Allow me to introduce Albert.

 Bert to his mates.

Bert came to live with us last week. He is, apparently, our baby's new dog. The curious thing about this circumstance is that our baby is still in Canada - and will be for another couple of months. It would seem the wonders of modern technology know no bounds - one can procure a new dog from the other side of the world...even have it delivered to your parents...all with the click of a Facebook button! In case you're wondering, Bert is short for Albert, is short for Alberta, which is the Canadian Province our baby has been living and working in since March.

Happily for Bert...he is a sweetie. His dad is a German Shorthaired Pointer, his mum a working Kelpie cattle dog. The hope is that the cattle dog part will enable him to be a little bit useful working cattle...time will tell.

We took a little time out the other day and took him to the river for a swim...he thought I had placed my towel on the sand for him to dry off on...and proceeded to slide down the sand, somehow leaving the towel in place. It totally mystifyied me. As did his arrival!

But I'm glad he's here....it gives me something to hug and talk to while I wait (not terribly patiently) for his master to come home...

Bert, meet your new owner...I know, it won't be right till you can sniff him...but he's a nice looking guy, isn't he? And his Mum misses him....lots. Not to mention she needs photos of him that aren't over a year old!

Thursday's Country Life - Happiness Is...

Here's "Pa" (He isn't actually any one's Pa...but our son's beautiful ladies call him Pa, and it's kind of sticking.) I married him a long time ago. In fact, we're still married. Which I guess is why I answered the call to leave my studio and take a 4 wheeler motorbike miles from home for the purposes of one of the boys doing a quick lap to check for any stray cattle. While we waited, he sat under the tree, with his cows penned up in the square, and had a 'deep and meaningful' with Spud, while Dozer stayed close by. I know...who names these poor dogs? Not me! it's possible that "Pa" is as happy right here in this photo as he ever is anywhere. Faithful hound? Check. Trusty Steed? Check. Cows? Check. Wife close at hand? Check. Son's working alongside? Check. Yep. Happy as a clam. There's not much else this precious soul needs in the world (except perhaps an old western movie and ice cream).

Spud is probably pretty happy too...Can't say what he went chasing to collect that cobweb and bit of fluffy nonsense on his nose, but he's just had a big old ear scratch and yarn with the boss, so all is right in his world.

The 'girls' are pretty happy too - more lush green feed than they've seen for years, and they're about to have an adventure! In a minute, they'll leave their paddock and have a walk through a couple more to get to the yards for a swim...well, maybe jumping into a plunge dip designed to kill the ticks isn't quite the poolside adventure they dream of, but it's a change of scenery. And I'm certain that being tick free makes them very happy! I know I'm always really excited to be tick free...In fact, when you're having a bad day, things seem much better when you stop and say to yourself  "I'm so thankful I don't have ticks".

Try it sometime soon!

Farm Day...what our city friends would have seen...

A while ago, I promised you a report on Farm Day, a day in late May where city families visit country families to see first hand where their food and fibre comes from. I'm so very sad to have to tell you we in fact didn't have any guests for Farm Day! I guess we live a little too far off the beaten track and the organisers weren't able to find a family who could get to us in the allotted time of a single weekend. We were a little disappointed, but can understand the challenge!

But, I thought to myself...I could blog about what our visiting city family would have seen (and maybe more than one family will see it?!) on a visit to our humble operation.

For starters...Minnie, the Jack Russell, as if on cue, delivered her six pups the day before our visitors would have arrived (and she wasn't due until the next week!) I think she's wishing I had given her a moment to find clean sheets for a photo background for her new babies...but, in the interests of a full and accurate sharing of information, she rests on the old sleeping bag the babies were delivered on!

They would have witnessed our Fodder Solutions hydroponic feed growing unit - this baby turns barley seed into horse feed in six days! Morning and evening, a tray (or two or three, depending on how many of our equine friends are in feed at the time) is pulled out, cut up and fed out from one side of the machine, then the tray is washed (which is what our first born is busy attending to here), re-seeded and slid into the other side to spend just under a week under the lights and sprinklers.

They would have had the full 'smoko' experience! Complete with tea or coffee, scintillating conversation and home baked goodies! Though probably not sponge cake...This is what was left after I left the room for twenty two and a half seconds to get my camera!

They would have had a look at a big tractor, and a centre pivot irrigator that waters 100 hectares. This photo is somewhat deceptive. The tractor doesn't normally pull it along - here, it's being moved from one 'circle' to another. That's only happened twice in the last ten years. Normally, the irrigator is fixed in the centre, attached to the pipe delivering the water, and spins from there. All those tower wheels are turned around 45degrees from where they are in this photo, so it can walk in the right direction!

We would have taken them for a drive to check out how we pump and store water to keep cattle from perishing in the long, hot, dry summers! The windmills pump underground water up and into a tank, which feeds a trough, which has a float arrangement, so that it refills when the cattle have drunk from it. I am happy to report that the barren and desolate looking area in this photo now looks much greener and more inviting. That shot was taken just before Christmas, when we had begun to wonder if the world was about to shrivel up and dry out and blow away on a puff of wind!

 Then it flooded.

They would have seen hundreds and hundreds of lovely cows!

Including my corrugated iron cow named Calamity, who stands in welcome in our front garden!

