Jellybeans and Custard: January 2012

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Chocco's First! Introducing Fluffy

Great excitement yesterday at 'Clayton's Run'!

Damo came in at lunch time and said you'd better keep an eye on 'that cow' (he doesn't like to hold to their names) over the next 24 hours...

Some of you might remember the post about Charlie's Calf born a couple of months ago,

well Chocco was sent out with Charlie to the bull because Charlie had SO much milk

that we were concerned about mastitis.

The solution?

Take the calf (Chocco) out with her ~ No worries.

No worries
until
a few months later when we noticed that she was,
well getting rather fat!

(This was a little mistake as the bull was actually her Dad. ~ but that's OK isn't it?
I mean that's what all good studs do.
I have been told that its OK if its only first generation)

So I went for a quick walk out the front paddock.

Here is what I found:~

One very sulky teenage girl.......

Poor little darling, she had no idea what was going on.

She looked at me as if to say it was all my fault.

I shook my head and said...

this is what teenage pregnancy is all about love...

And then she stood up, yep!
Definitely a calf coming today!!

20 minutes later we went back out to see the progress ~

YAY! two little hooves.

A little feel around to make sure that the head was facing the correct way.

Damo decided that we had better give her a little hand.

So we got a bit of rope and a bucket of warm water.

Tied it around the little ones toes and PULL!

and PULL

you can just see the calf's tongue and nose.

and PULL!!!

and out the calf slid!

It's a GIRL!

What a good mum!

Cleaned her up straight away.

She came to investigate my camera

I named her Fluffy

(Damo tells me I shouldn't name her...this one is not for keeping)

Hello Mama!

Chop's my very first pet sheep

(he is now a grand old age of 7+)

was sharing the isolation paddock with Chocco ~

was rather bored with the event,

(he hid his jealousy over me being excited rather well I think!)

Poor Charlie!

I went over to tell her the good news:

Guess what!!!!!

Chocco had her calf!

Your a GRANDMOTHER!

"No! I can't be" she explained

I'm only 4 years old!

Have a lovely day,

Happy Australia Day from here!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Stormy days......count your blessings.

Yesterday and today's weather forecast?

80% chance of thunderstorms.

My hubby and I were a little excited.

For a start we both LOVE watching storms....

We have been known to grab our outdoor chairs, coffee, snacks, a blanket when its cold (and of course the camera!)

and watch with awe God's amazing and powerful creation at work.

We also needed rain for our summer crop

- Millet -

which is feeding our 3 cows, 2 calves and we are about to move back our 20 odd sheep to fatten up for market.

The whole garden always perks up after rain

(isn't it amazing that even if you continually water it

it's not the same as fresh rain?)

And as the day grows older it gets SO hot that Damo can no longer stand working out in the shed and retreats inside.

A good 37'c I think...

and humid.

The clouds seemed to build out of nothing

... and then....

hit.

I was too scared to really stick my neck too far out off the verandah, I had JB clinging to my neck as I tried to get some 'blog' worthy shots

(which I don't think I did but I just had to show you what happened).

Half way through the storm,

Damo suddenly realised that the southern door on the shed was wide open

and that was the direction the storm was coming from

- he sprinted from the house to close the door -

and I prayed that he wouldn't get struck by the lightening.

I have NEVER heard thunder like it

- it was so.....

wicked.

I was a little frightened ( which is very unusual during storms).

and then the wind hit

I had retreated inside by this stage

- too scary to even be on the verandah -

Damo was stuck in the shed

JB was begging for 'Shaun the Sheep'.

I made my way from window to window

~ amazed~

at the power behind the storm,

and then the hail hit.....

PANIC

our car, our caravan, our truck

all outside.

The hail was flying sideways straight down our verandah

- I did try to capture it on camera, it didn't work....

The hail was

- literally -

bouncing back up 2 foot in the air off the lawn.

I eventually got brave enough to venture a bit further outside

~ with JB occupied with the portable DVD player.

Below tells the sad tale of my sorrows..........

My arch~way that Damo made me for a few birthdays ago.
Roses ripped off it.

Numerous trees had lost branches

and this - our favourite tree in our garden.
It was just started to spread an amazing shade.
We been watching and waiting for this tree for three years.

Snapped off under-ground by the force of the wind

A few bent fences...

Damo using the chainsaw to clean up.
During the second part of the storm
I was holding my breath on the verandah while he thunder roared on.

I was a little up set by the tree!

My newly acquired shed from my father-in-law.
I was going to make a cow bail and chook shed...
:(

As I tallied up everything I was just a "little" annoyed at God..

Why after all this time?

We have worked really hard at developing our garden, our home.

We started with nothing here

- just an empty block that was a dust bowl

at the start of a ten year drought.

And then I

stopped

Who knows the reasons behind why things go wrong?

Our heavenly Father

who loves us SO much.

Who knows?

He may have been preventing a greater loss.

We were planning on building JB a sandpit under that tree,

maybe a one day a branch may have been going to fall?

Who knows?

and so I realise that

all our expensive machinery is undamaged,

we are all safe

we have a roof over our heads

We have a loving heavenly Father who cares for us.

and all that we have lost was a few trees.

May God bless you today!

Corinne.

I am linking with the lovely ladies for
Farmgirl Friday blog hop!
@
http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/
or click on the title.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Farwell to "old red"

Yesterday we sold our old red truck!

Part of me is a little sad
(OK I'll be honest I'm quite a bit sad!)

There are quite a few memories attached to the old girl...

We picked her up and drove her to a good friends wedding the day we bought her
(our car on the back so we didn't have to drive two vehicles home)

- we got changed in public toilets a 1/2 hour before the church service! :)
You should just once try and put stockings on in public toilets where the doors don't quite shut,
putting make-up on while looking into your reflection in a piece of shinny tin!

Quite a few trips as newly weds to various 'old engine rallies',

collecting our new front fence,

a long drive to pick up various things
like our forklift
~ a good five hour drive one way ~
with the picnic packed and our almost grown-up girl, 'Net'.

Carting water for our brand new garden during the drought.

Our only water supply is a small dam and a few water tanks collecting rain water off our house and shed.
After 2 years of drought, there was no water for us or the garden.
It had to be carted from town on a tank on 'old red'.
This picture is of a dust storm - lots of wind, lots of dust, sometimes thunder and lightening - but no rain. It was taken from our verandah.

picking up our small squares of new hay
with little JB sitting up on my knee
as I tried to wrestle with the steering wheel one handed
~ without tipping poor Damo off ~
while I lined the bales up

I'm happy though

~ Damo and I are going to make new memories~

with the money from old red
we'll 'do up' our rusty old Indiana Truck!