Hobbies and stuff

Well, I couldn't resist going to the next door dairy farm and getting some milk to start my cheese making experience.  This coincided with getting a cheese making kit (http://www.madmillie.com/) for my birthday.  So, with Mal out at a meeting I nothing better to do but start, and managed to get it set in its mould before midnight!  Most people start at simple cheeses, I decided to start with a farmhouse cheddar.  Amazingly everything went to plan and have now have my cheese air drying before waxing.

Farmhouse Cheddar 1 day old

So, Mal is onto the home brew beer and I the cheese so we can have beer and cheese sessions!

Also this week, we sorted out our store lambs on Monday and took them to the Frankton sale on Tuesday.  We had a mixture, with a handful of black face lambs, some white face ram lambs and white face ewe lambs (n=190).   There was a fair turnout of buyers on a nice sunny warm summers day (not that we have had too many of them to date) and the lambs were sold for about an average of $90 for our smalls.  The results from Tuesday 17th results can be viewed at http://www.pggwrightson.co.nz/Services/SaleyardResults (although the results aren't up yet) or http://mylivestock.co.nz/market_reports (which is listed). 

The girls are home this week of the school holidays, and Mal had them out working yesterday with the goal of getting most of our drains sprayed out to allow better water flow.  By the end of the day, the tank was empty and the drains were done.

Today, the balance of the lambs finally got their fly treatment.  With all the wet weather about, fly as been prominent this season.  All the ewes and ewe lambs were done 10 days off shears, whilst the ram lambs we left until our January sales were done.  It is not a nice thing to watch, an animal being struck.  There is a simple article on fly strike on the Lifestyle Block website if you want to read more -  http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/the-basics/article/141-flystrike.html.

Today brings another fine day, no significant rain for a week now!  The grass is still lush, the stock are finally back on track and growing again, as are the weeds.  Finally it is starting to feel a bit like summer!