And, if they were really lucky...they'd have seen this cheeky smile - from our middle prince, in the horse stalls, which might be one of the places he is happiest in the whole world!

There were loads of other things they would have seen as well...kelpies at work with weaners, Horses, chooks with fresh eggs to collect, guinea fowl, flood damaged fences, a billabong,  motorbikes, 4 wheelers, tractors putting out hay for weaner feed...and very likely some kangaroos, wallabies, galahs, cockatoos, lorikeets, brolgas and possibly even an emu if they were lucky!

And, they would have had some real 'fair dinkum' cattlemen to answer their every wondering about beef production. So, if you're out there, wishing you had been able to visit for Farm Day, and have a question burning a hole in your mind...chime into the comments and ask away!

Thursday's Country Life

Today sees the beginning of what I hope will become a regular post - Thursday's Country Life. I owe the inspiration of this title to our local rural publication The Queensland Country Life, which is circulated (you guessed it!) on a Thursday.
The handsome fellow above is Louie...hard working Kelpie, whose job description includes keeping wayward weaners in the mob, hurrying up stragglers (of the bovine variety) and racing around to the front of a mob of cattle to 'block them up' (in other words, stop them from racing off like crazy things and teaching them some manners!) Isn't he gorgeous?

Louie has many colleagues...Tina,Dozer, Red, Spud, KO - so called because she got in much too close one day and scored a solid kick in the head, and was knocked out! Poor baby...but, she came to, and went looking for the demon creature who had clobbered her, and hasn't stopped since! (She's the little black one that the boys reckon looks like a piglet!)
The cattle dogs are important members of the workforce around here, especially so when we begin weaning: the calves that have grown big enough to be weaned off their Mamas get yarded up together in a small yard overnight, and they are let out into a bigger yard each day to learn all about the wonders of hay and feed supplements. Their movement in and out of the yards is achieved by a man or two on horseback, and a handful of dogs. In the course of repeating this movement morning and evening for a few weeks, the young cattle are 'educated', so when it's time to muster them from a big paddock later, they will have some manners and behave in a manner becoming to bovines. Also, in a manner conducive to the safety and well being of the horsemen working them.
Weaning will begin here very soon - oh joy! The dust drifts in on the cool breeze from the cattle yards, and settles on every horizontal surface in the vicinity! I have taken to asking people not to write the date when they sign their names in the dust on the furniture!
Another thing that will happen here soon is Farm Day. On the 29th or 30th May, we will be visited by a family from the city, who have registered their interest in visiting a farm on the Farm Day website. It's exciting to have the opportunity to share our love for our land and our lifestyle with a family from the 'big smoke'! Watch this space for a full report on our Farm Day fun in a few weeks!

Babies!!

It's been a busy time around here just lately, with more babies popping up than we quite know what to do with!

First the foals started coming...this little darling was among the first to join us - three were born that day! There have been more since, and yesterday was delivered a very special princess, who would in fact wear a tiara and have jewels were she a human - she is bred, as they say, "in the purple". There is a very real worry that I may have to sleep outside so she can have my bed!...No, just kidding - but she's that special! (Where I have written special - please read: expensive, costly, and nerve wracking that some grim fate may beset her!) when she has settled in a little, I'll post a photo so you can see for yourself that she actually looks like any other foal and wonder what all the fuss is about!

And puppies! Tina, our Mama Kelpie delivered 7 robust little fluff balls a few weeks ago - these are but 3 of her brood; whom I'm threatening with all manner of evil if they don't stop, cease and desist leaving little messes at my back door, and getting tangled up in my feet when I walk outside. These are destined for a life chasing cows or sheep and working hard - which is what they are bred for and what they thrive on...Kelpies go stark raving mad (and send their owners that way quickly too!) if left with nothing to do and nothing to herd.

Then, there came Darla Daisy...she's technically my grand-baby-puppy - Her daddy is my middle son, and she visits me at "Nanny Day Care" while her mummy goes to work...It's all completely hilarious, but she is ever so cute!

And then, most importantly of all...We became a great Aunt and Uncle again yesterday - the newest member of the Hewitt clan weighed it at 11lb 2oz (I think the baby was heavier than the foal!) Lachlan Roger is in line to receive the BEST children's book I have ever seen; which is what I really started writing this post about in the first pace! It's called "On The Night You Were Born", by Nancy Tillman. I got this copy from The Nile online bookstore, and it is the most delightful, precious book...The inside slip cover reads:
On the night you were born, the moon smiled with such wonder that the stars peeked in to see you and the night wind whispered, "Life will never be the same".
Nancy Tillman...created On The Night You Were Born to convey to children, at an early and impressionable age, that "you are the one and only ever you". She observes, "By using common events such as geese flying, ladybugs landing, and the moon up at morning to celebrate the birth of a child, it's my hope that even as children grow into adults, whenever they see these events they will be reminded of how valuable they are".
Not only is this a treasure of words, the illustrations are awesomely beautiful too!

So, if you are in the market for a gift for a new bub...do have a look at this book - This will be the third one I have sent to a fresh baby...and I think I'll keep a stash of them for every new little one who comes along (I now just have to find another wonderful title to give to second children in their families! Any suggestions?)