Adopt A Sheep... Adopt A Lamb

2007-04-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Adopta Sheep: Save Australian Sheep: Unique Gift: Last Minute Gift: Our Sheep Need You

Hello there,

These are our sheep. And they need your help. You see, they are fine wool Merinos and they live with us on a 1760 acre farm called "Uamby" in a beautiful valley here in Australia's best woolgrowing district.
We have 17 rams, 420 ewe lambs from 2006, 1500 ewes and they are lambing at the moment. Many are having twins. Unfortunately we had to sell 400 wether lambs from 2006 - but they went to a good home nearby. We are still suffering from the after effects of the most devastating drought in living memory. Many call it the worst in 1,000 years.
Last year we had less than a third of our normal rainfall. We carefully managed our pastures to give the grasses the longest time to regrow before the sheep graze on them again. We do this to protect the soil from erosion, because soil is our most precious asset. Despite our best efforts, we were forced to handfeed the sheep everyday for six months. We were able to do this, thanks to the generosity of many people who "adopted" our sheep and lambs. In the last 6 months, we have been blessed by rainfall which brought the grasses back on those paddocks we were able to save (less than half the property). Normally we would go into the low growing season of Winter with good cover of feed. But this year is different. The water table is so low... The roots of pasture grasses so stressed... Mother Nature needs a long convalescence.

To make matters worse, we seem to be headed back into drought. That will be 5 years in a row! Normally we would sell the flock, wait for the break, then restock. But this drought was so long, the price we were likely to get at market was less than 10% of what it would cost to restock when the rains returned. Besides, these are our breeding flock. We have been breeding this flock for extra-fine, extra-soft wool for the best part of a decade. By the time we thought of “Adoptasheep” we had already sent 1000 wethers (neutered males) to the slaughterhouse. (We were expecting $40 a head and got $5. And lost our boys, our best wool producers.) Our wonderful Adoptasheep supporters helped save the mothers and lambs.

Instead of hand feeding, we are now urgently trying to 'drought-proof' the property - using methods we also hope to share with other farmers. (See below.) We are looking for a permanent solution to drought, to cut down the need to hand feed. (We'll never be entirely safe from drought,but we can make a difference.) I bless the day I thought about you and all the people like you who love the land and love animals. I bless the day I had this stupid idea to offer you the chance to adopt one of our ewes or lambs. Or one of the rams. They've all got beautiful natures and loads of personality. Sheep are more intelligent than many give them credit for. They can identify up to a dozen faces, including humans. They can learn their names. They have their own social circles. A couple of ewes will conduct a creche of lambs, for instance, allowing the other ewes to go off foraging for feed.

Our sheep are precious to us and we'd hate to lose any more. We grow sheep for wool because it's not the same as growing animals up to slaughter them. We make sure they have enough shade and water and we use the most humane handling techniques. And we're always looking to improve. Because we believe contented sheep produce better wool, and better karma for everyone.

HELP US DROUGHT-PROOF “UAMBY”

We have lovely green stuff all over the paddocks, but there is not much feed in it for sheep. The first things to grow after drought are weeds that sheep can't eat. Like this huge thistle bush...

This is why farmers don't dance for joy at the first sign of rain. There is so much to be caught up. Even now (September 2007) after good rain during the year, we are still hand feeding.

We have been working to drought-proof the property (as much as possible) so we have grass to feed our lambs and their mothers even when it doesn’t rain for long periods. We are fencing our paddocks into smaller units and running water to them because this will allow us to use ‘time-controlled grazing’ which encourages native grasses to grow more thickly. We have planted a wildlife corridor of trees and shrubs, connecting stands of native trees to encourage birds and mammals because more biodiversity encourages the growth of soil carbon and this precious stuff helps hold water in the soil. We have plans to renovate several poor paddocks by ‘pasture cropping’ and ‘biological farming techniques' (composting).

You can help us finish this important work. The new lambs are arriving – ready for adoption.

ADOPT A SHEEP
So this is your opportunity to adopt a sheep. WE set the price at $35 for 100 days' feed becasue that is what it cost. So we'll stay with $35. It will mean the world to your sheep.
NAME YOUR SHEEP When you sponsor a sheep, you will get to name it. First you tell us what sheep you want: a lovely motherly ewe, a frolicking lamb, a horny ram. Then you tell us what name you want to give it. We'll tell you if the sheep likes your choice or sends you a 'Try again' message. (Sheep are very sensitive about their names. They are very proud animals. They like to be treated with respect.)
A PHOTO OF YOUR SHEEP To thank you, we'll take a photo of your sheep that you can frame. It will be sent to you by email as soon as we get a shot the sheep will agree to release.
WRITING TO YOUR SHEEP If you want to send an email to your sheep, we will print it out and read it out to the flock. (We have too much trouble isolating an individual sheep for a personal communication. So be aware and don't get too personal in your emails.)

VISIT YOUR SHEEP
All adopting 'parents' can come and visit their sheep and enjoy a tour of the farm. You can find out more about the Kiely family and Uamby on http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)
Daniel handles the lambs only when necessary because their mothers don't like other people's aromas. They may even abandon their lamb when it's very young.
HOW TO ADOPT A SHEEP
You can send a cheque or money order to Michael and Louisa Kiely, ADOPT-A-SHEEP, "Uamby" RMB 384, Uamby Road, Goolma NSW AUSTRALIA 2852
We have a PayPal facility available on the "DONATION" button.
To have a chat, you can call us on (612) 6374 0329. (If you are calling from the USA, remember our morning is your afternoon, your morning is our middle of the night.)

(Thank you)

PS. THIS IS HOW THE GRASS CAME BACK 2 WEEKS AFTER A MAJOR RAINFALL EVENT COMPARED TO THE SURROUNDING PADDOCKS... BECAUSE WE SAVED THE ROOT SYSTEMS OF THE NATIVE PASTURE GRASSES WHEN WE WERE ABLE TO FEED THE FLOCK, THANKS TO YOU

THIS IS HOW THE LAMBS LOOK 8 MONTHS AFTER WE LAUNCHED OUR APPEAL
WE ARE STILL HANDFEEDING THEM because it doesn't rain grass. The first plants to come back are weeds that are inedible. BUT THEY LOOK MIGHTY...

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

HERE'S HOW YOU ARRANGE YOUR SPONSORSHIP

1. CLICK ON 'MAKE A DONATION' WHICH TAKES YOU TO PAYPAL. IT IS A SECURE ONLINE TRANSACTION SERVICE.
2. PAY THE AMOUNT COVERING THE NUMBER OF SHEEP YOU WANT TO SPONSOR - $35 for one, $70 for two, etc. (Please ignore the fact that PayPal won't let you indicate that you want to sponsor more than ONE sheep. We are still trying to figure that one out.But in the meantime be assured we can work out the numebr of sheep by the amount donated.)
3. PAYPAL TELLS US YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND WE EMAIL YOU WITH 3 QUESTIONS:
Q.1. What type of sheep did you want to sponsor.
Q.2. WHat name did you want to give it/them?
Q.3. If it is a gift, what is the name of the person receiving it (so we can mention them on the Certificate of Adoption)?
4. YOU ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BY RETURN EMAIL.
5. WE THEN CREATE YOUR CERTIFICATE(S) AND EMAIL THEM TO YOU

TROUBLE GETTING THROUGH TO DONATE AND ADOPT A SHEEP?
If you have trouble with the PayPal payment system, call us on 02 6374 0329.

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MESSAGES FROM ADOPTING 'PARENTS'

'DAD WAS STOKED!": "I did this for my father for Christmas and he was quite stoked. I placed the certificate in a frame for him, and I also pulled basic info off your site and compiled it into a quick, easy-to-read document so he would know what it was all about. Has taken pride of place in his home study and he's quite thrilled! Thank you, and good luck to not only you but to all the other farmers who take this - and other projects like it - on board."

I want to tell you all that I can't thank you enough for the beautiful adoptasheep Certificates that I received from you in time to send interstate as Christmas gifts. I adopted 5 sheep for my grandchildren,and I couldn't believe it when the Certificates came through. Whoever chose the sheep for me must have been thinking on the same plane as me.When I chose the name Cecil for a Ram I was thinking of old Cec the Ram on Footrot Flats and sure enough I get one that looks exactly like him. I used to have an Uncle Harold who was pleasantly plump with curly hair, he had two ringlets that hung down on either side of his forehead that we used to say looked like little horns, so I named my second Ram Harold. My Uamby Harold looks just like Uncle Harold, young, plump with little horns. Violet the Ewe is everything I hoped she would be. A true lady, a little bit aloof, probably because she knows her breeding. The two Lambs Fleur and Blossom are absolutely gorgeous and look just like little girl sheep. I know how busy you all must be and I'm sorry for waffling on but I had to tell you. So thanks again, Kind regards...

Hi There,
We were astounded at the positive response we had to our gifts of your sheep. As a result, we would like two more.
I’ll just go on to your web site and make the order.
Thanks again
Neil

2007-03-01T12:44:00.001-08:00

Australian Sheep: Unique Last Minute Christmas Gift

Hi,

My wife and I are woolgrowers in central New South Wales, Australia. Last Christmas, after we ran out of grass and ran out of money to handfeed our sheep, more than 1300 families and individuals ‘adopted’ our sheep to save them from the slaughterhouse by paying for their feed. And it worked. This spring those ewes gave birth and we had our best ‘drop’ of lambs ever. We call them the “Miracle Lambs” because it is a miracle they are alive.

When I thought the thousands of people 'adopting' our sheep were doing it to help us survive the drought, I was half wrong. They all like to help struggling farmers. But that's not the only reason they do it. Our Adopters have given 8 reasons for adopting:

1. UNIQUE GIFT: Sheep or lamb adoption is also attractive because they are unique - the perfect gift for the person who has everything. Some givers report the receivers get quite emotional on seeing their adopted sheep. Powerful!

2. SEND OVERSEAS INSTANTLY: The 'gift' takes the form of a certificate which shows the adopted sheep, its name and the name of the adopter or gift recipient. These certificates can easily be sent via email and printed out at the recipient's end. Instant gift!

3. ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING SOLUTION: One gentleman ordered 21 adoptions - one for each of his children and grand children. He said he usually agonises for days and weeks over what to give. But he did all his Christmas shopping in only a few minutes on www.adoptasheep.com.au.

4. THE GIFT THAT EDUCATES: Children can be engaged in the story of their sheep, and learn about the wool industry and its role in building Australia. Adopters can request a sample of fleece and can read about the flock and the wool industry on our blog sites.

5. AUSSIE GIFT: A genuine Australian sheep who lives at an identifiable property and is looked after by an identifiable farmer who you can email and talk to by telephone is about as Aussie as you can get. Perfect for people who live overseas. Expats in London adopt sheep to give each other as gifts, to remind them of home.

6. URGENT DELIVERY VIA EMAIL: You can get your sponsorship certificate within minutes of placing your request, if needed, thanks to our telephone/Internet/email system. So, even if you are caught after the shops close on Christmas Eve, you can go to www.adoptasheep.com.au or www.adoptalamb.com.au , order and pay for your adoption, then call us to flag the urgency and give us the details of the names you want to give your sheep. We can then issue a certificate on the spot, and send it to you by email for printing at your end. Roll it up, tie it with some ribbon, and voila! Gift Ready.

7. THE DONATION YOU CAN ENJOY: Some families are trying to reduce the focus on "getting presents" by giving the money they would have spent on a gift to a charity on behalf of the recipient. While other charities are worthy, they don't give you a sheep or lamb to love and read about and write letters to and put on your wall.

+ MORE SHEEP GIFTS TO ENJOY: On www.adoptalamb.com.au you will find we also have Lamb greetings cards and Lamb t-shirts and a "shearing at Uamby" DVD for sale. We're nutty about sheep. How can you not love a lamb?

