Paddock Shuffle

Yesterday was a busy day, we moved some of the animals into the new paddock across the road.  It needs to have the access road fenced off, and some yards and then be divided up into smaller paddocks.... but for the moment, its one great big paddock with a LOT of grass in it.  It is great to be able to see llamas (and alpacas and sheep) in a big chunk of our property that until now we havent been able to use.

 BeetleBub, Red Riding Hood and Gracie in exploring mode.

We meet Mareebah while we were out checking for small gums that will need tree guards if they are to make it fully grown trees.

It didnt take them long to find the dam, and though a sunny day, it wasnt much past mild on the temperature scale, none-the-less some of them went in for a swim!!

Jemma is a big fan of a little swim:

New Friends for Sherrie

Sherrie is our lone Merino ewe.

At the moment she is keeping company with a very handsome young Dorset ram, but he'll be going home (down the road) again soon, and then she's back to being on her own.... with 30 or so llamas and alpacas!!

But in a few months she'll have some company, when Milly, Molly and Mandy are big enough to be out in the paddock on their own.  They are second cross Dorset ewes.  The lady I got them from has 60 bottle babies at the moment!!  She makes me look quite sane really ;-P  She is looking for more people to help her out... by taking some babies with them when they leave - 3 is plenty for me to look after!!

Milly (Right, age 4 weeks), Molly (Centre, age 3 weeks) and Mandy (Left, age 2 weeks)

Very hard to get them to stand still for photos!!  They just keep walking towards me in case I have a bottle!

Milly (L) and Molly (R)

Wedgewood Quilt - the quilting

Yes, it is a zingy quilt, and yes it was easier to make than it looks, strips, sew and cut and re-sew.  The quilting has 2 black dogs in each bottom corner to represent Belle and Charcoal whose kennels were just outside the master bedroom, and in the middle is a bay horse to represent Bozo - the rest is covered with sheep - just like Wedgewood!!

Murrumbateman Field Days

Today I was happy to be working on the Llama Association stand at Murrumbateman Field Days.  Got to care for Armadeus and his mother Carmen - lovely llamas who charmed the crowds :)
Armadeus:

His mum, Carmen :)

I've always been interested in cattle, and my breed of choice were represented at MFD, here a couple of miniature Galloways, belted:

and white with black points, they also come in dunn and red points :)

Not for everyone, and an abomination to some, coloured merionos!!

Goats are trouble, everybody knows that!!  but this girl's coat pattern is very lovely, I'd learn to cope with the feeding habits to have her :)

Lambies!!  Too cute, and they let me in the pen!! only had to promise not to chase them!!

At MFD again tomorrow, so if you're also visiting, stop by the llama stand and say hello :)

Berry Auction and the Trip Home

Back from yet another successful but very tiring weekend at the Berry Auction - first time I've come home empty handed!  Very hard to sit on my hands, as there were some very very nice birds there :)

I stayed with Shayne and Brad - which was wonderful as always - thanks guys :)  In the early morning before I left I took some pics in and around their lovely house:

Shayne's muscovy ducks taking a tour of the garden with me :)

Minto, one of my very favouritist dogs - doing 'spin'.

Prior to taking the above pics I had attempted to get Minto to 'spin', get the background right, hold the camera.... all at the same time - this was the result!!  LOL!!  Something had to give, eh?

Shayne with some of her pekin chicks, later I delivered these babies to a lady and her 2 little kiddies in Goulburn :)  They were very excited about getting new chickens and this time, not all roosters!!

Took the back way home through Neriga, and that means crossing Oallen Ford - always pretty... and good if its not too deep to traverse!!

After Crookwell, it turns to granite country - I love it!  Huge lumps of rock stacked on top of each other, hillsides festooned (big word score right there) with boulders and the lambs leaping about all over them!

 A ewe and lambs crossing (or messing about in) Old Man Gunyah Creek.

Stopped at Pejar Dam, and left the car at the top, wandered down the downstream side and stood on a big rock that was very high up to take this one pic.... then got the heeby geebies and almost had to crawl off it!!  Hopeless!!  Pleased I managed to hold the camera still for this though!

St Barnaba's Anglican Church at Narrara, cold and isolated spot, complete with graveyard that seems to have a very high proportion of children's graves :(

This ewe and 3 lambs have been running loose on Corringle Lane for weeks.  Every second time I travel down it I miss seeing them, and think, good, someone has fixed that problem, but then next time.... and there they were again yesterday.  When I first saw them the lambs were all the same size, but I suspect that 2 are twins and the ewe is their mother, the other little guy has left his mother behind and is now 'dry' and thus not doing nearly as well.  Wishing and hoping their owner will notice them this week and return them to the paddock!!  (I've tried to find the owner, with no luck thus far.)

Home safe and time to enjoy watching some TV with my feet up - Kiki kinda happy to have me back ;-D

Tomorrow I hope to take pics of the new black alpacas, who are settling in nicely and learning about new things... like ducks!!  Today there has been a bit of ducks scaring alpacas, and alpacas scaring ducks which has been funny to watch!!