Dream For Three

I can’t remember when this happened exactly, but I ended up getting one of the neighbours to help me put the shed up.  However, before that could happen I had to build the floor.  We picked a spot in a paddock next to the house (for easy access) and I proceeded to manually dig the holes for the corner posts (having prepared the basic frame to start with).  In case I haven’t mentioned this before, I really hate digging holes (for posts or animals!)

So with the four corner holes dug, I then moved on to another four holes in the centre of each side.  Next came several more holes in the middle section to help provide additional support.  In the end I think it was a total of 12 holes.  I then had a crash course in securing in the posts (using concrete) and managed to get the frame attached to the posts and (mostly) level.

Next was the floor itself – two sheets of 19mm ply wood and another one cut up to fit in the “extra” spaces.  All in all I must say that it was a reasonable job.

Our neighbour then helped with putting up the shed – this turned out to be a lot harder than I expected, especially since the pieces didn’t seem to fit together as well as they probably should have.  Again, in hindsight, this may have been related to how the floor was prepared and the frame setup.  Then again, perhaps it was just the type of shed.

So, with the floor, walls, and roof in place, we now have a fully functional shed for extra storage.  Needless to say, it stayed that way for a few weeks before anything really got put in there.  By then the rain had started and I discovered that the shed perhaps wasn’t as water proof (or the floor as level) as I had hoped.  I thought that the rain was coming in the roof and dripping on to the floor, but careful inspection revealed that it was in fact running down the side of the shed and then leaking inwards!

In my infinite wisdom I went out and purchased some stuff to fill in the gaps and promptly applied it all around on the floor – on the outside!  Another few rainy days later and I realised the fault in my thinking – I now provided even more reasons for the water to run down the side of the wall and overflow inside the shed!  It was then that I came to understand why the plans had suggested a concrete floor and showed the outside 50mm (or so) sunken below the inner section – I’m not quite sure how I would do a wooden floor differently now, but I can see how easy it is homes to become leaky.

Ok, so the next attempt, and apparently more successful than the last, was to drill the holes in the lower wall guttering (they were already there, but now blocked underneath by the no more gaps stuff), through the gap stopper, into the plywood, and then chisel out part of the plywood so that the water can easily run away.  There’s still a bit of a leak in heavy rain, but I can live with that.

Ok, you might think that it’s all over now, but given that there is still a bit of a leak, I decided that we needed shelves in the shed.  I tried resurrecting an old free-standing bookshelf that was falling apart – it worked fine until I put one thing too many on it, then it all fell apart again.

Now we have the free-standing kitset ones which are available from Mitre 10 or Bunnings.  These appear to be working well enough for the moment – reasonably easy and quick to assemble, and they hold a lot.  My only problem with them is that they are a bit narrow.

I’m not sure when (or even if) there will be another shed installed.  Next time I will definitely be doing a number of things differently – not the least of which is going for a different manufacturer!

Yesterday morning we took Liquorice over to the neighbours, where there is more grass than we have for now, and I must say that he is not very impressed. Even though there are eight other steers in the same large paddock, he is being a baby and missing his mum, but at 10 months old he is well and truely ready to go it alone.

At 4 o’clock Ollie arrived.

He is straight off his mum and is only a day old. He looked pretty sad when he arrived, probably having a bit of motion sickness from the trip.

We let him settle abit and then put Sweetie Pye into the milking bay and let him have a small feed. He didn’t take alot of convincing, only a small squirt of milk onto his tongue and he was away. Sweetie Pye of course is not so happy and would gladly kick him off, but that will pass in a few days.

This morning Ollie was a lot more lively, but was very hungry, so I let him have another feed.

I have to put Sweetie Pye in the milking bail and tie her leg so allow him to have a feed, but so far it is working quite well, and it is only a matter of time before she will accept him and they can be lft in peace.

So this was our answer to the lost baby. Now we have two calves and two empty cows. Not quite what we had planned for but we will move forward from here again.

