Can it get any busier?

This week is a nightmare. The calendar in the kitchen is bulging; I don't have much more room to write on it. I am reduced to writing so small on some days, that I can barely read it. The fact that I tend to write an essay about each event doesn't help either!

Indulge me by letting me start this week with last weekend. We took our cow to the Noorat show. She did really well. She came 2nd in her class again, and also came 7th out of about 17 for interbreed which I was extremely happy with. She was much more relaxed and walked around the arena like a pro. The only hiccup came when the ribbon she won fluttered in her face and she had a mild panic attack. This time, I led her and whilst my arms are still feeling the effects of holding her head up, she made me proud.

The big downside of the show was that she developed mastitis. It is one of the biggest risks you run with taking cows to a show. The problem lies in the fact that you are asking the cow to keep more milk in her udder than she normally would (24hrs against 12 - 14hrs). Even though she coped well at Colac, the extra milk that she made for us for Noorat just tipped the scales. We got onto it straight away and she'll be fine. In fact, she is looking good now.

Monday morning saw us being judged in the Hico Colac Otway On Farm Challenge. This happened at 5.45am and I can assure you, that I did NOT get up for it. I sorted the cows out for drafting; I left Mark to actually host the judges!

Today we had classifiers from Holstein Australia come and classify about 50 odd 2 year old and 10 or so 3 year old cows. I am very pleased to report that we ended up with the majority of them scoring Good Plus or Very Good. The Luckystrike cow that we took to the show classified at VG85. Wonderful stuff.

Swimming was also on this morning....Tom finally relaxed enough to lie on his back in the pool and trust that I was not going to let him go. His skills base in the water has improved dramatically and as a swimmer myself, it makes me very happy to see his confidence level in the pool rising almost on a lesson by lesson basis.

This afternoon, we had a group of Chinese delegates visit the farm. This group was made up mainly of industry reps - those that are involved in the processing side of milk and milk products in China, including the packaging. It is a challenge to host this group (which we do on a yearly basis) because almost none of them speak English, and seeing as we do not speak any dialects of Chinese, we rely 100% on a translater. I feel sorry for him sometimes.

Mark is in Sydney today and tomorrow....gets home at some ungodly hour tomorrow night. He is on the review panel for the Future Dairy programme which is run out of Camden, NSW.

Tomorrow I am off to Warrnambool with the kids to get some party decorations for Bridie's birthday which is on Saturday. Man, this has come around fast. I know that she is really only just coming up 11 months, not 1 year, but I feel this tugging at my heartstrings that the year has blown by too fast and she is now leaving babyhood and entering the mighty toddler phase. Tomorrow afternoon, I have to race back home as I need to finish the BAS for the ATO and get it submitted before we cop a fine. Gulp! Tomorrow night I am attending the presentation dinner for the On Farm Challenge. This time last year, we scooped a number of awards and I missed the whole thing. I was laid up in hospital, heavily pregnant with the beginnings of pre-eclampsia!

Bridie @ 10 months

Thursday is daycare (yay!) and Bridie has to go to the maternal health nurse for her monthly weigh. Fingers crossed she's packed on some pud these last 4 weeks. Keep in mind that at the previous weigh in, she had only put on 10 grams. Shopping later on for food for the party. Thursday night we have a dinner with our silage contractors.......

Phew...are you still with me??

Friday I have a friend coming for morning tea, a doctors visit for Tom as he in complaining about a painful ear (again) and then we have relatives coming to stay for the weekend. We received a phone call today from one of our semen companies asking whether we will submit some progeny test cows for classification.....I had to laugh, because if we had of known earlier, we could have done them this morning with the others. So they need to be pulled out of the herd and classified Friday afternoon.

Saturday is PARTY DAY! At this point I cannot foresee how it is all going to come together, but it will.....I have enough experience in hosting parties to know that it does all work out in the end, depsite me having a bit of a meltdown in the meantime.

And on Sunday, she looked around, saw that it was all good and decided to REST!

Another tooth!

Bridie cut another tooth - her third - today. It is the top left front one and I only found it because she has discovered the joy of grinding her teeth!! Yuk.

I am busy trying to get her 1st birthday invites finished and in the mail. Being a Christmas Day baby, she is always going to suffer with "loosing' her birthday. So to counter this, we have decided to bring her birthday party forward a whole month and this year, we will be celebrating her 1st birthday on November 22nd. I figured that I had oodles of time to prepare, but it has really snuck up on me and now that the show is over, I realised with horror that it is only 2 and a bit weeks away. Gotta get these invites out or no-one will be coming!

