Minerva Mine

Did a tour of the boutique coal mine that is a couple of kilometres from where we live.

Eggs

The Indian Runner Ducks are six months old and a couple of ducks have startd laying. I need to collect the eggs before sunrise to beat the crows. The ducks usually lay sometime between sundown and sunrise.

The Boys

New financial year resolution and organisation has seen me buried in the home office....much to the disappointment of the horses. The have been hollering out for attention or feed or whatever all day long. They are 7 year old geldings....Rebel is the 14.1hh brumby on the left in this photo and Carlton a 16.1hh warmblood.

The Girls

It was a busy day in the henhouse today. Production was above expectations with 10 eggs from 9 hens. The last egg was layed with a softshell during the afternoon garden scratch. I always thought chooks laid 2 eggs each every 3 days....perhaps not.

Goats

10 year old Mum, Charlie gave birth to triplets 2 weeks ago. Mum's milk didn't come in so sadly we lost two but rescued the third, Casper, by bottle feeding.

Yesterday 2 new kids entered the world safe and healthy.

Friday

Cool'n'breezy in Central Qld today..... but...... I worked up a sweat (glow?) getting the goats out of the duck pen, rescuing the horse food from more goats, persuading the chooks to stay in their pen and rounding up the new kid who thinks he runs the place. All are now fed and I only have had to endure one goat butting and my foot stomped on but at least I am warm.
Six months ago I got a bakers dozen 10 day old Indian Runner ducklings that have just started laying eggs. Ducks randomly drop their eggs around the pen, considering they can lay up to 300 eggs a year each, I may find myself very busy when they are in full production. The ducks spend their nights safe from foxes and dingos in a pen and house. The days are spent in a grassed pen that has a specially dug pond. They swim for the majority of the day.....happy as ducks in a pond!
Some more Runner duck trivia... they are entertaining, easy to herd so they are used to train stock dogs, male runners are distinguishable by 2 curled tail feathers.
Enough about the ducks I am sure I will mention them again in future posts.

Welcome to my world!