life's little ironies

The Royal Vet College Year of 1986 25 year reunion was held this year in Nottingham- that would have been very handy 5 years ago but surprisingly I did not manage to attend. However I now have the Year Book with updates on what my fellow graduates are doing which makes interesting reading. One vet has undergone open heart surgery after contracting MRSA endocarditis secondary to a venomous snake bite. One may expect this risk if working in the Amazon or Outback Australia, but it seems rather unfortunate that the reptile incident happened in deepest Surrey.

Signs of spring are here now after a cold winter, the first sign being the birth of the next batch of lambs. Last year we had 2 lots of twins but Clarrie, Lilian & Peggy have concluded that twins are way too much effort and producing a single lamb is sufficient to book them another year at the Protea Country Resort so to date we have had 3 single lambs with only Woolly left to drop ( all male of course- we can sell the females for a good price so the tally over last 2 seasons 8 males and 1 ewe lamb ).

The pleasure of sitting down to a meal consisting of only food produced from the property leaves a warm fuzzy glow, with all the food miles, food provenance and flavour boxes ticked. Throw in a couple of bottles of wine from the vineyard next door and local cheeses and the 'Good Life' is complete.

From 2011-08-26

Kevin & Kylie the ducks remain romantically involved, but have left the maternal bantam hens to do the hard yards when it comes to child-rearing. We now have a Japanese bantam who is the proud ( albeit rather confused ) mother of 1 chick and 3 ducklings.

From 2011-08-26

Yesterday Ness let the family unit out to stretch their legs and Mum tried to teach the kids how to scratch in the soil and forage for insects. This resulted in the ducklings shovelling up soil in their little beaks until they glued them together, all very bewildering.

We decided that we may have to teach them the rudimentary art of swimming. Now we know where the expression 'ducks to water' comes from. The bantam chick chose to pass on basic water survival lessons.

As the ducks are a meat bird I feel the choice of a roasting pan as their starter pool was a little unkind.

From 2011-08-26

From 2011-08-26

Still very busy with the accommodation side of things. we have 8 children staying this weekend ( why did we take that booking?) so all creatures safely locked away as the feral mob tear through the place like wrecking machines. Must remember to take more bookings by the over 50's who are content to potter about and talk about vegetables.

catch up

What a long time since my last post. In the thick of the busy season here at the moment, with the Small Farm Field Day weekend upon us. This is traditionally foul weather but today is quite sunny after a frosty start. We will be going tomorrow to look at obscure farm machinery and exotic poultry. Ness is after a large mechanical log-splitter after she sustained spinal damage chopping firewood with an axe last week. Those city folk are powering through our log supply and we will need to look for another source next week, all recently felled trees too green to burn.

The weed man came and approved Ness's weed control programme. It helped that he was the bloke who bought a lovely ewe lamb from us last season and is after more when the girls lamb again. Brian has calmed down and stopped attacking us when we enter his paddock so we assume that he has done his work and the girls are gestating.

Tennis news- our mismatched team managed to get into the Grand Final last week, but were outplayed on the day. Next comp starts on Thursday and I have a new team including a Kiwi and a Russian player, so all very multi-cultural on the Mudgee courts.

Hoping for duck eggs soon- Kevin is getting very amorous with Kylie. They are hopeless mothers apparently so we will try and get the hapless Snowflake the silky bantam hen to hatch them for us. The last crop of chicken hatchlings have mostly grown into useless roosters which have been separated from the others- Ness is sharpening her axe and I fear slaughter is imminent.

The Protea crop has been fantastic this year after a shaky start, so we are giving flowers away by the bucket load. If next year is as good we will get organised and sell some at the local markets.Knowing our luck we will pay for a pitch and the unpredictable plants will sulk and refuse to bloom next winter. Could always sell Ness's amazing pomegranate jam instead.

We have spent a couple of weekends in the comedy 70's caravan in order to rent our place out to large groups, but made an executive decision that we are no longer going to decamp- too cold and nowadays we just have too much stuff so emptying our unit out for rental has become a massive task. Ideally we would like to build a 3rd unit on the property to increase revenue, but funds are tight so it will need careful planning.

From Protea Farm 1

the weed man cometh

The busy season is really upon us now with some great group bookings over the next couple of months. Last weekend was our first one in Dorothy the retro caravan. This was something of a challenge because it was the coldest weekend so far with night temperatures around minus 4 degrees C but we cheated and hooked her up to the electrics in James & Georgie's shed so the fan heater kept us defrosted, and thanks to Ness and some fine work with the silicon sealant she was watertight ( Dorothy not Ness ).

