Autumn is in full swing

The winds are blowing.  The apples have all been picked.  Plums, apricots, and rhubarb have been converted into country wines.   Cider and ginger beer are brewing.  Kilos of fruit are in the freezer.  It's the "season of mellow fruitfulness."
Since my last post, Poppy had her calf.  Unfortunately it was still born.  She also seems to have had a hernia.  I need to have the vet check it out to be sure, but, if she had one, it means we won't be able to breed her again.

 Poppy's udder was huge and she had plenty of milk, but her teats were too small to milk by hand - especially the rear teats.  It was impossible to get milk from the rear quarters, despite them dripping milk constantly.  Those tiny teats were just too small to be able to squeeze properly.  At least I was able to get two fingers on the front teats but, again, they were so small that it took more than half an hour to get a litre out of her.
So I've had to dry her off to avoid mastitis.  Thankfully, drying off went without any problems and she's in fine health.
If - and it's a big "if"- we are able to breed her again, I'm hoping that the calf will be able to get onto the teats and stretch them out enough that she becomes milkable.
The upshot of all that is that this year's milk, butter, cheese and yoghurt will now need to come from the supermarket instead of the paddock, and our beef supply is put back a year.

Our batteries finally collapsed totally and we spent a few months running everything off the panels and generator, and with no power at night.  Very frustrating.
We were able to pick up four deep-cycle batteries from a chap north of Hobart for $1600 - less than half price.  The vendor, Michael, honoured our deal despite getting a better offer.
They are now installed and working fine.  We still turn the fridges and freezer off at night, but are making float every day, and staying above 80% charge all night.


Covid-19 is doing its thing.  Tassie has over 200 cases, which gives us the highest per capita infection rate in the country.  Isolation is not too hard for us as we need to go around to the cow most days to check her water, move the electric fence, etc.  On top of that, 10 years up here on the hill has taught us to cope with isolation.  The hardest thing is knowing family can't come down, and we miss church too.
Two of our friends have had the virus, but seem to be recovering fairly well.