The Johansens' Vineyard

Hi Everyone,

   Please forgive the tardiness of this blog entry.  Kathrin did drop me off at the Johansens’ home and vinery on the Wednesday the 18^th.  I had a wonderful stay with Rob and Heather, my hosts. 

The sign welcoming visitors to the Johansens' home and vineyard

Wednesday afternoon, Heather and I moved some of the horses.  We took one of her mares out to their other grazing land to be with their thirty-two year old gelding, Snoopy.  Heather had to trim his feet and just check up on him.  While we were there we also hiked through the paddocks to check on their cows.  The Johansens breed Murry Grey cows, which are basically a type of white Angus, and cross them with Galloway cows.  The Galloway are generally more fuzzy and a slightly darker grey.  During our walk, we only saw a few of the older cows. 

Looking for cows

The rest were either in the farthest paddock (which we didn’t bother to check since it was a long walk and very hot out) or they had cross the little river and were in with the neighbor’s herd.  When we returned to where we had left the car and the horse trailer, or “float” as the Australians call it, we were happy to find that the two yearling horses were already there sniffing around.  We loaded them up and headed back to the vineyard. 

   On our way, we stopped to pick up a neighbor and friend, also named Heather, so that she could ride her horse, which had been in with the Johansen’s stallion, home.   Heather Johansen and I decided to accompany her home.  So we saddled up Stormy, Heather’s blue roan mare, and Sally, the paint mare that I was privileged to ride.  We had a nice ride through all the neighboring pastures. All the young cows were very interested in the horses.  They would stare, and then try to creep closer, and follow behind us as we walked along.   

The next morning, Heather and I were out in the vineyard by seven.  We spent the whole morning picking the secondary fruit off the vines.  Secondary fruit is the second group of grapes that bloom after the first batch is already off and growing.  We have to pick them off because when harvest time comes around, the secondary grapes will not be ripe. 

Grapes on the grape vine to the left and secondary fruit
just starting to form on the right.

The work itself is not too difficult, but Heather was by far faster than I was.  She would have a row and a half done in the time it would take me to finish just half of a row.  And by the end of the morning, the muscles on my sides were a little sore from lifting up my arms so often to reach the higher vines.

Rob spent the morning spraying the vines against diseases.  He had to stop around lunch time though because if he sprays when it is very hot out, then the spray can burn the leaves on the plants.  So when we came in for lunch, we all took break for a few hours from the heat outside.  Rob and Heather enjoy watching sports on T.V.  So during afternoons and evenings we would watch Cricket, the Australian Open Tennis matches, and the Australia Down Under bicycle race. 

In the evening, Heather and I rode horses while Rob continued with the spraying.  My horsemanship education has been greatly expanded while I have been in Australia, and Heather added to my knowledge.  So far my main instruction about horses has been in training younger horses and learning to just ride while working livestock.  Heather helped me to improve my riding technique by teaching me the proper way to ride in dressage style riding.  As Heather explained, dressage is simply getting to horse to move where and how you want it to.  So I learned the proper way to sit up in an English saddle, how to hold the reins so that I can easily shorten them and steer the horse, and how to post more effectively while trotting.  To practice trotting we rode the horses up and down the rows of grapes.  The sky was a beautiful blue, the clouds pure white, and the grapes a rich green.  It was a serene scene as we raced up and down the rows and I improved enough to ride with the horse instead of bouncing up and down on her back. 

Looking up on of the rows

On Friday I spent the morning out picking secondary fruit while Heather worked on spraying the vines.  The spraying machine looks like something from a Dr. Seuss book. 

