The Ute Crane

One of the hardest things I have found after Pete died was handling heavy things on my own. I found it incredibly frustrating that I can’t lift, move or manhandle lots of things because I’m just not strong enough. This is a big disadvantage on a farm when you are by yourself. I either have to work out some ingenious method of moving or lifting something heavy or wait till I have a muscular male to give me a hand. You can imagine how frustrating THAT is!

Recently, I was at a friend, Helen’s place, who is also a country widow and we were looking for a suitable post to replace one that was obliterated by a large semi that took out the front gate post while entering the property to deliver round bales of feed. A local “mate” called Matt who is a champion at helping both we widows out was there as well and when we found a suitable post, he said “Ok lets put it on the ute and take it to the front gate now so we have it ready to put in the ground tomorrow”. I was thinking, does he think that Helen and I are going to be able to help him lift that lump of wood onto his ute? Then he swung this little crane around over the post and looped it up with a chain and presto started pumping an hydraulic lifter with the post attached, onto the ute!! I thought, ” I gotta get me one of these”!!!!!

So with a little googling, I found the one I wanted and then went into our local engineering business and spoke to them about it and they ordered one in for me. When it arrived the “boys out the back” installed it for me with great care and added a few extra precautions. They put in an extra heavy plate underneath the ute tray for strength so that it didn’t warp over time and added an extra bolt to the undercarriage to give it more strength and made sure the bolts for the base were NEVER going to come loose and exchanged the bolts in the arm for longer ones with nuts that will never come undone. I think they were concerned that they were doing it for a woman!! They went through all the instructions on how to use it and said to come back any time if I had any problems. I think they were a bit intrigued that I was wanting to have one installed. They were kind of a mix of wanting to make sure that everything was “A OK” and a little bit grinning and chuffed that a woman was buying one.

My new toy!

Well, the next stop was the local feed supply where I stocked up on four bales of lucerne hay and a rather large bag of sheep nuts for the goats and horses. I can’t lift the sheep nuts and normally have to wait for someone strong to put them into a bin for me. I drove home and drove into the shed where I would normally store everything. After hooking the bales up and pumping up the hydraulics, I swung the arm out and realised that it wouldn’t lower enough for me to get the bales into position. I jumped up onto the tray and loosened the bolts that the boys had so kindly replaced and extended the arm to its full length. Then with an extra length of the tie down, I looped this under the bales and hooked them onto the crane hook. Voila! I swung the crane out and over the spot where I wanted it to go and dropped it down onto the ground. I released the tie down and then did a little jig!! I repeated the whole thing for the other and it was done.

Hook it on and swing it around.

All stacked up!

So pleased with myself. As I was paying for the whole thing at the shop, the girl behind the desk said to me that it would be so handy to have without a man around and a bonus is that it wouldn’t talk back!! It may not have talked back but I felt Pete was looking down and saying “Good one, Puss”!! I think he would have approved.

Utes, Udders and Unexpected additions!

Well, I am back! Back in more ways than one. I have been away on the most wonderful trip to Jerusalem and The Holy Land. It was the most amazing experience and I am so glad to have done it. I have definitely come back in a different frame of mind. I am still coping with the despair of losing Pete. That hasn’t changed, but I have changed my outlook about what I am doing with myself. Things haven’t changed that much but I feel differently about them now. Which is great!

Jerusalem!

The farm is toddling along and I am experiencing my second season of calving. I don’t have a lot of cows, but the worry of them calving without any difficulties is one that keeps me anxious about them and I am checking on them twice a day to make sure they are all ok. So far I have 5 calves and they have all popped out as they should, so, fingers crossed, I am hoping I have a smooth run this year with the rest.

Brand new!

I have been struggling with an old ute that Pete and I bought a few years ago. It’s a Hilux and has so far done a good job, but it has definitely seen better days and after an extremely annoying incident where I was out looking at the cattle, I tried to reverse it back up the hill and ran over a large rock that split and cut a huge gash in the side of the tyre wall. I sat there and just listened to the steady hiss of the tyre deflating. Bugger!! So I got the dogs and we walked back to the house and once again my Good Samaritan, Chris, came to the rescue and changed the tyre and we brought the ute back to the house. He candidly said that he thought that would be the last time I would be changing a tyre on it as it was ready for the tip or I would have to pay someone to take it away. Spurred on by his astute assessment of “Old Jim” as it is called, I started looking earnestly for a new one. I found success at Lithgow with a 15-year-old Hilux in great condition with everything I needed. So I bargained and got a good price and brought it home and I’m extremely happy with it. The sheer luxury of power steering is just one of the great things about it. No more yanking the steering wheel around in Jim!!

