Time Goes By Quickly

It's been 2 months since I updated the blog, and a lot has happened in that time. Not only have we had visitors from Australia, but the milk barn is now 99% completed and the rains have finally arrived.

In the video above are our two main dogs Marlowe and Byron. Marlowe is the frisbee addict and Byron if you remember was the dog I took to Canada twice to have both his hips replaced. Hard to tell that a year ago he was a virtual cripple. Now he hares around the place like there was never anything wrong.

The nights are starting to get quite cold and the whole place feels as though its falling slowly into sleep mode.

Our first group of lambs for the new facility are due to be born early December. This will be a test group of ewes so that we can get all our automatic milking processes perfected before the bulk of the lambs arrive mid March. If all goes according to plan we will have between 60 and 70 ewes lambing.

The final clean-up before the winter sets in has been temporarily placed on hold while the hydraulic pump on the bobcat is repaired. Alas it isn't a simple, or cheap job and I'm really missing it at the moment as there is still manure to spread and feedlots to scrape.

The farm itself though is in the best shape its been in for many years. All of the fencing is now repaired or replaced where needed, we have spread new pasture grass in one of the paddocks and we are feeling a lot more comfortable with how everything should be as we head into our third winter here.

We recently had some visitors from Australia. Friends of the family that were passing through on a mammoth road trip across America. It seemed strange to hear Australian accents again.

Last weekend the wethers went to the scales. We had 21 this year. In a couple of weeks we will likely thin our ram numbers as well with another 5-6 off to the scales.

One thing we have been using (and so far the results look promising) is a footrot vaccine. Footrot is one of the more common problems with sheep in this part of the country. The bacteria that cause it live in the soil and its almost impossible to get rid of. It thrives in the cold and wet so lies dormant most of summer and then hits hard in Fall or Spring. We treated a couple of ewes with it recently but everyone else looks to be doing well so we are keeping fingers crossed that the vaccine works. Apparently the local vet did all the clinical and field tests in the region, but general reports nationally are mixed about its effectiveness. So far we seem to be going well.

Hopefully I can be more punctual with the next update.