Michael Kiely
Assistant Shepherd & Sheep Papparazzi
“Uamby” via Goolma, NSW 2852
Husband of Louisa
Finalist,
RIRDC NSW Rural Woman of the Year Award
Michael@newhorizon.au.com

YOU CAN STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE UAMBY FLOCK ON http://envirofarming.blogspot.com and www.adoptasheep.com.au

2007-02-16T22:01:00.003-08:00

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT US:

We are the Kiely family of Uamby. You can visit our blog (http://envirofarming.blogspot.com) to learn about how we farm. This photo was taken by a young journalist from the Land newspaper back when we had grass, before the worst of the drought hit us. We aren't an old farming family. We took to 'the bush' seven years ago to learn the farming game and we've had six years of drought, pestilence, fire and flood. We love it. Louisa is the farmer. I am worth a half a sheepdog (the wrong half). And Daniel is our manager (and our son). We grow wool. Fine wool. Superfine wool. Mother Nature's favourite fibre. We run a humane farm. We protect the wildlife, we honour the former indigenous owners of the land, and we have reverence for the soil and all that it grows. Many people visit and stay with us. We enjoy having company. We also enjoy being alone here on our 'place'. There's nothing grand about us or our farm, except the sky at night and the mighty Cudgegong River as it races over the rocks. Now Louisa studied Agrcultural Economics at the University of New England where I met her. (I was studying honours history and living on a farm, which made me attractive). We had three children before she finished her degree. And I promised her we'd live on our own farm if she came to the city with em and we made our fortune. The money appeared in the form of an insurance payout when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at age 46. So we left our marketing business in the city and came out here to live. We have two adult daughters Jessica and Rachael, living in our home in the city. Rachael has made us proud grandparents of Xavier (4) and Brodie (6 weeks). Jessica has made us proud parents of a Young Businesswoman of the Year Finalist. And we're just proud of Dan because he's a city boy who took to farming and shearing and woolclassing like a duck to water, and earns respect from our neighbours as a good worker and a charming companion. That's us.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR FLOCK
This is a lick feeder. It holds a combination of powdered dolomite, copper, sulfur, seaweed and other ingredients. A lovely animal nutritionist called Pat Coleby made it up for us based on the soil samples we sent her. These indicated what nutrients are deficient in our soils (which means they don't get to the sheep through the grasses.) This lick feeder is out with the sheep while they are feeding on dry foliage and grain because it helps them digest the dry feed. (Hey, we drench them with apple cider vinegar to kill worms.)

2007-02-16T22:01:00.001-08:00

UAMBY NEWS 30 JANUARY, 2008- A late start to the year

We returned from a long journey to far off places like Phllip Island (VIC) and Kangaroo Islands (SA) travelled to Victoria and South Australia to visit farmers and talk about climate change. We came home to find 90mls in the rain gauge and another 40 had fallen while were away. So the grass is sheep's eye high... look at the difference between now and when we had them in this paddock last December! But there's a catch.... we had them in this paddock too long so that the grasses were grazed too hard, and what is still these underneath all this luxuriant growth is bare earth which will have to be colonised by nice native perennial grasses. Please.
The green green grass of home....

Look at how short the grass was, and the bareness...

The bare patches still persist after a drought. We must find ways to cover the earth.

The sheep are happily munching... it is heartenng to snaek up on them and hear all the chomping...

The flush after the rain has led to an explosion of species - with more plant variety (more forbs, grasses, shrubs) the comes more insects and birds.

... and amazing sunsets. We are blessed...

This was the big move for the ewes, lambs and hoggets, across the flooded (almost) creek. It took a lot of persuading but the eventually went over.
While we were away I tried my hand at 'sheep art', which is a new field for me. Very popular overseas. This is a series taken out front of the house when the ewes and lambs were joined with the hoggets (1 year olds) for the first time.
On the road to Kangaroo Island we saw sheep feeding on a stoney paddock with nothing to eat but air. I hope they were on a 'sacrifice paddock' and were being handfed. Much of SA and VIC is 'flogged out' but there is a lot of stubble being left in the fields after harvest. It grows carbon in the soil!

We met with organic farmers who are important in the new Age of Carbon.

UAMBY NEWS 16 DECEMBER, 2007 - MACCA reads our letter on Australia All Over

Like 10 million other Australians, we have the radio tuned to Macca (Ian Macnamara's ABC radio program Australia All Over) on a Sunday morning. Over the past few months I have been woken by the sound of my brother Stephen or his wife Roxanne singing one of their songs on the show: "I Wish I Was A Girl" and "Soup" by Stephen and "Bad Hair Day" by Roxanne. Last night we got home from the Childrens' Christmas Party at Martin's Hotel in Goolma and I got a great notion to write a letter to Macca. Louisa had a great notion that I should go to bed because I had been working solidly for 2 days putting together a submission for the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee into Natural Resource Management and Climate Change (blah blah blah..)

This is the letter I sent him:

Hi,

My wife and I are woolgrowers in central New South Wales, Australia. Last Christmas, after we ran out of grass and ran out of money to handfeed our sheep, more than 1300 families and individuals ‘adopted’ our sheep to save them from the slaughterhouse by paying for their feed. And it worked. This spring those ewes gave birth and we had our best ‘drop’ of lambs ever. We call them the “Miracle Lambs” because it is a miracle they are alive.

When I thought the thousands of people 'adopting' our sheep were doing it to help us survive the drought, I was half wrong. They all like to help struggling farmers. But that's not the only reason they do it.

Sheep or lamb adoption is also attractive because they are unique - the perfect gift for the person who has everything. Some givers report the receivers get quite emotional on seeing their adopted sheep. Powerful!

The 'gift' takes the form of a certificate which shows the adopted sheep, its name and the name of the adopter or gift recipient. These certificates can easily be sent via email and printed out at the recipient's end. Instant gift!

One gentleman ordered 21 adoptions - one for each of his children and grand children. He said he usually agonises for days and weeks over what to give. But he did all his Christmas shopping in only a few minutes on www.adoptasheep.com.au.

Children can be engaged in the story of their sheep, and learn about the wool industry and its role in building Australia. Adopters can request a sample of fleece and can read about the flock and the wool industry on our blog sites.

Some families are trying to reduce the focus on "getting presents" by giving the money they would have spent on a gift to a charity on behalf of the recipient. While other charities are worthy, they don't give you a sheep or lamb to love and read about and write letters to and put on your wall.

Michael Kiely
Assistant Shepherd & Sheep Papparazzi
“Uamby” via Goolma, NSW 2852
Michael@newhorizon.au.com
Telephone (612) 6374 0329

www.adoptasheep.com.au
www.adoptalamb.com.au

He read most of it out, so I guess we can say "As mentioned by Macca on Australia All Over."

UAMBY NEWS 28 NOVEMBER 2007 - Adopta Lamb site launched: www.adoptalamb.com.au

Today we launched "The Miracle of the Lambs" - the new generation that was saved by the wonderful people who adopted the flock. We sent one of our RARE EMAIL NEWSLETTERS to our wonderful adopting 'parents' to let them know the Lambs are available for adoption. We have also arranged for Christmas Cards, T SHirts, A Mini-doco on shearing (DVD), raw wool, and even "carbon credits".

We also got an email from from Dietrich Moench from Germany about his request for two lambs which I had - in the mad rush of the last two months - mislaid. But it is terrific story. I'll let Dietrich tell the story

"Helping those two sheep is an initiative of four kids, Jelena, Jana, Robert
and Leonie. They made little sheep out of chestnuts, cotton wool and
toothpicks. They sold these little sheeps to the people in the street,
telling the story of starving sheep in Australia.

"They decided to adopt two new lambs, one should be named Happy (female) and
the other one Rudie (male)."

We are very glad to have such good friends in Germany and we look forward to having Dietrich, Leonie, Jelena, Jana, and Robert visit us at Uamby to see the sheep they helped feed.

Sorry about the delay, Dietrich. The certificates I wil prepare tomorrow after photographing some special lambs for you.

Michael

UAMBY NEWS 25 NOVEMBER 2007 So much has happened! Carbon Farming Conference

Brian Marshall, a Holistic Management trainer, sent us this wonderful email after our recent Carbon Farming Expo & Conference: "Just wanting to record my thanks for a super conference that has really given the Carbon 'snowball' a big push.
Much enjoyed watching you as a family, both on & off the stage, make the event happen with real passion and personality." It was a family affair and I was proud of our family. Jessica left her busy corporate youth training business in Sydney and worked like a navvy. Having her organisational skills on the team as a helper is an unreal experience. Daniel operates the second camera unit for the DVD of proceedings so we can spread the word far and wide and the people who couldn't be there because of harvest can attend after the fact. Young film maker Aaron Scheibner managed camera it 1 with supreme discipline.
Louisa did an amazing, life-transforming job first of all selling the whole show to sponsors, then to attendees, and in building the team to deliver the event. Catering, exhibition space, parking, registration, sponsors, everything.
(She is seen here at the sponsors' and speakers' dinner with Peter Andrews, Mr Natural Sequence Farming.)

I had three presentations to prepare and hers, that's four.

We also had the help of Judy Cooper - an Adoptasheep 'parent' - who proved a tower of power with the time keeping and support for Louisa. And Tom Nicholas came down from Queensland to lend a hand. These amazing people gave us a taste of the enthusiasm that emerged during the two days.

As the sun rose over Australia this Sunday morning, the Long Dark Night of the Soul was ended. "The world is a better place this morning," said the Climate Change Coalition candidate for the electorate of Parkes in western and far western New South Wales, Michael Kiely.

"I'm astounded!" he said on seeing the results on Saturday night. Mr Kiely attracted 660+ votes (with 72% of the vote counted). Nationally - with 72% of the vote counted - the Climate Change Coalition's 7 House of Representatives candidates attracted a total of 7,358 votes (or an average of 1,000 each). When asked about the worse than average performance of his campaign in Parkes, the Candidate pointed to the intense conservatism of the electorate and the high concentration of climate sceptics in the bush. "Just to introduce yourself as from a party with the word 'climate' in its name is to invite derision," he said.

"Don't underestimate our contribution: we made sure climate change was on the agenda for all parties - we made sure the ALP and the Greens stayed on message, for fear of giving us any oxygen. It was almost impossible to get media interest for the CCC. And this is, perversely, a measure of our success."

[Nicki Schmidt worked tirelessly all Election Day, swimming against the Ruddslide Tsunami.]

"I am proud to have contributed to a swing of 15% against the National Party because it has served the people of this electorate so poorly, despite their loyalty," said the Candidate. Thanking his booth workers in Mudgee, Dubbo, Coonabarabran, Moree, Parkes and Gunnedah, he said: "We were swept way by the Ruddslide. It was clear when only around 1 in 10 voters took a How To Vote flyer. They charged into those polling booths and they knew who they were after."

The Climate was the winner last night.

"Australia will now ratify the Protocol. It will no longer give President Bush moral coverage for his immoral actions on Climate Change," he said. "We can get up off our knees and face the world with pride now that the Axis of Evil between Australia and the United States is over."

The Candidate - who spent the first 5 weeks of the 6 week campaign organising the recent Carbon Farming Expo & Conference in Mudgee last week - shot an email off to Peter Garrett as the Government crashed. It said: "Congratulations! Now to work.... I believe we have a solution to gaining the cooperation of farmers to transform agriculture to regenerate the farmland ecology. It is enclosed: Carbon Farming. Change without conflict. When can we make a presentation to you?"

The Candidate with Spicers Creek grazier and carbon farmer Tom Green, who also did a full day on his feet for the cause.

"There are 660 good souls (and more) in the Parkes Electorate who care about climate change. If I could build an ark I would make room for all of them. God bless you."

We helped push the Nats to the brink: our preferences flowed to Labor and the Greens.

Vote for the "Good Looking" Ticket.

