RIP BWB

When I went out to feed the hens first thing Wednesday morning I found Bloody White Bastard lying dead by the garden by the back door. Looked like he was waiting to be fed and had a heart attack. Buried him in the garden with all state honours. Ten years was a good age but I really miss him following me around the place.

The farrier braved the rain Tuesday morning to trim Briar's hooves and came to tell me she was limping quite badly. She had been fine Monday so he felt she'd either been kicked or else had an abscess. He suggested I leave her a few days to see if it burst on its own. By Thursday Briar could barely hobble around so left a message with Bart Thompson the local equine vet. He returned my call in the evening and as luck would have it he was going to be seeing a horse on a farm down my road at lunchtime Friday.

He arrived dead on time and we braved Tobermory goat to get to Briar who was standing near the tack shed with the Kaimanawa horse. She had an abscess deep in her right hind hoof which Bart lanced before giving her a huge injection of penicillin and a shot for tetanus. He says it's the time of year that caused the abscess- we have days of rain and then it becomes hot. He left me four packets of painkillers but I have to say that after only one day Briar is nearly walking normally again. I had only just sent a cheque for the last of Demelza's vet bill so am not happy I'm back in debt again but you can't watch an animal suffer like that and not do anything.

I have been busy upgrading and revamping my menagerie website and now it has all my stock uploaded I'll hopefully get some orders before Christmas. I am also hoping to complete more spinning for the handspun yarn page and have asked my sister for help getting me back knitting so I can make small items from my angora fibre. Haven't knitted since I was about eight or nine and it's true- if you don't use it you lose it. I think I can vaguely remember how to cast on and cast off.

Bye Bye Birdie

The big Plymouth rock that was hanging round the hen house and making overtures towards Cordelia the black Aracauna decided to take on one of the smallest bantam roosters. He lost! That Game Fowl blood way back in the background still comes through when it comes to defending one of their women. Despite this when I put them to bed after their forage the big rooster followed them into the shed. To his horror I picked him up and carried him back outside. Shocked and traumatised he took to his heels (do chickens even have heels?) and ran all the way home. However he was back over here later on when he perched in a tree by the back gate and proceeded to crow loudly all night. The next day he was gone. I assume his vocal exercises had annoyed his owner and she moved him on.

Last week I advertised a few of my small unnamed bantam roosters free to good home. Had a call from a lady wanting three but she never got back to me. This is the third time this has happened and I'm so fed up with it. I hate tyre kickers and time wasters. Perhaps I'm being too tough and she's only lost my phone number. Anyway will readvertise them this week and see how I get on. They've been sprayed for lice etc. so they're ready to go.

Since my eastern shelter belt has been cut down I have been able to see the lovely specimen trees growing near the big homestead including a colourful Kowhai. I remember one in my parent's garden and how it would attract the tuis. This is a lovely time of year apart from the terrible nor westerlies. The other day they got up to 120 kms and I thought the roof was going to lift.

After three weeks my nettle and thistle programme is showing results. I've nearly cleared all the scotch thistles next to the hen run and have removed two thirds of the nettles and thistles near the back boundary. Once I get these under control I can get into the garden out the front which is pretty overgrown. The fact is it's hard to see the weeds as my lawn hasn't been mown since Autumn and is nearly three feet high in places. I asked John if he could keep an eye out for a couple of lambs I could run on the lawn but I don't think he realised I was serious. If he were still alive my Dad would be appalled. He mowed our lawns once a week in the warm weather and perhaps once a month in winter and God help anyone who made a mark on them.

Mills and Boon in the Henhouse

The local electricity company cut off our power all day yesterday to repair lines somewhere down the road. Made a thermos so I could have a couple of hot drinks through the day and tried to cope with the silence. It's weird how acclimatized you become to having noise in the background.

Not that it was too quiet with my landlady's Plymouth Rock roosters are crowing fit to bust. The other afternoon I was getting ready to have a bath when I saw four out the front attacking Bloody White Bastard. By the time I hauled on my clothes again and rushed out they were strutting away leaving a white heap of feathers on the grass. Appalled I picked his limp little body up in my arms and cuddled him to my chest as I came back up the drive. Halfway along he lifted up his head and looked around as if to say "Are they gone yet?". Little bloke was playing dead! I frightened him even further by giving him a huge hug before feeding him some grain as a reward for being so clever. I guess you don't reach ten years of age without learning a trick or two!

One of the roosters has taken up residence in my backyard however. I have chased him out repeatedly but he just keeps returning. I was so worried when I let the chickens out yesterday but he ignored my roosters and zoomed in on Cordelia the black Aracauna. Doing the broken wing dance around her he tried to round her up only to be attacked by Widget, a bantam rooster about one sixth his size. Surprisingly the small bird intimidated him and he backed off. However half an hour later he was following Cordy around clucking at her, even following her when she walked into the hen house. He acts like a rooster in love whereas she has no interest in him whatsoever. That's my girl- treat 'em mean keep 'em keen.

After our cold snap last week a strong norwester has brought temperatures of 28oC (82.4oF). I knew the hot weather was coming as Angel disappeared two days ago...........

Cold Snaps Blows In Visitor

Freezing weather has blown this way from the South Island bringing rain and a bitter southerly wind. Put paid to my "five-a-day" programme that I began on the weekend- digging out five thistles and five nettles every morning to try and get the jungle under control.

My sister was up from Dunedin this week and came out to see me Monday. Naturally Angel (her cat) was still away on one of her expeditions. I always joke how that cat leaves with the warm weather and returns with the cold. Sure enough last night there was a noise at the window and Angel had come home. Starving hungry and pretty grumpy but strangely pleased to see everybody (except the dog). I assume she'll stay as long as the weather is rotten. She's better than any barometer!

Bloodbath!

Last Saturday night was definitely made for fighting. Firstly there was a crash in the kitchen and found Peaches had "played" with one of my hen salt and pepper set and smashed it onto the floor. Then Demelza chased Gypsy up into my bedroom and by the time I got there Gyps was behind the curtain and there was a pool of blood on the sill. There were spatters of gore up the curtains and about thirty drops of blood all over the carpet. Gyps then followed me into the bathroom, smeared more on the walls and then got in the bath which was soon covered with blood. Checked and she was bleeding from under her tail. Was up till 10pm trying to get the blood out of the curtains and carpet and me as she sat on me at one point and bled over my night attire.

Haven't seen anything as gory since the great Three Blind Mice Massacre of 1999!

Cobwebby Morning

It's getting light at 5.30am at the moment so the thought of Daylight Saving Time beginning tomorrow is welcome. Since all the trees on the eastern side of the driveway have been chopped down the sun has begun shining in the back yard and this morning when I glanced out the back door there were 15 perfectly round cobwebs suspended between fence wires or amongst the undergrowth. The spiders have also been busy building all round my windows but may be in for a nasty surprise as I am about to wash the outsides of these this weekend.

It's been an interesting week. A few days ago coming home from an appointment in Napier I saw a couple of wire cages sitting on the grass verge at the side of the road. Called in at the nearest cottage but no one was home so drove across the paddock to the house next door which still owns all the land. Met a very nice guy called Olly who said he used to keep angoras twenty years ago. He had nine banks (each with three cages) and also took us to his old rabbit shed where he had a roll of brand new floor mesh as well. Named a price and my brother paid straight away (I just have to pay him back now).

Last Thursday friend John arrived out with his ute and trailer piled high with the cages and mesh. A couple of banks have no bottoms and a couple had slight rust but the rest being perfectly preserved even after all these years in the open. He piled them down the back of the property so we can get to them when we start to replace my old ones.

