Overrun with Piglets

Nobody breathed a bigger sigh of relief than me that young Dorothy (pictured right with me bottle feeding her as a baby) has come up with the goods and given birth to our cutest litter yet. As can be seen nest building is not one of her strong points (didn't actually attempt to spread the biscuit of hay just put it next to her) and she decided a ditch looked about right. They are so cute with their mottled colours and Dennis shaped ears and heads. We are on day 2 and although I had to shoo her out of the wallow this morning in case her babies drowned whilst trying to feed so far (touch wood) everyone seems to be doing well. Clearly the mothering instinct in pigs is hereditary as her mother Debra farrowed last night by just lying down under a tree, there were 3 straw filled huts for her to choose from however again..dirt won. We found two of her piglets this morning attempting to join other litters - one with Britney who is in with Maguire the boar but who babysat very competently until we could put him back. I spent last night with one of Lucy's little ones feeding every 2 hours until she was strong enough to go back this morning, much to Emi and Felix's disgust (they named her Layla and thought she would be perfect for show and tell) and as I type we have had 12 from Rosie, 6 from Molly (first litter), Beverly has built a beautiful straw nest and is about to farrow and Harriet is lying in water and thinking about where she will pop hers out.. Maureen is due as well and all in all we are happy because the girls that are on their 2nd and 3rd litters are pretty reliably birthing about 11 - 14 babies, which is fantastic.

James' new business venture

Well, here it is - James' soon to be patented lettuce garden. This is prototype one obviously - the ducks are delighted and since this photo was taken have enjoyed the opportunity to nibble fresh greens at leisure on the pond. Prototype no. 2 will obviously have a duck guard. The idea is that it uses up the nitrogen rich water (provided by duck and pig droppings), reduces evaporation (when we have enough of them) and grows huge amounts of lettuce. It is a win-win situation. Watch this space...

Fantastic Mr Fox

It has taken me a few days to be able to write this without choking back the tears (of frustration). My lovely (and expensive) Emden geese settled in beautifully. I loved to watch them on the dam...they had all bonded and Margie was very grateful. Unfortunately for her life must be a little like living in a war zone. Apparently our fox was also very grateful and took my new gander in broad daylight on Saturday. This meant I had to admit to James how much I actually paid for it ($50). Margie and Patricia (newly named left over goose) are now refusing to go down to the dam and spend their days in the goat stable or up at the shed. Clearly they are traumatised (and actually quite sensible).

In that same day we also had a litter of piglets born without skin.... James had gone to Orange market and I was left attempting to do the pigs with Emily telling me "that isn't how Dad does it". Just when we thought she would surely explode, Charlotte our gilt waited for James to be away before farrowing. I went up to check her and couldn't figure out what I was seeing. Thank god for technology - I sent a phone photo to Fiona for clarification and after some research it turned out the piglets had a congenital problem that I can neither pronounce nor spell. Needless to say it is rare and considering the odds suggests that Charlotte had known her brother in a way that is neither right or decent before we bought her. The ones that were badly affected were taken away and we are left with five that seem to be okay.

Close Encounters..

No, it isn't a stick - it is a snake - and no, James hasn't turned into Steve Irwin - its dead. Not by our hands - it was run over at our gate. As it was probably heading into the property I can't say I'm very sorry. It is actually the first time that we have seen one close up (apart from the black snake last year). It seems that everyone else has seen brown snakes on our place except us. Even dead I must admit I kept expecting it to snap out of it and lunge at someone. I'm sure we all fleetingly thought maybe we should move to New Zealand... but its okay, we are over it...

On a sadder note we are holding vigil next to Jessie's bed as she was looking very much worse for wear when Vanessa went to check on her today. Initial test results suggest she is diabetic which has been workshopped by the vets and I suspect a complicated and never-seen-in-Mudgee surgery will follow, although not actually being a vet I have no idea what is in store for her. It is quite sad as she is a likeable little ferret so I am hoping that she is going to stick around.

We would also very much like some rain now....please...

