I was doing the evening thing here down on the farm, feeding various animals, worrying about our poorly little Luka, wondering what in the hell to do with the old pig pen enclosure and so on when i noticed 2 people chatting by the bottom fence. The new owner of the acreage next door, who runs horses, lots of beautiful horses, and the previous owner, who is also the same farmer whose herd Tippi infiltrated some many months ago - you might remember the Bring Tippi Home campaign - there were t-shirts and everything!

So I wander down, looking glamorous in my gumboots and flanno, covered in mud and shit and say "g’day" over the fence… introduce myself to the new owner, who is lovely, and get a gruff reception from farmer boy who no doubt thinks i am just some freakish lowlife (hey, i *am* some freakish lowlife - yay!). Anyway, I push his patience by just hanging around, and he eventually tells me he’s transporting some of his cattle to market on Tuesday, and he’d put Tippi on the truck and send her round, if I could just fix up the carrier… sure, what the heck, I can do that… and off i go, executing a little jig of happiness (as much as the gumboots will allow) that Tippi is *finally* coming home.

Tuesday comes, and with it Tippi, hornless, but looking fine, and who knows? maybe pregnant… that would be sweet. The farmer’s herd bull is a Limousine I think, a big boofy gnarly looking curly headed brown thing with one horn turned in. He seems a fine specimen, and really quite docile. I’ve often been around and in amongst his herd (usually trying to run down escaped goats and calves) and he’s watchful but not aggressive…

Tippi joins our little farm herd and we stand in the paddock to watch how the dynamics play out. There’s abit of pushing and shoving, but Hinimoa (Tippi’s mum) remembers her and sniffs and licks and stays close by (she missed her terribly for a long time). Rosie is a bit wary but seems to respect Tippi’s place (below her, naturally) and Frenchie and Tippi seem to get along ok, being of a similar size and strengh probably. Little Girl is feisty but Tippi’s having none of her, so they keep their distance. In the final analysis, Rosie is Top Cow without a doubt, followed by Hinimoa and Tippi then slipping a few rungs down is first Frenchie (her sheers size and strength puting her above Little Girl) then Little Girl. They are a lovely herd, all fine fine cows, and a perfect herd to grow with. All have their purpose and we love them to death.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention Luka. Weeelllll… Luka doesn’t really even rate in the herd dymanics. I’ve seen Frenchie basically steamroller her from one end of the paddock to the other. She’s very poorly, and we don’t know what is wrong with her. She’s just not like any calf I’ve known. No frolic, no noise, no spark… we’ve been trying various things and have just gotten her to start eating a mash of dairy meal, oatbran, kelp, minerals with molasses dissolved in boiling water. I tried garlic, but she HATES it, so that will have to be gradualy introduced… so twice a day she eats this, has for a few days now. I’ve been increasing the amount and hopefully we will see some strength and spark enter her tiny little body which has become quite wasted over the last few months

I’m introducing her to the herd little by little and yesterday they all seemed to be grazing peacefully together. It makes my heart glad to see them together, looking so fine, so handsome.

PICTURE COMING SHORTLY 

The human herd is traveling well, with the Likely Dairylad still loving her work and becoming more ensconced in her working environment, learning lots of new things every day, and as its calving season, she’s in her element, wanting to bring home any unwanted babies… BUT we have babies enough! And being the dry season, only just enough pasture to keep them in good condition. Oh and she has new waterproof kit and boots to wear… she looks rather dashing in it!

Deb is working 7 days a week, with a day off here and there sorting macadamias - noisy work, but money is her reward, and she has a PLAN, which involves seasonal work, then travel. Working the maca season here (she’s been a great find for her employers, reliable and hardworking), then off to the UK to see her boy Tommy for a stretch. Hopefully Tommy will come and visit the farm, which will be a wild cultural change for her…

Me? Oh yes, me… Well, I’m doing some gardening on a coffee plantation for a nice bloke. I got to make vegie gardens the other day in raised beds, so that was cool, planted a veritable cornucopia of foods which will be bursting out the seams of the beds and provide food for my boss and family for the winter, I hope!  Now to continue the slow rescue and regeneration of my own gardens… I’m getting there… we’ll have no lack of leek and onion, and some rhubarb is looking good and we still have plenty of greens and herbs… oh and of course the endless limes and lemons and so on. Winter fruits will be setting soon as well… I’m tackling some web production for extra income and a few interesting things have come up for me after the last post I made. I’m very much looking forward to getting back into the dairy production once Rosie calves, too…

Yes, so after my last post I had a lovely comment from Joanne Hay, the editor of Nourished magazine, who tracked us down, as i had quoted from the magazine in the post I made. She loved the blog and so an exchange ensued. She is fundamentally involved in the raw milk movement here and is instrumental in setting up the herd share here in the Lismore/Byron region which is slowly moving towards being operational. I’m hoping we can become involved on a number of levels. So she will come and visit and we will chat. Joanne is also inerested in having me write for the magazine, and has asked me if I would ike to interview Dr Elaine Ingham, who is running a course out at the Uni and presenting lectures on SOIL, oh yes, my favorite topic to ponder… and ponder… and ponder… maybe i’ll actually learn how to deal with it!

Dr Ingham is from the Soilfoodweb Institute and is a world leader in the research and analysis of the soil foodweb. Over the past 20 years she has worked with growers worldwide and has developed a database of microorganisms present in various soils, and has observed the improvement in soild when the appropriate balance between beneficial fungi and bacterial biomass is acheived.

The course, running from June 23-July 4 is called Soil Foodweb Interactions and Benefits to Plant Production and will be held at Southern Cross University, Lismore, NS

So that’s cool…

Speaking of herds, well, packs really, there is an introduction to be made.

And Oscar makes 3…

Yes, we are now mothers of 2 fine puppies, the newest pack member being Oscar. Now Jimmy Jack has a little brother and a friend. The Amstaff breed is very very social and energetic, and a lone Amstaff would have been, well, lonely. Now they play outside all day long, a tiny Oscar holding his own against a much bigger Jimmy Jack. He’s twelve weeks old…

OK, enough, I need to go and dig and plant. I’m thinking potatoes… amongst the brassicas and beans and onions…

If anyone has any suggestions about how to manage 2 enclosed areas that used to be a pigpen and are now pumpkins and weeds but are really too big to cultivate as vegie gardens and could be grass crops but there is not a gate big enough for cows to pass through and so on… I welcome them!

Ok backyard buddies, I’ll be back again soon.

Vx