The spraying machine

Rob told me that the tank is filled with water and the chemicals.  The fan on the back turns and blows air out through the small fingers that protrude from either side of the machine.  Then water is pushed up small hoses and droplets of the water are pushed out by the passing air.  This causes a fine mist to cover the plants.  The plants can absorb the chemicals better this way and because the mist hits the plants without extra water dripping off it helps lessen any waste of the chemicals which can be quite expensive.  In the afternoon, we again went trotting along the rows of grapes. After we had finished our trotting practice, Heather coached me through her homemade dressage obstacle course.  I learned to weave the horse in and out of poles, how to trot and canter circles, and how to encourage the horse to trot over poles and small jumps.  Of course, it was a tremendous advantage that Sally, the horse I rode, knew all of the obstacles and was smart enough to figure out how to maneuver through them even with my inexperienced attempts at directing her. 

Sally and me

Saturday was a change of pace.  In the morning we went for a beautiful ride around Heather and Rob’s property and along some of the back roads.

A view from the Johansens' property
 of the farmlands around Tumbarumba

The countryside was gorgeous in the cool morning air.  We rode down to check on the cows that are in the paddock below the house, and we opened a gate to allow them into the neighboring paddock.  We saw some of the baby cows.  They were so funny.  They scoot about running and leaping.  And their white, fuzzy fur gives them a very lovable appearance. 

Happy herd of cows

 In the afternoon, we drove out to the other pasture that Heather and I had visited on my first day.  We took out some feed with extra vitamins for the cows in the first paddock, and then we went in search of the cows that Heather and I had wandered all over the hills looking for.  While we were looking, we got to see a new born calf.  Rob thought it was only a few days old. 

Little calf

Later that evening, we were fortunate enough to be invited over for dinner at the neighbor’s farm, the same farm that Kathrin and Barry owned when we visited four years ago.  It was nice to see the place and get to meet the new caretakers.  This couple, besides looking after the cows and the house, also have a chestnut orchard not too far away.  They drove us out for a personal tour.  After the tour we had a wonderful supper and had a nice time chatting until late into the evening.

Chestnut orchard

On Sunday, Heather showed me the new grapes that they have been grafting.  Heather and Rob grow a few different varieties of wine grapes, mainly Pinot Noir.  The plants they use for the base to graft onto are either other varieties of wine grapes that are not in high demand, or else older varieties that they formerly grew and are now intending to discontinue.   In order to successfully graft a new plant, the base plant must send out a healthy shoot.  Then one of the healthy new buds on the shoot is cut off and replaced with a bud from the desired plant. 

That day, Heather and I worked on pulling off any new shoots that were sprouting from the base plant because they take away nutrients and water from the grafted bud.   There were about eight rows of these new grafts that we had to go through and check.  If the graft had taken and was sending up a shoot of its own, then Heather would place some gardener’s tape around it and the old stem to help support it. 

Monday morning we went back to work picking the secondary fruit.  The Johansens have over 35,000 grape plants.  There are blocks of plants each with about twenty rows.  As I continued to help Heather, I eventually got faster at picking the secondary fruit. 

The Vineyard

In the afternoon we once again watched tennis and enjoyed a pleasant meal.  While I stayed with Heather and Rob, I assisted Heather in working with the two yearling horses we had brought back from the other property.  We did two sessions with the horses, each of us working with one horse.  Both horses are very smart, but it was a challenge to teach these horses because when they are younger they have shorter attention spans, and more energy.  I was able to work with Silver, and we did get a few things done together.  I will have to keep practicing my horse training skills though.  Silver challenged me, because I had to keep finding ways to hold his interest and teach him while still maintaining a calm attitude.  Young horses can be frustrating, but seeing them learn and improve makes the effort worthwhile. 

Tuesday morning we continued with picking the secondary fruit.  Hand picking the fruit takes more time than I would have thought, and I can see why Heather has developed such fast and efficient fingers to get the picking done as soon as may be possible.  In the afternoon, Heather and I took another ride out around the property and then we went back to work on the obstacle course arena.  I actually was able to ride Sally at a canter around the circle.  It was a great feeling. 

On Wednesday morning, we finally finished picking the secondary fruit from the rows in the block of grape vines we were working in.  Heather and Rob grow and harvest their grapes for a larger wine making company.  So their grapes are sent off to another place to be made into wine.  Later in the afternoon Kathrin can and picked me up. 

