By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
Autumn already! Autumn and Spring are my favourite times of the year, Autumn signalling a time to start slowing down and have dinner before 7.30 pm as well as taking time to marvel at nature’s beautiful colours. I love the abundance of leaves to rake up and use as mulch on the garden and compost as well. What’s not to love about Autumn!
Driving out the gate this morning low to the ground I saw a magnificent sea eagle take flight only metres from me. Hot on its heels were some small birds. It’s not every day you see a sight like that.
Like everyone I was shocked and horrified to see the major weather event evolve last week. My sister lives near Ipswich and was impacted by their shed flooding and storm damage, no words I write can express the terror and heartache people have been through.
Frustration is overflowing in buckets from me today. Email on my phone hasn’t been working for some time. I should have just left well enough alone, after all, checking emails once a day should be enough right. But no, I rang Telstra who, for once, got back to me quickly! A quick reset of the password and all was good, or so I thought. I got up this morning with a list of things to do and check as long as my arm and first off the list was turn on the laptop and check the emails before daylight broke. I quickly discovered my email account was no longer working and assumed it had something to do with the reset yesterday. 9.00 I called Telstra and was directed to Jack who advised me my email account had been suspended due to suspicious activity. My computer had a dose of the worms and on top was being attacked by a Trojan Horse. I could feel my anxiety levels rising rapidly. It took Jack’s one-man army the whole day to defeat the Trojan Horse and kill the worms. It cost me an arm and a leg nearly to purchase Telstra’s Premium Cyber Security Package but it covers all devices for a lifetime plus 24-hour technical support.
I am incredibly overjoyed to report that the last cow, Tess, was A.I.d this afternoon. Now it is a wait and see game. I have my fingers and toes crossed! The cows are a bit better behaved now moving through the yards after some training with Bernie (the A.I. man). The first couple of times they dug their hooves in and refused to walk up into the crush. Cows that are too quiet can be more difficult to move than wild cattle sometimes!
I went to take a few more photos of the sale lambs for my Facebook page yesterday and as I approached them in front of me (about 2 metres) was a tin shelter the sheep use occasionally. I looked down and at the same time a large feral cat, striped like a tiger woke up from his sleep in the shelter. I had the camera of course but I got such a shock he was through the paddock and over the fence into the trees before I could say Holy Mackeral. I suspect the cat has been cleaning up the Guinea Fowl that are often in that paddock. He was a magnificent specimen of a feral cat, fat, large and shiny in his prime I would say. It is essential that we get rid of this cat before the end of winter when lambing starts. We have been trying now for quite some time but will have to ramp up the efforts.
Wednesday dawned bright and clear for our concrete delivery at 6.30 am however by the time I drove out the driveway to work the sky had clouded over. 3 Generations of Gibbings worked hard to lay the concrete. Richie’s son, Steve is a concreter at A1 Aussie Concrete and grandson Cooper also came out to help. Johnson’s Quarries from Inglewood delivered the concrete and also helped when needed. Fortunately, the rain held off until that night and we woke Thursday morning to see the concrete so level, not a single puddle had formed on it. Hopefully, in a few weeks, we will start erecting the shed.
In other news, I have started a new job at a Pecan Farm in the Dumaresq Valley. I am looking forward to having my weekends off to spend with Richie in the future (I will still be working at the Waste Facility for a few more weeks). I reckon the first thing I will do (well, we will do together despite Richie’s guaranteed protest about there being too much work to do on the farm) will be to attend a clearing sale! I love nothing better than a weekend drive to a farm I haven’t been to before, enjoying the journey, buying a cup of tea and some delicious cakes that only those country ladies that serve on that always present at clearing sale canteen supporting a charity can bake. And of course, the anticipation of possibly securing a bargain buy that you really really need!
I was looking for a file in the Rare Breeds Trust Storage the other day and I accidentally opened a picture of the Trust’s first-ever magazine – it was dated April 1992 so next month will be a 30-year celebration of the Trust. The cover featured a photo of a Middle White Pig – taken from a stud in Western Australia. This breed is now extinct in Australia, the date of its disappearance is unsure but is likely to be in the 1970s. The Welsh Pig, also a white breed still has its standard in the Australian Pig Breeders Herd Book but has disappeared from our shores, I believe it was around until the 1980s
Take care everyone, I look forward to catching up again next week.
