Couldn't help myself...

Here's an udder action shot!

And just in case it seems I am udder obsessed, a bit of variety... this is the burgeoning wood pile with the deluxe woodshelter (made from corrugated roofing iron, like just about every other shelter around here...). It will withstand gale force winds according to the designer. The pile in front is the drying out patch and the branches are what Ben brought up from the goat paddock this morning.

Oh and a goat. The goats got into the horse's paddock and this is Basil. There is also Rosemary (Rosie) and Caramel but they were more interested in hanging out with the horses than following me back down to their proper paddock. Until I produced a bucket of pellets, then I was everyone's best mate.

This is more like it!

Loving this pic of today's weather from MetService - we'll have more of this please!!

The driveway paddock is dry enough to take the tractor down with the trailer and bring up some branches for firewood. Already getting wood up for next winter, takes so long to dry it out properly. Seems odd to be bringing up wood while we are still having fires (having said that, someone had one last night while I was out, and it was so warm he had to have the door open...). But nice to see the woodpile growing again instead of shrinking.

Tried to hire a rotary hoe for the vege patch today but the one we needed was out already - the other options were an industrial sized one half the width of the vege patch or a tiny one suitable for hoeing a flower bed outside your lounge room window. So have booked the mama bear middle sized one for tomorrow morning. Will head out later and get some seeds and seedlings ready to go. Have a nice pile of horse manure festering ready to hoe through and then bring on the sun!

Had a good ride on Choc yesterday, he is still wearing his best behaviour pants although was a bit distracted because there was a third horse in the arena (my mate Ellie joined us with her boy Spyke) and Choc being a social butterfly was quite keen to just go hang out with him. Fair enough they haven't seen each other for probably six months and Spyke is a handsome bugger!

And because no post would be complete without an udder update - no change in the udder today really, for all the udder fans, I promise there will be more photos when there's more to show.

Due date

Today is cow 30's due date and her udder is getting bigger by the day. Poor girl having all her bits photographed! But everyone loves a good udder pic so here are a couple:And just to keep things even, one of the other end (I suspect she was thinking something along the lines of "will you piss off away from my udder" at this stage...)So looks like she might be getting moved in a few days and then she'll really get sick of being checked on...

Sunny day today so off for a ride shortly. Have a lesson on Choc on Monday, first one for me in a couple of months and first one for him in ages, maybe a year even? He will probably be completely pooped afterwards and expect me to carry him home, he'd be mistaken about that though.

Udder watch

The heifer has started to develop an udder! She is due in three days and her udder has started to fill up. She is still not doing the waddle (when their pelvic ligaments all loosen up) but as you can see is pretty lopsided.

She's still in with the others until her udder is well and truly there, then will move next door to the flatter paddock which connects to the yards. Fingers crossed we don't need to get her into the yards and that the calf just pops out no worries.

Apparently they can bag up (get an udder) a lot earlier than cows who've calved before. She's looking a bit thinner than the others so I guess the calf is already taking a bit out of her. Her maternity paddock has been empty for a while so there is some grass in there for her and it's not tooooo soggy. Should have enough hay for her too once the calf comes.

Piggies are getting friendlier by the day and spend more time wandering around their pen instead of hiding under the hay. Still not keen on eating much apart from their pellets! Spoilt... think they have been talking to the chooks and are getting to be fussy eaters.

Poo picked yesterday to start a compost pile for the garden, once the weed killer has done its thing will rotary hoe it and dig in the horse poo then start planting. Have some tomato seedlings from dad already and will get some peas, corn, zucchini and spring onions soon too.

Piggie update

Just been out to check/feed pigs and they came hooning over as soon as they heard the bucket. They are getting more adventurous - they would only go a few metres away from their bed a few days ago, but today they ate out of their flash custom-made pig trough (some old spouting wired to the fence).

They are a bit wary of it as there is an electric wire running around the bottom of their pen and we think one of them got a belt from it last week. There is some alkathene pipe covering the wire near their food trough though - don't want to put them off eating!

