Friday, December 27, 2013

WATER SLIDE, CLAPPING GAME,HAIR CHALKING,KITTEN,SISTERS.



Look at the fun being had sliding on the lawn.

Demonstration of the a clapping game, Izzi and Holly are so good at this.

Takara with the hair chalk colouring.

Ben with his multi coloured hair.

Ben and Bonnie colouring Auntie Kaye's hair.

Izzi with some blue colouring.

Love Bonnie's hair, but that horrible fly has just landed on her face. - shoo -.

These kittens are not very keen to be nursed, Takara is being very careful and wrapped the puss in a towel in case of nasty scratches.

Holly and Izzi getting a nurse of the kitten.
There was lots of fun applying this to each others hair, and the best thing it comes out with a wash.

Number 1 and Number 4 sisters, Don't you love them. They are wonderful.
It is wonderful to see the family and how the cousins get to see each other and have lots of play time.
Greetings to our UK family and send all our Christmas love over the seas to you, hope you are having a great time, and we would love to hear that you might get some snow.
Happy New Year everybody.
                                                               LOVE YOU ALL.
                                                         NANA ON THE FARM.

SMOOTH DOG, CHRISTMAS 2013.

I love this time of the year, family and friends visiting, good food, fun opening presents, great weather to go to lake or pools for swimming. The water slide is so much fun, up to 16 slides from some of the girls, well done.
Izzi captured this snap of the very 'camera shy' dog. Smooth. We just love him, so faithful and fun to be around. Congratulation Izzi on taking such an excellent photo.

This sculpture I found at the art gallery, lots of tree branches shaped into a reindeer then tinsel decoration. Some people have a vivid imagination.

Santa visited on Christmas day and left some footprints as he was leaving. Look at all the gifts we had to share.!!!!

Zoe opening the barbie bus - love it.

Bakers opening pressies.

Bonnie and Pippa very pleased with Santa's presents.

Hels and Pippa.

Pa and whitey checking out the new phone - Dave -.

Nana is very pleased with her gift . photo album of 2013. Thanks, I love it.

Em and Richie - what do we have here???

Ben studying the lego manuel, very quickly had the plane assembled. Good one, very clever.

WOW what do we have here - The Whites in their masks,

Takara and Bonnie.



Another Christmas come and gone. Christmas day with some family, lots of food and presents, Boxing Day a BBQ with family and friends, such a lovely day to catch up and chat.
Where did the year go to so quickly?? there was plenty of things happening and time just slipped away while we were having fun. Now we wait the New Year of 2014.
Bye for now, lots of photo's to come.
                                                             NANA ON THE FARM.

Friday, December 13, 2013

POWER COR,ZIG ZAG QUILT,STRAWBERRIES TOMATO,SILAGE CARTAGE

Power Cor in their cherry picker replacing insulators. They are working out the front of our place.
 Behind the two men you can see the three insulators they replaced. There was a spotter - man - on the ground watching to see they didn't do the wrong thing.
 These blocks are laid out on the floor waiting to be sewn together. I choose a dark colour and light colour sewed them together, no plan - think it will work out to be quite pretty. The blocks are on point to give the zig zag effect.
 Strawberries and tomato's are starting to ripen. They look so tempting, think they will get eaten very soon.
 Silage under plastic has been opened and the dairy farmers are taking it home to their cows to eat.
 It takes about 20 buckets of silage to load the truck. When the wind is in the west you can smell the silage - has a very sweet smell rather like a dark fruit cake.
Last bucket for this truck.Then it's off to the farm to feed out to the cows, apparently they love it. This vetch has been under the plastic cover for a year - and still is good to eat.

Harvest is nearly finished, only a few chick peas to ripen. Pa has been out ploughing up some of the ground to promote some weeds to grow. As we had a very dry summer leading up to the cropping this year there are still lots of weeds that haven't shot. Pa will get on to them with chemical spray when they appear.
Spent the last two days doing BAS and christmas letters - hopefully this paper work is enough to catch up in time for Christmas.
We are looking forward to family coming home for a few days. School takes up most of the grandies time these days, then after school activities keep everyone very busy.
Vegie plot is going well, tomato's, zucchini, strawberries, onions potatoes, corn and already some pumpkins are setting. Must get a photo of the green tomato's for you all to see.
It's off to bed for Nana. Love to everybody - hope you are counting the days till Santa comes with lots of goodies.
                                                                     Love you all.
                                                                NANA ON THE FARM.

Friday, November 29, 2013

EMPTYING A BAG OF GRAIN.