The Friday before the election we were in the local press in three separate publications. Blanket coverage! No wonder people were looking at me funny while I was in the supermarket."

This political action vehicle contains quotations from the Coalition, including "Where will the Polar Bears live?" It was parked in a prime spot outside the polling station at Mudgee High School.

Dr Karl is quoted on the "Environment Cab" which is a Mudgee feature.

UAMBY NEWS 16 October 2007 BBQ for our "Family"

Lynette from Grays Point summed up the reaction of our guests who came to Uamby for a BBQ on 13th October: "Alana and I had the most wonderful afternoon. We discussed the day's event all the way home. Thank you so much for inviting us to join your family. My husband now wishes he had gone along with us. It probably meant more to us than it did to you but it showed us the face and generosity of country people. We also enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the other people who also really care about our farm friends and our photos turned out so well."
(ALANA AND LYNETTE MET JUNE AT THE BBQ)
It meant as much to us if not more than it meant to you, Lynette. You and our wonderful 'friends of Uamby' saved our life here on Uamby and make it possible to keep going towards our vision of a place we can grow superfine wool, native grasses, and relationships with lovely people like you.

We had a spit roast pork/beef/chicken lunch (no lamb!) cooked by Col the Shearer. Sitting under the trees, we were spared the attention of the flies because of a slight breeze. It was perfect.

There were two main events of the day: a visit to the new lambs before lunch and a shearing exhibition afterwards. The ewes and lambs we have been handfeeding are fairly tame and came rushing down to greet the rather large audience. Then, just as fast, they turned around and ran back up to shelter under the trees. We laid out some grain and lupins, so a few of the braver ones came down. (They were the ewes without lambs, at first. Later ewes with lambs ventured down.)

There were many day-old lambs and just borns. Daniel - like the Pied Piper - led the children around behind the camp and get close to the new lambs. The enthusiasts (Miro and Tony) crept up alongside the feeding ewes to get better photos. The sheep were camping in the shade during the heat and were reluctant to leave their lambs. Even so, their taste for oats overcame their reluctance.

Coming back from the lambing fields, we had a tray load of sheep lovers. Others chose to walk the short distance. It was a fantastic day to be outdoors.

Later, in the shearing shed, Dan gave a masterful exhibition of shearing while explaining the process and the danger points. The display took 15 minutes and the ewe (who would, normally be held there for only 3 minutes) was very patient.

Col also shore a sheep (5 who had escaped shearing last August were cut out from the lambing ewe flock.) He displayed how to pick up the fleece and throw it onto the 'skirting' table where all the dark discoloured bits are pulled off.

Carson volunteered to 'throw" the fleece and Col gave her a lesson, and she threw it like a real bush rousabout. Not an easy task.
Young ones got a hands-on feel for the wonderful world of wool.

Miro and Judy Cooper - our Kiwi mates - have taken home some Uamby quartz to place in their garden, as a connection device.

UAMBY NEWS 12 October 2007

The hot summer wind came blasting across the western horizon, shrivelling up the cape weed and drying off the lush green. The temperatures hit the 30s on some days, boding ill for Summer. We will have to hand feed or sell off the flock again. So we are gearing up - designing t-shirts and producing a DVD of shearing to add to our offering of adoptions of the new lambs. Here is a range of T-shirt images:

The new lambs are arriving in great numbers - our best lambing yet. Few losses because our ewes are so fit - well-fed, thanks to you and everyone else who sponsored them. I followed them up a rocky section of the hill paddock, as they moved to high ground to make camp for the night.

We have about 50 ewes lambing in a paddock close by and we hand feed them to keep them tame and comfortable with out presence. The other ewes are quite skittish and we stay away from them during lambing.

Meanwhile we are getting ready for the ADOPTASHEEP BBQ this weekend - Saturday 12.30pm at Uamby. Gardens have to be weeded, lawns mowed. Daniel and Xavier fixed one of our water tanks on which we rely for water to the house.

Last weekend we hosted "Mr Sustainable Housing" Michael Mobbs and Helena and Wendy and Julian, his son, and introduced them to "Carbon Farming" pioneer Col Sies. Michael is a famous designer of low energy/high efficiency dwellings and commercial buildings - fit for the era of Climate Change.

We also had a visit from Ciaran and Lenka, from Balmain, who are adopters. They were able to photograph the new lambs.

UAMBY NEWS 5 SEPTEMBER 2007

I will be using my new camera to get some beautiful shots of the new lambs. You see, we can't go too close to the new mothers. They can easily get spooked and abandon their lambs. It is a sensitive time. So I can't rush around. It takes a lot of patience to sit still while the flock slowly grazes up the hill towards you, hoping they'll keep coming even after they have seen you. Bruce Christie from the Catchment Management Authority also teaches Stress-Free Stock Handling (which training Louisa and Daniel have done) told me never to circle around sheep because that is the action of a predator. Instead you walk in straight lines and invade their personal space by small increments.
LAMBS AND EWE
This little fellow is a good example of how a blundering photographer can endanger lambs. He/she was just born and I moved into the area without noticing until I had practically stepped on it. It's mother had moved off with the flock. She camed back and the little one got up and ran off with her.
RECENTLY BORN LAMB:

The whole countryside around Goolma is dotted with new lambs. It is a carnival of woolly wonders. Soon they will form little gangs and race madly together across the paddocks, leaping for joy. The joy of being alive. They are the spirit of Spring.
NEW BABY LAMB

Finally, meet Joe. The Father of both Ravi and Kodie. He's Col's working dog. He is normally muzzled. (Bites.) He's an intelligent dog, but he can sometimes appear to be hard of hearing. Ravi is the Brad Pitt of kelpies and Kodie is the Big Bear (his Mother's name is Bear).
THIS IS JOE.

Kodie is our new Kelpie - didn't need her but Daniel came home with her after a night drinking around a campfire with Col. Many truths were told that night. Kodie is a willing worker - loves chasing after sheep. Still, as a puppy, she is stealing our shoes from the back door and hiding them. The Joy of Childhood. Life. Spring.
KODIE

(Shots of the garden and bird life on http://envriofarming.blogspot.com)

UAMBY NEWS 21 AUGUST, 2007

Spring means shearing and lambing and gardening. We are still feeding out because the sheep needto be robust to take the shock ofthe chill winds on their bare skins after they have been shorn.
This curious little ewe lamb wandered over to asK me if I had any more hay after we had fed out to welcome the lambs to "Shearing 2007" - their first experience of getting their woollen jackets off. The chilly winds will be gone by tomorrow when they start losing their pure new wool underwear.

Here are some of the rams looking longingly towards the ewes who are by now heartily sick of them, with the first lambs already having arrived. The rest look ready to lamb.

Louisa and Lucy the cross kelpie/collie that we bred have become a good team. Lucy would have got a bullet on most other places. But this dysfunctional dog is finally starting to understand. She's got a criminal mindset. Always leading the other dogs astray.

After a hard day's shearing - Louisa is wool classing - we have a couple of drinks with the crew. He we see Col and Louisa chilling out. Col is a brilliant giant of a man. I should be his PR agent.

Len Cooney is roustabouting for us. Daniel is working outside the shed, mustering and feeding out. Len gave me the words to a song - well the first verse - and said 'you can finish it...' What?

This is Chapter 2 of a long catchup blog.

Louisa's brother Chris and his wife Kerry (our photographer) came up for the first 4 days of shearing to shoot a DVD of shearing... Here they are shooting a few seconds of footage in the shed the night before it all began. (Col can be seen ducking out of the way.)

This is the first wool ever sent to market under the label Carbon Credited. We are launching this brand to signify that we have entered into a program to reduce our emissions and to sequester carbon by our land management techniques. We used an old Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) calculator to discover what out emissions are: mainly methane from the sheeps' rumens. And we have applied to join the AGO's Greenhouse Challenge to join more than 700 other Australian companies who have embarked on the journey towards "neutral".

No it's not a new dance. Louisa is demonstrating to the film crew and director of our shearing at Uamby DVD what will happen once the day starts and the wool starts flying. (She'll kill me for this. But I've got some other photos I could have used.)

UAMBY NEWS 4 AUGUST, 2007

WE HAD THE "COSMIC FLU" for most of July. That and the travelling to places like Melbourne, Canberra, Junee, Tamworth, Armidale, and beyond to speak to groups of farmers about Climate Change and carbon trading and soil carbon. We held our second "Soil Science Summit" - a one-day conference for 60 farmers and scientists working together to see farmers paid for the soil carbon they can produce if they change the way they farm the soil to more environmentally-sound practices.

Meanwhile the ewes and lambs continue to thrive on reduced rations - feeding them every second day to supplement the grasses that have regrown since the rains came. Louisa is so proud of the way the lambs come running when she calls them down from the hills. The first to come are the ALpacas Bruno and Raphael. They gallop over like horses. The sheep follow their lead, and groups of them join in as they notice the others rushing off.

We are coming up to shearing in 2 weeks and these lambs have magnificent wool on their backs. They look so healthy, thanks to you. They are stout and proud. We have lost only one or two, far fewer that normal. Lambs often fall prey to worms and infections, but these little fellows are so well fed that they can resist nearly anything.

The alpacas keep them safe from foxes and wild dogs. You have to be careful around the alpacas. They think they own the flock and that we are intruders. When we have to separate them - to drench the lambs or crutch them (give them a haircut around the bottom to stop the dags (poo) forming) - the alpacas stand by making little noises of distress and concern.

And wonder of wonders: we have an early lamb. We think the Poll Ram was able to conceal himself among the ewes for a month while we were looking for him far and wide. (A Poll Ram has no horns and so can pass for a stout ewe if you don't look too closely. Sneaky Polly.)
We'll be shearing soon and shortly afterwards the lambs will start arriving. We hope to have a better lambing this year, with better weather and more grass. Lambing in September is normal.

Here you can see Louisa sneaking up behind one of the lambs to check its wool while it is distracted eating the fine quality hay we get from Victoria. This time they run off before she can get a good look. Most of the time she can see how fine their wool is. We are looking forward to a good shearing and to getting a good price although we face two problems: the high Aussie dollar means we get less for our wool because it is paid for in US dollars and the lower the A$ is, the more A$'s we get. The other problem is the withdrawal of the Chinese mills from the market last week which sent the price plummetting. The Chinese are the biggest processors of wool in the world and when they move, the entire market moves. This puts the famrer in a difficult position becuase we have to accept the price the CHinese will give us. (Prices have been high lately - before the Chinese withdrew from the market - due to the shortage of wool after the drought.) We need to make as much money as possible to pay the overdraft which 'maxed out' during the drought.

Necessity being the Mother of Invention, we have decided to join the 'farmers' market' movement. Instead of simply taking whatever price the Chinese decide they will give us, we at "Uamby" are broadening our income sources to include selling products direct to customers. We will soon have fleeces for spinners. We have sourced people who will scour and prepare the wool for spinning and we have found spinners locally who will make the yarn for those who want to buy wool for knitting. And we have found knitters who will make garments (beanies, scarves, and jumpers).

My sister-in-law Kerry will film shearing and hopefully we'll also get some footage of lambing. We are making a DVD called "Springtime at Uamby: On The Other SIde Of the Drought". It will show our flock being sheared. It will also explain the process of shearing - sort of educational - and what goes on in the shearing shed. This DVD will also be available for sale.

To celebrate springtime and to thank you for your support which helped us get to Spring with the flock inatct, we re planning to put on a THANK YOU BBQ on 13th October at "Uamby" to welcome as many adopting 'parents' as possible to visit. The invitations will be going out this weekend. We'll fire up the Barbies (We have three and we willl borrow some from Col Doherty if we need them) and put on snags and salad and soft drink. (We'll have to get some more chairs. And we'll book the Goolma Hall in case the weather is wet.)