School Days

Here I was thinking that when Felix and Emi went to school/pre-school life would be so much easier. Well it is sort of, but nobody told me about how organised I had to be to make this happen. I have had to buy one of those calendars that have a space for each member of the family. I have to unpack their school bags every afternoon... not only to clean out the lunchboxes but to keep up with the notes/requests/homework...yes really. I have to try and remember sports day, library day, art day. Pick up and drop off is okay since Felix prefers the school bus...but still. I write on the back of my hand quite a lot. The kids are very understanding and seem more organised than I am to be honest. Thank god.

Autumn Arrivals

Despite mysteriously losing 5 chickens and noticing the neighbours peacocks were strangely quiet, it took the loss of Pondy, our White Gander, to realise that we had a fox around. Soon after we lost a hen that didn't come in as soon as dusk hit. Then after some particularly windy weather that blew the duck shed door open I found another one of our lovely geese dead as well. War was soon announced and James spent many evenings stalking the said fox. He came back semi-triumphant on night two having shot one fox but coming across 3 more. Clearly it has been a good season for them. Soon after I found one on the other side of the fence watching the dogs with great interest. Marge the solitary goose was terribly lost. She pretty much walked around honking tragically and it was all a bit sad. I bought a pair of young Emden geese at great expense. At 6 weeks I was expecting little goslings - they are obviously juveniles because their voices are breaking which gives them half a cheep and half a honk. Marge doesn't care she is very happy with her new friends. James has put the equivalent of poultry deadlocks on the duckhouse and reinforced heavily. At least they are keeping the rabbit population down.

Pig Nests

What makes a good mother? I have long pondered this question, especially since being on the farm it seems the way that we judge most of our female animals... obviously with me being terribly anthropomorphic and therefore more forgiving than James... Anyway, after being sure that Winnie was going to farrow for many many days, we missed it. She has had a bunch of 'ferals' (the name we give to the piglets born in the sow field who run merrily about and evade capture for as long as they possibly can). I thought you would like to see her nest. Note many large branches and the occasional log. Clearly this kept her busy for a while. Some of our sows spend many hours carrying mouthfulls of grass back and forth until they build a softer bed than even our straw could provide. These girls must be a bit like those Mum's who seemed to effortlessly cope with everything (and probably never had to use newspaper as a nappy wipe..). I can see that Winnifred was clearly just exhausted with the whole process and felt that she had better go through the motions but do it quickly. She looked at me when I saw the piglets as if to say "I know, I know but f**k it, its looks fine ALRIGHT" (language, I know but she had just had 9 babies). Last month Leanne had to be moved because something went really haywire with her mummy instincts and she filled her hut so full of branches and logs that lying down was a tricky business. Bless.

Meet Sparkles

Yes, you read it right - and if that was my name I would probably be bucking children off willy nilly myself. James and Vanessa are standing firm that after this Fiona and I are banned from ever going to 'view' a potential pony (or probably any species) again. I won't hear it however, because she really is terribly sweet... she just has some issues with being ridden. The owner put it particularly eloquently when I asked whether she had any back soreness or had been seen by a vet to rule out any pain issues. She said "they did all that and they decided she was just a bitch". In our defence we are not entirely crazy however because what followed was a description of how she had been ridden for a long time until she started acting up. Photos of her when she was a 'good' pony (at pony club/jumping/at shows) until she 'turned bad' followed. I rode her, Fiona had a look at her, Fiona learned what the word "pigroot" meant. We both pondered the origin of this word because I have never witnessed my pigs doing anything remotely like it. Most importantly she was a BARGAIN $300. If I wasn't going to buy her Fiona was pretty sure that she would make a lovely pet (cheaper than an alpaca) - we both silently vowed she would never be owned by another spoilt child again and then went home to break the news to James that we had a lovely pony - it is probably no bad thing that my legs nearly drag on the ground because it isn't so far to fall.

Emily is pretty sure she might be a unicorn and keeps thanking me profusely for buying such a lovely pony, Feli even showed a flicker of interest. The pony has been stuffed with every carrot that the kids can find and has settled in nicely. Mickey is sure I have put Elle McPherson in his paddock and is carrying on like a lovesick teenager - she is not big enough to step over him (the approach favoured by the bigger mares) but she just seems to plough right through him when he attempts to herd her around. Despite his most pathetic calling she doesn't return his affections but he is a persistent little man and he seems determined to win her over.