Rob and Heather

Thursday morning I was back to my regular duties of helping Kathrin in the garden.  Our task this morning was to chop out all the old canes from the raspberry and blackberry plants.  In the afternoon I watched and learned as Barry helped a young boy, Dylan, from Corryong learn to break in horses.  Thursday was Dylan’s third day working with Barry, and he was working on riding the two young brumbies that he had been working with. 

Dylan riding the brumby Amber

Friday morning Kathrin castrated one of this year’s foals from one of Barry’s mares.  Then we went down to the big garden to water and pick zucchinis.  Barry started up the excavator to drive back up to the house.  Along the way he worked on improving the dirt road. 

Barry working on the road

 In the afternoon, we all rode up to the goat pasture and mustered the goats out into the next paddock on top.  It took us awhile since we had to chase the goats through the brush, but we eventually got them through the gate.  Then we had to ride around the fence to make sure that there were no overly large holes that the goats would be able to escape through. 

Riding up to muster goats

On Saturday Kathrin and I went down to the large garden early.  I mowed the lawn while Kathrin pruned the fruit trees. Then we put some hail netting over the row of nectarine trees to try and save some of the fruit from the voracious appetites of the cockatoos. 

Nectarines

   In the afternoon we had visitors.   Caitlin, her boyfriend Alex, and another young couple came up so that Caitlin could look at the horses to see if she would be interested in buying one.  I took an immediate like to Caitlin’s happy, open personality.  And so Kathrin and I took her out to the horse paddock where we caught Sambo, Dakota, and Jillaroo.  Sambo was for me to ride, naturally, while Dakota and Jillaroo were chosen as probably the two best horses for Caitlin’s needs.  Caitlin has an older stock horse at home, which she can ride, but he is generally sore the next day.  So Caitlin was looking for a younger horse that she could ride and work with so that she might be able to enter into some of the local horse competitions for fun.  All three of us saddled up and we went for a short ride down to the river.  Caitlin rode Dakota.  We had a very nice ride,  just ambling along at a leisurely pace so that Caitlin could get the feel of Dakota and see how Jillaroo was for Kathrin to ride.  After we returned to the house, Caitlin and I had some fun riding around in the arena with Sambo and Dakota.  We had them trot and do a little cantering.  Then I showed Caitlin the seven Parelli games that I had worked with Dakota on, and we chatted about horse training.  Soon we retired to the house for some more conversation and a refreshing bowl of ice cream.  Later on, Alex and Barry joined us and we had a nice conversation until about dinner time. 

Caitlin and Dakota

Sunday morning was very busy.  Kathrin and I put out all the horses for while we are gone.  We set up all of the watering timers for the gardens and we cleaned up the house.  I packed up my bags and in the afternoon Kathrin dropped me off at Desiree and Andreas’ on her way to do some vet substituting at the town of Cooma. 

Today has been a very peaceful day.  It rained most of the morning, so I spent some time chatting with Desiree and playing with their border collie, Teddy, and the new kitten, Basil.  Andreas and I drove to the store for groceries.  I baked some scones, and now I am finishing updating my blog.

Teddy and Basil

I hope this finds you all safe and well. 

On Wednesday I will be flying home to Spokane for a stay of two weeks.  I have been invited to attend a full tuition scholarship competition at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.  Therefore, during the second week of February, my Mom and I will fly to Ohio for the three day event.  I hope that I will have time to visit with everyone; I have missed you all so much.

With Love,

   Hana

Just Busy Farm Work

Hi Everyone,

I apologize for not updating my blog for a while.  Time just seems to have slipped by faster than I thought! 

