Nearly that time of year again

We'll shortly be scanning the ewes to see who's pregnant and who's not, the ewes who aren't will likely be rejoined in July for a summer lambing (I hate lambing in summer incidentally) so we can have a bit of yoghurt and fresh cheese year round.

Vanessa

It never rains it pours.....

I'm very angry. Well actually angry doesn't quite cover it-furious maybe? A few months back we gave permission to the power company who has power lines running throughout our property to trim some trees that might have touched the line this coming spring-simple no?-we thought no more of it. Today we went for a drive around the side of the property where these trees are, we haven't been for a few days, and discovered to our shock and dismay that our 50+year old mulberry tree, planted by the family and a fond part of our growing up, was gone. Yes you read that right-a absolutely beautiful 25+ metre tree just gone, only a small stump is left, this tree has survived fires and droughts and managed to bear enough fruit every year for jam, pies and just picking fresh delicious fruit as we passed by-and some dope with a chainsaw ruined all that, all it would've took was a phone call to double check with us. The worst part is there is nothing I can do, it's gone. I can only hope that the people who cut it down will at least buy a new tree to take it's place. I'm not holding my breath.

Vanessa

A sad day

The 21st of June was a sad day, our old border collie cross, Ace, was found unable to get up and in pain we took her to the vet in the hopes it would be a simple problem and easily fixed-unfortunately she had broken the bone between her elbow and shoulder, we had to decide if we wanted to operate or put her to sleep. It was a hard decision wether to put her through a major operation which would involve long recoveries and maybe leave her in pain anyway, she was an old dog and I think she would not have wanted to go through a operation having never had a sick day in her 18 years, nonetheless it was incredibly difficult to decide to let her go. She now rests in peace on the farm under the pines, forever the young active dog I'll remember. We'll miss tripping over her (as she was always right behind you), watching her try to control the milking flock (much to their mixed amusement and disgust) and most of all we'll miss her constant steady presence around the farm. So if you visited whilst she was here take a moment to remember her, a wise old soul with not a bad bone in her body.

She will be missed.

Vanessa

Absolutely hopeless........

Me? Well maybe a bit! I must admit I'm inherently forgetful and disorganised.......I can't help it! The ewes have started lambing and I know I must get some pics up to ohh and ahh over, we've also started making cheese, real-able-to-be-sold-complete-with-a-NSW-food-authority-licence-number-cheese! We'll shortly be posting a list of markets we'll be attending, so we hope to see you there!

Nessa

Better late than never eh!

Hi everyone,

Well I had the ewes scanned last month and we are expecting 57 ewes to lamb between June and late August, 20 of the 57 are early lambers and should lamb by mid July-so once again it's coat making, teat finding and cleaning time! Our pipeline milker is nearly complete and we have applied for a license! It's all happening. I'll try to keep the blog up-to-date as we lamb.

Nessa

Can't help myself.......

Bull calf

Cadbury

Jaffa

Well here is the lastest addition to the crew-meet Jaffa the Friesian cow, who was due to calve in April but surprised us by having a lovely little jersey x heifer calf on the 22nd instead! Which caused a fair amount of panic-goats to move, sheep to shuffle, horses to shoo and a milking machine to organise! Luckily we got it all done and we've been milking Jaffa twice a day since, she produces about 15L of milk a day-which despite the stereotype is quite creamy-we named the calf Cadbury and we also bought another bull calf while we have plenty of milk to feed him! Cadbury is currently getting about 6L of milk a day, which she drinks from a bottle like a pro, and the little bull gets a simular amount but he drinks his out of a bucket. Overall they've fitted in to the farm very well :)

I'll be posting the results of the sheep's pregnancy scans next month sometime-cross your fingers for me!

Nessa

I know, I know

I'm absolutely hopeless at keeping my blog up-to-date aren't I? Well here's a well deserved update :) We're still milking the ewes once a day (yes even Christmas day!) we got up to 54 ewes in milk this season and we found milking them very enjoyable (most of the time anyhow.....wet sheep, ick!), we also milk recored so we know our best ewes and who to keep rams and young ewes out of, we also had one c-section performed on farm (very interesting :)) due to a case of lambing sickness, we got 2 live lambs and the ewe milked beautifully! We also had one malpresentation which required assistance, but overall the ewes did very well delivering healthy live lambs-even the yearling ewes, one of which even had triplets! I've chosen my breeding groups for this year and have put Amun (awassi) in with the main milking flock and Vlad (east friesian) in with the young dry ewes, I can't wait to see the lambs! Hopefully I'll see some more colour this year too. I'm hoping to take some pics of the 2009 lambs (all grown up!) soon, including a pic of our very handsome up and coming herd sire Cairo whose dam peaked at 3.5 litres per day! He's promising to be a big boy once mature! We're looking at a June/July lambing and we'll hopefully have around 80 ewes to milk for the 2010 season, not including the ewe lambs which will only be put with the ram if I think they're big enough later in the season. We've really made some progress with our cheese room, we're now the proud owners of a 160L pasteurizer/cheese vat and we're moving ahead with council and sydney catchment authority approval, so we should officially be making cheese (and yoghurt!) this June, we can't wait! In the mean time there are plenty of things to do, like designing and making labels, and keeping our soap orders moving.

Until the next instalment, and I promise it won't be as long!

Vanessa

PS I've been having some serious computer issues (sorted now thank goodness) so some emails may have got lost or misplaced.