 I was asked how you empty a grain bag. You require a machine like the above that will roll up the plastic bag onto a roller as the auger that has been inserted into the bag empties the grain into your bin, truck etc. The cutter is on the left of this picture on the auger, see picture below.
 This is the cutter splitting the bag so the plastic can be put onto the rollers as the grain is being taken out.
 Here you can see the bag being rolled up, and the auger ready to empty the grain into the waiting truck
There is a tractor attached to the above machine and is moving slowly backwards as the bag is emptied, nearly there with this one. You can see the grain filling the truck above.
Driving around the countryside here you will see these storage bag dotted all over the paddocks. Time is saved carting grain, crops are harvested faster and you then deliver the grain at a time suitable for you later in the year, or even transfer to another more permanent storage.
Technology has helped the farmer to be more efficient, delivering a good quality grain.
Harvest time over the years has changed, once there were small trucks on the road all day delivering to silo's, now with the storage bins, bags and double B trucks taking grain to large storage sites the small silo's are no longer in use. You deliver to large storage sites, many have bunkers - these are stacks of grain stored on the ground in bunkers and covered with tarps. Grain is then ready to deliver to the ships for overseas customers. The bunkers have small walls and are water proof.
We had some rain overnight, not a lot but enough to stop the harvesters stripping the grain. Day has dawned nice and sunny with a light breeze crops will dry out quickly.
Bye for now, your days will be full with parties and concerts as the Christmas season gathers speed.
                                                               Love to all.
                                                          NANA ON THE FARM.

Monday, November 25, 2013

BAG BEING FILLED.KITTENS, FLOWERS, BATHING IN BINS.

  
 Grain being augered from chaser bin into the hopper of the bag filler. Machine moves forward as the grain is filling into the bag. They look like big white sausages on the ground when filled.

                       White girls playing with the little kittens, they are so cute. Girls or Kittens??
                              Look at the beautiful flowers we have picked from Nana's garden.
                                What fun it was having a bath in the toy bins, a little warm water then                                                                                   hopped in, even closed the lid.
                                                           How cute am I!!!!
                                                               Peek-a-boo - (Zoe.)

Pa and Nana are busy with harvesting, weather has been kind so far. Although some of the crops are still a bit green we have been able to keep going. This Wednesday and Thursday the weather man is forecasting that we will possibly get to about 39degrees - now that will be hot, any crop still a little green should ripen then.
I am so excited about my tomato crop, there a so many tomato's setting, should have a plentiful supply for Christmas. Don't know why they set so well, don't see many bees around, however the days have been very windy and I can only quess that this has been shaking the plants and pollinating the flowers.(photo later) Whatever the reason I am very happy with the crop and hope to make some tomato sauce this year. On the other hand, not many strawberries with the first flowering, hope for more with this next flowering coming up looking good. It has been a really crazy season so far for the vegetable garden. Potatoes are flowering, and the climbing beans are starting to put out their little 'arms' to climb with.
                      Bye for now, hope you are all well and busy with the coming Christmas season. 
                                                                  LOVE TO EVERYBODY.
                                                                  NANA ON THE FARM...

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

HARVEST 2013. TWILIGHT PEAS AND CANOLA.

5TH November started the peas and canola harvest. Weather nice and mild. Pa has made a start on the paddock north of the house - twilight peas. Storage of peas in field bin and chaser bin.

Pa on our header stripping Twilight Peas.

Daryl Fox in their Header picking up the canola in the double dam paddock.

I have snapped these photo's just on dark so light has nearly gone.
A quite start, weather is possibly going to get cold and wet later in the week.
Hi everybody.
NANA ON THE FARM.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

TOMATO PLOT 2013

Caillou helped Nana prepare the vegie plot for the tomato plants, I have pictured him working hard with the raking of the soil. If you look very hard at the green looking pictures you will find tomato's growing on the plants. Pa and Nana have been covering them when there is a frost warning, today 2nd Nov listening to the weather forecast they are warning of frosts next week.

Nana has tried a collage of the happenings, we are so pleased with the plants this year. Put plenty of blood and bone and sulphate of potash in the soil prior to planting and have chosen a new site to grow the plants.
Pa has been very busy of late getting prepared for the harvest, nearly ready and we are keeping a close watch on everything waiting for the right moisture level in grain so we can harvest.
                                                       Bye for now everybody.
                                                      NANA ON THE FARM.






Tuesday, October 29, 2013

VETCH BAILED. CANOLA CUT AND WINDROWED.

Fork lift and some of the vetch bales waiting to be loaded.

Another view of the bales and fork lift.

Bales stacked and ready to load, there are four more piles in the background. All have been carted away now.


Canola cut and windrowed waiting for the headers to come and harvest.

See the rows stretching up over the rise.
Harvest has started with these two crops, waiting for Barley, Wheat and Peas to ripen and will be into everything - full swing in the next week or two.
Doesn't seem very long ago we were planting these and now they are to be harvested.
Love you all.
NANA ON THE FARM.