It has been an interesting few months as angoras suddenly seem to becoming popular again. I have had quite a few enquiries about buying stock with a shocked response when I say that I no longer sell my animals. Firstly you get people thinking they're going into breeding angoras and are going to make a fortune with their fibre. I am very open with them as to the fact that the market is tiny and ever decreasing since alpaca has become so popular. So many rabbit farms went down in the 80s and 90s after China flooded the market with inferior fibre and the market will never return. Unfortunately people think I'm deliberately withholding information from them, that I'm making a fortune on the quiet and just don't want to share my spoils. In 19 years of keeping angoras I have yet to make my feed bill!

The other kind are the people who say they only want an angora as a pet. I and other breeders find these are the ones that say the same thing to a couple of breeders so they can get a pair which they then burn out breeding for the pet market. The offspring of these are then sold on to pet shops and after the new owners discover how difficult angoras are to keep the poor animals end up in the RSPCA or at vets. I have had several come through here in a bad way. Sometimes they have such severe blockages from wool they expire within a short time. Angoras are not a pet for the faint hearted and I applaud the breeders who vet prospective owners as to their intentions although many of us have still been conned. The bunny mill breeders are one of the lowest forms of life and have no regard for their animals- only the money they can make from the unsuspecting public.

Cats Feeling The Joys Of Spring

Kind brother spent a long time Wednesday trying to get the TV amplifier repaired. Finally succeeded by completely taking it apart and redoing all the wiring. Turns out the booster part is actually up on the aerial and the box down here is just a power pack. Anyway he got my TV reception back after 11 days.

Yesterday Demelza turned up with a baby rat. Fortunately it was dead but despite this she still wanted to bring it inside to "share". My cats never take on rats so the only explanation for this aberration is that Melz thought it was a very over grown mouse. I am amazed she even killed it as she usually plays with her prey till she loses them. She spends most of her time looking bewildered wondering where they've gone while (I assume) they sit under a tuft of grass giving her the proverbial finger.

Piper has done a disappearing act this morning. She was lying asleep by the back door last night when next door's cat attacked her so I brought her in. However she proved so restless that at 10pm I let her out again as I had given her her heart medication. Looking at her you'd never think there was anything wrong with her at all as she seems so fit and well.

The phone went out again yesterday morning. Told Telecom I didn't want to be without it for seven days like last time so they actually had it repaired within six hours. When you live in an isolated position the phone takes on mythic importance as it is your sole contact with the outside world.

Suddenly the weather is warming up. It was 25oC yesterday and the temperatures are set to be as high today. All Winters mud has dried up which is wonderful.

I Hate Technology

I am seriously beginning to think there is a great god of technology sitting up in the sky periodically deciding to dump his issues on this household. So far this year my computer monitor has caught fire, the washing machine and vacuum cleaner died, the stereo plug caught fire, my car failed its warrant needing new brakes (plus it needed another battery and requires four new tyres before its warrant in December), then it was vandalized in July. Eleven days ago the TV signal amplifier died so no TV ever since then and yesterday my three year old video lost its picture. Ringing my brother he informed me that it "sounded really bad news" and that it would probably be cheaper to buy a new machine rather than get it repaired. Like a good brother he is lending me one of his videos as he knows I can't afford to buy another at the moment (what with the $300 vet bill and four new tyres thing).

Demelza is continuing to improve. All the oedema disappeared last week and now she is ravenous to the point she tries to steal food. Hopefully she'll soon put more weight on. Angel is still AWOL after six weeks.

It took a week but I cleaned my way round all the windows inside the cottage. Trying to get to the outsides but the Spring Equinox has hit here with gale force winds so not bothering to clean anything out in the elements as it's a waste of time.

We're still getting a few frosts. I finished my nicotinic acid tablets last week and so yesterday right on cue painful chilblains reappeared on my right hand. Will buy some more pills when I next go to town and take them right through to summer. I know I should take the attitude that life is giving me the opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons but honestly when a run of bad luck lasts so long you just feel like a sour old piece of fruit!

First Egg and Demelza Is Back

Well my little chick who hatched in April has done the deed and laid her first tiny egg. Strangely (since she's a brown hen) she's laid a white egg with pale speckles. Have a couple more bantys broody at the moment. You can tell this by the screams if you approach anywhere near where they're nesting since they prefer to hide their nests under bushes and amongst grass. Always a sound that can get your heart rate up though not in a good way!

I have cut Demelza's Homeobotanicals down to three drops twice a day. All the oedema has dispersed so now I can see how thin this unexplained illness has made her. However her old personality is back, she even ran forward to greet me yesterday. I don't think we'll ever know what was really wrong with her (although I think she has had a toxic reaction to something) but I feel confident that she's over the worst. Just a matter of feeding her back up now. Just over a week ago I would have guaranteed that I was going to lose her.

Also been doing a little spinning each day. Did a skein of merino over the weekend which I posted on Trademe. It sold the next day so frantically trying to finish some more. Have also finished up some left over angora blend and plied it 50/50 with merino. Only got about 30 grams out of it but posted these for sale on Trademe as well. More a novelty yarn though.

The signal booster on the TV has finally died so I have no reception at all now. Watching old videos while trying to save up for a new booster as they're around $61. Has given me more time for my spring cleaning. At the moment slowly working my way around the cottage cleaning the inside of all the windows. A very boring job but always satisfying when you find you can see outside again.

Back To The Vet

My fortnightly trip down to town yesterday so had quite a few chores to do including dropping Demelza into the vet's for a check up. Originally she was going back for another blood test to see what her protein levels are now but since receiving a $258.20 vet bill on Monday (of which $120 was for the bloods) I have been in shock so have been cutting down on expenses so I can pay it.

Doug kept her in for the morning and when I returned at 11am told me that Demelza is a weird cat. Her backside is still full of fluid but only one side of her body is now swollen. This makes no sense whatsoever. He has prescribed anabolic steroids to try and get her appetite up (with a promise that she won't end up a muscle cat) and we'll see how we go from there. The receptionist said there are probably only about ten clients in their practice who really love their animals and would do anything for them and I would be one (the vet agreed with her) but I think this was to soften me up for another bill. I did mention giving herbs to her but Doug just grinned as he's used to this. He did ask if one was a diuretic which I confirmed and he seemed happy.

When I was chatting to the receptionist while Doug dispensed the steroids she said what an unusually marked cat Demelza is. She should have seen her when she was a kitten! What a little sweetheart she was.

Shedding The Thermals

The warm weather has finally arrived. Must have as I got rid of the thermal vest and two jerseys on Thursday! My plum tree by the garage is in full blossom now and absolutely stunning to look at, especially when you gaze up at the sky through the branches.

Trying to spend at least an hour and a half per day working outside catching up with rabbit work and doing a wee bit of gardening. Not easy as I'm still recovering from the head cold I caught a week ago.

Demelza is holding her own after having a particularly bad week. My usual vet was away when I rang last Monday to report that she was slightly off her food. The Locum felt it was constipation and recommended CatLax which a friend collected for me the following day. This is a brown paste which you squeeze like toothpaste onto the cat's front paw so that they lick it off. Well it did the trick and the following day two dried up little offerings were left displayed in all their glory in the litter tray. Two more doses helped Dem get back into the rhythm of things.

However on Friday her feet had swollen to twice their size. She slept all day and whenever I looked at her she was shivering. When she woke late afternoon she could barely walk and I was concerned that she might not last the night. Rang the vets' and the receptionist was very cranky and berated me for leaving my call till so late in the day as the locum had left early and I would have to leave my enquiry till after hours when she switched the phone over to the vet's mobile or else come in the next morning. I came off the phone very tearful. That sort of attitude is the last thing you need when you're already upset about your pet. Then I got angry as I've poured alot of money into that practice over the past 15 years.

