My attempt to produce a blog each month only lasted for one month. Here we are back to normal with Louise having to send reminders for me to get my bum into gear.
So what’s happened between drying off and now?
Well, the great plans of getting out in my kayak have failed miserably as it is still gathering dust on the wall in the workshop. It now has a place to hang rather than having to trip over it every time I want to find things. A big trip for it but makes lots more room and looks tidier.
Getting out cycling was going to be another priority but although I have managed to get out a few times it has really suffered the same fate as fishing.
Things on the farm have gone quite well. We have come through the dry period remarkably well. The cows are in good nick and we have a reasonable amount of feed to start calving. This is despite having four paddocks of new grass and only one of them planted anywhere near the right time. We have got two grazings off it and ready to start the third. Two of the rest have just been nipped off and now growing back for a second graze. The last paddock is just now starting to look like it could need a nip off by the end of the month. So pleased to sit at 2200 cover with calving just under way, five days earlier than last year.
Soon after drying off I got the opportunity to go out for a day with a tanker from Waitoa. I had to be at the factory at 6:15 am to go through all the briefing etc. with the drivers. If you think we are regulated try being a tanker driver. Everything is sent back to the factory and recorded. They then have targets for things like over speed, heavy braking, even over speed in the factory area. Their breaks are also recorded. Targets are set for how many times this can happen per week, and in cases like braking, how heavy and why. The case when I was there was a campervan pulling out in front of the tanker.
We then got to meet our driver and took a look at the runs we had for that day. I was thinking that it would be cool to go to somewhere new and different. Found out that the first run was in an area I knew well around Matamata. Then back to UHT plant in Waitoa. And the second run was on the Hauraki Plains, also an area I know well. Still, it was a good day and I should have realised that with it being near the end of the season runs would be limited and only winter milk happening. I discovered that it’s not quite as easy as it sounds and there can be quite a bit of waiting around – like waiting for milk to be checked before unloading at the UHT plant. Had a great day and nice to see life from another’s perspective. Always surprises me how our employees have more pride in the company than a lot of us that own it. If you get the chance to go take it. I’m going to go again if I can.
I spent a couple of days helping a friend to shift from Tirau to Ngahinapouri. I was asked to do one load the first day and soon realized that it would take at least two loads. That was the farm stuff done. I enquired about how they were situated for shifting the house and ended up doing two loads the next day as well. I had forgotten what a performance it is to shift after all these years of being in the same place. Next time I’ll hire a box body truck.
Managed to get a couple of fence lines finished before the end of June when things turn silly with feildays and SMASH conferences. I still have a couple left to do but the important 10 m section of the creek is done so my milk can be collected.
I was reminded why I tried to give up putting urea on at night when I managed to park my tractor in a hole late one night.
Since the start of July I’ve tried to get ready for calving and finish off a few jobs that were nearly done. Got a little bit done then was hit by the flu bug which slowed me down a bit, then just coming right slipped of a culvert pipe under our road and wrenched my ankle. Finished the day’s jobs off and came home to tell the family of my slip and swim. I was told I needed to have it looked at, so spent 4 hours in Hamilton at the hospital and a clinic to come back with a moon boot. So I have had to wear a moon boot with bag on it while trying to get farm work done. My helper (wife) came down with the flu at the same time so we are now a bunch of crocks. I have now got to the stage where I can put a gumboot on and off (after four days of putting foot in a bucket full of ice and water for twenty minutes every four hours). But I’m not as mobile as I would like, even with a roll of tape holding my ankle together. We seem to be coping well at the moment, but farm walks are off the agenda so I hope the grass is all right.
Hope you all get through calving without too many dramas and frustrations.