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Faith

November 19th 2006 08:58

"branches stretch heavenward"

Faith

The tree stands tall and immovable.
One branch is child-reach from the ground,

Bending and twisting upwards.

Other branches stretch heavenward,
Remembering their maker,
Reaching out in praise.

You have to be a child to climb that tree.
Starting out from where you stand,
Reaching out .....
And stepping on to that first branch
Within your reach, above the ground.



I hope you are able to reach out in faith in your life. Bumpkin.

Poem taken from my self published book "Barriers Broken". Please feel free to share this poem using the appropriate acknowledgements

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Hen House Happenings!

November 17th 2006 01:37

A broody/moody hen

I have long believed that hens had absolutely no personality and are animals of very little brain. But I am prepared to say I was wrong. The more I observe them the more I see the differences between them.

I’ve been taking them some weeds lately and watching how they handled them. Firstly there’s the solitary black chook – the old girl who keeps to herself and manages to do quite well without fussing at all. There’s the silly white chook who has to scratch up everything before eating it and ends up with only a bit left in her sights. But at a closer look she is not so silly – by scratching the weeds she is getting the tiny white seeds that fall on the ground. However a young brown chook also scratches things up but sends everything flying in the air and spend the next ten seconds looking around to find out where it went! I wonder if she has enough brain cells to learn!?
One of the other chooks is a bit more sensible. She stands on one end of the weed and eats the other end. However another chook pecks off a great long stalk and spends the next five minutes trying to eat it without chocking. And finally you have the silly threesome, who meet you at the gate, get under your feet all the way in and then leave the scraps to the other chooks while escorting you out again. If they are expecting an extra personal treat they are sorely mistaken.
At certain times of the year hens get in a foul (excuse the pun) mood when they decide to brood. Wikeopedia tells me that they aren't supposed to brood but my chooks enjoy brooding together. Perhaps they are just in a bad mood because they will never experience sex! One starts - stops all the others from laying eggs because it is sitting on the nest and no one is bright enough to make another nest and so they all stop laying and brood or mood together. This can go on for weeks and I have yet to find an experienced farmer’s wife who can give me a cure.
Still despite what appears to be silliness in most cases, I have to give my hens one gold star. I am pleased to report they have out-smarted the crows. As I mentioned in my Birds of the Bush story, crows are the most cunning bird there is. “Given half a chance they will find a way to take all the chook eggs, sitting in a nearby tree waiting for the hen to cluck once! If the farmer even goes to the gun cabinet and turns the key, the crows seem to know and if he takes one step in their direction – they are off.”
However, my clever chooks have shifted their nest under some wire far enough in so that no crow can get at it! The fact that I have to scratch my hands whenever I go to get the eggs is minor recompense for those clever chooks doing what I couldn’t do – sending the crows packing! Anyone want a fresh egg for tea!

Picture from Wikeopedia "Hens"

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Recycling in the Bush

November 13th 2006 09:19

That Versatile Front-end loader

When I go to the city I envy those people who faithfully put out their two – and sometimes three bins – one for paper and grass clippings, one for bottles and plastic and one for the land fill items. How neat and pristine it all is and how good it must feel to be able to make those choices.
But what can a farmer do? Certainly he can take some items to town if there is a recycling station there. And yes he willingly cleans and recycles Chemical containers. But what else does a farmer do to recycle?
1. Feed all the suitable food scraps and many weeds to chooks – they will turn anything into eggs. Alternatively mix with sheep or cow manure and straw and make compost.
2. Burn a majority of paper in the wood heater so that with the scrap wood and fallen branches etc one will save on electricity to heat the water and the house.
3. Delegate a percentage of the wardrobe from the good clothes pile to the farm clothes pile and then to the rag pile.
4. Re-use and re-use the netting from a fence until it’s so twisted and out of shape that only small sections can be cut off it to give to the gardener of the house for a tomato plant trellis.
5. There are at least 50 extra uses for a piece of wire, a piece of baler twine (string) and old seed bags all of which could warrant be a story in itself.
6. Hang all those silly CD’s from fertilizer or chemical companies trying to sell things to the farmer on the fruit trees and rose bushes to keep the parrots away.
7. Keep the item long enough - say 60-100 years and unload it onto the local Historical Society!
8. Then if all else fails, dump the rest in that big hole dug in the back gravel pit by that versatile front end loader, cover it up and hope that the next farmer to come along will enjoy being an anthropologist as he discovers just what "treasures" can be found and how the present farmer lived!