Anyway hauled out my Homeobotanical Remedies which are so past their use by date it's not funny. Cut some of Demelza's fur and dowsed over it a selection of remedies until I found a decent combination. Showed up she needed diuretic herbs as well as some for blood, bowel and allergies of all things. Hardly had any herbal water left but mixed up a potion, succussed it and just squirted it down the cat's throat. That night she cuddled up to me and everytime I touched her began purring. The next morning Demelza was very interested in her food for the first time in a week.

Yesterday Dem's face was very swollen but she wandered outside and sat in the sun for a couple of hours. I noticed when I carried her in that her feet weren't so swollen and by this morning they had gone back to normal. I have her on ten drops of HbtBDQU twice a day and will keep her on this till all the fluid has disappeared from her system. Just goes to confirm my belief that natural remedies can be extremely effective in helping conditions that have conventional vets scratching their heads.

Deflating Demelza

Demelza walked in Tuesday night with a swollen rear end. By the next morning she also had huge saddlebags on her thighs so off to the vet she went. Doug "deflated" her by putting an incision in the base of her tail and she leaked fluid from this for three days. This was full of glucose but strangely enough her blood glucose was normal. He sent bloods away and these showed up that both her small and large proteins are very low. However she is still eating and perky which he feels rules out kidney, heart or liver problems. She has no bare of itchy patches so no allergy either. Which leaves the gut so it looks like she may have ingested something toxic. If she loses her appetite, gets diarrhea or swells up again then she has to be hospitalized for a biopsy.

Quakes and Ancient Hens

After all my excitement about the rabbit cages I fell back to earth when friend John went to check them out and discovered the cage I saw was the only good one. All the rest were battery hen cages (small) and mostly rusted. However yesterday he drove out with the one good cage and two others that I had stored at his place.

It had already been a bit of a traumatic morning as one of my white hens had died. I can't remember which clutch she came from but she was aged between nine and eleven years old. Pretty good life span for a laying hen (not that she has laid many eggs recently). She was only a bit wobbly for one day and died in her sleep. As the mornings are light by 6.30am these days I had her buried by 7am. The majority of my hens are now geriatric ranging up to Peanut (a game fowl cross) who is the great grandmother of them all at twelve. Her daughter Suki is eleven and her granddaughters are all around eight or nine. Most are still laying but I am going to have to think about bringing in new stock at some point. My landlord's partner is raising Plymouth Rock poultry at the moment. Can't see them but can hear the roosters in the morning.

Had three smallish earthquakes late Sunday afternoon- the largest measured 3.7 on the Richter scale. Just a jolt each time, no shaking at all. Apparently they were centered at Hastings which is just twenty minutes away from here. At the moment we're waiting for a cold snap to travel up from the South Island. Just winter's last fling before the warmer weather arrives (she says hopefully).

Chocolate

We're in the midst of another cold snap at the moment so too chilly to do more than essentials outside. I have lots of work to do out in the sheds which is frustrating. Also Chocolate who lives in a hutch on the lawn needs some maintenance. She is such a hardy rabbit and seems to thrive in the outside environment although I think she misses her brother Snowflake who died of RCD/RHD (calicivirus) right beside her last year. She is very small even for an English angora but apparently, according to her previous owners who brought her up here, both her parents were rexes. For some reason two angoras were thrown in the litter although the other one died. You can definitely tell there is crossbreeding in the background as her coat is just rubbish but she has such an adorable face you forgive her anything.

Angel Flown and Thumb Update

Angel has gone walkabout again (early this year as she usually waits until September until she begins disappearing. When she's here she tends to take over the cottage. She's either asleep on a chair you want to use, sitting in front of where you want to walk or else sitting (or cleaning her rear end) on your drawing board where you want to work.

My thumb is slowly recovering from being eaten nearly two weeks ago. The skin has grown in and filled in the hole but the bite marks are still visible and painful so I am still bandaged up. Muggles is back to hopping round and helping himself to toast crusts at breakfast but now I throw them on the floor rather than risk feeding him by hand. I definitely want to keep the rest of my fingers attached.

Piper Poses

Piper has good days and bad days with her cardiomyopathy. A good day she'll get up early and eat all her breakfast, she'll supervise me when I'm outside working and plays with the water coming out of the hose when I'm filling up bottles for the rabbits. A bad day I have to wake her up, she doesn't want to eat and it takes her all morning to come right. I don't know why this is as she regularly has her heart medication (twice a day).


Recently I had a film developed and discovered I'd taken quite a few photos of Piper (before I knew she was so ill). Here she is posing in my bedroom window which is the first room to get some sun in the morning in the winter. As you can see it gets so damp here even the windows cry.




This is the reason I often can't sit in my armchair- no room! Piper is sharing with Peaches and Gypsy. In the evening the young cats take over while Pipe lies at the base of the chair so she can get the full benefit of the heater.

Biting the Hand Who Feeds Him

Had an interesting day yesterday. Was having breakfast with five cats, dog and Muggles the house rabbit who, as usual, was getting rather excited as he loves eating the crust off the bread. Well he mistook my thumb as part of the toast I was offering him and took a chunk out of it. I knew the wound was bad as it began spurting blood immediately. I got Mugs back in his cage while rearranging the room which has to be partitioned when he's out. By the time I got to the bathroom I began hearing buzzing in my ears and realized I was going to faint so came back out, grabbed the phone and lay on the floor. My friend John was the only person I knew would be up at that hour so rang him and told him I was likely to pass out and began crying like a big sook. He was coming to a meeting in Hastings so told me to leave my door unlocked but after ten minutes the faintness passed and I could sit up. All this time I was pressing my thumb with my finger but the bleeding wouldn't stop.

Anyway we discussed that I should ring my other friend Judy as she's a trained nurse. She suggested pressing a sanitary pad into the thumb to take pressure of the finger which was getting tired. She rang back in an hour and it still hadn't stopped bleeding. It didn't stop for two hours!

Afterwards I put on my Homoeobotanical Golden Healing cream and nearly went through the ceiling with the stinging. I put on a band aid and after ten minutes the pain subsided. GH actually prevents tetanus so I guessed it would deal to any staph germs in Muggle's mouth. I ended up feeling so shaky yesterday but drank alot of fluids right through till evening so hopefully my hand has filled up again! ;-)

I'm going to rename Muggles Dracula.

Phones

More rain came last week causing more flooding as the ground was already sodden with water and couldn't take anymore. An unexpected twist was that it took out the phone lines and I was without a phone for SEVEN days. Since I am on dial up this also meant no internet. Talk about frustrating. Telecom will be receiving a letter of complaint as they didn't bother to divert calls through to my mobile until last Wednesday when I was in town and phoned them from my brother's place. I have missed several calls apparently as when people rang they wouldn't even get a signal which also meant my message service wasn't able to do its thing. Considering the obscene profit this company makes every year you'd think they'd have adequate maintenance staff on the job. I object to paying the monthly rental I do if this is the service I receive.

Also I've had three days in the last week and a half when I've had no water. Happened again this morning so waiting with dirty hair for the landlord to do something to rectify the situation.

Grrrrrrrrrr

Bastards of the human and feathered variety

Had an upsetting phone call on Saturday morning when my brother called to say that my car had been broken into Thursday night. Richard drives my car which is why it was parked at his house but unfortunately that particular evening he didn't hear the thieves smash the window to get in. They demolished the ignition barrel, switch and turning lock so the car now can't be driven at all and as a parting gesture emptied the ashtray over all the car seats!

The police didn't bother to come until Saturday morning by which time Rich and his friend had had to push the car round to the back of the house for protection. This meant that there were no fingerprints that could be taken so no one will be punished. I've spent time on the phone trying to organize insurance and the company arranged for the car to be towed to a panelbeaters yesterday and have said they'll try to get it back on the road as soon as possible.

