Calves 2014

It's that time of year.

We've got some babies arriving.

I went for a drive to take photos of an old truck and got a surprise at the calves being on the ground, we thought they might have been ready next month.

This girl looks like a balloon about to pop!

I spotted these 2 in the distance.

Their mummas weren't far away.

I think they were happy to keep their babies a bit hidden.

Others are getting huge big bags of milk.

With some blowing teats (look closely at the bag below)

They're constant feeders.

I've counted 6 now.

There may be more hidden in the long grass by their mummas.

They're pretty darn cute!

ps. I am now the parent of a p plater! eek!

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

How do you heat your house?

A few years ago it was necessary to cut this big old tree down. It was interfering with the wind to a windmill close by. When it was felled it landed in this precarious position.

I have been terrified of it ever since.

Whenever we go and check out the windmill, I constantly scream at the kids to stay away from it.

The cattle have been hanging out underneath it.

Rubbing their backs on the wood.

It's only a matter of time!

One will get squashed.

And that would be sad, and expensive (as any loss of stock is)

We have lost cattle with their heads jammed in the fork of trees before.

We are pretty on to making it as good as possible for them to be safe and happy.

I convinced them that it had to come down and we thought it would be great firewood.

Gotta love those Toyota Landcruisers!

Attaching to that bit was a big FAIL, only the branch came away.

Ha! Go to the source of the problem.

Fail again- broken straps!

Fail- no movement.

This was getting very tedious and the kids were getting scratchy.

I had heard lots of creaking and moving around the other side.

I suggested that we put the straps around there where I could hear the stress point.

These young preggers heifers came to check things out.

Of course daughter tried to get a pat.

They wouldn't have it!

The ground rumbled as they ran away.

But we had success, possibly 10 ton of firewood.

The cutting up is always the hard bit.

Well, hardest on hubby's back!

The kids do a really good job of loading it into our big trailer.

Welding gloves are essential.

You never know what might be in those hollow bits.

Snakes, centipedes, mice! 

That should keep us going for a while.

How do you heat your house?

Is the electricity bill killing you yet?

Fires are unbeatable in their warmth and character.

However, I always tell people that they are filthy, high maintenace and labour intensive!

Even loading the wheelbarrow and dragging it up from the woodpile can be a real drag!

There's someone here always pretty happy about a fire!

Stay hot!

xx j



Farm things

At the moment we are supplementing feed to our steers.

Cotton seed will help to fatten them before we finish them on oats.

Normally we don't need to do this, but we haven't had rain for a while and this is another alternative to many of the other supplements, like Anipro and other licks, we have used in the past.

But the tractor we use to scoop up the seed and put into the bins around the paddocks broke down.

Well dad trashed it!

50 tonnes of seed may have to be shovelled!

Off to town we went to buy 2 grain shovels. 

One for hubby and one for the daughter. Not me- it was mother's day!

Appendectamy boy is still recovering- I wouldn't allow him to shovel!

He just gave directions and told everyone what to do!!

The cattle still have this feed in this paddock to work through.

There's not much feed near the yards and watering points where they were hanging out.

These are much smaller little paddocks that the cattle come into to get a drink.

And that green tub had some cotton seed in it. They had eaten it all.

They love it.

There's 6 of these tubs spread around the traps.

The patient was given the job of driving the car and trailer.

A bit of a crunch.

He hit the post.

Whoops.

No real harm done.

Cos kids drive very steadily around here!

But there's some hurt pride.

So dad backed it up and drove it through.

These guys will enjoy their seed.

Until these and other oats are up and ready.

That will be late as we waited for rain before sowing.

Surprising to see these slithering guys now that the weather has cooled off a bit, but it had been 26 degrees the day before.

I have to say these are THE BEST curry mixes I have ever had.

I bought 3 last year at the Sydney show and have been extremely impressed.

At $20 each they are very cost effective for 400g. 

Plus I only use half the recommended amount due to the kid factor.

Well rather I double all the other ingredients as I rarely eat the carby Rice!

There was free shipping over $100 and they threw in a freebie chutney as well.

Get yourself some Mudgeeraba Spices and curry blends here.

You won't regret it!

This was the Thai Green chicken Curry.

I have quite a variety now, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian.

I took this shot a couple of weeks ago as I was leaving for work.

I like to lock the little ones in the yards when I am at work.

My Cairn Terriers prefer to sit up on top of the Kennels instead of inside them!

Perhaps it is an inferiority complex, or short dog syndrome!

Hhhmn they need a grooming session!