We received an official letter this week from Mid Western Regional Council declaring an 'Intention to Inspect for Declared Noxious Weeds'. Vince the Chief Weeds Ofiicer will be sending a Noxious Weeds Inspector round in June to assess the degree of infestation. He enclosed a handy pamphlet with pictures of serrated tussock, St John's Wort, and many more. On a brief inspection of the property we appear to be successfully growing the entire list and all are thriving so we may be contravening Order 20 of the Noxious Weeds Act 1993 slightly.

Ness has been whizzing around on the quad bike with litres of dangerous chemicals spraying anything that looks even mildly noxious. She has added a special red dye to the spray so we will be seen to be making the effort.I hope we get brownie points for our endeavours in the summer when we removed a massive infestation of St John's Wort by ripping out each plant by hand in blistering heat.

Despite the helpful pictures I am sure I would not recognise African Lovegrass or Khaki weed if I fell over them ( and probably have ) so it should be an interesting visit.

anniversary

We have just celebrated our 2 year anniversary at Protea Farm, and were looking back at the photos we took when we arrived. So here are a few 'before and afters'

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

From Blog before and after

Because the place has evolved over the last 2 years we fail to notice the dramatic alterations until we look at the pictures. It has been a busy 2 years.

kylie & kevin

We have acquired yet more creatures. Ness spent a couple of days building a bijou duck residence and 2 days ago Kylie & Kevin arrived.

From 2011-04-06

From 2011-04-06

After 24 hours of skulking in their new house they were brave enough to venture out onto the dam.

From 2011-04-06

It is now pitch black and 8.30 at night and she is failing to get them back into the fox-proof house. If Mr Fox gets a good feed tonight then project duck is doomed!

on the wagon

Thanks Lynn for the reminder that the blog is seriously overdue an update. Usually I have a picture or 2 of recent escapades but the last few weeks have been singularly uneventful.

We have had high drama at the Mudgee Tennis Club with the unexpected resignation of the President and departure of several committee members. I hope this is not directly related to my first term as secretary, The last week has been dominated by running around organising extraordinary general meetings and trying to drum up support for the committee. I do not think that I am a natural politician or lobbyist so do not have high expectations of next week's EGM.

On the veterinary front I have been required to complete more continuing professional development in order to maintain my license to practise so spent the weekend at a course on canine ultrasonographic imaging. Despite the dread of being held captive in a small space with 30 other vets it was extremely enjoyable. All the male Aussie vets without exception wore checked flannel shirts and jeans ( James the Pommy vet stood out a mile in his pencil striped tailored shirt ) and the whole gathering put me in mind of a James Herriot/1950's attitude of 'give it a go' and 'anything can be fixed with penicillin and a few bits of bailer twine'.

Brian the ram is now a testosterone driven monster. It appears that the ladies are coming into oestrus and even Ness cannot enter the paddock without being armed with a big stick. The harem are playing hard to get at the moment.

My New Year resolution was to shed some weight so I have been on the wagon for 3 months. Not easy when surrounded by vineyards, but pleased to report that my target of losing 10 kg by Ness's birthday mid April has now been reached. Tennis court coverage has improved dramatically and a new wardrobe of smaller garments has arrived from Marks & Spencer and Debenhams UK. The plan is to lose another 5 kg by the end of June but it is getting harder. Will power and myself are uneasy bedfellows.

Autumn has hit and the evenings are getting chilly. We have had to break into the firewood pile and supply the guest cottages which is a sign that the busy season is upon us.....just as well as we need the cash or I will have to buy a checked flannel shirt and revisit my previous profession.

not a post for vegetarians

I have been away in Sydney at a Veterinary behaviour conference ( no, NOT the behaviour of vets, but of their furry charges ) so Vanessa took advantage of my absence and reduced our flock number by 2. The female lamb has been sold to a neighbour for breeding but the boys are for the freezer.

Being cheapskates we decided to perform our own carcase butchering which despite diagrams and a video by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is trickier than it looks. The legs are easy enough but trying to produce chops/cutlets/racks of lamb using a meat cleaver and an old saw from the shed provided interesting end results.
It is very handy having friends with a cold store and an equipped catering kitchen.

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

The days are getting colder here now after a blistering few weeks and autumn is just around the corner. We have 'Nick the Builder' on site at the moment knocking out windows and putting in new doors before the holiday season picks up again, so it is a busy week.