Just another day at work

Taco The bird


Alby having his morning tea break



Taco hiding in his forest of leaves ... right next to where I work ... sadly I talk to a bird cause no one listens anyway!!



Clean all edges of burrs and any sharp edges, then net them and pack before they go off for hardening



Just cleaned and packed heaps of these brass plumbing fittings this week.


Stocktaking ... just another job palmed off on me


And finally Alby and Trent ... I have to put up with these two fellas everyday.

And quess what Tomorrow is Monday and another work day. So see ya soon
Rina

Crazy Lady on the ride on

Crazy Lady on the ride-on. We only a few minutes walk
from the village, in the background.
I thought I would bring this post forward, It's a little about Lavender Hill when we first bought it (saves you all going back in time) We had this 5 year plan, 3 yrs are gone and still I don't see that we're getting to the stage that we could live there fulltime. For starters We still have a morgage and need to build our cottage and a small stone house, shed/garage/carport Then all the chook housing and sheep sheds need to be built. We are going to be off grid if I can get my way George wants power for a small engineering/wood working set up, but we will see ...

Somedays I can't believe how much work we have put into this place already. LavenderHill was so covered in lantana which is ready considered a weed and very hard to get rid of. We have dug out heaps of the stuff and even got my friend Mark the Dingoman to help remove the stuff, with his trusty Kango. Burnt heaps of it which is the only way to get rid of lantana. But new plants keep popping up and it's a continued fight with nature. I have heard the younger the plant are the more posionous it is to goats, that according to my friend Lynne who had a small herd/flock of goats.

Wow the grass was wild then, poor Toro no wonder she died. I killed her! Dear Husband George did slatch the worst of the grass first, then I ran over it with the ride-on. We got given the old thing but she lived at the repair shop, so you never knew if you going to finish cutting the lawn or not. Eventually it all got to much! So we hunted around for something better and here she is



A trusty John Deere, now you should see the Crazy Lady go like a bat out of hell. Even got a little trailer to make my life easier. No more pushing a wheelbarrow uphill. Mate She goes well! Finally we paid the bank the last payment in half the time, now she's all mine.
We got nearly 5 acres to cut, our place is 3 acres, plus the crown land in front of our place and then the verge/naturestrip. The fencing is really bad on the crownland and seeing we mow it and keep it clean, I think we intitled to graze our sheep there, we going to have to repair it.(Done)Just another job to get done before Christmas Holidays, when I bringing the sheep to LavenderHill to let the grass rest a little in Sydney. Ever heard of sheep going on holidays!!!!!(2009 I spent 5 weeks up there, George had to return to work earlier and Cobi spent 2 weeks with me)




Now the post and rail fence is slowly creeping it way round the property. It look great but George started this expensive fence and it's costing a fair bit to put up. Rose Cottage is going to be a cosy little holiday cabin for Nilo and Des to use when ever they want to. It's their cottage!! Cost is not important cause we using recycled or seconds building materials were possible. Des brings loads of unwanted stuff from work and comes up with wonderful ideas too, and we had bought/been given a far bit of building material over the last 3 years.

Lavender Cottage is next and already we have wall studs, cladding, windows, wooden flooring, sliding glass door and a steel frame to build on. But no roof yet. I have changed my mind on where we were going to build it. So we need to do is move the caravan and clear that area before we can start with it. That's after Rose cottage get a bathroom and toilet, the septic tank which I have just bought needs to be carted up to Bellbrook and a hole needs to be dug for it, but I will look for someone with a backhoe locally.

So that's we were up too ...

Eggs for sale ...

The girls are finally laying again ... 7 black orpingtons, 2 austrolopes, 1 leghorn, 2 white silkies and a buff frizzle pekin. Today I collected 9 eggs, 7 from the orpingtons and 1 from the silkies. Meaning that 2 orpingtons girls are still to start laying. I have sold 2 dozen eggs and given 2 dozen away to friends. A small jar has the first egg money in, $9.00 to be exact, rather a proud moment for me. (Yeh I know)

According to my maths if I sell 4 dozen eggs a week that should buy me a bag of chook food, which normally lasts 3 weeks. $18.00 eggs x 3 weeks = $54.00 I think I am going to hatch another batch of chicks this year, if there is just 6 more hens hmmmm We're very lucky to have only got one rooster with last years chicks, and his future is not very good atm, Harry is starting to pick on him and that can only mean one thing "The POT" only he has still got a bit to grow. That's our Harry and he weighs a ton! Very good natured boy he is too.

So back too the young rooster who has just started to crow, he will need to go into a fattening cage by himself. My Grandma used to have small cages for roosters going to the pot, so that's on George's to do list. Any ideas how to fatten a rooster fast? I wanted to sell a trio of orpingtons to recoup some money, but decided the girls could make more money by laying eggs. and a nice homegrown chook could be very tasty and I can then practice dressing a chook too. Something I have never done before by myself, only memories helping my grandmother doing it, and that was more than 40 years ago.

Well were off to an BBQ today too meet Nilo and Des's Daughter, Son inlaw and Casey the baby, can't wait. So Here's wishing everyone a lovely day. And thanks for stopping by.
Rina

Planning a new enclosure for the sheep .... and planting a little feed for the sheep.

Wow with all this good rain and lots of sheep poo,it was time to do something about the yards, they needed to be rotory hoed and new seed planted. The area where the sheep are in the pic is were Des rotory hoed the soil. The seed mix consisted of native grass, jap seed, millet, oats, sunflower and two scoops of chook food.(no I am not expecting layer pellets to start growing but there are other seeds which is in the chook food) Now we just waiting for another downpour to settle the soil and seeds in. Des came over to help and had a great time working the rotory hoe. The soil looked so rich ... now it's grow seeds grow. A big thank you to Des!


Aunt Krissy asked in the last comments if we have a sheep shed. Last year was our first year of keeping sheep and chickens, we got a ram and 6 ewes (spur of the moment thing). Way too many for the space we have in Sydney, so they get feed a mix of pellets and other good stuff daily aswell. We had just renting part of a small holding with the landlord also living on the property. Before lambing season I had George and my son Neal build an enclosure for ewes and lambs. In hindsight I would have made it bigger with a yard around it and added another two bigger yards wrapped around them. This is what I have in mind for the new enclosure on our property at Lavender hill. There is also a piece of crown land next to our property, which we mow and this area we fenced off for our sheep to graze in. A little area with a ramp just high enough to load the stubbond sheep onto the trailer if they need to go anywhere. A bit like the old folk had for loading cattle.


Sheep shed this is how dark it is by the time we get home atm. Not a great fan of going to work in the dark and then coming home in the dark. Our days are so short still.

This is what the boys built for the sheep, it works well to keep the foxes at bay, nighttime they sleep inside, mornings they're let out. Why two gates ... just so we can rotates grazing a little. Nelson the ram lives in his own yard, next to the ewes, he intimidates them and me! I don't fancy a broken hip. I would like a storage area for feed and extra bails of hay and also a water tank. A nice big tree would be great too. No snow here so that is not a problem.