BLESSED SPEEDY

Times are tough as a dairy farmer at the moment.  Its wet.  Its muddy.  Milk price is low and confidence is understandably low as well. Its hard going getting out of bed each morning wondering what the day will bring - what disaster will come upon us to challenge us even more and do we really want to keep going. I am usually a positive person, but of late Ive been really challenged.  Thankfully Gary is positive and believes there is a future - it would be horrible if both of us were struggling at the same time. This morning I went to check the calving cows and even struggled to walk into the paddock - but I found new life and it was cute! This brought me to thinking , we recently attended a dairy meeting and met other farmers there.  We got talking (as you do) and were asked - is it hard for you?  How are you dealing with the mud? And the rain? How are your cows producing? How are you keeping going? And our answers - we are not!  Well we are, but i...

I have recently come across this quote from Henry Ford - and I think it is extremely appropriate at the present time in the Australian Dairy industry. I believe we are at the cross roads as dairy producers and how we interact with and perceive the processors that we supply milk to. Many many dairy farmers are angry (and rightly so) at the drop in milk prices which has recently affected us, as well as the claw back conditions attached to this.  We supply Murray Goulburn so our pay back is called Milk Supplier Support Package and results in us having a reduced milk price for the next 3 years until our overpayment has been recovered.  No this is not good, but it is a lot better than some dairy farmers who supply other milk companies - our debt is not a personal debt but a co-operative one and is not applied to individual balance sheets as is happening to many. However back to the above quote - its all very well and good to be angry and cheesed off and feel like you need ...

Since I married my husband 10 years ago, I’ve been a dairy farmer and so a part of the Australian Dairy Industry.  During that time I have seen and experienced many things - drought, flood, plagues of locusts, high and low water, fodder and milk prices and many other things. I’ve learnt a lot and seen a lot and know I’m proud to be a dairy farmer - that owning and running a dairy business is not an easy thing to do - that there are many challenges thrown our way but somehow we somehow keep going and adapting to continue to farm. However events in the last few days have seen many of us almost at the end of our tether.  As a dairy farmer in Northern Victoria we are already struggling with high temporary water prices (and water is the life blood of dairying in my region), high fodder prices, little or no rainfall and a general despondency starting to happen.   Then to cap all of that off, last Wednesday the company that we supply our milk to and are also shareholders ...

What a pleasure it is to be a nanna! My daughter Aimee came with her two girls for two nights but left the older one Mia here for an extra day.  When Mia is here she likes to have nanna time and Gary time. Of course Gary time is usually spent in the tractor, doing farm work etc and her favourite being a fence (which involves standing with arms wide stopping cattle going somewhere and she is really good at it) Well this time in nanna time is asked her if she would like to learn to make a little quilt and she was very keen.  Fabrics were chosen by her.  I cut them - she had to iron them and then I sewed a few together and so did she. By this time her concentration was beginning to wane so I didn't want to push the issue so offered to finish it off for her which I did after she left.  She will be getting it before she heads back to Bendigo as she is currently at her dads in Cohuna.  Looks pretty good for our first effort. When I told my mum about our effort sh...

Isn't this the most gorgeous tea cup? As part of eating and drinking much more healthy stuff I've cut right back to only having one cup of coffee a day - at around 4pm and so far so good.  Did have a few withdrawals at the start but now I'm getting in the swing of it. As I'm not drinking as much coffee I'm very slowly working my way through my very huge supply of herbal teas.  And I've taken a real liking to drinking it from this very gorgeous cup.  No I don't use a saucer.  It's from t2 and I'm pretty sure Sarah gave it to me.  It's a lovely size and lovely to drink from and is a nice distraction from the missing coffee.

Over on  Ravelry  one of the forums I participate in is Aussie karma swaps. One of the ladies put up a challenge that we were to knit/crochet up one of our precious yarns - hence the title preciousness knit along. I chose to use up two skeins of art yarns beaded pearl and sequins yarn that I bought in a destash from another raveler.   Yarn is gorgeous - but naughty.  Doesn't like to be wound into a ball and is a pain to knit with and sewing in the ends was extremely challenging. I'm glad I didn't have a long and complicated pattern to knit with, just a simple drop stitch cowl pattern.  But it did turn out beautifully and drapes in a very lovely way. So I guess this is now TWO things finished in 2016 - I'm on a roll!

Well the stitchery that is picked back up again a few days ago is done and looks lovely imho.  Found that I had the perfect fabric to match for the borders and binding and amazing even a piece of wadding almost exactly the size I needed for it.  How wise I must be to have prepared that earlier.! So one ufo finished - several more to go!

Hooray we've had rain! Unfortunately so far only 6 mm but we are hoping for a bit more overnight The sorghum seed we have sown in the new farm we have bought is struggling and its at the point of just putting up with how it is, or ripping it up and putting in something or irrigating it and hoping for a bit more growth. Hopefully this rain will sort out the decisions and hopefully the decision is that the rain has helped the sorghum and its bouncing out of the ground and we have too much feed for the cows and don't know what to do with it all!

i don't know about you but somehow I seem to have lots and lots of projects started and not finished. This is due to various reasons - got bored with it, started on something else, ran out of what was needed to finish it, forgot I started it etc....... This is a quite normal phenomenon with crafting people so I shouldn't feel bad, but I would dearly love to not have so many laying around.  I have been making a concerted effort to finish off stuff and have been making a dent in the pile though. Here is the latest I have picked up - a stitchery which is pretty simple to work on and when finished will be made into either a cushion or a wallhanging.  I haven't decided which - I need to finish it first!

I participated in a swap over on ravelry called magic yarn ball. The idea is you choose a yarn and a pattern for your partner and then you rewind the ball and while doing that you include little treats and gifts in the ball so that as you knit the gifts fall out.  It's a great idea and really keeps you knitting so that you can find out what the next treat is. The yarn I was gifted was a knit picks yarn and lovely to work with and the pattern was charade socks. There were plenty of gifts in my ball but the best was the cow ear muffs. If the group organises this swap again I'll certainly be signing up as it was great fun.

Thought I would give my blog a visit and a dust off It's been almost 12 months since I posted on here, unfortunately Facebook Twitter and Instagram have taken over from the humble blog. As I usually do I've found my inspiration for 2016 and here it is, nice and simple which is what I like. Yes I would also like to lose weight and also get fitter and also eat healthy etc etc but don't we all?  I think it's great to have these thoughts but it is oh so hard to fulfil! Today I've also made a start on something new, adult colouring! It's fiddle but fun but I can see it could take quite a long time to finish one picture.  I'm using Derwent metallic Pencils which are lovely to use. Progress so far after about 15 minutes of work -