The hottest place on earth??

Well, according to the papers, Sydney was the hottest place on earth today? I think the townships in Central/Northern Australia might think Sydney is being a bit wimpy - but what good is the media without the hype. I would have to agree with them however as we were in Sydney on Saturday for the monthly Pyrmont Markets. Luckily our stall is on the Wharf walkway so we get the breeze from the water, however the temperature was around 42 - 44 degrees depending on where in Sydney you were. This soon became apparent as we attempted the drive home. The hour and a half stuck in city traffic was trying enough, but the ute seems to have the same trouble multi-tasking as James. Towing a large trailer, sitting in traffic and keeping the air conditioning going was too much...the air conditioning had to go. We thought we would seriously get heat stroke. Once the traffic got going it was a long drive into the mountains. We put ice on the floor of the ute, we threw a lot of water over each other. We were grumpy and silent. Once over the mountains the temperature dropped and the engine decided that maybe it was not going to blow up. The air conditioning started again. We decided that we might live afterall.

The animals seem similarly unimpressed. The pigs are fairing pretty well - the have huge wallows and lots of shade. Like us they don't do much during the day but are very active at dusk and dawn. Ammos and Coco are not impressed - being born and bred in the UK they think they are bieng tortured...in the photo above Ammos is actually alive - he spends most of his day like this. Coco is enjoying the mouse plague that the heat seems to have brought on, but getting her out of the house is an effort in itself - she has found the fan in the office and spends her days lying under it looking miserable (see photo). We are promised cooler weather this week - otherwise I've promised Coco we will shave all her hair off again.

Teeth and Beef

The fact that the very act of typing this blog causes me to break out in a sweat and stick to the chair within seconds (it is really bloody hot here) has put me off entirely this week. I once again find myself squeezing a full week of news into a couple of short entries. There was great excitement last weekend when Felix finally wobbled his tooth so much that it came out. I almost dread typing this as if he ever reads it as an adult I'm sure it will be held against me forever, however he went to sleep greatly excited by his forthcoming wealth. After Bathurst markets we all consumed too much wine in the post market discussions and fell asleep without giving anything much thought at all. Someone was looking down on us however as James woke up at 4am saying THE TOOTH. Even at this point I told him to shut up and go back to sleep, thinking he was having a strange dream until the realisation dawned on me and after putting $2 (my god, can you believe that is what a tooth is now worth) to replace the little tooth, I then tossed and turned and felt like a truly awful mother. imagine Felix's great excitement when he awoke the next morning and found that the tooth fairy had forgotten him. He was extremely happy and insisted on paying for his own lemonade at the pool, despite my best intentions of getting him to save it (I'm so glad he takes after me in some ways).

To add to the general growing up story, he of course started school on Thursday, joining K1s class at the local public primary school. He was beside himself with excitement and proudly went off to school. Despite all expectations a stretcher was not needed to carry me out and it all seemed to go smoothly. Friday was similarly easy. He had a lovely weekend and then Monday morning he seemed to realise that this was in fact a permanent fixture in his life and he fell apart when I had to leave. It took much of my self control not to fall apart with him, however I'm told that after leaving he simply took a deep breath and got on with it. Tuesday was similarly traumatic, however after a long after school chat he told me that he had decided the way to solve the problem was to put him on the bus. I did this the next day and lo and behold he climbed aboard very proudly and was absolutely fine. I thought I would have a little while longer before being seen with me was not an option, however it has started early. Emily went off to big pre-school as though she had been doing it forever and has settled in really well, which is lucky because if I'm not sure I could cope with two lots of tears... I'd have to home school.

Anyway, after dropping them off at school and pre-school I was left with a whole day to myself. What better way to spend it than a bit of retail therapy. Two years ago I might have bought a pair of jeans...now I chose some lovely cows. I have named them The Grey Ladies, as they are very mature and sensible girls who are grateful that we are stuffing them full of hay and they have a lovely big field of grass. James initially decided we needed a game plan of management i.e. "do we sell them once they have calved and make our money then, or wait till the calves are bigger and sell them with a calf and pregant again". I of course was horrified and had put so much emotional investment into buying them at the sales that I envisaged a long and happy life with us forever. They are staying.

The One that Got Away

James has reconnected with his love of fishing recently and spent a few idyllic afternoons down at the river trying to catch supper. The other morning without even trying he managed to catch a large (and let's face it pretty stupid) dog. Woody decided that he would eat the lure on a fishing line and I came out in the morning to see the hook stuck up his nose.. if you look closely you can see it sticking out. He was actually surprisingly unconcerned. He just looked a little bemused and kept trying to lick the annoying thing that was in his eye line. One anaesthetic and a pair of pliers later and he is back good as new. He has been re-christened "Simple Jack" (anyone who has seen the movie Tropic Thunder will understand)

Ormiston Christmas

Stay tuned - between Fiona and my family you might just get to see a little more of December than our camera has captured. Here is what I've got!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, this time last year I believe I sat down to write my first blog posting. The opportunity to sit down at the computer during December became increasingly difficult as I ran about in a constant state of near hyperventilation and general anxiety....this was followed by many nights of inebriation and days of dark glasses. If memory serves let me give you a recap:

The great ham countdown:
Happily this went off without a hitch - we sold every one and the response in Mudgee was brilliant with most of them going in the local area. The hams were really fantastic (we got through one on Christmas Day and one on New Years Eve - the dogs are enjoying the ham bones as I couldn't face any more pea and ham soup). All the feedback has been excellent and we have been getting requests for Easter Hams already.

