We have cows!

As part of our dream of becoming self-sufficient, we need to run a few cattle on our smallholding. Not only do we want to grow our own beef, but we also need natural lawnmowers. Some parts of the property are rather wet (which is good as there will be a dry spell again at some point) and the grass gets very long very quickly. Mowing it is just not an option. Our neighbour Graham, is a stock agent and he guided us through the process of becoming cattle owners. First we had to get ear tags and a property code. When cattle are bought and sold, they are traceable through the property codes and ear tags. Sometimes the tags fall off from chewing the grass through a fence as it’s always greener on the other side. In this instance, you need to replace the tags. If you can catch the beast!

Last Friday was cattle sale day at the Colac cattle yard. However, before we left, we received a delivery of two new gates. We don’t have a front gate, and we have already had a herd of neighbouring cattle come into our garden for a visit. We are also going to put a gate between our property and our neighbour’s place. He has a cattle ramp and we will be able to move cattle from his ramp to our property (and vice versa) without the challenge of moving the stock via the road. So we bought a 14ft and a 16ft gate. Yes folks, gates are sold in feet. And another gem of knowledge is that they come in sizes from 3 feet to 18 feet. But even feet are cheaper than odd feet. Go figure.

The gates being delivered.

Arriving at the sale yard the first thing that greets you is the cacophony of mooing, THEN the smell hits you. The acrid smell of cow shit is so strong it makes your eyes water and burns the back of your throat. This must be addictive to some people or they must not notice it as they wander around sipping coffees and eating sausage rolls. I thought smell was a big part of taste. I guess the coffee was probably pretty bad to start with…. You need to wear closed shoes. That is a must.

Spot the girls... not too many here!

The next impression is that this is definitely a man’s world. There is underlying snobbery here. My hat is taller than yours. My hat is more used than yours. My RM boots are new. My workboots are well used. My belt buckle is bigger than yours. And my gut is bigger than everyones! And all the while cattle are being prodded to be made to turn around in their pens so that prospective buyers can view them from all angles, while the men are parade their “machoness” (is that a word?!) for one another.

These tough looking blokes are the auctioneeers. The third one from the left has a magnificent girth!

The auctioneering of the cattle is speedy. However, it took two hours for our first pick of cattle to come to the hammer. Graham did the bidding for us. Just a barely susceptible nod to the auctioneer is all it takes. But we missed out on our first choice. Our second option came up soon after that.

These are our girls. Waiting for our turn at bidding.

The challenge when buying cattle is that you have to buy them in lots. So if there are 10 in a pen, you buy all 10. We only wanted two cows with two calves, so our choice was limited by what was available in that configuration. Our second attempt at purchasing two pairs was successful. And just like that, we have become cattle owners. The fellow who we bought them from lives not too far away and knows Graham, and after a little favour calling, the previous owner kindly agreed to deliver them to us later that day at no charge.

Success. Graham passing Frans' owner ID up to the record keeper on the walkway above.

Even the girls are macho!

This is what we bought.

At around 7pm the cattle truck arrived. Above us a big black cloud was churning, thunder was booming and streaks of lightning were slicing through the early evening sky. This was not an ideal situation to offload nervous cattle in, run them around a fence along a road and try and manoeuvre them into a paddock. With the help of Graham’s son and grandson, between the five of us, we coaxed the cows and calves into their new pasture without any deviations. Job done. Two happy cows with two happy calves. And two very happy owners.

Running the cattle from the cattle ramp onto the road and around to our gate opening on the right.

So meet Agnes the Angus and Eileen. Sara and Stephen named them. The calves will not be named. They will eventually pay the rates when we sell one and the second one will feed us and our families. In approximately three months time, we will put a bull over the two cows so that we will have the next two calves in a year’s time.  

We have taken a step closer to our dream.

Bees...

We have a bee hive. It’s a three story contraption of cream and pale blue wooden boxes.

The straw around the boxes has to be removed. But not before we get our protective gear!