The one closest to the camera is called Hock and the other is Ham.

The chooks all came running over too as they thought they'd be in for some feeding (like Dee they also clearly think they are starving - don't they know they are meant to be "free range"?!). But they still really don't like the pigs so didn't even try to nick their food.

Juggling hay

Been a pretty quiet week, and mostly fine which has been fantastic for the ground. Raining again today but apparently it's mean to disappear this afternoon. Been so nice getting the horses out of the paddock and their legs aren't covered in mud!

The ground was even dry enough to finally take the tractor and trailer down to the bottom woolshed and grab some hay. The stuff in there is better than what is in the big shed and would rather feed that to the horses. I tried taking the Bighorn down there earlier in the week and got well and truly stuck (dumb road tyres...) so had to ask the guy who grazes his heifers here if he could tow me out with his tractor. Got called a townie and no doubt won't hear the end of that for a while! There was no hay left in the big shed for the horses though (only stuff good for cows) so it was getting a bit grim.

Dee thought it was great having a moving buffet come through her paddock and followed the tractor and trailer around grabbing a mouthful when she could. It's not the best pic as it's from my phone but you can probably see she is not exactly starving - just thinks she is.

The others were a bit more intelligent and actually ate the hay that I'd already thrown out for them. I think Dee just has a thing about trailers and wheelbarrows, she sees them and seems to automatically think there is food in them - just for her.

The piggies are getting friendlier, and know the rattle of the bucket now. They are very cute and still burrow under the hay to sleep, and pop their noses out when they hear the bucket. Their appetites seem to be growing so hopefully that means they are too.

Mother to be heifer still has no udder, she is due in a week from today so once this rain eases off I'll bring them all over from the far paddock and put them into the one next to the house so we can keep an eye on her and her udder.

Managed to ride Choc on Wednesday and Saturday, he is still being pretty well behaved although Saturday was a bit of a dick - had forgotten to give him his toxdefy for the previous two days so am guessing that was it. Asked for a canter on the lunge and we had some pretty cool bucks - the type that would send me over the handlebars easy peasy, so am glad I wasn't on board. He was really spooky leading up the road too but heaps more settled on the way back down to home. We are going to attempt a dressage day with the riding club on Oct 5th. They are usually pretty laid back days so I think it'll be good for him. Have done one before on Maddy and it was good fun so at least I know what to expect. Am sure he'll be fine, he is pretty good in new places usually.

The piglets hit town

The piglets arrived on Saturday night, but didn't get here until dark so spent the night in the tack shed with a pile of hay to snuggle up on. My mate Jacqui drove them down from up north (yes she's nuts) and ended up with a distinct piggie odour in her car. They were a bit shell shocked when they arrived and the next morning when we moved them to their new enclosure at the end of the cattle yards they were not thrilled to be handled. But they have settled in heaps, are loving the pellets I got for them and seem to spend an awful lot of time snoozing on their king sized bed (a couple of pallets with hay on).
Spot the piggies....

Getting stuck into their pellets - breakfast in bed, nice for some huh! They are about the size of a large fox terrier right now and love to burrow under the hay and snuggle up together, very cute. Glad there are two of them to keep each other company. Just try not to think about what will happen in 12 weeks.

The chooks are not very impressed so far. They made an attempt to go and scavenge some of the pigs' food but once the pigs actually moved the chooks thought better of it and scuttled away. The horses seem ok so far, but a certain black pony has noticed something is new in his paddock:


The paddock still looks pretty awful but it is actually heaps drier than it was a few days ago and I am sure I can see some grass growing....

Checked the cows today and mum-to-be still looks the same. A bit rounder in the belly but no udder yet so she can stay where she is until the end of the week and then we'll bring her up next to the house in the flattish paddock to keep an eye on her.

Started de-weeding the vege patch on Friday, sprayed it all out as it was completely over-run and will get a rotary hoe from the hire place in a couple of weeks to dig it all up. Dad has planted some tomato seeds for us so we'll get those going along with some peas as soon as possible, yum!!