Meanwhile we are organising the world's first Carbon Farming Expo and Conference for mid-November in Mudgee. And thene there's the election. Lots on before Christmas.

UAMBY NEWS Tuesday 19 June, 2007

We had a visit from Glen and Bev Brown from Katoomba who have been on the Wallaby Track travelling around inland Australia. They made a special effort to find us when they saw the story on Sunrise and we're glad they did. The adopted "Cashew". Glen is a handy helper when feeding out of bags. (The reason we were hand feeding from bags lies below.) We enjoyed being able to show them around.

So much rain. While Newcastle was being pounded by vicious storms, we were happy to receive 85 precious mls of rain. Filling the dams. Soaking the rootmass of the pastures. In fact, we have a hydrology problem because low lying areas saturate and become waterlogged (which indicates that we need more deep rooted plants 'ploughing' our soils, making them more sponge-like and capable of holding water).
We have got a lot to learn about Uamby's behaviour under water (not had much experience of too much water in 7 years of drought). We now know not to try taking 1 tonne of feed grain on a 1 tonne truck down to feed ewes on the flatland after rain. WE bogged the Red Landcruiser, Dan's Landcruiser, a quad bike and finally the tractor... each one bogged while trying to pull the other out. (We eventually had to dig the Red Landcruiser out.)

The Cudgegong River did not break its banks, welcoming the flushing out as it had become stagnant and fetid. I hope the platypus family were snug in their home in the river bank. Molly's Creek cut the road for a short while. "What's this stuff?" asked Ravi, the Red Kelpie. "Water," I told him. "What's it doing in the creek?" he asked. "Just reliving old times," I said. He gave me a quizical (?) look.

UAMBY NEWS Sunday 27 May, 2007

The lambs are 'out the back', (in the 700 acres we call "wether country"). The grass is thin on the ground, so we are feeding them every second day. They are fat as fools, as you can see. Ours are the best fed flock in the district. They are a bit blase, like Paris Hilton. They expect the best service, and they get it.

Also putting in an appearance recently was out Poll Merino Ram who, because he has no horns, manages to disguise himself as a ewe and hang around with them, getting an early styart on joining. This long distance shagging has had its downside. "Working" rams lose a lot of condition while 'on the job', making lambs. Poor old Polly - the Cheeky Devil - looks all fagged out. But he plods on.

UAMBY NEWS Sunday 20 May, 2007

While there has been some general rain across our region - we got 44mls last week - and we have grass, the regrowth is still patchy and uneven. Not enough to satisfy hungry sheep. These mothers need to be fit to carry their lambs. We are "joining" at present.

We paid $12,000 for a load of grain last week. (Every cent contributed by our wonderful adopters goes down the throats of our sheep, except the 2 items we needed to buy to feed out grain - the auger and the feedbin, pictured here.)

The rams look a little thin. That's because they're 'on the job', servicing 80 ewes each, which takes it out of a ram. We keep them together for 8 weeks, or 3 cycles, to make sure we have maximum conception.

(There are other news items from Uamby on http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)

UAMBY NEWS Sunday 6 May, 2007

Another load of grain arrives for our hungry sheep. This is an unusual angle most of us will never see. Daniel climbed to the top of the silo to take this photo. He's been a climber ever since he was young.

We had another 20-odd mls of rain, which was absorbed immediately. The flush of growth we had after the big dump has dried off and the sheep are looking around as if to say, "Well, what's next?" The ewes are healthy and well.The rams have been fighting, with seveal of them sporting shoulder injuries. We may have a rogue.

We spent Easter planting 2700 trees in a wildlife corridor that is 50m wide and crosses the entire property. Not the best time to plant trees - with the river level falling everyday. Watering 2700 seedlings is a big job. The Grealish family (Stephen, Adrienne, and Connor) put in three days of hard work watering and helping with the garden. It was a pleasure to have them visit.

UAMBY NEWS Tuesday 10 APRIL, 2007

Here we see the rams fuelling up on oats and lupins before 'joining'. And have they been feeling their oats. They are cracking heads, rutting, chasing every wether.... chock full or energy for the party ahead. The ewes are belly deep in pasture, enjoying the flush we are seeing disappear every day as the winter non-growing season approaches and the feed horizon getting shorter.

UAMBY NEWS Tuesday 3 APRIL, 2007

STOPPRESS!!!!! THE ANTS ARE BAAAAACK!

They spent nearly 2 months camped in our house, invading our jams and packets of food, crawling up the legs of our beds during the night and running up and down our bodies - yikes! Those pesky ants are running again. How long will it be this time, little guys?

White sugar is poison to plants

We don't like spraying heavy duty chemicals on the soil or the vegetation because they kill the living things in on which we rely for productivity: microbes, insects, etc.

So we are always open to non-toxic alternatives. The chemicals for spraying on Bathurst burr (my greatest hate) are very toxic and dangerous for humans as well as bugs. So when we heard about sugar as a herbicide, we decided to attack the burr with it.

The amounts specified in the article we read are extreme: 1/2 kilo of sugar per square metre. Buying sugar at the supermarket could be prohibitive. We did it that way for our trial. Mixed up 4 kgs and sprayed a plot of burr 8 sq.m. in a spot that traditionally is our worst infestation. I also sprayed some individual plants in our back 'lawn' to have something I could watch daily. So far so good. The victims near the back door have started to get a droop which usually follows when chemical is applied.

The food nazis told us white sugar was poison back in the 1980s and campaigned against it like all good lifestyle nazis should. Little did we suspect that they were right on the money.

24 hours after a soaking in sugar water

This looks like one sick Bathurst Burr we've got in our experimental plot just outside the back door. This photo was taken exactly (give or take) 24 hours after a solution of 4kgs sugar and 10lt water was applied.

On the other hand, our lambs are to be drenched with Kelp and minerals, Cod liver oil, and Apple cider vinegar and garlic. Sounds like a recipe for something...

NO CULLS THIS YEAR?

Normally we cull the worst 10% of our flock as a way of improving the genetics, ie. preventing the poorer animals breeding and adding to the gene pool. But this year we can't find even 100 sheep we can sell. Even the "Purple Taggers" (each generation of ewes has a coloured ear tag), who are 5+ years old, will be staying on. They have terrific wool and they are still physically sound (no broken mouths or distended udders, etc). Thanks to our ‘Adopters”…

UAMBY NEWS MONDAY 2 APRIL, 2007

The green flush is all around, and it is so joyful to see the grasses return. Unfortunately it's a bit 'thin on the ground'. We need rain-and guess what!! The ants are back!!!! In their thousands - crawling all through the cupboards, testing every lid and package. They predicted the last rain, but they weren't very accurate about when.

Let's go and have a look at Middle Paddock. It looks good from the air and from outside the gate. But on closer inspection, it is a different story.

Windmill grass and couch grass indicate salination. There are patches of native perennials valiantly trying to re-establish.

But there are also many bare patches which will need more time to recover, and some special treatment. We had pasture cropped this paddock in 2004, which gave us an explosion of perennial grasses.

(Pasture cropping is the direct drilling on something like oats into a dormant pasture instead of ploughing and sowing conventionally.) Heaven knows what the paddock would look like had we not done that.

The sheep don't have a problem with the grass - they're just so happy to see it. They run from paddock to paddock when we are moving them. No need to push them. Just show them the gate.

The impression that we are drowning in feed that the aerial photo might give is wrong. More than half the property is still in drought. Only those areas we were able to take the sheep off, thanks to our supporters. We fed the sheep in 'sacrifice paddocks' which you can see here.One of the sacrifice paddocks was called The Lease.

It is still struggling to come back. ALthough those sections where we spread Nitrohumus a few years ago (treated human biosolids) reveal better results.This treatment aimed to increase biological activity in the soil and kick start the restoration program.

We took advantage of the rest House Paddock was given over the last 3 months to allow some river red gums establish themselves in a paddock in need of trees. There has been one brave little gum tree growing well. So we protected four more seedlings to sede if they would flourish.

(I believe it is best the let Mother Nature decide what to plant and where. The tree is morem likely to survive that way. And we have planted many trees unsuccessfully over the years.) Here is our little master. He'll soon no longer need the protector.

And here is one of the babies - see how he grows in a few months.

UAMBY NEWS SATURDAY 19 MARCH, 2007

When Holistic Resource Management International's Judy Earl visited "Uamby" a month ago, she said it 'stood out like a beacon' because of the way we had conserved the vegetation and protected the soil. Now we know why she said it.

Daniel flew the light aircraft while the pilot took these photographs. This shows what our soil has done witrh the rain compared to the neighbours' (and compared to the 'sacrifice paddocks we used to hand feed our flock).

Amazing!

Look at the difference on the river banks - the erosion and damage on the bare side versus the vegetation on the green side. Stunning! Thank God for all our Adopting "parents" who enabled us to take the flock off most of the paddocks.

UAMBY NEWS MONDAY 12 MARCH

GRASS COMES ROARING BACK (BUT WE'LL HAVE TO KEEP FEEDING FOR A WHILE)

With 20mls followup rain and sunshine everywhere, our native grasses are coming back fast - proving that our pasture protection plan worked. We lost little soil to wind and water erosion in the paddocks we locked up. In the photo above, you can see the difference. Despite invasion by next door's sheep and cattle, and regular visits fromk kanjgaroos, our pasture is still coming back faster than the continuosuly grazed paddock next door. (Thank you for letting us save our native grasses.)

These 'crowns' are found in our best paddock, and at the best end. See how they flourish. These deep-rooted native perennial grasses are as nutritious as clover, but better because the sheep will walk over clover to graze them. They drive their roots far down into the soil, aerating it and causing the growth of soil carbon. They restore soil structure, they turn the top soil horizons into a porous sponge that can hold water longer. They help keep salination in check.

Not every spot in the paddock is as good as others. Sometimes the soil type can change, or a small rise or fall in the ground can attract or repel water flowing across the top. Sometimes there's no telling what's going on.

Catheads and capeweed are flourishing in the bare spaces. The 'weeds' will have a good season due to the drought baring the ssoil. Weeds are 'successional' which means there is a succession - ike the royals have - with bare earth being colonised by mosses and the like at first, then weeds, and finally pasture grasses. Weeds can't compete with grasses, but we need to encourage the grasses by regular animal impact (grazing, stomping and manuring).

You can see the difference the interlopers make when they park themselves on a paddock and graze indefinitely. In this case the cows have come from 2 properties away, pushing through the fences and eating the ground bare. We evicted them 4 or 5 times, but their owner has no grass to feed them, so what can you do?

The riverbank is called a 'riparian zone' and government agencies like the Catchment Management Authority like us to lock them up because animals can do a lot of damage if they stay on them long. This photo shows the difference between out bank and our neighbour's bank across the river. His sheep have continual access to the river bank and he grazes his pasture down severely. He misses out on the tree growth that can consolidate the bank and keep it from eroding. He is a conventional flogging the land farmer who follows the ways of his dear Dad.

This is what can happen when you bare the earth and get a massive dump of rain. The basis of your productivity and wealth disappears down the nearest gully and silts up the river. This is 2 properties away. How to avoid it? Direct drilling or no till farming.

Two new rams arrived after sitting out the worst of the drought on their studs.
They're a couple of wusses. They wouldn't eat for weeks. Just moped around. But 'joining' is on soon. That's the fun side of being a ram.

UAMBY NEWS WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY

78MLS IN 30 MINUTES!

This is Daniel paddling in our sheep yards during a massive dump of water that almost washed us away! Luckily the lambs and the two new rams had been moved to the shearing shed the day before or we would have lost large numbers drowned in the flood. This was the rain we have been waiting for for 12 months. Now we will see the benefit of retaining grass groundcover in the way the grass will regrow. Also we have not lost the tonnes of topsoil that would have been washed into the river had we eaten out the pastures. Now we need a 10ml-20ml follow up fall in a week or so and in a few months the pasture will be reestablished. It's too early to put the stock onto the grass. (We have 3 weeks' hay and grain left in our reserves.) To all of you who have renewed your adoption for another 100 days, THANK YOU. Thank you, everyone. We are truly blessed.

