Friday, December 17, 2010

An Update from Rumbles the cat

Hi! Apparently I have a fanclub member - great to have your support Richard! I am quite flattered that you think I write much better blogs than Jenny does; she, on the other hand, has got the pip about that and won't speak to me.

I must apologise for my tardiness in entering any new blogs lately; the weather has been just blissful for us felines and I have been indulging in what we do best...lazing on the bed. It is nothing for me to go to the master bedroom at around 8a.m., having dined on my biscuit brekky, and spend the next 10 hours spread-eagled across the quilt. The whole bed to myself with no humans to unbalance the mattress, rumple the blankets or push me around as they toss and turn.

(Mind you, on a cold night there is nothing better than being able to join them and make the most of the body heat that comes through the blankets. The farts I could do without.

Not much else has happened around here except that the humans are on holiday so are hanging around more often to disturb my routines.

Brian has built some contraption by the garage - something to do with fish that smoke, or smokers who have fish???? Just give me the fish.

He is also making a tower out of concrete blocks - apparently for pizzas - but at the moment it is a great back-scratcher and it soaks up a lot of sunshine heat to release in the evening when I saunter outside for my evening stroll.

Why is that dog inside? This is MY domain?
If I stay still no-one will notice me!
That creature Bess is still scared of me (well, that's what I'll tell anyone that listens). We have a great game of pretend to hate each other going on - I hiss and scratch, while she bounds backwards and forwards pretending to tease me. We actually have an understanding but will not let the humans know that. Jenny found some dog hairs stuck to my claw this morning...she totally fell for the planted evidence and thinks we had a barney again! High Fives Bess!

Kieran chats to Pippi the calf
I overheard them talking about getting the dairy cow into calf. I've been to the vet before and the AI sounds about as pleasant a procedure as having my temperature taken! Kieran was most definite that he was having nothing to do with that farm job when it happens.

Time to go and check out the biscuit situation - must be time soon for a human to get the hint that my plate needs its nightly top-up.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Strange Goings-On - Rumbles again

So anyway, I'm lying in the sun today when I notice the big hairy shadows of those things in the paddock, plus ex-dairy cow and three calves, wandering past my spot.

Somehow the little gate to the backyard had come open and so the beefy beasts have decided to go for a wander! Took themselves down the driveway and headed over the road to make themselves at home in the Fonterra paddock over the road. Must've decided they wanted to walk on short grass for a change of scene!

Beefy and co



Pippi

Luckily the cows are all keen for a bit of calf meal so they happily trotted after Brian like the piped piper as he lead them back into the big paddock.

Jenny and Brian were not amused but me and the dog think it was hilarious.




Speaking of the dog, she got spayed and microchipped on Saturday (bet she never gets in a stranger's car so quickly ever again after having that happen) but has been licking at the wound in the past couple of days so Jenny took her to the vet and when they came back Bess had a fancy dress neck collar thing on.

Keeps donking it against anything she gets too close too (including people's legs) and can't fit inside her kennel so will have to sleep in the run for a few nights (mind you, she spends most of her nights sleeping out on the grass I've noticed!) She looks like she's trying to get good TV reception and Jenny is worried that if it rains too hard Bess might drown if the collar bucket fills up!

The hens have been too free-range and not laying their eggs in a suitable spot eg their penthouse, so are being shut in until they start paying up again! I guess I should be appreciative of the freedom I have...though no-one seemed impressed with the dead chaffinch I brought them last weekend! If only the shower door had been open, then I could have carried the live bird into the house instead of having to murder it in the shower room. No appreciation around here I tell you - so there was a little blood spatter? nothing a good scrub can't fix!

And fix! Now that Brian has his petrol powered weed trimmer and can cut back the thistles (and cut through water pipes that go to farm troughs) he can spend his time cleaning up the mess he makes.

Which brings us back to mess. Let's hope the pig paddock gate stays shut from now on!
Ginge

Sunday, November 7, 2010

El Fresco Dining

The sunshine today was too tempting for Brian and so he and Kieran cooked up a storm...creating a pizza to cook in the charcoal BBQ.

Bri got a bit distracted (drying dishes - so well-behaved!) and so the base got a little burnt but the top was just right and delicious!



Kieran then took the opportunity to toast marshmallows which we put between toffeepops as had no slims available...yum yum yum!

This little piggy went to Bri and Jen's

Another two weeks gone by and the stock number has increased again by two - two pigs (one for our freezer and one for a friend's) were delivered last Sunday by our Knapdale farmer friend Brent. They haven't been named yet - must sort that out!

