And This Little Pig said Cats and Dogs on the Farm

I decided it was time for the farm cats and dogs to have their own post.

This is Molly our LGD, she is a Maremma, this is the sight that usually greets Mum on her way up to the goats every morning.

She is a big bundle of love, well until you don't belong, and are trying to touch or take an animal that is hers. Or if you are a fox or strange dog, then she becomes all business.

We have six farm cats, that live in the milking bail, feed shed, and hay shed, this is the only ginger cat we have at the moment. And he finds the strangest positions to sleep in... on top of a bag of chaff.

One of the five grey tabby farm cats, taking a rest just off the path outside the feed shed.

Now this is someone I have never told you all about, this is Chobe, my old man, he is a Hungarian Vizsla. And yes he does live with me, but he is a kennel dog, not an inside boy. I should say he is a yard dog, as he spends most of his day out in the yard, only going back to the kennels at night, he has full access to all runs. There are four, and a main yard, so he has four different kennels to sleep in, and he does rotate around them all.

Chobe is my last show champion, and will be 13 this June, still as active as he was as a puppy, and he survived a snake bite 5 years ago, that really should have been the end of him. But he powers on, with no real signs of slowing down. Don't you wish you were this fit at... lets see the first dog year equals 10 human years, and every year after that equals 7 years... So 7 x 12 = 84 + 10 = 94!

Chobe has never much enjoyed the farms "big dogs", but as long as he is close to me, he is willing to be brave.

Oh Danni, a dewlap on Luis is like one big double chin :D

Nite LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said A Day of Contrasts

Well day one of the babies, and they are doing great, and so is Evie, she is such a good mum, I might actually get a betters night sleep, fingers crossed, but I'm sure I will still be up several times and at any slight noise :)

Also Evie would like to tell you that her mother (me) has been slack and did not change my bedding until after she took the photos, something about the puppies and me 'just looked so cute'!

We love our mummy.

So this morning in my sleep depravation, when I took all the girls out at 5am, I must not have shut the back door properly, so at 7am when I stood at the sink making a coffee I realised the door was slightly ajar... well my cats, my indoor, not aloud outside cats, had had access to the backyard for over two hours. Ahhhh...

Thankfully Sylvia was sitting between the door and the screen (with the dog door), such a good girl she had not gone out. Stella was just around the corner of the house, and Levi, well the evil one had gone over the side gate was in the front yard!!! All fine, thankfully, and Levi came when called.

Once back inside the full extent came to the for, Sylvia, my Silly had been outside. She is my calico, my moggie RSPCA girl. Well the photos tell the story... please note she is in her mid-summer clip.

My Silly is white, as in snow white.

This evening while I was watering pot plants on the front verandah, it was still 40C (105F) at 6.40pm tonight, this little fella must have taken shelter from the sun. He was looking right at me.

Not quite sure what he was pointing at... PM phone home :-)

Well we all survived day one, even with the heat, and tomorrow will be just as bad, but the puppies will be one day older... LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said Aussie Aussie Aussie... Oi Oi Oi

Yes it is Australia Day! An old photo of Stella as a kitten, posing for me, on the Aussie flag, well she is an Australian Mist, Australia's only home grown breed of cat! Must find the colour photo.

Today is a public holiday, with Evie so close to having her pups and it being extremely hot... as in 41C or 105.8F we stayed home in the air-con. I spent the day stitching, watching the tennis and the cricket, while the girls all laid round under the ceiling fan, enjoying the cool.

I managed my first finish of the year, and my first Crazy. LHN Ornament Joy to the World. One down, fourteen crazies to go. I changed 'Joy's' hair colour, my 869 just looked too green, I even dug into my old floss box, some of these thread are 20 years or older, and while it looked more brown, it just wasn't right. So I frogged it, and replaced with 433.

Someone asked, I think it was Danni :) Where the Hunter Valley was in relation to the floods in Queensland. Well here is a map of Australia, on the east coast, top to bottom, is Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and well you can't forget Tasmania the little island at the bottom.

Here is a map of the Hunter Valley, can you see Newcastle on the coast, if you look at the map above, it is above Sydney, in NSW.

LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said Crazies Day 8

Day 8, can you believe, over half way there :D

LHN Ornament Winter Sheep.

I did work some more on my Day 7 Crazy, particularly when I realized the right hand border was also out by 6 stitches, so did some frogging, and put most of the stitches back in this morning, before I started on the above.

I can't believe the amount of enjoyment I am getting out of this. I also can't believe that I now have 8, no 9 WIP from this year, seeing as the most WIP's I have ever had in the past is 4. So 9 + 2 outstanding from last year equals 11.... ahhhhhh

I have often put up pictures of my dogs, and realized why I may have mentioned my 3 cats in passing, I don't think I have put their photos up. I have a couple of great shots, but they are all on my windows computer, which is currently down with a virus (again). When it comes back from the IT man this time IT WILL NEVER BE CONNECTED to the internet again. All surfing, browsing, postings etc will be done on my Apple laptop.

