Thursday 31 May 2018

Can that be right?


Exactly two months between posts and you might well ask, where the heck have you been? In fact I'm asking this to myself right now.
Can that be right? We're teetering on the very edge of May, and about to jump into month number six, and from then on, well.... we both know that it's all a gallop downhill to the end of the year again.
Oh life! So it must be a sign of good things hey? Time flies when you're having fun and all that...!
I certainly can't complain, although the lumpy bits seem to be mountainous when they occur, but isn't it miraculous how, in hindsight, we discover that things happen for a multitude of reasons?
Generally they are a form of "correction" to bring us back into balance.  I vaguely remember hearing that said about the Global financial situation, we needed a recession to "correct" the balance of something that included the words 'fiscal' and  'monetary policies' etc. You can see that I don't know a squit about any of that stuff, but life certainly does throw us some 'corrections', to even out the balance of our conscious presence in this world.
 


Life has not stood still though, and plenty has been happening about the farm. This constant in my life (one of many) for which I'm ever grateful and appreciate more as time moves forward.
The authenticity of this little piece of our world, keeps me grounded when all hell is breaking loose out there. The discovery and appreciation of what and who, are really necessary to survive.
So, there has been some spring cleaning, and onward we move.

 On a very hot afternoon in April, Lavender had her long awaited calf. As the signs were clear that she was in labour we observed from a short distance to allow her full concentration on her task of pushing out this beautiful healthy heifer. A quick birth with no complications, baby suckled well from the start, a textbook calving.

Baby was up and about within thirty minutes of arriving into the world. Lavender is in good shape and her udder is coping well with the demands of all that milk being produced for her calf. I left her for three days before I brought her into the dairy to take some of her milk for us. She has plenty, although she wasn't letting down for me, so we brought her calf in and allowed her to suckle until the milk let down. Then we guided the calf away and quickly attached the milking cups and milked a few litres. We had to do this little trick for just three days until she realised that we were leaving plenty of milk in her udder for the calf.
I love this way of milk sharing for two reasons.
Firstly and uppermost in our ethical thoughts on raising food for consumption, the calf and mother are allowed to be together as nature intended. Cows love their babies. They mourn the loss of their baby when it is taken from her at two days old. I don't care what anyone says, about how quickly she forgets her calf and all the platitudes and excuses. In an ideal world, this is the only type of milk I want to consume. And I'm able to do this under my control, in my sometimes ideal world. Oh of course I eat cheeses and dairy products made from conventionally farmed dairy cows, but here, because I can, I want my cows to be as happy and as natural as they can possibly be.
The second reason why I love this share system that Lavender and I have going, (our little contract with each other) I can skip milking whenever I feel like not milking, or when I don't need milk that day, or when I/we go on HOLIDAY.!!

We went away on holiday for two weeks!
 Driving across Western NSW  for five days before reaching the beautiful town of Bellengin near the Central Coast of NSW.

 Meg settled into holiday mode rather too well. 

Lots of wonderfully quiet free camping out bush during the drives there and back. Gosh, it's terribly dry out there in NSW.

 A short drive from Bellengin is Coffs Harbour, where we ventured one day during our stay. Not prepared for the hustle and bustle of busy big towns and cities (we were stuck fast in the slow pace of holiday mode), a quick lunch of fish and chips at the wharf, and we were on our way back to peaceful little Bello again.

But before we could take time away from the farm, the important job of burying cow horns filled with cow manure had to be done.

The basic rule is to prepare Prep 500 during the full moon at Easter, but here in South Australia we wait until the first rain has arrived. This year we had a bit of rain a couple of weeks after Easter so we got ours filled and buried during the days around the full moon in April.
They will lay under the ground over winter and we will dig them up after six months.

The 500 pit covered with hessian bags and an old gate to prevent dogs or chooks from scratching them up.

Seeing double? Or double trouble?
We've talked about getting a second Kelpie so when this one appeared on Gumtree we made inquiries. Purchased as a cute puppy, this little girl was not bred for a suburban back yard with small children. So by the time she reached seven months they had no control over her at all. Hopefully they have learned their lesson about acquiring unsuitable pets for the conditions.
We see this all too often but it continues. 
We named her Soda because it rhymed with the last two syllables of her previous name which was far too long and unsuitable as a working dog. 
The first day with her here and we really thought we had made a big mistake! She was uncontrollable! But after hours and hours of training over the first two days, and gaining her trust in us, her behavior has done a complete turnaround. What a great little dog she is, and we look forward to many years ahead with her. What a delight it is to see her so happy here, running free in the paddocks with the other dogs, and generally trying to please us with her beautiful nature.
Casterton Kelpie Muster is coming up during the June long weekend, of course we're going, but with two Kelpies this time. ;-)
Cheers for now, and thanks for visiting.
XX 

To European readers, privacy laws have changed and as a blogger, the European Union Laws require me to give EU visitors information about cookies and data collected on my blog.
Apparently there is a cookie and privacy notice displayed on my blog for EU visitors, but because I'm not in the EU I can't see it.
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25 comments:

  1. Sally so pleased you had a break. It does make the world of difference. That process with the cow horns sounds interesting.

