We find ourselves the owners of eight goats, it seemed a good idea at the time. Our daughter Laura was very keen to have some goats and she needed an interest, so off we went boots and all. They are Toggenburg Dairy Goats, they are a very old Swiss breed some say the oldest, and the purest (they have been in Australia since 1883). They came with a buck, who looks majestic but has to be smelt to be believed. Amazing what can be achieved by peeing on your beard and legs several times a day. The rest are does of various ages. We have a small plan at this stage that it might be fun to make cheese and milk soap, as well as feed any excess milk to poddy lambs. Winter is usually our quiet time but we seem hell bent on ruining this!

 A couple of our friends and neighbours have decided to lamb in March/April/May because the weather is more predictable, less rain and cold winds than the spring lambing.
Our experience has shown us that even though Dorpers are non seasonal breeders, in this part of the world their fertility is diminished in September, October, November and our lambing percentages have been poor when joining at this time. A December joining is better to give lambs in May, but it is really working against nature.
A ewe will need 50% more feed in the last six weeks of pregnancy and this requirement doubles when she is lactating. The lamb is also grazing and this is being done when the paddock is at its lowest productivity due to the cold conditions. Thus you will carry less sheep, less twins and the ewe has to cope with the extra feed needed to keep herself warm, her lambs warm, to lactate and if a maiden ewe, to continue to grow. We also have a few lambs on the ground now, it will be interesting to compare these lambs with our main lambing in spring at weaning time.

To see our lives through others eyes.
"Beautiful days, light frost. Found the cow up behind boundary fence, might even be the neighbours paddock? He brought round 2 big bags of bread which are in feed shed. Cow has huge udder - had a calf (no sign of it) or maybe going to calve? Couldn't see her well enough to tell. One of the young rams is limping, don't know if it was limping before you left or not. And I thought there were 7 rams but there are only 6 so perhaps there were only 6 to begin with. There are 10 lambs in the lamb paddock, saw a fox in there yesterday morning so made BANG BANG noises and it ran away. Goats good, been for walks round paddock and up hill, have taken to Rose, ( sitter's daughter), pretty things they are. Sheep in pine tree paddock went nuts over lupins, and battled it out from heap to heap, until not one lupin left! Pearl (sitters highland terrier) meanwhile stuck her head through electric fence and got lobotomized! That was a bit of a shock for her, poor little fluffpot, but she soon recovered. Maggie (sitters border collie), brushed against electric fence up the hill, ran a short distance, sat down and held up her right front paw saying ouch, ouch, that bloody hurt, but she also soon recovered. The neighbour has separated the calves from their mums so there's a bit of separation anxiety bellowing going on. Didn't let the chooks out today, they seem content though and well, guinea fowl as screechy as ever. Have been giving the dam (so full!) ducks some of the bread yum yum they say".

One of the things we really enjoy about our farm and the Stud is all the new experiences it brings. The new and interesting people we have met who come to buy sheep and the other breeders. Skills we have refined such as giving injections , drenching, and honing in on the sheep that needs attention. And now shearing.

It really did happen, the satellite guy came and installed the new dish as promised and we are up and running again, supposedly at a greater speed. We may need a new router before the fully glory of the new system can be realised. I believe this is our little slice of the new "National Broadband Network", coming to a farm near your bigger and better than ever before. (Well, we live in hope).

The Sydney Royal was an adventure, much like last year. All the exhibitors arrived at 10pm on the night of the 7th April, but had to wait till almost midnight before we could unload our stock. We didn't get back to our accommodation until 2am, and needed to head back to the show by 7am. As a result everyone looked a little worse for wear for the rest of the show.  We did best with our older ewes and got a third and fourth in their class. I read in "The Land" newspaper today, that someone took 30 years to win Supreme Champion with their dairy cows. I just hope we live long enough to take that one home.

We are now pretty much back to normal. Watching the worm levels in the sheep, and keeping an eye on the joining ewes. Then the slow countdown to lambing. We are selling all of our crossbred flock, we will need the feed for our Stud during the winter and the reduced stock numbers will mean we will have plenty of feed available for the ewes in the spring.

We should be back to normal with the internet on the 26 April, and blogging can return.

The shearer has been and the final selection made for the show team. So now the full on task is teaching them to lead and stand without looking like it is the most horrible thing that has ever happended to them. We are also working on putting a little more condition on the lambs, they looked a bit thinner than we would have liked, when the wool came off. Hope we can manage it without causing all of them to have the runs. The Show Society tells us that this year they have had so many entries in the Meat sheep section that they are having trouble fitting them in the shed.
Our internet is still down and probably will be for another three weeks, I can't upload pictures on the dial up.

Things are looking up. The Council will be here today to finally mend the road. The contractors say it will take 300 tons of rock to fix that big muddy mess. That much rock should mean that it stays fixed.
The paperwork has arrived for the new internet service, so once that is installed we will be back to normal.

The dryer weather has also meant that we have been able to get some sheep work done. The commercial flock has finally been sorted and the last of the lambs weaned. We are now selling off our old ewes to reduce the number of sheep we will be carrying into the winter. The old girls still have the potential to give another lamb or two, so they will be a good starter for anyone just wanting a few sheep.