Our job searches continue to be unsuccessful, despite many applications. And at the beginning of January, we had only one hay bale left for our cattle, several bills to pay, very little food for ourselves, and only $4 left in the bank. The thought of having to make an impossible decision about our pet cattle was devastating. Thankfully, after I posted on Facebook about our situation, several people donated enough money to keep them (and ourselves) fed for a little while longer.
My friend has a property near Colac, VIC, which they have offered to let us put our cattle on for free until we can get our life sorted out. I had a transport company all ready to take them, but at the last minute his truck broke down and repairs are taking a long time. So we get to keep our babies for longer still.
In preparation for sending them away, Goldie has been "dried off" now, meaning we slowly stopped milking her and so she stopped producing any milk. Going back to the store brought milk was a shock. It tastes so gross compared to Goldie's fresh stuff! Even the milk from the fridge section marketed as higher quality (and with a higher price to match) doesn't taste anywhere as delicious as hers. Hopefully in the future we will be able to breed her again, but at this point, it wouldn't be responsible, with our financial and living situation here.
The weather has been nicer to us this month compared to December's heat, but January was determined to get in one day over 40*C, giving us 43 degrees on the 31st. We have been lucky to avoid any forecasted hail with the cool change storms, although the strong winds have damaged our tents. Thankfully we don't have actually live in them anymore and they are only used as storage spaces.
December
Days over 40*C: 4
Days over 35*C: 9
Days over 30*C: 15
Rainfall: 5mm (approx)
January
Days over 40*C: 1
Days over 35*C: 5
Days over 30*C: 15
Rainfall: 25mm (approx)
Hopefully February will follow January's lead with lower temperatures, but fingers crossed for more rain. It's very dry and dusty here. Although February has already given us more rain than all of December, just on the first day when we got around 10mm of rain with the cool change, so it's off to a good start.
Next weekend we are going to an agility "fun day." It will be a good opportunity to test Skuggi's abilities and see what we need to work on before the competition season starts again in March. I'm trying to save up enough money to actually get to the trials, which is hard when my dog gear business has been at a standstill for over a year despite being open for orders the entire time. We are going to attempt some local markets soon so hopefully that will give it a kickstart.
There are a lot of "hopefully"s in this post. Because we can't move forward, we can't do anything without someone else. Someone to employ us, someone to buy my stuff, someone to donate money. It's so hard relying on other people but there is no way we can get out of this situation on our own so it's just a whole lot of "hopefully" these days.
In preparation for sending them away, Goldie has been "dried off" now, meaning we slowly stopped milking her and so she stopped producing any milk. Going back to the store brought milk was a shock. It tastes so gross compared to Goldie's fresh stuff! Even the milk from the fridge section marketed as higher quality (and with a higher price to match) doesn't taste anywhere as delicious as hers. Hopefully in the future we will be able to breed her again, but at this point, it wouldn't be responsible, with our financial and living situation here.
The weather has been nicer to us this month compared to December's heat, but January was determined to get in one day over 40*C, giving us 43 degrees on the 31st. We have been lucky to avoid any forecasted hail with the cool change storms, although the strong winds have damaged our tents. Thankfully we don't have actually live in them anymore and they are only used as storage spaces.December
Days over 40*C: 4
Days over 35*C: 9
Days over 30*C: 15
Rainfall: 5mm (approx)
January
Days over 40*C: 1
Days over 35*C: 5
Days over 30*C: 15
Rainfall: 25mm (approx)
Hopefully February will follow January's lead with lower temperatures, but fingers crossed for more rain. It's very dry and dusty here. Although February has already given us more rain than all of December, just on the first day when we got around 10mm of rain with the cool change, so it's off to a good start.
Next weekend we are going to an agility "fun day." It will be a good opportunity to test Skuggi's abilities and see what we need to work on before the competition season starts again in March. I'm trying to save up enough money to actually get to the trials, which is hard when my dog gear business has been at a standstill for over a year despite being open for orders the entire time. We are going to attempt some local markets soon so hopefully that will give it a kickstart.
There are a lot of "hopefully"s in this post. Because we can't move forward, we can't do anything without someone else. Someone to employ us, someone to buy my stuff, someone to donate money. It's so hard relying on other people but there is no way we can get out of this situation on our own so it's just a whole lot of "hopefully" these days.
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