Chook farming

Seeing as this year our motley crew of hens managed to hatch 34 chicks between them, I decided to advertise and sell the chicks using the online community classifieds forum, Gumtree. And what a success it was! All the chooks are now sold and I made a profit of $315 ... (OK, I won't give up my day job).

Plymouth rocks, Wyandotte, Bantam and Australorp crosses in this colourful lot

I think I got the pricing right: it's very hard to determine gender, but people don't want roosters (most people can't bear to kill them), so I charged the following:
- $5 for a rooster,
- $10 for an unsexed chook (gender being a gamble),
- $15 for "probably a hen" with the guarantee that they could return it if it started to crow and receive a $10 refund. I offered to despatch the chook if so and the owner could take it home for the pot.

This seemed to reassure people. I've taken the ad down now but am still receiving queries of "when are you breeding more?" so that's a good sign for next year.

All in all a satisfying enterprise.

Note: a huge thanks to Teun, Annamiranda, Leaha and Briony for helping look after them during the various extreme weather events we've experienced these past months.

Dennis' birthday and a cyclone

On the weekend John and I went to visit our dear friends Dennis and Amanda in Beachmere (which was just recovering from bushfires) to celebrate Dennis' birthday. But instead of extended family and a barbecue lunch, Dennis and Amanda got a visit from ex tropical cyclone Oswald, as king tide and flood waters causing a sea surge came over the sea wall and flooded the town. Good Beachmere residents came and helped each other but the damage would have been extensive.

So Dennis' birthday lunch was just us awesome foursome with quite wet feet ... and even John and I had to leave early so as not to be caught by more flooding. But we had a lovely time with Dennis and Amanda, and we agree that Beachmere is a *really* exciting place to visit!

Rain and wind lash the coast and the tide comes in. It was hard to stand up here.

A quiet place to meditate and watch the ocean?

The sea water floods the town. Nothing to be done, Mother Nature's in charge here ...

I made a short video as the water came in over the sea wall, probably to the detriment of my good camera...

 

Dennis helped neighbours and friends and meanwhile, the resilient and resourceful Amanda drummed up a  lovely lunch after all ...

Calm during the storm ...

Thank you Dennis and Amanda for a lovely weekend!


After a rather difficult trip with torrential rain and much wind, we made it home safely, just before more cyclonic winds hit our farm. More updates on that to follow.

Good old fashioned fun: happy kids

Going back a few weeks now, but here's a lovely short clip of Esmée using the rope swing to join Yarrow in the river. The kids built this swing themselves when we were camping at the Clarence River down at Alice Flats. They spent most of the days in and out of the water ... Well, who wouldn't?

I love the wink and the thumbs up ... and that confident little wiggle, yes ... :-) :-) :-)

Rascal goes to the Clunes store and café

Today John and I went for a ride, and took Rascal for the first time right through the main street of Clunes to the shop and café. Busy traffic: cars, trucks, kids on bikes, flapping plastic bags, barking dogs: he just took it all in his unflustered stride. I'm so proud of him and so very happy with the excellent training that Carla Stanford gave him.

At the café they offered Rascal a coffee, which he politely declined...  but he did get a couple of juicy big carrots which he shared with his good friend Gandhi (who was a very good boy too). They also posed for some photos. Karen the shop owner took some photos too and when I get a copy I'll put them up as well.

The boys give each other a nuzzle

Bring on the carrots!!

Sister

My loved sister Anoush (Ana-mir, Anna, Auntie Anana ... a rose by any other...) is visiting from Melbourne on a rare and welcome long visit. Today we took a wee break from family stuff and Anoush went for a ride on the good cob, Emu, who is now owned by Hans. She has overcome a good many health problems to get back in the saddle and as you can see, has done so admirably! Our dear old dog Chicco ambled along (though she kind of went adrift every now and then ... but hey, at 13 she is fairly ancient).

Emu's got his ears forward and was obviously enjoying the ride with Anoush. 

The adventures of Nick and Esmée

My niece and nephew, Esmée and Nick (my brother's two eldest from the Netherlands), have spent the last three weeks here enjoying the Australian summer. Here are some of the many many photos (click to enlarge).

Arrival at Brisbane airport after a tiring 24 hour flight, but they're still smiling!

Both Esmée and Nick spent time learning to ride / improving their riding skills. Es rode our young Arab/Brumby cross, Rascal, and Nick rode the trusty bay horse, Emu.

