Farm animals
Welcome to 2012!
January 1, 2012
The sun sets on 2011
Well the sun set on a fairly crappy year last night and to be perfectly honest, I’m pleased to see the back of 2011. (I have to say, many people I’ve spoken to have found 2011 to be a bad year, so I don’t think it’s just our community that wanted to hold a F*** Off 2011 party!)
During 2011 I learned two things. I think I knew them already, but they were definitely reinforced.
One: Health is King.
Two: Family and the people you love, is Queen.
If you have these two, not much else matters.
I’m not going to dwell on 2011. It’s finished and it can bugger off. Let’s look forward.
2012 is going to be a great year! Firstly Purple Roads will be released. I’m looking forward to this. Writing Purple Roads took place during a fairly turbulent time for me and my family, so to see it wrapped in its cover and finally on the shelf will be a big relief.
2012 is The Year of the Farmer! I’m stoked about this. One of my aims to is too somehow bring understanding from both city and country people alike. Since I’ve been involved in the writing industry, I’ve spoke with so many people who come from a country, if not farming background but live and work in the city. I’m astounded such a gap, misinformation and understanding of BOTH worlds can exist. To help bridge this gap, I’ll be running a series of Guest blogs with farmers and other people in the agricultural industry.
2012 is National Year of Reading. Obviously bringing the joy to reading to both kids and adults is something very dear to me. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be involved as a ‘Friend’ of this initiative. I’m also one of the Patrons for this, at my old school – Orroroo Area School. Thanks to Jenny Rosenblatt (who is also one of my old teachers!) for thinking of me.
2012 is The Year of Silver Gums! The publication date of Silver Gums been brought forward by twelve months. This means it will be available on the shelves in March of 2013. It also means my deadline is August 2012. Ummm, yep, head down!
Personally 2012 sees my daughter head into year seven and son into year six. My sister is due to have a baby any tick of the clock and the farm, well this year we’re hoping for rain at the right time, high prices and full dams.
To you all who take the time to read these little blogs of mine, thank you. I hope you find them interesting. From my family to yours, we hope 2012 is a wonderful year, full of health, happiness and love.
Time to wean the cows and calves
December 17, 2011
Weaning is a fun time of year for me. Perhaps not for the calves as they’ve been taken from their mothers for the first time!
weaning cows and calves
Weaning is much the same for calves as it is for human babies when mum decides it’s time to no longer feed from breast or bottle. Or when it comes time to give up that dreaded dummy! (Oh boy, I can I remember that.)
For calves, being ‘weaned’ means having them in the yards for about four or five days, depending on how long it takes them to settle, become used to me, as I plod around the yards, singing, and talking to them and mostly, how long it takes them to stop wanting their mum. Once we split the cow and calf unit, we don’t want them to get mixed up together again because all of the hard work we’ve already done will be wasted.
So for the time they are in the yards, we feed them hay and they have as much water as they need.
weaned calves
By the time they’re ready to head out into the paddock, they’re calm, they’re not frightened of people (because we give them what they need, hay and water) and they’re well on the way to making gorgeous cows, who will have lovely calves.
Scary noises…
December 15, 2011
I guess to write a book you need some sort of imagination.
Imagination is something I have and have had since I was very little.
I was encouraged to have imagination – my Nana Parnell would tell me stories – stories that came from her head, without pictures or books. I had to guess what her characters looked like and think about what she was saying so I could imagine the setting. Often these stories would play in my head, like mini movies – I could see “Joe the Perentie, a big, lethargic goanna, walking slooowly along the bank of Todd River, before he flopped down to rest under the shade of a ghost gum.” Oh yeah, my Nana told The. Best. Stories. Ever! I miss her stories.
I can remember lying in my bed at night too scared to open the window because I was sure there was someone outside who would murder me. He’s coming for me! I would tell my despairing mother.
Yep. Bound to happen in a tiny town that has about five hundred people living in it. Good one, Fleur.
Anyway, I digress. Well not really. I have a thing about noises that go ‘bump in the night.’ I don’t like them.
This noise didn’t go bump, but went ‘Coo-hoooo. Coo-hoooo’ Now obviously living on a farm it is likely to be an owl or some kind of wildlife and yes, it sounded like an owl, but the point was I hadn’t HEARD it before. I didn’t like it because I hadn’t HEARD it before!
‘What is that?’ I asked one night after I’d listened to it for about the third night in a row.
‘Owl,’ the boss replied.
‘Doesn’t sound like an owl,’ I countered.
‘Owl,’ the boss said sternly, knowing my capability for turning a dog trotting down the path into a mob of cows thundering towards the house to eat us whole.
I didn’t believe him.
