September 17, 2018
Yesterday, we had almost 200 people walking through the house and property for sustainable house day. Luckily the rain held off and the sun came out, so everything fitted into the “possible” category. Last week we had a camp for students who love animals. They did a wonderful job learning how to care for farm animals, and we even got some to inoculate sheep.
The students also helped clean up the area where Josh had his cubby and put the compost in the spaces left by the paving in Toby’s garden. It all made the place look cared for when the visitors flocked in yesterday. For which I was very grateful. It is a bit daunting having so many strangers through the place and I feel much more comfortable about things if I have everything clean and ordered. It must have been OK because we got some very positive feedback.
The week before the camp arrived Edd and I took the old milking machine down to Warragul to be checked for life and called in on some friends to look at bucks they had for sale. They have stock bred from American Alpine goats that have been brought into Australia as embryos. This is a very costly and involved process that I have stayed clear of, but I was very keen to benefit from other peoples’ efforts. We chose a buck kid who was carrying the looks and colour of his American ancestors and he travelled home in the car on my knees.
Once home he got very lively and was reluctant about taking milk from a bottle. We raised the fence height of his pen but he somehow managed to leap the raised barrier and must have landed very heavily. The vet took an X-ray and found he had a compression fracture in his back leg from landing too hard. We have had to give him a lot of care this week, but he now seems to be feeling much better. He is drinking milk from his bottle fast, eating, and even starting to bounce again. I am praying that this time we can keep him from doing himself further injury.
After much soul searching he is now called Barak Obama. Barak was also the name of a local Aboriginal leader and The Obama bit gives reference to his American heritage. Over the last 2 years we have named bucks after political leaders, so the name carries on that theme too.
The horses and dogs are very disappointed that our students have gone home. Whilst they were here the dogs got long walks and the horses got groomed every day. Yesterday with all the visitors around all non-essential tasks got neglected. Today Edd went off early to collect a ton of oats we are buying. The farmer who supplies us has been on holiday so for the last month we have been paying for very expensive feed local oats. The price of grain is going up fast as drought effects crops. We are lucky we can still get the barley free from Simon’s brewery.
No comments:
Post a Comment