Writing this blog has been one of the most pleasurable things I have embarked upon in recent times. This began as a way to chronicle the life and times of… and also as a challenge to myself, usually a writer of obscure poetic melodrama, a challenge to write in a style that was not disclosive, and yet was warm and personal. To tackle a kind of reportage. To write about our day to dayness in an engaging way. To *do* narrative, of a fashion. To let people into our world. To take them on a holiday, maybe. To document learnings, and hopefully make them as fascinating to others as they are to us. To infuse words with a personal politics that reflected the basics of self sufficiency and sustainability. To keep it queer, in a country-assed kind of way! Since the Likely Dairylad writes less and milks more, or something like that, I have come to think of this farmer’s-almanac-of-a-kind as my own, though i probably don’t feed it as often as i should.
There’s always a line to be drawn. There are things I don’t write about here. And yet, boundaries bleed and sometimes what’s happening on the farm is more about the human inhabitants than about the bovines. We have struggles, living as we do, and i made reference to some of those struggles in the last post, and flagged some internal observations and conflicts.
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short intermission for milking and to re-bury a decomposing duck for the umpteenth time… this time i have built a veritable cairn on top of it, perhaps it will be allowed to decompose with grace now, instead of being unceremoniously dragged around the lawn, eviscerated…
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So where was i? Ah yes, I thought I would write today about some changes on the farm which I guess are just as much part of our day to dayness as the birth or death of a calf or our dairy adventures or why the hell is the hen’s comb flopping like that or any one of a multitude of happenings that bless or assault us on a daily basis.
The Likely Dairylad, my amazing and enthusiastic partner in this rural adventure, will return to the city in the near - middle distant future. I will remain on the farm, and we will continue to share the lives of our animals and some farm projects. There are things that LD needs to do and experience in the city, including live life fully and alone. Tackle the mundane day to dayness without support. Make new friends, open up the social spectrum somewhat. I’ve done alot of that. LD has not, well, not with her eyes wide open and the fear and excitement of a brand new day in her heart. I’ve no doubt she will miss this life terribly. It’s a living dream, it’s incomparable, it’s beautiful but when you live the dream, rather than dream the dream, it comes complete with the same struggles and sacrifices that urban dwellers face. Rent, taxes, death, politics, injustice and so on.
[edit :: i do feel heartsick over the leaving, however matter of fact I sound]
Things here will change little. I have embarked upon a list of mammoth proportions. I mentioned in the last post that i was feeling somewhat overwhelmed and disillusioned, that there were some systems failing and this was making my experience of living here a bit of a struggle. This feeling has lifted a little, especially since I’ve just been visited by the dream team! Michael, who owns the farm, and Matty, who did alot of the landscaping here. It was lovely to have them visit. Michael now wears a suit every day and lives in inner urban Melbourne, which seems incongruent with the Michael I know, doing hard labor in the garden, creating gorgeous life from the bones of an old dairy farm. So they spent a whirlwind few days here, pruning, replanting, taking care of alot of the stuff I just couldn’t manage to maintain alone. It’s given me a good kick start. We talked alot about how to rethink the systems so they are manageable.
The next project is to rationalise the garden beds, let some of the large vegetable garden area go back to lawn and create a couple of nice raised beds in order to keep rabbits at bay. Much of the work of making the systems functional again really hinges on getting the dog containment area in place, so that the ducks and chooks can free range again.The pastures suffer when this doesn’t happen (the chooks scratch around the cow shit for grain, spreading it widely, breaking it down quickly). The chooks become depressed and squabble in a smal area no matter that they free range in a fantastic run. The depleted duck flock, orpingtons and muscovies are living in with the chooks, since this seems to be the only dog-proof area. They might all be poultry but they shouldn’t live together. Even the different duck breeds don’t get along so well. I really want to put muscovies and geese in the orchard, and the orpingtons by the vege garde in their former home, so i can use their water for the vegetables.
The farm should not be run by the dogs, the dogs should be contained and the animals should be free. Right now, the other animals suffer because the dogs are prey driven. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before I can have the hidden fence installed, and the dogs can have a huge area to play in, without causing harm to the other living creatures.
So yes, challenges abound. I will prevail!
On another couple of notes… I think today a new dairy heifer is arriving on the farm, a little girl to grow into another housecow. 3 housecows! Wow… I’ll take a picture and edit it into this post later today. She will be my baby, so naming rights fall to me… ahhhh.. i might be all out…
…and here she is … she’s so dainty, such a long legged high stepper! red and white like her mamma. I can only think of names like daisy and bluebell and buttercup and lovely and beautiful when i look at these sweet things… suggestions welcome!
prettiest little thing - another housecow… looks like we are in cheese!
Camp Camp is happening again this New Year. I’ve put together an info kit, made mailouts, but thought i might link to earlier Camp Camp posts , and another , AND another… AND ANOTHER… and post the info kit for those who are interested. Perhaps I’ll make a dedicated Camp Camp website also…
NOW…how to post a pdf here…
OK, so I’ve made a new website for Camp Camp… pretty generic but has high quality maps and so on, and everything you need to know you will find there…
OK… that’s it for now… gotta get on with the day. It’s gorgeous here today, blinding emerald leaves and grass in the spring sunlight.
Love to you, backyarders. Vx
i think “buttercup” is cute
Comment by Deb — November 7, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
buttercup works for me too! and is the name of the princess in the princess bride, a silly but fun flick. btw, i’m going with raised vegie beds here too.. not for the rabbit issue, but because of the ease of maintenance - of soil quality & composition and of the plants themselves…
V
Comment by vicki — November 9, 2008 @ 9:55 am
I reckon she looks like a Primrose or a Belladonna. Buttercup is good too.
Comment by Chris — November 16, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
oh she’s beautiful and i think it makes a lot of sense that she’s yours. she reminds me of you. i hope you take that as a compliment. i think she should therefore having a linguistically interesting name, but i offer no suggestions as yet (but am keeping her up on my screen for analysis). though perhaps you don’t want to go ascribing your habitus with language to her…these are all nice things to hear. i’m glad you’ve got some upgrades happening.
Comment by bee ess — November 16, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
well, always we end up with the cheesiest of cheesy names for our animals… perhaps because it’s as if they have come to life and stepped off a page in a kid’s storybook… so, because we keep reverting to “hello pretty” when we call her for a bottle or get all gooey over her (anthropomorphising animals is a pitfall of the lfestyle)… yes, anyway, because of this she has become, simply, Pretty or sometimes Princess Pretty! Not terribly linguistically interesting, bee - we be but simple folk here in the country! It was a tight race with buttercup actually, but pretty won by a nose… and yes, upgrades… things are going well, raised bed in progress Vicky.. but perhaps i’ll leave that for another post… Vx
Comment by mybigbackyard — November 17, 2008 @ 2:43 pm
ha! that’s lovely. in my tiny city way, i do exactly what you’re saying with my kitten.
ok so what about labour when the diarylad is big smoking - that’s a lot for one monstress, doesn’t seem manageable for one from my perspective, but that could be because i’m not rolling in it all the time. any other hands that can be loaded with weeds and seeds?
Comment by bee ess — November 22, 2008 @ 7:48 pm