Day 257 of 2025

As would be expected at this time of the year, it wasn't great weather for beach activities at Russell. It was very windy. Surprisingly it was smooth sailing on the short ferry ride back and forth!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 256 of 2025

YD and son-in-law's Fathers' Day gift was to give us 24 hours away - not usual for this time of the year.

While it was all hands on deck back home, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner at The Duke of Malborough in the historic town of Russell. 

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 255 of 2025

The school's annual production this year was Aladdin and all of the four of ours who attend the school took part, with varying roles. They had a blast.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 254 of 2025

Another update from the cat chapters.

Tammy and Georgeous are co-existing......there's a lot of chasing; we're not sure if it's pussy cat games or sorting out the pecking order! We're pleased that we are no longer having to keep them separated.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 253 of 2025

I came back into the calfshed with another bucket of milk to see this!

Of course I had to take a photo before I told him to get off!

(No animals or children were harmed in the taking of this photo.)

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 252 of 2025

So many shades of brown...and green!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 251 of 2025

I missed the moment when they were glaring at each other (actually, Tammy cat was glaring, Georgeous was staring with a "will you play with me" look on his face).

At the moment, separation keeps our sanity.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 250 of 2025

Over three quarters of the herd has calved now; the paddocks are looking a bit fuller!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 249 of 2025

We're still having to keep the two cats separated as Tammy Cat has her nose out of joint with the new kitten. It was his turn to spend the evening with us so he had a good explore of the cat tower.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 248 of 2025

We ended up with 8 White Face/Hereford calves - 5 boys.

These three obliged and lined up ever so nicely for their photo shoot.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

 

Day 247 of 2025

The MOML delivered two calves to their new home today.

The Jersey bull calf is the only dairy bull calf born and we didn't have a home for him.

(For our dairy calves we use sexed semen during mating which means that there's over a 90% guarantee the calves born will be female - future milkers. This saves having a whole lot of (bull) bobby calves which used to go 'on the truck' at 4 days old.)

The other calf was a small twin - which is good and healthy - just a bit smaller than the others.

There's an older lady nearby who likes to rear a couple of calves each year, and these went to her place.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 246 of 2025

Odie 'helping' Gandad bring the new calvers in.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 245 of 2025

Dehorning day for the calves. 

Quite a rigmarole - they needed to be fed by 7am and sorted and in the sheds - an early and organised start needed!

The vet was a bit late so I needed have rushed so much but oh well.

They're put to sleep so it's done painlessly.

(Just the dairy girls as all the Angus beef calves are born polled which means they don't grow horns.)

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 244 of 2025

One little cat getting brave and exploring the house.

Yes he's very similar colouring to Tammy cat, with the addition of white.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 243 of 2025

(Not the best photo sorry!)
I have been waiting and waiting for this new Magnolia to flower - it's one I bought after seeing on a Garden tour a couple of years ago.

After horrendous weather last night I was so pleased to see these blooms still intact!!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 242 of 2025

I visited the kids and their calves to see how they're getting on.

Lily and Licky.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 241 of 2025

"We see you, and we're coming for you..!"

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 240 of 2025

A small kitten getting brave and exploring the outside world!

(Another little breakthrough as he often hides when we're in the room.)

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 239 of 2025

Mob 1 is out on the farm full time, getting a new paddock every two days.

I love this part of the farm, so beautiful and peaceful.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 238 of 2025

Meet Georgeous, our new little boy.

Very timid still; this was a breakthrough him emerging from under the bed to have a treat!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 237 of 2025

Whoops, Ganma forgot to shut the gate and these girls came up to greet us.

These 13 calves went to their new home which emptied out my shed a little!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 236 of 2025

Well when I woke up this morning, I knew several things would be happening.

I knew that my brother, wife and a daughter were coming up for the day.

I knew they were delivering a kitten my nieces had rescued.
I knew that it was my brother's 60th birthday.

I knew I was making cake for said birthday.

I knew that I'd asked my kids (and co) to pop in for cake if they were able.

BUT I DID NOT KNOW that I would have a goat (in nappies) in my house!!!!

A fun day.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 235 of 2025

Rain can have its advantages - a pretty view from the office (aka the Calf Shed)!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 234 of 2025

We'd forgotten that last year during mating season, while the Artificial Insemination Technician was coming that we'd run out of the Angus bull semen we use.

Friends gave us some 'straws' to use but their Nitrogen bank was empty of Nitrogen and the straws were dead.

So the technician used some Hereford she had spare - there were only 2 or 3 days of her coming until we used our own (real life) bulls so that worked out ok.

And we've remembered why we prefer to use easy-calving Angus bulls - they tend to be easier calving - this guy was pretty big and his mum has a pinched nerve - dragging her back leg a bit. Hopefully it will come right soon.

