Life

Believe it or not, there's been more to life than puppies recently. Lots more. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had a full day at home with no visitors, events or major jobs to get done. I've been working extra days and clocking up a lot of kilometres to and from training courses and doctors' appointments, BabyJ's been spending a lot of time at daycare, and R has been struggling his way through the busiest time of the year with a shocking dose of hayfever.



We've had weeks of drenching, weeks of crutching, then weaning lambs, the spraying's been done, the hay's been cut, and sometime in the next week or two we'll start shearing. That'll take a couple of weeks if the weather's favourable, and then we're onto harvest. And sometime in and around all this important farm stuff, we'll squeeze in Christmas and I'll squeeze out a new baby. Hopefully.

Weaning: nothing to do with sippy cups and rice porridge, but the task of separating these-
lambs and the odd dry ewe:


From these- merino ewes:


So it turns out that after all my whinging about the Albany trial, we'll miss most of it. Serves me right, really- and as it happens, my whole vent was based on an error in the trial form and we're all welcome in Open. I'm hoping to make it for a day so maybe I will get to run a couple of dogs, and depending on weather and shearing, R and BabyJ might come along too. Possibly in our new ute!

It's probably a good thing we aren't making the whole trial, because at this time of year all the dogs are sorely neglected. The only ones that get any attention are the work dogs, and they've been practicing all sorts of bad farm dog habits rather than polishing trial ground skills.

Here's my current work team (or one form of it):
Muddy, Queani, Trim and Pink (Bill doesn't need to be tied up...)


Bill- still does most things for me- as long as no-one bosses him around in the yards, he's happy as a pig in mud, and generally pretty sensible. Nothing goes over or past him.

Muddy- good for yard work, anything involving backing, and helping out on mobs



Queani- my left hand dog (Bill's on the other side), she does everything- big mustering cast, usually sensible on a mob, does anything for anyone in the yards





Trim- up and coming. Doesn't listen to me very well at the moment, just getting some miles under her before hopefully trialling next year. Happy in the yards right from the start, like her sister Badger.

Pinky- off the trial list, she's apprenticed to Queani to get more confidence on the farm and hopefully later on the trial ground

Yard dog extraordinaire Jim (who'd think it of an imported dog?) and Queani take a breather in the force:


So we've been spending lots of time in the yards, and look:


Proof that BabyJ is absolutely no longer a baby, but a proper Boy. He climbed all the way up there on his own, while I was drafting (my favourite job).



If you're wondering, that "rock" is actually a spaceship that goes up, up, UP! In the SKY!
Not a potential spinal injury in the making at all...

He would prefer to be on the drafting gate himself, but big fast panicking crossie lambs are even more dangerous than rockclimbing when you're only a little FarmBoy, and it's no fun being shut in a "farm playpen" all day.





And speaking of spinal injuries, we did manage to get away for one day to the polocrosse:





They all made Jarrah and Blade look fat. Time to get back into it, R!



I liked this horse best:




I missed the sub-juniors, but I'm told it's a festival of little people on little ponies, in many cases led around the pitch by parents much fitter than me.

FarmBoy, now the proud owner of his first polocrosse stick, is pretty keen to get out there on Toffee and show them how it's done.

Just as soon as he gets his boots unstuck...