We have started slowly the process of weaning Liquorice and drying off Sweetie Pye before she has her next calf in January. She didn’t need to be dry until november, but with Daisy having calved we didn’t need the milk so decided to just take it slowly and dry her off slowly.

All was going well, until this morning. I went to do the daily check on everyone, and there at the side of the paddock, was an almost perfectly formed but very early and small calf. Sweetie Pye had got into the macrocarpa and slipped her calf as a result.

I feel so sad, but now we also have to do the right thing by her, we just have to work out which way to go. The biggest problem will be getting her to clean out properly and not get an infection so we will be watching her closely. We also have to decide whether to continue to dry her off or not.

Today it is three years since we moved here!

It is a beautiful spring morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, all those spring things are happening.

Looking back, we have come along way in the preceeding three years. We love this lifestyle, something that many can’t cope with, but for us it is, now, the only way to live.

So to take stock. We did not do lambs this year, after such an awful year last year, don’t know about next year  yet. We have been getting our own milk for the last 10 months, and I would rather go out and milk the cow in the rain, than get our milk out of a bottle again. It is just that much better.

The side shoot of having a house cow of course is getting a calf to raise for the freezer. It doubles as a back up milker, ensures that the cow is properly stripped out several times a day, keeps the milk supply up, as well as feeding us in the end. Too many advantages not to do it.

This year we have some of the chickens in a chicken dome, so they are doubling as garden labour right now, as well as the eggs. This has to work out as a good thing since it saves us work. The chickens seem really happy and are due for there first move in the dome.

All in all a very good three years, and we look forward to many more to come.

Sharon has been doing a great job with the gardens.  For some time now she has been talking about chicken domes and the benefits of them.  She eventually found a set of plans for building a chicken dome and I went out to gather up all the bits and pieces we needed (well, apart from the pipe, which we had delivered).

The first step, of course, was the frame – this turned out to be a little cumbersome to build, but with a bit of effort from both Sharon and myself, we managed to put this together.

The next step was to put some sort of bracing in place so that this frame doesn’t fall to pieces!  We managed to do this with the baling twine we had from the hay we got at the start of Winter.

Finally, we used a tarp that my brother left up here before he moved to Christchurch at the end of last year.  This has been placed over the top of the dome to provide the chooks with some protection from the wind and rain.

The tarp is secured to the surrounding ground with tent pegs and to some of the trees by cord.

It was a long wait and with much excitment that we awaited the arrival of Daisys’ first calf.

She was due on the 20th of August and we were told that she would go up to 10 days early. Well the powers to be were wrong and she kept us waitingfor the full term and over.

On the morning of the 21st I noticed she was off her food a little, and then all of a sudden she took off under the trees where I couldn’t see her for the house.

I finished all the other chores and then went to investigate, and sure enough labour had started. I saw the water bag break fairly soon after I went ot check on her, so I hung around for a bit  to be sure all went well.

Daisy was very calm about having me there and even came over for a back scratch in between contractions.

It took a long time between the feet coming and seeing the nose arriving. I guess because it was her first calf that it took a while for everything to stretch and relax enough. Daisy was showing signs of getting tired so a got her a bucket of warm water with some molasses in it, which she downed pretty quickly follwed closely by most of a second bucket.

After that things moved alot quicker and within about ten minutes we had a little grey bull calf whom we called Murray.

It took close on 45 minutes to stand but after that he found the milk bar really quickly

It has been a while since anyone has written anything on here, so time for an update.

We are still patiently awaiting the arrival of Daisy’s first calf. We are all prepared for it with the milking bay functional, and Daisy willing to go in and eat in there. We have calcium in case of milk fever, and a one calf feeder to aid in teaching Daisy to let down her milk for us. In the meantime she is getting her daily dose of magnesium sprinkled on her hay.

