I know, I know - I'm super slack for going so long without an update on our wonderful(?) way of life.
Re-reading my last post has prompted a headcount update before I go any further;
Chook count - heart-wrenchingly reduced by nine by a bloody evasive stoat.
Golden pheasant count - also decimated by the stoat - now only three left. We lost our wonderful hand-reared boy Beep. The Boss and I found this really hard to cope with.
Cattle population - now Dino, Bam-Bam and our other calf Freddy. We bought a big boy named Barney off Trade Me, and there's a little bit of him left in the freezer. The beefy boy and nameless mother cow were whisked away by the landlord some time ago.
Sheep - all the landlord's mob has long gone, now we have Lambchop - a triplet I ended up with when she was only three days old. Keeping her company is our other lamb Porkchomp - so named because one of our kunes chewed off her tail shortly after she was born without warning to a supposedly dry ewe.
Pigs - this is where things get embarrassing. Kune kunes down to just Golly & Ginga. Petunia the large white has just had her second lot of piglets - 14 of the little suckers. Petunia's daughters from her first litter have also been having a crack at motherhood - Sweetpea had 11, Poppy 8 and Pansy 3. Then you add in Bruno the Saddleback boar, Bean the Saddleback girl & her 12, 6 more saddlebacks born to Bruno & his chief squeeze Bella, plus the 6 cross breeds that we bought in to rear as weaners. Bella is about to explode with her next lot of piglets - I'm guessing that'll add at least another 10 to the total.
No way am I brave enough to add up those numbers!
Pussy Cats - Mouse & Dukkah the Maine Coons continue to do their thing - hanging out and looking cute, with the occassional outing to find a mouse or rabbit to play with.
Dogs - Noodle the Jack Russell has been joined by Spud the poodle/cavalier king charles/low chen cross. Spuddy recently donated his boy bits to the local vet, but despite being only seven months old, he managed to get Noodle up the spud before his wee op. Noodle is now only a few weeks away from motherhood.
As if our burgeoning animal population doesn't add enough drama to our lives, The Boss has just resigned from The Vineyard and is about to head off into the big wide world of Irrigation and Pumping. I'm working part time for another vineyard across the road from The Vineyard, and finally we're waiting for the outcome of our first ever outing to the Tenancy Tribunal. The stories I could (and will) tell about our tenancy here at Quaffing House Estate!
Enough for now, but first;
What I've learnt recently:
1. Newborn lambs require six feeds a day for seemingly ages. Even though Lambchop is now all grown up, she still loves me.
2. Our landlord's definition of a bad tenant - US!! Amongst the reasons given - we failed to get his cow in calf & we failed to give him a piglet from Petunia's first mob (even though Petunia was given to me by the Landlord in payment for looking after his 16 other pigs for a number of months).
Let's hope the Adjudicator was not swayed by our terrible behaviour and simply bases her decisions on the facts.
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