Our lovely Flora, she of the wide load, has had a calf.A baby girl now named Sieka, or Squeaky on an informal basis.

Born on the 12th Sept, this is the little lady and her mother the next morning. She was born in the forest and I was struggling to herd her and her mum back to the house paddock when DH waded right in and picked her up ! Flora started bellowing and shaking her head and slinging snot everywhere, reminding us that more people are killed by cows with new calves than by bulls ... DH just told her to pull her head in and set off for the house with Flora in hot pursuit.

About 2/3 of the way the madam realised that the other cattle were already at the hay and charged off ahead, bellowing back over her shoulder as if to say "Hurry up !! Bring my baby faster !!". Not that she's food motivated or anything ...

A little closer. With her big belly button, when I first saw her I thought we had a bull calf !

This is at ten days old, with a lovely red colour happening. In the right light you can see stripes so I hope she'll end up brindle instead of the usual lowline colouring of brown at birth and then going black. As lowlines are polled, which is dominant, I expect her to be polled too.

She's already learned to tie up and to lead, to wear her very own teeny fly veil, have her feet picked up and her ears cleaned out. I brush her every day and try to incorporate a short lesson into each evening.

 

She's a jersey cross, this is her dad, Hawthorne Grove Zeus. She didn't get any of his fancy colouring, but hopefully she'll carry his excellent udder and temperament genes. Important for a house-cow-to-be. I hope she and I are going to be a great team.

Alvin has been a bit of an enigma.

All was going swimmingly, as you can see from this photo of a maremma hard at work on a sunny afternoon...

Then something changed and Alvin and the sheep went their separate ways. The love affair fizzled, the passion died, the sheep smell funny and Alvin wears army boots.

I have no idea what went on, but I guess the only thing to do is start again. In the meantime, poor Al is lonely and bored and I am weighing up getting him a female pup of some soft-mouthed gentle breed as a companion and keeping him on as a pet rather than a sheep guardian.

I need a maremma-whisperer ! Where's Cesar Milan when you need him ? I hate not knowing what to do.

We've also installed an e-fence to stop him roaming and getting shot or run over, though he doesn't seem keen on patrolling any more.

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The chook family is growing. A friend brought up four chooks that she needed to rehome before moving across the country. They've settled in well and have bonded with the flock, going to bed in the new chicken hoochie. Of the chicks, we lost the sebright (hawk) and the welsummer (mareks) and the barred rock turned out to be a rooster. He was taken home for breeding and replaced with a silver spangled hamburg and the welsummer with a barnevelder. When they are all clucking instead of peeping they too will join the main flock.

An update on Molly.

The vets ended up doing a mastectomy on the bad side of her udder, the infection was walled off from her body successfully, but would not drain. So after a long and bloody surgery followed by another two general anesthetics during the next week to pack and unpack the wound, the long slog of healing the surgery site began.

For six weeks I've irrigated and cleaned and sprayed and watched. The wound being on the bottom of her udder meant that she filled it full of dirt and muck whenever she sat down.

Here's a photo of her with her wearing her protective bra just after the surgery. This didn't last too long, as I'm not the world's best seamstress, but this lingerie bag and elastic contraption kept the dirt and flies out of the wound after the surgery for long enough to start the healing well.

All the treatment following the surgery was done on my hands and elbows in the cow headbail, in the cold or wind or rain. We even dealt with a maggot attack. Molly can turn around completely in the headbail and could have trampled me. She didn't even have to go in twice a day, there's no way to force her into it. I owe our success completely to her tolerance and co-operation.

She's now on the last leg of healing. From an eight inch long opening into an empty space the size of a grape fruit, the wound is now barely an inch long and more like a groove than a cut. I am sad she lost that side, but really, really pleased we saved this gorgeous girl.

I'ts been a while since I added to this blog, first three weeks with no internet and then two weeks of data-molasses, too slow to upload. Now that we have something approaching normal access I'll bring this up to date over the next week or so.

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We lost our lovely Ryo Okhi. 14 years old and looking like 5 until the last few months, she astounded the vets at her yearly checkups with her health and condition. She finally succumbed to stomach cancer, and I miss her little face peering over the dinner table every night.

She knew the difference between putting stuff on the table and setting the table, and the moment the table was set she'd be occupying one of the seats ready for a share of whatever was on the menu.

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We've been hand feeding for what feels like forever, but is probably since early summer last year, making it coming up to 12 months. That has meant alot of hay being brought in, which is probably a real bonus for the soil since it's very much a net import of nutrients. Fifty years of this and some decent rain and we might actually have soil instead of sand. You soon realise the difference generations of enriching a farm can make as opposed to generations of stripping it...

