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

Christmas Time

Merry Christmas!

Last Tuesday morning, Barry crawled up into the attic to fix the hot water.  Our hot water is heated through either solar electricity or through a pipe that runs behind the wood stove.  The hot water tank is outside the kitchen window up on a steel frame. 

Blocking out the flies

While we had the latter leaning against the house, I helped Barry block up the space in the chimney around the stove pipe to keep all the flies out.  Later in the day we had some guests.  The first was a man interested in buying the property at Brumby’s Run.  He arrived in time for lunch and Barry spent the rest of the afternoon giving him a tour Brumby’s Run.  Our next guests arrived in time for dinner.  Janeen and her daughter, Mirra, aged 11, came for a visit to look at the brumbies in the hope of eventually buying one.  Both mother and daughter fell in love with Sky, the brumby I helped to train for the festival at Jindabyne. 

Wednesday morning Kathrin and I picked up Jianne and headed into town for anther Beef Group meeting.  The meeting was held at the Johansens’ farm just outside of town.  This meeting discussed “drenching,” which is the term used for giving cows (and other livestock) de-worming chemicals to fight against worms and flukes.  The presentation was given by one of the senior government veterinarians in the area.  I am afraid I didn’t understand a lot of what was being said about the different types of chemicals and how to apply them.  Although at the end of the meeting, after a nice BBQ, the veterinarian dissected sections of beef and sheep liver that were infected by flukes.  I got to see the body of a dead fluke and that was very interesting. 

Our presenter dissecting a cow liver infected with flukes.

We could also see where the tissue in the liver was all white and hard from fibrous scar tissue that was due to the flukes moving through the liver. 

  After the beef meeting and the yummy BBQ that followed, we went back into town and ran a few errands.  By the time we got back from town it was getting late, almost time for dinner.  Janeen and Mirra had spent the day just hanging out around the house and getting to know the horses a bit.  Before dinner I started both of them on the basic ground training for horses.  Timmy and Sky were our practice horses. 

Playing with horses while trying not to crash into each other.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast, Janeen, Mirra, and I headed out to continue working with the horses.  Janeen and Mirra continued to work with Timmy and Sky respectively while I worked with Dakota.  After finishing up the basic ground work, Mirra and I mounted on our horses for some bareback riding in the yards.  We had fun trying to turn circles and walk about without running our horses into one another.  After lunch we continued playing with the horses and even did some more bareback riding in our new riding arena.  Soon after, Barry finished the crate he had built for the back of their ute.  So we loaded Sky onto the back and bid a very heartfelt good-bye to our friends, both horse and human.  

Mirra and Sky

Friday morning, Kathrin spayed Sprocket.  The procedure was short and the normally energetic Sprocket lay in a drowsy stupor for the rest of the day.  The remainder of the day was spent preparing for our dinner on Sunday.  Kathrin and I cleaned the house, both inside and out.  We tidied the veranda, and I mowed the lawn.  We also took the horses for a quick ride up to the top of the goat paddock to enlarge the small pen we had made earlier for using the goats in dog training. 

Frosting Gingerbread cookies.  Yum!

  Saturday morning we finished with our cleaning preparations and started on our cooking preparations.  I picked lemons, raspberries, blackberries, and blue berries.  We also made a quick trip down to Billy’s Cabin to drop off some more dishes and check to make sure the cabin was all ready for the renters who would be staying for Christmas.  After we returned to the house, Kathrin and I decided to be particularly industrious: we baked and frosted ginger bread cookies.  Earlier in the day, Kathrin had made cookie cutters from strips of metal.  One was a gingerbread man and the other was a star.  Now we rolled out the dough, cut out our figures, baked and then frosted them.  The cookies were very good! 

Sunday, Christmas morning, I woke early to start my dough for the dinner rolls.  I also made my favorite Crunchy Peanut Coleslaw.  After our meat had been placed in the oven, we hurried out to saddle the horses and muster the goats.  While we were doing this the first of our guests arrived: Desiree and Andreas with their border collie, Teddy. Andreas and Desiree then drove all the dogs up to the top of the goat pen, while we mustered goats.  

Mustering goats on Christmas Day.
Notice Bouncer, the small black puppy just turning to follow the goats.