My new ute!

The dogs are very pleased with the new ute.

One big problem with retiring Jim is that I had a full tank of weed spray on the back which I needed to use before I could put him out to pasture. I came up with the idea of transferring the weed mix from my tank into my brother in law’s one, so Phil came over and we pretty well emptied it. There was just enough left for me to poison the weeds around the gravel driveway and down the drive. At one point, I thought I would have a look inside the tank just to see how much was left and as I stuck my head down into the opening on the top I realised that my fringe had dipped into the red dye that had collected around the rim. When I came inside I looked at myself and discovered that i had given myself a pink tint which a lot of people have said is very trendy at the moment! Must remember to tie my hair back in future!!

Punk pink!

I think Jim would make a very good jungle gym for my new addition to the farm. I re-inherited a goat that used to live here when we were farming Boer goats a while back. Her name is Lulu and she was left here when we finally sold all the others. She became a pet and moved from my place to my nieces property next door. She has come back here to live now but goats are herd animals and unfortunately I didn’t have any “herd” for her. She used to hang with the donkeys, but they are long gone now. So I decided to get her another goat to keep her company. What’s one more, I said? So I ended up with a little doe and a wether ( a neutered male). They are a year old and adorable. Lulu is quite thrilled with them and they have made themselves at home. They were in the main paddock but I discovered that they could cross the cattle grid, just like the Billy Goats Gruff – trip trap right across the iron slats – cheeky little things, so they have been moved to the horse paddock where long overdue fence mending had to be done. I spent nearly a whole day tying wire and twisting it to mend holes made by various animals from goats to kangaroos. They are now happily at home there and I think Jim would make a lovely climbing gym for them to have fun on. Goats love to climb and it will make them very happy!

The new arrivals!

My climbing goats!

Flowering Front Gate

Today I replanted the garden beds at the front gate. Just before my daughter, Kate’s wedding, I had a garden bed made just inside the entrance near our cattle grid, and even though Pete was so ill at that stage, he drove the tractor up to a hill on our property and brought some huge stones down with it and placed them where I wanted them in the beds. I had some lovely helpers as well who did so much work before the wedding with me. It was all new but looked quite “country pretty” on the day.

This is how the entrance gate looked originally.

This is how it looked on the day of David and Kate’s wedding.

Then after the wedding the “old coot” across the road that lives behind the state forest let his cows roam free through the pines and onto the road and of course they had a great time pulling out and eating all the plants that I had so lovingly put in! Most of this happened while I was in Sydney at the hospital with Pete in his final days. I was pretty upset when I came home and saw it. So now the “old coot” has his cows back in the paddocks and the fences mended and I feel able to put in more plants and hopefully they will grow up and look glorious at the front gate!!

Today’s effort!

Carpet Roses, Electric Pink Cordyline and some Pretty n Pink Protea variety. Hope nothing else eats them!!

Feathers and fur and things in between

Part of the fun of living in the bush is the unexpected things that happen. I took the dogs to the vet for their annual vaccinations and as i was about to leave was asked did I know anyone who wanted a baby joey? Are you kidding?? The little fella’s mum had been hit by a car and killed, and a lady had brought him into the vet that morning after rescuing him out of the poor mum’s pouch. I said that I just might know someone and they showed him to me. How can you refuse a face like that??

I took off to my sister-in-law’s house and showed her the photo. She and her husband have looked after a couple of orphaned joey’s in the past and as soon as they saw him they agreed to take him. I hot tailed it back to the vet and brought him back to them. I ran up a little “pouch” for him to sleep in and he took to it immediately.

We worked out what he weighed and made up a special mixture for native animals called Wombaroo. He started taking the milk straight away and then curled back up in his pouch and went to sleep again. I will try to help with him as I feel kind of responsible for them taking him. Native animals are not easy to rear as they are quite delicate and can die if they are not handled with proper knowledge. He is in good hands with them! He finally has a name, “Izzie” named after our current Rugby hero Israel Folau.

