Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold

What do you value above all else? What would you give absolutely anything for? 

It's difficult to say this is what I hold in the highest esteem, above all else. One of the things that would devastate me if it was taken away from me is the ability to raise my children (when I have them..) on the land. To me running free through puddles and dirt, making temporary 'dams' (otherwise known as diverting the water running down our driveway by a few mm), playing with animals, having chores and the many other things that come with a farming childhood are priceless. Why do I think chores are priceless? They taught me to have responsibilities from a young age, they taught me that there are consequences if you don't toe the line. They taught me how to reason, as swapping out of chores in this house required a literary debate at times. So, all that glitters is not gold... 

Yesterday morning was a misty morning, these were my favourite as a child on the school bus. I'd drive for an hour and a bit through a winter wonderland and know that by lunch time the sky would be a clear crystal blue. Perfect for playing!

Now, if you can, try and zoom in on each of these photos. The 'glitter' is difficult to see as I type on my phone so I hope it shows up with a little more definition on a computer screen. :)

The Sage glittered...

The weeds glittered...

The cobwebs glittered...

Even the whole Barley paddock glittered as the sun shone through the dewy heads of grain. 

The Wild Oats glittered...

EVERYTHING glittered...

This web took my breath away as it glittered, it inspired me. 

As we delicately weave,

The strands of our lives.

We are battered,

Trying to please. 

When the only thing we need?

Is to take joy in this life. 

As a 'Life on the Land-ian' I look forward to the day when I can take my kids for a walk and remind them to look down and to look up. To change their perspective when what you see seems to hold no wonder or opportunity. I look forward to teaching them what each plant type is, to showing them how cleverly some of them retain water for their 'fuel'. I look forward to showing them the beauty of a spiderweb. Undoubtedly they will poke it with a finger or a stick, that is a child's nature. Yet I look forward to that to because I can teach them to respect another's home or property, I can teach them to respect the spider and let that teaching flow through to all animals. Life on the land is full of beautiful ways to teach my children to be beautiful people. People who are caring, respectful, strong, thoughtful and fun loving. That is my glitter, that is my gold. 

So take a look at your life today, what do you hold dearest? What do you cherish most? Have you fulfilled that need? If you have, keep it close, continue to cherish it. If you haven't then strive for it, reach for it, don't let yourself settle for less. Make your life a thing to behold. Make your life something you are proud of, something that excites you and encourages you to continue to reach for your dreams! Everything that glitters, my friend, is not gold. 

What A Wonder-Full World

There is nothing quite so wonderful as a satisfying Spring morning. The crops are sparkling in the morning light, the dogs are playing and full of energy. Larking around as if they're puppies and the only thing that matters is looking like a grinning fool. The air smells sweet like fresh flowers and mown hay, the seasons are most definitely turning. It's warm enough for breakfast on the verandah, getting to soak in the soft warm sunlight before heading to work is pure bliss. A layer of sunscreen and a warm jacket, the wind is bitingly cold but the sun is warming up to its blistering summer heat already. Helmet in hand and dogs on the run, it's time for some sheepwork. 850 ewes and their lambs yarded with two people and two dogs. I find it so satisfying pushing sheep in with no bikes, they're less stressed and the dogs get better training. So it's on the bike  to bring in another mob with the wind in your face and the sun on your back. Its utterly beautiful having green feed flowering everywhere, and birds on the wing. Even they're loving the warm thermals and hovering over head! 

There is absolutely nothing better than being on a bike behind a mob of ewes and lambs and seeing that even the tail of the mob are well rounded and fat. There's just some days when the world you get to work in fills you with wonder and joy. Blue skies, green grass, happy animals. It's just a good day!

Mustering roos!

Happy sheep..

Birds on the wing :)

This tree is not quite all there ;)

Buddy aka Doofus. 