There is a little hole at the bottom of the stack where the bees crawl in and out of. The hive sits sheltered under the thick branches of large Cyprus pines bordering our back yard. It faces the morning sun. Perfect. The sun wakes up the bees and they crawl out of their little boxes and go pollen gathering. The operative word in the last sentence is ‘sun’. When it is grey, miserable, cold and raining…. nada. No bee action. Instead the bees remain in their hive and consume the honey that they have made the previous summer. And we have not had too much sun yet. So on the days when the sun is shining brightly, it is a pleasure to stand beside a fruit tree that is covered in fragrant blossoms, and listen to the intense buzzing of these clever little insects. The bees dance around the petals, rest in the little flowers and gather up heavy loads of powdery pollen. Without this sunshine waltz, we will not have beautiful fruit and vegetables.

We have no idea how to manage our hive. So we asked young Kieran (helpful sales assistant) at the farm co-op (big farm shop with lots of toys for farmers! I guess you could say its “Bunnings for Farmers”). Of course he knew a beekeeper and gave us the name and address of said gentleman. I called Mr Beeman when we got home. He was happy to chat about bees and said we should come and see him next time we were in town as he was hard of hearing and didn’t want to chat on the phone. No problem. So the next time we went to town, we called in to Mr Beeman’s place. Greeting us at the front door were twin picture frames; one with a Collingwood Grand Final Certificate for 2010, and one with a Geelong Grand Final Certificate for 2009. The AFL Grand Final which was played on Saturday was going to be a thriller, especially in Mr Beeman’s house! (Geelong won, just for the record!)

We were taken into Mr Beeman’s man cave in the back yard. If Frans thought he had a big shed, then he needs to engage in some ‘shed envy’. This was a SHED! However… one had to walk very gingerly between old bits of farm equipment, rusty chain saws, fox and rabbit traps (yes, illegal now, but the metal is worth something…), piles of cut and uncut wood, empty milk cartons, bottles of old rusty nails, old newspapers, old heaters and fans, tools hanging from every rafter…….. and then some. Buried towards the rear of the shed was a homemade pot belly stove with a very rusty, precariously positioned chimney pointing out of the top of the shed. Heat was pumping out furiously from the stove and the metal  chimney pipe.  Beeman proudly told us he had welded three car tyre rims together to make his ‘central heating’ system. This man is talented. Oh… I forgot to mention, that besides being hard of hearing, Mr Beeman has no front teeth, bless him. Stationed in front of the pot belly was an aubergine coloured leather couch, a film of grime coating it for protection. On the shed wall was a smallish flat screen tv, tuned to an afternoon soap opera.  I think it was Days of our lives or something similar. (They’re all the same aren’t they?!)

He was expecting us, and had done some prep work. He shuffled around his available space and gathered a few bee keeping ‘must haves’. He kindly explained what we needed for our bees. We were also shown his innovative heater that he uses to extract the honey from the combs. It is a commercial fridge with a glass door and three light globes inside it. When the globes are turned on, the fridge heats up to a comfortable 120 degrees and the honey starts to melt. Now let me draw your attention to a sticker on the front of the fridge door. It says “Hygiene is important”. Somehow I think that Mr Beeman believes this sticker acts as a germ barrier. Peeking inside the fridge was interesting to say the least. Gloopy brown honey sitting in a sawn off cardboard milk carton didn’t really look that appetising. Bottles of gathered honey were strewn carelessly about the grubby workshop.

We were told by our new bee guru, that the honey we buy in the supermarkets has been watered down so that it can be squeezed out of the nozzles of the plastic bottles sold there. Not only that, but don’t believe the fact that you’re buying Red gum honey. Apparently there are not enough red gums in Australia to attract the bees of the so called ‘red gum honey’ variety. Where does it come from then? Who knows… We are all being duped. So the advice we left with was to buy your honey from a farmers market and get to know your honey provider. Soon we hope to shorten the supply chain in our own honey consumption and enjoy our own honey. In the meantime, what is more delicious than a slice of toast in the morning with a thick smear of local honey!

We are richer for bumping into Mr Beeman. What he has forgotten about bees, we still need to learn. He has become a part of our farm tapestry. We continue weave new experiences into our journey.

Farm roundup for the week:

Frans sorted out my sprinklers (again) in the greenhouse. We use dam water in our vegetable gardens and greenhouse and the little spray nozzles get blocked quite often. It requires getting up close to the nozzles (preferably with the tap switched OFF) and removing the little sprays. The best way to unblock the sprays is to put them in your mouth and blow. Then spit… spit… Dam water is not as clean as rain water….

Workplace health and saftey..... mmm.....

