Wild goats. Love them or not they've always been a part of my life here in Hunua. Whether it is a glimpse of a lone goat on the side of the road in the gorge or a herd of 30-odd blocking our driveway they're around and probably always will be. I love them. In fact any creature that can fend for itself is admired by me. Who are we to point the finger and say they're destructive and wrecking our native bush....look what we as humans do to this fine world of ours. So, destructive or not I do enjoy seeing these little creatures roaming around. If humans were more resourceful and exercised their right to a carnivorous diet by hunting their meat instead of buying it on plastic trays would we have the problem with goats, possums and rabbits? Food for thought isn't it?
At the moment there's a herd of about 10 magnificent wild goats that are coming over from the army land. A huge billy with impressive horns accompanied by does and kids. They are very inquisitive and Sam managed to get pretty close to them yesterday to take photos. They seem to show up without fail at about 5pm each evening and graze the long grass at our property El Ranchero and our neighbour's too. The kids frolic and play with so much zest for life, oh to be so carefree!
At home our own goats have been creating quite a fuss lately. Lucifer loves to leap onto the bonnet of our cars, of course we tell him off and chase him down but he is a goat and goats to love to be up high. It isn't as if he hasn't got plenty of other places he could play but the cars are his favourite play-things right now. I came home last week after going out to lunch with a friend and as I was collecting my things together in the car Lucifer leapt onto the bonnet and then onto the roof to do a tapdance. In turn I leapt out of the car and grabbed him in mid dance and lifted him off the roof, taking time for a quick cuddle. Then I lowered him to the ground, as he felt the earth beneath his feet he threw his head back, catching his horn on my dangley earring, and took off. My earring half tore, half pulled out of my ear, and in true Heidi fashion I was fine until I saw blood. I had to sit with the pigs and regain my composure, then Sam came home and inspected the damage. Luckily it wasn't torn all the way through the earlobe so I may be able to salvage the piercing. I'd already had visions of sporting the single pirate-style gold earring, to which an eye patch would be an absolute necessity.
Today I went out to let the animals out of their sleeping quarters, all except for the horses who had remained out overnight. The pigs usually have a quick tummy rub and snuggle before wandering off. The goats try to intercept my travels back to the house by cutting me off mid stride, leaping up into the air and galloping sideways endeavoring to convince me that it would be way more fun spending time in the sunshine with them. And don't I know it! On this beautiful morning the goats and pigs followed me up into the paddock while I checked on the horses. Ella was laying in the sunshine with Tarka standing over her. As I reached her, Sheamus went up to her for a sniff, she didn't mind, Tallulah nudged her, she protested with pinned ears but continued to lay there, then Lucifer arrived. He sniffed Ella's bum and leapt onto her rump, I expected Ella to hate this blatant disrespect but she didn't bat an eyelid, as if this happens every day. Lucifer, looking quite smug atop his horse-rump mountain spun around and sprung up kicking his heels into the air. Ella just looked at him, not minding this playing at close quarters, then she rolled a couple of times and got back to her feet. With the whole family complete they wandered off to graze together.
How lucky we are to have such a fabulous four legged family that co-habitate so well. It is these moments of interaction between species that remind me how closed minded we are to think that spoken words are the most effective method of communication. They have a language they use with one another and it is something they all understand. Of course no language will suppress mischievous personalities or boundary pushing exercises (of which Lucifer and Ella are prime examples). I remember how kind Ella was to Tallulah when she arrived as a tiny little piglet with no mum or siblings to keep her company. Ella would 'kiss' Tallulah's back with her nice warm muzzle, she did this often, as a form of comfort. She had a motherly look of concern on her face for this tiny little creature that made such a lot of noise. It was a similar story with the goats who took a long time to gain confidence on the property, they took an instant liking to Tarka....possibly due to his colouring and height and stuck to him like glue, now the goats roam all over the property and they're never far from their Tarka, or God as I'm sure they see him as.
We have a few bunnies back at the farm, they look healthy enough but I wonder if they'll get sick like the others. For the time being they're enjoying interacting with the chooks and one even sneaks up on our neighbour's chick Squirt who we're fostering and plays a game of peek-a-boo. Which Squirt still hasn't grasped the concept of and suffers a small moment of heart failure with every BOO.
