Clear Skies

This is Tuesday. Up at 6.30 am for a busy day now that the rain has gone. The ground is wet but we cannot wait as there is lots to do. Finally finished pruning all the grapevines. There are about a dozen around the house that provide useful shade during the worst of Summer. Most of these grow across a pergola and required a ladder to get the job done. This of course then created another job. A mountain of pruning's need mulching. Some cuttings were taken of some varieties and potted to be used to replace any that did not make it last season.

Another job in waiting

A few vine cuttings as backup

Uncovered the first NZ compost bin that is ready. Dug out a few handfuls and had a sniff. It is beautiful. We've laid out the half barrel we will be using for Artichokes. Most of this compost will be consumed by these.

French Purple Artichoke Seedlings



Rich sweet smelling compost

Needed to check next door's cattle which are due to commence calving this week. The neighbours have gone to the Kimberley for 6 weeks and left us to babysit. These 18 look fine and apart from one on her own nobody looks close to dropping. The one apart probably just found a sweet patch of grass.

Angus cross girls ready to calve any time

Access to next door for us to check this lot was through the back boundary. Carried down a bag of organic pelletised chicken manure/seaweed to spread around a paddock our three cattle had just exited.

What a great day after the rain. The air is so clear. It was a real pleasure to walk up the hill at the back boundary and walk amongst next doors cattle and take in the panorama.

Looking down on our house from the next ridge while checking cattle

Back home by 3pm just in time to go to our work property (8 kilometres away) and put out more silage. The 25 cows and calves needed three bales of silage. The ground is sodden and the tractor is making a mess. The cows are two weeks away from calving. Last years calves are weaned (some still wearing their weaning nose rings) but have not been sold off as yet. Fortunately there is plenty of silage as the paddocks are really low on grass except for the half dozen or so that are locked up in order to have good quality green feed for lactating mums.

It was dark before we got inside to light the fire and prepare dinner. Nothing flash but all from the garden. Entrée of home made Roquefort with fresh celery sticks. Main course was fried  Portuguese whole sardines with Oregano and Garlic side dishes of steamed Sweet Potato drizzled with Olive Oil, Eggplant fried and dressed with Chilli Jam and melted Havarti, Mushrooms with salsa verde and fetta and a big green salad with lots of seeds and a real variety of garden fresh greens. Yogurt and ported Prunes to finish.  Enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and watched a DVD.