  Thursday, the fifth of January, was quiet day since Barry drove back up to Darlington Point to look at some more fire wood machines.  Kathrin and I spent the day working on horses.   We rode Sambo and Jillaroo around the goat paddock.  We put a pack saddle on Lincoln and rode down to Billy’s with Lincoln as our pack horse.  We did more endless weeding and watering down at the big garden by the cottage.  And I rode Dakota bareback in the yards.  Dakota has been improving tremendously.  He still is a bit slow to go, but he is usually very responsive to direction and he is a lovely quiet horse. 

On Friday, Kathrin and I once again mounted up on our faithful steeds, Joringle and Sambo, and we rode down to the paddock where the brumbies are living.  The brumbies in this field are once that Barry caught for the Snowy River Festival brumby catch. 

Brumby herd

 Kathrin would like to sell some of them, since there are ten brumbies in all, and so we ventured into the paddock armed with cameras for a photo shoot.  Most of the younger brumbies are very friendly, and all the horses came over to sniff and meet our horses. 

Joringle (left) exchanging a sniff with Amber, one of the brumbies.

  Later in the morning, Kathrin and I took the trailer with the equipment to fill up the large spray container on the back of the tractor down to the river near Billy’s.  Barry then spent the rest of the day boom spraying blackberries.  The boom sprayer has nozzles situated along a rod that extends out behind and on either side of the tractor.  This method of spraying the voracious black berries is much quicker and requires less effort than hand spraying them all! 

Barry boom spraying

  While we were down at Billy’s we took some pictures of the cottage and grounds in their summer splendor for use in creating posters and fliers to advertise the retreat around town.  I was given the most delicate task of climbing up on the roof of the garden shed and trimming out the dead branches from the ivy that grows there.  Naturally, being the youngest and most limber member of our trio of workers, I am delegated the tasks that require navigating ladders and slanting perches.  But all work has some reward, and mine was the beautiful view from the top of the shed.

View from the top of the shed

Saturday began sunny but steadily began to cloud up. When Barry was in Corryong, the hardware store was out of tarps, so he had to order one.  Luckily, Jeanne was able to pick the traps up for us when she went into Corryong later that week.  So on Saturday, Barry went over to Jeanne’s to retrieve the tarp, and help Jeanne install new pipe from her new water tank (which we helped her move) to her house.  I worked with Dakota and Jillaroo riding bareback.  And Libby and I did some more ground work.  Libby is a very responsive horse.  She learns quickly, but I have to be careful to be clear with my signals, because she gets very agitated when she is confused.   During the afternoon I sprayed black berries out in the horse paddock and picked berries from the berry patch.  After mowing down the strawberries before Christmas, we are now receiving the bounty of our new crop.  It is amazing how fast and how vigorously the strawberries have grown back.  

On Sunday morning, I awoke to the soft patter of rain.  Unfortunately, by the time Barry had returned the night before, it had been too dark to cover the hay.  So that morning we all quickly headed down to where the hay is stacked and covered the hay to try and prevent more water from soaking even deeper into the layers of dried grass.  I was awarded another job that required clambering.  I had to stand on the top of the stack of bales and pull the tarp over the crest while Kathrin and Barry came behind me on the ground pulling the tarp all the way over. 

Covering the hay

In the process I got soaking wet.  While were down at the cottage with the tractor, Barry went down by the river and picked up bucketfuls of dirt to put in some of the larger holes around the lawn.

  The day continued rainy and windy.  And that was the day Ranger died.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny.  The wind was also blowing up and down the valley, so we uncovered the hay to allow the grass to dry out again.  Since we no longer needed Missoula to feed Ranger, we led Missoula and her filly, Alzada, on horseback down to where the other horses are in a paddock by the river.  Then Kathrin and I spent most of the afternoon working inside.  I created and perfected a tri-fold brochure advertising Jagumba and the cabin for rent.  Later, we took a break from our computers and rode down to once again move the trailer with the equipment for spraying.  I rode Sambo down and led Dakota, fully saddled, behind.  Once we reached the new spot in the river, Barry went back to spraying, and we ladies took a ride up river.  We passed by Billy’s on the way home and checked the hay.  It had dried out very nicely with the warm sun and constant breeze, so we recovered the hay.

