First post of the month on the first day of the month! Hah!

I know, that title is a bit of a mouthful, but I just couldn't resist!

Right, where are the animals?!

Goats: still in the next door paddock and yesterday Riley was VERY territorial and I saw him paying attention to Tui, who was Very much a tart! Next Monday I will know if he was successful with Poppy and then it's home time for him. Way too smelly and when I have to take them of the paddock I can't tether 4 goats.
Here they are attacking the gorse at the far end of the paddock:

Thumbelina decided to get one of her nose rings hooked into the fence and pull the darn thing out! Now one side of her snoz is hanging down and I'm waiting for the vet to decide whether anything needs to be done: I had taken photos and emailed them to him. And he's just come back to let nature take its course, no discernible improvement could be gained by removing the flap! I love my vet: has a look at the pics and makes a decision that saves all of us time and money! Other than that she's turning into a truly greedy piggy and putting on the daily pounds!!!! And loves to roll over onto her side for tummy and chin rubs.

Three of our drakes have dearly departed and provided already two very yummy meals. I still have to perfect my cooking of them, but Ross reckons I pretty near nailed it last time. One more lot sitting in the freezer waiting for another Sunday feast.

The chickens and rabbits are having a bit of a reprieve, I just don't seem to find the time to do it. Nor the inclination in the weather, which happens to be getting colder and colder.
Yesterday Ross and I went out to the neighbour's place to cut down a couple of trees for firewood. We got two good trailer loads and were feeling rather cheekily smart while keeping the fire place stoked today.

My first attempt at making a concrete feeding trough was quite successful, so I will try to make a trough a week! At $5 versus $40 a pop I reckon it's well worth the learning curve.

 TTFN
Keep safe and warm.

Update, of sorts.

Woah, I don't know where to start, so many things have happened in the past couple of weeks!

Bunnies: Brownie had given birth to six kits and was loosing weight rapidly. One had to be euthanised as it wasn't thriving at all, and another fostered onto Wanda. Still no improvement, and she wasn't eating either. On Good Friday I picked her up to give her a proper check up and was mortified to find her just fur and bones. Immediately I took the remaining four and put them into Wanda's nest, to make sure that by night time feeding they would have the same smell as the others. Then checking Brownie I found a big lump under her chin.
First I thought an abscess, and with Ross' help tried to lance, but it wasn't anything external, so stopped before I did any harm. Surprisingly, she was so quiet and holding still for me, "as if she knew I'm trying to help her" Ross remarked. Next I googled Abscess and homeopathic treatments and found some that I had at home. As it was the holiday weekend, I thought I give that a shot rather than wait and do nothing. She seemed to perk up for a couple of days, and then relapse.
By the next Friday, another friend thought it might be the thyroid gland, as she was only nibbling on apples and broccoli. Googled that, and found inconclusive info. Talking to the vet nurse I came to the conclusion that it would be a very expensive undertaking to establish what exactly is ailing her and then whether she could be cured. At this moment in time we cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars on one animal and I decided it would be best to release her from her suffering. If she was suffering: she is as lively and sprightly as ever, still keen on cuddles and keeps grooming herself and nibbling on food. Tonight was going to be the night I'd do the deed, but she has eaten all her pellets in her bowl, and devoured her allocated apple.
Of all the "utility" animals we have on our little "farm" she's the only one I feel I have a connection with, and as much as I have to respect our financial situation, I don't want to end her life unnecessarily. So, my decision for today has been to make her a lovely little home, all to herself, where she can stay for the rest of her natural life. As long as I don't feel she's suffering. I won't be able to breed of her, but the last litters have produced several girls, so we will keep a few to replace her on the duty.

Chickens: I knew I had a hen sitting on a nest somewhere in the bush, but every attempt to locate it had failed. One night I went in the hen house for eggs, it was getting dark already, and saw two hens: one sitting in a box and one sitting in a corner on the floor. Worried I had an attacked hen I gently picked her up to discover 11 fluff balls under her. Removed the whole lot to a safe rabbit hutch that night, as the weather was about to pack in again. This morning I found that the other hen, that had hatched 5, had lost another chick over night. Even though they are now 3 weeks old, I will have to lock them up again over night. Blimmin' hassle, as it means another set of water and feed bowls needing to be set up. And again, another southerly front moving in.