Another exciting event happened last week. My niece and her husband have started a free range piggery and after much hard work and determination it is in its early stages of operation. The first batch of piglets have arrived and are doing well. They are so cute, its a shame they have to grow up!! You can see what they are up to on Instagram at #CrackWillowFarm or on Facebook with the same name.

Other things that have tried my patience this last week are the cockatoos feasting on the precious hay I bought earlier in the year for my cattle. In February this year we were in drought and I bought 24 round bales of wheaten hay to feed my cows so that they have feed towards the end of the winter months and into early spring as the grass gets scarcer. Its full of nutrition, unlike ordinary bales of hay that just fill them up and get them by till summer. Well! The cows love it but so do all the damn birds!! We have always just put the bale on its side and rolled it out down a slope in the past but this hay is too precious to do that to and after doing it with the first bale I realised my mistake. After the girls had a good munch on it and pooed on it and sat on it and generally destroyed whatever was left, the cockatoos, galahs and rosellas came down and had a lovely feast on the rest of it!!

I decided to take the plunge and buy round bale ring at a cheeky $520. What else would you do with $520? So with the help of Chris my niece’s husband we drove to the other side of town and picked up the ring and brought it back.

This way, with the bale inside the ring, the cows can get to the hay buy can’t destroy it and hopefully will get the most out of the bale before the cockatoos get to the rest of it. With any luck the little blighters might stay away from it altogether!

I made another decision this week too. I have been worrying about the road into my property! Since the original grading of the road, it really hasn’t had much work done to it at all. With the recent snow and rain, it has been reduced to a quagmire in parts and at one point was nearly impossible to drive through with anything other than a four wheel drive. I rang our local guy with his grader and he has come out and graded and filled in the areas where the road is at its worst. Luckily I had some pretty good gravel at the side of a bend and he used this to build up the bad parts. I am so excited about my new road. All they have to do tomorrow is run the roller over it!! Yay!

One reason I really want this to be fixed pretty quickly is that I am going to trade in my rather large Toyota Prado 4×4 and change to a smaller car that I can use when in Sydney as well as up here. But thats another story for another time!

PS. I would appreciate a lot of ooo’s and aaah’s about the little babies in this post. Thanks!!

Mechanical Mysteries

I have discovered with having a farm that there is a phenomenon where nothing works together all the time. There is always some bit of machinery or vehicle that won’t work or has broken down or has flooded or conked out. I am continually on a learning curve with all things mechanical around the place. This was primarily Pete’s department and I find myself mumbling to him as I peer mysteriously into engines and check batteries about what I should be doing.

In the last two weeks the Ute has had to be taken to the mechanics to be fixed, the bike won’t start, the ride-on mower won’t start and the 4 x 4 gator’s tilt tray is stuck so I can’t get to the engine under it. On the plus side, the little quad bike is going like the clappers so that has been a bonus.

I managed to limp the Ute into the mechanics last week and said fix it! I brought it home and its now going again. Needed new oil filter, engine mounts….all those things I know so much about! The guy from the mower repairs came out from town and managed to get the tilt tray unlocked on the gator (this is like a little 4 x 4 golf cart). I could never have fixed it myself. Brute strength was needed! The battery needed recharging and I knew that but until the tray was up I couldn’t get to it. He also said the air filter needed cleaning out. The what? I now know what the air filter looks like and how to get to it and how to clean it out!! Another plus! He suggested I use our air compressor to clean it out at the same time that I clean the air filter on the tractor….Riiiight!! As for the ride on mower, it was flooded and I think it had the wrong fuel in it….hmmm. I am still trying to decide what to do about the bike. I think I may have to sell it. I can’t hold it up, let alone ride it. The boys may have something to say about that though!

While all this is going on, I noticed that the horse trough in the horses paddock wasn’t filling up. It has an automatic refill floatation device much like the float in a toilet. I had a couple of dear friends staying and we went through all the things that it could be. Was it the pump from the bore not working? Was it an electrical short to the bore? Was the tank to the bore filling properly? Then I went and checked the round tank in one of the paddocks that was fed from the bore. That wasn’t filling either. I rang my lovely nephew-in-law, who is a plumber, and ran through the multitude of things that could have stopped it but we had no success, so he is going to come up and check it out for me. I am so lucky to have lovely helpers.

