girls girls girls (wet wet wet) moo moo moo

It's raining

A LOT - and it's very very wet here at the moment

Too wet in fact to get the double truck into Phil's farm to unload our truckload of new big girls.... who arrived this morning after a looong 13 hr  road journey from Wodonga - on the NSW/ Vic border. Luckily Phil married the neighbour's daughter eh? (yes I mean me!!!). So Phil and I stood vigil on the highway - waiting for Matt (and hoping Matt that could get in and out of the yards at Sams Creek....)

 (waiting waiting... note we have separate vehicles...)

waiting waiting...

They're here!!

(I must say I got stupidly excited when I finally spied the truck - I spent most of last night worrying that the big girls were travelling ok....) 

here's tricky bit number one - reverse the double truck off the road and up to the rickety Sams Creek yards... (btw - the road is the Princes Highway, it's a 100km zone, this is a blind hill and he's going to need the whole highway to get this sucker lined up... oh and it's a might tight space and seriously muddy !)

corrr but I like it when someone knows what they are doing!... 

don't worry sweet girls - not much longer now!

and the latest load of big girlies have landed!
(not exactly where phil would like - but hey... any port in a storm)

tricky bit number two - try getting the double truck back out of here (without a load there's a whole lot less grip)....  it took a bit of effort - but Matt managed it

(that's our little house in the background... can you see it?)

All the girls are currently having a sit down in the paddock at Sams Creek (it was a very very long way in the truck) - They will have to spend a few days here at Sams Creek farm - because the creek is too high to cross them to Phil's farm!

(when the rain clears I'll go take some more piccies... they are sweet sweet girls - I noticed when I started talking to them as they arrived, that they were very interested in meeting me...  which is no surprise - they have been hand-raised and then milked and managed by a woman... and I can tell they like the sound of a girl's voice, not those gruff males!)

...

details details....

why do the final parts of a job take the longest?
all the internal large scale dairy works are good to go...

 (here's FP inspecting the pit
that should give you all an idea just how whacking HUGE this dairy is!)

the machines are go! the vac pump is go!
the feeding system is go! the wash-up system is go!
the standby vat is go! the filter system is go! 

but.....

the external plumbing is not...

FP and Simon are working long hours trying to get all the tedious jobs complete (build a cooling tower, lay new water pipes everywhere, build a new exclusion trap, clean up the enormous mess) - in between trial runs for the milk tanker (oops driver can't get truck turned around with that external vat in the road..... soooooo FP will have to do some hasty road/fence works - hacking off part of his mums house yard to allow the truck to turn)

oh and today when I was over taking a few more pics of (non) progress (these final jobs are not as obvious or impressive as large bits of steel or machinery installations).... the big grain truck arrived to unload 32 tonne of cow feed (a pelletised complete feed that is dished out to milking girls....mmmmm yum)

and got stuck in the mud....

enter FP and his trusty red tractor..... as he had to pull the truck into the spot to unload...

and no doubt he will have to pull the unladen double truck the heck out of there after all that expensive food is deposited in the silo...

FP WAS thinking that the milking girls MAY be travelling up in a couple of days time, but thankfully Matt (the mighty cow-truck man) will only be transporting the second load of dry cows this weekend (approximately 50 more cows .... or as close to that as he can transport in safety and comfort his double truck)

and we now hope to transport the milkers (about 40 girls) the following weekend


gosh its all very stressful! I just want to see the project finished and have some (trickle) of money coming in.....


....

counting down the days....

all the final chores to get the dairy operational are taking their own sweet time....

but this week at last ALL of the milking machinery is installed and we've had a test run (not with cows mind you!)

(here's what a brand spanking new 20-a-side swing-over dairy pit looks like - soooo pristine! look at all that stainless steel!.... oh and the blue thing you see dangling down - that's an individual pulley for the feed system....)


and the last piece of the puzzle began to slot into place this week - as I can announce the arrival of

THE HERD!

Here's the first load of BIG girls just off the truck from their looooooooooooong journey up from Victoria...

(aren't they beautiful? and you can't see in this piccie - but they are BIG, BIG girls - and just about the most beautiful Holstein-Friesians you will ever lay eyes on. This is the first load of girlies - 48 'dry' cows.. ie cows that are not presently lactating)

After MONTHS of careful negotiations we finally managed to secure a spectacular herd of glorious girls. They have all been lovingly hand-reared and tenderly milked and managed by a very special lady (Anne) in Wodonga. She has decided, like many dairy farmers currently, to leave the industry*....  but that meant selling all her special babies (and despite what many folk may think - most farmers, REAL farmers that is, care deeply about each and every animal under their protection). Understandably then, it's no small thing to sell off all your animals.....

Since just before Christmas, FP has travelled to Anne's Wodonga farm twice... and Anne even visited our place - just to be sure that her lovely girls were going to a 'good' family I suspect!.... but then we had to go through preg-testing, vet checks, Johne-status clearance (dairy herds in Victoria may be Johne's declared - our area is predominantly Johne's-free... so it is financial suicide to purchase any animal from a farm that has had a case of Johne's)..... oh and THEN, just as we were ready to bring up this first load of girlies, a couple of the milking girls contracted a virus (back to more vet checks, and more to-and-fro than you can imagine!)


it has been sooooo stressful

when at last we knew they were on the road, FP stood vigil by the yards all night (dozing a little in the ute) ready for their arrival..... they turned up at 7am, every one of them bright eyed and bushy tailed (FP was not so bright by then!)