The next day I went searching and couldn’t find any evidence of an owl, anywhere. (Yes, yes. I can hear you saying it was day time… Not the point.)
Still wasn’t convinced it was an owl.
I kept searching – there had been heaps of pigeons bathing themselves in the sprinkler water and I saw one fly into a tea-tree. Then I heard the noise again – knew it wasn’t a bloody owl!
Baby birds at Fleur McDonald's farm
These two babies are what I found when I went searching and I’m CONVINCED it was their mum talking to the babies so THEY didn’t scared at night!
Miss Meita and the chooks
December 11, 2011
Miss Meita is a gorgeous dog. In fact it’s been a while since a dog has stolen my heart the way she has. Oh, I love all dogs – they are my favourite animal, but Meita is special – almost as special as my Old Rexy.
But, she is mischievous! And maybe a bit naughty! I can never stay angry for long, but it’s best she doesn’t know that.
One thing I can’t stand is a dog chasing chooks. It’s too reminiscent of a fox killing chooks for my liking. I have been known to belt a dog with a (dead) chook if they have killed one – the dog rarely does it again, not that it’s helpful to the poor bird that has already passed away. It doesn’t hurt the dog, of course (or the chook!), but it usually scares the hell out of the dog, which is why that method works.
Meita has been chasing chooks.
Meita and the chooks
Not good.
Or helpful.
And the best away to upset the Missus of the house.
Hayden caught her last weekend and called for me to help him stop her. I smacked her, told her NO and put her back in the cage.
We let her out the next day and the same thing happened – this time the chook flew into the rosemary bush with Meita just inches behind her. Once again a good solid smack and back in the cage.
Now my little Meita, who is very intelligent, has worked out quickly that she shouldn’t chase the chooks and so far (crossed fingers, touch wood and all of that) she hasn’t again.
But we’ll see…
Editing and Harvest don’t mix
November 18, 2011
As the time for the unedited proof copies of Purple Roads to go to the printers, nears, my editing time seems to be shrinking – gasp!
Late last week I got the third round of edits back and although there’s still a reasonable amount to do, there is a backlog of farm and housework that wants my attention too. Harvest has started and for a couple of days last week, I was on the chaser bin.
Thursday, thinking I had a day at home, I quickly loaded the washing machine to the brim, threw on a loaf of bread and a cake and sat down at my office desk to start. Unfortunately all of these activities were still in play when the phone call to go and help in the sheep yards came. Nothing that any other farmer’s wife wouldn’t understand.
Rocket is Fleur McDonald's new Editor
Today, I’m thinking about taking the phone off the hook and turning the two-way down. Anna and Matt (the two main characters in Purple Roads) need my attention and to be honest, I need them. I have a few ideas racing around my head that I need to somehow work into this edit.
And obviously my new editor thinks it’s time that I worked on Purple Roads again. He seems to have that look on his face. Or maybe he just wants the opportunity to curl up at my feet and sleep.
I wonder if the boss would come looking for me if I didn’t answer his calls?
Posted in Country Life, Farm animals, Harvest, Purple Roads, The Farmer's Life | 
Tags: edits, grain, Harvest | 
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Meita’s first ute ride
November 12, 2011
There comes a time in every dog’s life, when they graduate to riding in the back of the ute. Believe it or not there is a lot to learn about riding in the back of a wobbling, moving and bouncing piece of tin!
Meita the Kelpie Pup on the back of the ute
We always tie our dogs on because no matter how seasoned a dog is, there is always the threat of a kangaroo bouncing out onto the road, or something similar, meaning the boss will have to slam on his breaks.
Now Meita is a cage dog, not a chain dog – she lives in a ‘bitches box’, or cage, not on a chain. So when it came to clipping her onto a very short chain, so she couldn’t fall out of the ute, or even over the side and strangle herself, she really didn’t like it! She pulled and pulled, trying to get away.
Then the fun started; a fast ride down the road, she saw things she’d never seen before like cattle and she got to spend a bit of time with the boss. By the end of the day, she really didn’t care about the chain; she was looking for her bed.
Meita the Kelpie Pup after a hard day's work!
She was one tuckered out little dog.
Frustration at it’s best (or worst!)
November 10, 2011
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a start to the thunderstorm season like the one we’ve had this year! If you go back to a previous couple of blogs, you’ll read that we have had about 40mm over the last week or so. Well you can make that about 50mm now!
The sheep always camp up when there is a storm due – you can learn a lot about the weather by watching nature and it’s creatures. They will know something is going to happen, long before us humans do. These sheep have made themselves comfortable on a dam bank as one of the weekends’ storms roll through.
sheep huddle around the dam
Tuesday night we had a massive storm with ferocious lightening, and thunder that just about lifted us from our beds. And rain. When we awoke, the sky was blue and not a cloud in it – or so we thought from looking out of the bedroom window.