Last week we spent a small fortune on fencing rails for our new three-rail pig proof post and rail fence. So far we've fenced the culvert and installed a gate which has become our new front gate. The original entrance has a double gate system , it is quite a handful to co-ordinate the two when it is windy. The new entrance is fantastic, Sam did a stellar job of getting the gudgeons perpendicular which has resulted in a beautifully hung gate. I love the new entrance way.
As the weather becomes more stable and the rain stops falling I look up into the clear sky and think I really am lucky to have such a beautiful home. Now I'm off to buy 22 metres of cord to repair my two broken blinds so that I can let the sun shine in.
Time alone.....or so I thought.
This is the weekend of the Kumeu car show and Sam decided to camp there on Friday night. Now, I've been a solo life-styler for years but in the last eight months Sam's been on site and there's barely a day that goes by that we don't see each other. Strange but I thought I'd really miss him, his company, them I remembered the rest of the family. I walked Hoby and then stayed out with the farmies (goats, chooks, horses and pigs) until darkness fell. I read a book, watched a movie and had a yummy dinner. In short, I barely noticed Sam was gone.
I got up early this morning and went out to see my friend and graphic designer at a really cut cafe called Garnet Station. Then I popped in to see Mum and Dad.
When I got home all the family came to meet me, you'd have thought I'd been gone for a year! I felt very special. I played a game of flinger with Hoby and then had tummy cuddles with Tallulah and a tummy rub with Shamey. Tarka came down for a brush and some special one-on-one time. Ella eventually left the top corner of the paddock (where she'll stand for hours talking to Dexter across the road) and because I'd fed half of the carrot to Tarka and the other half to Tallulah trying to teach her how to sit (failed) I had to pinch a radish from the garden, Lucifer nicked a few of the long prickly leaves and Ella snaffled the rest.
Mabel came over for a cuddle with me while I was in the stall with Tarka and Lucifer licked the pink-rock-of-deliciousness (a.k.a pink rock salt block). Lately Lucifer has been extra inquisitive and friendly but still freaks out when I touch him. Actually when I say freaks out, what I mean is he has all the attitude of a ten year old boy, basically if I touch him he runs off and I get the feeling he's saying to himself "ew, girl germs, girl germs". Today however Lucifer was extra brave and perhaps a little jealous of the attention everyone else was getting so he put on a leaping and balancing show for me. He is quite talented. He leaped over a metre onto the horse poo pile, then he walked along the 100mm rail on top of the gate. Once he was there he looked me dead in the eyes and dropped his head a little which means "PLAY?" I answer his question by holding up my fist, he pushed into it with his head. Then he rubbed his head all over me. Took a step back re-assessed the situation and realised that it was fun having a playmate. He's tried playing with Ella and butting her between the eyes which ended in him being chased the whole length of the paddock by the 500 kg redhead. He knows better than to mess with Tarka, because in Lucifer's eyes Tarka is god-goat. He's no doubt messed with Sheamus but again, I doubt that was much fun. Mabels boring. So far Tallulah's been his best bet but she just screams in terror as he runs up and t-bones her the guts but she can't run as fast as he can so he gets a few good shots in.
Poor little Disco Batman has gone missing, I'm sure he has either been snatched by a hawk or the disgusting cat from next door. Little Mohawk has drowned (in the trough that I rescued Nemo from a few months ago) so that just leaves Robin, Nemo and Squirt, one baby for each mumma. It is sad but there's not much I can do with free ranging chooks, there's always going to be natural predators and dangerous situations. The troughs are either very high or if low they've got the minimum amount of water to ensure the animals can get to them but still these accidents happen. Farewell little beings that don't make it, they're all sorely missed.
Minus the departed souls I've had a lovely couple of days and I feel so lucky to have such a neat bunch of furry, bristly and feathery companions.
I got up early this morning and went out to see my friend and graphic designer at a really cut cafe called Garnet Station. Then I popped in to see Mum and Dad.