On Tuesday, Kathrin and I drove into town, Tumbarumba, to buy supplies for my birthday cook out and to take care of a few errands, one of which was taking our tri-fold brochures to the information center in town with the hope that the cabin will get more renters. 

Wednesday was very cold.  We lit a fire in the stove and spent the whole day wearing sweaters!  Such weather did not bode well for my planned birthday camp out and my hopes of swimming in the river.  Since the day was so gloomy and cold, we spent most of the day in the house preparing food for the camp out and watching a movie from the library.

Thursday was my 19^th Birthday.  Luckily, while the day was still a bit cool in the morning, the sun shone down unimpeded by clouds.  In the morning Kathrin and I got all our horse riding done and then we headed down to the camp-site next to the Tooma River. 

Pulling a goat from the fence on my Birthday.  On this particular
ride we pulled three goats from the fence.

 The river runs through the property and there is a very nice grassy glade, perfect for camping.  Kathrin and I decided it might be nice to have an authentic Australian cook-out for my Birthday dinner.  So while the camp fire was warming up, we dug a hole for the camp oven.  Australian camp ovens are large cast iron pots, much like what we call a Dutch oven.  Once our hole was dug, we lined the bottom with coals, then set the camp fire on top of the coals, and shoveled more coals on the lid of the oven.  So we started cooking our main course for dinner: leg of venison with the bone removed and stuffing put in its place.  

The camp oven covered in hot coals.

Desiree and Andreas, our first guests, arrived a little while later.  And Desiree, in her thoughtful way, gave me the cinnamon cake she had made for my Birthday.  We, of course, had to have a little piece with some ice cream.  Jeanne arrived not long after.  And Ben, Barry’s nephew, and his two children joined us a little later.  We all had a lovely time sitting around the camp fire chatting, and some of the men walked along the river bank fishing for trout. 

Me holding up the cake Kathrin baked for me.
That is Tobi asking if I will share with him.

 Dinner was a delicious affair.  Like I mentioned before, the main course of venison, and we enjoyed potatoes with yams, gravy, and coleslaw.  For dessert, we ate the delicious chocolate cake Kathrin baked for the occasion.  And as an after dinner snack we had an Australian tradition: Damper.  Damper is bread baked in the camp oven that does not have yeast.  We smeared butter and golden syrup on the damper for a gooey treat. 

Kathrin and I were the only ones who ended up sleeping down at the river.  But it was a beautiful clear night with the gorgeous stars twinkling in the black sky. 

The following morning, Barry joined us down at the river for a camp fire breakfast of French toast and bacon.  We soon had the camp picked up, the rest of the day was spent doing basic chores around the house and mowing the lawn down at the cottage.

The next morning, Kathrin and I went back down to the cottage with the push mower to finish cutting the grass between the trees.  Now that the trees are starting to bear fruit, the branches, pushed down by the extra weight, block the lane ways between the trees, so that if I were to try to mow the grass there with the riding lawn mower, I would end up breaking off all the branches.  Once I finished mowing, we started in on the fun task of picking up rocks.  We used the tractor to hold all the rocks we picked up and then Kathrin dumped the rocks down by the river on the car track that got bogged down by all the rain.  Later in the afternoon, Kathrin and I continued our work with the horses.  We now have seven of them, with the edition of the two fillies, and it is a bit of work to be able to get a little work done with each one every day.

On Sunday morning, Barry trimmed Libby and Gretel’s feet.  Then Kathrin put a pack saddle on Gretel and we led her up and around the goat fence on our usual rounds.  In the afternoon, Barry came down with us to Billy’s and we finished picking up most of the rocks and the occasional pieces of rubbish and metal.  Then Barry smoothed out the ground and leveled it with a fragment of old railway track that he pulled behind the tractor.  The railway track is actually a rather ingenious idea because the track pushes the dirt in front of it, until it reaches a whole, which the dirt fills in. 