After a coffee, the boss thought he was awake enough to venture out to the rain gauge. While he was out there I started making the lunches – only to be interrupted by the power going out and a huge clap of thunder. I curiously looked towards the window, then I saw it.
Even though the sky behind me was blue, towards the coast was black. As the cloud moved in, the brightness of the morning faded, but not before I snapped this shot of the brilliant bougainvilleas with the cloud barring down on us.
Bouganvillia, blue skies & thunderstorms
I think this harvest is going to be very frustrating.
Sometimes, windows are my eyes
November 3, 2011
Views from my windows
Last week, after many power outages and surges, the microwave blew up closely followed by the TV. I’m not casting any aspersions that the power caused the demise of my two electrical appliances, but it does seem coincidental.
We rarely watch TV and I thought I hardly used the microwave… However not two days after the microwave died, there was a new one on my bench. It seems I often forget to get the meat out of the freezer, and as tea gets closer the microwave gets overworked defrosting it. “You could be more organised,” I hear you say? Yep. I could be.
The TV hasn’t yet been replaced. I’m not sure what that says about us, but there you go!
Last night, however, I had a chocolate-like craving to flop in front of the TV and watch something that didn’t require my concentration. What makes something you can’t have become so appealing?
Anyway, it got me thinking. I’ve since likened TV to windows. We look through rectangular screens to see what is happening on the other side.
I have a gorgeous pink bottle-brush tree outside my office window and I often see Honey Eaters (or Mickey Minors) dancing among the branches; their beaks deep in the wattle blossoms.
The Honey Eaters are also brilliant guard dogs. The amount of noise they make if a snake is around (even if I haven’t seen it) will send me rushing for the shovel.
Our dogs don’t like being apart from us and while I was doing the dishes a few weeks ago, Weasel’s head suddenly appeared at the kitchen window to say “Hi!” That made me laugh.
Windows are particularly versatile. Unlike TV, you can see through from both sides. Rocket’s favourite spot, when we are outside and he is inside, is peering out the office window wishing he was with us.
Of course, windows can be used as mirrors and I have caught the kids doing the wrong (and occasionally the right) thing, by sitting in the lounge and watching their reflections in the window. It gives a whole new meaning to the ‘eyes in the back of your head’ saying.
So my windows provide me with more than enough entertainment and I doubt that our TV will get replaced much before the cricket season. Of course we will need a new on then to watch the Aussies roll the New Zealanders.
I wonder what views you guys have outside your window? I’d love to see some of them uploaded to my Facebook page.
My new editor
September 22, 2011
I’m lucky enough to have a writing partner. He’s pretty good at what he does; he keeps my feet warm, doesn’t answer back and sits there with his head to one side listening to me argue with myself about plot points.
It seems that I often bore him though. That’s when he will lie down and go to sleep in the narrow slither of sun that filters through the window.
Of course there are times like this morning, when there was a rabbit and a chook just within reach, when he is awake and alert and thinking, “If that damned window wasn’t in the way…” His barking and growling give me fodder for my stories.
In all the time I’ve been writing though, he’s never once tried to write the story for me — so this morning when I came into the office and found him sitting on my chair peering at the manuscript for Purple Roads, I could do nothing but laugh.
Mud, blood and other farming things!
August 24, 2011
My blog has been a bit quiet on the farming side lately–only because I’ve been so busy in the sheep yards.
The approaching spring is a really busy time, particularly for sheep graziers. It means flies. We’ve been running all our sheep through the jetting race, trying to head off any problems. We’ve been crutching so they won’t get fly-struck, and we’re also shearing the ewes. We shear now, and again in January.
The rain we’ve had recently, although welcome, has made for interesting times in the yards! Being muddy in all areas and downright sloppy in some, has meant we’ve been wading around in rubber boots. My jeans have had to soak overnight before I dare put them in the washing machine. Last week I came out of the yards and had mud-soaked hair, face and clothes. I can’t begin to tell you what I looked like.
(See the line where my rubber boots come up to?)
Poor Hayden was running through the yards at one point and tripped and fell flat into the mud! (That was really funny, but we couldn’t let on to him we thought that).
All next week we’ll be shearing so the yards will get another workout.
This afternoon will be fun though, as we’re weighing up our second lot of sucker lambs. With so much green grass, they grow like mushrooms and we always love watching them pig-root and buck and play when they’re feeling so good.
Yesterday we bled our stud rams for brucellosis. It’s standard stud practice to make sure the rams we’ll be selling don’t have any nasties in their blood that could stop them from siring lambs. An afternoon with our vet Dave is always good fun — even if we’re wrestling 150kg rams to take their blood!
