Between Christmas and New Year in the dying days of the old, our thoughts start to turn to the year ahead. There are all the events we know which will make up the year - the natural rhythms of selecting rams, joining, lambing, weaning. The fun events such as our sale, the Sydney Royal, Murrumbatemen Field Days, all bring chances to catch up with friends and enjoy a few wines.
This year we also have some family weddings to look forward too.

Over all this, we have the unknown of when "Riverbourne" will sell and exactly where "Dream Farm" will be. The usual mix of the certain and uncertain that make up the fabric of all years that preceded 2012 and those beyond. 
We wish you all a wonderful New Year and may your dreams come true.

We have a wood stove at Riverbourne, and apart from cooking our meals, it heats the hot water. This means that we need wood all year round, (there is plenty around the farm), however it takes very little to heat the water, and there are fittings on the unit to fit solar, should we desire.
In summer we have lots of barbecues and salads, and of course, a leg of lamb cooked with the weber charcoal system is an unbeatable way to cook a roast.
Coming in at the end of the day, the stove gently ticking over,a kettle of hot water always on top, the faint smell of wood smoke - ah, back to our roots when things were much simpler! 

The wood stove sure came into its own on Christmas Eve with with all the meats to cook and a huge storm causing a 9 hour black out. So we loaded up the stove with good dry wood,  got the heat up and by the glow of a coleman lantern started cooking. Result, beautiful meat for Christmas Day and an abundance of hot water.

I never leave the house without two things, my penknife and a handkerchief.
Although for city folk, the "hanky" has been superceded by that abomination- "The Tissue".
A day never goes by when I have not found a use for my constant companion. I have used them as a bandage, a glasses cleaner, a sheep immobiliser, an engine cleaner, a fuel filter, an obstetrical hand cleaner, a hat, a spider catcher, a forehead mopper, a gate tie, a gate hinge,a tea bag,windscreen demister,the list goes on. Oh, and did I mention you can blow your nose on them!

Here at "Riverbourne" we get the most beautiful summer mists, they come in from the coast which is about 60km away, as the crow flies. On a hot summer afternoon the mists build on the ranges and then roll down into our valley in a gentle cooling balm. It is a special thing around this part of the world and helps keep the grass green all year round.

We had a drive around the ewes and lambs yesterday, giving us a good chance to assess the long acting worm treatment's  performance. At this stage, six weeks in, all the ewes look fine and in good condition, (considering they are rearing lambs). The result is promising, given that weather conditions have favoured worms with wet and cool conditions.  We only saw two lambs with dirty bottoms, the rest are growing well and look vigorous, which suggests the pasture cleaning action is also helping the unprotected lambs. When we wean in early February, we intend to give the weaners  the lamb Cydectin LA injection, giving them maximum protection during the stress of weaning. (We have saved a paddock for them which hasn't had the long acting treatment).

We are also keeping the loose mineral lick up to the stock. It is interesting how the sheep's consumption varies  greatly from week to week, in response to pasture growth and weather conditions.

Nearly all our client's major requirement when they wish to purchase sheep is "Full shedding". The problem is that the Dorper was primarily developed for its hardiness, fertility and carcase quality. The shedding was almost an accident, as labour costs of shearing were relatively unimportant. The first Dorpers that arrived in the country exhibited this. Australian breeders are rectifying this by careful selection of the latest genetics, at Crawlers Gully we are making excellent progress using our Grobelaar, Kotze and Visagie bloodlines. 

The Dorper Sheep Breed standard for "Cover" is divided into 5 grades, the ideal is H5, the definition for which is " a short, loose, light mixture of hair and wool with a natural clean kemp underline. the head should be covered in a short clean kemp". The minimum standard for stud, is H3, which is " a short, loose covering of predominantly wool or soft fine hair with perceptible kemp on the outer thigh. A soft  light mane or apron is allowed. Wool is allowed forward of the crown of the head". Like all things in the stud we strive for the ideal

_This is the time of year here in the high (and colder) country,that we can start to assess the shedding ability of our stud. We do a final assessment at the end of January, but is now that the best shedders start to lose their wool.
Shedding is an interesting and important attribute of the Dorper sheep. It is affected by genetics, climate, nutrition, age of the sheep and type of cover. A fluffy, light loose cover will shed better than a coat that is either wooly or hairy. A lamb will not express its full shedding capacity in its first summer.
The shedding in a breeding up program will depend to a large extent on the original sheep breed. The Merino , for example will need to be at least 4th cross before total shedding is achieved, though after the second, few will need crutching and bellys will be light. Starting with a White Suffolk will give very good shedding after the 2nd cross, and this should be similar for a poll dorset, and believe that the Texel produces shedding on the first cross.
This is a bit of a generalisation  and there are always exceptions to the rule, we have a few fullbloods with poor shedding, but this is now a rarity in the flock.

_ These are 4th cross ewes at 6 months of age, bred up from Crawlers Gully rams, poor shedding can still occur as in the ewe front left, but atypical of the group. 

The time has come to start training Missy, the Border Collie pup we kept from the last litter, in earnest. She is seven months old now and is starting to think she has what it takes.

Like most things we undertake, I like to read about fifty books on the topic before starting, and, if it is something we have done before, go back to the books for a refresher. This time I am reading "The Farmers Dog" by John Holmes, who is an old Scottish dog trainer. The most interesting thing I have read so far, is of the need to be very careful when teaching a pup, that you are reinforcing the right lesson. He tells the story of a farmer whose dogs after going away chasing rabbits, on their return, disciplined them harshly. The author said he would see these dogs sitting in the woods above the farmers house, until finally hunger took them home. All the farmer had succeeded in doing was making the dogs afraid to go home. Food for thought when educating a young dog, being mindful of the various way the dog may interpret the lesson. (We are not the harsh types more likely to positively reinforce the wrong bit). Fingers crossed we won't mess up Missy.

We might be an hour from the centre of Canberra but that is not the whole story. There are two small country towns near us whose services we access and who benefit from us spending money in them.
The farm is 5 minutes from the little village of Captains Flat which has a service station/post office/general store, it also has a resturant, bowling club, church, school, swimming pool and various community groups. It has a pub with the longest bar in Australia (or maybe NSW or it might be just Captains Flat) the pub is currently undergoing some sort of transition so we can't get a beer at the moment. This village was a mining town, and has been through a couple of  boom and bust phases, and is currently recovering from a bust.

The other town is Braidwood and is considerably larger than Captains Flat, offering many more services, it is located half way between Canberra and the coast and is only 35 minutes from the farm. We enjoy doing our farm business there, as it offers a much more personal service than the city, and in the case of rural produce, is much cheaper. The money we spend in these country towns is important to their economies and  survival. Without them most of our farms and lifestyle blocks would be much more isolated. We might be able to fill up the car for less in Canberra, but that small cost advantage, does not compensate for the convenience of a local service station, and means it will still be there when we need it.