Something is eating my basil seedlings. Not happy Jan! I brought the punnet into the house so I could sneak up to it last night with a torch and see if there are any creepy crawlies hiding in the soil. I haven’t spotted anything yet. I will win this battle! I intend to make great big quantities of basil pesto in about 8 weeks, and no little critter is going to stop me. I hope!

See the little chopped off stems? Wish I could see what it is!

I have finally planted up the last of the vegie garden beds. In an attempt at being ‘green’ I have used tree branches that were pruned from our fruit trees to act as stakes for the upcoming bean and pea crops. Ingenious? No, just trying to save a buck. Now I hope for some lovely sunny days, frost free nights and a little rain here and there.

This was the plan. Sort of worked.....

Nothing as satisfying on turning on the sprinklers once all the seeds are planted.

Asparagusaurus Rex!

Where did THIS monster come from?! It was sliced finely and sauteed with some garlic in lovely olive oil and added to some left over fussili pasta and peas. Delish!

Rhubarb... a matter of personal taste. Not bad if you slice it, add it to a little water and castor sugar. Boil till soft. Then mix with apples for a nice crumble. Or top your morning muesli and yoghurt with a dollop of the rhubarb stew. Frans is still considering this garden delight...... The jury is still out.

This lovely vine is growing on the east side of the house. It has a beautiful fragrance. Anyone know what it is?

At the end of the day. No, it's not Friday afternoon. It's Tuesday! The pub is open for round one....

The Birregurra Festival

Each year, the little town of Birregurra or Birre as it is called locally, holds a two day festival. Food and craft stalls will fill the main street. Well, there is only one street. Sara and I have taken the plunge and have booked ourselves a spot. We purchased a gazebo awning, some tables and took out the obligatory public liability insurance. I have been making bits and pieces, carding up product and getting organised. We hope to sell some of our stuff to big girls and little girls who like beautiful things. This is our first venture into the ‘market’ scene. Once we start producing our own fruit and vegies, we hope to sell the excess at the local markets. This is the plan…. I will update our Etsy store again after the market and hopefully we can continue our little crafty endeavours there.

Filigree rings....

Some of the stuff we'll sell on our stall. And in the middle at the bottom is my friend Eugenia who came from Melbourne for the day to help!

Rose quartz, moonstone, crystal, jet, Swarovski pearls.....

Every time we go to town (Colac), we always see something interesting. Today we spotted this groovy touring set up. It has a big trailer at the back for the little Jeep. Imaging a trip around Australia in this..... mmm..... awsome!

A little trip away

This past weekend saw us leave Otway Fields for the first time since we arrived here. We headed off to sunny Brisbane. It was a special event, the wedding of our good friends’ Mark and Viv’s daughter Emma. Emma and Sara went to kindi together and we’ve been family friends since the girls were little. It took a bit of organising and planning to make sure animals were cared for while we were away. Our new neighbours kindly came over twice a day to feed the ducks and collect the chicken eggs. We took Nala with us to Melbourne and left her with Stephen’s family where she had a city holiday with Stephen’s beagle, Roxy. Nala did not want to miss anything along the way and stood in the back of the car up against the slightly open window, catching the breeze all the way to Melbourne and back. The trip back may have been a bit cold for her as she seems to have developed a cold. Rasping, coughing sounds followed by periods of what can only be described as hiccups. She should be well again after a few more days of lazing in her basket in the sun.

 Nala in the car on the way to the big smoke!

Frans and Graeme.... scrubbed up before the wedding.

Ready to go...

Sara was Maid of Honour to Emma. She carried baby Valeenah down the aisle. What a gorgeous little baby. She was so good. She took all the celebrations in and was happy to be passed around to family and friends. The wedding was fun and the music was great. Entertainment provided by Jed’s Samoan family. It was a true celebration. Lots of drumming and dancing. A suckling pig on the spit was served as part of the feast. Delicious. Well done Mark and Viv for a lovely wedding. We wish the happy couple a long prosperous life together with their little girl Valeenah.

Sara made her bridesmaid's dress. She did a great job. The sewing ladies at the Birregurra sewing group saw her progress from month to month. The Saturday before the wedding, Sara sewed up a storm at the group while I made the flowers. It is the Birregurra Festival in a couple of weeks time, and Sara has been asked by the Birre ladies if she would like to display her dress...... Nice.