Nick and Esmée both had a driving lesson in the Subaru ... Good fun on Peter J's 60 acre river flats!

Esmée celebrated her 15th birthday with elegance and fun ...

Home-made flower necklace courtesy of Ongel (Oma)'s pink frangipani

All the cousins did a fair bit of hanging out: John's daughters Briony and Bella, Bella's fiancée Tim, John's nephew Rian and his fiancée Nadine, Tess and Yarrow ... here they are all hanging out at Claudia's place.

Of course we went to play at Killen falls. Nothing quite like standing under a waterfall and letting the water cascade down your back on a hot summer's day ...

New Yea: a bonfire and dancing at the Grange. Here are Esmée and Yarrow ringing in the new year ...

Nick spending some quiet time gaming on the computer, supported by Inkling who was obviously mesmerised by the cyber entertainment ...

A highlight: Camping at the Clarence River (Alice Flats). Sleeping in tents, cooking on the campfire, swimming and canoeing in the river, body surfing down the rapids, afternoon massages ...

Crocodile Nick approaches Yarrow who had been reading in the Canadian canoe

Cousins reading and chatting

Just hanging around the campfire

Nick receives a massage from Auntie Anana

Nick giving Yarrow a massage

Home again, and time to relax in the bath and soak all the camping dust off!

Esmée reading in "a bath with a view" ...

We spent a day at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where there are not only marsupials and monotremes, but monkeys in the trees ...

Nick going down the longest flying fox, 18 metres above the ground

Tess negotiating the high stirrups. I found them really hard to do!

Esmée with a friendly kangaroo

Auntie Anana and Esmée chilling out in the shade with the roos

Who says wombats can't do yoga?

Esmée in the terrifying grips of a large python ...

Merry Christmas everyone

And Radha wants you all to know she'd really like to open the presents now so come on everyone, GET OUT OF BED!!

Little joey plays air guitar

When last at Currumbin I took a photo of this little Big Red fella who popped out of the pouch to do some groovin' on air guitar... :-D

Watch out Rock 'n Roll world, he's coming your way!!

Solar at The Grange

Take that, coal-fired power stations! The Grange will now generate approximately 6.5 kWh electricity /day from good old Sol.

I am pretty sure this good old house is taking this 21st-century-technology in its 130-year-old stride.

We will probably add more solar panels as time goes by and prices come down. For now it is expected that these 8 panels will generate 1/3 of our power. The builders are at present also installing 8 panels on the nursery roof, which should generate enough power to completely cover the existing electricity bill for our tenants Tasman and Barry who run it as a business, The Clunes Nursery.

Learning to ride

Here's Teun on his second ever horse riding lesson. To the manor born :-) ...  Or should I say "To The Grange He Came?"

House guest

We are very lucky to have a lovely house guest in the form of Teun from Venray in the Netherlands. Not only is he very likeable and exceedingly helpful around the place, he loves animals and is also a Trekkie!! And he's a dab hand with the camera ...

Yarrow, Teun and Tess November 2012. The cowboy and his Clunes sisters :-)

Update on the children of Capt Rainbow II and the Missus II

They grew up and flew away :-) :-) :-)

Dad Rosella and Mum Rosella are debating whether to have a new brood. Dad says YES!! YES!!, Mum so far seems to be saying "NO WAY BOYO". Or tweets to that effect.

Wallaby joey update 3

Sad news. Despite a very good start, the wallaby joey died due to sudden renal failure last Thursday, after three months in superb care. Jan, his carer of 24 hours a day, seven days (and nights) a week, is devastated. Our fantastic vet Willa did all she could but despite Jan's entreaties not to let him die he just slipped away. Willa thinks maybe his period of intense hypothermia at the start could have done some kidney damage, but then again, it could have been a birth defect of some sort.

I really feel for Jan and her husband Peter who gave excellent and devoted care to him for three months and were so looking forward to releasing him into the wilds behind their farm.

Remember Captain Rainbow and his Missus, the Eastern Rosellas?

These are the children of Capt Rainbow II and the Missus II (Long story. Ask Sunny the cat ...  :-(  )

This is the nesting box I built two years ago. There are six of them at least, so a big brood for eastern rosellas ... aren't they beautiful? (hmm ...  well, their mother loves them, anyway).

But here at the Grange we're enchanted.

Click for a larger image

Happiness is ... cuddling your puppy

Well, officially not a puppy anymore, as Radha is now one year old.

Here's Briony giving her a cuddle.