The weird thing is nothing was stolen out of the car at all which I guess means I have really have nothing worth stealing! I guess I'm lucky that the morons didn't manage to steal the car and go joyriding as it would have ended up as a burnt out shell on the river bank. It just infuriates me that they trashed the scruffiest car on the street- could they not tell it belonged to someone permanently broke? I just hope my belief in Karma holds true........

Onto more pleasant topics once upon a time there were three little boys. Well three little white roosters. One was unnamed as he would be going to live near the beach at Waimarama, one was called Spiderman but he unfortunately was killed by my landlords dogs and the third was known as Bloody White Bastard. Now BWB didn't start off with that nickname but he was such a pig to the hens (hiding behind bushes to ambush any unsuspecting pullet minding her own business) that I found myself constantly yelling out "Leave her alone you b****y white b*****d!" so it stuck.

His halcyon days have passed however as BWB is now ten years old and apparently can't cut the mustard anymore. Yes the hens actually threw him out of the hen run. He now spends his time sunning himself in the garden or else hanging around waiting for me feed him. I have become fond of him as he has turned into a pleasant bantam rooster who minds his own business. No more lust in the dust for him- now he only has me his "bud in the mud".

Waterfalls, Wet Fowls and Thunder Thighs

I loathe having to go to town in the rain. That feeling of water running down your neck every time you get out of the car, having to scurry from shop to shop and the mad dash to get all your purchases into the house before they turn into pulp is not pleasant. However Thursday I needed to go to hospital for heart tests so had to brave a terrible rain storm.

The shingle section of our road is now just one long succession of pot holes. If you try to go round one you just drive straight into another. The rain had gouged great chasms across the dirt which saw mini waterfalls pouring into the paddocks. Even the sealed section wasn't much better as the water began creeping right across making driving quite dangerous. The road beneath Te Mata peak was obscured by four or five slips where the clever powers-that-be had decreed all the trees holding the banks together along the roadside be felled. Bet they're feeling a bit foolish now considering all the times workmen are called out to clean up landslides.

We didn't suffer as badly as the Wairarapa though who are still cleaning up after extensive surface flooding. Today we are expecting 120 km westerly winds but I for one will welcome them as we need something to dry up the mud.

In the midst of all this I decided to shift the mother hen and her three month old chick into "the big house". This proved quite simple as I just held the chick while Mum followed me yelling abuse. Unfortunately the chick wasn't too sure if she should be in the shed with the others and I found her standing bedraggled at the hen run gate Thursday morning. I washed out the old plastic rubbish bin that was in their hutch in the hope she would recognise it and stand in there out of the rain but she didn't want a bar of it preferring to get soaked instead.

Fortunately she's settled in a bit better now. When I let the chickens out at lunchtime I catch her and put her in the shed where I feed her. I will do this for another couple of days till she realises that is her new home so that she'll happily return there in the afternoon when I put everyone to bed.

Piper is doing well. Her "Thunder Thighs" have gone back down to a normal size so the heart pills are definitely working. She gets annoyed with me for keeping her inside at night and sits on the window sill looking out at all the mice, rats and other prey she'd normally be catching as they file past giving her the finger in defiance. It's a tough life being a cat!

Mud......but no way is it glorious

I remember a few years ago listening to the radio programme "My Music" where a panel of four wits answered questions about music through the ages. They would always finish up singing a song and Frank Muir (a well known comic writer) would often finish with a Flanders and Swan piece that went "Mud mud glorious mud/ Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood/ So follow me follow/ Down to the hollow/ And there let us wallow in gloooooorious mud!"

Well mud isn't glorious. It smells, it gets everywhere and it doesn't matter how much I try to convince myself it is actually chocolate it still just remains wet dirt. I'm not the only one complaining as a visitor yesterday said she'd never known it so wet and horrible at her property. This is exacerbated by the cats who come in with muddy paws and decide to "take the high road" along the furniture. Officially we have had the coldest June in 15 years and at this rate July may turn out to be the wettest.

The only cat not giving me grief at the moment is Piper who is fast becoming a house cat. She has finished her antibiotics and is feeling better if her frisking around the cottage at 3am is anything to go by. Sometimes I notice her breathing is quite forced but her heart pills seem to be keeping that in check. When I go outside first thing in the morning she sits watching me before accompanying me inside for breakfast. In the afternoon she spends an hour outside with Demelza before coming back in for the night. This is the complete opposite of what she used to be like.

The other news for the week is my landlord coming in to removed the gum tree branches from the backyard. What a job that was. I think the whole top of the tree had broken off in the bad south easterlies we had a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what else to expect this winter- I just wish it were over.

Southerlies and Other Storms Ahead

The weather this week has been terrible. On Monday we had such strong south easterlies that the entire canopy off the top of the gum tree fell into my backyard. It was disconcerting as I had been in the exact spot an hour earlier. I spent the entire day rushing outside trying to keep the tarps on the hutches on the front lawn. Weighing them down with bricks didn't do the trick and in the end I had to tuck the edges under the hutches themselves and this seemed to do the trick.

I was already tired from traumas the night before. Piper cat began meowing at 9pm and licking her lips before she vomited her entire afternoon meal all over the carpet. I cleaned this up and we all headed to bed but instead of getting up on the chair beside me Piper sat at the foot of the bed. Round midnight I awoke to a weird sound and found she had had "an accident" so out of bed to clean this up while she sat facing the corner. An hour later I woke to the sound of vomiting and found her in the litter tray surrounded by undigested food. An hour later she was still there.

Monday she didn't want to touch her food and ran into the garage for the day, only coming inside later that afternoon. However Tuesday she began eating again so I surmised that she'd caught a stomach bug and that it had righted itself. Wednesday though she began having episodes of diarrhea and this was bloody so I rang the vet for an appointment.

After a thorough examination he came up with the terrible news that Piper has cardiomyopathy. Her body is filling up with fluid and her heart is beating very fast. The vet thinks in her case it is hereditary. He prescribed antibiotics for the diarrhea and heart meds but would not give her the first dose as he felt the stress of him forcing the pills down would cause a heart attack. He did say that it was lucky she got sick as usually cats with this condition show no outward signs but just drop dead!

Instead of leaving her with the vet we put Piper in the back seat and covered the carry cage with a sheet so she'd feel secure. It made for a very nervewracking morning as we kept checking to see if she was still alive.

Two days later I have managed to get the medication into her and Piper has begun to eat again. Last night it was so cold I made sure she was covered up where she lay on the chair. From what I have read it depends on what part of the heart is affected by the cardiomyopathy as to her prognosis. It could range from as little as six months to a few years. It seems so unfair as she is only two and a half years old and already dealing with having been born with a deformed tail.

Meanwhile we all huddle inside while this terrible storm freezes the country. I thought it was actually snowing here yesterday as the rain began coming in sideways. After receiving a huge power bill yesterday I am mindful of running the heater but there is no alternative. I hate winter!

Cages

Last Wednesday I finally managed to get out to see the lady who had offered me free wire rabbit cages at the Creative Fibre Festival. We were running late as the car took an hour and a half to start due to a dying battery (to go along with the brakes and tires that also need replacing) so I ended up there at 10.59am instead of 10.30am as promised. However the lady had pulled a double cage out and I was able to view it without getting out of the car which saved time.

They are double ones and look like old poultry brooder cages. Despite having been outside for ten years they haven't got a touch of rust that I can see. The wire is thicker than in my present cages with a double thickness coming up the side for strength. Added to that they're slightly larger than my present wooler cages plus they come with feeders. The lady says I can have them all- all 100 of them!

