Calves, calves, calves!!!

I love this time of year.

All the calves are being born.

We have all sorts of pretty ones.

Commercial cattle can be any shade! 

These girl swere walking up to the dam on sunset.

There seems to be a whole heap of twin mumma cows!

You will often find a whole heap of little calves plonked under a tree with one cow looking after them all, almost like a nanny.

All around will be the cows grazing away happily.

It is hard to know who is the mumma.

And the cows check them ever so carefully to make sure they don't share milk with anyone but their baby.

As we drove past the dam there were a couple of calves on the bank that just stood and stared at we aliens.

These little guys had absolutely no idea that they had to get off the road so that we could get past.

Then the lighter one just stood there and bellowed at me!

Cheeky thing!



I flushed my Iphone. NO BULL!

On Saturday night after a hard day moving furniture for my MIL into the nursing home, then photographing our 2 new Bulls,

with a chaser of.......

PRUNING THE ROSES- Yay!! 

I came running inside busting to use the toot.

I always leave it waaaay too long.

I had my phone in my jean's back pocket.

I hate putting my phone there as I think I am going to break it if I sit down.

I am quite a weight and those jeans are pretty tight!

So up into my en suite I rushed, did my thing and then had a shower.

Then I came out to the kitchen,

which was in an abominable state- as is always the deal when I am otherwise occupied.

I looked for my phone.

Not there.

I rang it using the house phone.

No ringing.

Straight to message bank.

Weird, it had more than half battery left.

I had been loading up photos so maybe it had worn down.

Again I rang it.

Again message bank. 

So I went up to my bathroom to see if I had left it on the bench near the toot.

Then I saw the red case grinning at me, wedged in the bottom of the toilet.

It must have fallen out of the pocket either on the way down or up- more likely on the way down judging from its position in the bowl!

Then I may have pee-ed on it,

then I may have flushed it.

Ah HA!

Words cannot explain my disbelief at my own stupidity!

So I set about trying to do something about it.

Firstly I took the case off it.

Fantastic, protective, Ivyskin case that it is.

All about preventing scratches and broken screens.

BUT NOT WATERPROOF!

Then I went about shaking it violently to get the water out.

And yes heaps of water did come out.

I don't even want to think about the pee in it!

Then I had absolutely no idea what to do next.

My daughter said to put it in a bowl of rice.

I did.

As all good researchers do.......

I went to GOOGLE.

Yes I did.

I typed in the whole sentence.

"What do I do if my Iphone falls in the toilet?"

As per usual Google did not disappoint and within a nanosecond I had fifty thousand complete instructions on what to do with the drowned electronic device.

They all pretty much said these 4 main things.

1. Turn it off. I didn't have to worry about that bit. It was dead in the water. Apparently some have the torch come on and stay on. Some flash different coloured screens. Mine didn't, it was black and dead, we could even see the water in the camera.

2. Remove the SIM card. Yep more water came out with that move too.

3. Vacuum out the water. Um no!!! I am not going to stuff the Dyson as well. I figured that my violent shaking had done the same deal.

4. Now here is the kicker. PUT IT IN A BAG OF RICE. WHAT????? This is what my 12 year old had just told me. So that's what I did. When I took it out of the bowl I discovered that I now had rice stuck in the earphone jack and the charging port. So I removed them and then wrapped it in toilet paper. We have no tissues here at the moment as the snot monster moved in early last week. Fitting actually, using the toilet paper. Then into a seal able bag with the rice.

Then my husband and son came home and laughed themselves silly, but not before daughter screamed laughing telling them! I was the only person shitty about it. All my new photos had loaded onto that phone and I couldn't Instagram them!

I kept reading about it.

It is incredibly common.

Lots of them go in the Loo, but lots of people forget that they have their phones in their pockets when they jump into pools. Some just slip into the bath or wash up water or glasses and cups of liquids.

Another, better solution is to put the wet phone in a sandwich bag with Silica, like the little sachets that come in vitamins or new bags and shoes.

I always save these.

I put them in with the silver and also in the crystal cupboard.

So I gathered all of them up and put them into a bag with the phone and sat it on my computer, which always runs really hot. I left it there overnight.

Sunday morning there was a heap of condensation in the bag, the silica must have reached saturation point. So back to the rice. But not before I heated the bowl of rice in the microwave to get more moisture out of the grains.

I had it so hot that when I transferred from the bowl it melted through the bag and spilt all over the floor. Nice.

So back in the bag of rice for the day on Sunday and on the hot computer.

