Sunday 19 July 2015

Busy Times Ahead!

Last night was a nice trip out for dinner with the young farmers - skipping our usual pub/bar/restaurant for something a little more, uh, fancy. Well not over the top, but it is in the local "snobsville" I guess you could say, in comparison to the norm anyhow. It was nice, having a change of scenery for once, and trying some different meals. About 10 of us went so the company was quite good too!
Apart from listening to all the guys go on about their Tinder accounts for most of the night (honestly...) it was fun. We went to another place on the way back - uh, what do you call it? Bridgehouse? Bridge-something? I don't know. Some flashish pub/bar anyway - I guess this just shows my naivety when it comes to alcohol related things! Apparently the first car load, including my brother, all got ID'd at the door, yet we walked in A-OK. Sorry, I walked in with no issue, considering all the people I was with are in or near their 30's, hehe I must've somehow blended in - a first for me! Although I might add that the person wasn't even around, so that was probably more likely...

Life has gotten a little hectic here now - (Just as well I didn't go anywhere this weekend aye? :P). I'm not going to stick with the current "my dear ol Mum" line, but yesterday my poor Mum injured her back somehow, possibly related to feeding the calves but we're not too sure. Either way she's taking all the painkillers she can while having immense difficulty moving - these injuries pick their timing, don't you think?!
From now until she's better (and after a trip to the doc's tomorrow, hopefully) I'm taking over as chief calf rearer. Just as well I'm quite capable of stepping up into the role! Although, I will admit that by the end of this week it will no longer be a one person job as the first group will be on the mobile feeder outside as these calves are dropping out like flies hehe.
We'll get averages of 10 to 15 new ones in each day, so it's enough to keep this person busy! These calves are typically huge Friesians (nearly waist height for me), every so often we'll see a red-factor one, (Anyone heard of them?) and the bulls that are sold as four day olds are so jolly solid - you don't particularly want to get your hand in between their head and the feeder....

This week is going to be crazy, starting with tomorrow (who would've thought? ;) ). Dad and I are needing to feed the calves ultra early - about 6am. Then my car is booked in to get its oil issue fixed, meaning I'll be driving it north and Dad will be following to pick me up - a two hour round trip and my car will be away for about a week (please don't ask me about the cost of this, it's too expensive to mention...). Then we've got to get back to help Nick with finishing off our current fencing job, before moving onto the next one, while at the same time racing the rain.
Still not quite sure how I'm going to cope without my car all week, because Mum can't drive I'll be needing to drive one of the utes to feed our calves- all manuals. He he he.

What I am stoked about though, is a free pampering voucher I managed to get. Someone was asking for models for makeup application training. Not that I wear make-up, the cows couldn't care less! But it's always a bit fun, so long as it's done properly...Anyway, without my car I can't make it, so I apologised to the person and she is sending me a $150 voucher for myself and two friends to use. Kinda awesome lol

Meanwhile, thinking lots of positive thoughts so Mum heals up soon, if not for my benefit, but for hers - I know she's going crazy after only two days!

5 comments:

  1. Hmm, a pity. Scanning happens again next year, anyway. :P
    Sad to hear about your Mum! First thought that comes to mind, pysiatica? (how it sounds. Don't ask me on spelling...) Definitely not good if it is, for her sake I hope it is just a "regular" sore back...

    Red factor... Red friesian? never heard of them. So 10-15 a day, bulls gone after 4 days, when do the heifers go? Because even if the calves were all bulls, that's looking at 40-60 to feed each day, what fun... :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm I've never heard of it, whatever it is...pretty sure it's just from a bad movement...? Yep, us too!

      Red factor friesian, yep. I think it's a recessive gene, where they come out with red instead of black - I'd never seen it before until working on this farm, it seems quite common. We end up with about 4 separate groups of 40 heifer replacements, so the first group will go outside sometime in the next few days. Thankfully he doesn't keep the bobby calves, so we don't have those to feed at least. I think we have about 280-300 go through the sheds over the whole calving.

      Delete
    2. Psy-what-sit comes just from a bad move, and can cause damage for the rest of your life sadly. So I definitely hope it's not the case.

      So that would be hereford-type red I'm guessing? I've never heard of it at all aye...
      Right. That's still a lot of calves to deal with...

      Delete
  2. ah ok, yeah hopefully it's not that!

    Yep, they basically look like Ayreshires, but without the red rimmed eyes and such. So yeah, the same colour as the red herefords. They're quite different

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay. You;ll have to show me one... :P

      Delete