Bevan has managed to destroy yet another car, which once again leaves me with a less than reliable car to use. Even more so at the moment since it battery is stuffed and needs to be replaced.

Most of winter has been spent at the sewing machine. The decision was made to make christmas gifts for people this year, so quite alot of planning has been going into just what we want to do.

Firstly let me say that I want to avoid making food related gifts, so we have to lookk at other possibilites. Secondly, although Bevan came up with the idea of making a play garage for a little boy, in reality he will never get around to it, and I would not be very good at it.

So firstly I have been making quilted christmas stockings for all the children, some of them are even named so can double as the wrapping for the gift. The good thing about this is that after spending all the money to buy material and a whole book of patterns for Sammie last year, I can say that we have had our money’s worth now.

Then comes the problem of what to put into the stockings. But more on that later when I have finished a few more things for it. In the meantime, I have quite a few ideas of things I can make, as well as still being on the lookout for more.

Out of the same pattern book, I am also going to make a tree skirt this year. Something that every year I wished I had, but never got around to.

I have also almost finished painting the main bathroom, a job that was well overdue to be done. Now I have to listen to Sammie complaining about how plain it looks compared to the old fashioned flowery wall paper that we on there. Still she will get over it.

Now I have decided not to have any lambs this year. Last years lambing was not a great one for many people, and we were no exception. So I politely declined the use of a ram for this year, so that should lower the stress levels somewhat. It also means that Daisy’s calf will probably be the only baby born here this year, as we won’t be doing any chicks either I don’t think.

kThe chickens are slowly starting to lay again, and we managed to sell our first dozen surplus eggs of the season last week, with another ready for the coming week as well. The unexpected demise of the rooster, will give us a chance to take stock and decide if we still want to continue with the same breeds and everything.

Now as for the garden, well I am still waiting for the finishing of the garden boxes. In fact it is fair to say that they are no closer to being done, and it is time for a new plan since Bevan does not like doing the boxes. So for me it is a chance to encourage the making of a chicken dome instead, and then I can garden more in the style I wanted to before we moved here.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love that this place already had a chicken house, orchard and garden planning already done, it is just not all laid out in the way I wanted. So now is my big chance, and maybe the only one I will get, to finallydo something they way I wanted.

Bevan has been on holiday for two weeks,and in that time he finally built the milking bay that I have been asking for for months. I need it to train Daisy to hand milking when she has her first calf at the end of July. He says he is going to write something about that at some stage.

Now it was finished at the end of last week and Sweetie Pye started using straight away with no problems, as long as she has her hay she will pretty much stand to me be milked anywhere.

Daisy has been coming in each day and checking out how work on the bay has been progressing as it was being built. She has also watched Sweetie Pye being milked in there and munched on some hay right next to it while I potter around the place.

All this in mind I was not prepared for the complete melt down that she had the first time I asked her to go in there.

I went down to put them in the big back paddock while we went out for the day, and Daisy taking the lead walked straight into the yards and waited for me to catch up. All the other cows were standing on the other side of the open gate,  so I thought I would take the opportunity while it was there, and quietly shut the gate to keep them out of the way. I put some nice fresh hay in the milking bale and then asked Daisy to go in.

Well she was not impressed and went into a real panic. Avoided the whole thing like her life depended on it. At one stage she even went under the back side rail having to dip her back down quite a long way t do it. It took me an hour and a half with much moving of heavy objects to block escape routes to finally get her to go in and stand there. She took one hurried mouthful of hay and then tried to climb out the sides of the milking bail again. I let her stand in there for a little while and then let her out and put them all down the back for the rest of the day.

The next day I brought them in put Daisy in the yards with her only source of food in the feed bin in the milking bay and left her there to get hungry enough to go in to eat. I had to put some temporary sides on to discourage the trying to climb out the sides and also stop her from just eating through the sides rather than going in.

I made regular trips to put the bin back in and top up the food, as she kept pulling the bin out so that she didn’t have to eat in there. She spent the whole day in ther eon her own and in the evening Liquorice joined her so that we could milk Sweetie Pye in the morning.

