Dogs and Calves

Nigel has been given the job of looking after my Scrappy Christmas Ornament quilt until I get back to it. Unfortunately my Slow and Steady approach to this quilt is proving to be very slow and a little unsteady as it moves from the Must Be Completed before Christmas list, to the It Would Be Nice If It Was Quilted before Christmas list. Never to mind.

In the meantime I have made some Christmas gifts for two young fellows who I hope will appreciate them —

This is a Red Boot Quilt Company design (updated link). A fun pattern to use. And look how delightfully scrappy it is! I spent ages finding the right scraps from my extensive non-quilty collection. 

Here's a sneak peek of something else I've been working on lately —

I was delighted to receive some lovely Christmas wishes from Maria in the mail the other day. I love the clever wee bookmark she enclosed. It sits nicely over the corner of the pages.

Below you can see it in action in my latest Vera detective novel.

Thank you, Maria!

The beginning of the week was spent sorting calves.
First up, it was the last feed for the 11 that I was still feeding —

After this last meal of deliciousness, they were drenched and vaccinated, and then drafted into different mobs (girls/boys/to keep/to sell).

Next came drafting, drenching and sorting of the older weaned calves out the back —

(Not a great photo of the whole yard work thing but when you're working....!)

We brought all the beefies home for sale (all 75 sold and now on their new farm.)

You can see it was a drizzly day for working - gloomy sky shots - check out the tyres on the bikes - hehe; the clay track doesn't like a bit of rain!

And because I am really behind in photos/blogging this year, I'm just going to pop in a couple of photos of what we usually do when we wean our calves.

I get them to follow me along the bush track as far as possible - getting them to follow the feeder is the best way as they think they are hungry (although they already have full bellies of grass!)

Then I shoo them and follow them out the back, through the bush to the runoff. 

While I walk behind them (usually they run down the hills so I get behind really quickly!) the MOML goes back home and gets Emmadog. This is the one time of the season where she really earns her keep as a farm dog. She keeps the calves moving so that we actually get out to the runoff. Otherwise they'd start to dawdle and we'd be there forever!

Once we get out the back, they have lots of grass to eat, and quickly forget about milk!

And to give you a wee smile; here is a pic my DIL took this morning. We had two small children stay overnight, then this morning we went next door to collect three more as their mum had some work booked. The easiest way of course is to pile them all in the back of the buggy. And yes, I am a Ganma-driver when I have this precious cargo on board! (Ganma drivers are a bit like Nana drivers!) Nice for the kiddies to have some cousin time ♥

'til next time,

happy stitches,