Up and running again!

Well, it was a sad day when I lost my big camera recently, hence no photos to post! Yes, a visitor was at the Farm and whilst we did the ‘guided tour’ thing, I put my big Nikon D80 on her boot and forgot it was there. She later reversed down my drive….and it flew off her boot tumbling to the ground. I cried buckets! My Nikon was no more… it was munted! Also I had on it my big 18-200 zoom, and it was broke in two. A sad day indeed. I have since put in a claim under my contents insurance…. stressing hard that its NOT one camera, but two pieces of kit…. hopefully they ‘get it’, and I can replace it asap.

Out of the blue however, some very dear friends came to visit this weekend, and my ‘spiritual brother’ totally surprised me by lending me his big ‘Olympus’ camera, so I can continue my blog. Kudos to you Baljit!!!!

So here we can now introduce Daenarys! She is a rescue kid we fell in love with. She has an unusual mix of mostly black skin but white fur, and unusual albino eyes. We named her after Daenarys in ‘Game of Thrones’, the striking blonde ‘dragon lady’ who too has pure white hair.

She is nearly weaned now, and outside with the rest of the gang…our small goat herd who are now permanent residents here at Little Acres. She is starting to show her ‘feral line’ of silver down her back. A beautiful little lady indeed.

There’s something about her face that just makes me laugh. She is so very friendly and endearing, but those sticky out ears crack me up every time. She is lovely, and is now down to just a morning and evening bottle, and happily grazes during the rest of the day.

And how are the rest of our baby goats? Well, they each have new leads and collars now, and are learning to be tethered so they can munch all day side by side. They get into quite a tangle at times, so we have to place them far enough apart to reach each other, but their leads cannot overlap. Here they are on their first guide rope, and having ‘cuddle time’ with Charlea.

We all know who this is mugging for the camera as always! Yes, this is Chanel, our little mischief maker, and I’m sure she’s grinning for Granny (Annie's Granny )...hehe.

The two girls Coco & Chanel have red leads and collars…

And here is Coco sporting hers. Coco was named by popular vote by our readers… and she is doing great!

Prada too gets a new lead and collar in Black… a perfect match for her fur….

and so too does AA. She came to us recently at 3 weeks of age, and the farmer told us she was a ‘wild one’. Hmf….not any more! She is now fully weaned, and is completely tame after the ‘Little Acres treatment’ of lots of cuddles, grooming, feeding, and story times. No wild animals here! Charlea named her ‘AA’ as in Alcoholics Anonymous….only she is a FOOD addict instead! Yes AA never stopped eating when she first came here, and would guzzle her bottles down in seconds flat!

Next up are the boys…. Shikamaru gets his new lead and collar in Blue…..

and so too does Forty our fully grown male goat. He is in rut, ‘intact’, has horns, and is as tame as can be!

It has been so very busy here at the Farm, as we lead up to our ‘makeover project’. We have to keep the animals more contained as people come to visit, make plans, measure up and so on. Meanwhile our little piglets are now completely weaned and independent of Mum.

They freely roam about the Farm, and sleep in our car port at night…they’ve made a lovely cosy nest under a bale of hay. They’re not stupid, lol. They even walk into the house at times hoping for some titbits!

Galaxy is doing well. She is now completely weaned. No more huge bottles to make! Look at how fat she is… she never ‘scoured’ once (diarrhoea) and we weaned her long and slow, to help later with longevity. A quick weaning is ok if calves are later to be ‘processed’, but Galaxy is a ‘cow for life’ and so we wanted a really good start for her, bottle feeding her for 12 weeks, twice a day. This should pay dividends later. Soon she starts her programme of being drenched every 6 weeks. She is so very tame, and very popular with visitors when she comes to her name being called. We’ve had to move her into the chook paddocks, where she is more contained while people scurry around measuring up and dividing our grazing areas.

Our saddlebacks too have had to move. I believe they are getting new pens, so for now we have put them in where our baby goats used to be. The grass here has grown so they are happily grazing that down. The old goat pallet for play got saturated with recent heavy rain, but we’ve left that for the pigs to scratch on.

We have been asked NOT to cut anything down or touch anything. A bit frustrating as everything is growing so fast! However the animals are loving it, and their temporary home is only for the next month. Soon they shall have new secure pens up the top acre, and can be moved back to their new permanent home.

Last but not least, hubby has made a new guinea pig house and run from recycled pallets. Their old one was falling apart, and he’s even put in a little circular window, lol. There is a sliding door on the inside of the opening, and the rope handles make it easy to lift the ‘house’ section which fits perfectly into the ‘run’ section. This makes it so easy to move them over each morning, change their water bowl, and put in their diced apples etc. Again with so much long grass available they are loving it. They have recently had their teeth checked, and two had dental treatment for overgrown teeth. Something to watch out for if keeping guineas indoors.

We have rehomed 6 guineas so far, and taken in another 2. Fresh grass and hay helps prevent this problem of long incisors and it is something we always have to check when in-taking guineas that have lived in hutches only. Not really a ‘lifestyle’ animal…. but hey, we have the room to give them a home too.

So good to be able to blog again! Many thanks to my dear friend Baljit, who is making this possible with his camera loan! Busy times ahead, so bear with me as we prepare for our huge makeover, and making history too! Everyone who is able to come are invited on 5th/6th January! Hope to see you there!