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Who is Australia's Neil Diamond?

November 4th 2006 08:11

Cover Neil Diamond's Rainbow Album

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Thought to chew your cud by

November 2nd 2006 01:11

Cattle watching the traffic

Thoughts to Chew your cud by
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Australian Birds of the Bush

October 30th 2006 14:42

Blue fairy wren

No, I am not talking about the girls of rural areas!! Birds that are part of my day are the feathered varieties that frequent our area. Some are welcome, some are not!
Among the most welcome is the blue fairy-wren. The male is a real iridescent blue and even its mate has shades of blue in its feathers. The only thing wrong with this bird is that it nests in dumb places – like hanging pot plants or lowish bushes and become a prime target for predators, as a result. Another colourful bird with a bit more sense is the scarlet Robin (our version of a robin red breast). Usually seen with its mate sitting on the clothes line, it is a welcome visitor

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Farming Sheep in an Australian Drought

October 19th 2006 14:30

Say goodbye to the Sheep.

Up until now I have avoided writing about the drought in Australia because firstly I didn’t want to be seen as a whinging farmer when I know that businesses fail for people every day. Also despite our very late rains, we had had some rain and we will manage to keep some of our sheep through the summer- for which we are very thankful. We live in a very reliable rainfall area – but still in a year like this our rainfall is down about 40% . However, as the aim of my Blog is to relate rural life to the whole community, I must tell you how this year’s Australia-wide drought has affected this “little black duck”. Although I cannot imagine what five years of drought must be like, I do understand some of the heartache – particularly for those in the sheep industry, which is our main industry.
My farmer husband tells me he has never worked harder – mentally as well as physically in his whole 40 odd years of farming – trying to decide what move to make next. The mental strain of trying to second-guess the weather – will we sell sheep now- where can we move them- do we buy feed $- and buy feed $$ and buy more feed $$$ and eventually find there is no more feed to buy… and so it goes on.
Here are few things we have had to consider

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Outside Loos

October 6th 2006 07:40

There seems to be a perception among artists - even modern artists, that if they wish to depict a rural residence, there must be an outside loo (toilet) as part of the scene. These structures have been called such names as "thunderboxes" "rubberdy-dubs' and "dunnies" over the years and while anyone who has ever had to use one on a regular basis will tell you there is nothing romantic about them - they have become part of the rural myth.
O.K. As a child X years ago I can remember the "past the pepper tree- past the chooks- don't let the black cow with the white face leaning over the fence scare you and don't forget to pick up some wood for the fire on the way back" trek. I also remember the wooden structure and wooden toilet seat which cracked when it got old and the paper on a nail...... But only vaguely!
Sure, the next loo was also outside but it was brick with a tin roof and was just fifteen paving slabs from the back door and had a flush that went when you pulled the piece of rope that dangled just above your head and even had paper on a roll

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Squashing Litterbugs

October 2nd 2006 23:13

My front paddock

There is a story going around about a farmer and his family who took themselves off to the city, found a particular house in a rather up-market suburb, and proceeded to have an extensive picnic on their pristine front lawn before leaving their rubbish behind. It seemed that the occupants of the house had done a similar thing in the farmer's front paddock and this was his retaliation!
It's an interesting story with a moral.
Despite endless advertisements about Keeping Australia Beautiful... despite money back schemes on bottles and charges on plastic bags... despite litter bags in cars and increased road side bins.... the litterbug is alive and well

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internet connections

September 26th 2006 06:33

Fellow readers,
Have you ever had the frustrations of moving from one place to another and having to get things onto a computer that you are unfamilar with in ten minutes flat. That's me today. The one I was on the other day kept telling me I had not got the photos on - but today i find they are there in my Talking Weather story. The next one wouldn't let me load a picture at all, so you had my story on the pet lambs. Now I can load my picture of the pet lamb - with the cat- and guess what, I can't load up a story I had written. There is something to be said for taking your own lap-top when heading for the country - ie travelling, for at least everything will be familiar for you and provided you can find a place with an internet connection that doesn't close down before 5pm, then you will be right as rain

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