When I got home all the family came to meet me, you'd have thought I'd been gone for a year! I felt very special. I played a game of flinger with Hoby and then had tummy cuddles with Tallulah and a tummy rub with Shamey. Tarka came down for a brush and some special one-on-one time. Ella eventually left the top corner of the paddock (where she'll stand for hours talking to Dexter across the road) and because I'd fed half of the carrot to Tarka and the other half to Tallulah trying to teach her how to sit (failed) I had to pinch a radish from the garden, Lucifer nicked a few of the long prickly leaves and Ella snaffled the rest.
Mabel came over for a cuddle with me while I was in the stall with Tarka and Lucifer licked the pink-rock-of-deliciousness (a.k.a pink rock salt block). Lately Lucifer has been extra inquisitive and friendly but still freaks out when I touch him. Actually when I say freaks out, what I mean is he has all the attitude of a ten year old boy, basically if I touch him he runs off and I get the feeling he's saying to himself "ew, girl germs, girl germs". Today however Lucifer was extra brave and perhaps a little jealous of the attention everyone else was getting so he put on a leaping and balancing show for me. He is quite talented. He leaped over a metre onto the horse poo pile, then he walked along the 100mm rail on top of the gate. Once he was there he looked me dead in the eyes and dropped his head a little which means "PLAY?" I answer his question by holding up my fist, he pushed into it with his head. Then he rubbed his head all over me. Took a step back re-assessed the situation and realised that it was fun having a playmate. He's tried playing with Ella and butting her between the eyes which ended in him being chased the whole length of the paddock by the 500 kg redhead. He knows better than to mess with Tarka, because in Lucifer's eyes Tarka is god-goat. He's no doubt messed with Sheamus but again, I doubt that was much fun. Mabels boring. So far Tallulah's been his best bet but she just screams in terror as he runs up and t-bones her the guts but she can't run as fast as he can so he gets a few good shots in.
Poor little Disco Batman has gone missing, I'm sure he has either been snatched by a hawk or the disgusting cat from next door. Little Mohawk has drowned (in the trough that I rescued Nemo from a few months ago) so that just leaves Robin, Nemo and Squirt, one baby for each mumma. It is sad but there's not much I can do with free ranging chooks, there's always going to be natural predators and dangerous situations. The troughs are either very high or if low they've got the minimum amount of water to ensure the animals can get to them but still these accidents happen. Farewell little beings that don't make it, they're all sorely missed.
Minus the departed souls I've had a lovely couple of days and I feel so lucky to have such a neat bunch of furry, bristly and feathery companions.
Happy New Year
My first post in 2014 and there's so much going on.
I hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as I did. I love Christmas and the lead up to Christmas and Christmas music, oh how I love the music. My favourite carol of all time is O Holy Night, I listen to just about every version every artist has put out and Andrea Bocelli is still the winner in my opinion although Josh Groban and Celine Dion do pretty good versions also. So with the Christmas music blasting the kitchen goodies that Sam and I made this year were Lemon Curd, Apple and Plum Jelly and Ginger, Pistachio & Cranberry Biscotti to give away to friends and family. We used up our stockpiled free-range eggs, picked a tree of lemons bare and scoured the many aisles of fruit markets to find our ingredients. Then we scrubbed, zested, peeled, chopped, juiced, stirred, boiled, re-boiled and bottled our creations. We bought our jars from Arthur Holmes Ltd and dressed up the final product with cute coloured hessian fabric and stickers. It was a great bonding time for Sam and I and a chance to slow down from the busy-ness, you have to go slow and be patient when doing these things, I found out the hard way by burning a batch of lemon honey...not that Sam complained as he ate the yellow (with black freckles) goop every day for the next two weeks! The lemon curd made many a lemon meringue pie, pavlova, toast and biscuit topping and has now become my memorable taste of Christmas 2013.
Next Christmas I'll have a go at candied peel and fruit cakes I think. I now have a fabulous biscotti recipe that I'll definitely use again and probably adapt to be just a plain almond biscotti which is my favourite.
On the animal front I managed to get Ella and Tarka's hooves trimmed just before Christmas, thank goodness. Their waistlines are looking great, they have free run of the place at the moment although I do lock them up overnight sometimes especially after they've spent a day out the front on the grassy-grass verge. The chooks are good, the babies are growing and there are still a few broodies sitting diligently on egg so we'll have some more additions in the weeks to come. Nigel attacked me again, while I was wearing shorts and gave me another hole in my knee. This time I washed it out straight away and dosed it with anti-biotic ointment (that the doctor gave me after the last injury) and covered it with a plaster. That exercise helped as I didn't get the major swelling or pain like I had with the others.
