Orangutans?

The kids have been watching the BBC Earth DVDs of series two of "Orangutan Diary" during the school holidays. It is quite similar in format to the "Roo Gully Diaries", which is another of their favourite DVDs. In fact we have been to Roo Gully several times, and taken visitors from overseas to see the kangaroos there. It is at Boyup Brook, which is only about 60kms form our farm. Of course we have plenty of kangaroos on the farm, but they are not hand-reared and friendly like some of the ones at Roo Gully.
The reason that we like to watch DVDs is that we don't have television. We just can't see the benefits of a lot of the stuff that streams into homes on the box. Especially the commercial channels that show a lot of advertisements. Even many of the programs, if not strictly ads, still have product placement which is designed to influence you. And the news programs, well they really thrive on sensationalism. We keep up with the news via the radio and online newspapers, and occasionally a real paper newspaper. The children entertain themselves pretty well with their games and they have had several friends over during the holidays.
Orangutan Diary has really caught the imagination of the children. So much so that when I arrived home this afternoon I thought that a group of orangutans had taken over a marri tree in the yard!

Hugh in the marri tree

Odette

Odette swinging from the tree, Amelia looking on

Bonnie peeking out, on a branch with Sophie and Amelia

And Hugh even managed to get Pompon onto a low branch!

FOOTNOTE: I always used to spell it orang-utangs, but the BBC spells it as orangutan, so I suppose that is the official spelling...

Fencing

Roger has been getting anyone who can (that generally means a teenage son, and any visitors on the helpXchange program) to help him build new fences (and take down the old ones) around the farm. Some are simply replacing broken down fences that have been there since the 1960s. The fence that I photographed on the weekend was being replaced to widen a race way between paddocks on the farm. The existing race was too narrow and made moving large mobs of sheep difficult.
Peter and Abby, from Manchester in England stayed with us for three weeks, and they left today. I drove them to Arthur River to catch the bus to Perth. And that is a 50km drive to the nearest public transport.

 Peter showing some muscle

Abby helping to stand up the mesh

And Roger doing the same

Roger on the old Fiat tractor - used to pull the mesh tight

Hooking the chain from the tractor to the wire mesh

Putting the chain around the tensioner

Two planks bolted together over the wire give the grip to pull the wire up tight

I have some more photos somewhere... I think I have misplaced a memory card form my camera (oops!)

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...