Some 'heart stopping' news (pardon the pun)

That really is a poor choice of a post title. But it is very apt. Over the past couple of weeks, Mark's dad (Alan) has suffered a number of heart attacks or heart issues. It all stemmed from a bit of a blockage in one of the arteries, but after having a couple of stents put in, he developed a clot which put him back into hospital again. Since, he has found out that there is another clot and the doctors are madly working to dissolve it so he is 'fit for duty' (so to speak). In reality, I think both Mark and Judy will be keeping him wrapped up in cotton wool for a while (much to his horror no doubt!!).

So he has spent the better part of the past 2 weeks in either Shepparton, Royal Melbourne, Colac or Geelong hospitals. And for a man that rarely admits to being unwell, I'm sure that this has been an arduous experience for him.

Mark has been to see him today and reports that he is in better spirits than he had been, and was looking more like his old self. Most welcomed news!

Ok...farmwise, what else has been going on?

We are well into calving now with almost a full calf shed. I am doing none of the rearing this year as Mark felt he could manage it. And so he has. I miss it though. As of yesterday, we have had all our recip cows calve (the ones that were impregnated with embryos from the flush last year) and we ended up with 4 bulls and 3 heifers. One of the heifers is huge and is a potential show cow herself.

We welcomed a new staff member to our business in the past 2 weeks. Terry Baulch is a 16yo student who is going to be doing some weekend milkings and the occasional week day milking. He is also doing his work experience with us and possibly in the future will complete a school based certificate II traineeship. We hope that Terry enjoys his work with us.

We have just reviewed some text for an article that is being written on us for a breeder profile for the Holstein Australia magazine. I have to admit to being a bit embarassed about it as we have not been in the registering game for very long and there are heaps of breeders out there that also deserve recognition. But we agreed and we took some photos last night to accompany the article. Surprisingly, Tom was very accomodating and took some lovely pictures. We got a few rippers of him with one of the ET heifers who's name he informs us is 'Kelly". So Craiglands Megaman Kelly it is!! This is one of the shots of him holding on to her. Maybe he will be interested in the show circut after all????? (me smiling to myself here!) .

In a couple of weeks we will welcome the Azzopardi family to our farm as part of the Farm Day activities. They hail from one of the western Melbourne suburbs and I'm not sure how much they've been on farms before, but an email from them the other day tells me they are looking forward to coming. They also have a 4yo boy named Thomas!!! LOL. It may get confusing over the weekend!!!

Calving season has started

We are into calving season 2009 already. From memory, we have about 20+ calves already in the shed. So far, Mark is rearing them all by himself. This will last for as long as we get a sick one and he wants me to take over!! Seriously, I miss doing them, but the super early morning starts for me last year just about killed me. Burning the candle at both ends and all that. Hopefully though, this year, I will be able to take the kids over with me at a later time in the morning (rather than 4am like I did last year). I'm not 100% convinced that Tom's concentration and interest will last the time that I need to be over there, but we'll give it a crack and see how it goes. But for the meantime, Mark is happy to plod along with the babies.

And today we had a bit of excitment! Remember the flush program we did on our show cow back in August? No? Well, suffice to say, one of the recip cows calved today. And it's a bull! LOL. Bugger it though.... I'm keeping it. This is the first of the bull calves to be reared this year. Fingers crossed that the remaining six recips give us some heifers.

We are gearing up for 'Farm Day' where a city family comes and spends the better part of a weekend with us. This year, the dates are May 30 and 31. We haven't got our city family's details yet, but I would guess that they will have kids, as the organisers try and match us all up.

My Stampin' Up! business is starting to pick up a bit of speed. I have a number of workshops in front of me, a class that has been confirmed, and a couple of customers that may turn into long term clients. I attended the SU! convention in Canberra last weekend and I have to say that I have returned all excited and inspired! I can't wait to get right into it. This coming Friday night, I have a 'party plan' evening at a local kindergarten. A number of direct sales companies will be there basically showcasing what they have as far as products and what they can offer prospective hostesses. Fortunately for me, we have a lot of 'hands-on' stuff that tends to capture the attention of bystanders. I am hoping to secure at least one workshop booking from the evening.