{"id":5715,"date":"2013-12-31T22:53:52","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T14:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/?p=5715"},"modified":"2014-01-30T12:38:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T04:38:23","slug":"year-end-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/31\/year-end-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Year End 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>I took a bit of a walk round the property to check on our progress over the last 12 months. \u00a0We have seen a number of changes with the major ones being getting ready for our goats, hatching and learning about guinea fowl, preparing a new paddock for next year’s oats and bringing in a good hay crop. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In January<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Goldie was killed by a snake<\/span><\/a>, we noticed that Guinea Fowl have blue eyes<\/span><\/a> and long eyelashes<\/span><\/a>, I saw the kangaroo Mum and Baby<\/span><\/a> for the first time and the Dung Beetles<\/span><\/a> got rid of the flies<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, the young guineas had their first taste of freedom<\/span><\/a>, a couple were killed by foxes<\/span><\/a> and I helped two new guineas<\/span><\/a> \"\"<\/a>Bill and Ben from their shells. \u00a0We harvested lots of food<\/span><\/a> from the garden and went to choose our goats<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of March<\/span><\/a><\/strong> was spent putting up the fence<\/span><\/a> for the goat paddock, Red died<\/span><\/a>, Flash was fit for work for about 2 weeks<\/span><\/a> between injuries and we had extremes of hot <\/span><\/a>and cold <\/span><\/a>and the first autumn rains<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

April<\/span><\/a><\/strong> started with giving\u00a0Bowie a series of injections<\/span><\/a> to combat a severe allergic reaction to a sting. \u00a0An unseasonable heatwave dragged on<\/span><\/a> before we got our first real rainfall<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0We built luxury accommodation<\/span><\/a> for the goats – although they are a bit delayed as\"\"<\/a> Midge didn’t get pregnant<\/span><\/a> – \u00a0and the little guineas<\/span><\/a> Bill and Ben met the older birds<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor little Ben<\/span><\/a> got taken on the 1st of May<\/span><\/a><\/strong> and Billie only survived<\/span><\/a> another 10 days, even though the others took her in and showed her how to fly<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0The most exciting thing of course was bringing our 2 goats<\/span><\/a> Midge<\/span><\/a> and Smudge<\/span><\/a> to the property. \u00a0On the 8th we got the highest rainfall in the whole of WA<\/span><\/a> at 78mm, the tanks were full by the 11th May<\/span><\/a> and the dam was overflowing<\/span><\/a> by the end of the month. \u00a0The wet weather brought out the first fungi<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span>June<\/a><\/strong> was all about identifying all the different fungi popping up in the forest, they came in a whole rainbow of colours<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 The main jobs were the first 8 stages of producing oaten hay –\u00a0weedkiller<\/span><\/a>, raking<\/span><\/a>, rock picking<\/span><\/a>, sowing<\/span><\/a>, harrowing<\/span><\/a>, rock picking, rolling and fertilizing.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 On the wildlife front, I learned more about the red-legged earth mite<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and a couple of kites<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

July<\/span><\/a><\/strong> was awesome. \u00a0Looking back at the posts, there were great sunrises<\/span><\/a>, our first frost<\/span><\/a>, baby goats<\/span><\/a> and while our oats sprouted<\/span><\/a> we started\u00a0cultivating a new paddock <\/span><\/a>for growing them next year. \u00a0I got my first pictures of the baudin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and red-tailed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0black cockatoos and had fun with a rogues gallery of chicken bottoms<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>August<\/span><\/a><\/strong> was wet<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0There were only 3 days when it didn’t rain and we got 50mm more than average<\/span><\/a> for the month. \u00a0I took my favourite sunrise photo of the year, learned about my Holy Halo<\/span><\/a>, and captured a beautiful rain drop<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0August was focused on our future food security. \u00a0We put together our greenhouse<\/span><\/a>, got some milking supplies<\/span><\/a>, weeded the vege beds<\/span><\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0with help from the chickens – and planted tagasaste for the goats<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 The first flowers of spring <\/span><\/a>appeared and we found out we had rabbits<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Midge<\/span><\/a> had her\u00a0twin girl kids<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in September<\/span><\/a>.<\/strong> \u00a0Curious Rose<\/span><\/a> and Gorgeous Crumpler<\/span><\/a> were even cuter than I had imagined. \u00a0 \u00a0Poor Midge injured her udder<\/span><\/a>,\"\"<\/a> so I suddenly had to learn how to milk and the milking stand<\/span><\/a> got built sooner than anticipated. \u00a0Mama Hen went broody<\/span><\/a> so we bought a couple of day old chicks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for her to raise. \u00a0It was a wild weather month<\/span><\/a> with our first hailstorm<\/span><\/a> and storms that brought trees down<\/span><\/a> and blew a panel out of the greenhouse<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

October<\/span><\/a><\/strong> was all about the\u00a0hay<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 Our kind neighbour lent us his mower<\/span><\/a>, rake<\/span><\/a> and baler<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and we got it in the shed after 6 days. \u00a0\u00a0 The kids <\/span><\/a>and chicks <\/span><\/a>are growing quickly and the horses were very happy<\/span><\/a> to be back in the oat paddock. \u00a0The wildflowers<\/span><\/a> were mostly pink<\/span><\/a> and blue<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0The dry days that let us harvest the hay also gave a couple of chilly mornings<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and a record low maximum<\/span><\/a>.\"\"<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

During November<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, the kids<\/span><\/a> and chicks <\/span><\/a>\u00a0started showing their independence<\/span><\/a>. I milked Midge<\/span><\/a> for the first time and garden produced potatoes<\/span><\/a>, radishes<\/span><\/a>, beans<\/span><\/a>, peas<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and our first tomatoes<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0We started trapping the rats<\/span><\/a> which have made themselves at home in the feed shed. \u00a0We had an unusually hot spell for the first couple of weeks<\/span><\/a>, but the rains returned at the end of the month<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 We spotted an interesting range of wildlife including metallic birds<\/span><\/a> and beetles<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and pink parrots<\/span><\/a> and peas<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In December<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, we started building the earth oven with our own clay<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and sand<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and put a drip irrigation system<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in for the vege beds and fruit trees. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>The chicks are almost fully grown<\/span><\/a> and we weighed the kids<\/span><\/a>\u00a0again at 3 months – \u00a0they were huge! We had 6 hot days<\/span><\/a> in the middle of the month followed by a cool change<\/span><\/a> and lower then average temperatures<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0There were still some bright flowers around including the vivid orange Christmas Tree<\/span><\/a> and the pink\u00a0Pretty Honey Myrtle<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0After a very wet winter, water is still flowing into the dam, so hopefully the level won’t\u00a0drop as quickly next year<\/span><\/a>, although we will use more with our new\u00a0garden irrigation system<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I took a bit of a walk round the property to check on our progress over the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130819-013.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5715"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathmiller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}