Bouncer, one of our kelpie puppies, came along with us while we were mustering with the more experienced dogs and he did a splendid job of instinctively herding the goats.   This was a bit of a relief because we had put him in with the goats in the pen before, and he had shown no interest in herding the goats at all.  For working dogs, they either have the instinct to herd, which can then be trained and improved upon, or they don’t.  

Our Christmas Rainbow

Soon Jianne and Tulip arrived.  Barry put our puppies and Jianne’s puppies in for a session of herding with the goats.  Then we trotted our horses back to the house.  After all the animals had been put away, everyone gathered on the porch to chat.  Lunch was soon ready and we all enjoyed a delicious meal of roast, potatoes and yams, German potato salad, steamed garden peas, rolls, and coleslaw.   For dessert, Andreas had made his famous Cherry cake, which we ate with homemade ice cream.  As you may imagine, everyone was pleasantly full and feeling a bit languid and sleepy after our meal.  Some went off to take a quick nap, while the rest of us sat around the table and talked.  Meanwhile, Kathrin neutered Teddy, Desiree and Andreas’ puppy.  Later on Barry took most of our company on a guided tour of the paddock he had just finished mulching.  They also stopped by the river and went fishing.  While they were gone, Kathrin and I watched a Poirot movie while Desiree read her book.  We enjoyed a very lazy and comfortable afternoon.  By the time the sightseeing party had returned, the hot and sunny weather had turned into overcast skies with a light, chill wind.  Soon a small rain storm blew through and we got to see a Christmas rainbow.

Monday morning was Christmas afternoon back in the States, so I was able to Skype via computer with my family.  Then Kathrin and I had to go out and move the spider fence in the horses’ paddock, because they had broken through the wire again.  I think Sambo, the older black brumby, pushes one of the younger horses through the fence, and then when the wire falls to the ground; he jumps over it and escapes.  That is my theory anyway, since Sambo was the only horse outside of the downed fence when I came to check on the horses.   

   Barry spent most of the day preparing the tractor equipment for cutting hay.  Kathrin and I worked with horses a bit and did some simple puppy training, such as sit and heel.  In the afternoon some light rain showers blew in, so Kathrin and I watched a movie from the library. 

Tuesday dawned sunny and with a promised forecast of more sun.  So Barry cut the grass in the paddock at Billy’s Cabin. 

Cut hay

 Kathrin and I worked with horses in the morning and took a nice long ride on Joringle and Sambo up around the middle paddock to check the fences and gates before moving the goats into their new pasture. 

Paddy the cat helping Kathrin weed the garden.

Our afternoon was spent doing regular farm chores: weeding the garden, picking berries, collecting eggs, hanging wash, etc…  It is amazing how much time the small chores take up in our day!  In the late afternoon, we went down to Billy’s to plant in the big garden the pumpkin seeds that Kathrin had started in the windowsill. 

Wishing a wonderful Christmas Season to you and yours!

Jillaroo, Joringle, Dakota, and me.

With Love,

   Hana

A Road Trip

Hi Everyone,

Monday was a very busy day for us.  We had the loan manager from a local bank drive up to look at Jagumba before signing the paper work on a loan for Kathrin and Barry to buy more cattle.  We fed the manager rabbit stew from the rabbits the dogs had caught the day before.  The stew was actually very good!  We gave the manager the VIP tour of the farm and then he, Kathrin, and Barry signed all the loan documents.  I decided to work with Dakota while they worked on that.  On the same day, an older couple arrived to rent the cabin for three days.  These two people were very welcome guests because two years ago they were the first people to ever rent the cabin from Kathrin and Barry.

On Tuesday we went up to Brumby’s Run in the morning to start working on cleaning up some of the old equipment and fences there.  We came back in the afternoon and had a surprise visit from the owner of the one of the fire-wood companies Barry visited while in Sydney.  They wanted to see the Brumbies, so they were, of course, introduced to Ranger. 

After our visitors left, we drove down to Jianne’s to help her move a water tank.  Jianne had just ordered this new, 5,000 gallon, water tank to place on the hill above her house.  It came with free delivery, but the delivery driver did not want to cross the 3 inch deep, concrete bottom creek, that is on the road to Jianne’s.  So he dropped the huge plastic tank 3 km short of Jianne’s house in the paddock of her neighbor.  The only way we could possibly move the monstrosity was to use the forder to lift it and carry it up to the top of her hill.  

The forder lifting Jianne's water tank.