We have another 70 girls still in Wodonga - We will be bringing them up in convoy of 2 trucks (the double truck and semi-trailer). As some of these are lactating (eg currently being milked) this next trip will be tricky. Fingers crossed we get the green light for the dairy in the next 10 days - then we can call up the cows!


and then

boy oh boy will it be busy here!





**don't get me started with how I feel about the major supermarkets and their war on farms and farming - coles and woolies are super-bastards and my disgust at coles' position on discount milk cannot be fully expressed in this arena at this time. Expect to see a WHOLE lot more about this issue pretty much everywhere you look in the next wee while.

gadgetry and other gear....

Lots of gizmos and gadgetry is beginning to be installed in the place now - it's beginning to look more like a dairy every day.... 

 (I think this is part of the vacuum pump.... its not fully installed yet...)

 this is the first part of the actual milking apparatus .... the milking cups bit isn't attached yet!

 miles and miles of stainless steel pipes... 

some folk get the really tough jobs!

six more heifers have calved this week - and again they have been spirited off to Denny's dairy to be milked. But we are starting to talk days rather than weeks until this beastie is complete and can take in its first milking cow (oh let it be soon !) The guys installing the machines think they will have their part finished early next week - then the electrician has to hook  them up, then the feeding system has to go in, and the last of the builders things have to be completed ...oh and all the mess has to be cleaned up! I intend taking one pic of the place in pristine condition - before the cows arrive and mess it all up again!

...

snap snap... zap zap

Ah the atmosphere in the the dairy is positively electric - the electricians have started installing all the electrical cables and lights and power points and what-nots....

(see the lovely big lights swinging from the high ceiling)....

the machines are MEANT to be installed the week also - but you know how these things go sometimes..... mighty mighty S*L*O*W*L*Y

grrr - frustrating! all the metal work is coming along swimmingly though.... and the stand-in vat is supposed to arrive today/tomorrow (we have to use an outside, stand-in vat until our big vat is manufactured - about 12 weeks wait.....)


All the regulars on the site are used to the sight of me totting my BIGGO camera and pointing it at their handiwork.... so I think its only fitting that I post a rare something of myself.....

there's a glimpse of the ronster in the newly installed window .... as the electrical folk depart for now... they'll be back when the machines come.

it all can't be done soon enough - look.....

 .... its the first babies!

Yep 2 nights ago 3 calves were born - as we have no operating dairy yet, we have arranged for the young mums and bubs to go to a friendly neighbour's place until we are operational.... I got a report this morning from Denny (the neighbourly dairyman) - all are doing mighty fine - and have taken to this 'milking business' without any drama whatsoever..... yay girls!

If only everything else was as fuss free!


....

on the home straight?

We're still building, building building.....

well it is a big project

with lots and lots of concrete....

 (EJ watched 'Strawb' forming the wash room drain today)

and lots and lots of steel...

yes it's a resource-hungry build - I tell myself that we will ensure that this building and its infrastructure will be viable and utilisable for many many decades to come - so over the long term we will justify the expense and the environmental impact ...

EJ and Sass take it all in their stride (they don't get to see the size of the loan!) - right now EJ seems to think that all that steel is a giant gym set....  its impossible to keep her from swinging on the steel bits!
 

(spot the naughty monkey girlie!)

 
Believe it or not the end IS in sight....

FP seems to think that another 4-5 weeks and it will be operational. And in the next little bit all the things that will make this unmistakeably a DAIRY will start to be installed (we already have the 1000L off-peak hot water sitting in the vat room waiting to be hooked up and I think the milking machine components have all arrived as well)...

the last of the main 'floors' was poured last week for the mill room....

(mill room - sans walls right now)

the last main short wall was poured today.... we've just got yards and walkways to concrete now (we were counting up last night how many trucks-worth of concrete we've had brought to the site - so far we are at 10... It FEELS like a lot more)

at the end of this week the last of our beefy boys and girls will leave the place....

and we are getting ready for our new girls to arrive....

bring it on!


...

getting there....

It's a bit damp underfoot - that means working conditions (and especially access) are not ideal for building... but last week the vat room and wash rooms were basically complete - here's the sams creek crew peeking out from the wash room....

over head that day I spied 3 wedge tail eagles (I take it as a good sign.... I love all raptors)

today - despite rain the first half of the dairy floor was poured.... it's a great step forward....

('strawb' is laying the diamond pattern - that creates greater traction for the cows - this part is open to the elements - and links the inside to the yards outside - so it needs to provide a good 'rough' surface so we don't have slippery sliding girls!)

I just love some of john's tools! - here's his long-handled broom, to make just the right rough finish on the concrete...

but goodness - all this RAIN!


the boys had to cover the tiny bit of concrete that isn't under the roof...

I can't complain - the grass is growing, the building is going ahead, we have nothing of the floods of queensland

and it is far to my faraway north that my thoughts are turning today..... all those towns, all those farms, all those animals, all those poor people trying to make it through the devastation of flood waters. I can't imagine how dreadful it all must be right now - my thoughts are with them all in this dark time....

I'm sure that when the waters clear and the extent of the damage is understood, many farmers will be forced to undertake massive rebuilding - and in THAT sense at least I can now empathise.

I wish I could be of more help than that.....



......