I spoke to my friend John who by coincidence lives round the corner from her, in fact his family passes by her property when they go into town. He has a trailer and will bring as many cages out as he can in stages. We'll pile them up under the trees at the back of this place after replacing my two banks of rusted cages which he says he will take away to the dump for me. I am extremely relieved as I have been trying to replace my older cages for so long now. I can't believe how providence led this lady to me!

Antarctic Blast

It was only 8oC (46oF) here yesterday but the wind chill made it feel even colder. Heading down to town I noticed heavy grey/brown clouds hanging low over the valley and I was certain we would get some snow. It was a four cat night as we all huddled together to share body warmth.

I have been rereading a book about Hannah Hauxwell the genteel daleswoman who was discovered by a documentary film maker in 1972 and immortalized in the programme "Too Long A Winter". This lady was living alone in a remote Yorkshire farm in Baldersdale with no electricity or water. In fact her circumstances were so dire she was living on about five English pounds a week and that included animal feed. The winters were so severe she would sleep with all her clothes on.

Despite being forgotten by the world (all alone since her father died aged 37 and her mother and uncle had died years before) Hannah was not bitter about what had happened and instead become a humble stoic individual whose chief delight was her cattle whom she regarded as her family.

Hannah became an instant celebrity after the TV documentary aired and two more were made plus three best selling books written. The attention didn't faze or change her one bit and the public's generous gifts actually made her life a little easier. In the late 1980s she moved from her farm due to failing health and now lives in a small Yorkshire village. Low Birk Hatt Farm was sold in pieces including couple of fields that were full of rare wildflowers (due to Hannah's family being too poor to use modern fertilisers) that were acquired by a conservation trust and renamed Hannah's meadow

After reading how Hannah lived so stoically despite great poverty and hardship I don't think I ever have the right to complain about my own circumstances again. Unfortunately being human I know I will!

Mad Goats and Cranky Cats

Winter nights always find me heading to bed early with a good book and three of the cats end up there with me. Demelza takes her place at my right shoulder and Peaches usually further down the bed. With Gypsy there is a huge drama as she makes "the big entrance". First her head pops round the door to check we're watching before she makes a mad dash across the floor and up on the wicker basket at the opposite side of the room. From there she walks across the dressing table and onto a chair before climbing up on the bed beside me and burrowing under the sheets to cuddle. However this past week she has decided to sit on my chest so I can't read which is also nervewracking as she is within striking distance of Demelza.

I don't know why these two don't get on but suspect it's all to do with jealousy. Usually Demelza has the younger cat bailed up on top of the furniture but lately Gypsy has begun fighting back which is what happened Saturday night and unfortunately I was caught in the middle. I felt my head being lacerated by her claws and yelled which frightened her into falling off the bed taking my face with her. On examining the damage I found scratches on my chin, a deep one on my forehead and a fine laceration over my right eyebrow and in the side of my mouth. I applied disinfectant before getting back in bed feeling sorry for myself. Gypsy did her usual routine but just ended short of the bed on the chair with her back to me. We all went to sleep but I was woken an hour later when Gyps began wailing and crawled into bed for a cuddle- her version of an apology I guess.

I thought that was all the excitement I'd be getting for the weekend but when I opened the curtains yesterday morning at 7am I saw that Tobermory my cashgora goat was on my front lawn. On further investigation I discovered someone had left my back gate open. I snuck out with the dog for protection and managed to replace water in some of the rabbits' bottles before Toby spied me and charged, pirouetting with his horns down read to headbutt my knees. I only just managed to go backwards up the ramp and get the back door shut with him in hot pursuit. I turned off the light till Toby wandered back down and then let the dog in. Some help he turned out to be!

I rang the landlady managing to wake her up and she promised that once the landlord had come back from doing something up at the woolshed she would pass on the message. Up to then I would remain a prisoner in the cottage. For an hour and a half I worried that I hadn't fed the chickens or the mother hen and her chick out front. Plus the tarp on the outside rabbit hutch was flapping loose and it had begun to rain.

By 9am the donkey had also wandered in and was cheerfully eating the garden. Looking out the kitchen window I couldn't see Toby at all so decided to go out again. Taking an alkathene pipe with me to hit him over his horns if he attacked I shakily went to the hen house and fed the ravenous fowls before sneaking out front to feed the mother hen and chick and weigh down the flapping tarp. All the while I was looking over my shoulder expecting the manic goat to charge out from where he was hiding but also hoping that if he did Briar the donkey would defend me as she hates him with a passion.

At 10.30am the landlord arrived with one of his hunterways, another Toby. He admitted to me that he had taken the catch off the gate while trying to fix it last week and never returned to replace it which is why it had sprung open. He couldn't find Tobermory or the donkey so decided they'd gone back out and was just about to leave when he saw them hiding behind the hen house. Sending Toby dog to get them out instead they made a break for it and ran round to the front. Reappearing from round the cottage Briar came trotting past me and went through the gate with the dog after her. Unfortunately he became so wound up he began chasing one of the horses out in the paddock. Meanwhile Toby decided to head back to the hen house with Ken running behind him. When he saw the dog worrying the horse he yelled "Get out Toby!" and Tobermory being an intelligent animal thought he was referring to himself, changed direction and trotted out the back gate.

Life is never dull in the country!

Return of the Prodigal

Last night I was dishing myself some ice cream while watching American Idol when I heard a small knock at the back door. Couldn't see who it was through the glass so turned on the light and it was........Angel! After five and a half months away she is in pretty good shape, not too thin but not fat either and very very foul tempered.

I fed her twice and kept her inside all night by locking her in the laundry. When I opened the door at 5am she was asleep in the litter tray as she used to do (must add it had clean kitty litter in it) rather than sleep in the clothes hamper like the other cats would have done. Gave her a huge breakfast and she has just gone outside.

I am worried that she is so bad tempered. She'll smooch around my legs one minute and then turn on me if I go to pat her. If she is still around by Wednesday when I'm due in town I'll take her to the vet and get Doug to give her the once over. Haven't had a vet bill for six months so I guess it's time to break my run of luck.

Other news is that the farrier finally turned up on Tuesday morning two weeks after he was actually due. Didn't even have to tie Briar up as she stood with her head right down Eeyore-like while he trimmed her hooves. He always says he wishes all donkeys were like her as most are real horrors to work with. Unfortunately his prices have gone up again (second time in six months) due to the rising costs of petrol so it's now $30 a hoof trim. I've booked Briar in for another pedicure in July.

Belle the Terrible

The landlord has five dogs here at the moment including "Belle" a hunterway who apparently came from an abusive home as a younger dog. She is a nasty dog, pack leader to the other sheepdogs and the only one that has bitten me (twice). Belle leads the other dogs into all sorts of mischief including worrying cattle and the horses which she backs into a corner. She absolutely loathes my Sheltie Mishka and takes every opportunity to sneak onto this property, defecating in front of us to establish her dominance.

Thursday was a balmy warm late Autumn day so I decided to give Mish a bath. To do this I fill two buckets with warm water and have a hose running nearby while I wash him on the patio at the front of the cottage. We'd finished and I tied him to the front wrought iron railing while I went inside to find the blow drier to finish him off. As I went past the front window I noticed Belle come in over the front cattlestop. The next thing Mish had slipped his lead and was trying to chase her out. By the time I got out she had him pinned onto the front lawn and was taking a chunk out of his back. When I yelled at her she ran out the front gate with Mish behind her- I am hoping he took a piece out of her leg as she was limping as she ran away.

So Mish had to be washed down yet again as he was covered with dirt. I spent a good twenty minutes drying him off despite being shaky. Couldn't find any wounds on his back so looks like his thick coat saved him yet again.

A few years ago Belle and another dominant bitch called Jess bailed Mish up on the front lawn. Jess bit Mish in the jugular and Belle in the back. What got me was this was witnessed and I never received an apology. Instead I had a $50 vet bill for antibiotics.

