By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
Easter is nearly upon us. Friends Bez and Stone have sadly had to cancel their camping trip but we will be busy with plenty of other friends camping and guests staying in the cottage over Easter. Last night we had some guests that travelled from the Sunshine Coast to stay overnight in the cottage and to inspect the sheep. They were the most down to earth delightful people and arrived in a new Tesla electric car that they recently purchased. Richie and I were both eager to check out the stylish new wheels. Richie poked around underneath. It was very low to the ground and how it managed our driveway I am not sure. I wasn’t game to inspect too closely. After the external inspection I was invited to look inside, which I did as soon as I worked out how to open the door handle. Keith was eager to show us the car’s computer and all its incredible apps. After a minute or so there was a loud fart and Keith asked me if I was feeling okay and said not to worry, it happens to us all sometimes. Then another fart, and another. By this time Keith was laughing so much as he explained the car had an app that made the farting sound, you could even vary the…erm…loudness, types and other fart attributes. Keith’s wife then suggested he should turn it off, however the last laugh was on me and it was Keith’s turn to go red as for some reason the app even when turned off – well, it just kept on farting. I was seriously amazed at what this car could do. The next app was the crackling fire. On the screen a beautiful log fire burned complete with crackling noises and heat coming out of the heater. It truly was a sight to see.
I cooked a beautiful lamb roast for dinner that night but the only vegetables in our garden were zucchini and silver beet that was looking decidedly sad from lack of water. However, there was one humongous giant of a plant which I thought was a perpetual spinach. I picked some of this but when I cooked it, it looked awful, not like spinach at all. I apologised for the green mess and we sat down to dinner. I didn’t tackle my bit of green mess for a few minutes but when I did I was horrified. I said calmly, I am sorry but please don’t eat the spinach, it really is not good. What I thought was spinach obviously wasn’t and was some sort of weed I think. It tasted very bitter and like lemon. I had visions of poisoning everyone like you see in movies when people have eaten mushrooms. I think Keith had already eaten his but luckily for me we were all still alive in the morning and none the worse for eating it!
On Sunday my friend Erin who has the horse rescue company, Mane Matters, brought over a trio of aged rescue ponies to live out their lives grazing and snoozing under the trees around the edge of the dam. I was really excited when they arrived and thrilled that I was to be custodian of these beautiful mares. One is 30 years old but you would never know. They acted like they had been here their whole lives!
Erin, Gary and Nick were able to camp over the night and the next morning gave us a huge hand to erect the frame of our new shed. It will be a week or two before the rest of the shed can be completed as we are waiting for a scissor lift.
A friend warned us he had had a second round of flystrike recently, only a few weeks after their sheep were shorn. I thought we were over that nightmare but, oh no, inspection resulted in the discovery of two fly blown maggoty lambs. I was surprised as these lambs had been yarded only a week before and there was no sign of strike then. As well as that a few sheep have gone blind. Blind sheep are a nightmare to catch believe it or not. One of the Three Amigos (the Damara wethers from my friends Mari and Pete) had gone blind in one eye. By the time I noticed and yarded them it was too far gone to do anything with but surprisingly the sheep made a complete recovery with no damage to the eye whatsoever. I bet this is not going to be the case with the other blind sheep, which are British breeds. Speaking of the Three Amigos, do you remember Bronte, the orphan lamb I was given nearly twelve months ago by Dot and Don? She has graduated from her paddock with the other lambs and gone to live with the Three Amigos. She is the same or a similar breed and they recognised each other straight away. Bronte could have chosen to go with any of the other sheep but recognised her own kind. Who said sheep are dumb! African Fat Tail sheep certainly are not anyway, that’s for sure.
I have just found out that the Rare Breed Trust’s Patron, Michael Peel has won Champion Goose at the Sydney Royal Easter Show this week with a Toulouse Goose so this week’s information is all about Toulouse Geese!
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.
Toulouse – Endangered – 147 Breeding Adults Reported
The Toulouse is a French breed of large domestic goose, originally from the area of Toulouse in south-western France. In Australia it is know for its large size and its dewlaps.
The original grey-coloured variety is the original and the name has been recorded back as far as 1555. The breed was first brought to the United Kingdom by Lord Derby in 1840, who imported some of them to England, and from then onwards the French Toulouse were used as breeding stock with the consequence that by 1894, English breeders had produced a massive bird. The ‘Toulouse’ in France, although kept in greater numbers, have never quite equalled such weights. The breed was eventually exported to a number of countries around the world including Australia.
The Toulouse generally has a placid disposition. Commercial varieties are fast growing in an ideal environment but exhibition lines grow more slowly.