The forder is a machine used to lift, stack, and carry huge tree trunks when logging.  Well, three hours later we had the water tank placed right side up above Jianne’s house.  By the time we left Jianne’s it was very dark, so I got to ride in the back of the ute with my back resting against the back window, gazing at all the stars while we drove back to Jagumba.  It was a bit chilly, but Tobi curled up in my lap, and Sprocket sat next to me to keep me warm 

Tobi assiting Barry with the plumbing.  Although it does look
more like a scene from the Wizard of Oz.

Wednesday morning we loaded up plumbing gear and went down to Billy’s cabin to install a new filter to keep dirt and moss from the dam water out of the shower head.  Barry had to inch his body into a little hole under the house to install the filter.  While Kathrin handed Barry tools and turned the water valves on and off, I chopped wood and weeded the garden. 

Rows of potatoes and corn

The corn is starting to pop up and the potatoes are growing nicely.  After the maintenance chores were done, Barry went out to work on mulching a new patch of land, and Kathrin and I went back up to the house to work with the horses. We took the horses on a ride up the power line road that leads out of the property, and discovered that a large tree had fallen across the road during the last wind storm that had blown through. 

Thursday morning I awoke and went out to do my daily chore of bringing in Missoula to feed Ranger.  Arriving at the paddock, I was greeted by the sight of all seven horses standing under a tree outside of the remains of the broken spider fence.  Apparently, someone had been pushed through the fence, and the force was enough to snap the small electric wire in half.  All the horses stood around the tree with slightly guilty, but extremely smug smiles on their horsey faces.  I think only cats could manage to best their looks of self- satisfaction.  After catching all seven horses and placing them in the yards, I went out to clean up the mess the horses had made of the fence.  Kathrin and I decided that it would probably be best to leave the fence down while we were gone, so the horses couldn’t get into mischief with it while we weren’t there to watch them.  Barry, who had gone out to service his large tractor, came back in to report that the belts had broken, so he could not go out to finish mulching.  Instead, he and Kathrin set up our riding arena with the road barriers Kathrin and I recovered from the water.  I was given the task of filling each of the barriers with water.  I soon got bored of standing around and checking my nails while the hose pumped the water into the barriers, so I went and found Dakota, and we practiced some ground work in the arena while I finished topping off the barriers.  Dakota is the best horse for ground tying, because he likes to just stand there and not move.  (Ground tying is when you tell the horse to stay in the position you have placed him while you walk off to do something else.  The horse is not tied to a rail, or restrained in anyway, he is just taught to stand and wait.)  The rest of the day was spent in preparation for our three day trip.

Tobi helping Kathrin roll up her swag

On Friday morning we woke up early to set out on our trip to Darlington Point to look at a fire wood business and their machines.  Of course, you astute readers are wondering how Ranger would get his meals of milk while we were gone.  Jianne was kind enough to consent to baby…er…foal-sit for three days.  So we loaded Ranger onto the back of the ute, tied his halter rope to the back rail and set off.  Did I mention that Ranger’s middle name is “danger”?  

Ute Ride!

 I rode in the back with Ranger, and we both did our best to hang on while Barry raced us down to Jianne’s.  Once we had delivered Ranger, we drove into town to meet up with Tulip and Owen, a friend of Tulip’s, who had agreed to drive down with us to see the fire wood machines.



Owen and Tulip displaying the safety gear we wore
on our tour of the facility.

Darlington Point is about 350 km northwest of Tumbarumba.  We arrived about mid-day and were taken on a tour of the wood chopping operation.  The whole facility consists of a large clearing with two large sheds, multiple fire wood machines of different makes and models, and many large of piles of wood.  

Fire wood cutting machine

All the machines did the same thing, cut fire wood, although some had circular blades, some had chain saw blades, and others just had a large metal wedge against which the wood was pressed and split.  I must admit that I was not very interested in the machines.  With the combination of heat, dust and itchy wood chips, I soon lost interest in the whole affair.  The only really interesting machine for me was the little three wheeled “BELL”s that were zipping about supplying the different cutting machines with logs to chop.  Now that looked like a fun vehicle to drive! 

The BELL

After our tour of the facility, we split ways with Tulip and Owen.  The two gentlemen headed home, and we headed off south looking at all the scenery.  Along the way, Barry suddenly stopped, backed the car up, and pointed to the trunk of a roadside tree. Climbing up the large trunk to safety was a real, live, wild, Koala.  It was really neat to get to see one in the wild! 

