Monday, May 18, 2009


06/05/2009

My goodness, it’s so hard to believe that almost six days have gone past and I haven’t written in this diary. I suppose it’s an indication that life is settling into a nice pattern. We have done heaps of stuff over the past week. To name a few, one was to unearth the grey water pipe which wasn’t functioning properly. After solving the septic tank issue and finding the culprit to be a mass of roots that were growing comfortable inside the pipe, I had a sneaky suspicion that this could be the same inside the grey water pipes aswell. After heaps of digging and lots of hit and misses we struck gold! As suspected the roots were causing the blockage again! We gained a fair amount of knowledge on the whereabouts of the pipes and how the drainage field is operating which is always good. We cleaned out the stables all ready for the horse to come, which I must add is not arriving as quickly as I would have liked. As far as my plans for the goats and sheep, I have made contact with a few breeders but unfortunately most of them are at least two hour drive away. Added to this dilemma is the fact that we do not have adequate cartage equipment. So either we use expensive animal carriers or hire a trailer and go and fetch the animals ourselves. This way is safer as you get to see the animals first and pay cash up front. We have to work out the details of the collection time aswell as booking and collecting the trailer. It’s all so exhausting! Down the road from me is a man who has what must be 100 goats. I think I’m going to slip a note in his post box and see if he is willing to sell me two. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could do this! Let’s hope. Failing this Johnny has said we can go and collect the “boer goats” which we have found in Lowood. This is an area 1 and half hours away. I have learnt so much about the breeds of goats in this process aswell as make a total idiot of myself too. I will fill you in on one very embarrassing conversation with the goat breeder I had made contact with. Her name was Billy Joe – how’s that for a real country name. Anyway wearing my ignorance like a crown, I was asking her if she had a boar (thinking this was the name of a male goat). She quickly corrected me and told me the male goats are called buck or Billy’s. Where was my English training now? Where was the memory of the story I learnt as a child – The three Billy goats gruff’s….. Oh boy, there is help for me yet! So in the suspicion that a lot of you out there are like me I will give you a bit of an English/biology lesson. Here goes….

Female goats are called does, and as stated above the males are called bucks. Boer goats which are a breed actually originate from South African and are hardy, good starter goats for a small holding/acreage. They are predominately for meat eating and not milking but you can cross them with a milk goat and you will get the end result. The Asian countries eat goat meat and there is apparently a huge export market out there. The meat I’m told is something like venison and quite tasty. Most people I’ve spoken too don’t eat the meat but like I said there is a big export market to hone into if ever we decide to go the breeding route. Apparently most people keep the buck away from the girls and introduce him to them around Feb to April which in turn insured a five month gestation period and kids are born after the cold winter and hence a better survival rate.

Now on to the cow’s. The contact we had has gotten tired of waiting for us to make up our minds and I have a sneaky suspicion we have lost them which is annoying as it was a very good deal but our own fault at the end of the day. I’ve emailed him and have tried to make contact but I’ve been unsuccessful. So we still do not have a milking cow. Argh, it is frustrating.

As for the sheep, there seem to be very little about, however I have found a man just around the corner from me who will sell me a ram and some ewes later on in the year. Johnny says one at a time so I guess if the ram is still here in a few weeks, we may follow up on this option too.

Well that is the update on the animal front. As for me, I’ve been sewing curtains and working in my rose garden each day. Slowly but surely I’m gaining ground back from the weeds and moving in on the pests i.e. the caterpillars. They are so pesky and ruin the new buds. They spin a web like patch over the new buds and completely suffocate them. Each day I am watering the roses with the soapy dish water and it seems to be helping. Whether it is the complete solution or not I’m yet to see, but I will persevere.

This past weekend I tried to lift the little bit of paint that had been left behind on the porch partly on the wood but mostly on the cement strip with the painter stripper. What a tedious job this was and I wasn’t very successful. I gave up shortly. Johnny says we should rather use a sander for the cement part and then rehire the wood sander again to complete this job, so for now that’s the plan. I’m not looking forward to the dust again but what’s a girl to do!

The evening and early mornings are chilly and I have completely removed all summery nightwear and replaced it with our flannel PJ’s and fluffy slippers now. We make fires most nights and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere it creates. It is wonderfully to walk outside midday and enjoy the rays of the sun and not worry that you are being burnt to a crisp for a change. Even the flowers seem to be relaxing.

Spot is doing well and slowly learning his lessons in life. Michaela comes out with the funniest things sometimes. Yesterday spot got hold of her school shoe and carted it outside to hopefully have a good chew on. I had warned her already early on to not leave her shoes there but the ears were ornaments again. When she discovered that the one shoe was gone she then had to take the torch and go outside to search for it. This is a task Michaela detests as she is a big scaredy cat in the dark. This “country dark” is a whole lot darker than the city as you can imagine. She retrieved her shoe and thankfully it wasn’t damaged. She then took spot to the laundry and gave him a stern lecture and closed the door. I asked her what was going on? She replied “Mom I am disciplining him as he has been naughty. I had to keep a straight face but inside I was giggling madly. Poor spot had forgotten completely about the shoe but put on the saddest face ever.

Okay I’ve been pro-active. I’ve gone and dropped notes off in the post boxes and hopefully will hear something soon. If this works out it will save us a heap of trouble and will be so wonderful.

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