Pets!

I got taken on a tour of duty around the farm this morning, the happy farmer is heading off on the plane tonight with our daughter so I am going to be the farmer for the weekend, with my two little helpers of course, they can feed the chickens and the lambs, well that is the theory anyway. I will be in charge of feeding the pigs. I now know where the phrase ‘eating like a pig’ comes from, you should have heard the chomping, slurping and lip smacking sounds they were making this morning as they gorged their way through breakfast. I followed the happy farmer about his duties, but passed on the quad bike ride to check out the new Highland calf, that was born this morning. He always goes too fast on his quad bike for my liking and then he gets far too close to the cows, better to stay away and let the real farmer get on with it. He returned to report that not one but two of the heifers had calved. Clever old Pringle, the bull, who only met the ladies last summer, has obviously been working away, and the Highland cows are so good at getting on with calving themselves, so no problems all round. I am glad they got on with the births while the happy farmer was still around, I don’t know how good the happy potters are when it comes to calving, and I am afraid I will be keeping my distance, they might look cute and cuddly, but I am not a fan of getting too close to cows, I don’t even like going in a field with them, let alone the prospect of getting involved in calving. I wouldn’t know where to start. Years ago I did see a farmer try to calve a cow with rope and a winch type contraction, it looked pretty gruesome, and painful, but a day or so later and cow and calf were fine.

Our German guests came over to settle up today and presented us with beautiful knives made in their home town in Germany. Our Australian guests arrived with pens and fridge magnets for the children. We have been totally spoilt, and have met some lovely people along the way.

Happy farmer is away now with eldest daughter, just had the phone call to say she has forgot her PJs, book and so on, no worries on that score though, being her mother’s daughter she dragged her dad into a few shops at the airport to replace the necessaries, happily spending his money.

Back on the farm, I couldn’t count on my little helpers to feed the lambs, luckily I managed to copy the happy farmers technique of a bottle in each hand and one squeezed between the knees, the greedy lambs didn’t seem to mind, and went happily off to bed in their straw pen, so much for the idea of owning pets leading to children learning about responsibility then.

Until next time…..