A Fence Post

This is a fence post. But it's not just any fence post! It's part of the Friday at the Farm post series. For previous posts click here. And this particular fence post (literally the post) has long been on my list of things to photograph at The Farm. You see this post began it's life as a tree, just like most fence posts. But this post is obviously from a tree. It still has the grainy texture on the outside of the post, so it's great to take photos of - especially when the light is right! Nothing has been sanded or sawn away, except by the weather as it's stood holding the fence. The lady of the farm put me onto this post, she had been watching this post for years, like all good ladies she notices the small and interesting things!

So the post sits with a gate on one side of it and a barbed fence on the other....

But that's not all the details of this post. The fenceline that it is a part of runs down from the house yard along the eastern edge of the front paddock to the laneway. And the laneway is probably one of the most important points on the farm. It leads to the shearing shed and sheep yards. There's a whole other post to had about the shearing shed once I get some good photos of it, but needless to say a lot happens down there. Including lamb marking. So here's the well-worn track coming down along the fenceline to the laneway. Our post has the gate to it's left and a strainer post to the right. You've got to love the sky in that shot hey?!

You would hardly believe it from this photo but this very track nearly caused a divorce early on in our marriage! You see Mr Motorbike has always hung around on farms, he even works around farms. So of course he can ride a motorbike with his eyes closed, facing backwards, over hills and down dales.... But I am a town girl. A townie. So I don't ride bikes, not ones with motors anyway. Got all that? Well, one evening (the sun was down) it was slightly misting and we had just helped finish sheep work in the yards. There were more motorbikes at the yards than people and so I was informed that I would have my very first motorbike riding lesson on the way up to the house. But it would be a solo lesson! Yes, you read correctly. I was assisted onto the bike, given a quick run-down and a not-so-subtle push. That was my first lesson and I have not ridden a motorbike solo since!!! Lesson for Mr Motorbike; you must treat town girls gently!

Back to the post now, I've had enough good experiences in the yards now to be over the solo, misting motorbike lesson... 

When you look closely at the post there are all sorts of interesting things going on... Like this rusted old bolt and circle of wire.

Did you know that generations of farmers from this farm (and others I am sure) have claimed that you can 'fix anything with a piece of wire'? Hmmmm. Not sure that this little maxim applies to too many areas in my life, not at the moment anyway! Young hearts with sore fingers/feet/funny bones can't be fixed with wire. But here's another piece of wire, doing a good job, well it does a good job providing me with a subject to photograph ;-) Actually it was securing the fence mesh to the post, so it was doing a very important job.

And here's another shot of the fence post in all it's afternoon sunlit glory!

The paddock seen through the gate had recently been ploughed and when rain came it was sown. The colours of the paddocks have really browned off in the last few weeks as the cold weather sets in and the grass growth slows. The farm has much better growth in the summer and winters can be hard on both the farmer and the sheep. Often if both the days and nights are cold the farmer will hand feed the sheep using hay and/or grain through the winter. It's not cold enough to shed the sheep here in Australia, especially with their lovely woolly coats on! They could certainly teach us a thing or two about layering with wool to keep warm...

Today, the sky is blue again, but it is chilly. The clear air is very crisp. So I've got my own layer of wool on. Although I don't think it's a patch on the sheep's layering! Mine is Australian merino wool, amazingly enough! I was very pleased to find a great, reasonably priced thermal line of clothes at our local Target this year. I bought one in every colour (well nearly!). Must run now though, I have some furniture re-arranging to do, more details next week ;-)

Oh, I nearly forgot. This was the view when I looked up from photographing the fence post. Just beat the setting sun from taking all the lovely light!