Installed in the back paddock with the 3-star pig house that Brian built, the pigs are quite happily chomping their way through all the scraps and the long grass - in fact, the grass is so long we can't see them if they lie down and thought they'd disappeared on the second day as couldn't find them (typically they were in the last corner Brian looked at).


 As for that cow, Daisy, she is enjoying being free-range...so much so that she has been spotted standing perfectly still and letting all three calves feed off her at once - I took a picture to prove it.  Must look into getting her back into calf for next year.She and the calves are now in the other back paddock, with Ruby and Kiltie in the bigger paddock (so we can deal with the calves without bossy Ruby interfering...honestly, she'd be a great pub bouncer! No-one would take her on with those horns!)

Shadow and Kieran had their first experience of the A&P circuit - attending the Lower Mataura Valley Pet Day at Wyndham last Tuesday.  Shadow behaved like a good little lambie (though I thought he was going to make the great escape over the top of the stock crate and quickly stopped to tie him to the crate as I figured squashed lamb on the main road would not be a good start to the day!)  Please note: in the interests of good parenting I made Kieran ride in the car! (Must keep up appearances!)

Kieran received a participation tick on his certificate after being judged on how he looks after the lamb and he chose to not enter any lamb-drinking races.

So everything is ticking along nicely at the moment - still got to sort out a mob of sheep and Bess is loving being able to chew anything that is left lying around...firewood, action figure toys, fizz bottles, sneakers, soccer balls etc. But isn't she sweet?

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Week That Was

Another week down, only about 9 to go til Christmas!

Did we mention that Gustache the lamb died last Saturday night? Seems he wanted to live up to his name and did get a gutsache - bloat - poor wee bugger.  So that's all the Tuturau lambs gone - obviously the hill-born couldn't cope on the flat!  Just Cuddles and Shadow - the originals - left.  They seem to be going okay - are now down to just one feed each morning as we wean them off.

The calves are doing okay - no more scours at all and lots of running around the paddock (Pippi and Ginge especially).  Beefy is looking stronger.  Daisy is still a grump when it's time to feed - thinks that once she's had her treat she can get out of feeding so it takes a bit of strategic positioning to block her from moving around too much. Does anyone know a builder who could make more of a stall for her to stand in? Can't think where I could find a handy one!?

Have started offering a bit of meal to the calves after their evening feed  but they are not really interested.

The Highland cows, especially Ruby, are not impressed by Bess the dog.  She followed me into their paddock and Ruby chased after her.  Not a pleasant sensation to suddenly have a huge shaggy (pointy horned) cow rush past you at quite a speed! So Bess has quickly learned to keep her distance from them.

Can't say the same with the cat.  Bess is getting more ambitious about getting closer to Rumbles, while staying just out of claw-swipe reach (and I thought they'd be such good friends!)

Friday, October 15, 2010

What next???? - by Rumbles

WELL! Now they've gone and added one of those horrible hairy barking things to the mix - you know, the kind of four-legged freak that lets the humans order them around and exploit them for entertainment such as that silly chase the ball-bring it back-chase the ball-bring it back lark!



Yes, a d-o-g! I am NOT AMUSED! I have already chased the hairy black thing, known as Bess, at full speed past the lounge windows, hoping she would run away and never come back, but the gate was shut so she ran around the lawn and over to Jenny to be rescued - big sook!

It'll be because my awesome ginger tail was puffed up to four times its normal size, making me look so much bigger, that scared her! Big SPCA-rescued 8-month old wimp. I have decided that I will just keep stalking her and scowling at her from inside the windows - ha! She's not allowed inside like I am!!! (though she does try).

The silly thing is loving being tied to the humans, namely Jenny, to be taken for exercise along the road (definitely shows the species' stupidity) and has been brainwashed into looking like she enjoys that ball-chase game for hours on end. Crazy creature.

She did get yelled at when she mistook the hens for the ball (I have never seen a hen hurdle a picnic table like that before and am sure she beat the 100m sprint record to get back to her hutch!)

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Milk the Cow

So this morning we go over to let Daisy into the shed to feed the calves (which she did straight away) and find both of the twins are down and out with whatever it is that is making them ill.  Pippi wouldn't even stand up which is really unusual as she has been going quite well and feeding okay while Beefy only drank half his mix.  It's not worth spending a lot of money on them so could be the end of the road we think, as they should be thriving by now with the regular feeding, so it must be something else that is upsetting them.

Meanwhile, Daisy only had one calf (Ginge) drinking this morning so we thought we'd better help relieve her of some of her milk and Brian managed to get a real rhythm going and milked  her really well.  We sent Kieran to get a bowl to put some of it in and he came back with a pudding bowl! So we were able to bring back about a cup of milk which Bri has enjoyed in his coffee.  At least Daisy stood quietly and let him milk her, so there could be potential there, especially if she only now has one calf feeding from her.

