fine the week before Christmas. Hubby and I couldn't believe how far downhill he had gone down on Christmas Day and Mum said he was worse 2 days after that and kept going downhill.

He was find until they gave him blood thinning injections. My parents were warned that whereas they can reverse wharfarin which he was on that the injections could not be reversed. Mum questioned at the time why he needed both and one that could not be reversed but they didn't listen to her.

The injections went too far and thinned his blood too much and that seems to be what has killed him. (In my mind anyway) They tried giving him platelets as he didn't have enough and also gave him chemotherapy after Christmas when he wasn't eating or drinking, so I would say never take blood thinning injections if you are on wharfarin in the future even if told to do so by a Doctor. I sure won't, you can believe that.

 

[jilleroo]

That sounds awful about your step-father Suzi. We've had family who've suffered fatal consequences in hospital from treatment, or mainly lack of, so nothing would surprise me about what happened to him. Hopefully an explanation will come to light which will put your minds at ease. How is your mother doing?

The heifers have good grass so they're not interested in any feed we might place anywhere to encourage them to move. I was out there early this morning thinking I'd do a run around them and try and head some of them down the creek towards the dam, but they were scattered far and wide, clumps of calves sitting here and there over a big area, all too hard.
Also, most often when its hot the 3-dayers can't even get up, let alone shuffle or hop with their sore legs to get to shade.
Shade may be a mile away. I've known people out here to shoot cows they think have a broken leg when its a bad case of 3 day!

Also, our heifers mainly calve during the day. Very few calve at night. You'd think it'd be the other way around. There's a couple calving now. It's 37 degs celsius on the verandah and its just after 9am.

The caste heifer is totally blind now with her bad eye and blue blight in the other. The calf is still charging me mightily, she comes at the gallop, puts her head down and ploughs right into me and then bounces up and down bellowing, giving my shins a good bumping. Then she drinks her milk.... It's wearing a bit thin I tell you, especially as she gets stronger! Thought about poddying her onto Tulip but she's pinged off somewhere with her calf.

Going to get some painting done today, after some officework. Visitors coming tomorrow, the sort you feel obliged to have a big clean-up for and cook something impressive. Which I don't feel like doing - hope I can find some energy somewhere.
Oh well, at least its tomorrow, not today!

 

[Old_man_emu]

Hi All,
I'm new and thought I should drop in and introduce myself being a fellow aussie!
I live and work in the Southern Highlands of NSW where I manage a small angus herd of Angus cows.
This is my old herd sire, we sold him on last year at 5 years of age and now have 4 drops of his progeny on the ground.

I hope to get more pics up soon.

Cheers

 

[wbvs58]

Welcome OME, feel free to drop in and make comment on this thread as often as you like.
He is a nice bull, it is always a shame to sell them just when they have grown into a mature bull and look the goods, but I guess you have a lot of his daughters by now. Having a small herd, I turn over my bull fairly frequently. How many cows do you have?
Jilleroo, it must be pretty horrible out your way, anything that can't get mobile in this heat would certainly be susceptible to perishing. A bit of painting in front of the aircon would certainly be the go.
Have you thought of gluing a patch over that heifers eyes for a while.
Suzie patients like your step dad are often delicately balanced and while the treatment was hoped to help, it often falls the wrong way and the situation is then difficult to retrieve, but thats history now and all you can do now is help your mum through things.
I ended up doing the spraying today, it wasn't too bad out on the tractor, a nice cool breeze and most of the spraying was under trees. It is the first time I have used my new sprayer for spot spraying, it certainly made it easier on the large clumps, a long hose and the spray from the gun had a long reach. I did a real lot in a short space of time.
Ken

 

[jilleroo]

So nice to have another Aussie join us, OME. Looking forward to some more pics - that's a very long bull. We've never been to the Southern Highlands - if I visited there, I think I might want to stay there!
Another hot day is drawing to an end. Little grandson was here and wanted to go in the pool - the water was too warm to be refreshing.
A little soft maternal heifer calved a dead calf today. It just came out dead. Brought her into the yards and have put "Charger" with her. Yes I know we shouldve skun the dead calf - too stinking hot, too many flies, too lazy. Daughter-in-law had gone or she wouldve done it in a flash. Anyway will have a go at pairing them up.
Ken, I have thought about doing the patch thing with the heifer. I don't think the bashed eye is ever going to come good, the other one should. The heifer is still stiff and has to concentrate to balance, but it's amazing how good she is overall. Her lovely temperament helped her a lot I feel. The 3-dayers were looking a bit better and didnt notice any new cases.
We had to pump extra water today, a pipe had broken and the tanks were low. We have to be about all the watering points daily in this weather. It takes me 3 hours to go around the main ones, hubby does it in much less.

 

[Suzie Q]

It was stinking hot here today.

Mum is okay Jilleroo. This is the 4th guy she has outlived. This time everything was hers. House, land, bank accounts. She can stay where she is or move into an over 50's resort that she would have liked to do, but he wouldn't let her.

I haven't heard when the cremation is yet.

I would say don't go in with the calf Jilleroo. Hold the food through the fence.

Welcome OME. What a beauty of a bull. We haven't had one get to that age yet.

 

[melking]

Suzie, so sorry for your loss. Glad to hear the job is going okay. Ken, I would conside you too much of a wuss orwhatever you said. When it hits 90 degrees here, I work for 10 minutes and rest for 10 minutes. As the day wears on I work shorter and rest longer.

 

[Suzie Q]

Melking there is a standard here that you should not be outside during 10am and 4pm in Summer and 10am and 2pm in Winter.

It was way too hot here to do anything outside. What a shame to be working inside in an office. My room isn't actually air conditioned but the room outside is and I have a ceiling fan, so hopefully that is the best of both Worlds and I won't get sick from being in air conditioning.

You realise how good it is when you go through the door into where the parts are to put the mail there or to go down to the mechanics at the back.

So so hot and this house takes a while to cool down once heated which is great in Winter. I put the fans on when I arrived home and mercifully it was cool enough for us to be able to sleep last night

 

[Old_man_emu]

He is a nice bull, it is always a shame to sell them just when they have grown into a mature bull and look the goods, but I guess you have a lot of his daughters by now. Having a small herd, I turn over my bull fairly frequently. How many cows do you have?
Ken

I have 32 of his daughters, 23 of which are joined again to the new sires and another 8 August calves are still on their mums.
I have built up 55 joined Angus females this year but that will come back a bit at weaning. And in late November I picked 11 PTIC Angus X Charolais heifers from the Mclachlin group, they are fantastic heifers but unfortunately 1 died on Christmas for reasons unknown to me. :???:

 

[jilleroo]

Well it just died because it could that's all, OME. Are the angus x char heifers silver mainly? Historically we've joined our char heifers to angus bulls and bred many lovely heifers which unfortunately we couldn't keep. There is however a small number around the place who managed to get into the system and they're beautiful cows. Would love to see some pics of yours.

Also, what is your avatar, a bull sitting down?? My eyes arent very good...

Heading for about 41 degs here today but that's almost a cool change, believe me. So much better. Waiting for the visitors to come ho hum.....