Stormy Weather

It's not very often that the meteorological boffins get it right but today they hit it right on the head. After a humid drizzly morning a strong nor'easterly storm has hit the North Island causing havoc. My friend John had driven out early to deliver the Barnevelder eggs for Cordelia to hatch and we watched as the hills gradually disappeared behind a grey sheet of rain. Chores this afternoon were a wet unpleasant experience.

It's been a sad past few days as my new vet has closed his practice in order to go back to California on business for an indeterminate time. He has been so good with housecalls (and decent over the bills) that he's going to be well and truly missed by all his clients. Rabbit savvy vets are hard to find in New Zealand and those that are here charge like wounded bulls. Hopefully he'll soon be back here to resume his practice. Pretty depressed as I seem to have been going from one vet to another for a couple of years since my previous one went on sabbatical to the UK.

Muggles, my house bunny, was in need of vet treatment over the weekend as he developed a red itchy patch on his face. He scratched it so much he inflamed his eye. The vet sent up a tube of ointment which has settled it all back down so it looks like he may have set up a small infection (I'm blaming the hay as it's full of grass seeds and thistles). I've taken the hay away and will gradually reintroduce it and see what happens.

Angel is still away. Hopefully this savage weather will send her home.

Oh Cordelia.....

Cordelia came here about four years ago when a friend of a friend was downsizing her poultry numbers. A large black hen with ruffles of feathers around her face she constantly looks shocked as if someone has just told her a dirty joke and she doesn't quite approve. Not only that she lays green eggs. People usually go "yuk" at the mention of this despite my explaining that it's only the shells that are green, inside the eggs are perfectly normal. Someone told me Cordelia was probably an Araucana but she certainly doesn't resemble any pictures I've found. Even so when she's in a laying mood she presents me with a green egg nearly every day.

This week Cordelia went broody. She sits silently in the nestbox trying to hatch whatever egg someone else happens to lay there. This is a nice change from the bantams who sneakily lay their eggs in remote places and then one day just disappear, turning up three weeks later with a new family. To celebrate Cordelia's maternal feelings a friend is going to collect half a dozen Barnevelder eggs from his neighbour "Peter Goat" and drive out Monday so we can pop them under her. At the moment I am trying to leave her alone with her one egg so she doesn't go off the boil.

Apparently Barnevelders lay brown speckled eggs but aren't as prolific layers as the brown shavers. I told my friend "well my shavers have only just started to lay again after a year" to which he replied "yes but your shavers are on crutches" referring to their advanced years! Poor old girls would be mortified to hear themselves being so disparagingly spoken of. In their small chicken minds they're still young pullets.........

A Cat On The Head Is Worth Two Anywhere Else

Not a joke. I woke up Monday morning with a cat asleep on my head. Last night I found two asleep on my pillow despite them having started off further down the bed when I had turned the light off. Demelza always lies curled up by my right shoulder and doesn't move till 4am when she decides she has to go walkabout. What I'll do when winter comes and Piper and Angel want to come inside to sleep I have no idea. I see myself ending up asleep on the floor while the cats take over the bed.

Cooking Down Under

The heat is oppressive- real headache weather. I managed to dig out about ten thistles round the hen house before it really kicked in and now have finished the west side of the garden. The cats lie in whatever shade they can find and Mishka lies permanently by the back door in the breeze. I will not complain though as the thought of the cold weather a few months away is just depressing.

I am having a real egg explosion which is quite unusual for this time of year. Usually from August to Christmas is my best time but 2005 was quite different and I barely collected a couple of dozen. Now here it is, the hottest and usually the most eggless time of year and I have just come inside from collecting five eggs including one huge brownie from the ancient shavers. Even Peanut my 11 year old bantam hen is laying behind a bale of hay in the rabbitry!

I have been reading an agricultural newspaper that advertises organic apple cider vinegar with garlic. Much cheaper than at the supermarket with around 20 litres for NZ$45.00 and free delivery anywhere in New Zealand. I am going to order some in a couple of weeks and keep all the animals on it as a tonic and wormer. Prevention is worth a ton of cure.

Aftermath

The wind has finally gone after ripping plants out of my garden and bringing down branches. Even the tarp covering Chocolate's outdoor hutch kept whipping off despite being weighed down with eleven bricks! The fields are quite brown now and it doesn't get like that too often here.

The great clean-up has finished. My eastern shelterbelt is trimmed so I've lost privacy but gained light. While the landlord's backpacker was here I got stuck into the garden as I knew they would cart the rubbish away. Tidied up the brick windowbox at the front and pulled a creeper out of the fushia bushes which left them pretty bare as it was strangling the life out of them. I have lost two plum trees that were growing in the wrong place and the landlord also cut trees on the southern bounday so the hen house has lost alot of its shelter. I may have to string a tarp on the run to shelter the chooks when winter comes. Otherwise it's looking very tidy and once I tidy up two more flower beds (an hour's work at most) it will be set till the Autumn clean up.

Angel

When my sister left her long-haired tabby cat Angel here three years ago she assured me that she was a bit of a couch potato who didn't do much else but sleep and eat. However on coming to the farm Angel discovered her "wild side" and spent much of the first month stalking birds in the front paddock.

In September 2004 Angel disappeared for a week on a hunting expedition. When she turned up again she greeted me as if she'd never been away. However this developed into a pattern and she would only stay here a few days before going walkabout for a couple of weeks. Late February 2004 she took off again but this time the two weeks turned into three, then four, then five etc. I printed off fliers and put them in all my neighbours' mailboxes but with no result. My landlord said not to worry as there isn't alot that can happen to her up here as we're not near a busy road. I had given up hope when nine weeks to the day later I went to feed the other cats one morning and there was a bedraggled and very thin Angel sitting in the laundry. She stayed round all winter till last September she began heading out over the hills again. As of writing this she has been gone three weeks. I don't worry so much any more as I'm certain once the weather cools down she'll be back. Whatever else Angel is, she looks after number one.

The nor'wester winds we're having at the moment have burnt the countryside brown. Yesterday my landlord decided to come in at 8.30am and began cutting down trees with a chainsaw while someone else mowed the lawn. I had to go out but when I returned I was a bit shocked to find the eastern shelterbelt had been severely trimmed and there is no privacy left. Admittedly it's alot lighter but I was really hoping that the tops would be trimmed as that's what prevents the sun from entering the cottage till 10am in winter. A couple of plum trees were cut down round the back as well. They brought in a large truck to remove the debris although there is still some foliage lying about. I guess a change is as good as a rest!

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve went by in a blur. Decided to watch "Phantom of the Opera" and by the time it finished it was dark and I had to try and find the youngest cats who had been up to hijinks outside. Peaches was so obedient and trotted inside but Gypsy couldn't get past Demelza whose entire existence is now devoted to keeping her up in the trees/roof/any item of furniture with her seated at the bottom glaring. Gyps ended up skipping across the cattlestop with me in hot pursuit holding a torch. This turned into a game with my temper unraveling as she did her wild witchy cat dance across the fields. In the end I shone the torch in front of her and she came to a full stop without her spotlight to perform in so I was able to bundle her up and get her back to the house. I am not a night person and if I can't get to sleep early I get decidedly cranky.

I hope 2006 is a much better year here although it has started shakily with my washing machine going into decline. Even refurbished ones locally cost NZ$445.00 yet you can buy a new one for just over $600.00 with a warranty. The vet bills I had in 2005 would have bought two and a drier as well. Best not to think about it really!