The Westerly Winds have Arrived

So much for the cold dampness underfoot, the westerly winds have arrived. It doesn't take long to dry the ground in these conditions. One minute I was complaining how muddy things are and now how cold and dry it is. The tractor isn't leaving track marks in the paddock anymore.

Well once more it was an early start, the list of outstanding jobs is getting shorter and this is the incentive to keep going. The sour dough bread had risen slowly over the last 24 hours and went into the oven this morning. Although we use rye flour for the starter we grind BD grain for the bread itself. While the bread baked, the cows and calves next door were given another strip of fresh green grass and the seven pregnant cows soon to give birth (Springers) on the river were checked for progress and feed levels.

Sourdough ready to bake

The finished product ready to eat

While taking a nourishing cup of tea after returning had another revue of articles on Horseradish. Resurrected the remaining roots and using a steel wool scourer cleaned the remaining roots and made another batch of sauce using just the roots, water and vinegar in the blender. Made the mistake of inhaling through the nose while checking the blender. Sinus now very clear.

Horseradish Sauce

Took the time to relax for an hour or two and finished reading a novel that had been in progress for a few days. Well at least some roses were smelt. Now down to some serious business of collecting the cow pats from the paddocks our own three cattle had just been through. With the MP3 player plugged in and various Radio National programs feeding into ears the work went quickly. So much so that instead of the one paddock planned it was well into the third paddock before it was time to head to work and feed silage to the cows and calves across the river.



Small feed bags of fresh cow pats

The cows know when the silage is good quality. They can smell it a mile away. By the time the tractor was near the entrance to the paddock they were all up and strolling purposefully towards the bale still on the tractor. There was a bit of pushing and shoving while trying to get the bale into the feeder. Very slow going so as not to run over the odd leg.

Back home in good time to spend another hour collecting cow pats. Finished paddock 3 and made a good start on the worst of paddock 4, the last. Another hour tomorrow will finish the chore and now its dry enough it'll just be a matter of running around with the tractor to pick up the bags.

Today is Friday and a designated Fish and Chips night. Yes a decadent meal. The fish is fillets of Hoki (deep cold water fish caught of New Zealand's South Island) done in beer batter with some spices and the chips are cut thick and baked with olive oil before dressing with salt. Always leave some chips unserved just so you can have that second generous helping. Oh yes, there was an entrée of our Roquefort with sticks of freshly harvested celery.