Good practise Sara! Valeenah was such a good girl. Didn't make a peep through the ceremony.

The happy couple.... Jed and Emma

Frans and his second daughter, Emma!

Frans and his girl.

Sara and Stephen

We managed to catch up with my brother Lionel and his wife Adele, my nephew Delisle and my great niece, Leilani. Leilani is growing so quickly. She’s almost a year old. How time flies!

Two blokes besotted by a grand daughter and great niece :-)

Leilani is almost walking.

Sara and her second cousin.

Looking over the fence... Our view over our neighbour's property. Not bad...

We came home and got stuck into the garden preparation right away. We spread another meter of compost on the vegie patches and are now ready to plant. The planting will happen this week. Stay tuned..

Spring has sprung

Baby lambs in our neighbour's paddock. Two sets of twins. They're about 10 days old

Spring has sprung here at Otway Fields. A myriad of different flowering bulbs are pushing through the warming ground. Daffodils, crocus, nemesis and ranunculi to name a few are bringing colour and fragrant perfumes to the garden. New blossoms are appearing on the fruit trees and the roses are starting to bud with new growth.  Snapdragon & poppy seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse, and tall blue cornflower seeds have been cast in an old cattle feeder near the driveway. In a few weeks I will plant sunflower seeds along the old shed wall; a sunny welcome to all who venture down our driveway.

Our gardening challenge will be to keep unwanted guests out of the garden. We had an unexpected visit from a confused herd of cattle early last week. They had escaped from a neighbouring farm and decided to take a fast run down the gravel road in front of our place. We went to investigate where they had come from and were side tracked at a nearby neighbour’s house. It was ‘happy hour’ and we were urged to leave the cows (“They’ll be fine” said Mr M) and we spent a pleasant hour getting to know them.  Our tete a tete  was interrupted when the objects of our excursion rampaged through the very pristine garden of said neighbours. We hoofed (pun intented!) it out into the garden and sent the cattle on their way down the long drive back to the road. We got home later to discover that the cattle had been through our garden too. Hoof indentations were tell-tale signs that they had wandered up our drive, circled the compost heaps and traipsed around the big shed. We will need to get a cattle grid at our gate. It will be more practical than a conventional gate which would need opening and closing every time someone leaves or comes home.

A little ‘Duck & Chook News”…. Little baby ducks are growing into bigger ‘teenage’ ducks. Their feathers are no longer fluffy and yellow. They are turning white. Their little tail feathers are forming and they love to shake them! Frans has re-jigged their ‘pool’ so that it is deep enough for them to have a paddle in and he has built them a little house that keeps them warm at night. So no more makeshift cardboard boxes. They are fascinating birds. We could hang over the duck enclosure and watch them for hours, but there is work to be done! They will shortly join the chooks in the chicken palace.

Tail feathers!

Today we had 4 eggs! The most in one day. That is an 80% chook laying success rate. We are proud of our girls. Nala has learned to look after them. They are woodland birds, and love to scratch around under the hedges. Sometimes they escape into the paddock.  There are usually a few anxious minutes of trying to locate our feathered friends. So far we have not lost any. Touch wood!

Work around the farm is continuing. There is something to do every day. Frans cut back the berry patch earlier this week. We have raspberries and thornless blackberries confined to a large netted area. This is to stop the birds from destroying the fruit. The raspberry bushes get cut right down to the ground and the blackberry canes get pruned. It was a time consuming, frustrating and swearing kind of task, but we managed to cut the patch down and mulch all the canes. Now we wait for the flush of fruit in the coming months. We are also lucky to have around 8 blueberry bushes. Muesli with fresh berries on top for breakfast is going to be a treat which we look forward to! Now I just need to convince a local dairy farmer to let me have some unpasteurised milk to make some natural yoghurt.  Mmm… I’m not sure how successful I’ll be as it is not legal to buy ‘raw’ milk at the farm gate.

Frans, wearing his cotton beanie I crocheted for him.... Gumnut baby? Or Irish Muslim?