Christmas:
What can I say about Christmas, we had overly excited children (okay and adults) and lots of food - although my turkey hunt proved fruitless so I am going to have to start early this year. My aim for next Christmas is to have all Ormiston produce (I'm just getting to Vanessa's vegie patch extravaganza) if possible. Even though leaving the farm makes going away difficult we had lots of lovely people staying and actually felt like we had a holiday at the end of it.

The Farm:
Chickens: how do chickens manage to populate this planet? This has been one of the questions I mutter to myself when going about my daily business. Between drowning ducklings (see what happens when I allow the ducks to hatch their own), cannibalistic chickens, chick eating meat ants (don't ask) and god knows what else I thought I had seen it all. I have christened Vanessa the chicken whisperer as even the most stroppy of hens seems to become limp and maternal when she sticks her hand underneath it. This is a job that I simply refuse to do and even James has a special long pair of leather gloves to avoid the vicious beaks and flapping wings. I thought we had sorted everything out this weekend. However when I went to the chicken house this morning my egg eating hen is so fascinated when her babies are hatching out that she eats any yolky bits she can see and then pulls the chicks out of the eggs, which causes them to lose their insides. It is disgusting and I feel a little ill sharing this with you. Sadly for her chicken stew is apparently on the menu this week to stop the rest of the f learning from her habit.
Pigs: Why did I call a pig Britney? It was bound to cause problems - we all knew it. Surely enough she had all her babies outside and was more concerned with fighting all and sundry to steal food than looking after the little guys. I ended up trying to save one that didn't make it. She clearly wants to put them on formula and stop all this breast feeding business as she has very small teats and even smaller babies - they may be small but they are all little survivors though - they have to be. They are in with two other litters from Kimmy and Lil who are younger but bigger than they are. Dennis' babies seem to grow really well and our new Saddleback Winnie looks like she is getting due to farrow.
Goats: Dora needs half a bale of hay to keep up with my milking demands and her giant kids... Mickey the foal spends much of his day rounding them up and attempting to mount them. I don't think the running around helps her energy expenditure much either.
Sheep: They are now in the big paddock with the goats - they were extremely upset about this to start and spent a day bleating and looking with awe at the dam as they have only had a trough up until now. Luke still remembered his Mum and came running up to me with a slightly confused expression on his face when I called. After a cuddle he clearly didn't want his 'ram cred' blemished and ran off with his girlfriends again.
Horses: Ruth has a belly on her that could easily house another foal. Mickey can now walk on a halter, have his feet picked out and have a bath. I am completely taken with him and he runs up to me neighing when he sees me. He is going out with some other teenage horses to run about and learn some manners in a week or two. He has lost his foaly coat and is the same colour as his Mum.
The garden: although I have learnt a lot in a year (I don't dig coffin sized vegie patches anymore) in what may have been a whimsical and probably drunken discussion I outlined grand plans for the vegie patch. This involved digging it all out and putting borders around it. James and I talked about doing it in January... had it been left up to us it may have been done by next January however Vanessa got the bit between her teeth and polished it all off this week. This required italics because because the temperatures were between 36 - 40 degrees and there were times that I thought that maybe she might turn into a tomato. I have got into the spirit of it all by offering moral support and ordering vast amounts of seeds. I am looking forward to having a day a week to spend pottering in the garden...

This leads me nicely to the school countdown. Felix has his uniform and 2 wobbly front bottom teeth (which he tells me is excellent because he will now be very rich). Emily will be going to pre-school 3 days a week. I am trying to figure out what I will do with all the time on my hands..

100 ham countdown

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/12/02/1227980003246.html

Fame at last! Well sort of... this unexpectedly arrived in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. The timing was good as we are at Pyrmont in Sydney tomorrow. The phone has not stopped ringing so we are working our way through the ham list rather quickly. I was envisioning that everyone I knew was going to have to have one for Christmas whether they liked it or not however this may not now be necessary.

Countdown to Christmas

Not only are the kids eagerly awaiting the 'chocolate calendar' that they so fondly remember from last year, James and I are counting down in our own way. 30 hams down, 70 to go. After our 6 months of production we have stockpiled 101 hams for the festive season. They went off yesterday to be cured and smoked and will return back next week. Assuming we will have one here for the big day we are left with 100 to sell. Both of us are outwardly confident but inwardly hoping we don't end up with a lot left over. Orders have been coming in on a daily basis so the ham count goes down each day. We have also sent off 6 sides of bacon to make sure that nobody misses out on that either. The Christmas market run starts next week with Sydney then continues for 3 weekends until we finish on the 20th with Mudgee and Dubbo markets. I guess I then have 2 days to do my Christmas shopping and generally do everything last minute. All attempts to find a rare/heritage breed turkey pair to breed up here have not given me much hope. I will hopefully find something next spring so our rare breed turkeys may be a while coming.

I have declared war on kikuyu grass which I am unfortunately losing. It is very grateful for the irrigation in the vegetable patch and is cunningly trying to strangle everything that is growing in there by putting its roots deep underground and outmanouvering me every time I think I have a solution. I have gone back to digging, pulling and feeding to the pigs in fear that if I put it in the compost it will show up in vegetable patch no. 2 (my contingency plan) which has been built up in an area with no grass around it whatsoever. It is currently being battered by the chickens but at least has no slugs and slaters in it.

Last Monday poor Beccie died unexpectedly of an infection that happened very quickly. Being the hardened farmer that I am I admit I obviously cried my eyes out - she was such a lovely gentle pig (and had bloody big litters with piglets that grew like the clappers) so it was all very disappointing. It brought up the inevitable problem that we had been avoiding of how on earth we were going to dispose of 250 kg of dead pig. Luckily the local earthmover who buries many a horse around here very kindly came up first thing and buried her...and yes, I am going to plant a flower on the grave.