Barry leveling out the ground with a length of
railroad track.

On Monday Dakota and I made some significant progress. I was able to keep him trotting around the arena for three whole laps, in both directions!  Dakota, as I have mentioned, does not like to move, and his trot is rather uneven and hard to ride.  So our work in the arena has improved his motivation and helped to smooth out his trot.  And I also rode Libby for the second time. 

We are only working on flexion, disengaging the hind quarters and a little go and whoa.  Libby has handled me clambering aboard and our continual circles very well.

Libby and me

Today, I have been working on plans to travel to Tasmania in March. When I go, I will work as a helper on farms in exchange for room and board.  There is a web-site that connects farmers with free traveling help in Australia, Europe and the USA.  And I am also preparing for a week long stay with the Johansens on their vineyard in Tumbarumba.  Kathrin will drop me off tomorrow. 

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the New Year,

Hana

Ranger

I am afraid I have some sad news.  Ranger, the orphan brumby foal I have been feeding, died today.  He died from an inguinal hernia, which means that the passages for his arteries through his abdomen into his groin were abnormally large and his intestines were able to get through.  There was nothing we could do to save him.  I guess it is important to remeber that while he was with us he had a good life.  And I will miss him.

Ranger

Starting the New Year!

Happy New Year!

By Wednesday afternoon Barry had finished cutting the hay.  They hay has to then lay on the ground and dry out for a day or so before it can be rolled into bales.  That is why it is so important that it does not rain between when the hay is cut and when it is baled.  While Barry waited for the hay to dry, he put the large sprayer on the back of the tractor and sprayed blackberries down around the cabin.  Kathrin and I moved the spider fence in the horse paddock and I went around and sprayed the baby black berries that were attempting to grow unseen in the tall grass.  We also opened the gate at the top of the goat fence and placed a salt block near the gate in the hope that the goats would wander into the next paddock all by themselves. 

  Well, animals never cooperate the way you want.  None of the goats ventured out the gate, so Thursday morning we mounted horses and pushed them out the gate and moved the salt block to just inside the next paddock.  We left the gate open into the old paddock so that if any of the nanny goats had left their children hidden back in the old pasture, they could go back and bring them into the new paddock.  

   In the afternoon, Kathrin and I went into town for a routine doctors appointment for Kathrin.  The library and some of the other shops were still closed for the Christmas holidays, so we didn’t get to do much shopping other than picking up the few groceries we needed.  On the way back from town, we stopped by Tuilp’s house to take a look at his year old heifer cows.  Heifers are female cows that have not had a calf yet.  After visiting Tulip, we dropped by Desiree and Andreas’ house to pick up Kathrin’s laptop which Andreas had taken home with him at Christmas to add some new software to.  Andreas then taught Kathrin how to set-up and change her own web-site so that she can be the webmaster for the Jagumba web-site.  Andreas originally set up the web-site for her. 

Tulip's year old heifers.

Kathrin raking the hay into rows

Friday morning Kathrin and Barry started raking and baling the hay.  Kathrin operated the small tractor with the rake on the back to gather the hay into rows.  Then Barry came along behind her on the bigger tractor with the baler to pick up the hay, roll it, and then deposit large bales of hay in his wake. 

The baler after just depositing another bale of hay

 Meanwhile I spent the morning weeding the large garden at Billy’s Cabin.  The grass has grown just as fast as the corn and potatoes, so it was slow going hoeing out all of the weeds.  In the afternoon I came back to the house and worked on weeding the orchard that is near the saddle shed.  I had mowed most of the grass between the rows of trees that morning with the riding lawn mower.  Therefore in the afternoon I worked on mowing between the trees with the hand mower, taking down the shade cloth from around the trees, and pulling out the weeds from around the bases of the trees.

The orchard before I mowed it.  The grass is about thigh high.

