Feeling Very Special

 Brown and white chocolate decorations

 Shaved brown and white chocolate on top

 Only one candle... 45 missing!

 Hugh at breakfast

 My beautiful birthday cake...

Today it is my birthday and I am feeling very special. I was woken up to hot porridge in bed, and I opened my presents which were wrapped in hand-printed paper made by Bonnie and Hugh. Once I was up at the breakfast table I was presented with a spectacular birthday cake. Sophie had made it last night while I was out so it was a lovely surprise. But I did have a sneaking suspicion that some cooking had been done, by the state of the floor in the kitchen!

 Where is the mop?

 Green icing? Green hands!

Happy Birthday to me!

I have been having a lovely day. After the kids were on the school bus I went back to bed for a sleep-in. Then I had a shower and took the time to blow-dry my hair and actually put on some make-up, which doesn't happen often these days. I was ready to go to town when Roger came in and made me some nice coffee and we had morning tea together. Then I read some of the dozens of facebook messages wishing me happy birthday. For lunch I went to Rarebits on Burrowes and had a delicious lamb moussaka. And now I am taking the time to blog... and this afternoon I have booked a massage.

Birthdays only happen once a year, so I am making the most of mine!

Dreaming of Green

 

Rain has been teasing us, and we are waiting to declare a true break of the season. As can been seen in the pictures above, there is a bit of green at Warragal Park.
At Wattle Creek the rain was not so generous, so it has been drier than at home. We still need to feed all the sheep.
The ewes have been preg tested and the dries separated from the pregnant ones, so that the ones who need it most get more feed. At home we separated the pregnant ewes carrying twins too, but there were not a lot of them... Due to the very hard season we have just been trough the pregnancy rates were down on average.

Chooks Arrive

The kids have been wanting chooks for ever it seems. Roger always has an excuse why we shouldn't get some chooks (we already have a good local supply of eggs, and who would look after them when we go away, and he doesn't have time to build a run for them), and I don't really mind because I don't like things that flap. But after the last time we visited Nanna and Granddad I realised that there is more to chooks than an egg supply. And more than chook manure and scrap disposal. While we were at Hope Farm I think Odette must have been over to the chooks at least five times every day. Feeding them, checking for eggs, making sure they were shut in at night...The kids absolutely love the chooks.

So despite not having a house or yard built for them the kids and I decided it was time for some chooks. We decided on Friday morning, and by Friday evening we had six chooks! I rang my friend Nan Lloyd who has been our egg supplier and asked if she had some spare chooks, so she said she would round some up for us.

I took the old parrot trap and turned it upside down so that there was wire on the base (to stop foxes getting the chooks) and then put soil and straw over the wire on the ground. We found some old shade cloth and covered the top to stop the chooks flying out. We put a broom and a shovel through the wire to make roosting perches. And then we put the chooks in!

P.S. for overseas readers:

If you didn't know before, then you should have guessed by now, that chooks is what Australians call hens...

Easter Crafts

The children have been getting into the spirit of Easter by dyeing eggs, and creating bunny things at school and at home. Roger made some hot cross buns for us to eat this morning.
Odette came home from school and told me she had drawn a "Bottom Bunny".

Well I had no idea what a Bottom Bunny was (do you?) until she showed me how they made it!

First sit on a large piece of paper, then get someone to draw around your bottom and most of your legs. That is the shape for your bunny's face! Add the facial features and colour in your bunny. Just like Odette did!

The egg dyeing activity took place at the Warragal Park International Primary School, which is another name for our old house. The children have made themselves a school and any helpXchange visitors we have are roped into being the students. Max, Emilie and Anne-Priscilla worked very well on their dyed eggs, and you can see the results below.

The eggs were first decorated with sticky tape to create a pattern, and then coloured with food dye.

Then they created gorgeous little containers filled with cut up tissue paper for nests for their eggs.

 

Odette's egg and the one that Hugh made at school (sensibly hard-boiled), have a few cracks in them.

The Price of Wool

Top prices from the Farm Weekly

A major part of our farm income is from the sale of fine merino wool from our sheep. The wool is sold at auction, and for some years the price has not been very flash. This year however we have received exceptional prices - the highest prices ever - for our wool. On the top of a very poor season last year and a long dry summer the result of our wool sales has buoyed us a bit. We have sold our wool over several sales, and this particular sale (F39, pictured) was very exciting. Our auctioneer rang Roger on his mobile phone straight after the sale to tell him of the fantastic price (it was a fair bit higher than the estimation) - she could hardly contain her excitement!
Now if only we had some more to sell...
We will have to wait until November before our next shearing, and who knows what the price will be like then? To guarantee a good price Roger has forward sold the wool from the ewes at Wattle Creek to a broker. There is a base price set, which will vary depending on the quality of the wool. And the quality and quantity of wool will be determined depending on the season.