Plumb Bobs, a Little Bit of Magic & Jack Russell Puppies
Some members of the Smith family are known for having magical powers. Well we think so anyway.
Norm’s late Uncle - John Smith – grew up here at Glenwood and sadly passed away in January 2015. Uncle John was well known for water divining and using ‘Plumb Bobs’ to find all sorts of things especially water.
Uncle John came in 1998 to help us find water on the northern end of Glenwood near Grannie’s cottage. He used 2 pieces of wire which are bent when you hold them in your hand and point straight out. He would stand and walk around and ask questions and when he found water the wires would cross. Amazingly Uncle John very quickly found us another source of water.
Norm engaged the “Mickenknies” who are water drillers from Gilgandra (2 hours NW of Glenwood) to come down as soon as they could. They drilled down with a core machine 30 – 40 metres and they found water. 800 gallons of water per hour! So it was a great success.
So successful that a few years later we asked Uncle John to come again – he was unable to come to Glenwood this time in person so Norm took a map of Glenwood to him and he found another water source to the South of Glenwood out past Frank’s cottage.
Again we got the Mickekinies from Gilgandra with their water drilling machinery and again about 40 metres down they found water. 500 gallons of water per hour! Another water source for Glenwood, a new bore and generally a great success.
Uncle John was quite well known – with people from all over Australia and internationally sending him maps of their properties to find water sources with great success.
Of course we have all tried and even Norm has been able to find water pipes under the ground when necessary to replace pipes in the dead of winter. In winter the frosts are so big that the water pipes freeze and break, then they leak when the sun comes out and we have no water to the house, sheds or troughs (quite a common occurrence in the country). Amber (daughter #2) has used a plumb bob and used this to determine which room to sleep in in the homestead. I have been known to use it to find any type of chocolate in the house!
Only a few weeks ago Norm had lost his Shepherd’s Hook off the back of his quad bike coming back from “Mothering up lambs” in quite large paddock. A week later after I had actually bought another Shepherd’s Hook from shearing supplies in Dubbo he decided to see if he could use the “Sticks” to find his Shepherd’s Hook. As unbelievable as it sounds the sticks told him the direction to head and that it was between 50 – 100 metres from where he was standing.
To use the sticks Norm just asked questions like – “Is my Shepherd’s Hook in the paddock” – and he would turn around with the stick slowly and would ask “which direction” and the when the sticks cross Norm then asked “How far away” – 200 metres – 100 metres – 50 metres” and Norm jumped on his bike and drove 50 metres north and there was his hook hanging in a tree!!!
So really the biggest news I have to tell you is Norm then decided to use the “Plumb Bob” to test to see if in fact “Rolled Oats” (our Jack Russell) was pregnant and if so how many puppies. The Plumb Bob said – YES to being pregnant and 5 puppies!!!
So the very next day we had Trevor Peace (our sheep scanner from Young) at the Shearing Shed scanning the sheep for “Fat and Muscle”. So I took “Rolled Oats” for a scan after lunch – and YES she was pregnant and he could see 3 babies………who will be right the Plum Bob or the ultra sound machine?
On September 17th Rolled Oats gave birth to her first litter of puppies – and there were 3! Which leaves me to think perhaps Norm finding his Sheppard’s Hook was more good luck than good management!
Below is a video of two of the puppies named Porridge and Fruit Loops!
Until next time – stay safe and happy