Piggy wiggy: in the last week Thumbelina had  been doing some SERIOUS digging and so I had called our neighbours if they could help/ advise me regarding ringing her. Sure thing, and didn't hear from them. Until Saturday: "I'm on my way to the beach and thought I'd pop by and we quickly do her ring!" OooooKay! I wasn't prepped mentally and was dreading the prospect, but it needed to get done. Not made easier by Ms.9 insisting on watching. Organized ear muffs for us both and waited for our neighbour. He came, we sorted what to use, wire, and went down to do it.
//Insert loud constant expletives//
I will NEVER, EVER do that again! If I can't keep pigs and raise them to butcher weight without having to ring them, I won't be keeping pigs!
We had to employ the sit-on-it method to restrain her, and I had to use all my strength and weight to keep her 22kg of muscles reasonably still. And as for the screaming? Even with ear muffs it was unbearable! Our friend put three wires in, and by the third one she was sooo livid and moved soo much , he pierced himself. I managed to hold her for the whole ordeal, but in the process pulled a neck and shoulder muscles and strained my arm muscles painfully. Not as painful as her nose of course, but I'm still drugging myself up during the day to be able to move around and do my usual stuff. I gave her lots of milk to drink afterwards, and have been giving her lots of good tummy rubs. I hope I'm back in the good books with her. In the next good weather period I'll move her sleeping drum into the other paddock and open her fence so she can go out and enjoy the fresh tall grass!
And the turned over soil will get planted with winter veges! Gotta see the positive wherever you can.

Goats: on Friday, the 13th, Riley came back for another visit. He had had a bad bout of worms and was looking quite skinny. The girls were VERY keen on seeing him again. For the first two days he was just eating and eating and yesterday afternoon I was able to observe him being his old self again! Marked the date in the calendar, and if Poppy doesn't get back into heat in the next 20-27 days he should have done the deed alright. Tui is in the paddock with him as well, but doesn't seem to be in heat properly yet, as he is ignoring her. I'm not too worried if she doesn't get pregnant, as I want to keep milking her til I can milk Poppy again.

And on top of that, this morning my friend's car didn't start this morning.Our other neighbour is a mechanic, had a quick look and reckons some connectors need replacing.Getting that organized and sending her back home in our car. So now I'm stuck with the kids here and no car. I just hope it'll be bad weather and we have to find stuff to do in the inside. Lego!

I'm knackered! Mentally and physically! And haven't even started on my raised vege beds yet!!!

TTFN and hopefully a  few quieter weeks.
Yeah, right. 
;-)

I think I bond TOO much with my animals!

Today I was feeling all kinda blahdiblah. Couldn't get off my backside to get started on the stuff I had planned for today. Finally, after a dozen of mental kicks up the proverbial I get into my little sheltered garden and start prepping the raised beds for the raspberry bushes to go in. That meant weeding and pulling out some sun flowers that had done their dash.
Off to the rabbits to give them a little treat and what do I find in one of the cages: a cold kit laying outside of the nursery part. I grab it to dispose of it and it's still alive. Stone cold but still moving. Quickly do a check inside the nursery and find four more kits wriggling around! Take the cold one with me, get a hot water bottle ready and carry it around for a while, turning it all the time til its temperature has risen a bit. As soon as it felt warmish to my touch I put it back with its siblings, as this is the best way to keep baby bunnies warm.
As this is a bit unexpected, they were due 7 days ago, I begin to wonder if the other doe, they were mated on the same day, might give birth as well. I keep a beady eye on her, but stay away from the pen. Don't want to upset her!  Anyway, in the afternoon, just before getting the kids from the school bus, I notice she's pulling fur out furiously and has already put a huge load into her nursery nest. By this stage I'm internally squeaking with excitement and delight.
Once I'm back with the kids we go and listen. They are very quiet, but there are distinct "birthing sounds" coming from the nursery. And Wanda, the doe, has blood on the tip of her nose. So we leave her til I can see her out in the run having a drink and cleaning herself. Go and check, and another 5 kits. All a healthy looking size and wriggling like they should at 10 mins of age!
The important thing is now to wait and see if all feed well. Out of the ten, seven are white, 1 black and 2 light or dark brown. It's kind of hard to judge the colour at this stage. But once they're a couple of days old and the first fluff appears on them, it'll be easier.
This is a relief, as I had been wondering if either my bucks and/or the girls had gone sterile. This was the second mating and I had all but given up hope. I'm not sure why they took so long, I assume the approaching autumn might influence the incubation time. Who knows, I just have to remember that for the next autumn matings.

And as for the bonding question: was I feeling restless and all that because of the impending births??
I hope not! I'm intending of breeding the rabbits throughout the year and can't really get into this state just because a doe is about to give birth!! Let's wait and see. Today has turned out to be a good day after all: baby bunnies and gardening done. Now I just have to feed the goats, the piglet, milk a goat and put my children to bed!
Easy Peasy!


TTFN

TIRED!

