In a photo that is slightly reminicent of a scene from "Babe" (i.e. the duck crying "Christmas is carnage") here is our first home grown meat. I thought out of respect for the duck it would just be bad taste to have a before picture of them all swimming happily on the dam, so its another food shot I'm afraid. Anyway, I felt very guilty about it all day and can only console myself with the fact that he had a very nice life and probably lived longer than his supermarket bought counterpart, who probably didn't get to run about on five dams and generally have a lovely time. The meat admittedly was beautiful and so it is onward and upward - with another 3 to go - when they have finished moulting. This appeared to be the most traumatic part of the process for the unlucky dispatchers, who didn't mind doing the actual deed but seemed most affected by the fact that they needed tweezers and probably a tub of leg wax to get the little moulting feathers out of them...I think they resorted to a blow torch when all else failed.
James has cut me a running path around 2 of our fields because (and I dread to type this because then it actually becomes something I have to do) I am considering running a half marathon in August. Unbeknown to me Mudgee is somewhat of a triathalon/marathon running town (apparently a lot of iron men began their lives here). Anyway, I went for my first run with the dogs last night. The grass is very long at the moment and even on the cut path it would still come up to my ankles. I am not sure if this made the experience better or worse for me; better because scanning for snakes took the up the part of my brain that was saying walk now please, worse because if the exercise alone wasn't enough to give me a heart attack, seeing a stick concealed in the grass on my path was almost enough. There are also large orb spiders that spin webs across from the grass to the trees so as well as scanning at my feet it was necessary to look where I was going as I almost ran into the webs. Luckily the large spiders sitting in what seemed to be thin air in front of my face tipped me off. They say that snakes orient to their prey because they can feel the vibrations in the ground (I think) - I am not sure why I was even worried as they all must of thought there was an earthquake as I came thundering up their path, screaming every now and then for good measure - they must have fled like flies.
It was a sad day yesterday with our lovely farmhands Fiona and Vanessa hauling up the anchor and setting sail.... their empty campsite looks all wrong without the van there (are you reading this you two). Nevertheless I had one last lesson in seed planting the night before and feel like I am taking the reins of a runaway horse...I am spraying the vegies with the organic pest controller tonight (after carefully looking at the weather patterns and testing the soil moisture) and am drawing pictures of the veggie patch in an effort to decide which beds the winter veg is going to go into.
Andrea was weaned off her piglets earlier this week and is having a horrible time up in the big field with the other sows. As she came by herself she didn't have a bonded friend and is getting bullied by Debra and Harriet... I wish very much that Gloria could be spared and that those two could be the sausage providers as they are my least favourite pigs. This weekend we are fencing off a new field in readiness to rest the old one and also because we have two more ladies arriving this week to join the herd. We will put Andrea and the new gilt Lillian in with them to form a little unit before we put the bullies back in. I vow that if they don't give us decent litters this time they are both off for the chop and I won't feel a bit guilty about it.
I have somehow become one of those mothers who spends each day ferrying her children to and from social events - School on Monday, dancing Tuesday, School/Book club on Wednesday, playgroup Thursday, swimming Friday and cricket Saturday. How did this happen to me? Anyway, the kids are enjoying themselves and as I spend the rest of the day making them play unsupervised while I try and keep on top of everything around here I guess it isn't so bad. Felix was very excited this morning because we went to the local cafe for some breakfast and Merv Hughes was there for some Mudgee promotion or another. I thought he was very impressed at seeing such a famous cricketer but I think it was just his huge moustache.
Lastly I am attempting to wean Dora from her kids as they are now much bigger than she is and feeding them means they practically lie on the ground beneath her to suckle. After wondering why she is skin and bone despite the mountains of food that go into her and reading a few books it appears I was meant to take the kids of her about 3 months ago...oops. They are very unimpressed and are making a racket as I type. I am not exactly sure how long it will be before they scale the fence to get to her - if this happens I will have to resort to plan b, which is sell Flora and eat Bam Ram so I am really hoping that this doesn't materialise.