Time has marched on and Jess has gone to that great dog kennel in the sky and I'm hoping that Belle won't be long following her. The other dogs here are all friendly with Mish so she's definitely a problem dog who is out to establish her superiority. Frankly I would never keep an animal that worries my stock as this "game" can so swiftly change to something more dangerous.

Timber!

My landlord came in over the weekend to say that he would be removing the wattle tree that fell into the backyard during the big rain a couple of weeks ago. I asked him to start the chainsaw up away from the rabbit shed so they're weren't startled and I would sit in with them for the duration. He also mentioned wanting to cut down all the trees on the eastern boundary (along my driveway). This was pretty startling as it meant I would lose all my privacy but on the plus side some sun would come into the end of the cottage.

Sunday morning work began but stopped almost immediately when the chainsaw broke. Resuming at lunchtime Ken took nearly two hours to chop down the wattle and remove it. I sat with the angoras who were absolutely terrified. I put my hand on Cadbury who was nearest to the noise in order to keep him settled.

After finishing with the wattle the shelter belt along the drive was the next to go including twenty foot high bottlebrush trees and a few native shrubs. I asked for the smoke tree and a very tall native tree that I don't know the name of to be left. Also two silver birches and a gum down the end were left as they really don't take any sun from the cottage (the photo is an old shot showing the gum tree near the gate- you can see how dark the backyard was from the shelterbelt). Ken then got his tractor and pulled the branches into the middle of the paddock and these will later be burnt.

Yesterday was the moment of truth- would the sun come into the cottage? The answer was sort of. Yes it is lighter in here but there is a shelterbelt of tall pines on the northern boundary of the field next door and this is what is stopping the sun coming in here during the winter.

Farriers

Farriers have become as scarce as hen's teeth here in the Hawkes Bay over the past few years. Part of this must be blamed on the lack of young people going into the profession and who can blame them? It's back breaking work (literally) plus you have to bear the indignity of dealing with the horse fraternity- not all of whom are polite or used to dealing reasonably with other people.

My first farrier was a tall guy from Napier who was hard to get hold of unless you rang him late at night (he worked on the wharves). The last time I saw him was in 1998 before I moved out here. His back was so painful he was having to give up farrier work. I then was told of a local man who lived slightly south of the farm. He didn't like working with my donkey at all although she really only got cranky when he touched her left hind foot. Also he would only come several weeks after you'd called him so I ended up ringing him before I needed to so that by the time he arrived the horse and donkey's hooves were ready to be trimmed. In the end he got a full time job and gave up his farrier work.

Finally I was told about Darryn a young farrier based down Central Hawkes Bay. Unlike many people he was happy to travel out here as he worked as far north as Tutira. What's more Briar the donkey adores him. He doesn't even have to tie her up to work on her feet. Goes to show what a good judge of character animals are. Sometimes he talks about cutting down his workload but I always hope that he won't as he is an important part of our equine friends' lives. Lately I have had trouble getting hold of him and was worrying that he had finally retired but last week managed to call him on his mobile phone and he's coming on Monday to trim Briar's feet.

Oh and another benefit of farriers- they know all the gossip and can fill you in about anything happening in the horse world!

Webbed Feet

Two things I am wishing for at the moment. Webbed feet and a digital camera so I could show the devastation caused by all this rain. Had two lots of visitors over the weekend and they couldn't use my driveway in from the road as the culvert has washed out. Instead they drove round to my landlord's gateway and then made a shortcut across the paddock in front of his place into mine. Hard to explain without a photo but at least they were able to get in here.

Today is meant to be sunny which will at least mean that I can do some washing before the rain returns for the rest of the week. It's also nowhere as cold as usual for autumn which for me confirms that our climate is changing. Last year was a warm wet winter and this one looks like it's going to be even worse.

My chick is four weeks old now. She is brown with a few white speckles on her back so lets hope she is going to turn out to be one of the painterly chickens. Cordelia's wheezing was non existent yesterday so am wondering if the pile of garlic I threw into the henhouse late last week helped. I have given all the other animals apple cider vinegar and garlic in their drinking water to help build up their immune systems.

Otherwise my life consists of mud, mud, and more mud.

Building a boat...........

The rain storm we had last weekend lasted three days and dumped ten inches of water (the wettest it's ever been up here on the farm apparently). If it had stayed at that it would have been ok but after only one day of sunshine the rain came back in a big way. The soil being too sodden to hold anymore moisture caused my henhouse to go under water and the rain even ran into the rabbit shed and flooded that although the bunnies were safe and dry as their cages are suspended. But the worst part of all was that when I came home from town on Wednesday afternoon (yes mad dogs and kiwi women go out in the teeming rain) the large wattle tree at the southern boundary of my place had fallen into the backyard. The ground was so wet that the roots just pulled free so now it's lying on top of the lemon tree.

The road is also in a bad way and someone who was heading out here to see me ended up bogged down in the shingle in the new section of road my landlord is constructing to bypass all the winding sections. She did free herself but turned round and went straight home for a shower as she was drenched. Now she says she won't come out here for another week and only if it's sunny!

Yesterday was sunny and warm so there was frantic reconstruction of the drive by the landlord in his tractor while I did the washing, dumped dirt into the holes in the henhouse floor to mop up the water and worked with the rabbits as their coats are beginning to web after all this damp. And the weather forecast......yes more rain coming from late today.

Show Over

It has taken over a week to recover from the Creative Fibre Festival held over the last weekend (21-23 April 2006). Shared the stand with a lovely lady who breeds Gotland sheep which was great. Had photos of some of my bunnies up on my stand's back wall to show people the type of colours you can get in angora plus a couple of examples of scarves knitted in the fibre. Everyone enjoyed stroking these to assess the softness.

Gave away 30 business cards and 55 spinning instruction sheets and sold enough fibre to pay for the feed over the autumn and winter. Agouti and sooty fawn were the most popular colours but if I had more than two small packets of the apricot (orange) I think this would have surpassed these as people loved the shade. Surprisingly the cream didn't sell as well as I thought but then I think colours have fashions and the darker shades are in at the moment. The third grade didn't move at all on the first day until I put a sign on the basket stating what you could use it for. After that some people bought it to try in felting and dying. One lady also bought a couple of packets to put in her artwork.

The blend I had done came out beautifully- a subtle shade of pearl grey at 25%angora to around 75% fine wool. I sold several smaller lots of this but the 200 gms didn't move. I should have broken these up halfway through the festival but then hindsight has 20/20 vision. I floundered a bit when talking to knitters which made me realize that I really do need to get back to knitting so I know what I'm talking about. Also I think I would have sold lots more to the public if I had spun yarn and knitted items there.

Did get lots of people who had had bad experiences with angora. I explained about the disadvantages of shorn fibre (sounds like they were using badly clipped angora from backyard pets) but some had already made up their minds on the subject. One lady also told me that angora is out of fashion. Good news though is that a local person who used to farm angoras has offered me some old cages she has sitting at her son's place. She doesn't know what state they're in so will have to go along and have a look. Perhaps they'd even be suitable for cannibalizing to repair some of mine.I also spent some of my money on two packets of alpaca (grey and brown) and a Gotland fleece from Irene to spin up with my fibre.

It annoys me how new people come and think they'll buy a couple of angora rabbits, breed them to death and then make a fortune at selling fibre and animals. The reality is that it is definitely a cottage industry and interest amongst the spinners needs to be drummed up. It's an uphill battle and you never ever make a profit. You either need to have a passion for the breed or be a little bit crazy!

