alpaca bonding

Useless Alan has been sacked as the Ormiston sheep guard and now resides at Protea Farm, much to Marley's delight. The boys are very happy together, and Marley is less inclined to hang out with his Wailers.

From Protea Farm 1

He is proving to be quite a poser when he sees a camera.

From Protea Farm 1

gimme shelter

Bob & The Wailers now have a custom built rain shelter- a mini agridome/hog house prototype that we have named the 'Hoof House'. Now we need to persuade the creatures to venture into it.

From Protea Farm 1

From Protea Farm 1

Above: Under construction

From Protea Farm 1

The finished article.

Although Marley has bonded well with the sheep we have been feeling guilty about him being a lone alpaca. Georgie's alpaca ( 'Pharaoh', a retired stud male, now renamed Alan ) who she has had for a few weeks is failing to do his job as a sheep guard and has been pining on his own, so it looks like pretty soon it will be Marley, the Wailers and Alan residing at Protea Farm.

protea preserves

The frosts have ripened the oranges on the tree so Ness has produced the first batch of produce for 'Finesse Farm Foods' :

From Protea Farm 1

Introducing 'Mudgee Marmalade' the flagship product in the 'Protea Preserves' range. A cheeky tangy little number with a fruity bouquet and a long citrus finish.

marley and the wailers

Today was the day when Marley and the girls came home to Protea Farm. Our first attempts at fencing a sloping paddock were a little amateurish, with some creative weaving and macrame of chicken wire, and a few glitches regarding the gate width and gate post positioning, but it looks stock-proof.

The 3 Wiltshire Horn sheep proved to be very feisty ladies when it came to loading them onto the trailer, but you cannot take the Kiwi out of the girl and Ness wrestled them into submission and rode them bronco-style up the ramp, where Marley was calmly waiting with a bored look on his face ( I think he feels very superior, in a Latino way, to ovine creatures ).

From Protea Farm 1

They unloaded calmly into their new paddock, and got stuck in to their hay. Above picture shows Lilian, Clarrie and Peggy in all their finery, hopefully gestating the rest of the flock.

From Protea Farm 1

Clarrie & Peggy enjoying dinner.

From Protea Farm 1

Marley keeps a watchful eye.

swine flu

The number of cases of swine flu in Australia last week has tipped the official WHO categorisation to pandemic.

We are obviously taking precautions-

From Blogger Pictures

kevin's stimulus package

We finally completed our rather late tax returns for the year 07-08 a couple of weeks ago. Little Kevin Rudd introduced a 'stimulus package' to all tax payers to encourage people to keep spending in the recession: basically a $900 tax refund, and we were hoping to be eligible.

The upshot appears to have been that most households now possess massive plasma screen tv's. In fact demand for these ( not made in Australia ) items has led to waiting lists of several weeks in most retail outlets.

We were lucky enough to claim a rebate and also each received our package. At least we spent ours on an Australian made product, namely a piece of a horse, rather than a tv or a holiday in Fiji. I hope Kev appreciates that we are not un-Australian

only fools and horses.....

Today we bought a 20% share in a racehorse. She is filly born Aug 14th 2007, and Scott assures us she will run like the wind and earn us a large amount of money, but we are not holding our breath. I will post some pictures when she is scrubbed up and training is underway.

We do need some help though- she needs a name. This has to be based on the Sire and Dam's names which are:

Sire: Seidnazar
Dam: Our Demeter

Any suggestions?

Georgie says I will have to acquire a frock and a hat for attending Race days. I have agreed to buy a hat if she wins a race, and eat it if she wins two races.