ANYWAY, we got quite a surprise to see this white-faced boy out in  the paddock!!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 233 of 2025

Sunny afternoons and content calves means there is more Calf Spam here on my blog!!

This is Mob 2, the second 30 calves, the ones that were sucking Odie's hand yesterday.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 232 of 2025

Odie and friends.

Hungry calves.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 231 of 2025

Another cross-country day....just the local school this time.

No decent photos at all - this was the start of the race - the twins in pink and black - finished in that order too.

It was a bitter cold and wet day - I think most of us there had hoped it would be postponed but it wasn't!!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 230 of 2025

Everyone is "just chillin' " in the afternoon sunshine.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 229 of 2025

Two calves loaded into ED's horsefloat (along with a bag of shavings) to go to their new home with two children.

'Licky' and 'Pikachu'.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 228 of 2025

The MOML is very happy with his new *shed* and is finding a few moments each day to build a workbench for it.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 227 of 2025

Zoomies!!

Another mob of calves let out into the paddock for the first time!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 226 of 2025

Things I always do when feeding the calves - count them and check their tails.

Odie learning the ropes.

See you tomorrow,
Raewyn

Day 225 of 2025

Annual combined rural schools cross country event - the Taniwha Challenge.

Held in the back of beyond.

I asked the kids how they know where to go, and they said they just follow the quad bike!

Two blond 10 year olds in the blue, centre-ish of photo.

They came in 4th and 6th.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 224 of 2025

Getting the calves from *here* to *here* involves shutting lots of gates and blocking gaps, pushing them out onto the concrete race, then 'guiding' them down to their new quarters (you can just see the blue roof beyond the trailer). 

Sometimes it's a 2 minute job - sometimes it takes longer depending on how crazy they decide to be!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 223 of 2025

Because his legs were tucked up the wrong way, the mother of this big boy needed a bit of help to calve.

And then she wasn't really interested in him - left him by himself out in the paddock while she had a good old graze.

So we took him into the calfshed and fed him up on colostrum milk.

We don't know why we haven't thought of using the wheel barrow for situations like this before - gosh it was so much easier than carrying the calf ourselves!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 222 of 2025

Odie has a good little set up at the calfshed.
Here he is 'in the classroom' teaching his new 'pupils'.

Outside by the milk storage tanks is his office....and of course he has a playground too!

See  you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 221 of 2025

It's that time of the year again - time to choose pets for the school Agriculture Day.

These two have decided on calves this year so spent some time in the calf shed checking out all the potential pets.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 220 of 2025

A lovely start to another busy day!

See you tomorrow,
Raewyn

Day 219 of 2025

This photo signifies progress with my calves.

The 20 oldest ones are now 'outside' calves. This was their first feed using the bike feeder and they all clicked how to use it really well - the first feed can be a bit crazy but these guys are obviously far too intelligent (or hungry?!) for craziness.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 218 of 2025

It was suggested the other day that the wee half-sized egg could go to Odie.

Apart from the fact that those little eggs usually have no yolk, he would devour it in a mouthful, he's a growing lad and his appetite is boundless.

He LOVES the green eggs which one chicken lays so I put together special little egg cartons for him.

(The white eggs are his second favourite.)

The other day he asked his Mum if she could buy him some ham, so that he could have Green Eggs and Ham for dinner!!

Nice to have another generation of Dr Suess lovers!

(PS the green eggs are normal coloured inside.)

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn 

Day 217 of 2025

Seven new calves tonight means an even fuller calf shed, so they went into the passageway before tagging, sorting and penning.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 216 of 2025

Not a bad day's haul!

I can't decide if there are 15½ eggs or 16 eggs!!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 215 of 2025

Whoops, Odie left his gun and phone (and shield) behind. 😂

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 214 of 2025

Odie does slow down from time to time.

Cuddles with a new calf.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 213 of 2025

No more sleep-ins for the MOML.

One row has been milked and the gate is open for them to go to their paddock...but really, they couldn't be bothered and just looked at me instead!

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 212 of 2025

From Cautious.......to Crazy.... 

A nice day to let the oldest calves out onto the grass.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 211 of 2025

All this was under water yesterday but thankfully it has come down enough for the men to use the tractor to get back over to re-install the water pump.

(We urgently needed it at the cowshed for milking, calves and cleaning!)

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 210 of 2025

Heavy rains.

Unfortunately the MOML's kayak went downstream without him when he crossed to rescue the water pump (more rain than we expected).

So he had a long walk through the back of the farm, and the bush to get to a neighbouring road where he was able to be rescued.

See you tomorrow,

Raewyn

Day 209 of 2025

 My main calf shed is starting to get a bit full so the oldest 10 calves have been moved to new quarters.

See you tomorrow,
Raewyn