Zen and work

With working every day there's always that thing about finding the precarious balance of ZEN and letsgo letsgo letsgo! Nico and I agreed we have to watch our input-output levels. The fuses get short at times when we do too much stuff in a day. This is of course entirely our own fault. Mad dutchy disease. We collapse in the evening to get up early again. Times when we had fluffy duck weekends are something out of books and we have some very vague memories of them. Naturally we don't understand people who get bored in their time off or who can lay about on their sofas falling asleep. What IS with that? Really.


Now the best fluffy time is crammed in the times we visit 2 week old calf Bella to bottle feed her and then watch her zoom around the paddock at top speed chasing the goats. It's a good thing Glen the dog has retired as Bella can easily do his work... she's a natural. To the dismay of the goat girls who are still wondering whether Bella is a dog, a funny smelling goat or an alien that's landed in their domain.

(this is when mum Kate was still watching too, now Bella's moved to the goatie pasture.)

our little girl is growing up. Kapow!

Still life is great on the prairie and we wouldn't want to miss it. Even with all the things we have to do to increase its appeal and workability.

And it's also good to share, with some friends who come help feeding and literally pitch their tents for the night. 

calf update

Today is calf posting time. I know, it's been a lot of the Farm News Gazette lately but that is what has occupied us quite a bit. As you can see our Zodiac has been living in the kitchen with us and now he's out with the goats and the kune kune pig and loving it. The wee fuzz man and fullblood highlander is nearly 4 weeks old and has had a growth spurt. Now he's interested to eat hay with the goats, munch grass and guzzle water and is onto the calf grains as well. We're proud he's done so well as it was touch and go for a while with his mum not able to feed him herself. He's a quiet character and cute as a button.

We're looking at another 4 weeks of bottle feeding and we have developed a routine so it's all doable, even if we have to leave the house at 7 am. His mum Elsie will be pleased she'll have him back in a month. Kuddles our other calf is with his mum Kate, auntie Elsie and dad Carlin and despite the sleet, hail and snow he's warm en dashing about the paddock.

We are looking forward to a weekend with hopefully some sun between the rainstorms to look after these animals. It's a good thing highland cattle have a thick coat of fur that keeps them warm. Glenn the sheepdog has been settled on a layer of hay in his pen (which is his winter duvet) and everyone else curls up in the stuff as well. We'll stick to the real duvet thing as the hay's been making me sneeze enormously...