New Goats Learning New Tricks

Gypsy decided to wake me up at 3am this morning. She began by wailing like a banshee and walking up anything she thought resembled a sleeping human. When this didn't get me out of bed she jumped up onto the dressing table hoping that any tinkling and smashing sounds as she knocked everything sideways would do the trick. Who needs an alarm clock when you have a hungry cat...

The hairy foursome are going from strength to strength. Xena has proved to be an exceptional mother who is prone to headbutting any creature that comes within two feet of her baby including cats, dogs and chickens. For some reason I am allowed to pick him up for cuddles and since she is no longer a lady in waiting I am also allowed to pat Xena and even touch her stomach without getting gored which is always a good thing.

There have been a steady stream of visitors to see the baby. When he was two days old Glenys came with her digital camera and although the others ran and hid under the trees I managed to grab the boy and he posed sleepily for photos on my knee. At seven days Gay and Gine got to hold him which apparently didn't faze him one little bit as he followed behind us later bleating. Typical male- he loved the attention.

I have taken several photos but the weather became so foul over the weekend I was unable to get more as I had hoped. I shifted everyone to the orchard field as there is shelter there but Xena marched beneath the trees and stood there stubbornly as the rain pelted down. After a freezing cold Saturday where the temperature never reached above 4oC I had a restless night imagining a dead wet kid lying abandoned because his mother was too stubborn to seek shelter. The next morning when I went to check on them Heidi and Gretel were balancing delicately on the firewood in the shed. I called out to Xena and a big head and a smaller one appeared round the corner of an abandoned dog kennel. One thing I did learn- all the goats have hair that curls in the rain. The baby looked positively permed.

Gretel is proving a jumper. She jumps over the fences into the sheep paddocks, she jumps over gates, amd today she learned she could lean on my girlie fence and jump over that too. This means she can go anywhere she chooses. However the herding instinct is so strong with Gretel that her breaks for freedom are short as she soon wants to get back to the others.

Oh and today I finally came up with a name for the kid. He is called Hoggle.

Kiddy Talk

At first light I headed out to check how the goats had coped with sleeping in a different place. Gretel and Heidi ran up to say hello and then Xena appeared as well to check for goodies. I discovered the kid cuddled up under a tree branch, obviously asleep although when it woke and realised Mum had disappeared there was much maaing and wailing.

Cold temperature and rain were forecast for the afternoon so at 11am I headed out to collect kindling from under the big macrocarpa tree out the front. I then loaded the wheelbarrow with firewood and about burst my foo foo valve trying to get it up on the front verandah. I then tried to get under the ripped chicken netting of the old veggie garden enclosure out back in order to reach the kid. My plan was to carry it to the small orchard paddock next to the old wash house where there are old dog kennels and a woodshed where Xena and her goatling could shelter when the rain started. Rain is one of the biggest killers of new born animals, especially lambs and kids. I made my way between rusty netting and an ancient grape vine that was hanging all over the place but at the last moment the kid stood up and wandered off.

I collected some pellets and then made my way behind the chook shed, dodging the low tree branches and several old stumps. Xena was up for more feed and the kid began to wail and cry when it was left alone. It decided to come up to investigate me so I quietly picked it up and slowly made my way back to the orchard. Xena followed closely, bleating in response to her baby's calls. There was a massive and emotional reunion when I put the kid on the ground plus Xena butted Gretel and Heidi for good measure.

Late afternoon it began to rain so I went out again to check on the girls. This time I was able to pick the kid up and give it a good old cuddle while Mum snatched a late lunch. I feel honoured that Xena is so trusting of me and allows me to handle her baby whereas everyone else is headbutted if they get within ten feet of her. At one point today I looked out the window to see a terrified Kit Cat racing through the paddock with one angry nanny just a couple of feet behind.

I am so relieved I have finally finished one of my pressing tasks when I finally finished pruning all the (eight) roses earlier this week. They hadn't been pruned in many years so it was quite a task to wrestle them into shape, especially the old bush in front of the original wash house out the back. This turned out to be lethal with both large and small thorns that caught me unawares. My hands look as if I was involved in a major cat fight.

Also I weeded the veggie garden and planted nine spinach and nine broccoli plants. As there are so many wandering chooks, rabbits and other livestock here I had to put more bottomless cages over them. You can tell this garden belongs to an animal lover as the plants are caged and the pets roam free.

Pitter Patter Of Little Feet

The past few days I've noticed Xena Warrior Goat has become rounder and rounder and her udder hanging lower and lower. This morning she wasn't standing near the front fence as she usually does and she didn't run over to meet me when I opened the gate to her paddock but I managed to entice her out with some pellets and shut her and the two others in the hen house field for the day.

