We came down to George late Tuesday. There is a lot of wind about at the moment and we have to be constantly checking the windplot grib files when we want to move to find a suitable weather window. All the wool is now away from Speedwell and we are now down on George to get the Barren wool away and the remainder of the George bales away. We are also sending our last 280 lambs and mutton to the abattoir.
Yesterday Christopher gathered all the sheep in on the island and we drafted off the sheep for the abattoir. The weather is really starting to break now and we found ourselves sheltering against the water tanks to keep out of the hail. The animals drafted really well which helped on such a crappy day. We cant complain we have had a fantastic summer. After the animals go on the boat tomorrow we will only have approx. 100 ewes to take across to Barren to make the flock back up on there. We brought 2 pens full of ewes down on the boat with us that are destined for the abattoir to save the Concordia Bay having to work both islands. Mainly because Shaun is still not back at Speedwell and we had no one to work the boat up there. Christopher also went across and collect the 8 bales of wool from Barren to make it a bit quicker when Concordia Bay arrives. The Concordia Bay normally only does livestock movement or cargo but because we do not have too many sheep to go they have agreed to do both. This is not possible if we are sending 600 plus because the animals are protected by animal welfare and are not allowed to exceed a certain number of hours in transit. The transit time starts from the time the first animal is loaded until the time the last one is unloaded at the abattoir. If we were to send cargo and a large number of animals together there would be a chance they would exceed their time limit although this would be unlikely.
As soon as the boat leaves tomorrow we will be leaving also to go to Stanley. In Stanley we will core test the wool so that we can get the micron and yield results back as soon as possible. The wool samples will be sent to New Zealand for testing. I have lotted the wool into 5 different lots for coring. They are A,B,C,A/B Sandy and C Sandy. All our oddments, bellies, stain, necks and pieces have been sold in their greasy state and these will not be tested. We have already booked a container to send the wool away in and we hope to have it away from the Falklands by the end of April. We can send 26 ton of wool away in one container but to do this we will have to have some of our wool double dumped. I think this will still leave us with about 6 bales of wool that we will not be able to get away this season. To be cost effective you need to fill the 40 ft container to capacity.
Yesterday Christopher gathered all the sheep in on the island and we drafted off the sheep for the abattoir. The weather is really starting to break now and we found ourselves sheltering against the water tanks to keep out of the hail. The animals drafted really well which helped on such a crappy day. We cant complain we have had a fantastic summer. After the animals go on the boat tomorrow we will only have approx. 100 ewes to take across to Barren to make the flock back up on there. We brought 2 pens full of ewes down on the boat with us that are destined for the abattoir to save the Concordia Bay having to work both islands. Mainly because Shaun is still not back at Speedwell and we had no one to work the boat up there. Christopher also went across and collect the 8 bales of wool from Barren to make it a bit quicker when Concordia Bay arrives. The Concordia Bay normally only does livestock movement or cargo but because we do not have too many sheep to go they have agreed to do both. This is not possible if we are sending 600 plus because the animals are protected by animal welfare and are not allowed to exceed a certain number of hours in transit. The transit time starts from the time the first animal is loaded until the time the last one is unloaded at the abattoir. If we were to send cargo and a large number of animals together there would be a chance they would exceed their time limit although this would be unlikely.
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| Taken from on top of the wheelhouse. It was higher then it looked and I couldn't bring myself to stand up when I got up there. |
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| Navigation lights in the dusk |
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| Theo at the end of George jetty. |
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| Ewes going up the gangway onto the jetty. |
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| Pen full of ewes. |
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| Honestly it wasn't me digging holes in the yard. |
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| Would I lie? |