The “crazy moment of the day” was as I was in the midst of the pump problem, I looked up to see all my cows and heifers stampeding across the paddock in front of me and through a gate into the property next door. What the??? I am having the boundary fencing replaced between my property and the next door neighbours. This has a quad gate that had to be repaired as well and it was open. The boys were using the tractor and when the cattle heard and saw it they thought, “Hay – Yippee” and went stampeding through the gate to get it. This is usually how we deliver a large bale of hay to them. Unfortunately, this time there was no hay. I had to jump in the car and race over there and herd them all up and push them back through the gate into my place. They weren’t very impressed and weren’t very cooperative about coming back, but eventually I got them all through and had to laugh and was quite chuffed as one of the fencing boys yelled out “Great mustering Mate”!

Made my day!!!

The Ongoing Saga of the Gun Licence

For those who are interested, I have completed the first of a very frustrating process of applying for my gun licence. After struggling over which category (there are about ten with ABCD section in each) to put myself in, I decided that I was a Primary Producer and that I have what is called rimfire guns i.e. the .22 and the shotgun. I tried going to the local police station but each time I went there it was unattended – ha! no crime where I live!!

Finally after going through many on-line forms and information and with Anthea’s help I found the right form only to fill it out and discover that it’s an “email us” form only. Right! that’s ok! Filled it out – email button won’t send! After trying numerous times, I read something obscure about “if you have trouble sending your form”….. RIGHT!! It has to be sent via Adobe and through Google Chrome. Of course!! I don’t have Adobe on my new laptop. Download Adobe. Send it again – still won’t send! AAaaaaaggggghhhhh! This has been going on now for about 3 weeks and I am no further advanced! In desperation I found a 1300 number and called. “You are in a queue. You are the fifth caller. Please wait”! Eventually, counting down, I get a really nice guy who tells me that if I am having trouble emailing the request form, I can do it over the phone…. (bang phone against head) “Oh that’s great, thank you” says I. All done in 10 minutes and the forms will be sent out in a week.

What a palaver! One has to have both intuition and deciphering skills to fill out the forms and persistence just to get to the first stage Yes, this is only stage one. I must have proof of my property ownership and tax advice that I am a primary producer just to get a form to get a form to get a licence. Then I have to attend a safety training course and then if I pass, I then rock up to the RMA to get my licence. Then and only then am I allowed to go and get Pete’s guns back from the Police station in Bathurst.

I wonder how this would go down in the US of A?? I think the gun lobby there would have a field day! I am very glad though that this is the only way to legally get a gun in this country!

Kangaroos and wombats

One of the things I love most about being in the country is the native wildlife. I cannot share the farmers general view that kangaroos, wallabies, wombats etc are a problem and should be treated as vermin. Bunnies are cute. Foxes are an evil problem as are wild pigs. These are feral animals that were introduced and as we know, should not be here. Our native animals on the other hand are the original animals of our land and I feel have just as much right to the pastures as the cattle and sheep. I would not be popular should I voice this opinion at our local pub down the road however. I can understand the attitude of most farmers who struggle to get good grass for their herds and I understand their anger when a mob of roos come onto their land and chomp away at grass that is there to be eaten by their herds. I still have this excitement though every time I see a mob of roos about the place or a wombat waddling across the road.

This is unfortunately where I get very upset. The thing I hate most is when I am driving along and find a roo or wombat dead in the middle of the road. I just cannot go past it and leave it to be run over and squashed by numerous cars and trucks who either don’t see it or don’t care about it lying there. I have to stop and drag it off the road. I have bought a box of disposable gloves and if I see a dead animal on the road, I stop, put a pair on and pull the animal off the road and onto the verge. If its fresh, I try to see if there is a baby in the pouch as well. I have had a small amount of experience with baby native animals but sadly, they are very hard to keep alive and to survive, unlike domestic baby animals. You really have to know what you are doing. They are very fragile. Echidnas are a prickly problem. They waddle forth across roads without the slightest notion of danger. It is not possible to pick them up for obvious reasons, so the best way to get them out of harms way is to use ones foot to push them off the road. You kind of gently “dribble” them off to the side. Another native is the Blue Tongued Lizard who just loves to sun itself on the road most frequently in early Spring when the roads are warming up and the temperature has risen. They aren’t the most obliging of reptiles to be taken to safety. They are most indignant about being moved out of harms way. They hiss and spit and open their beautiful blue mouths to try to scare their “attacker” away. Pushing them with a long stick is the best way in this case and eventually they accept defeat and slither off into the undergrowth beside the road.