Saturday, Kathrin and Barry once again spent the day raking and baling hay.  I stayed back at the house to do some chores.  In the earlier afternoon my first visitors arrived.  Ben, Barry’s nephew, his wife Christen, and their two children came up for the day to go fishing and play in the river.  They stopped briefly, and then headed down to check-in with Kathrin and Barry before heading off the have some fun.  Later on, another packhorse-man came through on the national trail.  This man, unlike the previous packhorse riders, was walking and leading his horse rather than riding.  He said it was great improvements to have the horse carry all the supplies rather than carrying them in a bag on his back. 

Field full of newly made bales of hay.

Since the trail walker was going to camp down at the river near Billy’s, I decided to accompany him down while riding Sambo so I could also check and see how Kathrin and Barry were getting along.   The baler had broken down when I arrived, but luckily Ben was able to help Barry fix what was wrong and Barry was soon back chugging along making bales of hay.  Sambo and I returned to the house shortly after that so I could make ice cream and cobbler.  Ben and his family stayed for dinner and we had a wonderful New Year’s Eve, even if we didn’t stay up until midnight. 

The first day of 2012 was very hot!  Barry and I spent the morning moving the rolled bales of hay into the fenced in orchard behind the garden at Billy’s where they would be safe from cattle and could be easily covered with large tarps. 

Barry carring two bales of hay on the tractor.

Barry was able to carry two bales of hay on the tractor, one of the front tongs, and one on another set of back tongs.  Barry also used the tractor to load a bale of hay on the back of the ute and another on the trailer that the ute was hauling. 

Ute and trailer with bales of hay

 I got to drive the ute, which was a new and educational experience since the ute is a manual and I have only ever driven an automatic.  Barry also taught me how to tie a trucker’s sheep shank to use to tie down the bale of hay on the trailer.  While we moved hay, Kathrin worked on weeding the garden. 

  While we had been hauling hay, Ben and his son, Sam, came by and brought some parts to help fix the tractor.   So once we had finished, we all went back to the house for lunch, and then Kathrin, Sam, and I went swimming in the water dam in the horse paddock behind the house.  Ben came along and stood on the shore to watch and keep the horses away from our towels and shoes. 

Me in the inner tube and Ben keeping the horses away
from our things on the bank.

The horses were very curious about our newest set of strange antics as the three of us floated about in the sun warmed water on inner tubes.  The horses would sneak up to the shore and then run off.  Then they would come back and look at us.  Eventually Joringle, one of the horses, came all the way down into the water and lay down in it.  He even let Kathrin come over and pet his nose while she was floating in her tube. 

Joringle coming in for a roll in the water.

Once Joringle came out of the water, the horses’ curiosity seemed to be satisfied and they went off to graze.  We also shared our swimming hole with six of the dogs. 

Kathrin throwing a stick for Spike to fetch,
Sprocket is watching in the background.

We found that Brownie, one of the kelpie puppies, is a very good swimmer, he will even leap out into the water, but Bouncer, his brother, does not like the water at all.  I did manage to pull Bouncer onto my tube with me and we went for a cruise around the dam.  Sprocket loves the water, and if you grab onto her tail, she will pull you in your inner tube across the length of the water.  And Kathrin put Tobi, the smallest dog, onto an old boogie board.  Sam towed Tobi across while Kathrin helped to keep the board from tipping over.  Tobi went for a ride twice across the dam, and he obviously liked it. 

Kathrin and Sam towing Tobi across the water.

   We had fun playing in the water during the hottest part of the day.  After we got out and dried off, Ben went and helped Barry repair the tractor, while Kathrin and I finished mowing and weeding the orchard up here at the house. 

Wolf Spider that I found hiding in the shade cloth we
removed from around the trees in the orchard.

  That evening I put Ranger out of the orchard, where he has been living since he came here, and let him out into the larger paddock near the yards with Missoula (his foster mom) and her foal, Alzada. 