On Sunday night, after another big day in the garden, I noticed that there was absolutely no condensation in the baggie. So I put it on the charger. It showed the red charging screen. Then it turned on with the apple sign on the screen. Next it made its start up noise and my home screen appeared!

I haven't even had to restore it. But I am going to back it up ASAP.

It is almost perfect, the only thing being wrong is some shiny dots on the screen, they look like stars deep in the screen.

I am figuring that the electronics are going to corrode shortly, but I am just hoping that it will last until the new Iphone 5 is released, supposedly next month!

Here are our new bully boys.

This red fella is a Charolais, Shorthorn cross.

The creamy one is a Charolais Angus cross.

With their new Earrings!

My daughter and I like the red boy the best. He has a gentler face on him.

Not quite so mean looking! 

They will produce lots of cute little babies like these!

Have a great week and keep your phones out of the toilets!!

xx, j

Bloody Cockies

I am really cranky!

Bloody Cockatoos have devoured most of my mandarins and tangelos.

And they have chomped off so many branches and even whole leader stems.

I saw some of these half eaten ones by the road and thought that some kids must have thrown them out of the windows.

Then I started to see them out the back.

That's birds!

Crows or cockatoos

But the chomping is definitely the cockies!

Half eaten, and of course right next to the dog chewed safety glasses!

And I found so many chomped off stems.

Just left laying on the ground.

Check out the chompy rough raggedy trunk.

I will have to trim that up.

I should have known after last years chompfest.

Even though those trees are going OK.

So I've hatched a devious plan.

We've had a fake plastic hawk hanging in the carport for many many years.

It was originally put up in the rafters to stop a peacock from roosting on the Volvo.

The peacock is long gone.

But the plastic hawk was still hanging.

So I took it down and got some of that plastic cardboard from the shop.

We sell dog biscuits and they had one of those big plastic signs laying around.

You can just see the back of it in this hopeless photo- it is in the upper right hand side.

They were BOSS biscuits.

I had my daughter trace around the old hawk/eagle and then I cut it out.

She coloured one side in with a black sharpie and drew a big eye on it.

Then I climbed onto the roof of the Ute and flung an old dish brush with rope attached over a high branch.

Then tied the cut out bird onto the rope.

It flaps and swings in the breeze.

So I put another one (the original plastic one) out the front of the house.

Where some evil varmint is chomping off my agapanthus bulbs.

We made 3 of these big birds!

One will probably go back into the carport as some little willy wagtails are perching in there and pooping on the car.

You can only just see this one hanging in the tree.

(ignore my dead looking winter lawn)

It is warming up and will be all bright and green in a few weeks!

I think I may have worked out how to bully those crows and cockies and other destructive birds.

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When I came home at lunch time today

(to put some washing on so that I can get a bit ahead- nice way to spend a lunch break eh?)

There were 2 turtles on the road- only about 20 metres apart.

I had to manoeuvre like a rally car driver to avoid running over them, and I thought that any trucks coming by wouldn't be able to do that.

so I pulled up and moved them off the road.

That was my good deed for the day. 

Except when I came home after work, just 2 hours later, one was squished on the road.

And I thought I had it all worked out which direction he was going in.

I love these long necked turtles/tortoises.

I used to have one as a kid. My father drilled a hole in the back of his shell and he had a chain attached through the hole.

Nowadays I think that is a bit cruel. But back then I loved it.

One day he just got loose, the chain had been wearing through the shell. I never saw him again.

As a family, we have saved a couple and put them in our aviary to recover, but we always take them down to the river and release them.

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The pruning hasn't begun yet.

But I have been to the nursery!!!!

Have a great end of the week.

Weekend wrap up

I had such a busy day yesterday.

This weekend our big boy had a visit home from Boarding school, essentially to get some help from his dad with an Agriculture assignment, but he was also due for a trip home.

He is 15 and almost as tall as me. One more cm!

And he has men's size 13 RM Williams boots!

He's getting a bit hard to catch and spank!

Not that I have had any need to do that recently!

But the thought is scary.

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I finished the painting Olympics. Just.

We moved on to the sanding stage.

The little fella was in charge of the mouse sander and had the job of all the edges.

He gave up quickly though, as he is a bit ill with a head cold.

Dad worked on the big sander.

But I got this one and he moved on to the mouse when it was free.

We got all the scratches out and really smooth working down in grit.

Now we are ready to stain and finish it off.

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Then I went for a prowl around.

I had noticed that quite a few trees were shooting, or on the cusp of it.

The banksia rose has had some flowers for a couple of weeks,

normally they are here in September.

Plenty of new growth and some flowers on these new plants.