Sheamus and Tallulah are the best of mates, they go for a mid-morning and an afternoon siesta every day, side by side in Sheamus's bed, Tallulah's purpose built house will be donated to the chooks now as she never uses it.
Mabel and Lucifer have been the real show-stoppers lately, their bravery astounds me. They are very interactive little critters now. Every evening we spend time with the animals, piggy tummy rubs, games of fetch with Hoby, horsey cuddles, being a human-jungle-gym fer the chickens and all this with the goats looking on from a distance. But now they join in. Mabel loves having the base of her horns scratched and her tummy tickled and will even let me wrap my arms around her in a bear hug, Lucifer likes to stand on his hind legs, put his front hooves on my tummy and chew on my index finger but he won't allow me to lay that chewed index finger on him. He's the instigator of all the attention but pushes Mabel up to me for cuddles and watches on fascinated. When I lay down in the grass he always comes over to sniff my elbow or put his little black velvet muzzle millimetres from my face. He's interested in me but lacks the courage to let me scratch him behind the horns. When I put them to bed I take cabbage leaves from my garden and we cluster around the cable reels, I sit on the low one and they jump up onto the tall one, they love this time. They frolic and chase each other and torment the other animals, poor Tallulah cops a few butts to the side when Lucifer is in a playful mood, she squeals loudly but that's about the extent of her objections. Ella on the other hand got a nudge in the guts the other evening and in true Ella style squealed in disgust and in a rolling thunderous canter chased Mabel and Lucifer down the hill and out onto the driveway, and then stopped and snorted as if to say 'get out and stay out!' then she turned and wandered back up the hill to resume grazing. Lucifer's eyes were gleaming with mischief as he mulled over his options of who would be his next victim.
Tallulah has become, unfortunately, a human-house dweller. Not intentionally nor a welcomed house dweller I might add. The famous line of the day on Christmas Day was "why is there a piglet in the kitchen?" Yep, she'd wandered in through the front door and was tucking into the bag of apples I'd designated for the Christmas treat for the animals. She just didn't want to miss out I guess. But since then any time we're airing out the house or if we come in armed with a bag of groceries and put them on the floor she's hot on our heels and has her little piggy snout in the bag before you can say "what's this pig doing in the house?" usually in a loud, high pitched voice. She's also become a master tummy-cuddler, in the sense that when I'm laying in the grass she'll climb onto my tummy, lay down and snore in my face, protesting with squeals every time I move to get up. A ten minute tummy-cuddle usually suffices. One day it was pouring with rain so we didn't get up to spend out evening time with the animals and Tallulah didn't get her tummy cuddle for the day, that night at 10.30pm she turned up at the French doors to my bedroom and pushed her nose up against the glass. We tried ushering her back up to the sty but she kept coming back, squeezing through every gap in the fence she could find. In the end I gave in, wrapped her in a towel and lay on my bed cuddling her for 10 minutes with grassy burps and piggy snores coming from her. After that she put herself to bed with Sheamus. I suppose I have to remind myself that she's still just a baby and mummy cuddles are a precious thing at that age.
I hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as I did. I love Christmas and the lead up to Christmas and Christmas music, oh how I love the music. My favourite carol of all time is O Holy Night, I listen to just about every version every artist has put out and Andrea Bocelli is still the winner in my opinion although Josh Groban and Celine Dion do pretty good versions also. So with the Christmas music blasting the kitchen goodies that Sam and I made this year were Lemon Curd, Apple and Plum Jelly and Ginger, Pistachio & Cranberry Biscotti to give away to friends and family. We used up our stockpiled free-range eggs, picked a tree of lemons bare and scoured the many aisles of fruit markets to find our ingredients. Then we scrubbed, zested, peeled, chopped, juiced, stirred, boiled, re-boiled and bottled our creations. We bought our jars from Arthur Holmes Ltd and dressed up the final product with cute coloured hessian fabric and stickers. It was a great bonding time for Sam and I and a chance to slow down from the busy-ness, you have to go slow and be patient when doing these things, I found out the hard way by burning a batch of lemon honey...not that Sam complained as he ate the yellow (with black freckles) goop every day for the next two weeks! The lemon curd made many a lemon meringue pie, pavlova, toast and biscuit topping and has now become my memorable taste of Christmas 2013.