My tasks  around the yard are focused on vegetables. I’m preparing garden beds to get the Summer crops into the ground. Before I can plant however, I am digging out old plants, weeds and turning over the soil. It took me a few days to work my way through the potato patch. I harvested two big baskets of lovely organic spuds. Some big, some small. We have enough potatoes to last us for months.  Then I shoveled spade after spade of compost into the beds. It’s back breaking work but incredibly satisfying. I have planted up the greenhouse garden beds and they are being monitored closely (nose to the ground!) to spot the first signs of sprouting seeds. Frans has unclogged all the sprinkler sprays and the watering system is working like a dream.

Nala is ever present wherever we are working in the garden

A couple of weeks ago we planted two truffle infused oak tree saplings. We were given these young trees as a ‘tree change’ gift by a few of my lovely girlfriends from Melbourne. It may take a while (around 4 years!), but we are looking forward to eating Spagetti Tartuffo.

Frans paced out the necessary distances between the two oak trees. We have placed them in our ‘top paddock’ which we will keep free from cows. We need to add a few more fruit and nut trees to our list. We will use this area for our additional trees. We would like to add a couple of figs (black and green), apricot, plum, bay, kaffir lime, chestnut, almond and hazelnut. This list of course is not exhaustive. There are whims and wants that will change our plans constantly.

This past week we received our pack of cattle tags and applicator. Opening the package was exciting. The covering letter from the Department of Primary Industries was addressed to “Dear Primary Producer”. What? Us? Yes! We had to apply for our own property identification number in order to buy cattle. We sound like ‘cattlemen’, but sadly our herd will consist of two cows and two calves. We are able to run 4 cows on our little farm. That is enough. Our neighbour is a cattleman and he will help us purchase our little herd. We will be doing that in a couple of weeks. We have been waiting for the ground to dry as it was an incredibly wet July. So stay tuned for when the ‘cows come home’!

Giant 'ear piercing' equipment! Fashion accessoris for cows....

And finally, another sign that Spring is on the way..... Frans was cutting back the hedge around the pool a couple of days ago. He had almost finished slicing the hedge level with the fence all the way around, when he came upon this little nest with two chirping little birds in it. Needless to say, the hedge cutting has not been finished. Instead, Frans piled some of the cut branches back around the next. We don't know what the little birds are, but we suspect they are starlings.

Short legs and electric fences!

We’ve been on the farm for just over a month now and thought we should wander over to our neighbours, Graham and Lorraine to say ‘hi’. They have been welcoming and friendly and have dropped by with the odd tray of fresh free range eggs. Graham is a treasure trove of farming advice and will buy our cattle for us as he is a cattleman and knows everything there is to know about bovine.  Their driveway runs parallel to our property and their home is about 300m away from ours. To visit them is like taking a long walk around a suburban block.

It was late in the afternoon on Sunday when we took off down our driveway to our gate, did a ‘U’ turn and walked back along their drive and down our boundary fences. Graham has sheep that had just had lambs (twins and triplets) a few days before. The little lambs were still wobbly on their long legs. We stopped to watch them play. They’re not snowy white yet. Their woolly coats are still grey and dirty from the birthing process. In a few more days they’ll be clean and soft.

 It was interesting seeing our place from a different perspective. There are a couple of magnificent camellias growing behind the big old shed. Graham sees them every time he drives along his drive. Their blooms are bright fuchsia and the size of saucers! We walked past a field of cattle which also held a big mean looking bull. We were hoping that the electric fence was working! On we went.

We visited for a while and had a cup of tea and some homemade cookies and headed back home. The sun was gone. It was getting dark. The moon had already risen and was hanging in the violet evening sky like a large Christmas bauble. Clouds were rushing past the white globe, casting an eerie glow on the fields around us. It was a beautiful evening to be walking out in the country.  

As we got close to our old shed, Frans decided that we could take a short cut over the fence. He didn’t think our own electric fence was on. (Although, I did hear it clicking a few meters down the road). However, he easily stepped over the fence into our garden.  Then it was my turn. Now I am not the most athletic or agile person around. So I gingerly grasped the top fence wire and pushed it down so I could hoist my leg over the top. Unfortunately, my short legs did not clear the top fence line easily, and I brushed against the second wire down. And THAT one had current running through it. If I tell you I was surprised by a sudden jolt of electricity that coursed through my body, then I’m sure you would understand. I either lurched over the fence or was thrown, whichever it was, I found myself on my substantial arse in the long wet grass. Frans had to drag me up. That was an effort. My legs felt like jelly. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Ok, I cried. Like a girl. I’m allowed to. No more fence jumping for me!

