Last week we ran out of water so we got it filled and ever since I've been waking up at the crack of dawn with a rumbly tummy, a panicky feeling and nausea. It has been awful. The very thought of food before lunch time makes me want to hurl and before you start jumping to conclusions, no, I'm not preggers.
And now, Sam's feeling it too.
A call to the local farm services people and we think we might have solved the issue. Giardia. Yuck. Apparently it is rife in the district at the moment with the higher than average temperatures the little devils aka bacteria have been multiplying in our water tanks. Gross. Now I'm thinking, can I brush my teeth with it, should I wash my hands with it, are the animals safe? The guy assured Sam that the animals will be fine and he'll come out tomorrow to test and treat the water.
We had a great weekend, we didn't achieve as much as we'd have liked but we did spend a LOT of quality time with the family. Most evenings we take some 'ground' time with the littlies like the goats, chooks and pigs. We literally sit on the ground, at eye level with them and they love it. Usually they come over for a tummy rub, a nosey or a cuddle. The chooks use us as human perches too.
To recap on what's been happening lately.
Horses:
Tarka is sore on his feet again, seems this wee guy is destined to spend spring in lock up, poor fella, I know he hates it but the results are dramatic. His last bought of laminitis saw him staggering around so I took him out of the paddock, fed him a sachet of bute and two days later he was waltzing around as if I'd imagined the whole thing. Ella is gaining weight but she's not suffered with laminitis yet, hopefully we can keep it that way. Both of them spend a lot of time free-ranging on the driveway and following us around, it is really sweet. The goats have been keeping Tarka company when he's oin lock up, going over completely voluntarily and spending time in his pen and paddock with him. Ella's taken quite a shine to Tallulah and yesterday Sam and I watched in horror as Tallulah wove in and out of Ella's legs, Ella kep and eye on her and made sure not to stand on the little ginger. Sam was especially nervous knowing first hand the pain that Ella's hooves can inflict, she cleanly removed Sam's big toenail the day after we got engaged, and the worst thing is, I think it was intentional. Since it didn't scare him off and he continued coming back to the farm and eventually moved in, Ella's admitted defeat, realising Sam's tougher than she originally thought and she's been building a relationship with him ever since.
Pigs:
After the scary introduction [where my heart was in my mouth, terrified that Shamey would hurt Tallulah] they've been getting on just fine. Sheamus is the boss but Sam tells me that Tallulah is memory banking all of Shamey's grumpy outbursts and in years to come when she's grown into a big, moody young lady she'll get her own back. I think he's got a good point and Sheamus is probably trying to get his way while he still can. They're very cute together, Sheamus is monstrous next to her, he's so much more relaxed now, we built her an enclusre within Sheamus's enclosure and Shamey spends so much more time in his enclosure now that she's there. She is a trooper, taking everything in her stride and she's quite a speedy little girl, she runs and jumps and at the very sound of Sam's voice she's at his feet, she loves her daddy-man. I love brushing her, that's our special one-on-one time together. Most evenings Tallulah and Sheamus go off into the hill paddock together and as soon as its dusk Sheamus comes running home leaving Tallulah at the top of the hill on her own, Sam is usually the one that carries her back and she objects with some grizzly little whinges and then snuggles into Sam's arms and enjoys the transport back to her house where she has pellets and a bedtime apple waiting for her.
Goats:
Mabel and Lucifer have been going further afield on their daily expeditions. I'm thrilled to see they're confident enough to head over to the open paddock and graze on the hill without any shrub protection, they must be feeling safe here now. At the slightest sign of trouble Lucifer belts back to the vege garden, whips around the fence post and onto the roof of the maternity hutch and into his enclusure and onto his wooden cable reel. He calls to Mabel and she dutifully wanders over but without the drama or urgency that Lucifer displays. Late last week we had a little sunshower and afterwards Lucifer leapt onto the roof of the maternity hutch and his feet went out from under him and he fell clean off the roof. He picked himself up and seemed fine but I vowed to trim his hooves which I did this weekend. Both Mabel and Lucifer got their hooves trimmed and their dandruff and clumps of winter coat brushed out, they looked a million bucks when we'd finished but neither of them enjoyed the event. They've finally started the leaping, jumping and bucking that all happy little goats should do, I love to watch them.
Chooks:
Nigel still has his head, he's mellowed a lot. The other roosters have left him alone too. Its the season for broodiness and we've had our fair share of broody hens. Little Boots' hatchlings are adorable, she's got four left now, Mumma Rosa has three - a white, a ginger and a black, Pippi is being a fantastic adoptive mum to Little Bit and Little Bit's biological mum Slick is sitting on eggs in the old shed/ tackroom. The latest large hen to go broody is is Violet who hasn't had littlies before. She got terribly upset every time I removed our eating eggs from under her. So, to solve the problem, our neighbour Liz had 25+ eggs under her hen Oprah. Oprah hatched two and then left the eggs. Liz was certain that there were more babies in there so we put them under Violet. A day later there were two health happy newbies and one that got stuck departing the shell, they got collected by Liz. After that another one hatched and sadly got squished in amongst the eggs, then a day later another which survived and this one Violet wasn't letting go. She's been a great mum but the little one needed to get out and about so I moved her and baby into the maternity ward with Slick, Rosa and their babies. I put the eggs under Violet and some others under Matilda the most amazing mother in the world who hatched a clutch of 13 babies in one go and abandoned one egg which was a dud anyway! The maternity ward is looking fantastic, there's a plan to extend it a little.
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