A very busy day. We left for Barren Island at 6:30am to lamb mark. A scorching day. The ewes were exhausted by the time they got to the pens. They are extremely over weight because of the low stocking rate on Barren and were really suffering from the heat. Shaun and I lifted all the lambs onto the bench. Shaun did more then his fair share as some were just too heavy for me. The proper way to lift a lamb onto a lamb marking bench is to lift it up onto your knees then pull the back legs up in between the front. You have to hold the back legs up above the knee joints, if you hold down below them they are very hard to hold and the markers on the other side of the bench are more likely to end up with a kick in the chest. Not so bad for the boys, bad for the girls. Today I found I had to pick some of them up around the belly, stand back from the bench and swing them up onto the bench and then gather up the back legs. Not ideal. Today Christopher was cutting the tails and Tanya was putting the rings on the balls. They were extremely heavy and I really struggled lifting them onto the bench but because I didn't want to do the balls or cut the tails I didn't really leave myself any choice. The lambing was good with 99% on the put out and 118% on the pen. The lambs are in excellent condition and will go to the abattoir late January early February. Tanya also helped in the pens drafting the sheep. One minute Christopher was telling her to stay in line across the pen and stop the sheep running back next moment Shaun was shouting, not that one, not that one Tanya as she tried to do what she was told and starting running in front of a 100 kilo plus ram. Its all a learning curve and she was lucky that he only caught her a glancing blow to her hip. Even so he still sat her on her bum.
Barren Island is the hardest of our three main islands to work. Although it does have a jetty the bay is too shallow to take Theo alongside. This means that all the bikes have to be lifted up onto the jetty. It would be a lot easier if we could get the dinghy onto the beach but both the dingy and the rib have rigid hulls and we cant get them in close enough to unload onto the beach.
When we got back to George at about 3:30pm Christopher went out and got some sheep in for the dog trialling and shearing displays. He bought in rams for the dog trialing because he reckons they behave better. I finished cleaning up my lawn and re-arranged the benches in the yard.
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| Lifting the 4 wheeler up onto the Barren jetty. |
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| Taking the 2, two wheel motorbikes and pen sections back out to Theo |
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| Tanya bringing her bike down the jetty ready to go back on to the dingy |
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| Always something to be found on the beaches, Shaun has a tin of international boat paint the same brand as we use on Theo. Tanya has an Australian rugby ball. |
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| This is what happens when you get a bit to chubby. Luckily Christopher was there to help Elle as she belly flopped between the jetty and the boat. This was her second trauma of the day. Tanya decided to help her of the dinghy up onto the Barren jetty. It was like a cartoon strip. It started with her holding her up to the jetty. Slowly the back of the dinghy moved out. Ellie had all her claws out trying to grab on to the jetty as it got further away and she was nearly past the point of return for Tanya to get her back into the dinghy. Lucky for Elle she got her back in and saved her a swim to shore. |
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| The easiest part and even this isn't easy. |
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| Shaun with the ambulance moving a ewe into the shade. |
Very tired now.
I have been having computer problems which has made it hard to leave comments.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to learn of your livestock handling (and miss handling). I learned long ago you cannot outrun animals. You have to decide you are smarter than them, and be patient. I have had inexperienced help that thought they could help moving cattle by out running them.
Never works.
The weather looks lovely.