Getting into the swing of the farm

This week we have become acquainted with Polly. Polly pipe that is. We have 25 fruit trees on the property. And we have a large population of beautiful parrots and other birds that just love to nibble on the buds of the trees. So we need to protect the trees if we are going to have any fruit this coming summer. The idea is that we place four stakes into the ground around each tree, and then anchor two lengths of poly pipe over the stakes and arch the pipe over the trees (crossed over). Easier said than done. Unrolling 6m of polly pipe is not easy. The pipe has a mind of its own and snakes this way and that, making it a challenging exercise to measure! Our first attempt at manufacturing stakes from scraps of metal we had picked up from behind the chemist shop in Ashburton (we’re becoming expert scavengers for things that may be useful) proved to be rather pathetic. Instead of standing up squarely, the polly pipe just flopped and bent the stakes. Mmmm… big FAIL. So off to the hardware shop we went and purchased steel piping meant for concreting. We had the hardware assistant cut the pipe for us and back we went again to try again.  We spent most of Saturday hammering steel pipes into the ground, in between showers of rain. We eventually gave up going inside every time a sprinkle started, and kept going. We managed to hoist some netting over our new polly arches. I have to stop here and say that the netting is crap. We have to buy new stuff. According to our neighbour, it is only available at Bunning s in Warnambool. (An hour and a bit away). We were using some stuff the previous owner had left behind. We now know why he left it behind.  We woke up the next morning and the nets were flying freely in the breeze. Great big gaping holes everywhere.  Best not to cry, so we laughed!

Now let me tell you about our groovy new toy. It’s a soil thermometer. But it does more than that. It reads the pH level in the soil as well as the soil temperature. We have been running around measuring soil temps and pH levels with enthusiasm. What a neat invention. What would we do without eBay?!

This week has been compost week. We picked up a trailer load of the stuff and then had another truck load delivered. I cleared out the green house beds and Frans and I ferried wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow of compost into the green house. I spread the stuff and then added a good sprinkle of organic fertiliser (chook poo) and dug every bed over. I then stepped back to admire my handiwork and turned on the sprinklers.  I will let the compost and fertiliser do their thing over the next week and then I’ll get to planting up a bunch of vegies and herbs. Most of the seed packets tell me what the ideal pH level of the soil needs to be. For most of the vegies, the level should be between 5.5 and 7. Our new toy tells me that currently the pH level in the greenhouse is around 6. So that’s good. Should the level be too low, then I would need to add lime. Should the reading be higher than 7, then I would add more animal fertilisers to bring the level down. I really wish I had paid more attention to science and biology classes at school!

Here’s my greenhouse planting list for next week:

-          Coriander (wonderful fragrant herb which we love with curries. It is also excellent as an alternative to basil when making bruschetta when tomatoes are abundant)

-          Rocket

-          Salad mix

-          English Spinach

-          Beans (purple king)

-          Carrots (Paris market)

-          Snow peas

-          Radish (Cherry belle)

-          Zucchini

These vegies are all to go directly into the ground. In the meantime, seedling trays are already planted up with 8 varieties of tomatoes, a couple of different eggplants, capsicum, onions, shallots, basil, spring onions, chives, silver beet, beetroot and leeks.  So far the beetroot seeds have sprouted as well as some poppy seeds.

Stockpiling wood for the next two winters is a big job. Wood needs to dry for a couple of seasons before you can burn it. Frans has been chopping fallen trees on our friends’ property nearby. He helps John by chopping up the trees, then splitting the logs with a big log splitter. They then share the cut up wood. Wood is expensive. As we use a wood fired stove in the kitchen and a combustion heater in the lounge, we go through a lot of the stuff. The calculation that Frans and John have come to is that we need 5 or maybe 10 trailer loads of wood per year. Mmm… which is it? Frans is keen to get 10 for the first year anyway. In the meantime, we have gathered three loads. It is a physically intensive job. Swinging a chainsaw about, followed by stacking a pile of wood (with my help!) is exhausting. We hit the sack most nights before 9.30pm!

These boots are made for working! The bright orange numbers are $4 jobs from Rivers. Bought a few years ago to use on Moreton Island. Coming in handy now. And the workboots on the left I picked up in Fiji for $17. Bargain!