Dorper Sheep School

I had the happy experience of attending a Dorper sheep school at Burrawang Station West with good sheep friends and daughter Jessica.

Nap Mat

A few weeks ago I saw this book on the internet and I just had to have it



Inside are some wonderful projects including this nap mat. I made one for Oliver and here is Harry's. They are really useful Oliver takes his to day-care for afternoon naps and here Harry was meant to be sleeping on my bed. I am going to make another nap mat for a friend’s granddaughter and I will post a tutorial on the process.

Lamb Olympics

Early in the morning or each afternoon at about 4 pm we are treated to the lamb olympics. It is a time when all the lambs like to play and it is so much fun to watch.



Here's the group ready to start running and jumping pratice



A little boxing practice happening here




One hundred metre sprint race heat one




High Jump practice




One hundred metre sprint race heat two




One hundred metre sprint race heat three



Poddy lambs Amber and Harriet



Harriet put herself on the pillow

Homemade Laundry Detergant

I love Rhonda's blog "Down to Earth" http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/.

So many wonderful tips on simple living, saving money, green cleaners, vegetables, life skills and cooking from scratch. I recently met her when I purchased her book and both Rhonda and her husband Hanno are wonderful people. I decided to try the homemade laundry liquid recipe from her book. It works a treat and I was so impressed that I made a batch for Skye and Alison they love it as well. Below is the recipe from Rhonda's blog. 

We live in the country on a farm and recycle our grey and black water which goes on trees in the paddock once treated. I decided not to use Borax opting for Napisan instead.

LAUNDRY LIQUID
Makes 10 litres

• 1½ litres water
• 1 bar Sunlight or generic laundry soap or any similar pure laundry soap, grated on a cheese grater OR 1 cup of Lux flakes
• ½ cup washing soda – NOT baking or bicarb soda
• ½ cup borax - I replaced Borax with Napisan

Please note that washing soda is different to baking soda. Sometimes there are two types of washing soda on sale - washing soda crystals and washing soda powder, buy the powder, it's easier to dissolve.

You may add any essential oil of your choice to these homemade cleaners. Oils like tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender or rose are ideal but are not an essential ingredient. They are not necessary to the recipe but do not detract from the effectiveness by adding them.



Tools

• Saucepan
• 10 litre bucket
• Slotted spoon or wooden spoon for mixing

Above you can see the process.

In a saucepan containing one litre/quart of water add one cup of soap flakes.  Turn on the heat and stir. Bring the mix to the boil and when the soap flakes are dissolved add half a cup of borax/Napisan and half a cup of washing soda. The mixture will foam up as the washing soda and the borax/Napisan dissolve. Place the mixture in a 10 litre bucket and fill with water. Stir well. Keep stirring the liquid every 1/2 hour or so until the mixture is cool. The liquid will thicken as it cools. You can leave the liquid in the bucket if it has a lid or pour into containers. The mixture may look a little lumpy don't worry all the lumps dissolve during the wash and never leave any residue.

A basket of very clean washing

Add 1/2 cup to each load of washing. I have made four 10 litre batches from the original ingredients and still have enough to make a few more batches - very economical at about $2 for 10 litres of detergent.

I recycled a water 10 liter container for the laundry detergant. It has a tap very useful.

Stormy Weather

A week of cold, windy and wet weather has had us worried about the new lambs in the paddock. On Friday night Jessica found a frozen lamb in the paddock. She had gone out after dark to check on the lambs and found this little one frozen.



Meet Harriet nice and warm after a hot bath and a feed



The next morning Jessica went to see if she could  Harriet back to her mother. That was unsuccessful but she found another lamb in trouble with sore eyes and crow pecks on her head.
Meet Amber.


Oliver doing a great job feeding Amber

Jessica took Amber to the vet to have her eyes checked and the vet found she also had 

pneumonia. Both lambs are doing really well and sleep through the night. 

 We usually end up with a couple of poddy lambs each year. I just can't leave a sick or frozen lamb in the cold to die a misserable death. You can tell if a lamb is hypothermic by feeling inside their month. If, the mouth is very cold the lamb is hypothermic and needs urgent attention. We placed Harriet in a very warm bath until her mouth became warm then dried her put a coat on and placed her near the fire. We feed the poddy lambs on full cream powdered milk and they thrive on it.

Day at the farm

A beautiful winter Saturday we took the boys for a walk in the paddocks



Skye, Baby Harry very interested in a ewe



Time to give my lamb a drink




There are some really nice looking lambs in the 2012 crop



Oliver helping to collect wood with Lily watching carefully

Oliver and Grumpa (Kim) bringing in the wood with the tractor

Very important job that Oliver takes very seriously

Job done trailer full of wood

Protecting the lambs

I have discussed this topic before but Jessica took this photo yesterday so I though I would recap.

We have a serious fox problem in our area. Lamb losses in some years have been too high. There are  several methods to try and protect new born lambs.
Shoot the foxes to reduce numbers Some of our friends visit at dusk with their rifles. I think about six foxes have been removed this way. Not really effective.
Place out poison bates. I don't like this method as my sister inlaw lost good sheep dogs to fox bates.

We have a specific lambing paddock which has been electrified with 4 hot strands of wire. I have managed not to touch the wires yet.

Use flock guards. Here is Peter the Alpaca  lamb sitting while the ewes are eating hay from the feeder.