Back yard fencing. Check, off the list

One of Amandas tasks for me was finally checked of the list today with us putting up a couple of fences in the back yard so that our son Ben would be contained, Ben actually helped my brother Scott and myself by fetching beers as the appropriate juncture. I was tasked with driving the posts in to the ground an activity which my computer hands certainly were not used to and Im finding it difficult to type this blog post. Hopefully these computer hands will harden up over time!!

Lambs to sell

Scott and I were to have met dad to help with rounding up the lambs to be viewed by our stock agent Radar. I however, I think got the communication wrong and we ended up at my fathers farm instead of Jaskum park some 30 minutes out of the way. By the time we go there the ome 500 lambs were already in the yards and Radar had inspected them and they were to be sent off to market on Monday to be sold. I believe we have another 1000 to sell at some point in the next little while.

Egg production up

The egg production seems to be looking up, Amanda yesterday gathering 13 eggs in the one day where as the lasses were only giving us about 6 a day which I thought was normal for the 7 hens we have not counting the 3 silkies or the one hen looking after the week old chicks.

Still on Silkies, since weve had the farm not a egg has been produced from any of them and all of a sudden we are getting one or two a day from those three ladies. This actually started just before the new birds arrived so maybe they got wind of the imminent arrival and figured if they didnt produce they'd be out. These birds came with the farm when we bought it and I need to find out what a male silkie looks like just in case one of them is a rooster and we can get some chicks from them.

Ive heard that silkies make good mothers and that if you have fertile eggs, silkies will mother them regardless where they came from. So thats exactly what weve done, in addition to the couple she has laid weve put a few more under her to see what happens.

New Chickens

Today we took a trip to Horsham to pick up some Chickens. While originally we intended to take the entire stock on offer, 10 minutes from our destination it suddenly dawned on me that I hadnt worked out what I would do with 15 or so eggs a day, so instead of 20 or so chickens we chose to take only 8 chickens, 2 of which were looking after chicks of 6 1 day olds and 8 1 week olds respetively. We also gathered 2 ducks and 2 roosters in the deal.

The Willaura Cut Out

This was to be our first social outing in Willaura held at the Willaura football ground. It was the Willaura Cut Out, a post harvest celebration and a comunity get together for farmers and non-farmers alike. There were kids activities, balloons, clowns, a band, a bbq, a raffle and a bar tended by the local constable.

Hello Possums

In addition to the plague of black beetles that invaded the homestead at night during our first week in the homestead there seemed to be large noises coming from the roof late at night. Possums none the less and I swear this one didnt have great balance as it seemed to be falling off the beams onto the ceiling. Thankfully the farm came with a trap which I figured out how to set it and placed an apple in the cage for bait and placed it in the roof.


That night around 10pm there was a very distintive noise of the sound of the trap going off and then the predicitive followon sound of the struggle. A splash followed on as the sound of water came through the roof as the possum, well, had a little accident.


After some debate with what to do with the cute little thing we decided to drive up the road and let it go to see if the neighbours were interest in the little fury friend.