Farm life is a LOT harder than you can imagine:
I thought after having slogged my ring off for the last three days building a piglet and goat proof fence, I could enjoy a little bit of quiet indoor time baking bread and cakes.
Now the Southerly is coming in and I've got a tummy bug, I'm running all over the place again to make sure everyone's fed and got access to good shelter before the rain hits. The wind is already colder so I know by the time the rain falls I better be organized.
That's it now: our menagerie is complete: yesterday we picked up Thumbelina, a Berkshire/Saddleback cross sow. If she behaves and is easy to manage we will keep her for breeding more piglets. They will be for the freezer though.
She was quiet laid back, only minor squealing while I carried her into her enclosure, but she was a bit weary.
Until I milked the goat last night and gave her some of the milk. I think I'm her best friend now. This morning I gave her some bread and pear peelings and she continued to stay close enough for a scratch.

The goats on the other hand are extremely perturbed by the presence of this little grunty one on their paddock! I'm sure they will settle and I'm pleased I didn't try to just put them all together.
On Saturday we discovered that a funnily behaving chook had been sitting on a nest and we've got now another 5 chicks!
This shows you how silly the weather is: we're now in Autumn and the animals are behaving all over the place.
Anyway, they'll make good replacements, either for the freezer or for laying eggs.
But, they needed to be caught and put into a hutch as well, they are way to little to fare well in a Southerly. AND we've got marauding hawks, magpies and cats!

TTFN
back to bed and hopefully it'll be only a 24hour bug!

Remedy

I think I'm in need of some homeopathic remedy: it has been a week of departures and losses.

I had bought a little bottle of Ignatia remedy which is supposed to help cope with the grieving process of loss. I got it in case the family or the goats would suffer to badly from the sudden departure of two of the baby goats. Not over the rainbow bridge, just to a neighbour down the road who loves goats and got some spare space!

For the past couple of days I have been feeling extremely down and tired and put it down to being tired, it had been a busy week. But this afternoon I realized it had been a busy week of departing animals:
On Tuesday I dispatched and processed four chickens.
On Wednesday I did a duck. And that one duck took me longer than the four chickens!
And this morning we took Max and Fipps to our neighbour and saw them settled in a cosy pen, in the middle of their future home paddock.

And as this had been planned and organized for the past couple of weeks, I hadn't realized how it might affect me.
Well, I took a dose and hopefully in a couple of days I'll be right as rain again!

As you can imagine, it was a very productive week, the freezer is stocked with some homegrown chicken bits and on Saturday we had the duck as a birthday lunch for Ross.
And it was perfect. After 4 hours labouring in the kitchen we had a grand lunch and everyone enjoyed it. The duck was done just right and even the kids enjoyed the flavour. Not a lot on it though, but just enough for the four of us. Which is plenty.
Anyway, three more to go, but this time I will take a short cut and deal with them as I do with the chickens: breast and drum sticks.
And on Wednesday I should be able to start my first goat cheese, just waiting for the culture to arrive.
At the same time I should try starting my own sourdough starter, nothing better than fresh goats' cheese on warm crunchy sour dough bread!
If successful, more on the food blog. ;-)

TTFN

Ouch!

Short note: Fipps lost his balls today. Well, he didn't exactly loose them, they came off and I actually found them lying in the grass. There was a bit of blood, so I sprayed as much iodine as he would let me. Hopefully he'll be fine and the flies won't get into the wound. Now just waiting for the other two boys.

The rabbits still haven't coughed up any babies. I'll give them til Monday before putting Silver over them. And not sure whether to give Werner a second chance or not?!

Yesterday morning I tried to put the wild duck into the run with the Rouens, but that didn't work out: she kept trying to squeeze through the mesh, damaging her beak a bit. And the others are so much bigger than her, that I'd be worried once they'd get over her and get nosey they might crush her.
And I was told that Paradise ducks don't mingle with other breeds. So, I will wait til she looks strong enough to fend for herself again and take her down to the big lake. It's a protected one, from shooters and there's heaps of other water fowl there. Hopefully she'll find her flock, or can attach herself to another flock and be happy.

TTFN

Gotta stop blogging! ;-)

Hehe,
never a dull day on the farm: after yesterday's post I went about my things in the other house and saw something different in the goat paddock. You know the game "Spot the Difference"? I'm pretty good at it: saw a white spot in the paddock and wondered what it could be, as it clearly shouldn't be there. Then a thought flashed through my head: a duck! Don't ask me why, it certainly was too far away to see clearly. So I got outside and by then the spot had disappeared.I knew then, an animal.  Raced down, as light-footed as possible and try to locate it.
And found a duck trying to hide underneath a flax bush!
A little white-headed beauty. I think it's a juvenile Paradise duck, but will have that confirmed or corrected today by the experts on my Lifestyle forum!

She's got an injury on her head, quite a bit of skin seems to have been ripped of in an attack, but it's not bleeding anymore, and she doesn't seem on death's doorstep. So I'm hoping with a couple of days of undisturbed rest, out of the weather and away from potential predators she'll come right soon. I'm wondering if she could be tamed,she's just too gorgeous, but I doubt it,she seems too grown up already.
Anyway, time will tell, and it's left a smile on my face!
And I hope yours too!