A couple of new additions :-)

Emmaline, who lost her first lamb stillborn, had  her baby on Friday.  A little ewe we've called Halley after the comet discoverer, as she has a trail of stars on her back. Halley is bright and bouncy, already taking on the bigger boys and joining all the games.

Halley is 1/4 white dorper, 1/4 awassi and 1/2 dorper. Her mum is lots of caramel, gold and cream shades, but all dorper cross babies take on the black and white colouring. Halley is unusual in that she has fancy patterning from her mum's side.

And over in the cow department, Bella Cinderella Countessa. That's her stud name anyway. At the moment she's getting CindiLou Moo or Honky Cow, depending on whether she's being demure or letting loose her foghorn moo that is double the volume of the grown up full size cows next door !

This little lady is a one year old lowline heifer staying with us while young Edo is weaned out at Trangie. He's at the same farm as Little Moo.

And the next door sheep have a pair of tiny twins ! A boy and a girl born on the most cold and horrible day. They are a couple of days old now and it makes me smile every time I see them playing together.

The days are slowly but surely getting longer. Minute by minute. Now I am getting the chores done by dark instead of still going after dark, and today I spent a quiet five mins just sitting with Alvin after everyone was fed, watered and cared for. Perhaps things are getting easier from now :-)

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Flora is about six weeks from calving and she is in training to be a milk cow. We trimmed the long hair from around her udder and she's been getting the full "wash/dry/milk/massage" treatment. I haven't been taking much milk, perhaps a cup, and it's time to dry her off now so she can make colostrum.

In this pic you can see how short she is :-) I normally sit alot closer to milk, but I wanted the shot to show the bucket a bit more clearly. Like most of the animals on the farm, if there is food involved the sky could fall and she won't notice.

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Last weekend I picked up five new pullets. 3 months old and very calm and confident. This is their pen for the next six weeks. We've put up bird mesh to discourage hawks.

Top to bottom, a barred rock, a welsummer, a wheaten araucana, a lavender araucana and a sebright.