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    1. Thanks Chel, yes we both feel so refreshed after being away for awhile. Bio-dynamics cow horns, magical things happen. :)

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  2. a new puppy! fun, fun, fun ... lol good luck with her training, sounds like she will learn fairly fast. agree with unsuitable pets, people just don't know or they have no clue as how to train them.

    glad you had an enjoyable break
    are those calendulas in the first photo? they look awesome!

    cute calf, Lavender looks quite content with it.

    thanx for sharing

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    1. H Selina,I've just spent today pulling out those calendula plants which were past their best, lots of new seedlings coming up though.

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  3. I can't fathom why people get working dogs and put them into the confines of suburbia! It's often a recipe for a very unhappy dog and an unhappily family too! So glad "Soda" has the run of things at your place now though. Love Lavender's calf, isn't it a magical thing to see a calf being born. Although you've been away, you've been doing lots. Your holiday sounds great, Bellingen is so pretty. Meg:)

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    1. Birth is pure magic, every is a new calving is amazing to see Meg. :)

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  4. What a beautiful little dog. Our last dog was a chocolate kelpie. He was a beautiful dog with an active but gentle nature. We had him in our reasonable sized yard with no problems. He was well trained, never left our sides but then again, he was the runt of the litter, lol. We miss the old fella dearly.
    Love your philosophy on milking your cow. And yes, everything happens for a reason. Life is definitely a balancing act.

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    1. Hi Brigie, some Kelpies settle well into a good size yard, but it certainly depends on the owners and how they manage them. :)

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    2. We are thinking of another dog but this time something not quite as energetic, something more suitable to our time/age in life. No rush though, one day.

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  5. Love reading your blog Sally. If I lived in Australia, I would have to visit your gorgeous looking farm.

    I am in the UK and can see the privacy notice.

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  6. Busy actually LIVING the good life! Make no excuses for that, sounds ideal to me. Welcome back :)

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    1. Hi Cheryl, authentic to the core is the only way I can be nowadays. I'm so behind with my other blog reading though, apologies for my absence, and I await a rainy day to be stuck inside to catch up. :)

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  7. Oh cant wait to meet Soda! Love her name. Suits a little kelpie well. I am the same with my blog. To the point I had time to kill today between appointments in Gawler and sat and had a coffee and did a big catch up post. Lol. Love reading how you raise your animals Sally. Xxxx

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    1. Hello dear Emma, good to see you here. I've looked for you latest post but it's not showing up. ??

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  8. Hi Sally. I really love reading your posts and travelling Australia through your adventures. I am intrigued with your cow horn procedure...it might show my ignorance but can you enlighten me what this is for?

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    1. Hello Dawn, Thanks for visiting here on my blog. I'm wondering which country you're in? We practice the bio-dynamic way of farming and living, no chemicals, and I think it's time I did a series of posts about some of the ways we do things and why we do them. Stay tuned.

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  9. Hello Sally, I learn so much from your blog: now I know what a prep 500 is ;-)

    I live in the Netherlands and can see the privacy notice. This is the text: "This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse."

    Have a nice sunday,
    Wendy

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    1. Hello Wendy, thanks for your response. The privacy notice seems to be doing what it said it was doing. Thanks for visiting.

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  10. Hey Sally, welcome back. How nice to find two new posts to catch up on from you. Looks like you've been busy. Glad to see you got some extra travelling in.
    I really like your approach to milk production/house cow management - it makes so much sense on all fronts. If I ever get a house cow one day I know who i'll be coming to for advice.
    Hope you guys are getting some rain down in SA. It's been a very dry autumn here.
    Cheers,
    Laura

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    1. Hello Laura, we're fortunate to be getting enough rain regularly to keep the pastures and crops growing. Green (paddocks) is definitely my favorite colour. Hoping you area will get some rain soon.

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  11. I am from america, I am curious about the horns? Why bury them, why with manure, what do you use them for? I have never heard about this before :>

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    1. We practice organics and bio-dynamics here, using no chemicals and following the Rudolph Steiner philosophy of working around the moon cycles and magnetic rhythms of the earth and atmosphere. The cows horns are filled with manure from a lactating cow, buried over the winter months, and when retrieved, the once slushy manure substance has become a sweet earthy fragrant homeopathic treatment for our soil. It's all a bit more involved than I can explain here, so I'll do a series of posts explaining more about bio-dynamics. And you thought we were normal conventional folks didn't you?! ;-) lol

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  12. I know Bellingen, because we had some awesome friends there, who use to babysit my sister and I. Coffs Habour, was where we were raised. It was getting congested when we left in 1987. We visited twice afterwards, and I almost didn't recognise the place.

    PS: the lady who use to mind us, had her 98th birthday, recently, and still lives at home. I'm cheering for 100!!

    Golly, but yes, what's in a lifetime, huh? Plenty of misshapen bits, to balance out the smooth. But as long as you're still in the game, make it count. Glad Lavender had an uneventful delivery, and you can both enjoy the benefits of a young calf. :)

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    1. Chris you have summed up the Bellingen folks very well, they are indeed awesome! And now I can see that I've misspelt Bellingen all the way through this post. i's and e's !!

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