UAMBY NEWS FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY

RAINBOW BUT NO REAL RAIN

The most beautiful storm clouds surround us each afternoon, and we see where they have disgorged their life-giving contents when we travel into Mudgee or down to Sydney. There are wash-aways and flourishing pastures. Yesterday the big black cloud that loomed up over us left just 3mls, enough to hatch the flies. But before it broke, we saw this rainbow.aI secretly believe that God is testing my faith, and everytime I lose hope of ever seeing real rain again, I fail the test. (You get a lot of time to think about things out here.)

UAMBY IS UNDER SIEGE:On all sides our neighbours have no feed left in their paddocks and their stock are break down our fences to get at the pasture we are nurturing along to get re-established. Simply putting animals onto the first show of green is madness because it sets the plant's root growth back.
But we have never been faced with such an invasion before. "It's your fault for having so much grass," said a neighbour. We've never had to face this situation before. Our relations have been good and still are. We run their stock up into our yards and call them to come and collect them. We even paid for the trucking of a mob of cattle that has been on our property for 6 weeks, from 2 properties away. What should we do? Their animals are not satisfied with the thin feed available on their side of the fence. Animals will always follow their noses to the best feed.

Kangaroos are also wrecking the comeback of our pastures. You can see the difference between the photos of the perennial 'crowns' that emerged after the rain 3 weeks ago and what is left of them after raids by feral sheep and cattle.
The lack of any substantial rain since Christmas means the grass has been 'hung out to dry' in the hot westerly wind... Australia's climate is harsh and only the tough survive. Merinos and perennial grasses are tough. Roos are tough.And so are the people who live out here. Their toughness amazes me.
You can see the roo dung next to the ravaged grass crowns. But the roos are always there, and they never eat the grass right down. Smart roos leave enough leaf on the plant to allow it to grow its roots back again and in this way grow more blades of grass for the next feed. Sheep aren't that smart. You've got to move them off the pasture before they damage it. "Set stockers" will leave sheep in a big paddock for weeks and even months. The sheep eat the planst they like and come back to them several times until there's nothing left above ground before eating the plants they like less. With 'time controlled grazing', the pasture manager leaves the sheep in a smaller paddock for a shorter period - the population pressure forces the sheep to eat everything equally. We manage our pastures carefully - because it is the source of our wealth. Good soil enriched with plant root activity grows good plants which grow good animals.

UAMBY NEWS SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY

Storm clouds gather over Uamby to mock us and spit on us then roll away over the hills to unleash their life-giving waters on some lucky farmer's soils. We get a lot of electrical activity, but very little rain. Even the best farmers in the district are getting desperate.

RAIN R A I N RRRR AAAA IIII NNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!

There it is: a whole 9mls! Enough to keep the grass growing and keep our hopes up. Colin Seis, who invented 'apsture cropping', told me he had 100ml in the time we got 9ml. Col's a nice guy and we don't degrudge him the extra 91mls. But there are limits to our charity.

The sound of the tanks overflowing usedd to make me smile. But now I get anxious that we don't have enough water storage capacity. We rely on rainwater for drinking, cooking, and showering and washing clothes.River water for everything else.

This photo cocmes from an earlier rain event (earlier this year - we got a total of 25mls for January and so far have had 19mls in February, usually a 200-to-300ml month.

This is one of my favourite shots - it looks so optimistic. Tank gently overflowing, sunset shining through raindrops.

Sadly, Daniel was the only one to get flowers this Valentine's Day. They travelled out to Goolma with a very helpful neighbour and waited almost 2w days to be collected because we have been 'crutching' the sheep - a big job (See below). The flowers come from 'a secret admirer'.

Sometimes little Xavier gets hold of the camera and we find lots of shots of the floor and bits of wall, etc. Occasionally he takes a good shot, like this one of his "Noni" Louisa trying to get some work done. Lovely Louisa.

This is the roadsign on the Wellington end of Uamby Road. Uamby was the first 'station' out our way when the white settlers pushed the frontier out here. The first significant property would give its name to the road leading to it just like the road leading out of Melbourne towards Sydney is called "Sydney Road". There used to be a similar sign at the other end, where Uamby Road meets Gorries Lane. But someone removed it. Things come and go in the country.

Yours in gratitude and hope for rain for everyone needing it,

Michael

SOMETHING ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT US
Have you heard about carbon credits? These are a type of currency that companies that emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere can buy to "offset" the carbon they are releasing. They buy them from companies or organisations that 'sequester' or soak up CO2 from the atmosphere. Many people believe that trees do this well. And they do. But not as well as the soils that farmers farm.
In 2005, we were chosen as among the 10 most innovative farm families in the Central West of NSW and trained throughout the next 12 months in the POWER of SOILS. And we discovered that agricultural soils are the only way to remove the trillions of tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere and avert a global catastrophe in the short time we have left.

We formed a farmers' movement called the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming to recruit farmers to fight the battle against Climate Change. We were helped by many good people, and the Coalition is now 500 strong and growing. We paid our own way to America to meet the global warming experts there last October. We've met the experts here. The message: Only soils can save us. Forests can't do it in the time. (The world couldn't plant enough trees fast enough. Trees can't grow fast enough to do the job. And the cost of the planting is more than anyone is willing to pay.)

Agricultural soils are ready, willing and able. 60% of the earth's surface is used for grazing animals. Soil is already the biggest carbon "sink" we can control. All it would take is a change in the way farmers farm to start eating into the massive overload of CO2 in the air.

If we were able to increase soils carbon just 1% in only 10% of Australia's agricultural soils, we could 'sequester' or extract from the air 10 years' worth of our emissions. Do it 4 years in a row and that's 40 years' worth of emissions.

HOW CAN AUSSIE FARMERS EARN ADDITIONAL INCOME BY FIGHTING GREENHOUSE?

Australian farmers can combat global warming by changing the way they farm. There is an entirely new way of farming called "CARBON FARMING" which absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. But farmers need to be taught about it and incentivised to change - by being offered carbon credits for the carbon they absorb.

HELP THE CARBON COALITION SPREAD THE WORD TO FARMERS

Speading the word about Carbon Farming: We spend many hours meeting with farmers

We are travelling all over the country teaching farmers about how to become Carbon Farmers - how to change the way they farm so that their soils will absorb more CO2. But they need to be given the carbon credits in the same way forest owners are. We have an order from the Chicago Climate Exchange for the first soil carbon credits. We need your help to get started.

The Carbon Coalition meets with the National Farmers Federation CEO David Crombie who supports our mission
"

2007-01-25T19:03:00.001-08:00

WANT TO VISIT YOUR SHEEP?

Former owner of "Uamby" Mary Bird is an adopting 'parent' as are her son Bob and daughter-in-law Denise. They visited recently. Mary's family owned "Uamby" from 1915 (when it passed out of the hands of the pioneer Michael Lahy's family) until 1975, and built the current homestead. Mary has a true pioneering spirit.
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Miro and Judy from New Zealand visited us to see the flock. Their adopted lamb is called "Kiwi". Say Miro, "I feel like we've got a flock of one..."

Mary-Lynne Taylor visited to see Benny the male lamb, who had sent a nmote via email to Uncle Ben in England who was very ill. Benny's message of encouragement helped Ben on his return to health.

We love having visitors. But there are some traditions we observe:

1. January is usually hotter than is comfortable (48°C occasionally on our back verandah). Though his year is milder than normal, cold even. (Climate change?)
2. We don't run down individual lambs or sheep or handle them unnecessarily. The stress can kill them.
3. We do not run a conventional farm stay/dude ranch. It's a messy working farm where the dogs may drag a carcass of a dead roo or ewe they might have found, onto the front lawn to devour it. (Extreme example, but do you get the picture?)
4. Hats and sunscreen.
5. We can offer modest, comfortable accommodation in our historic cottage (a double bedroom with ensuite). Kids can have fun roughing it. OR. We can also arrange accommodation in the nearby historic gold rush town of Gulgong.
6. If you play up we'll take you to the Goolma pub and introduce you to Dan Gorrie and Harold the Publican.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Michael, Louisa. and Daniel

PS. Harold the Publican with regular Dan Gorrie, who has inherited his father's corner of the bar.

2006-12-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

RENEE LAYS DOWN A CHALLENGE

The Happy Buddha Ice Cream Parlour in Balina is run by Renee the Poet. She has compose 2 poems about her sheep... and she challenges other bush poets to submit their poetic best and we'll have a rhyme-off! judges decision will be final. The prize: Immortality.

here is Renee's latest offering:

First There Was Hope

first there was "hope"
and then there was "drought breaker"
and then "wishes come true"
then there was "ba ba"
(that was from ma ma )
and then there was "mutton" too!

then came "lamb chops"
but dont be shocked
shes wanted for wool
not the other!!
and thats our flock
that we love lots and lots
and we hope we can keep together?

so i dare you out there
to beat us good and square
and have more sheep than we do
cause there is Kara and hanna and sally and more....
there is ma ma (who owns ba ba )
and elise ( youd adore )
there is two kind of lauras
and a leaha to boot
and samantha who is smallest
but your biggest recruit!!!

so we put it out there
but only if you dare
to have more sheep than we do???
and if you should win
we will "SHOUT" with a grin
down at the "HAPPY BUDDAHA"

A SPECIAL FEELING

We have been knocked over by the generosity of folk out there. Though the money is important, it's knowing so many people from so far away care what's going on here on our farm.

From Renee Walker from the Happy Buddha IN BALLINA NSW comes this poem

There is this "Aussie farmer"
(Who really is a "marketing man")
who followed his wife "Louiser"
on to the "Aussie land"

They wanted to be "good farmers"
And grow the "best" of "wool"
but drought has slowed their "progress"
and they were doing the "best" they could.

And then this "Aussie farmer"
(used the tools he always knew)
and started up an orphanage,
To keep his "babies" for their "WOOL"

So "adopt a sheep" was created,
and a donation is all it took,
To feed one of their "babies"
And keep away the "WOLF"

So fight on "Kiely family"
(im not sure how many you are?)
But your idea is brillant,
And you can be the" farmers shinng star"

"Teach" the other farmers'
All that you have learnt
Teach them how they can feed their babies
And keep them for" their wool"

Be proud of your acheivements
And the fresh knowledge that you bring
And the fact that you are trying,
The hardest this family could.

So from us at "the happy buddah"
We wish you all the luck in the world
To feed all your babies
All your boys and all your girls

And we hope the drought breaks sooner
Sooner than you think
And the gods will shine on down at you
And give you a great big drink!

Merry christmas
P.S Give our sheep a "great big kiss"(on the lips) for christmas please!!!!!!!!!

A THANK YOU NOTE

I wrote the following 'thank you' note to a lovely lady called Mrs Kay L. Lee who lives in Colorado and is a member of the Southern Cross Quilters Guild (2000 in number), most of them Australians. She once lived in Perth. I hope she doesn't mind, but I felt the note I sent her should be addressed to everyone who has supported us. She started off saying she didn't know if the PayPal worked and if the money came through.

Dear Kay,

I don’t know if your money came through, but I know your support did and we can feel it right now. We’ll pick up the money off the floor after we get back on our feet from being knocked over by a tidal wave of people’s good nature and kindliness and caring. It’s humbling and a bit hard to take in all at once. We don’t feel alone anymore. That’s what makes the difference.

We came out here looking to find some peace, a place where we could bring harmony to our lives and the world around us. And when it all became disaster and discord and we were blocked at every turn, when Louisa lost heart I said, “Nothing truly great is ever easy to do.” And Louisa said, the day I lost heart, ”We’re only paying our dues. You have to pay your dues.”