Next Christmas I'll have a go at candied peel and fruit cakes I think. I now have a fabulous biscotti recipe that I'll definitely use again and probably adapt to be just a plain almond biscotti which is my favourite.
On the animal front I managed to get Ella and Tarka's hooves trimmed just before Christmas, thank goodness. Their waistlines are looking great, they have free run of the place at the moment although I do lock them up overnight sometimes especially after they've spent a day out the front on the grassy-grass verge. The chooks are good, the babies are growing and there are still a few broodies sitting diligently on egg so we'll have some more additions in the weeks to come. Nigel attacked me again, while I was wearing shorts and gave me another hole in my knee. This time I washed it out straight away and dosed it with anti-biotic ointment (that the doctor gave me after the last injury) and covered it with a plaster. That exercise helped as I didn't get the major swelling or pain like I had with the others.
Sheamus and Tallulah are the best of mates, they go for a mid-morning and an afternoon siesta every day, side by side in Sheamus's bed, Tallulah's purpose built house will be donated to the chooks now as she never uses it.
Mabel and Lucifer have been the real show-stoppers lately, their bravery astounds me. They are very interactive little critters now. Every evening we spend time with the animals, piggy tummy rubs, games of fetch with Hoby, horsey cuddles, being a human-jungle-gym fer the chickens and all this with the goats looking on from a distance. But now they join in. Mabel loves having the base of her horns scratched and her tummy tickled and will even let me wrap my arms around her in a bear hug, Lucifer likes to stand on his hind legs, put his front hooves on my tummy and chew on my index finger but he won't allow me to lay that chewed index finger on him. He's the instigator of all the attention but pushes Mabel up to me for cuddles and watches on fascinated. When I lay down in the grass he always comes over to sniff my elbow or put his little black velvet muzzle millimetres from my face. He's interested in me but lacks the courage to let me scratch him behind the horns. When I put them to bed I take cabbage leaves from my garden and we cluster around the cable reels, I sit on the low one and they jump up onto the tall one, they love this time. They frolic and chase each other and torment the other animals, poor Tallulah cops a few butts to the side when Lucifer is in a playful mood, she squeals loudly but that's about the extent of her objections. Ella on the other hand got a nudge in the guts the other evening and in true Ella style squealed in disgust and in a rolling thunderous canter chased Mabel and Lucifer down the hill and out onto the driveway, and then stopped and snorted as if to say 'get out and stay out!' then she turned and wandered back up the hill to resume grazing. Lucifer's eyes were gleaming with mischief as he mulled over his options of who would be his next victim.
Tallulah has become, unfortunately, a human-house dweller. Not intentionally nor a welcomed house dweller I might add. The famous line of the day on Christmas Day was "why is there a piglet in the kitchen?" Yep, she'd wandered in through the front door and was tucking into the bag of apples I'd designated for the Christmas treat for the animals. She just didn't want to miss out I guess. But since then any time we're airing out the house or if we come in armed with a bag of groceries and put them on the floor she's hot on our heels and has her little piggy snout in the bag before you can say "what's this pig doing in the house?" usually in a loud, high pitched voice. She's also become a master tummy-cuddler, in the sense that when I'm laying in the grass she'll climb onto my tummy, lay down and snore in my face, protesting with squeals every time I move to get up. A ten minute tummy-cuddle usually suffices. One day it was pouring with rain so we didn't get up to spend out evening time with the animals and Tallulah didn't get her tummy cuddle for the day, that night at 10.30pm she turned up at the French doors to my bedroom and pushed her nose up against the glass. We tried ushering her back up to the sty but she kept coming back, squeezing through every gap in the fence she could find. In the end I gave in, wrapped her in a towel and lay on my bed cuddling her for 10 minutes with grassy burps and piggy snores coming from her. After that she put herself to bed with Sheamus. I suppose I have to remind myself that she's still just a baby and mummy cuddles are a precious thing at that age.
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