The filly goes for a walk

Here's an early morning photo of our youngest horse, Romany Ruby Smudge Muffin (yeah, yeah, she was named by the entire committee of teenage Grange girls), going for a wander down towards the valley. What a view to wake up to ...

Happy birthday Marc!

Well, it's still 9 October in Europe ...  so here is a happy birthday card for Marc, my much loved and much-missed brother!

This is a sketch / doodle Marc and I made together in the kitchen at Crieve Lodge (RMB 602B, Goulburn NSW), while my mother was on the phone, back in 1981 or so, and which I have treasured and kept all these years. I'm wondering how to explain the context of this drawing, but I've decided I can't ... Suffice to say, we were pretty much rolling on the floor, helpless with laughter. I know, I know, you kinda had to be there ...

The drawing is called "Schoft"

Happy happy birthday, Marc. Thank you for all the merriment, humour, and laughter that we have shared. I love you! xxx Mieke

A word about Radha

For some reason that I can't fathom, I haven't posted about our lovely new dog, Radha. She was a gift from friends, Matthew and Ayananda: they loved her dearly but could not take her with them to Norway. So now she lives with us (note well: unlike Chicco, she's not a 'rescue' dog: she had a good healthy upbringing and was much loved).

She's about a year old and is a cross between ... bull mastiff? foxhound? greyhound? Who knows. But she's a gentle, beautiful and very playful dog.

"I can beat Briony at Cathedrale. I'm sure I can"

Mmm, snuggling in front of the fire. Mmmmmm!

Here's a word from herself - "A morning in the life of Radha" (PS: Sunny and Inkling are cats)

6.15 am: From my nest next to the humans’ bed I wake up, sit up, stretch, and shake head to flap ears awake. Put head on the bed and look imploringly to tell my humans that I’d like to go out and do a pee. Keep looking at the humans and sighing occasionally until they get the picture. Good humans.

6.30 am: Wander outside together with Sunny the cat. Have the usual polite non-verbal discussion as to who gets to walk down the stairs first. He always says he will, even though I know I could jump straight over him while he does it …. but I won’t, ‘cos Sunny has pointy bits at the end of his paws and might like to use them if he gets a surprise.

6.35 am: Come inside much lighter in body and spirit and find my friend Inkling. Inkling weaves around my paws and gives me some head-bonks and makes soft growly noises which means he’s happy. I suck on Inkling’s ear. It’s just our thing.

6.45 am: Sit under the breakfast table and decide to generously give various humans my toys. John can have Mousie, Mieke can have Ball and Yarrow can have StinkyRope . Hm. Yarrow doesn’t want StinkyRope. She says it’s “Eeuwgh go away Radha I don’t want your StinkyRope”. How can she not? She has no taste. Then again, she is a teenager.  Console myself by sucking on Inkling’s ear for a bit.

7.00 am: Time for John to go to work, which means walk time for us Dogs. Wake Chicco up and launch myself out the door and down the stairs in a single leap. Lie in wait for Chicco so I can pounce on her as she reaches the bottom step. Romp happily and chew on Chicco’s hind legs while she tries to walk in a straight line. Not a hope Chicco!

7.50 am: While breakfast is being made for us Animals, I entertain myself by chasing my tail. Eight times in one direction and thirteen times in the other. Finish up feeling slightly wobbly and stagger around a bit. Tess laughs: obviously a happy teenager, she must have seen something funny. Wonder what it was.

How to befuddle your dog

You take some planks and some bits and pieces ...

Then you mix and stir (while adding a cup of tea, of course)

Then you move it somewhere else ....

 

... and befuddle your dog.

Visitor in the woodshed

You could be excused for thinking of Ada Doom here (from Cold Comfort Farm: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"). But it's only Charlie our local python. I must say, he seems to have grown a lot these past hibernating months.

He was a bit camera shy: so you can't see his pretty face ;-)

Riding a young horse

Here's Rascal being ridden by Carla on day 4 of his life as a riding horse. Some shenanigans today: he was trying to evade work by skittering around and not letting Carla get on but she has more patience than he has and in the end he just had to give in to her polite and insistent requests to stand still and let her mount ... (hey fella, we're humans, and we'll live longer than you will ...). But he was also much more balanced and happy to go forward. He also did a bit of lateral work and some turns on the forehand.

