Cold Front

Well, the previous forecast wasn’t entirely accurate and we still had a few more days of warmth after the predicted rain. But it finally ended quite dramatically on Monday this week - after 20*C overnight, it reached 30 by 10am with very strong, hot wind. By 11:30, the wind had turned icy cold with heavy drops of rain and the temperature had dropped ten degrees. Here is our forecast for the next seven days.

With the rain, new green shoots have broken through summer’s dying stalks, and the dust has settled into soft dirt.

 

We built a feeder for our calves this week, so they won’t have to eat their hay off the ground anymore, especially important once the winter rain arrives and turns everything to mud, and in really gross weather we can put it in the shed so they can eat in comfort. Last winter they were able to use hay nets like horses, but now that their horns have grown the risk of them getting caught in the net is too high.

 

Last Thursday Skuggi had his first mall trip, just very quickly. He didn’t do too bad. It’ll take a few tries for him to settle with the new environment though, it was pretty noisy in there even though there weren’t many people. We also did Bunnings for a bit which he was great at.

 

Unfortunately my writing program is glitching again so I can’t put the video straight into this post, but go to this link to see Skuggi’s training session - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmaObw4SiY. And this link for a short video of our calves being happy fatties - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnm9BQzjXo.

Autumn

Winter preparation has begun. All the cows have been pregnancy tested and the new heifers have been freeze branded. Probably half the milking herd is on holiday now, fattening up and resting before calving season begins in May. With so little rain this month, the difference between our irrigated paddocks and non-irrigated is extremely obvious now. Feeding the cows after milking takes the rest of the morning to complete.

Firewood collection has started, a little late because of the heatwave and Total Fire Ban days. In the past eighteen days, eight of those have got over 30*C. For reference, in all of December we only had seven days over 30*C. In January we had ten. And February, which is usually the hottest month of the year, only gave us nine days over 30*C.

 

On Monday and Tuesday this week though they are forecasting 10-20mm of rain each day, and a temperature drop to under 25 for the following four days. We cleaned out the shed for our calves this week, two hours work spread over two days. It’s now ready for clean bedding to be laid down so our calves can be warm and dry when winter arrives.

Another Year

It’s that time of year again. It’s come around so fast. I’m trying not to fall apart but it’s hard, and life just keeps on hitting me with tragedies this year. I debate what to post, what to keep to myself, how much to reveal this year? I think each time around I just get vaguer.

 

Being “okay” is exhausting. The nights are too long, and not long enough. I am a survivor but surviving is hard. Some days I just want to give up.

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We lost one of our pet rats, 14 month old Squeaky, just before 6pm on Monday. He’d been going downhill for a while so it wasn’t a surprise. He was held and stroked gently as he took his last breaths. We buried him at the corner of the shed, beside his little brother Callen who we lost seven months and a day earlier.

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Walking is an outlet for anxiety that I’ve stopped utilising so much since moving to this farm. There’s nowhere to go really – the property is smallish with only one short piece of track and the rest is cattle and/or locust-filled paddocks, and walking out on the road isn’t an option because of the neighbour’s aggressive dogs that regularly escape their yard. But Tuesday Skuggi and me walked 20 minutes through the back streets of town and it felt so good. He’s slowly settling into his role as an assistance dog while Sparkie is spending more time at home. Last week he woke up from a deep sleep to do his anxiety alert, for a signal I’ve only just taught him.

My loyal Sparkie, who has been at my side since before the original event and helped keep me in some state resembling sanity each year. She’s letting Skuggi take over sometimes now, but she still keeps an eye on me at those times, just in case his response isn’t “proper.”

These two give me reason to keep fighting. My hero dogs.

Summer’s Last Stand

It’s the second day of Autumn and this is the weather forecast for the next seven days. It’s only the second time we’ve had three days hit 35 and over in a row and the longest run of days over 25 in the past ten months. With no aircon, it’s been a struggle.

Our two fourteen month old pet rats nearly overheated despite bottles of ice and a fan and a bowl of cool water to dip in, and we had to keep putting water on them and bringing them their water to drink where they lay squished up against the iced bottle, because they were too hot to move even to get a drink. An occasional spoonful of ice cream or some frozen fruit also helped keep them from overheating and give them some sugar for energy.

 

On Sunday Mummy and me (and of course Sparkie) went to meet up with friends in the city. After the quietness of country life, the city’s crazy is always a bit of a shock. Luckily it wasn’t too bad this time. Sparkie as always handled it all amazingly with only a few small slip ups.