All in all it was an interesting weekend and I hope that I've made enough contacts to get me through the next couple of years. I was asked to attend the next festival in Taranaki but told them I can't but would be willing to send my stuff along if they can find another trader willing to sell on my behalf. I did come away inspired by all the wonderful fibres and fashions I saw on display but oh so tired!

Bird City

I haven't had much time to post the past week as I have been preparing for the Creative Fibre Festival here in Napier next week. Spent two weeks of evenings going through fibre I bought from a lady early last year. Much of it was clipped and ungraded so I had to painstakingly go through every bag and pull out second cuts and webbing. Ended up with 9 ounces of first grade white and blue fibre.

After the disappointment of Cordelia's clutches not hatching I was surprised and pleased to hear cheeping in the hen house when I went out to feed the chickens late last Sunday afternoon. The same hen who produced one solo pullet late November had gone and done it again, hiding in the broken plastic rubbish bin that I have in their run. I quickly scrubbed out an outside rabbit hutch and then carried the bin, Nutmeg, her one chick and three eggs there. Unfortunately the eggs were already cold so I think she abandoned them as soon as the only survivor hatched out. This seems to be a pattern with Nutty. Anyway a week on the chick's first pin feathers are showing and their dull brown colour seems to indicate another pullet. Very lucky break!

Happened to glance out the window yesterday afternoon to see a strange beady eye looking through the wire fence from the next door paddock. At first I thought it was a stray hen but as it cautiously moved into the open I saw a female pheasant. When I first came out here in 1999 there was a beautiful male pheasant who would come and walk across my front lawn. Unfortunately he disappeared (I guess due to the farm dogs) so I hope the same fate doesn't happen to this little hen.

With the days closing in the bird life is increasing again with the end of their breeding season. Yesterday I saw my first male chaffinch of the year plus there is a bellbird that comes and sings in the trees along my driveway. The fantails are returning and one cheeky one comes in the rabbit shed with me. They are my favourite native bird as they're so full of personality.

The baby sparrow I raised a year ago has gone strangely silent over the past weeks. Finally I noticed he was sitting in the corner of his cage and wouldn't even move if I wanted to clean it out. Suddenly it occurred to me that the weeks of tearing his cage cover and collecting grass out of the dried flower arrangement next to him had a purpose- he was building a nest as he thinks he's sitting on eggs! He is still completely unafraid of my cats which is a huge worry and the reason why I was unable to release him as I had hoped. The other day Demelza was sitting up beside him and turned round when I told her off. Suddenly Tuppence saw his chance and began pulling the fur out of her tail- obviously to make a nice soft lining for his nest of invisible eggs. He used to be completely enamored of Gypsy who, as a kitten, would sit beside him. He was forever reaching through his cage and trying to kiss her while she would rub him. Unfortunately or fortunately depending what way you look at it, Gyps grew out of her fascination with the sparrow and now completely ignores him.

Baby Photos

Finally got my latest film developed with shots of the last litter. Although they're now five months old and have just had their first adult coat harvested in these shots they're just ten weeks old.

This is Giselle and Sherbet in all their glory. Sherbet is the buck I had to revive in warm water at age three days when he got out of the nestbox one night. This was not a one off experience as he was constantly trying to get to his mother for a sneaky feed. He is a huge character. Giselle has a stunning coat now, beautiful and silky. Like all sooty fawns she is extremely outgoing.

Harmony and Goblin are both gentle and a bit more laid back. I had forgotten how incredibly white angora coats can be.

I am having problems obtaining a fine white fleece for blending so will have to put some white into a pale grey one I bought last winter. I have some grey fibre I was given but this was clipped and third grade was thrown in with the first. Have spent three nights painstakingly picking through the bags removing substandard fibre and second cuts. This has reduced the amount of first grade fibre quite drastically and there is not enough for a blend. Note to self: contact the wool buyers a couple of months before you actually need the fleece to give them time to source something good.

Raindrops Falling On My Head

After weeks of drought the weather has broken and we've had four days of rain plus it's turned chilly. Wet weather is also a great time to discover that your gumboots are leaking. Well I actually knew they would as a long split appeared near the base of the right one due to age (they're seven years old) so I've endured weeks of small stones making their way into the boot and lodging painfully under my foot. So next time I get some unexpected cash I'm off to Farmlands (the mecca super store of rural dwellers) to buy myself a new pair.

After weeks and weeks of sitting Cordelia the hen still has not managed to hatch any eggs. The Wyandotte ones should have hatched a week ago but nothing happened. Can't work out what's wrong but I think we're going to have to blame the hen because she's tried three batches of googies without success and you can't tell me that they were all infertile. My friend John says you can buy small incubators cheaply and he'll keep an eye out for one for me.

My autumn clean up has faltered because of the rain. I was trying to remove coats off the angora youngsters but even though we were under cover they still felt damp. I will get back onto this today once we get some clear weather otherwise their coats will web and then matt and I'll lose the lot. I still don't know if I have enough fibre for the Creative Fibre Festival in Taradale, Napier next month but if I have a run on it (unlikely as most spinners are frightened to use it) I will take orders. I need to buy in more breeding stock but have to wait for other breeders to have litters and obviously if they're reputable people they'll only have a couple a year unlike the bunny mill breeders who churn animals out for the pet market, not caring where they end up. Tossing up whether to breed Meadow to Frodo again before winter as their last litter was so good. Then perhaps by spring I'll have new stock to bring in new blood.

Angel cat has still not returned and it's over twelve weeks now. Piper has also been gone four days. I don't know what is calling them out across the fields but when they return they'll be locked in each night from now on. I can't take the worry!

The Last Days of Summer

Daylight saving finishes tonight. This always makes me a little sad as I realize that summer has ended and winter is on its way. However on the other hand in six months it will be spring and I'll be looking forward to long evenings where I have the freedom to go outside without a torch and woolen gloves.

There is still the smell of burnt grass in the mornings as we have had no rain to speak of for weeks. If it doesn't arrive soon there is going to be trouble. Just the other day I saw a farmer feeding hay out to his cattle, something that usually only happens in July/August.

Of course the drought doesn't affect Briar the donkey and Tobermory the goat. If anything they seem to put on more weight in these conditions. Poor Briar has been relegated to the back hill paddock by my landlord and although she has company in the form of several cows she is missing hanging with the horses. However there isn't much grass in that field so hopefully she'll work off some of the rolls of fat that she's managed to accumulate.

I have begun my big Autumn clean up in the rabbitry. Taking off coats before I begin the soul destroying task of cleaning the cages. I am intending to have a change round in there as well. There are a couple of cages I want out of there so I can spray the walls down with disinfectant. I am still trying to save up to replace some of my cages and hopefully will have these finished by the winter as well.

As for the garden......well the least said the better. Doesn't matter how much I water the plants still brown off and die. Except the roses which seem to be thriving. I wish I had more than two bushes but always toss up as to whether I want to spend money on a place I don't own as I will have to move on at some point. On the other hand rose bushes aren't all that expensive and at least I would get some pleasure from them before I head off into the sunset.

The Egg Man

My Shetland Sheepdog Mishka has a problem with his stomach. Unfortunately it isn't big enough to match the size of his eyes where food is concerned. Bordering on the verge of needing a canine Jenny Craig Mish supplements his diet with what has turned into a secret obsession. Mishka is a sneaky egg eater.

With so many game fowl descended bantams I am constantly finding nests in out of the way places. Mostly. Usually Mish manages to find them before I do. The only way I know this is from his dirty white bib, a guilty look and "The Smell".

"The Smell" is a combination of chicken poop and sulphur. It pervades every corner of the room, soaks into your skin and makes your eyes water. If I haven't a supply of strong incense to burn I am exceedingly miserable. Often a good hose down of his hairy rear end is the only thing that can freshen his scrofulous odour.