Will have to hunt out my cheese-making recipes and order some rennet powders etc...

Friday, October 8, 2010

Busy Week! - New Arrivals!

Hi again y'all! Cannot believe it is Friday already! This farming-lark is seriously exhausting! Nah, just kidding - we have nothing to grizzle about, especially when we think of the farmers who struggled through the major snowstorm, seeing thousands of dollars of potential income being destroyed by Mother Nature.

We have been trying to monitor Beefy's health as he tries to recover from scours - a jab bought at the vet, plus some electrolytes, has given him a bit of a boost but he is still quite weak.  He is being hand-fed with calf milk powder: this morning he only drank half and then wanted to feed from Daisy as well (but I think he was too weak to really get much off her), but tonight he drank all of his two litres and was quite stonkered!


Pippi is still feeding well off Daisy (who is continuing to be mostly cooperative about heading into the shed for feeding) - Pippi is a real slurper (makes more noise when feeding than Kieran does!). Big breakthrough with Daisy's calf Ginge - he is now letting us stroke him while in the shed, although still a bit suspicious of us.


Ruby

Yesterday Brian and Kieran fetched our two new girls - two Highland cattle cows - from Lachie and Leigh Smith's stud (can't think of the special Scottish word for such a farm) at Gorge Road. Both girls are a lovely shade of ginger and suitably hairy, with horns. (Of course, that's not to say all Scottish girls are ginger, hairy or horny! Please keep all rude comments to yourselves!)

The one-year old, who we've called Kiltie and the plan is to breed from her, made an immediate impression by breaking her horn on the stock crate, leaping over the stock crate to get out of the trailer, leaping over the farm-gate, galloping to the next gate and leaping that as well (cracking the top wooden rail in the process)! So is she a highland dancer or what? She ended up in the calf paddock so we decided that was better than out on the road and have left her there to calm down and get used to the change in situation.

Lachie thinks she may have been stressed by having been in such close quarters with the older cow (Ruby is two years old and these kind of cattle have quite a hierarchy going on). Ruby is wary of us too but was much calmer once off the trailer (maybe it was Bri's driving that they didn't like?) Ruby is destined for gracing our table.
We had hoped to get Kiltie to wander back over to the paddock Ruby was in but Kiltie seemed blind to the open gate and it ended up being Ruby that wandered through to the cow paddock.  So now all our bovines are in the same paddock and seem to be all content with each other (although Ruby spent much of the morning following Daisy around - most likely only wanting to ask her why she's not wearing a fur coat too!)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Early Morning


Ahhh, the fresh air, the lambs and calves, hens, cat, smell of green grass and poo...the promise of a nice sunny day...

Farmhand S.O.S.

I am most happy to see Jen's resident humans return home from their adventure up in the big smoke known as Auckland and she seems pretty pleased too.

I'm happy because now it means there is someone else hanging around to give me the attention I deserve, or that the nearest available human isn't too exhausted from having to attend to all the stock (as well as painting two bedrooms, gathering and hanging two pairs of new curtains, rearranging furniture, tidying the child-being's wardrobe, mopping up the flooded laundry because the outlet hose came loose) to give me attention.

I thought I would never get fed last night as I watched Jen trying to play tag with the cow (who is lame but can still run quite fast). Pippi the calf didn't have the hang of it...she kept rubbing against Jen but it was Jen who was in and she was hopeless at catching Daisy or Ginge! As for Beefy, he was exhausted from his big walk from the pen back to the shed and seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the activity.

But then Jen made an SOS call to Megan and Richard who were absolutely awesome emergency farmhands who came and helped with the game, and getting Daisy to go into the shed and feed the calves. Daisy was most ungrateful for the little molasses/grain treat that she was offered as a thank you, but this morning and again tonight she gobbled it up. No-one offers me any treats - maybe I should bring them some birds...nah, I'll think I'll sleep on it!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Famous Five no more, ;-(

Saturday - the littlest lamb and only girl, Timmy, just did not thrive and died yesterday, poor wee poppet.

The other four (boys) are just gutsaches and getting bigger every day!

Suck-cess! (Today anyway!)

Yay for Daisy the cow! Twice today she stood quietly in the shed and let Pippi have a drink and I was able to pat Daisy too.  We're still not best friends though - at tea time I had to chase her a bit to get her into the shed but once she was in there she behaved herself.

Considering that on Thursday and Friday she wouldn't let the 'twins' go anywhere near her - was still pushing them and kicking at them or wouldn't even go into the shed (and for a lame cow, she can certainly move when she wants to in a different direction to where we want her to go!)