Done and dusted...for 2 weeks at least!

In what seems like the blink of an eye, the Colac show is over for another year and our cows have enjoyed yet another outing. I have to admit to feeling rather flat at our results....but coming off winning the Grand Champion, Best Udder (interbreed) and a mirade of other places and awards last year, I guess that unless you can match it, there will tend to be this deflated feeling.

Our battle to find a 'show' cow started way back last year when our big Luckystrike cow failed to get into calf depsite being joined numerous times. This was the cow that we flushed back in August (see previous posts on that). She really is a standout cow and it is such a shame that we couldn't get her back into calf in order to have her in peak milk to take to the show this year. As a 5 yo, she would really have hit her straps and have given many of the cows there a run for their money.

So a few months ago, the search really became frantic when we were short of a older cow for our team line up. We ended up settling on another Luckystrike cow - a junior 3yo - with fantastic udder texture, but still displaying similar faults that many Luckystrike cows have. But she halter broke well and whilst she didn't walk with her head up for me in practice, she performed pretty well for Carl on show day. Her udder truelly was a great sight, however we struck trouble even on Friday night when she stopped drinking for us. She didn't end up taking a drink until about 7am the following morning. The big problem with this, is that if cows don't drink, then they don't make milk, and if they don't make milk, then their udders don't fill out. If their udders don't fill out properly, then they are really in an uphill battle once they step into the show ring.

As the day wore on, she became more settled and ended up drinking well for us. But it came too late for her class. She came 2nd in her class and got 2nd best udder, but I really believe she had the capacity to come 1st. In the overall Holstein class, she improved dramatically and came 4th out of 14 for best udder, and got an honorable mention in the interbreed section for udders.

We will take her to Noorat show in 2 weeks time and hopefully, now she has got some experience under her belt, she will do a lot better. Plus, different judge, different day and a possible change of cows up against her may do something in our favour as well.

The calf and 2yo we took both came 'DFL' (dead ****** last!). I have made the decision that unless we get an absolute cracker of a calf, and one that is born as early as possible in the year, I am not going to bust my britches over getting calves ready. Although, that being said, the calves take less work than the cows and are really not that big an imposition. But still, the halter breaking, the leading, the washing, the clipping.....it does add up. And when our calves are lined up against others......they are just so small. I think you need to be calving in January/February to have something that is going to make the grade in November.

The 2yo we took - a Starsky cow - really only came along because she was already halter broken (she's been to the show every year we have been) and with the exception of washing and clipping, doesn't require any training. However, I am not the one who clips her and now she is becoming a big cow, the time it takes to clip her is rather wasted given that she doesn't really display 'dairyness'. She is a strong cow and is prone to putting too much fat on. On her own, she looks good, but up against the other cows, it is obvious that she is outclassed. She will be another that will probably not make the grade in future.

So some very mixed feelings for me. I guess I also feel guilty for not selecting better cows for Carl to work with. Carl travels a long way to help us out, gives of his time unselfishly, and I feel that in return, I should make sure that the expense of his time is worthwhile. This year, I feel I failed him.

With luck and good management, we might be able to bring our original Luckystrike girl back from the brink and put her back on the circut. But she is going to require a hell of a lot of work and TLC to do that. Time is already marching on for her and if she is still not pregnant, we may be close to missing the boat again next year for her.

But, the upside of the show was that the 3yo Luckystrike (3111) did display some great characteristics and quite possibly next year she will be more of a force to be reckoned with. For the meantime, we are going to take her to Noorat show on the 15th November. This is the first time we will enter a show other than Colac and it will also be the first show I will attend without Carl by my side (and leading the cows). I have to admit to being a tad apprehensive about it and a wee bit nervous. The show circut is a close knit community and I feel very much like a rank outsider. Despite living 4+ hours from here, Carl is very well known amongst the show people in Colac and surrounds and vice versa all due to being involved in it for many many years. When Carl and I step through the doors of the cow shed, people seem to literally descend on him, falling over themselves to talk to him and get his opinion on things. I feel very fortunate and privileged to have him in my corner!

Carl Moon & Craiglands Luckystrike 3111

During the interbreed judging for best udder

On the family front, there has been success and accidents with toilet training. Since starting TTing, Tom has been in undies all day except for arvo nap and nighttime sleep. Mostly he stays dry, but that is largely due to my prompting to go to the toilet. But the #2's have been the issue. On Saturday when I was at the show with the cows, mum was at home minding the kids. At one point in the morning, Tom appears with potty in hand proudly announcing to mum that he has done a poo and now he gets a present! (something I had promised him if he pooed in the toilet). Of course, he had to ring me on my phone, but I was busy so it went to message bank. As a reward, I took him back to the show with me and bought him a show bag and took him for a ride on the ferris wheel.

