You find us having finished lambing season at Red Phoenix Farm.
That always means life and death unfortunately. So far we've lost a ewe and, obviously, the lambs she was carrying; I've also had to bury five other lambs.
One seemed healthy - lasted a couple of days and then I went out one morning to find it had died in the night. Another one was part of triplets that didn't really survive the birth and the others have appeared fine but mysteriously have not made it.
Mother nature can be cruel and we had to give the remaining triplets to Sallie to try to hand rear because the mum is rather pathetic. I put covers on all three and I think that gave them the chance to survive but the mother ignored them and if left to her tender mercies we're sure they also would be dead by now.
The good news there is that Aunty Sallie has had success with two of the three lambs she ultimately had to foster.
The other good news is that the place is buzzing with a plethora of young bleats looking for mum. I tend to lose count after the first two or three. Needless to say they are cute, adorable little souls.
Love and peace - Wozza
Just finishing up some odd jobs about the place before we set sail for Auckland and Waiheke Island at the end of the week.
To whit:
I was nudged out of my dozy 2am state a week ago by the dull thud of the huge door to the three bay shed.
Sidebar: The door's about 3x2.5 metres - big! Made of steel and corrugated iron. It opens outwards so that I can drive the tractor out.
It was really a blustery night and I figured the door had somehow shaken itself loose from its moorings a bit. It's anchored by two solid bolts, one vertical, t'other horizontal.
I didn't think too much of it. One I was half asleep, two I didn't think it would be doing too much damage and three if I went out to check on it the dogs (who have their kennels by the three bay) would have barked their heads off. So I went back to my fitful sleep (plenty on my mind of late yunnerstand).
The next day SWMBO had a look at it and reported that the door had somehow blown itself INSIDE the shed. EEK.
SWMBO is well known for her exaggerations but in this case she was spot on. It took a crowbar to force the door back to its original position but the force of the wind had also twisted the steel struts, severed a couple of welds and blown the corrugated iron loose as well. Triple EEK.
The last week has witnessed my intermittent (failed) attempts to repair the door. I tried drilling a hole through the steel to insert a rivet without any success. A couple of trips to Mitre 10 for new steel bits to drill with and I was ready for a fresh assault.
No luck. The steel could twist and break with the wind but my drilling made little impression. Sallie came out for a consult and after more drilling failure we decided to go with my put-a-tail-on-it-call-it-a-weasel cunning plan of wiring the corrugated iron to the steel.
Hey presto - the door has been repaired. As we were admiring things we noticed a new lamb in our paddock by the shed - about 2 months after the very first lamb for this season! Amazing. Brings us to 17 lambs from 8 ewes.
The latest lamb reminded me that I had forgotten to load pictures of the quads (latest: all doing well and mum is starting to recover some body weight - four hungry youngsters has been difficult for her). The little coats were to keep them warm and dry during winter in case you were wondering.
Love and peace - Wozza
