rabbits beware!

The new pup is completely ruthless with bean leaves, so rabbits, hares, feral cats, foxes, kangaroos etc. had better take heed - this is a serious hardworking farm dog.

garden colour

The roses are struggling to produce a flower but the vegetables are doing well in the cooler late summer weather. Capsicums smell and look lovely - I gave these away to my walking buddies though, there are lots more ripening.

Below: Capsicums and beans - we ate the beans.

a classic holden?

This ute has been rusting quietly away for nearly 40 years, it was here when part of Yamma Station was resumed to be turned into irrigation farms in 1970. It looks as though someone has done a "Basil Fawlty" on it - though with an axe rather than a tree branch.

Through extensive research I find it is an FB Holden, built in 1960-61.

channel mowers

The 'girls' are doing a good job of cleaning up the dry channel and banks before the watering starts in a few days time. Then after watering all the brown pasture should turn green again.

emus move in with the bulls

When the two dams on the main farm dried up we moved the cattle next door to where there is something to drink and the odd bite to eat. The emus - don't know how many altogether - on the farm need a drink too so the smart ones have walked out the open gate or jumped the fence. Four have found their way into the bull paddock next to the house, here's one emu making use of the facilities.

and demonstrating back-to-front emu knees as he walks away. More emu photos here.

Emu trivia: it is the male who incubates the eggs then looks after the chicks for several months. He is very protective and will tackle dogs or farmers on motorbikes who get too close.

another outing!

The day started with a colourful sunrise (we had 8/100ths of an inch, or 2mm if you prefer, of rain during the night). We didn't buy anything at the sale but on the way home stopped at the fruit man outside Howlong.....

and bought a bucket of peaches for $6.00. Behind the fruit man are the ruins of the Howlong Flour Mill built in 1867 - they didn't do a very good job of it.

country road

old tractors and uncomfortable seats

Field Marshall tractor rusting quietly away - this was new technology in the 1940s, it was started using a shotgun cartridge and the seat....looks like it was designed by a chiropractor to generate customers.

This is the old Fiat tractor, more modern than the Field Marshall and the seat looks ... rusty.

Giovanni, the less old Fiat tractor, was still working a few years ago, digging post holes mostly but I have driven it at rice harvest back in the late 1980s when we had wet autumns and boggy harvests. I can't remember how uncomfortable the seat was (I expect I had the luxury of a couple of hessian bags to sit on) I just remember driving with white knuckles hoping not to get stuck in the mud.