You know you live in the country when....

...you get a call at 7pm on Saturday night from a neighbour saying 'Our ewe is having difficulty lambing. She's in the middle of the paddock. Can we borrow J to help hold her down?'

Our neighbours Chris and Colette have about 10 ewes and this is the first to lamb this year. Colette called at lunchtime to let us know that this was the day and we had gone over just after 4pm as her waters had broken and the birth was imminent. At 5.30pm we returned home as it was now dark and we were cold from hanging around in the paddock for so long (you have to be quiet and still!)

We set off excited with torches. When we arrived you could see the lambs nose and one foot and still the ewe was walking around and then running around as we tried to catch her! About 30 minutes later the four of us managed to corner her in the sheep enclosure. Colette and J held her down, I held the torch and Chris pulled the lamb out. It's tongue was sticking out which was a really bad sign, but still it was breathing and within 30 minutes was bleeting and trying to feet. The resilience of animals is amazing! You will be pleased to hear that mother and baby are both doing well. If we hadn't caught her both the ewe and lamb would have been dead by morning.

New arrivals

Three weeks ago 2 gorgeous rhode island red chickens, a rooster and a hen, came to live with us. They're an absolute delight and it is easy to waste time just watching them scratch around for their food, it's so relaxing.

We know we live in the country now as the rooster crows early in the morning, in fact until we feed them. It's hilarious to hear, they're young and so he can't crow properly yet, it's like a boy whose voice is breaking. Today we collected our first egg, a very exciting day. It's really small so no baking or omelette making yet, but maybe in a few days....

Misty morning

Whilst the sun shines on Wimbledon it's winter here. This photo was taken on a morning walk with Jerry last week within 200 metres of our house. The main difference with winter here is that later this day the sun came out and it was 14 degrees. We are having a gloriously mild winter, long may it last!

The last 4 months

Sorry we have been so rubbish, life has got away from us! So here is a brief overview of our life since our last post.

February

J's old company went into liquidation the day after he left. This meant we lost just over $13K in pay, holiday pay and pension. J was by far not the worst affected with one employee owed $76K and an Aussie bank and the Tassie government are owed millions. It's quite controversial here and quite regularily in the paper as the company underwent a management buy out, changed it's name and began trading again within weeks. The liquidator is trying to raise the funds to do an investigation into whether the buyout was legal.

We were lucky, J had another job. Plus there is a scheme here whereby you can claim lost wages if a company goes into liquidation so we have put in an application and will wait and see.

March

We were joined by Jerry, a four year old ex racing greyhound who is an absolute delight. Large, even compared to other male greyhounds, Jerry weighs nearly 40kgs and has been described as a small horse! He loves running around the block and is particularly fond of chasing wallabies and possums, something we are working on with him!

April

I worked really long hours preparing a number of documents for publication. It reminded me that we left the UK for a less stressful life and for a moment I didn't achieve it. Still I have just had a week off to compensate for all the extra time I worked so life can't be so bad!

May

We put in the raised beds for our veggie patch and have started planting. We now have over 55 square metres of beds so hopefully we'll have enough food! I just need to organise some netting as the veggie patch will need to be completely enclosed so we get to eat the produce rather than the possums!

June

Continuing with the food theme we have begun planting fruit trees for what we optomistically call our orchard! Next weekend we are building a chook run for the chickens that our neighbours are giving us. Our own egss, brilliant! We are on our way to becoming more self sufficent. Less time spent in the supermarket, I can't wait!

It's winter here and the days are pretty short with the sun rising at about 7am and setting just after 5pm. Longer than in the UK, but the summer days here are shorter and we don't get those lovely long summer evenings. The weather is mixed with some days glorious with blue skies and not a cloud in sight, today is over cast and about 12 degrees. It rained on the weekend and it still seems weird how pleased everyone always is when it rains. Last year, our first, had the heaviest rainfall in Tassie for over 10 years and it was hard to imagine we were suffering from longterm drought. So far this year we have had less than a third of the rain we had by the end of May last year. One of our criteria in buying the land we built on was high rainfall and our paddock is still green whilst in other areas around Hobart there is little grass at all and the livestock are already been fed hay. Our outlook has really changed now we live in the country. I don't think I ever noticed when the paddocks were green or horses were being given additional feed around Cambridge.

Road signs are more literal here...

Whilst in ACT for work I drove past a road sign that said

DRINK DRIVE
DIE in a ditch

New job for J

After working with the Studywiz people for a little over a year, I have decided to change jobs. And, not content with just a new place to work, I am going to be working in a new industry sector and a change of role!
So, from educational sector software company in a Project Management role
to financial services company in a Business Analyst role.
New company is the Retirement Benefits Fund TAS, so at least my superannuation (pension) fund should be sorted out.

Mad as a box of frogs!

Not content with brining in our own hay on Monday we thought we'd help one of our neightbours. Driving home from work we noticed a guy getting hay in by himself and believe me it is a tough job, so we went home, got changed and went to offer our help. Brett was thrilled, although a little surprised as we had never met before. An hour later and the 3 of us had got in 120 bales. We slept well last night!

Brett and his wife, Donna, offered us a beer and gave us 5 books on natural farming and animal husbandry - winner!! Unfortunately they are selling up and moving back to Hobart. This does mean that they will be selling their equipment though..... Shame we've just bought a ride on mower!