Thwarting Birds

Hi Everyone,

  Thank you for your prayers and good wishes, Mom arrived home safely last Sunday.  Since her departure I have been sad, but very busy. 

    For those of you who are wondering, Ranger is doing very well.  He has grown quite a bit since Barry found him.  We have let him out into the fenced orchard to graze during the day, and he likes to race around at top speed, lurching to a stop right before running into the fence. 

On Monday Kathrin and I put hail netting over the berry patch to keep out all of the “share farmers” (birds) that have been eating the berries.  We first stapled together two long lengths of netting.  Then we scrunched them up toward the middle and folded them into a smaller bundle.  The tractor lifted the bundle up over the fence that surrounds the berries, and then we pulled the netting out and over the patch.  Then we attached the edges along the top of the fence. 



Lifting netting over the fence with the tractor

There were a few minor holes in the netting, and when the wind blew it pushed the netting out around the gate into the patch.  One of these defects must have been how a female Satin Bower Bird got in.  We found her inside twice.  Kathrin and I were quite the comedy team trying to catch her inside under the hail netting.  We let one of the cats in, but he wasn’t much help. 

Danny watching our antics from the safety of the raspberry bush

We plugged up the holes, and weighed the netting around the gate with rocks, and since then neither the Bower bird, nor any other bird, has managed to storm the berry patch.  In the case of the Bower Bird I am not sure if it is our improvements that keep her out, or the fright we gave her by chasing her about the patch and then finally catching her.

Satin Bower Bird
notice the purple eyes!

 Tuesday, Kathrin and I went up to their other property, Brumby’s Run, to retrieve brightly colored road barriers that bordered one of the dams of water.  The barriers had originally been put there to keep the cattle from entering the water from that end because there was a steep drop off.  Kathrin now wants to use the barriers to create a riding arena in one of the front paddocks.  In order to even reach most of the barriers, we had to squelch through the muddy water at the dam’s sides. 

Kathrin cutting apart the barriers while wading through water

We recovered 16 barriers in all.  Each barrier was tipped over and drained of water and then carried out by hand to the waiting ute.  After all the barriers were high and dry, we then had to face the problem of how to transport them all back to Jagumba.  Each barrier is a wedge shape and made of either white or bright orange plastic. We could fit three rows of barriers, stacked four high, neatly lined up in the back of the ute, but there was not enough room the fit the wide base of the fourth row.  So instead, we tipped the last row upside down, with the skinny, pointed side down and the wide base up. Then we quickly put straps up and across all four rows and took our hard won treasures home. 

Our tightly packed load

On Wednesday, Barry took his mulching machine up to the highest paddock to continue clearing the area of its infestation of black berry bushes.  Kathrin and I went up to the far corner of the property to spray thistles. 

Barry mulching black berries

Later in the evening, we continued our work with the horses.  Besides Dakota, I have now started working with Jillaroo, a four year old half brumby mare.  Jillaroo has a different personality than Dakota.  Dakota is very laid back, and will only work if you work to make him.  Jillaroo, however, is a bit jumpier, and she moves readily. 

Thursday we did some more garden work down at Billy’s Cabin and some general house work.  Barry continued munching black berries.

On Friday, Barry had to go into town for a bone scan, so it was just Kathrin and I working with horses and puttering around the house.   Every day I must feed Ranger and bring in the horses from the pasture so that we can work with them.  In order to do this, I must catch Missoula and her foal twice a day and separate them for at least two hours so Missoula will have enough milk to feed Ranger.  Then I have to catch four other horses and put them in separate yards so they can’t run each other around the pens.  Sometimes juggling the horses from pen to pen and from pasture to saddle takes a while.  For general house hold chores I also pick berries, let the chickens out of their coup and collect eggs, chop fire wood, pick lemons and squeeze them for lemon juice, let dogs off their leads to run around and then put them back on if they start getting into trouble, and help with meal prep and clean up.  Days do tend to flash past with so much to do. 

     Saturday was a very busy day.  Since we have had so much success with putting hail netting over the berry patch, Kathrin and I decided that we should also try putting hail netting over the branches of an old walnut tree that grows on the property in an attempt to keep the cockatoos from destroying all the walnuts.  The cockatoos break off all of the walnuts while they are still green and so Kathrin and Berry don’t get to enjoy the fruit the tree produces.   To cover the tree, Kathrin and I once again stapled pieces of hail netting together.  Then Kathrin lifted Barry up in the bucket on the front of the tractor to toss out the ends of the netting around the tree branch. We pulled the edges down with the help of some ropes and tied the corners up nice and snug.  We are hoping that the cockatoos won’t tear through the net or be able to fly through and gaps between where we tied the corners. 

Covering the Walnut Tree
(Barry is the red spot in the tree)

    After netting the walnut tree, Kathrin and I went into Tumbarumba to buy groceries and then to purchase a bull from another farm.  Kathrin bought a 15 month old Limousine bull to breed with the year old herd of heifers that are currently grazing on the property. 

The Limousine bull

Later in the evening, Kathrin went out and killed one of the steers that had been doing poorly.  After an examination of the body, Kathrin surmised that the steer was so skinny because he had an under bite that did not allow him to easily chew his food.  Cows have a large pad of muscle where our top teeth would be.  The bottom teeth then close against this muscle to bite off large quantities of grass, which they then chew.  The teeth on the steer were too far back in his mouth, so the bottom teeth missed the top muscle and were not able to grind down the grass effectively. 

Today Kathrin and I set up a portable electric fence through part of a larger paddock right next to the house so that the horses will be easier to catch.  When the horses have a large area with lots of tasty grass, they usually do not allow themselves to be caught and haltered, even when offered grain.  So we have made my morning chore of wrangling horses much easier with this new fence.  After lunch we took all the dogs down to where Barry has been mulching.  He had destroyed all the black berry bushes in the paddock, except for a small island of green left right in the middle.  All of the rabbits that lived in the other black berries had migrated to this last oasis and we let the dogs out to chase and catch as many rabbits as possible.  The dogs caught a total of eight rabbits.  The rabbits they did not catch were chopped up in the blades of the mulching machine.  

Rabbit Season

   Tonight there is a massive thunder storm rolling through.  When I went out to feed Ranger (in the pouring rain) a bolt of lightning flashed so brilliantly that it lit up the entire area as if it were daylight.  Thank goodness for rain boots and water proof coats. 

Sunset with storm clouds

   I am off to re-charge for another busy day.

Hana