The next morning we milked with Daisy watching on, and then she got some time in nomans land to eat some fresh grass. After Liquorice had had his breakfast off his mother, I put Sweetie Pye out with cricket and left Liquorice as a bit of company for Daisy.

This morning after I milked I brought Daisy back in from nomans land and again she is in the yards on her own. She no longer panics when she has to go into the milking bay, but will still pull the bin out. However she will also go in with only gentle guidance and eat while I pat her.

Today I put an old downpipe across the back so that she could get the idea that sometimes she had t stay there and couldn’t just leave when ever she wants to. She tested it a few times but didn’t panic or push so hard that she broke the pipe, which was good.

She has settled a lot in three days and I think I should now be able to let her out and just bring her in each day and work with her in there. It will be a long slow process, but one that will pay off in the long run.

With Daisy pregnant and due to give birth in a few months time, it was well overdue for me to build a milking bay - first time mother and all that sort of thing.

I started off by planning out the location of the posts, then the neighbour kindly used his post hole borer to drill the holes for me – I really hate digging holes!

After using concreting to secure the posts, I then used some 100×50 as the top rails.

This was more or less the finishing point, at least at this stage.  However, I did decided to add some rails at the front in order to add a head bail and provide access for calves in the future.  Here’s the new finished product.

Today was Sweetie Pyes day, she was due to come into heat tomorrow and the plan was that she would go over the fence today and be there for a couple of days visiting some very handsome boys and then come home again, hopefully in calf.

Last night when I went to shut Liquorice up for the night, so that I could milk in the morning before Sweetie Pye went, I noticed that she was looking close to being in heat. Sure enough by this morning she was in full swing and would stand for anything that was going. I did manage to get some milk out of her, but as is typical at this time for her, she really didn’t want to cooperate more than she could help.

There was still seven bulls in the paddock but the farmer has assured me that his worker would take five of them out by 10.00am and Sweetie Pye and Liquorice could spend a couple of days in there with the other two.

While I was feeding the chickens I could hear a bike tearing around the paddock and sure enough there was the worker chasing bulls all over the place with his bike.  It was quite funny to watch, and there was nothing gentle about his approach.

He chased the ones to be left at a flat out run to either end of the paddock and then before they could all regroup he whipped around and chased the others out the gate and up the race. When he had finished I think there were two very bewildered looking bulls left wondering what had just happened.

Anyway it gave me the chance to safely get a cow in full heat and her calf into the paddock and the gate shut very firmly behind them.

The presence of Sweetie Pye certainly made a difference to the bulls and they haven’t wasted anytime getting down to buisness. I can see them from my kitchen window and what a funny sight they make to see cow striding along around the paddock with two bulls following along in single file, Daisy and Cricket are standing at the fenceline calling to her to come home, and poor little Liquorice is standing in the middle of the paddock wondering what to do because Mum told him to go away so that she could play with the big boys, and sister and aunty are on the other side of the fence, and the big boys don’t want to know him. Poor boy I am sure he will live through it though.

We have decided to try and get a replacement milking cow out of Sweetie Pye next year on account of her being an older cow, and also she is still only on lone to us. So with these things in mind she is in with two Jersey Bulls and will we will hope for a Heifer this time. It is not the end of the world if it doesn’t happen like this but in the ideal world kthat would be what we would order.

Daisy is continuing to look like a pregnant cow and she now has the cutest little uder developing, she is in calf to a low birth weight Murray Grey, but it did take three goes at having her AIed before she got pregnant. She is due around the end of July.

With this in mind Bevan needs to get on and get the new milking bail built, he has holidays coming up at easter so I am really hoping to see some progress on them then. It will be needed to train Daisy to milk and since she doesn’t like change much, the sooner it is done the sooner she can get use to going in there for her hay, and we can start getting her use to being handled in there.