By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
Do you recall Steve from Drovers Dog Transport who picked up some of our stud sheep for delivery to the Scenic Rim back in April? Well, Steve mentioned our holiday cottage to his friends in Brisbane and they booked in for last weekend, although I wasn’t aware of the connection at the time. Scott, Lucinda, and their twin daughters Olive and Lilly brought their boat and although they didn’t catch any fish the weather was perfect and the girls had a wonderful time with all the animals. Even bouncing Dora didn’t faze them.
I am grateful to have such wonderful guests. It truly was just like having family visit, only I didn’t have to do the cooking! As an added bonus the first lambs of the season were born – one of the English Leicester ewes had twins – now named Olive and Lilly! They were born early Sunday morning and the girls got to see them when they were just a few hours old. One of the lambs was a fair bit weaker than the other and as I went to check on them two crows flew away. They had got the umbilical cord of one. I picked the lambs up and carried them into the house yard with the mother following. I milked the ewe and fed the weak lamb. If they don’t get that first feed within a couple of hours there is little hope for them.
It is now Monday night and I have a few less plants in the garden but at least I still have two lambs. We had a bit of a storm earlier and then the weather turned freezing and absolutely bitter. Of its own accord, the ewe took the lambs around the front of the garden and into Dick’s Hut. It’s amazing how a ewe that has never been in the backyard knows to look for shelter. Who said sheep are dumb!
Scott and Lucinda advised me that Steve did end up getting the job carting alpacas from Brisbane to the NT as well and one day I will have to find out how the trip went. Lucinda sent me the photo of Olive and Lilly with the “bush” kid. I really love the excitement shining in the girls’ eyes! I think there is a good chance our new friends will be back next year to check on their namesakes.
There’s a hole in the bucket. On Sunday afternoon after spending some time working on Kermit the bus, I decided it was time for some fun. I told Dora we would go for a kayak. She was most excited and as soon as I dragged the kayak down to the water she launched herself off the bank and started swimming. I put on my life jacket and paddled off, for about all of twenty feet, when the kayak started to sink. I was baffled until I pulled the kayak out and discovered some of the bungs were missing. Oh well, I thought, I will grab one of the other kayaks. I did so only to discover the same problem. I have no idea what happened to the bungs, whether some creature came and ate them or carried them away. It was a disappointed Dora and wet Judy who trundled back to the house!
As I checked on the Merinos on Sunday it was, as usual, hard to get within 100 feet of them but I was suspicious that one had a dirty bum. So it looked as though it was time to get them in and give them a worming. If you have a gut feeling that something does not look right then nine times out of ten you are correct. We haven’t had a chance to get them as yet, however, two more have lambed so we have a total of six lambs from five ewes.
Early this morning I was on the bike checking the ewes and discovered the first Southdown lamb born. It is out of one of the Wild Bunch so, again, I couldn’t get within cooee of them as they started to take off. There was only one though and I believe two of these ewes escaped the preg testing last month.
The grain feeder. You will recall that I was worried about what setting to use on the feeder to ensure the sheep didn’t overfeed. Well, I obviously got it a bit wrong as less than three weeks after a tonne of grain was put in, fifty ewes have gobbled up the lot! An expensive lesson to learn.
Richie has taken a week off work to try and catch up on some of the many repair jobs on the farm. I came down the driveway from work yesterday, just after we had a storm, to find that Dear Richie had dumped half a tonne of mud on the driveway in an effort to fix up a couple of potholes where water always pooled. I was in the LandCruiser so just managed to slide gently through. I did ponder though how anyone in a 2WD was going to get in or out. Richie promised to iron it out with the bucket of the tractor the next day in order to make the driveway usable again.
On Thursday evening, driving Richie’s ute home from work along the Bruxner Highway, I encountered a fair size dead ’roo on the road, just as another vehicle was approaching from the opposite direction. That was the start of my night from hell! As it was near a bend in the road I was unable to avoid the ’roo and ended up going straight over it. In the LandCruiser, it wouldn’t have been a problem but Richie’s ute is very low to the ground. A short distance beyond the impact the ute just stopped. I was able to pull over near the side of the road but not as far off as I would have liked. It was around 5.30 pm, starting to get dark, and of course, there was no phone reception. I looked underneath the car but there was no sign of fuel or oil – only a disgusting smell of dead roo.
A couple of cars went past but didn’t stop. After about twenty minutes I decided I had better flag the next one down. It happened to be a camper van. A lovely gentleman and his wife offered to take me to where there was phone reception, for which I was very grateful. Eventually, we managed to get Richie on the phone and he diagnosed that the fuel line had come off. He was correct and Ash from the farm came out and got me going again. My new friends in the camper mentioned they had just been through Texas hoping to stay at the caravan park, however, they had discovered it was full and had so decided they would push on to Tenterfield. Since it was 6.30 pm I said, “No worries, come and stay with me – I have a place on the dam with power and a toot.”
They followed me home at the cautious pace of 70km an hour, because of the ’roos and the absence of a bull-bar. Upon arrival, we went down to the dam and they parked their van and went to use the toilet. “There’s a sheep in the toilet all covered in blood,” the lady says. Sure enough, there in the toilet was a prolapsed ewe. Richie and I quickly shoved her out so the toilet could be used. However, that was when we discovered there was no water. A search in the dark revealed that when Dear Richie had dug the trench for the power he had broken a waterline. We offered the use of our facilities but the lovely couple said they would be fine without a shower for the night. By this stage, it was 7.30 and the prolapsed ewe had disappeared in the dark. We called it a night but I had nightmares about our guests going to the toilet in the morning and finding a dead ewe. Morning came around eventually and as soon as it was a decent hour I shot off down to see our guests. They were amazed at the beautiful sight they had awoken to, having arrived under the blanket of dark the night before. All’s well that ends well and the ewe was dispatched to the vet and made a full recovery. She had, however, delivered a dead lamb.