On arriving home from Otane in the mid afternoon I busied myself lighting the fire and feeding the bunnies before I headed out to see what the goats were up to. Gretel and Heidi were waiting by the fence but there was no sign of Xena. However when I went to feed the chooks I saw a flash of white under the macrocarpa shelter belt and there she was with a little kid drinking from her.

I was sooo excited that I rushed to put the others into the orchard field and took Xena some pellets to entice her out. I didn't need to however as she brought her new offspring over to say hello. The baby was wobbly on its feet and still wet so obviously only newly born but it bravely came towards me and allowed me to touch its tiny face. On dark I went out again to check on mother and child and had to make my way through the undergrowth and under the trees to find them. Xena got up and wandered over and her kid began bleating before walking over to me and saying hello again. Once again I was allowed to touch it without Xena becoming aggressive which was so thrilling considering how wild she was just a few weeks ago (the photo to the left shows Xena, Gretel and Heidi their first day here). She is such a proud Mum, licking the baby constantly and standing patiently while it suckles.

Since then I have been on the phone ringing my friends and leaving messages for those I can't contact to tell them I'm a proud grandmother.

Mad Cow, Widget and the Escaping Kids

I have seen snow falling for the first time in my life. Saturday morning I went out early to feed the chooks with Mishka and Kit Cat when little flakes of ice began falling and settling onto their long coats. It wasn't terribly cold but even so I rushed back inside in time to see a whole lot of white stuff begin falling. Mesmerised I spent most of the morning peering through the kitchen and dining room windows at this sea of flakes drifting down around the house. Very excited I rang a friend in order to tell her that it was snowing at Tikokino and "it looks just like it does on TV!" After all the drama nothing settled on the lawn but snow lay on the foothills for most of the week.

Gine helped me with hanging the rest of the curtains in the dining room and already I can feel that it's much cosier in there now the heat isn't escaping out of the windows. The cats are miffed though that they can no longer sit staring out into the night pulling faces at any rabbits that might be passing by.

The biggest excitement of the week however was yesterday morning when Andrew decided to move some steers out of the paddock next door. One recalcitrant individual decided to make a break for freedom and ran in the opposite direction along the stock route with one naughty donkey in pursuit. Next thing it came running back with Andrew behind and one worried donkey in pursuit. The steer decided it wasn't going anywhere it didn't want to and leapt the back fence into my yard. Next it jumped over my temporary "girlie" fence into the hen house area. Andrew also jumped the fence and I heard some noise, a clatter, some metal clanging, and then the steer running around the house and past the dining room window. A minute later Andrew casually wandered past the same way with a wave, a grin and a "Hi Jen".

Also Widget Rooster disappeared. Two days ago he was looking a bit dishevelled and discombobulated and that was the last I saw of him. He was an old cockeral so he may have just gone the same way as Artemis and Suki. Locals are saying this is one of the coldest winters in the area for many years so it's going to take casualties I suppose.

When I arrived home after portrait class today I couldn't see the goats at all. When I went to let the chooks out for a scratch Xena Warrior Goat was standing by the house looking concerned. Next I heard a desperate "Maaaaah" and saw that Gretel and Heidi had managed to get themselves over the fence into the shelter belt area. I couldn't get them over the barbed wire so went into the orchard field and pulled John's cleverly constructed goat proof fence down only to find that Gretel had managed to squeeze back under the side fence and was now dancing around on the top of the netting in the grape area. Heidi who is too small and too naive to plan such naughtiness came towards me fence I had lowered and ran into the woodshed in relief. It wasn't too long before the others joined her although only after I had bribed them with some pellets. By the time I got inside I was in great need of a cuppa.

Artemis Fowl

I love the brown shaver breed of hen as they're such friendly souls. When friends bought several pullets from a poultry farm many years ago I took four of these to add to my flock. Over time one by one they went to the big hen house in the sky except one very determined chook I named Artemis Fowl. The friendliest of the four she would follow me everywhere, even inside the house on occasion. Even if she saw me in the driveway she would frantically run up and down the fence in a panic that she might be missing out on something important.

Recently Artemis had become even more affectionate, allowing me to pick her up and tuck her under my arm while she talked to me and pecked at her reflection in my sunglasses. She also began making long treks into the paddocks along with the young chooklettes to see what she could scavenge.

This afternoon I let the chooks out mid afternoon for a brief run as it was so cold and windy. After an hour they asked to be put to bed but Artemis was nowhere to be found. I whistled her (all my animals come to the whistle) and called her name but there was no sign of her brown form wobbling towards me. However when I went into the hen house to pour out the mash I saw her curled up asleep in a nest box. But when I touched her feathers they were cold and I realised Artemis had died in her sleep.

I knew she was very very old (nearly ten I think) but there was no sign of her slowing down. However this is exactly the way to go, no illness or trauma but just an old hen peacefully drifting off to sleep.