Except for the hayfever, this is one of the best times of year for me.

The lambs are all done and growing up safely, too big for a fox now. This year we encountered bloat, which killed two lambs. More our ineptness than anything else. Bottle-fed lambs can get congested and blow up suddenly, and the swollen stomach suffocates them. "Starving sheep don't get bloat" was the most insightful thing I read. We changed the way we were feeding the remaining outcast lambs and they went on to grow well.

Excitingly, the goose paddock is finally genuinely fox-proof…as in, no foxes got in. As a result, we stopped the nightly lockup in the compound within the paddock. This meant the territorial nesting geese chose wayward hiding spots within the paddock for their nests. Most of them were not very successful, in that kookaburras and crows stole the baby goslings as they hatched. But the single couple in a protected corner of the compound, under a low roof, salvaged 6 goslings who are now almost adult. And someone gave us five unwanted geese. The flock is back up to the size it was when we took over.

Ignoring the regular churn of chicks and chickens, there is now a brief birthing respite, then our cows are due in mid-December. Now is the time to get all those endless lists of jobs done. Co-incidentally, my paid work has dropped off (seasonal downturn), so I have plenty of time to get on with things.

Next week our hay gets cut, weather permitting. We are cutting one less paddock this year, as we still have a lot left from last year, and the paddocks are quite heavy anyway.

I never do all the olive tree pruning I need to, but I did heavily prune about 150 trees this year, focusing on the two rows that run below the powerlines. The orchard is now flowering, and the pruned ones are flowering spectacularly. It’s a long way to the final harvest, but it’s a good start!

It looks like we won't get any cherries this year, and only a small amount of plums. But apricots, pears and apples are looking good!

We have one guard-dog alpaca that lives with the sheep. She does a good job, and I've seen her chasing off foxes. But she's not friendly, and so I'm getting a shearer to come in and do an overdue haircut. Our neighbor also has one alpaca, and so he's getting shorn at the same time. (The alpaca…not the neighbor.) But in discussing that, it turns out they don't want/need their alpaca anymore, as they no longer carry sheep. Did I want him?

Sure! He's a very handsome black alpaca, and I've seen ours eyeing him off whenever their paddocks intersect.

I said "Except for hayfever". I should have also said "and except for snakes." We have had a quiet, almost snake-free spring….until last week.

I cleaned out the goose huts last week. Oddly, all the straw I had put in each hut was full of stones. It wasn't there in the hay when I laid it out. They must collect them themselves. Very odd.

The next day, I glanced over at the hutch I'd cleared and something made me walk closer. As I approached an Eastern Brown snake, curled up in front of the hutch but effortlessly blending into the grey-brown dust of the compound, raised its head and hissed at me.

"Sylvia! Get out!" I ordered my wife. I don't usually issue commands but she heard the tone, took the hint and was out the gate and I followed. We stood at a distance and watched. It watched us. Then, to my horror, at waist height, a large black snake uncurled out of the raspberry bush next to the hutch and slid to the ground, then went under the hutch.

Every time I go there now I look around carefully. I'm hoping they are long gone. Geese are supposed to be good at chasing off snakes….

And yesterday, after a hot afternoon working in the sun, I took the dogs down to the river for a swim. On the way back the dogs ran ahead. As they passed through the gate, an Eastern Brown struck at Bertie and missed. Bertie froze, then took off when I shouted at him. That was pretty unnerving. It may well have been there as we went through the first time, we just didn't see it.