But Beefy got scours again, just when we thought he had come right (most likely from the inconsistent feeds).  So on Saturday I decided I'd better put him in a pen to keep an eye on him and he managed to get him to follow me into the into the house paddock but then he decided he didn't like that idea, so I had to half drag him towards the pen.  I figured it would be easier to get him over the fence than to try dragging him all the way through three gates as we no doubt looked quite ridiculous; so at the fence, which is 3 rails high, I had to wrap my (thankfully overall-clad) arms around each end of the calf and hoisted him over the rail.

However, his back hooves were still on my side of the fence but I had already lifted as far as I physically could, so had to then try to 'gracefully' get him to the ground on the other side - needless to say if Beefy could talk I am sure he would say there was nothing graceful about it! But hey, he was now in the pen (and I was stuffed!)

So with an uncooperative cow, the twins have been having bottle feeds - though its been very watery today for Beefy (will get medicine for him tomorrow at the vet), and Pippi was also showing signs of the runs today too - hopefully Daisy will keep being helpful...

But then, tomorrow is another day!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

What is going on?


Well, I used to be the supreme four-legged member of the family but suddenly I'm surrounded by all these noisy, demanding creatures and while they do live outside, they are seriously taking my humans' attention away from ME!

Yesterday for example, I thought Jenny was wanting to go exploring with me (I'd had 8 hours sleeping all day on the bed), as she put on her gumboots and headed out to my favourite expedition paddock, but NO! Half way across I realised there was the most enormous four-legged thing I've ever seen - a cow apparently. I decided to retreat to the safety of the fencepost and good thing I did too, after seeing the way that cow butted and bumped those poor wee calves tonight!

It seems she is not at all interested in having to feed the cross-breeds, despite all the advice and efforts that have been put in place, and the old biddy wouldn't even go into the shed to let them drink. So Beefy went out to where she was standing but whenever Beefy tried to have a drink she would kick him or push him over, the grouch.

Can't have that sort of bullying going on around here!

Jenny had to bottle-feed the two calves, who are still quite perky despite not much success with the feeding - Pippi is very friendly and is getting very good at recognising her name, and likes to be patted and rubbed - she will grow into a NICE house cow we hope.

Poor old Daisy has been a dairy one for so long - maybe she will do better to be just a paddock cow? She can just spend her days feeding her own calf seeing as she won't share! Seems to me she should be making the most of having lazy days to lay in the sun, something I specialize in!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Tailing Time for the Famous Five!

Borrowed the rubber ring thingee from Brent to apply rings to the tails of the five lambs. First owner built pens and a chute thingee (advice on names of farm equipment appreciated please) so we corralled the five into there for picking up as they're fast wee buggers and only Shadow and Cuddles are any good at coming to us so far. Must go check on Cuddles - he was having trouble sitting down - kept jumping up like a bee had stung him! Have decided not to de-man the boy lambs as they will become food sources before they get too big and amorous!

Picked up a jersey dairy cow and her calf yesterday evening from Bernie Rye - a chance conversation with him about the calves from the Hunters and next thing he's offering us a cow to feed them with.  She's lame so can't walk to and from the milking shed for any distance but is fine to feed the calves.

So this morning, following the advice Bernie gave us, I put her (Daisy) into the shed with the calves and they soon started feeding.  Pippi however had trouble finding a teat, even with me trying to help her, but eventually was able to get some sucking done.  Went back later with a bottle for her as she hadn't had much. Daisy kept pushing her away too so will have to watch that and keep fingers crossed that they get to like each other.

Beefy got completely shat on as he had his head between Daisy's two back legs and she off-loaded twice (I think she does that to let me know what she thinks of me!)  Her own calf, a jersey bull, was fine as has been doing this for a week now.  Kieran has named him Ginge. He actually has speckles like a baby fawn but Bambi just didn't seem to suit him.

Will keep an eye out for a one-stand electric milking machine - let me know if you know of any for sale - so can maybe milk Daisy for ourselves once the calves are grown. That's if she ever decides she likes us enough to let us catch her!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Stocking the Ranch

Well the paddocks are filling up fast. We seem to be the Brad and Angelina of animal adoptions:

On Saturday we took deliver of two 3-week lambs from Leeanne McLeod - named Shadow (because he keeps following the other one) and Cuddles (because he doesn't take the bottle unless he's wedged under an arm or between legs).

On Monday Hugh Diack dropped off three more lambs, two females and one male - they are the trio that have now given us the Famous Five (are known as Timmy, George and Julian - but aren't specifically labelled).

Today we drove to the Hunter's farm and picked up two Jersey-cross calves, a male 'Beefy' (is destined for our freezer) and a female - called Pippi in recognition of the knee-high white socks she has. Both a very nice chocolate colour with white markings.