By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
Who knew? In my wildest dreams, I could not imagine Glenlyon Dam at its current historic high of 117% as it is here before me today (1 Dec). Another thing I never knew but witnessed today is that spiders can walk on water! I had read about all the creepy crawlies that come out during a flood but this is the first time I have been up close and personal to millions of spiders (sorry Marnie maybe you should stop reading now), beetles, caterpillars, baby snakes and the likes climbing up onto anything sticking up out of the water. I have to say it was an amazing thing to see though even if it wasn’t much fun to wade through the water and tie a rope to the hay feeders – which were covered with spiders – and tow them up to higher ground.
With water still coming in at terrific speed, it is hard to say how high the dam will come up. Last week I was concerned about a couple of paddocks underwater and I swum out and tied a couple of buoys to the fence so we knew where the fence was (my first swim this summer!) and lucky I did as it is the only guide as to where our paddocks used to be – many more are underwater now including “The Dunny That Drowned”. Of more concern is the power meter is only around 400mm out of the water. However, we are the lucky ones. My heart goes out to the residents of Leyburn, Inglewood and Texas and anyone affected by the floods.
The past few weeks I have been mentioned our ongoing problems with flystrike. We were finally able to get the sheep yarded and undercover on Monday afternoon for Shearer Steve Thomas to shear the next morning. On Tuesday morning we awoke at 4.30 am to the sound of rain and proceeded to get ready for Steve who arrived promptly at 7 am. Steve was a great shearer and quick as well, so by smoko, we had shorn around half of the sheep. Smoko over, we went back to the shed where the rain was starting to come down a bit harder. The motor for the shearing machine that had started first pull earlier refused to start despite everything that Richie tried. By this time we were getting concerned about how much the rising water at Pikes Creek that Steve would have to cross to get home. We made the call to send him home and let the sheep out. We kept a few back that looked like they could be struck and sure enough, they were. It was back to the hand shears to clean them up! Steve was booked to do a big shearing job next week so we will need to find another shearer to do the rest as soon as we can.
Goats really hate rain and getting wet and although they have plenty of shelter in their paddocks they are not happy chappies. The calves did not enjoy getting kicked out of their shed so we could keep 150 sheep dry either. They are now installed back under cover but the shed will take a while to dry out. The only ones loving all the rain are the ducks and Dora!
What a difference a day makes. I awoke this morning to a beautiful sunny day although I do remember waking up last night to the sound of heavy rain. We received 17mm alone in that downfall. The dam level dropped back quite dramatically leaving in its wake lots of logs and other debris. We won’t be able to do any cleaning up for a while yet. The quad bike is the only vehicle that doesn’t sink when driving around the farm!
This week I finally got around to starting up the incubator – 12 dozen eggs had piled up in cartons on the sideboard so I sorted any that were under 2 weeks old and put 88 Australorp Bantam and Araucana eggs in and also 7 Guinea Fowl Eggs. Unfortunately, Currajongs and/or Goannas found and raided the Guinea Nests before I did and I haven’t found any new nests – even if I did the eggs would be too wet by now but I shall resume my search from now on.
The lamb that was bitten by the Goanna has gone on to make a full recovery after CJ’s ongoing first aid and will make a fine Ram, I will most likely keep him for our own use.
The 2 Lambs that were dispatched to the butcher last week are now in the freezer and we enjoyed an absolutely delicious lamb roast complete with homegrown Purple Congo Potatoes and Cabbage earlier in the week. The lambs were nearly 15 months old so had plenty of time to develop a beautiful sweet flavour and our roast was incredibly tender and succulent. Our pork/ham and bacon will be ready closer to Xmas.
CJ despite the rain has been out working on her daily square metre at every opportunity and is currently working on an area outside the cottage near the woodpile – I have named it “Parklands” as it is starting to resemble a small park! The area already had some ironbark fenceposts around it but no wire, an old sunken bathtub that we removed due to concerns about children falling in and a few trees – namely three Widow Maker Gums that the Guinea Fowl roost in at night, a pencil pine and another type of pine with acorn like nuts that smells oh so beautiful after the rain. CJ is in the process of making a Park Bench from Pallets, I am not sure if she is planning on putting it in Parklands but I suspect the Guinea Fowl might quite fancy resting on it way more than myself who is very wary of Widow Maker Gums!
I have replanted some of the gardens the cows got into with Lettuce, Beetroot and also a couple of Moon & Stars Watermelons I had kept seed from in 2017. These Watermelons are amazing to look at and delicious to eat as well.
Well, despite the best of intentions in getting this week’s read in early it is now Friday morning and I am late yet again so I will sign off for now, have a great week everyone and enjoy the sun whilst it is shining.