    On Monday morning I finished up some college application writing while Kathrin and Barry serviced the solar batteries that store the solar energy.  After lunch, Kathrin and I went for another lovely, cool swim with all the splashing dogs.  Then Kathrin and I went for a ride around the goat paddock to check the fences for goats caught in the mesh fence by their horns.  And in the afternoon we worked with the horses. 


Kathrin riding Dakota in our new riding area.
Recongnize the colorful barriers?

In the evening when the temperature wasn’t quite so high, Barry came with us to muster the cows into the field we had just hayed.  When we muster cows, we do it the same way as we muster the goats.  We all ride on horseback and take a few dogs along to help us keep the cows bunched together.  That evening we took Baxter, Chickadee, and Brownie.  Brownie did very well; he is a very enthusiastic cow dog.  There are two roads from the house to get down to Billy’s Cabin and the hay fields.  The roads run through a large paddock, and are on either side of a thick section of forest.  On the road we took, we only found six cows.  So we drove them into the paddock.  We had to return to the house because of the fading light, but we left the gate to the field open so the other cows could get in when they found their mates inside eating all the nice hay that didn’t get rolled into bales. 

Cows peacefully grazing in the paddock at Billy's.

 The next morning, after Skypeing with my family, I finished doing my daily chores of feeding Ranger and catching all the horses.  It was then decided that we should go down and see if we could find where the other cows were and then herd them into the hay field.  Once again we went down one road and looped around up the other, but we couldn’t find the cows.  Later we found them down under the shade of the trees in the hay field where we couldn’t see them from the road.    By the time we returned from our ride, the sun was pouring down intense heat.  We took refuge in the house during lunch.  And then after lunch Jianne came over and we three ladies went for a refreshing swim in the dam.

Jianne getting a tow from Sprocket

 After our swim, Kathrin and I once again rode around the goat fence.  Then we moved the spider fence in the horses paddock to give them some new grass to eat.  Finally, as the sun started to sink, it began to cool off. So Kathrin and I rode horses down to Billy’s to weed and water the garden.  We rode back to the house as the stars were coming out and we could just see our moon shadows. 

On Wednesday morning, we hurried down to the large garden at Billy’s.  Barry sprayed all the weeds that are growing in the sections we are not using, then he went to Corryong to buy some large tarps to cover the hay with.  The morning was warm and humid, but not overly scorching since there was light cloud cover.  I finally finished weeding and hilling all the potatoes.  Hoeing out all the grass was a lot of work!  Then I ran water down each of the ditches between the rows of crops.  I had to make large dams of dirt at each end so that the water would stay in the ditch and made sure that the water flowed evenly to all parts of the ditch. 

Ditches watering the crops

Kathrin and I returned in time for lunch.  In the afternoon, Kathrin and I performed surgery on Ranger.  Ranger had an umbilical hernia, where his umbilical cord was.  The hernia was a sac of skin that hung down under his belly. 

Ranger's umbilical hernia

The hernia was not actually hurting Ranger, but it is like an elongated hole into which his intestines could eventually fall into, which would then cause a kink in the length of his intestine.  Now that Ranger has grown so much, Kathrin and I couldn’t lift him up onto a table for the operation, so we put the bucket on the tractor and once Ranger started to fall asleep from the anesthesia, we tipped him onto pillows inside the bucket.  Then Kathrin lifted the bucket up to table top height and performed the necessary surgery. 

Ranger alseep in the bucket on the tractor.

First she had to cut out the excess skin that made the sac, and then she sewed up the hole.  It may sound like a fairly easy surgery, but she had to do it under a time constraint.  Near the end of the operation, Ranger started to wake up, and he wanted to kick, but we had fortunately tied his feet back so he couldn’t injure Kathrin or himself.  While we had Ranger there, Kathrin also castrated him.  When Ranger woke up, he was a bit wobbly, so I walked him back to his paddock and he was soon munching grass once again.       

I hope that this new year of 2012 is the year that all of your hard work bears fruit, all your love is returned, and all your dreams become reality.

Brownie

Hana