Drenching lambs - when to do it?

Still in shock really
Went to town with a big list of things to do and returned to find Hubby had been flat out drenching all the sheep. Including two day old Henry and week old Freddy. Next morning, they were both dead. The instructions are so confusing and wordy it's difficult to understand what not to do. I knew that drench is basically poison, to kill intestinal worms etc. because I'd looked it up years ago when our sheepdogs spent time on farms. Now we both feel awful at our mistake. And two small boys paid the price.

It's frustrating but I think vital that before doing anything new to look up the effects and risks, all the things which can possibly go wrong, contraindications etc. Particularly when it comes to using chemicals. (sigh) There's so much to learn! We Townies find it a bit overwhelming at times.

Visitors!
In brighter news, we had two lots of visitors last week, friends from New South Wales, who dropped in. So lovely to see familiar faces and catch up on happenings! We were proud to show off our 100 acres, including the rampant pasture. You can see here the difference between pasture that's allowed to grow and that which suffers from wallabies. A big part of our first ten months has been getting the wallaby situation under control.

lush pasture after good winter rains

without wallabies, and with wallabies

BIIIIIG Flower bed
Also, I'm terribly excited to say that my plans for the front garden are now realised because the chickens are finally locked up! (and not terribly amused, I might add). I've been watching garden design shows and sketching designs and thinking about suitable plants for months. Finally I got to work! This involved removing a tree from the front yard, removing the remnants of the polytunnel which was destroyed by storm, filling in large holes, planting windbreak hedging and a HUUUUUGE flowerbed. Big enough to have it's own winding path and seat! YAY!

Here are the before and after shots.

Ugh! time to get this tidied up!

mark out the bed and poison the weeds/lawn

mark out the path

remove annoying tree with tractor. wee!

start placing plants in position, rock edging and laying gravel path

Ta da! Almost finished.

We removed the polytunnel a few weeks ago, but the rest has been done over four days.

I know it looks a big sparse right now, and I haven't finished the rock edging yet, but give it a good summer of growth and it will look quite different by Autumn. There are roses, azaleas, dahlias, box hedge, a lilac tree, snap dragons, rosemary, sage, daisies, lavender and lots more. I was finally able to empty most of my pots and plant into the garden, using up the bits and pieces around the place as well as lovely colour I bought from the nursery. The central rose is Mr Lincoln, which is a spectacular red rose with quite structural form to it and an awesome fragrance. Haven't grown Mr Lincoln before so am excited to see if all the hype is true! There's lots of smelly Dynamic Lifter around the bed too, to get things moving. The dogs love it, unfortunately!

So I will keep you updated on how this goes. I am a bit concerned with the strong winds here and how plants will fare. I've staked up the roses, just to be sure. I also want to add a bird bath. I'm really looking forward to sitting on my bench seat enjoying the buzzy bees and birds.

Possibly with a very excited cat sitting beside me.

Harry sees a bird