Mark is currently up in Queensland playing baseball in the Pan Pacific games (which also incorporates the Masters for baseball this year). The team he is playing in is badged "The Braves" (same as Colac), but it is made up of blokes from Colac, Geelong and Bacchus Marsh. From the latest update I have, they have played 2 games and so far won both. They are intending to update the Colac braves website with photos and other stuff from Queensland.

It's coming around fast!

It hit me like a train today. This time next week, we will have the cows in at the show. Bloody hell. I feel a tad out of control with it all...I have a feeling deep down that something isn't done, that I should be better prepared. But everything seems to be coming along nicely. Let's hope it stays that way.

I got a phone call today from Carl Moon - who is the guy from northern Victoria who basically gets the cows looking 100%+ for the show - who tells me that he is judging the Warrnambool show this weekend. Seeing as he is in the neighbourhood, he is going to call in and check out the girls a few days early. This is such good news, because if I have to do anything to get them better prepared, I may be able to squeeze it all in. Carl will be back down our way next Thursday to start clipping cows.

Maybe I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about the show because Mark is not going to be there with us. He is taking off to Queensland next Friday to play baseball in the Australian Masters. He will be gone for about 11 days. And so, just so he doesn't miss out on the experience of taking a cow to the show, I entered the 3yo (Craiglands Luckystrike 3111) in the Noorat show as well!!! Yeah, I'm sure it was words of thanks he was mummbling under his breath. LOL.

As far as what's going on here, we are in full swing of silage making. A number of paddocks have been mown and tedder raked, ready for final raking for the contractors to come in and pick it all up and put it into the silage stacks. It is a very demanding and tense time for everyone here....stuff it up at this point and future fodder for the summer period is potentially ruined. As I write this (at about 11.45pm), Mark is still out on the tractor raking paddocks, trying to work the evening moisture into the grass that got a bit dry over the day today. The forecast is for some hot days ahead of us (up to 30 c) so I reckon everyone is going to be on tenterhooks for a while.

Family-wise, I took Bridie to the maternal health nurse on Thursday for a weigh. After last month's good weight gain, she has again slipped back and has not gained very much at all. She is once again teetering close to falling off the bottom of the growth charts. In the past month she only put on 10 grams, and at almost 10 months weighs 7.1kg. But she eats like a horse (much more that Tom does), is healthy, happy and alert. I admit that I started to get concerned the last time she went through a period of slow weight gain, but we know that she can put on the weight, so I think it is more of a metabolism thing. She is possibly going to be one of those lucky girls that can eat anything and not put on weight. Obviously, she does not get this from my side!

Rex is having some teething issues fitting into our family. LITERALLY. The damn dog chews anything and everything. Must be a terrier thing. The other day it did a poo (!) and there were remenants of a peg in there. Honestly. Tom is very rough with the pup and Rex is very rough back. I have reservations about how this relationship is going to progress.....both are as bad as one another and I'm not really sure who is the worst influence.

On a positive note, Tom has begun toilet training in earnest. Since Thursday, he has been wearing undies for the majority of the time and been going to the potty. This has always been at my prompting, but tonight, in the midst of playing with a friend and Rex, he stopped, ran over to Mark and said he needed to wee. Progress. Today we also had the first poo-in-the-pants episode. I'm pleased to say, that instead of sitting around in them (like he would a nappy), he took himself into his bedroom, climbed up on the change table, took off his trackypants and poo laden undies and then yelled for me to come and fix it up!

Now some of you may balk, wince or even dry retch at the thought of this, but for those of you out there (especially mums) that have gone through the whole toilet training saga, I'm sure you'll agree with me that whilst it really is one of the more disgusting aspects of parenting, these things do make you happy in your heart because you realise that your kids are growing up and developing.

But may I say....I can't wait for it to be over!

And our thoughts turn to.......

barbequeing!!!

Yes, that's right. It's BBQ season. Actually, we BBQ most of the year round, but during spring and summer, we cook a hell of a lot on the hotplate. Our BBQ also has a spit attachment so there is also rotisseire beef, pork and chooks to be had in addition to the usual fare. Yesterday was the first real hot day of the spring season (got to about 31 C) so the notion of cooking meat outside, eating salads and drinking a couple of cold ones just got too much for me! Ahhhhhhh, I love it. And this time of year is perfect, because the flies haven't managed to breed up too much yet. In another month or so, we won't be able to get out the back door for fear of being bombarded by enormous blowflies. The damn flies are constantly going while the sun is up and then when they decide enough is enough, the rotten mozzies start up! Argghhhhhhhh. It's enough to drive you to drink. And it usually does.

