100s of large moths

Last night we stumbled across a number of very large moths which I had assumed were goat moths but having looked up a goat moth the wings dont look the same. Anyway today when I ventured back out to the garage with Ben to finish cleaning we came across what had to be over 100 large moths lurking about all very drowzy.

A stroll along the Hopkins

A lovely afternoon around 24ish degrees C we dropped the car off downstream from the homestead and strolled along the Hopkins river back to the homestead. Stock trails provided perfect walking paths. Then back for a well earnt cup of tea and fruit cake.

Sunday Lunch

Sunday Lunch is not the same as it is in the UK. I think this will be a nice little tradition. Well into Autumn and the weather forecast predicted a temperature around 24Celcius. It actually felt a bit hotter than that. We prepared 2 legs of lamb with garlic, anchovies, rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil set it on the BBQ at 290C for 30 minutes and then down to 160C for the next 2 hours and then 30 mins to rest. Perfect. Eleven of us parked ourselves on Greenvales front lawn for a lunch of roast lamb, freshly made bread, spectacular colslaw and boiled new potatoes amongst other sides and topped the feast of with apple pie and ice cream..... And thats where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon.

Preparing for cropping

With the fire restrictions over farmers all around the district are preparing fields ready to sow crops for the coming season. One of the methods used to clear last years stubble and increase yield and help combat weeds is burning. Plumes of smoke have been seen all around the district as farmers burn off the last years excess matter.

A neighbours property filled the sky with smoke to the extent that the smoke became a cloud feeder. A phenonema that I saw once before flying over California where the pilot pointed out a forest fires smoke that was turning into a rain cloud. Our burning in comparison struggled to put a puff into the air.

A friend for Maddison Lamb

Today we introduced Rory the calf to Maddison Lamb. Rory, named by Ben after Rory the racing car was one half of a twin born a week or so ago. His twin sister Maxine (Rorys racing car friend) seemed to be gelling with her mother but Rory didnt so hand raising it is. Introducing Rory to the bottle was a bit of a struggle but perservance paid off. As with Maddion, Ebony seems to have the touch with baby animals, Scott included and is succesfully getting the nutrients to Rory.

Vegetarians look away now.

Eight of our lambs were sent off last week and slaughtered and after a number of days hanging they were ready to be picked up and butchered. We took them back to Callemondah our property near Ararat where we have a small facility for cutting up the carcass. This was my first time at dissecting a full beast and after a couple it all seemed relatively straight forward.

We experimented with a couple of cuts, but generally ended up with, loin chops, a rack, a shoulder, a leg, shanks and some chump chops and the lambs belly or flank from each half a lamb.

With the bones cut from the belly I brought them back to Greenvale where several litres of Lambstock was made.  Some of the flanks were trimmed of the fat and this will be made into mince if I can ever find the parts for my mincer which are somewhere still in a box we are yet to unpack from our move.

I think next time Ill ask for the offal which had been discarded prior to us picking up the carcasses.

The set completed.

Today I headed back to Fernleigh Farm to pick up Beatrice the third of the Wessex Saddlebacks I had purchased in late February. I was to have picked her up on Wednesday but with a storm whipping through the state and with wind gusting upto 120km/hr I decided it wouldnt be a pleasant trip for either myself or Beatrice.


When I arrived Beatrice had already been put in the stables a lesson we learnt when trying to put Prince and Doreen up onto the back of the ute from out in the paddock. Bernie set up the ramp and after sprinkling some food up the ramp and into the back of the ute Beatrice went much easily than her buddies Prince and Doreen. After a quick chat to Fiona and after Beatrice had a quick jab of Dectomax to help with the lice we were on the road back to Greenvale. For the 2hour journey back Beatrice refused to sit down and stood all the way.


Back at Greenvale Beatrice didnt seem to settle initially and hadnt eaten much however she has seemed to have come around and is getting out and wandering around where in the first couple of days just lay in the pen.

Hopkins River Survey

Every year for the past 5 years the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority pays Greenvale a visit to survey the health of the Hopkins. Every year they return to exactly the same position in the river to record such information as vegetation, number of weeds, errosion, river bank width and various other indicators to enable them to assess the health of the river system in general. Megan and Dion undertook the survey on what must have been one of the windest days on record.