Not bad for a brumby cross :-)

Wallaby joey update 2

All is well with our joey! Jan is being such a wonderful carer. He's gained weight, is growing fur, and drinks well. Jan has been offering him grass to eat but he's not showing interest in that yet (but he will suck fingers, nibble on bracelets, chew on buttons, and the like). Jan informed us that had he been able to stay with his mum in natural conditions, he would still have spent another 210 days in the pouch (7 months!). So he does spend most of his time in the humidicrib, and he is taken out for feeding and toileting.

Tess holding the joey, now renamed "Benjamin Wallaby"

In Yarrow's arms. As you can see he has some unusually striking markings for a swamp wallaby.

Horse training: Rascal under saddle

Now that he's four and a half years old, our very own Rascal Darius, our friendly intelligent clown, has started proper training! And he's coming along so well. John and I have done a fair bit of ground work using natural horsemanship techniques. Our friend, a professional horse trainer, comes over and has been doing great work with him. Soon he will go to her place and receive the 'fine polish' of training such as doing lateral work, working on flexion and so on.

After his first time under saddle with her (I was at a uni research seminar) she texted me "You have an amazing little horse on your hands!". And we think so too.

Some background: Rascal was born on Melbourne Cup day 2007. His dam is buckskin brumby Duchess (now living with Hans and Niki); his sire is Noah Nielsen's bay tobiano arab Xerxes. Rascal looks much like his Dad. Rascal's very similar uncle can be viewed here.

Rascal at 4 days old running with his Mama, Duchess the brumby.

Rascal now 4 years old, his first time ride under the trainer. No bucking, no fear, but collaboration and confidence :-)

I do like the natural training techniques: they make such sense and you get a better horse in the long run. Oh, and Rascal's not for sale...  he's staying as my very own future riding horse :-)

Here's another lovely photo of his first real ride. He's looking pretty relaxed and happy!

Ears forward :-)

Joey update

Just rang Jan ... He's doing very well. He weighs 666 grams which puts him at about 80 days old: very young to survive without a Mum. (See here for a table of weight / feed ratios).
He has not developed diarrhea which is one of the big dangers for young rescued macropods. According to Jan he's doing better than most joeys she's had in her care, which is wonderful considering how very cold he was to start with. He's much more active and very curious about his surroundings. We'll go visit him later this week and take some more photos.

Rescue of a swamp wallaby joey

Driving down towards the narrow bridge over Pearce's Creek late Thursday afternoon with Tess, we spotted a small shambling silhouette staggering across the road. Shocked, we realised it was a very young joey. Swerving to give it plenty of room, the Forester has never been brought so sharply from 80kph to a halt downhill on grass. Tess pelted back up the hill, and gathered it gently in her school jumper.
Poor thing, it's frozen, I said as I felt its ears, only lightly covered in fur. Tuck it under your shirt, against your skin. Where's its Mum? Tess swaddled it under her shirt and held it close.

A short search revealed the body of its mother, a swamp wallaby, both back legs shattered, her body stone cold. Must have been there all day, slowly getting colder, and now come out of the pouch in search of warmth.
What can we do? Asked Tess, knowing full well it needs special care that we can't provide.
I might know someone. Long time ago, but they might still have the resources. Not far from here. Come back to the car, and keep it warm.
We took the joey to the farm where ten years ago, I remembered, people did macropod rescue. And they were still there.
Wading our way through their various dogs (ranging from Chihuahua cross to the hugest great Dane I've ever seen) we met Jan and Peter. Jan placed the joey in a soft bag and ambled over to the garage where, to my intense surprise, they had two fully kitted out hospital grade humidicribs. Let's just get this one started up, Jan said softly, twiddling various techno dials. Just keep him warm against you, darling, there's a dear, she said to Tess, while I make up a bottle for him and wait for the crib to warm up. He's very cold, he's in danger. In the cupboard she pulled out a tin of Di-Vetelact milk powder especially for young macropods (Nope, I thought, I have lots of stuff in my cupboards, but I don't have that). Soon after, while Tess cradled the joey, Jan fed him tiny amounts of milk. He didn't eat much. I know, it's strange, Jan said to him. Not your Mum, not your home, not your milk. But it's the best we can offer you. Tonight will be the most difficult: if you make it through the night you might be right.

By then it was well dark outside. We left him with Jan who was going to stay up during the night to ensure he regained his body temperature and learned to feed.

The next day I received a text: "Our little boy has picked up well, he started sucking at 10 last night. Jan"

:-) he made it through the night :-) he made it through the night :-) he made it through the night :-)