Dam overflow

Its been raining for what seems like months but it did stop long enough for us to venture out and see the dam at its capacity and overflowing down into the Hopkins River. It even looks like the run off from our dam is contributing more water to the river than is actually flowing down the Hopkins. Since we have had Greenvale we have wondered as to why the jetty into the dam has been built so high. Well today the house dam banks broke and the jetty doesnt look that ridicuouls any more.























More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/AnthonyKumnick/GreenvaleHouseDam#

Bogged

It rained again last night which made getting to the ship this morning for feeding time a little tricky

A day of great escapes.

A full day ahead. Load the pigs to go to Laverton Abattoir, pick up some more boxes which we pack meat in and pick up some Naked Neck Chickens that Ive purchased from Queensland. Getting the chickens to Melbourne from Queensland ascutally cost 3 times more than the cost of the chickens themselves.
Early this morning after getting the pigs on to the ute two of the six decided to make a break for it and muscle through the back gate of the ute and dive off the back. Scott and I then scampered to round them up and set up the ramp from the sheep yards and backed the ute up again at which point all the pigs decided to disembark also. In the end we managed reboard all passengers.
The pigs were safely dropped off in Laverton and my next stop was the company to pick up the boxes and surprise, they werent ready and they wouldnt be for the next couple of days.
Next stop Melbourne airport cargo. I was taking possession of 7 Naked Neck Chickens. I managed to get two of the rosters safely into a box and into the ute and as I was carrying the remaining 5 the bottom split in the and chickens dispersed all over the carpark. Scenarios flooded through my head of chickens making their way to the near by highway or flying over the fence onto Melbourne airport tarmac. But in the next 15 minutes I with the help of some cargo staff managed to corner and catch and put them in a more solid animal cage which I ended up purchaning from the cargo company.

Herding Pigs

Pigs dont herd Ive been told. And I was dreading today when I had to separate 6 berkshire pigs that were destined for the abbitoirs and get them up to the stock yards in preparation for loading into the ute on Monday morning.

After a lot of scattering of the 5 month old pigs we did probably more by pure luck manage to get the pigs we didnt want back into their paddock and then proceed to move the other pig, by walking them up to the stock yards and in part by coaxing them with apples.

Next job, Monday trying to get them into the ute......

Kindergarten Kids Day out at Greenvale

Today the Willaura kinder took a trip to Greenvale where they day was filled with farm activities.
First on the agenda was inspecing Maisys 3 week old piglets, counting their teats, checking their gender and looking at the identifying marks of the Wessex Saddleback pigs, and most importantly of all having a pat.
Next was checking out the chooks including our rare breen Naked Neck Chickens and collecting eggs. To all their surprise there were some geese eggs also which were taken back to the house and placed in the incubator to see what would hatch.
After some morning snacks it was down to the sheep yards to watch weighing of some lambs. But where were these lambs going after they were weighted. On a holiday? No the kids were very comfortable that they were going away to be made into lamb chops.
After lunch it was visting more pigs and feeding apples. The last stop on the pig tour was a visit to Prince our 300+ kg boar and Prince recieved lots of apples. One could argue that Prince was being used as a target for the apples either way Prince being Prince wasnt all that fussed as the only thing he cared about was the food.