Yabby Dabba Doo

Never let someone else's expectation be your limitations. Life on the land is the title but that doesn't limit me to the land. We also farm the water sources we have on the farm, which is approximately 58 dams. We've never branched out into commercially selling our dam produce but it's on the cards. The infamous Yabby, Gilgie (pronounced joog-ee), or Koonac is what I'm referring to. The freshwater crustacean of Australia, I won't get into the delectable Marron here!

So what's the difference between the three? Primarily Yabbies are lighter in colouring than a Koonac or Gilgie but that's not a scientific way to identify them. First you check for ridges on the head; four (normally only two are visible) means a Yabby or Koonac, five (and all of these will be visible) means a Gilgie or Marron. 

To determine between the Yabby and Koonac check for claw shapes. The Yabby will have large elongated claws with a 'hairy' elbow, the Koonac will have broader oval shaped claws (and will generally be closer to black in colouring). 

To determine between a Gilgie and a Marron check for spines on the telson (the centre of the tail) and the rostrum (the point at the tip of their head between the eyes). Spines means a Marron, no spines means a Gilgie. If you're keen on more info have a look here: 

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Fishing-and-Aquaculture/Aquaculture/Aquaculture-Management/Pages/Farming-Yabbies.aspx

So what am I doing with our Yabbies? I'm fishing out our nursery dam and spreading them into male dams and more breeding dams. Separating the males off means they grow to a larger size. This is great for two reasons, selling them or eating them. The larger the claws the better the feed! I will make a disclaimer here, I don't particularly enjoy eating them au naturale but pan fried or with the right sauce they're the perfect entree. Plus it never hurts to have a feed of Yabbies for the boss! There is a theory that you can grow males and females out to a larger size together if you put them in a salty dam as it prohibits breeding, however, I don't specialise in this field so don't quote me on it. You want some pictures right? Ok! 

These are the easiest traps to use:

If you're doing it right you'll end up with a trap full like this one, hopefully slightly larger ones if you're not at a nursery dam.

So you've pulled a bucket full of Yabbies, what now?

Now you sort them into edible or non-edible sizes. The small ones are then sorted into male and female. At least that's what I'm doing at the moment. 

This is a male. Males have slight protrusions on the base of their hindmost legs. Zoom in and you'll see them.

This is a female. They don't have the hind leg protrusions and they have dark circles on the third set of legs counting from the hindmost legs. 

This is how the females carry their eggs, be sure not to eat these ones, they're the money makers!

Depending on the dam you're trapping you'd want the edible ones to have claws maybe a third larger than this one. Sometimes the claws have brown tips and sometimes blue like this. They generally tend to take on different colours depending on the water they're in. So you've sorted into your separate buckets? Now you release into your chosen dams. 

Be sure to choose ones with minimal bird life or you may find claws littering the edges of the dams.

If you're wanting to eat the tasty critters the best method we've found for cooking them is straight into boiling water, it must be boiling beforehand, and then time it for around 3 minutes 40 seconds from the point that the water reaches boiling again. You can put them in the freezer for half an hour to stun them but this method is relatively instant. If you have a weak stomach you may want to stop reading here...

If you're brave try the freezer tactic, use a good sharp knife and slice them in half from head to tail. Remove the head and pan fry in butter and garlic or a garlic, chilli, lime & brown sugar dressing. Absolutely delicious!

The best bait? Well that's entirely debaitable... I couldn't resist. Generally we use dog biscuits. Mulies work as well but the fastest way I've found to fill a trap is to twitch a section of a chicken carcass to the base of the trap with wire. The bones will be stripped clean and you've caught them in no time at all!

Finishing Out The Week

I promised a week in the life of, so here is Friday of the next week. What were we doing? More lamb marking and crutching the ewes at the same time. It keeps us busy when we have to yard the mob and draft the ewes off their lambs before 7:30, for the contract crutchers to get their full day. So we begin with that and then it's into lamb marking! I've previously shown you most of what we do when we lamb mark, the only thing left is what we breed for. (If I've forgotten something or you want to know something, please feel free to ask.)

