Spring starts

Spring is raising it's head now and the wattle is all in flower.


And here's a cute photo of Sandy, one of our Murray Grey calves.
  ¶ 6:39 AM

  Spinning
This photo shows the results and progress of Linda's spinning.

She's becoming more and more confident with practice and the three skeins here show how her spinning is producing finer spun wool threads.

The wool isn't our own yet, as Linda wants to learn more about cleaning and carding before we can do anything with it.

The wool at the top of the seat is her first batch and the wool at the bottom is the latest. The color has nothing to do with the spinning, there were two different batches of carded wool. Linda plans to at least have knitted herself a beanie from her own spun wool before next winter.

  ¶ 5:49 PM

  What a difference 59mm makes
This weekend has been wet. Saturday (day & night) we received 59mm of rain and another 5mm since I emptied the gauge this morning.

The creek across the road we normally only know by the reeds growing in it, but this morning it was up and over its banks.

Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of Uralla being gazetted as a township and there were quite a few events going on. We meet Bernie Kennedy who was a member of the people in Outback House. We bought the book of the series and got it signed by him.
We also bought a crype myrtle from our neighbors truck stall there to plant out the front of the house, and so it's been well watered now :)

I also built an chicken egg incubator yesterday afternoon from a foam box I retrieved from the rubbish tip. I bought a digital thermostat from Jaycar for it previously, but only put it all together yesterday. Now I'll have to start on a brooding pen to protect them when the chickens are hatched.

I'll photograph it when it's loaded with eggs or they start to hatch.

The cows have walked through the fence between the two halves of the north facing front slope of the property. And wrecked more of the windbreak trees I planted last spring. I wanted to fence this off to protect them, but it's a real dilemma. We either have time for fencing or money for fencing, but never the both at the same time. So I'll have to repair that fence as well as build all the other ones I want to build. Once I have the fences all sorted out, then I'll have to replant those windbreaks to repair any damage done by them being grazed upon by the cows and sheep.

The cows also seem to enjoy lifting the milk cartons I had protecting the trees. This morning when I called them down, even the calves would pause and flick the cartons off as they progressed down the hill.


Kentucky Creek in flood (click for a larger image).
Front dam (looking east).
Shed tank, full to the brim
House tank (2nd) overflowing.  ¶ 3:51 PM