In the meantime the sheep love to assist with unloading each batch of hay. They frantically eat as much as they can reach before it's all stored and then climb all over the trailer and ute looking for the scraps. As you can see they're not actually starving (bowling ball being the average body shape) but I think it's all about having something to do. Or "enrichment" as they call it in zoos.

This is Tiger wondering whether Geoff is more interesting than the hay.

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Cleo was the last to lamb in this batch. Benny, her first lamb, is a big lumbering un-fussed wether. His little siblings are Joseph and Pogo, a slightly more flighty brother and sister pair. They both have the family ears :-)

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.

Today we have the latest lamb and some more Alvin.

Little Morgan was born on the 15th, half an hour old in this pic. He was born breech, which means his back legs came out first. When that happens they can suffocate because the head is still inside when the umbilical cord parts and they can't start breathing like in a normal birth. Seeing back feet rather than front I slipped in and helped a little. It was a good feeling to see him start to breath and shake his head :-)

His Mum, Max, is our elderly sheep. So old she has no teeth. I thought she was too old to get pregnant again, but where there's a will there's a way. She's in great condition because being hand fed means she doesn't have to work to find food, so she will be able to raise a single lamb easily.

Alvin is gradually convincing the sheep that he means no harm. His habit of galumphing through the middle of the flock has slowed this process somewhat, and he recieved his own fright yesterday when he got in the way of a sheepalanche and wore a ewe fair in his midriff.

The main components for his e-fence arrived today and with a little luck we may have it installed by the weekend. If his training goes well he will have the run of the farm without the risk of leaving the place and getting run over or shot.

He has such a friendly face, but with some bad dog attacks on sheep fresh in everyone's mind, there is little tolerance for a strange dog crossing other people's land.

Still to come : New chickies and Flora.

Been a long couple of weeks. Have a few updates that I'll do over the next couple of days.

First is Molly.

This was her udder on the Monday morning after the vet visit (have to love a vet that will come at 10pm on a Sunday night).  See that big black blister near her leg ? It got worse ...

 This is now :

We've lost the production on that side, but we beat the gangrene, stopped it from sloughing off, staved off blood poisoning,  and saved her life :-)

In the race having her special feed, where she's been doctored morning and night for four weeks. She still paws at the gate to the yards if I'm late, talk about food motivated !

And her lamb, Sunny, having his special feed :-) He's become very quiet and confident, following his Mum in like he's been doing it all his life. When you come to think of it, he just about has !

Even after all the shots and all the messing around and drenching and milking out that painful udder, she still loves me :-) Here she is waiting at the gate for some scratches :-)

 More to come : Alvin, Morgan, Flora and some new chickies ...

I haven't updated in a while because we've been busy nursing Molly, who has developed necrotic mastitis. It's a nasty infection of the udder and we may lose her. At the very least we will probably lose that side of the udder.

 We have sent one of her lambs (the little ewe lamb Elf) to be a bottle baby at another farm to reduce the stress and drain on her. Luckily her brother still has the other two boys to play with.

Any prayers, good thoughts or well wishes are appreciated.

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Lamb races are a wonderful part of dusk at the moment. They race up and down the driveway at full tilt. My camera isn't good enough to capture them in mid leap, but this shot of all four lambs in a race will give you an idea of the fun.

One of the favourite shrubs for the sheep are the wormwood bushes at the front of the house yard. Used to make absinthe, the drink of the green fairy, the leaves are very bitter. I'm not sure if they love them for the anti-worm action or whether they do get a hallucinatory effect ...

Here is Benny having a munch.

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 ALVIN

This is the latest addition to Oaklands, a 4yo maremma named Alvin. He has come to be the livestock guardian dog for the sheep and chickens.

The chickens are a bit ho-hum, the sheep think he's a wolf in sheep clothing and the cows think he's the scariest thing since the plastic bag blew across the paddock last year.

They gather at the shared fence to bellow at him and mill around pretending to be bulls. In the lower photo you can see his reaction to all the ruckus ...

The night of my last post was a busy one. Lambing at 2am ! Lucky I woke because the second twin needed to be pulled. One of her front legs was caught back. The photo below is of the ram lamb the next morning, I didn't think to take pics in the wee small hours ... The little ewe is there, on the other side, but I haven't caught a decent photo of her yet.

Dorpers are hard enough to photograph at the best of times as their black faces seldom show up well. When mum is determined to stop the paparazzi it can be almost impossible to get a portrait !

The maternity ward was my carport, which has been filled with hay and turned into a lambing jug because the weather was just nasty. Today was the first day with some sun, so the little family was released into the house yard to soak up some rays.

 

Molly with her ewe lamb on the left and ram lamb on the right.

About an hour after Molly and her babies departed the carport, it was obvious Min was going to need the accommodation fast.

Her first lamb arrived within minutes, a ram.