Last Saturday Mish obviously discovered something nasty in the toi toi bushes. For that windfall we have been punished all week. In the mornings I open the kitchen door to find a mess on the floor as he hasn't bothered to tell me he needs to go out (this has happened four times this week till finally last night I just covered everything in newspaper which saved me alot of heartache).

The piece de resistance came yesterday when I had a rare visitor. We were talking at the other end of the cottage and on coming back into the sitting room discovered something definitely very nasty on my burgundy rug. Horrified my caller shrank back against the wall while I cleaned up the mess and disinfected. I'll be lucky if she ever comes back.

When I remember Mish in years to come it will always be his predilection for eggs and his bowels I will recall the most.............

Ides of March

It is the first of March here in New Zealand. I remembered to say rabbits first thing this morning (forgot about saying "hares" last thing before going to sleep though) so lets hope that brings me some luck.

Judy M dropped in nine Wyandotte eggs last Sunday. It worked out well as when I went to put them under Cordelia she was out having a drink so I was able to clean out all the old ones (another had exploded that morning) and put a fresh nest in. She knew what I was doing as she kept popping her head through the door and clucking abuse at me. However the joy of having a new batch of eggs overcame her objections and she's back on the boil. Poor thing seems to have been sitting forever.

I have an interesting problem with my house bun Muggles. He has fallen in love with Mishka the dog and unfortunately it seems to be in the biblical sense. I let him out to have breakfast with us (he gets a little crust off my toast) and noticed he was following Mish round the room. He then began circling frantically even hopping under his stomach. Next thing.......well I'm afraid that's x rated. Suffice to say that he got the wrong way round and it all ended in tears! However I don't have much sympathy for the dog either as he has a similar habit......with the cats. This is a twisted household.

Season Shift

There's always a point in late summer where the season slightly shifts from broiling sticky weather to cooler nights. This week we had one sultry 30oC day but then a cold snap swept up the country one evening and suddenly the nights are very cool. Looking out my front window I notice the leaves on the poplar trees are beginning to turn gold. Where did the summer go?

Cordelia is still stubbornly sitting on her exploding eggs. I deliberately left her perched on these eggy landmines until I was able to source some more fertile ones. Luckily someone who lives in my area is dropping off some Wyandotte bantam eggs this lunchtime so I will encourage Cordy out with some mash and put clean paper and hay in the sleeping compartment with the new arrivals. The breeder says if she abandons them not to worry as she has a breeding pair she doesn't want. I am hopeful Cordelia will have more success at hatching this lot as she no longer has the other hens trying to lay their eggs in with her which may have affected the Barnevelders. She is so determinedly broody I have to give her another chance.

It occurred to me once that I concentrate so much on the love lives of my animals (finding fertile eggs, mating rabbits, trying to get the donkey pregnant two years ago) that I can now add pet pimp to my CV.

The Eggs and I

The Cordelia situation has become a bit of a farce. I went into her nest box yesterday and discovered another pulverized chick beneath her. I am now of the opinion that she hasn't stood on them at all but that the shell has broken, exposing dead chicks. This one was white so it looks like the shaver eggs had been fertile after all.

I cleared out any dirty eggs that were obviously not going to hatch and threw out the nest box. I've made her an alternative nest with fresh hay and she's comfortably ensconced on this with her remaining eggs. I will give her a couple more days and then throw the rest out as I have a nasty feeling they're not going to amount to anything.

When eggs fail to hatch you have to ask why. Cordelia has done a great job incubating them so either the roosters weren't firing on all cylinders or the eggs somehow got cold which seems unlikely. This is also the tail end (scuse the pun) of the chicken breeding season here in New Zealand as it will soon be autumn so perhaps this was also a factor. Whatever the reason it has been an immensely disappointing exercise.

Piper spent three days away before returning Friday morning. She wasn't very hungry and disappeared Saturday but turned up again on Sunday spending all her time asleep in a patch of grass near the rabbitry. If only Angel would come home now my mind would settle.

Disappearing Cats and Non Appearing Chicks

Angel still has not returned from her wanderings after seven weeks. The longest time she has disappeared has been nine and that was this time last year. Last week Piper cat went away for a couple of days and when she returned was especially clingly and wanting to sit on my knee all the time. Poor girl is cosmetically challenged but has a sweet nature and gets on with all the other cats. This behaviour is so unlike her but I guess the call of the baby wild rabbit season is upon her.

Cordelia's first Barnevelder egg hatched yesterday but by the time I got there it was dead. Either it died in the massive attempt to break through the shell as it was still wet or else she stood on it as her great clod hopping foot was placed neatly on its neck. None of the other eggs look like hatching which is incredibly disappointing. The whole exercise of John bringing the eggs out here may have been a waste of time.

Mother bantam and her chick have finally got used to sleeping in the hen house and I don't have to do my poor impression of a sheepdog each evening. Unfortunately the plum tree is still dropping windfalls so many of the bantams are stuffed to the gunalls and don't think they need to go into their house at night. I am afflicted with roosters and small hens wandering where they want, making a mess and a racket.

Bloody White Bastard is my oldest rooster at age ten but has lost his status as top man and been thrown out of the shed by the hens. He spends most of his day picking around the lawn and crowing, perhaps remembering better days when he was cock of the walk and an object of fear and loathing amongst the poultry population. How the mighty have fallen!

Roundup

The day before yesterday mother hen decided to fly out of the hutch where she was living with her baby in order to raid the windfall plums that have fallen on the lawn. Poor chick had no idea how to follow her so spent most of the day running up and down the cage terrible upset. However in the evening when I looked out mother had hopped back in with her offspring.

So yesterday I decided that since I was going to put them both in the hen house soon I would let them out for the afternoon. Worked a treat until the evening when I noticed that although the mother had hopped back in the baby was just running round and round the cage. Chickens could never be considered one of the brightest lights on the Christmas tree and this one seemed determined to live up to their reputation. However it made up for it's stupidity by being very very fast. Well that's what I found when I tried to catch the silly bird.

In the end I tipped the hutch on its side hoping that the bird would walk in and join its mother. Instead the mother flew out in a panic and I spent the next half hour chasing the pair of them round the front lawn. At a couple of points I nearly had them herded into the hutch but just as they were about to go in they would panic and run away into the garden. I am not a great sheepdog and became increasingly frustrated as they became increasingly obtuse. However in the end the chick tired and I was able to corner it and put it back in the cage. I tipped the hutch back over and then left them alone so that the hen would join her baby on her own. This accomplished I waited until it was nearly dark and then picked the pair up from their sleeping quarters and took them into the hen house.

But my night wasn't finished. It had been a hot day of 29oC and the two youngest cats decided playtime in the paddocks was called for. I managed to get Peach in at 9pm but Gypsy was harder to encourage into the cottage. I went into the paddock and nearly had my hand on her when she scooted further away in the dry grass. Every time I approached she would frisk away thinking it was all a big game.

Leaving her to cool down I came back inside and returned with a torch fifteen minutes later. By this time the landlord had let his sheepdogs out for their last run of the day and they chased Gypsy up a tree in my backyard. Trying to find my way amongst fallen branches and soft earth in the dark was not easy and when I managed to get to the tree Gypsy was perched on she scooted higher up into the branches before heading off back into the paddock. I shone the torch onto her as she went further and further out before giving up and coming back inside at 9.30pm. Gypsy finally came in with a despairing wail at 2am. It was not a restful night........

As I write this she is curled up asleep on my knee with not a care whereas I'm the one on painkillers trying to recover from the last roundup. Usually I don't have many problems getting the cats inside and was racking my brains trying to work it all out when I looked out the window and saw a large full moon. That explains everything about Gypsy's wild witchy mood. So note to self- in future shut certain small black cats in early on full moon evenings.

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!