The wrinkles or skin folds across this guys neck are something we try to breed out of our flock. The cleaner bodied they are the less likely they are to end up fly blown. Take my word for it when I say it's not a nice experience for anyone. 

The same goes for the skin folds across the breech here. The cleaner their bums the less dags they end up with which again reduces fly risks and means they are easier care sheep. We'd prefer them to look like this. 

So that's the main thing we're targeting in our fine wool merino sheep. Aside from our breeding program Friday was a busy day because we needed to mark the lambs,

draft more ewes for the boys,

and crutch all at the same time, and in the dodgiest yards we have.

(I'm sorry you can't see it in action but we were flying that day and I didn't have time to stop and ask permission.) The ewes walk up a ramp and along the race at the back of the cradle. You can see an opening just below the wool bale hanging down for shade. This is where the ewe is pulled out of the race and rolled into the cradle. She lies upside down so that she can be crutched, this is shearing the wool off the area around her bum, and anything with dags (collected poo) as well. We also 'wig' them, or shear the wool from around their face, as sheep can become wool blind and it helps remove the risk of grass seeds in the eyes. 

One of the hardest things on a day like today is getting the dogs to behave themselves when they're not needed. Charlie eventually got the picture that she didn't get admonished if she stayed close and of course I couldn't resist a cute photo!

Buddy on the other hand will happily cruise all day and you have to call him out of the shade to get some work out of him!

I found this beast chilling around the yard. It's amazing what you end up with when you buy a farm! I also thought I'd show you that no matter how busy we/you are, there's always time for simple joys. A beastly trike...

Or the first braid of the hat season.

It's all about remembering to take the time to enjoy what you do. When you're flat strap it's easy to forget to do, but the spring sun is beginning to shine and life on the land doesn't get much better than this time of year. 

Things To Do On A Thursday

Yep, you guessed it. The day starts with a walk. Personally I think light exercise is a great way to start the day, leaves you feeling refreshed and ready to tackle what's ahead. Speaking of which, first task for the day was moving the rest of the preserved goods and the alcohol stash out of the pantry. What did this teach me? That we are in dire need of a wine rack!
I then spent the rest of the morning battling with where we live. It was study time and what do you know the internet data allowance was used up so I was trying my hardest to achieve something with glacially paced internet and a computer that decided not to cooperate. Four hours later I think I managed to achieve something. 

What to do now? Oh, that's right, we got to push around 1500 wethers back over the road and through a large expanse of fenced off bush. Why? To avoid letting them get into any of the canola. 

You can vaguely see the freshly crutched boys wandering through the bush here. It's always interesting as the bush has branches and stumps and rabbit warrens hiding all over the place, and if the sheep decide they want to get into the parrot bush... Well that's it! There's no way to push them out with just a bike, it's to thick and prickly. It's times like that that I wish I had a chopper or a plane overhead like the stations I've worked on. The upside to bush mustering and checking a few fences on the other block? Pictures galore! 

The boys happily heading into fields of yellow cape weed. 

The canola is losing its flowers now.

Leaving the block sheep free for 6 weeks so the worms die off on the pasture means there's bulk pasture! Great for the sheep, not so great for knowing what you're about to ride over... Helmets are definitely a necessity!

The most permanent creek system we have. It can be interesting on this block as it gets very wet in places, one has to be aware of getting bogged at all times. 

Sun orchids

My favourite little white flowers. These pop up in the wetter pasture/bush land areas. 

These purple flowers have started popping up all over the place. There's nothing quite like seeing bright flowers all over the farm. :)

Spider orchids are still out.

Even though they're dying off they still seem quite majestic. 

Lots of pink triggers!

The infamous roo paw, such a different plant but very striking.

And to finish the day off, beer o'clock in our 'alfresco' dining area. 

Friday will be a day in the city so I won't bore you with that but I hope you've come to understand how diverse any one day on the farm can be. There are always other things that crop up and there is never a shortage of things to do!

