I was accosted by a welcoming committee comprised of the guests, a bunch of sheep, all the ducks, and an excited Dora, as I returned from work early on Saturday evening. “Dora’s the best,” three excited kids exclaimed. “She’s been rounding up the Guinea fowl, the ducks and the peacock.”
As they spoke I noticed Dora running around the ducks trying to take little nips, which would no doubt turn into bigger nips if allowed to go unchecked.
“She’s very smart,” I replied to the children. “She only does this to put on a show for the guests,” I said, all the time wondering why Richie had left Dora out of her cage unsupervised while he was out on the newly repaired tractor and slasher.
“I think it’s time for Dora’s Quiet Hour,” I said to the guests, while thinking to myself, ‘she’s getting too big for her boots,’ as Dora, who knows full well what ‘in your house!’ means tried to go every-which-way but to her kennel.
The Good, The Bad and the Embarrassing!
I was looking forward to the Darling Downs Heavy Horse Days. It would be the Rare Breeds Trust’s third time at the event and it’s a bit like a mini-cation for me as I don’t have to supply or erect the sheep panels! It started off well enough with my most excellent planning and loading of supplies for the weekend. All that remained to be done was loading the sheep and goats into the trailer.
Now, there was a small disagreement between Dear Richie and myself as to which loading ramp to use. I won’t bore you with the details but in the end I decided it wasn’t worth the argument so we tried Dear Richie’s way.
However, I am getting ahead of myself because first we had to load the previously unhandled Anglo Nubian buck I had sold to a lady in Warwick, and it was decided that he would be loaded into his own special crate to avoid any possibility of escape. The crate would then be picked up with the tractor and plonked on the ute. The sheep and goats were no problems to get into the yards, however, the wily young buck was far quicker than these two old worn out toilers.
We left the buck and concentrated on loading the sheep and a couple of quiet goats. Now, if we had done it my way, it would have been done in five minutes. Eventually, the sheep were loaded but Zig Zag, the huge Damara, wouldn’t fit up the ramp so he got left behind. The Saanen doe wouldn’t fit either. By this time we were both frazzled, although the sheep seemed unfazed.
I announced I was ready to go and off we went. We had two vehicles, Richie with the sheep trailer and me with the camper trailer, and about 20km out from home I realised I had forgotten the Rare Breed poultry – I had the cage and the feed but no chooks! I wasn’t going back. Oh, well. Upon arrival I discovered I had also forgotten my toiletries bag and shoes. I only had the steel caps I was wearing.
The weekend was fantastic. We had a lot of interest in rare breeds and met some lovely people. I was particularly inspired by a couple selling all sorts of souvenirs (the stone house) and the 80 year old lady who spent much of last year and this in hospital.
We decided to extend our min-cation and return home on Monday. All was going well, the sheep were loaded on the trailer, and so we started packing up the panels to make it easier. For some reason I wasn’t paying attention as I pulled out a pin, only to have the panel and half a dozen others come toppling down like a pack of dominoes with the first one pinning me to the ground being still attached to the others!
Things got worse though as we had a hand to load the sheep before we started taking the panels down and didn’t do things the usual way. I had dusted myself off and we had just finished stacking all the panels without further incident when one, then two, then three sheep popped out of the trailer. The pin had not been put in. We very quickly re-erected the panels and luckily got the sheep back in. With assistance from volunteers to help reload the escapees, we made it home without further incident.
This week at the cottage we had the most beautiful guests – a 94 year old lady with terminal cancer and her two daughters, one of whom was recovering from her own very serious battle with cancer. Mum had only gone into aged care a few months ago and said it was incredibly hard as she had always been a very active and independent person. Her mind was still young but her body was letting her down. We got on well and I spent a couple of hours showing them around the farm.
After Mum fed the ducks and Chicky the sheep by hand on Sunday afternoon, they asked what time I left for work on Monday and said they would say their goodbyes now as they might not be up before I left. Now, I really hate goodbyes of any description but I felt so incredibly sad when I realised I would never see Mum again as her time would soon be up. All of these women had incredible stories to tell about their lives and hardships endured, making me realise how lucky I was to be on this beautiful farm to meet people like this, and be (reasonably) fit and able.
Also in March, I attended the Toowoomba Show, helping out in the pig section and was even able to stay for the pig sale which was held on the Friday instead of the usual Saturday.
I am not sure if that was a good thing as I do love an auction and find it hard to resist putting my hand up. I came away with two Berkshire weaners and a beautiful Landrace gilt due to farrow very soon!
As I write, the rain eventually paid us a fleeting visit, so all up we received around three inches in March, enough to get Pikes Creek flowing again. Dora is just as excited about this as we are!
Next month:
The church fete, Spagyus and Farmfest preparations