And I have been really, really naughty!

I have been too busy painting.

I haven't pruned my roses yet.

And they are shooting.

And having the very life sucked right out of them.

The aphids are absolutely thick.

Number one job this week is to prune them!

 Then treat with bug killer.

Then fertilize.

Gulp! There is over 100 of them.

I usesd to get hubby to do them with a chainsaw.

It worked well!

I might go and buy my own wee one.

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On Saturday night we went to a friend's house.

They had organised a bit of a campoven feed.

Now all in the family are plotting for the building of a fire pit.

Well I put my 2 bob's worth in and said I want crazy paving and the fire pit built on top so that it can be dismantled in summer.

You use the cement from underneath old water tanks.

I have the perfect one in mind.

Now to find a spot in the garden.

Have a great week!

I'll be pruning after work each day!

xx, j

Playing with the new toy!

I was toying with the camera yesterday morning,

 there was a sliver of light streaming through the curtains,

this caught on the steam from my coffee.

So snap away I did.

I thought it was pretty cool.

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In other news I completed one of my painting jobs.

These shelves for on the top of my washer dryers:

I am a shocker for letting clean folded clothes pile up on top of the machines.

The shelves give a bit of clearance for airflow on them.

I screwed wooden door knobs into them and then rubber protecters between them and the machines.

It should help them to not overheat- which they have never done in their 4 years, but I live in fear of this happening. If they died I would run out and buy exactly the same machine.

After I had looked into their 10 year warranty and the extended insurance I bought.

I love them, they have sorted out all the laundry stress around here.

I think I may have mentioned before that I live with the dirtiest men on the face of the planet.

They just love to roll and cover themselves in mud and other gross things.

Have I also said that I have a lock on my towel cupboard.

They also seem to like getting out a fresh towel every time they bathe!

I am trying to teach them about conserving resources.

The next move is to reposition the towel cupboard to further away from the bathroom so they can't just reach out and grab one. They would have to streak through the house to it.

Hahahahahahah!

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My cat has taken to being responsible for the bathing of the family.

Here the little guy was having a nap on the lounge and puss decided he was a bit dirty.

Check out the plaited arm bands!

This kid loves to plait.

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I was again playing with the settings on the camera,

when a little guy decided to photo bomb it.

It looks like he is kissing my feet!

Ha, not likely!

Especially when they need a jolly good bit of maintenace.

They have been jammed in boots for over 3 months now,

only seeing the light of day at home.

'Foot paring' I think we call it on sheep and farm animals!!!!

Have a great weekend!

xx, j



The end of the week.

At the end of this past week, I unpacked these little lovelies.

I have a bit of a thing for cowhide.

Well not really.

We just like it- being cattle farmers and all.

I decided that I wanted lighter coloured ones in the family room.

I am going to lighten everything up in here.

And the youngest is very excited to be allowed to have the dark cushions in his bedroom.

I had to fight him for them earlier in the year.

He is still coveting them.

When he gets on the lounge he cuddles them.

And I caught him with the new light ones all lined up around him on a chair.

He was picking his favourite.

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It has been incredibly windy here in the last few days.

I am thinking of entering a photographic competition, and the first part of the brief is capturing 'wind'.

If I ask the males in the house I would get a completely different idea on the subject I am sure.

I do not want to capture THAT wind.

So I am trying to figure out how to get the money shot.

Trees and leaves,

feathers,

kites,

rubbish blowing.....

Tonight I was having a play at sunset time.

This is what I was served up.

Interesting.

I played with the settings, trying to bottle that wind again!!

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The painting Olympics is nearing its closing ceremony!

I made some shelves to sit on top of my washer dryers as I am a bit concerned about the heat that builds up when they are in the dry cycle.

Of course I am so slack and have stuff all over the tops of them!!

I bet once I have them in place I will keep the tops clear!

They have had several coats, I use the last bits of paint in my pots to give them and the stools their coats.

I have put three coats of topcoat on the table bottom.

3 coats on the stools and one topcoat on the chairs.

What is the go for the chairs, would 2 do the job or do you think I need 3?

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My wee cackling friend came back to visit me outside my window at work on Friday.

And I am extremely pleased to announce that while I have been out on that verandah painting, I have heard heaps of kookaburras laughing out in the nearby paddock.....

Laughing at me and my painting.

Yeah, yeah it's a great joke.

Me, laying on my belly, in my old floral pyjama pants and a scrappy tee shirt, contorting into all sorts of positions ensuring every square inch is painted.

Just keep doing your snake removal job!

Clever Birds!

Have a great week.

xx, j