P.S. I forgot to mention that when we lamb mark we don't physically mules the sheep. We have been part of a few trials to do with how we can better help the sheep. Fly blow is a huge problem but as an enterprise we have chosen not to put the sheep through mulesing anymore. 

The Wonders of Wednesday

Once again we begin with a morning walk. This is my moral high ground, if I've been for my exercise before I do anything else then I can't 'forget' to do it. That and the chocolate is far more satisfying! ;) 

Next up, yarding what turned out to be 901 ewes and another 352 lambs. When you're working a mob of ewes and lambs it always seems the more you work them, the more the lambs fall to the back. A bit like water rising through setting concrete. So, sheep yarded and the boys get into drafting them. In the meantime I set up the marking cradle and count the ewes out, keeping a 'wether' eye out for any mistakes. Herding the freshly drafted lambs into the shed is always a mammoth task. Imagine trying to herd a school of fish, if one breaks they all follow like a fluffy white tide. And yes they can crash through fences with their lack of yard experience. My brother copped the tide this morning!

Yes, that's him stuck in the corner...

The more we work them throughout their life the better they respond to us in the yards. In essence we train our sheep, although it never quite feels that way...

Now we get to physically mark the lambs. I explained this in the last post but I have some photos today. 

Our tags, each farm has it's own brand and there are an array of shades of the years colour to choose from. The colours run in an eight year cycle and tell us what age each sheep is at a glance. 

The tagging gun, these tags are much nicer for the stock compared to the old ones that punched a hole and then slid the tag through that hole. Lambs ears don't always withstand the old style so we've moved to these self piercing ones. 

The old tags. 

The infamous green ring and it's applicator. These are one of the handiest inventions on the farm and get used for no end of things! So you slide the green ring onto the four prongs... 

Squeeze the pliers and place over either the tail or the testicles. Instead of making a physical wound the green ring cuts off the circulation to the tail or testicles resulting in them dropping off after a period of time. It's less painful and leaves less risk of infection for the animal. 

We use these ear marking pliers to take two notches out of the animals left ear for  ewes and right ear for wethers. The tags go in the opposite ear. This allows us to determine their sex when coming through the draft and puts a physical 'ownership' mark on the animal. (Yes, some people will change the tags on an animal unfortunately.)

They get vaccinated using one of these, apologies for the photo of an old gun! Normally there is a needle and a refrigerated vaccine bag attached.

Lastly the animals get a 'scratch' to vaccinate against scabby mouth. 

All you do is make a welt on bare skin and as you scratch to make that welt you pump a drop of the liquid down the metal tip. Simple and effective. 

So we did all of that to 352 lambs today, which isn't many compared to a contractor but with renovations going on we're taking it at a cruisier pace than usual. Lambs are sent back to mum and left in a relatively small paddock overnight to ensure mothering up happens correctly. I try to send the lead of the mob back over the tail a few times to make sure all the lambs have a chance to find mum and then we leave them to it. (As long as you've remembered to shut the gate at the other end of the paddock! There may have been a revved engine and some quick manoeuvring to get the dry ewes, that always come to the front of the mob, back into the previous paddock.) Sheepwork is all sorted for the day and now it's back to the house where I found our new alfresco dining area! 

Mum and I spent the afternoon moving the pantry and the kitchen back into the dining room so we can still eat! Much to Dad's delight we ended up using his newly acquired pallet racking which truth be told is perfect for pantry shelving! (Sorry guys, we girls are going to be pinching your industrial shelves from now on!) That brings us to now, sitting back on the veranda watching the sun go down with a cider and getting this blog written. I hope it's informative for you all as well as entertaining. Oh, and we do stop for smoko either side of our lunch as well. Today was also the first spring day we've had, the sun came out along with the sun screen. The insects were in full flight, literally against my sunnies on the bike! Even the frogs came out this evening with their croaky songs. :)

There's never a dull moment on the farm!