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.
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.
 |
| Covering the hay |
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 19th 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.
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.
 |
| Pulling a goat from the fence on my Birthday. On this particular ride we pulled three goats from the fence. |
 |
| 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. |
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. |
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 |
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the New Year,
Neat blog.
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout setting the goats on the blackberries? That's what Kathy's brother in Vancouver does. He actually rents several goat to do the job on his property. The goats eat the blackberries right down to ground level.
Yes, that is what the goats are for. They currently are being rotated through the paddocks that have more of the native plants and weeds that other livestok won't eat. The goats do an excellent job eating the leaves and new shoots off the blackberry plants. The billy goats are especially good at jumping on top of the blackberries and smashing the plants down. That being said, since there are so many blackberries, Barry still has to do some mulching and spraying to continue to keep the weeds under control.
Delete