Saturday 30 May 2015

Can't wait for spring!

I think if I ever have kids, from what I've done with Pippa, they'll all have more than one name. Pippa, it's ridiculous really but she's got so many nicknames! I'll do my best to try remember them all, so. Pippa, Pippa Middleton, Middleton, Pippa-lou. Pip-squeak. Squeakles, Mippit and Baby Cat (the last is courtesy of Dad lol) The joke is, you all out any of those names, depending on whether she's in trouble, and she'll come. Talk about increasing my cats' memory by giving her heaps to think about - either that or she's on the verge of over-exceeding her memory room!
Poor Pippa, she's had a hard day so far, and it's not even 10 o'clock!  She was outside and something happened, possibly got chased by a magpie or something. But she came inside, soaking wet, shaking like a leaf and completely mortified. So she got a good dry off, cuddles and now she's sitting fast asleep in my lap, cos it was quite scary, you know!! (My ulterior motive is that she's acting as a hot water bottle hehe)
We sadly lost our old boy Miller on Thursday, we knew he wouldn't make it through another winter, but still seems a little odd with only have the three girls now. Cats, huh? They certainly run our lives!

Yesterday I spent the entire day with Dad and Nick, helping them with fencing.It was out in the sheep and beef country of our area, I know. Nothing like your place, Andrew. But pretty steep and rugged. Not the sort of land I'm usually on, let alone fencing on! Just over those trees in the picture is the driveway in, and on the other side of that drops straight down to the local beach/ocean, it sort of all connects up along the coast, but it's gorgeous from that height, no wonder the land around there is owned by the rich of this world...
Anywho, most of my day was spent spreading battens out for each section, carting them all the way down to those trees, and behind where I'm standing. Those posts, are number 1 Premiums, kinda like mini strainers, cos the guy is rich and wanted the best. Blimmen Heavy. No joke, and full of water. So I carried about ten of them to where they were needed, carted battens all day in big bundles, to save having to do too many trips, pulled wires and marked the posts for the wire heights.
A guy who's running the place turned up, as he was pre-booked to come pull our tractor out of the bottom swamp (Kermit got bellied in there, but I've got no picture for that.) and he's like....woah, wasn't expecting to see a girl out here! I'm just like, expect the unexpected these days!
Today I'm so sore, we were there for about ten hours and got home close to 8 that night, after having to tow out Nick's ute with his trailer on, as it had that bundle of posts on it. The ground was pretty slippery from the rain, and the ute has no grip with the weight.

Turns out, carrying battens all day creates bruised arms and wrists, possibly due to the large bundles I was carrying, and they often fell backwards with a crash into my elbows. You sorta keep going all day, not taking much notice cos you don't stop, but once you do stop it all just shows up and starts hurting. I'm like, what?!  The unfortunate thing is that Dad and Nick appreciated my help so much, that they want me back to help finish next week. I'm so gutted, good money but painful.
However, at the end of the night I was quite proud of my achievements. As I drove the manual fencing ute out of the job, through the muddy paddocks, a few handbrake starts (handbrake doesn't hold, as I soon learned). Then I drove that same ute, with one of our oversized trailers on, carrying a bundle of posts (Nick towed his massive trailer with another bundle, and Dad followed with Kermit). Then, I went through 3 single lane cattle stop bridges, in the dark. All in a days' work! Never driven with a trailer, let alone a heavy loaded, extra wide one, at night, through skinny places. Can cross that off my bucket list now!


Back to milking at my weekend abode again, a three day stretch this time, to include Queens birthday. We've possibly got another milker in the pipelines, who if all goes to plan, will take over this particular job and do every weekend. Sounds like she just needs the extra money, and is happy to do weekends. At least this way, we can guarantee her definite work. We've been contacted by my old weekend job, which is ironically just up the road from my new place. As in spring they're after someone who will do a full days work, every week or so. Milking, shifting stock, getting the new cows and calves in, all the typical spring time work that one would encounter. It'll be odd doing an actual full day on farm, but I'm looking forward to it!
This way I can help mum with our calves almost every day, do this job when needed and that frees me up for weekends to work elsewhere, meaning I won't be stuck in the same old rut for three-four months. Excellent!


Now, need to stop procrastinating and finish my assignment!

3 comments:

  1. Number 1 premiums, what are those, the 1.8m half-rounds? I admit they are heavy, you don't want to carry too many at once...
    And just a question... What, praytell, is kermit?
    Also, cool photo! I got a good one of our place this arvo, hoping to get it uploaded soon...

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    1. Number 1 premiums are higher quality than general number 1's. I think it's something to do with the better quality wood used, and they're denser because of that, thus they're heavier. Half rounds? Golly, I wish. Nah, full rounds 140-155mm 1.8 metres. Like I said, blimmen heavy! I couldn't carry more than one. They're the posts in the photo :)

      What IS Kermit? More like, WHO is Kermit! Can't believe I've never introduced him, it's our tractor! A Deutz Fahr Agrotron 105 - because I totally know my tractors now ;)

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    2. Okay, yeah, we only get number 1 generals I think, but only half round as well... Never want to carry more than 5 of those if I can avoid it... :P Okay, yeah, the photo is a bit dark, I noticed they have three straps round them, so must be denser, but yeah, I couldn't quite pick out the shape... I could imagine it as both... :P But, yeah, hehe, full rounds, you never carry many of those... :P

      Haha, right. Yeah, I only know of the frog, so... :P Hehe, you're gonna suffer from that assignment for the rest of your life aren't you??? :P

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