You are our inspiration. And people lie you. If this thing works like it looks like working, we’re taking it Statewide and then National. Every sheep and cow deserves to be adopted.

It’s funny, but I feel that we’ve been adopted along with the sheep.

Thank you.

Michael Kiely

A BIG THANK YOU

WE ARE GETTING HUNDREDS OF HITS ON THE ADOPT A SHEEP BLOGSITE and many people are adopting. A BIG THANK YOU to the MEDIA who are helping us get the word out. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH* and the wonderful Sam Williams who first broke the story for us. Channel 7 flew a news crew up to Uamby this morning to film a segment for tonight's news. Reporter Paul Marshall and Camera Operations Manager Paul Walker landed over by the letterbox. We spend the morning shooting us feeding out. And we did interviews with Grant Goldman on 2SM and Tim Webster on the John Law's SHow on 2UE.
We ranked as one of the top reports on the Yahoo7.com.au/news site - and we took more than 1000 hits on the blog site after the news went to air. Our sheep are becoming a bit blase with all the attention. They never talk out loud when we're near. They pretend they can't speak.) A big thank you to Dylan Welch who wrote a simply beautiful piece on www.smh.com (Sydney Morning Herald Online). And to the "Today": show and WIN 9 News and to the Brisbane radio station which interviewed Louisa. (Sorry, she can't remember your call sign) and the one in Victoria (she can only remember the name Charles Woolley. LOL) And to the Herald Sun in Victoria and the Daily Telegraph's online. You guys are great. A big thank you to Richard Wilkins on Channel 9's Today Show. To Michael Lenz of Berlin .... To the nice German people who translated our website into German. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who mentioned our site on their blogs, who emailed links to their friends, and who passed on the message by word of mouth. You are so powerful!

An EVEN BIGGER THANK YOU TO ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE ADOPTING. And we especially want to thank those of you who are paying more than the $35 because you think the drought is going to last longer. It really is Christmas! God Bless You. (Who was it said "Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep."?)

*My Dad Brian Kiely used to work at the Tele and I remember hanging around, waiting for a lift home in the real estate section which he managed for several years. "Mr Quarterly" they called him, because he innovated a funny sideways format for a quarterly feature that generated incremental income.

2006-12-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

MOST POPULAR NAMES ON ADOPTASHEEP

Tim, Timmy, and Little Timmy are the most popular male names at this early stage.
One female name has dominated: Baarbara. Lovely names like Molly, Agnes, Rosie, and Tilly have been used.
The rams are being given robust names like Paddy Boy, Ramsay, Frogman, and Dufus.
The most imaginative names have included Lana ('wool') and Esperanza ('hope') for a ewe and a lamb.
We have had other inspiring names like Hope, Peace, and Raain.
Hurtfull names like Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner re not mentioned to the sheep involved for fear o their taking offence.

***********
SHEEP FACTS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

A sheep can recognise and respond to up to 6 human faces.
A sheep has a social circle of 'friends' who it mixes with.
Ewes will leave their lambs in a 'creche' run by one or two volunteeer ewes while the rest go foraging for feed.
Sheep can learn quickly how to solve problems, like how to find their way through a maze.
The fastest way to move a mob of sheep is slowly.
The worst thing you can do to a sheep is confuse it.

2006-12-01T19:05:00.001-08:00

A TSUNAMI OF HOPE

The blogsite adoptasheep was hit by a tsunami of visitors, and many left behind a message of hope. We have had 23,000 visitors in 4 weeks, a deluge of interest.

We'd like to thank the tv stations and newspapers that posted links to our site. Also we'd like to thank the bloggers and email marketers and online group members who provided links.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR FAMILY, please go to http://envirofarming.blogspot.com
IF YOU WANT TO EXPRESS YOUR OPINION about us or the way we farm or the way we care for our sheep, please use the "Comment" option at the bottom of each post or email us.

2006-12-01T19:04:00.002-08:00

THIS IS THE LONGEST DRY SPELL
Is it CLimate CHange, like Al Gore says? We don't know. But it sure is dry out here. We've had less than half our annual average rainfall. And the rainfall pattern is all over the place. We "normally" get our big rains in the Spring. But the skies are getting erratic. Big falls in winter, big falls in summer, nothing in the Fall, nothing in the Spring.We celebrate rain whenever it falls. This is Louisa last February when we had 55mls.

This is the crossing at Molly's Creek (aka Uamby Creek). Dry now, it is normally running. At times it floods and cuts us off from half the property. One time we had lambs and ewes trapped over the other side and we were feeding. The crossing was too deep even for "Mountain Goat" (Dan's short wheel base LandCruiser) with its snorkel. So Dan and Drew, a mate from Sydney who comes up with Isabella to work for us when there's something on, lashed 40 gallon drrums to a trailer and swam the feed over the swollen creek. What a hoot!

2006-12-01T19:04:00.001-08:00

THE WORLD'S PRESS COME TO UAMBY

Well, it was only one journalist, actually. From Germany's leading newspaper Berliner Zeitung. (Berlin's answer to the Mudgee Guardian or the Dubbo Liberal...) Michael Lenz called us from Sydney, said he was doing an article on the drought in Australia, and visited us to see how we are managing.

KERRY TAIT IS OUR OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Louisa's brother Chris went off to Thailand and surprised us all by announcing from there that he and his partner Kerry had got married over there. Kerry is a great cook and a great photographer and a great many other things. During her recent visit (we had the entire family stay for Breck's 60th and Brodie's Christening, Kerry took a lot of very professional photographs. IT turns out Kerry is somewhat of a celebrity in certain circles for her photography and we are very blessed to have her as our official 'Sheep Portrait" photographer. Here is an example of her work.

"Uamby Ewes" Kerry Tait

2006-12-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

WHERE DID ALL THE GRASS GO?
We rely on the Spring rains to give us the 'flush' of green that will carry us through the harsh summer before the "Autumn Break" (a welcome fall of rain we look forward to). Last year we received more rain in Spring (390mls) than we have received all year in 2006 (277mls). You can see the difference between the first and second grass shots.

We take the sheep off the paddocks while there is still some vegetation standing so we don't bare the earth to wind erosion. The cover and the rootmass beneath the soil give the pasture a head start when the rains eventually return.

Where did all the grass go? It went to feed sheep and kangaroos. Usually we can give a field up to 120 days rest to regrow, but in long dry spells they need even longer. Time is the critical factor in pasture growth. Even with no rain, there is moisture still in soils with deep-rooted native perennial grasses.

2006-12-01T19:03:00.001-08:00

OUR GUARD ALPACAS
This is Rafael. He's a guard alpaca. He and his offsider Bruno stand guard over our lambs and their mothers. The chase away foxes and wild dogs, They can be very aggressive with any stranger coming near "their" sheep.

2006-12-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

ONLY AN EAGLE IN THE SKY
During a drought we spend a lot of time staring up at the sky, hoping for some cloud cover to cool the land and even deliver a good bucketing. I wrote a song called "When It Rains Over Goolma" and the words in the "middle 8" are:

"We've been through the dry days,
The watching the sky days,
A pain in the neck's all you get.
Ah but it's worth the wait
when you stand at the gate
watching freshly sown fields getting wet."

It is a pain in the neck, but occasionally we see a Wedge Tailed Eagle riding the thermals, keeping an eye out for a lazy rabbit.

2006-12-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

LOVEABLE LAMBS Visitors and friends find working with sheep relaxing and fun. Here our special friend Olivia Kemp nurses a last season's lamb.

There's a lot of love in a lamb. it may be some sort of deep cultural DNA we carry. (Fear not, but I am about to refer to the Bible*. Like so many other sources, it carries the clues to our cultural DNA.) Christ says "Feed my lambs... feed my sheep." Christ is talking about love in this conversation with Peter. He insists upon love. He asks Peter 3 times at the Last SUpper, "Do you love me?" Or "Dost thou lovest me?" And each time Peter answers "Yes", growing more exasperated each time - like a man answering his lover's question, usually posed as an accusation: "You don't love me!" Peter, and we men, say: "You know that I love you." Chrst says what women say: I want you to prove it by your actions. "Feed my lambs..." He means: "Nurture someone other than yourself." Peter is a dumb fisherman. He's not a sheep man. He can't get the point. He's a male. (For a conversation about men and women and the space between them, see my blog http://manoverboardbook.blogspot.com - the full text of my book MAN OVERBOARD: A SELF DEFENCE COURSE FOR MEN IN MARRIAGE can be found in the September 1995 post.)

*It's good for a man to believe in something. Anything. So long as it's good.

2006-12-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

IT'S CHOW TIME DOWN ON THE FARM
Here we see Louisa loading the trailer and the truck with hay. This hay is so fresh and chock full of clover, you feel like taking a chomp yourself. We are lucky. When others say they can't find any hay, our supplier Ray Keith from Temora can always manage to find best quality feed for our sheep. The bales usually flake into 'biscuits' or 10cm slices which peel off easily. But this fresh fodder sticks together, making it a little difficult to keep up with the hungry hoards following the truck. (I'd have some shots of this but it is impossible to feed and photograph at the same time. Maybelater...)

THESE ARE SHEEP NUTS
They are a drought ration, a little like a breakfast cereal. They contain wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, bran, pollard, molasses, lucerne meal, maize meal, and other good things. They are very digestible. But we prefer the original grains, so while we wait for Mr Keith to deliver the oats and barley, we feed these nuts.

2006-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

OUR 'PR' CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE ADOPTASHEEP
This is the photograph we rushed into the living room and snapped after we received a call from The Daily Telegraph saying they were interested in doing a story but wanted some pictures. (We had sent them a press release.) Anyway, I drove to town today to pick up fuel and more sheep nuts and looked in the paper, but there was nothing there. Pushed off the front page by Kevin Rudd (who?). We are looking as sorrowful as we can because the person from the Daily Telegraph asked for it. We hate the steorytype of poor downtrodden famrers, but it sells newspapers, I suppose. Here is some of the background material we included in the press release we sent to the world's leading newspapers (including the New York Times, The Times of London, and Der Speigel):

Michael and Louisa Kiely left the big city several years ago and ‘went bush’ to join the farming families fighting to make their dreams come true in the Australian outback. “We walked away from a marketing business that was very successful, but was tearing us apart as a couple,” says Michael Kiely. “It was always Louisa’s dream to go farming, and it was always my dream to stay married to her. So here we are.”

Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in living memory, with waterways drying up and dams at historic lows. The Kiely’s have battled drought for most of their farming career. They use special farming techniques to protect the environment from degradation and make the most of what rain falls. They were recognised in 2005 by being selected as among the 10 most innovative farm families in the Central West. They use greenhouse-friendly no-till farming and humane stock-handling techniques.

The Kiely’s were able to graze their flock on green pastures long after many neighbouring farms had started hand feeding, thanks to a system called time controlled grazing which allows the grasses time to recover and encourages ‘biological diversity’. They also keep a mob of kangaroos and wallabies on their farm.

“The ‘roos deserve a place to live, too. Unfortunately they get to the best grasses before the sheep do, but we’ve learned to live with that.”

The Kiely family has also made their own private reconciliation with the original Indigenous inhabitants of the land. Wiradjuri elders conducted a ‘welcome to country’ smoking ceremony during which the Kiely’s read a declaration of commitment to protect the land. (See http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)

2006-12-01T18:59:00.000-08:00

WE WANT TO SHARE OUR IDEA WITH OTHER FARMERS
We know there are many farmers who need help more than we do. But what we did to launch a campaign like Adopt A Sheep can be done by anyone with a computer, an email account, access to the Internet and a willingness to try something new.
We used BLOGGER to build the site for FREE (3 easy steps).
We used PayPal to accept payments, NO UPFRONT COST, ie. FREE (six easy steps).
We did our own PR. (This isn't free. It took me several years to learn how to write a press release. But I'll write any genuine farmer's publicity material who does the first two steps). Going to a newspaper's website and finding out who to email is FREE and two easy steps.