Wild Koala

 We also got to see the agricultural college where Barry spent two of his high school years.  The school is a boarding school, and was originally for boys only.  Barry told us about how much fun he had while he was there.  The boys went fishing and swimming in the river, built huts from small saplings they cut down, and snuck into the kitchen at night to obtain a mid-night snack.  The country we drove through was very flat, very hot, and very dry.  You could almost see from horizon to horizon. 

Flat country

Australian humor

That night we set up our tents and rolled out our swags underneath the stars in one of the state forests.  The next morning we were up bright and early (the early part really couldn’t be helped because due to the flatness of the landscape, there was nothing to block the sunrise at 5 a.m.).  We soon had our camp packed back into the little town car we were driving to save on fuel, and we hit the road.  We drove for most of the day looking at scenery, stopping to visit a local farmers market, and to read the tourist information signs along the side of the road. 

Me enjoying a car break.

At mid-afternoon we arrived in Howlong, and small town to the southwest of Tumbarumba on the NSW/Victoria border.  Here was the residence of the vet Kathrin used to substitute for in Griffith, and we had come to visit for his 70^th Birthday party.  After setting up our camp on the lawn, we drove into the golf club where the dinner party was taking place.  There were quite a few guests and everyone enjoyed sitting together over dinner and chatting.  We left the party at around 11 p.m.  The next morning, all the guests who had spent the night, re-grouped at the house to enjoy a true Aussie breakfast of sausage and eggs on buns with a nice selection of fruit.  After breakfast we took our leave and began the ride home.  We stopped at the hardware store in Albury and Kathrin bought an apricot tree, a female kiwi plant, a blue berry bush, and a Banana Passion Fruit vine.  It was fun trying to pack them in amongst the luggage that was already crammed into our little car.  We also made a stop to visit another farming friend of Kathrin and Barry’s to get his input on fire wood machines and so Kathrin and Barry could catch up with him and his wife on how their farming endeavors were going.  By the time we returned to Jianne’s to pick up Ranger, the beautiful sunshine and heat that had followed us through the low country was gone, and dark clouds were threatening to release their cold load of rain.  So Ranger and I quickly loaded up onto the back of the ute and we rode back to the farm in the rain. 

Today we spent most of our time catching up on some of the maintenance and chores around the farm house.  I helped Kathrin plant the new editions to the garden, weeded and picked berries and made cobbler and ice cream.  We also had a couple of packhorse riders stop by on their way through on the National Forest trail. 

Riders and their pack horses stopping by for a visit.

Have a wonderful week before Christmas and please keep in mind that while we all tend to have wonderful and festive celebrations, the Savior of the World was born quietly in a stable amongst the dirty, smelly, and common.  And yet He is still the greatest gift that we could ever receive. 

With Christmas Love,

  Hana

P.S. Sometimes due to internet connection issues, I am only able to upload a picture or two at a time.  If there are only a few pictures when you first read the blog post, check back in a day or two because I will usually have uploaded a few more by then. 

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

Mom on route home

Hi Everyone,

Looking out to the mountains in the clouds

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Mom and Kathrin went back to Wagga Wagga so Kathrin could attend another business meeting with the loan expert.  I stayed at Jagumba and took the dogs for a walk in the rain.  Our main goal was to scare away the cockatoos from the oat field.

            Saturday we went down to Billy’s to plant more corn and some tomatoes in the garden.  It began to pour on the way back, so we spent the remainder of the day inside.

            On Sunday we thought it was going to rain again and continue our streak of perpetual rain, but surprisingly it was sunny the whole day.  This was very nice, since we spent most of Sunday afternoon at a picnic in Corryong (about an hour and a half drive from here).  The picnic was a thank you to all the volunteers whole helped with the Corryong “Man from Snowy River” Festival.  Kathrin and Barry had done their Brumby Show there too, so we were invited.  The picnic was very nice with burgers, sausage, and chicken on a stick.  The burgers were small and fat, not like our American burgers, and everyone ate their burgers with just tomato sauce (the Australian substitute for Ketchup).  There was not lettuce, cheese, or other condiments.  It was still very good food though, Australians are very good on the BBQ.  

Picnic at Corryong

            After the picnic, we visited Dave Scott, a friend of Kathrin and Barry’s who lives in Corryong.  Mr. Scott helped us to moves some of the cattle the last time we visited Australia.  Mr. Scott is also a former professional pianist, and he gave a wonderful impromptu concert for us while we were there.

