Lizzy733
Loving the herd life
November 29th, 2021 is the date if our escape.
Ten more days and we can finally see our new home: 3.16 hectares of hilltop pasture, sprawling orchard, productive gardens and native bush.
I'll get to meet my new flock of Romney and the 3 old wild ewes which inhabited the land before fences were erected.
There are lambs, 7 fluffy ewes and another 3 little rams. The youngest is currently 2 weeks old. There are 10 adult ewes total - all but the natives, 4 toothers. A ram, and some 'eaters'. Sounds like we will have lots of meat coming into winter.
In the meantime, I am letting the poultry flock occupy my time. My hatch in October added 6 to my existing flock of 3 hens and I just added a new blue splash silkie today because I need another organic incubator to go with my first white fluff muffin.
The new property is sounding like quite a handful already, but in a good way - we'll be having trouble keeping up with the 200 tree orchard, berry patches and produce that's going to be coming up.
Good news is it sounds like predators are scarce - hawks, yes, but that's to be expected. Many in the community actively trap and the current owner has caught very few since he's been there - the most being 4 feral cats over the course of 5 years, only 1 possum and no traces of stoats, which was my worry with poultry.
It looks like the sheep are due for a shear in December. Did I mention I am new to ruminants? It seems the quality of the land and our fair winters allow them to be quite hands-off, with no need for supplemental feeding. A handfull of nuts here or there to get them moving sounds like the most they'll need aside from drenching, shearing and trimming.
Water is plentiful. With all the irrigation and drip systems in place and with two people, it's only ever run half empty and at 60k+ litres of storage, that's quite a generous float.
In drought, the land can handle over a dozen sheep without supplemental feeding, so I think we'll be okay for a good while if we manage our flock numbers.
Maybe we can do a mass sell-off to fund my goat and pig aspirations
. It sounds like there will be ample food waste and spoilage to keep them all happy.
It's all coming both too fast and too slow. I have move week off, then have to go back to work for another two weeks before christmas break, which will be nearly four weeks of paid leave and public holidays. Plenty of time to ease into our new roles as wardens of this new domain we will soon call home.
Ten more days and we can finally see our new home: 3.16 hectares of hilltop pasture, sprawling orchard, productive gardens and native bush.
I'll get to meet my new flock of Romney and the 3 old wild ewes which inhabited the land before fences were erected.
There are lambs, 7 fluffy ewes and another 3 little rams. The youngest is currently 2 weeks old. There are 10 adult ewes total - all but the natives, 4 toothers. A ram, and some 'eaters'. Sounds like we will have lots of meat coming into winter.
In the meantime, I am letting the poultry flock occupy my time. My hatch in October added 6 to my existing flock of 3 hens and I just added a new blue splash silkie today because I need another organic incubator to go with my first white fluff muffin.
The new property is sounding like quite a handful already, but in a good way - we'll be having trouble keeping up with the 200 tree orchard, berry patches and produce that's going to be coming up.
Good news is it sounds like predators are scarce - hawks, yes, but that's to be expected. Many in the community actively trap and the current owner has caught very few since he's been there - the most being 4 feral cats over the course of 5 years, only 1 possum and no traces of stoats, which was my worry with poultry.
It looks like the sheep are due for a shear in December. Did I mention I am new to ruminants? It seems the quality of the land and our fair winters allow them to be quite hands-off, with no need for supplemental feeding. A handfull of nuts here or there to get them moving sounds like the most they'll need aside from drenching, shearing and trimming.
Water is plentiful. With all the irrigation and drip systems in place and with two people, it's only ever run half empty and at 60k+ litres of storage, that's quite a generous float.
In drought, the land can handle over a dozen sheep without supplemental feeding, so I think we'll be okay for a good while if we manage our flock numbers.
Maybe we can do a mass sell-off to fund my goat and pig aspirations
. It sounds like there will be ample food waste and spoilage to keep them all happy.It's all coming both too fast and too slow. I have move week off, then have to go back to work for another two weeks before christmas break, which will be nearly four weeks of paid leave and public holidays. Plenty of time to ease into our new roles as wardens of this new domain we will soon call home.
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