We will send a simple step-by-step guide to any farmer who emails for it on michael@newhorizon.au.com
In fact, if it works (and it appears to) I will tour the country teaching farmers how to do it. I've promised Dan that we will push to have it made a national program, to teach farm families how to connect with city people. Bridging the City/Country Gap has always one of our dreams.

HOW TO GET STARTED
The whole thing starts with an idea. That's the hardest part. Having ideas is a proud Australian farming tradition. I haven't met a farmer yet who wasn't an inventor.

Most marketing ideas are stolen. I stole the idea for Adopt A Sheep from World Vision which is running an "Adopt a Child for Christmas". Louisa and I were sitting at the kitchen table trying to decide whether to sell our breeding flock into a depressed market for a low price, and face buying a new flock after the drought at a high price. (DIsaster.) Or whether we can hope against hope that, if we hold out for 3 months, the rains will come... Then on comes this World Vision commercial, and I said 'adopt a chicken' as a joke, then out popped: "Adopt a sheep"... I got all excited about it, but Louisa thought it was too stupid for words and wouldn't cheer up. She was depressed and went to bed. I followed after clearing my email, but she was asleep. I tossed and turned and fell asleep, but got up around 3am and went to the computer and started work. By 7am I had finished the basics.

I had already taught myself how to create a blogsite. (3 steps) I had already taught myself how to download photos from the digital camera and upload them to the blog site. (5 steps) What I didn't know was about PayPal. Like anything else connected with technology, I was taught how to learn it from my grandson - push all the buttons and see what happens. A half-hour later I had installed PayPal as a "Make a donation" button on the blogsite.

It's that easy. It's that hard.

2006-12-01T18:58:00.001-08:00

THESE PEOPLE ARE MY HEROES
Goph on the right. The driver who came 12 hours too early on the left.
We had a brilliant example of the type of community spirit and genuine support that you find in the country the other night. We were out late feeding (too late because the sheep need to find their camp for the night, not run around eating). Daniel and I were trying to lure half the flock out of one paddock into another, there was a breakout and they ran as a mob all the way to the hay shed for a feed (ignoring the fact we were about the feed out anyway). Whatever, we were feeding late when Louisa came up on a quad bike saying the semitrailer had arrived carrying the load of oats that we ordered when we decided to feed for 100 days and punt on Adopt A Sheep to pay for it. It was 7.30pm and the truck was exactly 12 hours early. (Not unusual.) It turns out the semi pulled up at the Goolma pub to ask the way to our place.
Two of the locals filled their esky and led the driver out to "Uamby". Not only that, Goph (Col Doherty, one of our shearers and our guardian angel) connected up the auger we had borrowed from Carol Burns, a local farmer. He rigged up spotlights so the driver could unload. And he even switched the auger on without the key so the loading could start. (Dan had the key on him.) Then we stood around having a beer and watching the precious grain pouring into the tray of the auger and yelling a conversation above the din of the auger engine and the spiralling carrying mechanism within the huge pipe carting the grain to the top of the silo. At the outlet chute was a pile of old weavilly corn left over from the last time we hand fed grain. Afterwards it was back to the homestead and beers on the front verandah with the light off and just the stars above. Dan and Goph sat yarning til the wee hours... This voluntary helping out is like an old fashioned American barn raising. People do it because they like being together, doing something useful.

These people will drop everything and come to your assistance. For instance, on day we had a ram with very extended horns was delivered and we put him on his own in a yard near the other rams so he could settle down and we could ease him into the mob. But he jumped out and ran amok, finally getting his horns trapped in a grill and threatening to break his neck. (He cost $1500). Daniel was away. Louisa and I didn't feel competent to wrestle a fairly irate ram. So I called around and found Dan Gorrie in the pub, talking to a guy about a fencing job. Dan Gorrie is a neighbour. Within 10 minutes he was out at "Uamby", plucked the grill off the ram's horns, returned it to the yard, and stayed for a drink and a long chat. Country people can't see someone needing help without doing something about it. Wonderful. (I think they feel we city slickers need to be watched over in case we get into some real trouble.)

Between you and me, something I've noticed... People out here resent it when they hear reports about how buggered we are, ie. depressed, weary, desolate, etc. It's strange because we are all of those things. But maybe they're too proud to be comfortable being thought of as defeated. It's the same reason Centrelink has to beg farmers to apply for relief funding. They are fiercely independent and proud to be so. They are always making jokes. Laughing in the face of disaster. Like that Stan Cross cartoon:

2006-12-01T18:58:00.000-08:00

DAN's story

Wiping the sleep from my eyes feeling drugged and limp I drag myself from my cot and notice the time is before the magic hour of 5 and realise that this actually makes me feel happy. You see if it gets too far past the happy hour then the sun starts to show itself and well there goes the nice cool breeze that most mornings have. This morning however is accompanied by a stifling smell of bushfire and a breeze that carries the heat and gives me exactly no relief on the fifty-meter walk from my cottage to the homestead.

My life before farming was spent much of the time with my feet off the ground or at least on ground that was having trouble fighting gravity. Industrial Rope Access, Climbing Guide, mountaineer. So the change from extreme sports to extreme farming has been eye opening, comical at times and wholly satisfying. The comical times were often when in search of some help with things many considered ‘general knowledge’, the looks and reactions I got from some of the locals were priceless. This happened until I was taken under the wing of an elderly gent who found my lack of knowledge as funny as I did.

Now in the fourth year of my rural adventure and the third year of drought I find myself in a dry spell that has wiped the monopoly board clean, levelling many of the weathered and tested members of the local area with them never experiencing this situation before themselves.

Coming into farming after being a city fella I can totally empathise with the urban public in relation to not knowing what is going on out in the paddocks these days with the media dictating much of what is seen. City folk seem to have the same feeling talking to me as they may when talking to a person in a wheel chair. People have trouble looking at you and speak with a very uncomfortable edge.

Finally making it across to the homestead the lack of air conditioning and the poor circulation that this house made in the 50s has makes it easy to get some tea and head on out to feed. With the size of today’s grain ration swirling around my head I realise that it is in fact a day for hay and that the remnants of yesterdays grain feed will make it to some lucky ewes mouth this morning, although probably one of the already fat stronger feeders. See within a mob there are leaders and followers, shy and strong feeders and old and wise and young and not-as-wise-yet sheep. This makes the pattern that you make while feeding all important. It needs to be as much zig as zag and it also helps if you come back to where you started as this is generally where the shy will be looking on longingly at the stronger feeding.

Feeding out by oneself is an event in itself. Low range, first gear and a prayer. You pray to be guided smooth and true and to avoid rocks, ditches and trees. With the occasional 180 degree turn to avoid the fence line.

So you feed out with the symphony of sheep drowning out the idol of the engine and the radio and generally anything else that could possibly be making noise, dog yelping from being run over by the sheep perhaps. They follow as you walk behind the trailer some diving in for a mouthful of hay before the biscuit has been detached from the bale, stalling the process for seconds and receiving a quick boot to the shoulder if they are not fast enough away. If a large section of hay does happen to fall without being broken into biscuits then I have to run to stop the ute from travelling and whistle the dogs. They enjoy a game of keep away, they have even gotten to the point where I am sure they leave enough room for the sheep to get a little to close so they can lunge at them, never making contact of course as they are very good work dogs and know the protocol.

Back at the ute I get the dogs to clear a path so I can get moving again, always very tempted to sheep surf at this point as they are so very tightly packed in around me. Moving again we continue the feeding, past the most recently dead. Crows having needed the protein of their eyes more than the sheep needed to see obviously, leaving them to foxs of the night. Guard alpacas do well for foxes, not for crows.

Sometimes a sheep lays down and is not able to get up again. This is because its internal organs have shifted to one side and it doesn’t have the strength to counteract this uneven weight distribution. I re-read an email that I sent a girlfriend that I had when I started farming and it said “I have bought a whole lot of pads and pencils and have distributed them to the sheep in hope that I will find a note on the next one I find dead with an explanation as to why they have died.” This is obviously a vain hope as I could never understand their writing although it does illustrate the difficulty in finding a seemingly healthy creature dead.

With the drought in full swing death is becoming more apparent. Sheep that were getting a full feed ration just laying there almost mockingly saying ‘you tried and failed the lesson is never try!’ Yet I know that it isn’t personal and not just my sheep. On other properties a cow having had trouble during birth the night before, a stud horse lays oddly still in a paddock with none of the other horses coming near it and no notes left behind.

The horse was properly fed and the cow may have had trouble even in a good season but the dry amplifies the event, puts it under a spot light.

I spend a lot of my time walking around on my farm checking stock, water, feed anything else that needs looking at. I walk as it gets me closer to my ground zero. The action is happening under my feet and I can see how the earth is reacting to how I am treating it with my stock. I walk among the sheep, watching their reaction to me and their general habits, it is very mediative and useful to see the health of your stock. I can’t do this anymore. If the sheep see me enter the paddock they will mob me. Coming right up to me and smelling my hands with hungry eyes, wasting valuable energy running to see me. When I leave a paddock after feeding I look up at the happy heads all down consuming their fill before their neighbour does, I look up and wish that I had more to give as I know that what is on the ground will be gone in half an hour. But I can’t give more, what I am giving is a measured ration both economically and weight. They say that a sheep only takes in 2% more water if it doesn’t have shade in its paddock, but I have seen sheep search out the shade of its neighbours shadow, now tell me that he wouldn’t rather a tree. So who do I listen to the hungry sheep or the measurement book. Do I go broke trying to keep everyone alive or do I make the call of acceptable losses?

When I arrived on the farm from the city I was very much of the ideal that farmers complain a lot and that if the system is so inherently flawed then it isn’t sustainable and that it needs to be changed. More and more farmers are now coming to this very conclusion but are stuck with the question of How then? How do we do it sustainably as even the current sustainability books are being rewritten. In Sydney I had the pleasure of being the shoulder for a confused friend who was looking to end what to them was seemingly a horrible existence. Out here I have had the pleasure of removing a shotgun from the mouth of a farming friend with the same loss of hope. With only one of them have I felt I could understand the difficulty in struggling on.

I have realised that farming isn’t hard or horrible but constant. Like chinese water torture drip, drip, drip, drip. Even as I sit here writing farming is going on out in my paddocks. I spent my first year of lambing driving to different spots near the paddocks the sheep were giving birth in, climbing on the roof racks of my 4wd and watching the sheep through binoculars for hours at a time. A lump on the ground was watched with interest until it would stand and walk off. I saw a lot, helped a few then one night a particularly violent rain and wind storm came through. 96 little bodies were what I found the next morning. I can tell you I didn’t need a note for those ones.

2006-11-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

YOU SAID... I SAID... WE SAID

This post contains all the comments people have left - good and bad - about oru posts. We figure it's easier for you to read them all in one place.