The second was well late and she ran out of puff, so I straightened the legs and eased the nose out. Another ram :-) 

Normally Boof throws girls, so three to one the boys' way is unusual. I always enjoy when the lambs arrive close together because they form a gaggle and do everything together, racing, napping, king of the castle ...

Max is the only other ewe close to lambing, but she's always a tough one to guess. Last time she was "any day now" for three weeks. She was the size of a house and only had one small lamb. I hope she's not far off so her lambs can be close in age to these.

The little ewe has been named Elf, still thinking about the boys.

As I stepped out the back door on the foggy morning mentioned in the previous post, I found that a massive flock of galahs had stitched their way along the power lines. I couldn't get the whole length in, but the birds stretched as far again both ways. You'll get a better view if you click on the picture to enlarge.

As I walked down the back path they scattered, part of the flock forming up on this dead tree next door.

While I watched, the sun came up and colour came into the world.

I went to an information day at the local ag supply shop last week, and won one of the lucky door prizes. A fox light ! It mimics the random flashing of a torch and is supposed to scare off foxes. I'm not going to rely on it alone, but it's certainly going to add to the measures I take to keep foxes away.

The fox light on the outer wire of the lambing pen. I move it every two days.

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Saturday was a foggy morning with the promise of a sunny day to come. Up early to feed the animals, fog is one of those things that motorists hate, but makes for still, quiet mornings for those of us on foot to enjoy. I have some general scenery to post in the next entry, but here are some pics of next door's sheep.

I've been picking up the dropped hay from the base of the round bales each morning. My cattle and sheep won't stoop to eating it while there is fresh hay on the bale, but if I pick it up before it becomes trampled and soiled I can toss it over the fence to the next door flock, who is doing it a bit tough.

Half the flock, including the ram and the two day old lamb, 

having breakfast while some of my flock visit.

Looking the other way up the fence line as the rest

of the flock come down for a feed.

 

A closeup of the lamb with her mum behind him. She's so cute ! 

I think she's 1/2 white dorper and 1/2 merino.

 This is dad, the white dorper flock ram. 

Dorpers are known for being good do-ers. I've never seen a dorper in this condition. If I needed proof that it's been a hard year, this is it.

A close up of the big guy's face. He's a very laid back 

ram and I think quite personable.

The milking shed is just about done. Walls are lined and painted, storage is in place, sink is ready to be plumbed in and lights are in. The area in these pics is the end third, animals will be entertained in the front two thirds. The fittings for that area will depend on who is being milked (sheep or cow, Flora or Big Moo) and who else wants to participate. There are always helpers with the sheep... I'll take pics of the milking setups as they happen.

The milking machine is a second hand "Dairy Maid" waiting to be cleaned up, pump serviced and the hoses replaced. People door on the left, skylight on the upper right. Need a "whirly bird" ventilator to keep air moving. The lights are little LED solar shed lights. Four in all, brilliant at night :-)

The wooden chest houses fly veils (courtesy of Kirby !), horse rugs in case a cow feels poorly, clean cloths and towels, and warm jackets for lambs. The shelf in behind it has the medications, creams, washes, lotions etc, all the tagging, clipping, castrating, drenching and injecting stuff, and the brushes and other grooming gear.

The shelves on the back wall are cleaning gear, drying space and milking stools. The sink will have a caravan "hand pump" tap that will have a line to the little rain water tank outside. The shelf underneath is salvaged scaffolding of some kind which sits nicely on the mid shelf of two electrical pit inserts and has room for two milk crates underneath. The quintessential storage/seating/stacking/table item, a good milk crate is worth it's weight in gold. There is a third crate somewhere on the farm and when I find it, it will be hidden in here too. Mine !! My Precious !! Ahem ...

Next job is a safe power source for the milking machine. Since DH is an electrician I expect I will be running an extension cord from the garage for a few years ...

Here's some chicken-world action...

These are the two new Black Leghorn pullets, bought from the chicken auction two weeks ago. One of them laid their first little creamy egg today.

They've tentatively attached themselves to Frankie, but he's not very mature yet and he may lose them to Shadow if he doesn't look after them better. Luckily for him, even if that happens there should be another six assorted pullets coming in a month or so and he'll have another chance to build a flock then.

Meanwhile, in chookmahal, Brewster is hogging the hoochie with his four hens. There's room in there for everyone, but no-one else wants to share with the grouch. This is Brewster's hoochie ...

And since the Great Fox Incident the other two flocks, ten chickens in all, have been sleeping here :

That may have been acceptable in an emergency and during summer, but there's no shelter in winter and it's just too crowded. So DH and his son built this :

There's a tin roof to keep off the rain, tarp sides to keep out the wind, and paperbark perches to be nice and soft on chookie feet. There will be two doors when time permits, to allow them to be shut in on the coldest, wildest and wettest nights.

And the new, patented fox chute is in construction ... more on that in a later blog !