So I have photos of two of my cats, Sylvia was playing at hiding today. So here is my beautiful La Stella Bella, she is an Australian Mist, I liked it better when they called the Spotted Mists :D

Stella is not showing off her spots to perfection, because come summer round here, she and Sylvia who is a semi-long, are clipped. Stella has about 5-6 weeks growth, and when I first clip/shave her, she looks like a skinned rabbit, with absolutely no spots.

This is Levi a Devon Rex,  don't let that innocent look fool you into thinking that butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, cause when you switch the L to the end of his name... Evil.

These photos were taken of them sharing their styrofoam box, the kind that vegetables come in. When it is really hot, I put a frozen drink bottle in, and cover with a towel. It is like having their own little cool room.

And This Little Pig said Farm Day 6

Well it's Day 6 or evening, and we are waiting on one or our old does to kid. This will more than likely be her last kidding, we will have to wait to see how she is after this kidding.

Busy sort of day, we ended up having to go back to Ag-Quip, we left behind a pair of hoof shears we had brought, silly us.

It had rained over night, which made parking in a paddock fun, it took us 20 minutes to get from the front gate to park, slip sliding all the way, it was very greasy.

A view from the back door, up to the sheds and poultry. The rocks were what attracted my parents to this place, the goats love them.

Our Buff Sussex on the roost this evening.

The menagerie has been added to today, pheasants! A ringneck, with the wrong hen. 

Golden Pheasant, please excuse the pen, but when they arrived this morning, they had been in their travel boxes for 36 hours. Food, water and freedom, where higher on the list of things to do, they had arrived a week early, and an extra pair, we had two pens ready, but not three.

Golden Pheasant hen, we have to move them tomorrow. 

And a very pretty, Ringneck, mutation blue, he looks like a peacock. He at least has the right hen, even though she was hiding.

Our LGD, Molly, she is a Maremma.

My Meah.

Normie was getting upset that the puppies were getting all the attention. You can see how stressed and put out he is, simply inconsolable. 

Cheeky.

Paw on macro.

Nose on macro.

And This Little Pig said Day 5 Cow-Day-Wednes-Day

Well it's Wednesday, so the only cows I had to photograph were our own.

Our old girl is at the back, Missy the Jersey, and the black cow does not have a name, she is usually called the "Jersey Friesian X heifer we got from Alex".

These two are being raised on the Missy.

This is a young Jersey heifer we raised to eventually replace Missy, she is three-quarters Jersey, one-quarter Friesian... her name is Maxine, after the dairy farmer we got her from, Max.

What Maxine thinks of having her photo taken.

Another farm cat hard at work.

Yesterday, I told you about getting home in time to see the last of triplets born, this is the doe kid, isn't she beautiful, especially in her woollen 'lamb' coat. We think her name may be Symphony, she needs a beautiful big name. I will try and take a photo tomorrow without her coat.

This is one of her brothers, he was the last born, we call him the monster!

We had quads born late today, 4 doe kids, 1 kid died in-utero about two weeks ago, she was fully formed, and had hair.

Proud mum.

And of course a puppy photo, our Tilly, with her sister Milly who is going to live in Tasmania.

And This Little Pig said Farm Day 3

Day 3 on the Farm, no more kids today, maybe tomorrow.

So here is Boy No 1 today, having one of his 4 of 5 bottles for the day.

Here is Boy No 2, still not standing up, or drinking well, but he is brighter, and able to hold his head up. He is actually bigger than his older brother, and while not out of the woods, things are looking up.

We have several pieces of rock salt blocks tied up for the does, and we believe it makes a big different in kidding and getting rid of all the after bits of birth.

We actually try to hatch out the bulk of our chickens in late winter through to mid-spring, our last hatchings are usually in early October. While we have cold winters, and can get as low as -6 to -8 degrees C, we have disgustingly hot summers up to 45 degrees C. It is just too hard to raise chickens, it is hard enough keeping adult chooks alive.

So some Buff Columbian Wyandotte chickens in the brood boxes.

Farm cat in one of the warmest places in winter, on top of the brood boxes.

Peach or Nectarine in bud.

And what would a posting be without Dachshund puppies, they go on Friday, but Tilly is staying.

Puppy pile, all trying to sleep on Mum's winter rug.

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

This is probably the best photo I have taken of Tilly's colour, it is a real light chocolate, so different from my Quincy who is so dark. We decided today that Tilly was milk chocolate :D

Well I didn't take as many photos today, but am off to Ag-Quip tomorrow, which is the largest agricultural field day in Australia. My feet are aching already.