Dave Scott on the piano

         Monday we spent the day mustering goats. We gathered them all up and found that our method of de-horning the little goats did not work. So we didn’t bother to try again on the newer members of the herd. So instead we mounted up and moved the goats back down the hill into a pasture closer to the house. 

Kathrin riding Joringle while droving goats

            Later that evening we had dinner with Desiree and Andres at their house.  We had a wonderful chili type stew with rice.  For dessert Desiree made chocolate cake with icing, and Butterfly cakes, which are a small pastry with the middle cut out and filled with cream and the top of the middle placed back on top of the cream.  It was delicious. 

        
          On Tuesday we did household chores and waited for Mom to call and see if she was on the military flight to come home this week. The flight had been delayed. So we drove down to the Tooma River, which passes through Jagumba, and showed Mom the bridge and the beautiful river. Later that night, while we were working with our horses, Barry put shoes on the front feet of Dakota, the horse I am currently working with. 

Barry shoeing Dakota

Kathrin, holding Tobi and Sprocket,
and Mom, holding Spike and Chickadee,
on the bridge crossing the Tooma River

            Wednesday we did more house work and general gardening in the garden up next to the house.  I did some more work with Dakota, since the yards had finally dried out enough.  Whenever it rains here, it pours and pours.  So lately the yards have been full of mud, the kind of mud that likes to relieve you of your shoes AND socks.  Needless to say, when the yards are like this, we usually try to either work the horses out on some firmer ground, or we just stay inside and decide to read books.  We also went down to Billy’s. Mom and Kathrin planted some more seeds and weeded around the potato and corn plants while I mowed the lawn.

            On Thursday we spent most of the morning training some of the younger dogs to herd goats.  We set up a small portable yard near the gate into the paddock.  Then Kathrin herded in some of the goats and we let one of the puppies, Bouncer, in to see how he would do.  You want a herding dog to be a help and not a hindrance.  So he must act like a partner, keeping the goats between you and him and turning the goats back around toward you.  It is bad to have a dog that just chases the goats away and moves them in whatever direction they are pointed.  Most herding dogs are born with the instinct to move the goats around back toward their human.  Bouncer is still a little young, only four months old, so he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the goats.  Next we put in Sprocket, and she did a bit better.  Sprocket was able to move the goats back around toward Kathrin, and she would often move around to the other side of the goats, keeping the herd between Kathrin and herself.   

            Friday morning we headed back down to Billy’s.  Kathrin and I went the Jimmy’s paddock next door and found some good manure to place around the asparagus bed that Kathrin and Mom weeded.  Kathrin says the one good thing about stallions is that they do put their manure in piles.  They do this to mark their territory.  It makes the job to get manure much easier when it is all in one place.  While Mom and Kathrin weeded, I worked on flattening out some of the larger bumps in the lawn so that it will be easier to careen around the yard on the riding lawn mower. 

Friday afternoon, Mom finally found out that she would be on the plane the next morning heading back to Hawaii.  After Mom called in and found out, she and Barry left right away to drive to Sydney.  There they spent the night with a friend and Mom got on the flight the next day.  That evening, Kathrin and I rode our horses up around the goat pasture to make sure none of the goats were stuck in the fence.  Dakota lost a shoe while we were on our ride.  So the next morning I rode Sambo up and around the pasture, but I couldn’t find the shoe.  We spent the afternoon back at Billy’s weeding and putting manure on the last bed of asparagus.   We also took the hand lawnmower down so I could mow right around the trees in the orchard.  While we were there the couple who are renting the cabin for the weekend arrived.  We introduced ourselves and the dogs.  The couple has a whippet, which is a small dog that is very fast.  It almost looks like a miniature grey hound.  They are hoping to take their dog out to catch rabbits. That will be very helpful; there are far too many rabbits around.  That dog will have to be very fast to catch any of them though.   

Today we are hoping to go up and work the dogs in the goat pen some more, but the clouds are starting to darken again, so we may be in for more rainL. 

Please say a prayer for Mom’s safe and speedy trip home.  And if you don’t pray, then I know that all your good wishes go with her.  It is lonely without her here, but I know that she is needed back home and I will see her soon.

            I am off to catch some horses before the rain sets in.

Hana