So, whilst we have this period of nice weather and low bug numbers, I am going to sit on the verandah, let the kid and dog tear up the garden and enjoy a glass or two of wine while watching hubby tackle the traditional role of BBQ cooker.

Bliss.

Introducing Weraireds Craiglands Rex

He's here! And ain't he just soooooooo cute? We've been getting reports about his progress over the past couple of weeks from the stud owner and also the vet, whom we both use, and both have told us how much of a big boofer Rex is. Apparently he turned out to be the most aggressive of the litter and would only let the other pups eat after he was finished. I was imaging that he was going to be ENORMOUS but really, he is soooooo small. I guess my perspective of animal sizes is a little different seeing as our "babies" (the calves) are so much bigger.

Tom has been waiting for Rex to arrive and actually started to get a bit teary about the fact he wasn't with us yet. 4 weeks is a long time to wait for a 3yo, which was the last time Tom saw him. He was the one that eventually named the dog Rex (oh, ok.....I 'helped' a bit) and with his slight lisp, it sounds quite funny coming out of Tom's mouth.

But he is here now, tearing up the place and battling the overgrown lawn. He is initially allowed to sleep in the laundry until he is a bit older and has acclimatised to the outside a bit more (he has lived all his life in a laundry so far), but I am keen to get him outdoors 100% of the time. And after last night, when he whimpered most of the night, my resolve is now set in cemet!



He is going to be really good for Tom. Tom has never been much of an animal kid, which is strange considering how many we have around here. The most affection he has shown to any of them was our duck (RIP duck). I thought that he was a bit apprehensive about the dogs because our other two (Tottie and Blue, both kelpie X) are quite big in comparison to Tom's size. But even with little dogs - and particuarly those that rush at you - he is VERY wary. And of course, Rex is just so excitable and leaps about. But over the past 24 hours, Tom has started to warm to the pup. So much so, that he has to be supervised lest he loves it to death.

A day of mixed emotions

Yesterday I attended the funeral of our young friend. Yes, of course it was very sad, and it was extremely hard to see that tiny coffin. However, nothing can change the fact that he is no longer with us, and I guess that whilst we must allow oursleves to grieve over the tragic loss of someone so young, we must also move on and be grateful that he came into our lives.

As I mentioned on another website recently, because of Tom's age, he will not remember all of this upset. Beyond the first few swimming lessons when he will no doubt ask where Rueben is, I doubt very much whether he will even give it all another thought. But I will. And I will try to use the whole experience to make me a better person....a better mum. At times, I am too quick to chastise Tom, I sometimes forget that he is in fact only 3yo and cannot be expected to remember everything I say and all the rules we impose. If I've learnt anything from Rueben's death, it is that life is so very precious and it really can be taken away in an instant.

So I am going to enjoy my kids. Be more accepting of their faults. Sure, I'm not going to let them run rings around me and rest assured, there will be a measure of discipline in our house, but I am going to get off his back a bit more. I'm positive that there will come a time in his life when I will find myself chastising him on a regular basis (ie teenage years)........I don't need to be doing it now.

On a brighter note, this week we were judged in the Semex-Holstein Australia on farm challenge. This is where you nominate a number of cows to be judged based on conformation and other physical traits. We submitted 2 cows per class (2yo, 3yo, 4yo, 5yo & mature class). One of our 3yo cows - Craiglands Luckystrike 3111 - came third in her class. This is a great acheivement as the 2 and 3yo classes were very competitive.

When we selected her, and then on the day of judging, she was looking to be a standout cow - one that we would potentially be able to take to the show. This made me inwardly groan as she is a predominately white cow. Lordy.....the washing that is in front of me!!!

Craiglands Luckystrike 3111

A huge thanks goes to Mike Huth of BOS Trading who spent a couple of days with us selecting cows for the on farm challenge. The bugger of it all (for him), is that it was an ABS cow that got up on the day, rather than a BOS one!! We'll see how we go in the Colac on farm challenge in a few weeks time with a BOS PT daughter!

Also this week, Bridie had another trip to the maternal & child health nurse for a weighing. Again, she has put on weight - 210gms - which is great. She now weighs a whopping (not) 7.1kg at 9 months of age. LOL. Yes, she is going to be a petite little thing.