Hello there

caitlin said...
Dear Kiely family,_One of the lovely quilters (we use quilt batts made from wool you know) on the Southern Cross Quilters yahoo group mentioned your site today. I've linked to you in my blog too, and will be sponsoring a sheep from next payday. Good luck, and let's get the word out there!_Cheers,_Caity
10:38 PM

hanita schlick said...
brilliant idea and I'll see if any of my new Dutch colleagues and acquaintances can be made to split with a few quid. __keep up the fight and keep writing if you can, because it makes good reading. all the best.
11:37 PM

alison chris said...
What a FANTASTIC idea!!!!!!__COme payday, we'll be sponsoring - we'd better start brainstorming a list of possible names for our future sheep to select from!!!!__Christensen clan
2:27 AM

anonymous said...
John & Maaureen Mason from England._This is a fantastic idea, and we would like to adopt four sheep if only we couild get to grips with the online form
5:20 AM

wanderer23 said...
Hi, I adopted a sheep and paid through Paypal. However, I didn't see the feature to name my sheep...I'm not sure why. Good luck with the adoptions...I'm passing the word along to my American friends. I hope it helps!
8:51 AM

anonymous said...
Someone posted about this on obsidian fleets forum (obsidianfleet.net)... So You've got my donation at least._I'm in the UK... well to be more specific Wales. Wales where there is more sheep than humans, although it rains a lot.__HTH__Kirrus
1:55 PM

matt said...
Could I please sponsor the guard alpaca?
3:17 PM

anonymous said...
If I sponsor a sheep- do I get a certificate when the farmer cuts half the sheep's bum off because hes too lazy to use other available methods for fly strike?_Do I get a certificate when the farmer sends the poor little creature to a slaughterhouse?_Do I get a certificate when the animal is a slab of meat on a plate?__Sheep lover.
4:16 PM

margaret alderson said...
Hi Michael and Family,_Wish I had thought of this when we were on the farm and going thru our third major drought in ten years.Will certainly be sponsoring a sheep and Good luck. Pity "sheep lover" above doesn't get their facts right._Margaret Alderson (former wool grower from Gilgandra NSW now retired in Maryborough Victoria)
4:42 PM

anonymous said...
I just want to wish you and your family all the best in the quest to try to keep your precious animals alive in this drought. Good on you for thinking laterally. I have placed your blog link on a site called Care2. It is a world wide site for people who care about others. There is a news section of what is happening around the world. There is over 6,000,000 membership there. Check it out. Look in the news network in the animals section. Good luck in your endeavours. Cheers Ann
3:34 AM

A BIG THANK YOU

anonymous said...
Hi, We are located in the Central West and this drought is horrible especially for the farmers that are generally doing it tough and rely solely on their farm for income and have had none for years - although you DON'T APPEAR TO BE as I have just seen on the following website www.michaelkeilymarketing.com.au which appears to be a very successful business you are still running ?????? No wonder you have come up with this idea ?????
10:46 PM

fred schebesta said...
I agree this is a golden concept! I love innovation and especially from the farming sector! I really think that Michael Kiely has innovatively combined marketing expertise to fix and make more aware a serious problem. __Keep on feeding those sheep as we need all the farmers out there! __I think we need more innovative farmers like Michael Kiely!
5:07 AM

michael kiely said...
Dear Anonymous,__Thank you for your comment._There are lots of farmers more deserving than we are and hopefully they are getting drought relief funding. We don't get any because you've got to be on your knees before you qualify. If this campaign works, we have committed to teaching other farmers how to do the same thing, and engaging NSW FArmers and the NFF in pushing for a national program to train farm families in how to use technology to connect with city people. Oh, and by the way, as soon as we have adopted out all our sheep, we will start adopting out other people's flocks. (We are a long way from adopting out 2500 sheep - we have adopted 200 so far.) _Our off farm income has dwindled in recent years dramatically... Much of the earning time Louisa and I have spent campaigning for the right of farmers to share in the carbon credit trade through soil carbon, which could be worth billions to Australian farm families - see www.carboncoalition.com.au and http://carboncoalitionoz.blogspot.com We travel nearly every week to somewhere different to tell farmers about this opportunity or to brief government officials and agripoliticians._Since my operation to remove a kidney (cancer) last year, my off-farm income has slipped. Anyone who's had a kidney out will tell you it slows you down. The Parkinsons doesn't help either. We're only trying to do the best with what we've got. (Links to all the sites talking about our off-farm income sources are available on this site.)
12:37 PM

da bug said...
ahh Anonymous I can understand how you feel BUT the keilys have come up with great crazy funny scheme and I congratlate them and sincerely hope it works. Give credit where credit is due and hope this idea catches on everywhere so all farmers will benefit from one mans imagination. Id like to see schools, businesses etc get involved. They adopt children (re sponsorship) overseas so why not in our own backyard. Eagerly awaiting adoption papers lol
2:18 PM

anonymous said...
Great idea Michael!_I can't afford to adopt a sheep at the moment as I've just had to part with a small fortune to ensure my ponies have hay for the coming months, however i'll keep you in mind after christmas and i'll certainly send your link to all my friends._best of luck!
7:53 PM

charlotte said...
What a great idea! I'd much rather sponsor an Aussie sheep than a goat in Africa - sorry, guys, but charity begins at home!_Is there any way of getting other farms involved in the scheme? I'm sure there are tens of thousands of city folk who would love to help.
7:59 PM

george said...
anonymous - you should look for other poppies to chop down - so what if they have other income streams - good luck to them If you decide to adopt a sheep should they be means tested ???_If you are smart ,clever enough or work hard enough to have a second income stream so what of it, Jealousy isnt a pretty trait!
5:05 AM

jessicuh said...
This is an awesome idea! As soon as i read about it i fell in love with it and i couldnt help but send through a donation! I hope alot of others support this idea and good luck!
5:38 AM
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR FLOCK

anonymous said...
I noticed you said you got $5 per head for your sheep at market.__With the price of lamb these days my friends and I would be happy to buy 20 for say $200 bucks and we'll slaughter them ourselves__Does this sound good to you?
8:01 PM

anonymous said...
Sorry, that was an unintentional comment. I think it's a great idea and welcome the opportunity to help our primary industries.__Best wishes
8:07 PM

OUR GUARD ALPACAS

anonymous said...
Can I adop Rafael too? Why not consider Alpaca wool? I personally prefer that over sheep wool
4:06 AM

OUR 'PR' CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE ADOPTASHEEP

shep said...
Hi_Nice site!_Having grown up in Cobar in far western NSW, I have seen and experienced far worse drought conditions than I can see in these photos. As such, I am not up for donating, but good luck with your endeavours. Hopefully you will raise awareness in the wider community enough to make a difference.
5:13 PM

anonymous said...
Hi, We are located in the Central West and this drought is horrible especially for the farmers that are generally doing it tough and rely solely on their farm for income and have had none for years - although you DON'T APPEAR TO BE as I have just seen on the following website www.michaelkeilymarketing.com.au which appears to be a very successful business you are still running ?????? No wonder you have come up with this idea ?????
10:39 PM

fred schebesta said...
I think the complete opposite. Just because someone has put up their hand and gone and done something you seem to be putting Michael down. That is terrible. Fair go I say. Go Michael! Show them what a bit of Aussie struggle combined with innovation can result in. Don't listen to anyone trying to put you down. The Aussie spirit to survive under the harshest circumstances. I can imagine others a probably struggling. Perhaps you join up with Michael and get your sheep on the website! The lazy option would be to do nothing. The Aussie thing to do would be to do something about it!__Just posted a blog entry about your great cause:_http://www.onlinemarketingsydney.com.au/2006/12/online-marketing-success-story-of.html
5:13 AM

eden said...
Thank you!!!! This is a small yet significant stepping stone in the right direction for our farming community at large, our flocks and our environment. I am all for the Adopt-A-Sheep and subsequent educational campaign, and will be letting all of my family, friends and colleagues know about it.
1:51 PM

anonymous said...
good idea... great idea... but how about going that one step further, and shearing(sorry!!) the experience all the way to market by returning some of the sale proceeds to the adopters of this scheme. Sounds like win /win to me....._where do i sign??
7:00 PM

WE WANT TO SHARE OUR IDEA WITH OTHER FARMERS

webnut said...
Mate...this is a wicked idea.... My daughters birthday tomorrow, might have to do this. As an ex pat Kiwi I think maybe you could "offer" a cutting of wool from the sponsors sheep....that way it would give something back !__Good Luck,_Steve.
6:50 PM

teri said...
Michael__I would support your brilliant Adopt A Sheep brainwave even if I wasn't a good New Zealand girl originally from the South Island, where I was lucky enough to have a country childhood in the middle of Central Otago's high country sheep stations. __Good luck to you and I think I'll donate my new adopted sheep to my 5 year old nephew - so he can tell his schoolmates about it and get you some more adoptions.
2:10 AM

anonymous said...
Hi, I adopted a sheep today - Lisa from St Peters via PayPal...don't send a certificate etc - I would rather it went to feeding sheep. My husband's family lost their farm to the bank and I really do not believe they ever recovered; financially they did but there are more things than money. It occurs to me that there are a lot of other things that you could 'adopt' - Cows, trees on farms, fences, gates etc. As a city girl, I have been ticked off at times with my country family in law; the attitude that City People don't care has been thrown my way time and again and it is just not true. City dwellers do care - we just don't know how to help. You deserve a medal Michael! Good luck with your holistic approach to farming - and Peace to you and your family.
3:13 AM

THESE PEOPLE ARE MY HEROES

anonymous said...
I need to ask could I please adopt a sheep so I can hack its arse away without any anaesthetic (mulesing) then slaughter it and eat it afterwards? __Many thanks.__Jeune Robinson
6:11 PM

fred schebesta said...
Somehow I dont think that is the idea. I think they want to keep the sheep alive.
7:55 PM

michael kiely said...
You have every right to be outraged at the measures we woolgrowers have traditionally taken to protect our sheep from flystrike. Mulesing, or removing a flap of hide that attracts fly strike, is cruel and I can't be in the vicinity while it is being done. Although an animals's hide doesn't have the same sensitiivity as human skin, there is a lot of blood. Not a lot of bleating, though. And the agony a sheep experiences with maggots eating away at its flesh after a fly strike is far worse, don't you think? As soon as the new clips are available we will trial them. We already use fly traps liberally scattered about the property. And we check our flock everyday for strike - and pull a sheep out for treatment if required. Mulesing upsets me. It's strangely like circumcision. Or body piercing. It's interesting that a lot of animal rights activists willingly submit to having bits of metal thrust through their skin. They appear to want to be kinder to animals than to themselves or other human beings. Did you see the recent South Park episode where PETA was (I think unfairly) depicted as a bunch of emotionally lopsided human haters with a primitive desire to deify animals and sacrifice humans to them. Very funny, but not very fair or objective. It's good to be fair and objective, don't you think? We live by the belief that all living things are part of a community and that all members of the community - even weeds and farmers and animal rights activists - have a role to play and a right to exist. Amen.
3:07 AM

michael kiely said...
PS> I have a gentle rebuke for selfrighteous vegetarians. Read the Secret Life of Plants. Vegetables, we now know, have emotional responses to death and destruction. DO you say a benediction over the carrot so cruelly torn from the ground, sliced, boiled and devoured along with your other veges? "No one feeds unless it is on another." I like eating lamb. Especially one I know. Did you know that in Christ's time a shepherd was so well known to his sheep, he could call them individually from out fo the villages flocks herded together for the night behind a sheep fold? Sheep can recognise up to five human faces and a dozen other sheep. How do you reckon the shepherd felt eating one of his friends? And why is it that humans have got canine teeth? For tearing at lettuce leaves? Let us alone to gnaw our bones.__All the evidence stack up against vegetarians.__In the words of my song EATING ANIMALS IS COOL__"Vegetarians are insane if they think plants don't feel pain,_They enjoy being killed as much as cows and pigs and such._Don't look down your noses at the carnivores._At Least they're honest about all the death they cause."__We are all of us slaughtered and eaten eventually... by the earth.
3:55 AM

This is a fantastic idea/site! I'm going to beg my hubby to adopt a sheep for my birthday :) I'm an addict to knitting and without these sheep I wouldn't have as much sanity as I do now. Thank you for doing what you do. It touches peoples' lives in so many ways. I have a knitting charity that knits and prays for people going through a tough time and without farmers like you we wouldn't be able to do it. It's amazing to think that a sheep farmer in Australia can touch the lives of people all over the world just by doing what they do everyday. Lots of love and prayers for you and your flock!

~Elyse

PS here's the charity site just in case :)
www.prayerknits.blogspot.com