It is inevitable that there is going to be road kill. There are so many big logging trucks etc up here and it would be so dangerous for them to stop for wildlife on the road. I just feel sad when I see a dead native animal, so that’s why I stop and move it.

These little ones were on the side of the road as I came home the other day. They just looked at me as I stopped the car and stared as if to say “What? What do you want?” and then hopped away under the fence. I just love them!

Chip Chop

The weather has turned very cold up here and I have had my beautiful eight month old twin grandchildren and my daughter staying for a while so I have had to keep the house very warm. We have had snow and freezing cold winds that seem to blow right through you. Not that I am complaining too much as I just love cold days, particularly when it snows and you can come inside to a warm house with a lovely fire blazing away. Which brings me to the topic I wanted to talk about.

We have two wood burning fires in the house which require fire wood to keep them going. Peter used to be the one to do most of the work collecting, chopping and stacking the fire wood. Now it is up to me! I don’t think I am quite ready to get out there yet with the chain saw and blaze away so I had some hard wood delivered as it burns really well and long. I will supplement it with some stuff around the property that I will get a little later on.

I gathered a whole heap of kindling last week, big pieces and small bits too. When I came back with it all it was quite a load. I was able to break up the smaller pieces but the longer bits were beyond my strength and expertise. With the cold really starting to set in for the afternoon, I didn’t feel like standing there with a bush saw trying to saw my way through the tougher pieces. They say necessity is the mother of invention so I had a bright idea. I went into “Pete’s Shed” and started up the band saw that he has there for cutting proper pieces of timber for jobs that need to be done around the place, and put all the pieces too big to cut by hand through it! Voila!!! with no fingers cut off in the process, I had them all cut into fire size bits in about ten minutes. So pleased with myself! Pete would have flipped if he had seen me dong it with his beloved band saw but “needs must”! It may not seem such an accomplishment but only those who have to cut timber for firewood all the time would understand. It’s a painful job but one that must be done in winter to stay warm and I am “it”.

This lovely pile of wood arrived this morning! Stacking it will keep me out of mischief for a few hours. I call it “The Wood Pile Workout” Great for upper arm development!

The result though is lovely! Stay warm everyone!!

The Gun Licence!

When Pete died the Gun Registry was very quick to write to me and tell me that as Pete was deceased I could not continue to keep his guns on the premises. To clarify, his guns were only a shotgun to “scare” snakes away (they are protected so you can’t shoot them, yeah right) and a .22 to kill foxes. I asked a family friend with a licence to look after them, which he has but I received a call from the local police the other day saying that they were going to be seized as I haven’t done anything about them. Explaining that I never received any information to that extent, my friend took them into the police station and surrendered them with a large note on them to say that they were not to be destroyed as ownership was being organised.

So now I am off to the police station to organise a form for an application for a gun licence! I have to give a valid reason as to why I need a gun licence.

I am imagining the scenario:-

Me: Hello I want to apply for a gun licence (smiling encouragingly)

Police: You

Me: Yes, me

Police: Whaddaya gonna shoot, love?

Me: Aahhh snakes?

Police: They’re protected

Me: Oh right……ahhh bunnies? Aaaaannnd foxes!

Police: Bunnies and foxes …………right……

I will let you know how I go!!

A small project – a little bit of fun.

I have this area behind the house that’s a sort of “No Man’s Land”. It houses my precious water tanks and the pump and septic as well. The gate is in a really difficult spot to get to from the house so whenever I have had to get in there, I have had to fight my way through barbed wire and mesh to gain access. BUT, no more! I was thinking of making a kind of stile to get over the fence when I realised that an above ground pool ladder was much the same thing. So I went to trusty eBay and bought one on-line and it was delivered to our Post Office. I opened the box and ….hhhmmmmm

Well it wasn’t too hard, once I realised that there was a definite L and R side, which to be honest was clearly marked. I just had to fiddle with it a bit. So I put it together and TA DA!!!! one new stile!!!

Now all I have to worry about is breaking my neck whilst getting over it!!

Till next time x

wobblywidow

Being a widow is not for wusses