As with everyday day on our farm, you wake up and wonder what the hell is going to surprise us today!?

Some days, it smooth sailing, up by 8, T milks the cow (soon to be cowS as we now have 2 ladies), back in by 8.30ish, depending on how difficult Lucy is being, brekkie by 9 and then the day takes it course. But that is NOT how our day started!

We were up and out by 8 ready to milk Lucy and then bring the new girl, Blue in, with her new addition, Murphy ( who is just toooo cute). This is not Blues 1st calf but certainly the 1st she was allowed to keep. So, she is actually being a first time mum and is doing an awesome job.

When we milked Blue yesterday we notice her milk was pink. Now I know Nesquick is a great drinks for kids but I also know it doesn’t come directly from the cow! 🤔 So we decided to get the vet in as we thought she had mastitis. We know that it is a common problem with cows as Bella & Lucy had it when they had Milo and Sophie, but their milk was never pink! We were right, but it was chronic mastitis which had blood running through her udders. The poor girl was in so much pain, but she didn’t stop her little one from drinking, no matter how painful.

So when the vet arrive, our gentle giant walked into the race and was poked and prodded for almost an hour. And she just stood there quietly! If it was Lucy…OMG..we were need emergency services, ropes and the entire neighbourhoods help to hold her in place! But not Blue! The quarters most infected with mastitis was left back and right front.

A quick udder lesson : Cows have 4 teats on their udders and they are known as quarters. Pretty obvious actually! So you have right front, right back, left front, left back. Now it would have been a tad easier if the mastitis was in either front right and left quarter or back right or left or even left front and back or right front and back, but nooooooo our cow has to have it in the left back and right front. 🤨

What so unusual about that, I hear you ask? Nothing actually… except when you have to milk her in a very tight race. We always milk our girls on the milking ramp. This raises them up and we sit on a low rolling trolley, which enables us to get under her without too much trouble. Except when your back is broken… then it’s always a bloody mission, but you suck it up and do it!

Back to Blue, she is not on the ramp…. no she is standing firmly on the ground and we can’t get her on to the ramp. This poor girl is so stressed as it is, so if we had to still try get her onto the ramp, it would be mayhem for all. So I roll the milking machine out of the shed, into the yards and over to the cattle race. Get 2 extension cords and plug the machine in. Now… while T is holding Blues head in the head bail so she doesn’t bolt, I get on my knees.. did I mention that as Blue was so stressed, she had been crapping quite a bit. At least every 4 mins this girl would run a muck and I don’t mean go mad, I mean run HER muck!

So… on my knees, head down arse up and very very very close to her muck running, this amateur cow mechanic crawls under Blue, because remember it’s left back, right bloody front! Which means that the other two suction cups have to be bent over so the 2 cups in use can suck. Omg… all I was doing was praying to God that she was not going to drop another load because the splat would smack me flat in the face. This was just not working, the back teat was so far back that I needed to balance myself with my elbows which placed me firmly in the kuk! But one needs to do what one needs to do to help your girl. She was very good and didn’t move, but even with her being a gem, I couldn’t get both bloody cups on AND bend the others back so it would start milking her. Instead, the cups kept falling in the kuk and it had been 2 minutes since her last butt volcano eruption! Time was of the essence here!

Finally admitting defeat and happy to get out of the shite, T and I change places. I take care of Blue’s head, while T get down and dirty with Blues udders 😉🥴. Needless to say, HE gets them on and sucking… hallelujah!!

After about 6 minutes or so, we turned the milking machine off , pulled the cups off and hoped we had milking her udders out totally. 👍 this has not only lightened her udder but relieved the pain of over full and thick lumpy milk. We had a much happier cow now. Released her from the head bail, she was off to find baby Murphy and the two of them walk back to the fields.

Smelling like Eau de shite, I thought it best to head back to the house and have a shower before our lunch guests arrived. What I have also learnt, is that it take more than 1 machine wash to get cow crap off your jeans!

Well there you go… we have a beefie in the oven!!! Yip, Lucy is preggie at last! But what a palava to get this highly strung Missy beefed up! You know that she cleared 2 gates when the vet first came around to started the course of A.I. And then we had to get all the other yearlings in to give her moral support to have a 2nd go and ask the vet to leave his ute up at the house, so she wouldn’t bolt again! so, yesterday the vet came back for her ultrasound and yes.. we have successfully A.I’d the girl.

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But like us, we need to cautious for the first 12 weeks and if all goes well, end of October we will have another addition to the Little Gwelo family and hopefully we don’t have the same issues we had when Sophie was born in April.. Mmmm… remember this little 3 day episode!

1 April 2018 Dear diary….. I’m delighted to introduce the newest member to the Little Gwelo family, please meet Sophie. Mom, Lucy has had a bit of a tough day, so we lent a bit of a helping hand. Needless to say, the support team have been keeping a close eye. Yip, all 23 heifers raced down to meet the new addition

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2/4/18
One truly doesn’t realise how old one is, until one has to pick up a 30Kg calf and carry it 65m. OMG….I thought I was going to burst a poop string! 🚑 But…. I stayed strong! Any Personal Trainer would have been impressed with my technique! Using my legs, I squat down, bum almost in the other paddock. I wrapped my arms around Sophs legs and then “tried”to stand up. Oh fek…. she not as light as I thought she would be. But Luc needed to know she was fine and I had to get Sophie to her. I couldn’t walk her in, I mean…her GPS to find mom’s udder is non comprehendo, so you can imagine trying to walk her 65m to the dairy shed. Nah…that was going to work! So still in my squat position, I take a VERY deep breath and shoot myself up, as if Lucy had poked her horn up my butt! Tucking my butt in and squeezing tightly( still not sure why…maybe trapping my insides in) I scurried along the fence to the shed. Breathing in through the nose out my mouth clearly resembling a freight train with a calf as a mascot!
Lucy was being milked because Sophie has not found the tuckshop as yet! It’s painful for Lucy to carry all this milk, so she has to be milked twice a day. Finally I reach Lucy and tried desperately to put Sophie down with grace but it more like a fall from grace!
Anyhooo, we took Luc’s milk, poured it in a bottle and shoved it down Sophs gob! At this point, I didn’t really care as I was still hyperventilating and trying to stop my legs from shaking. After awhile I managed to compose myself in front of a cow… what was I thinking 🙄… and everyone was happy. Mum was lighter, baby was full and I was fekked! T and I headed straight back to the house for hot cross buns and coffee. From now on… I walk Sophie in, even if it takes a bloody week!

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2 days later Dear Diary…so remember when I said Soph hadn’t found the tuckshop….well she has, but not the one we had hoped! Nope…. I’m the tuckshop! 🙄 that said…it’s is just sooooooo cute when she looks up, realises it’s me, her ears go straight up and she comes bouncing over. She’s like a little grasshopper but she bounces all over the place then fiiinnnaaalllyyy gets to me! No wonder she downs the entire bottle in seconds, she must be exhausted be the time she gets to me! 😁😁😁
But Luc is having a bit of a difficult time. She producing very little milk due to mastitis, which seems to be in all quarters. We have given her medication to night so hopefully she will be feeling top tomorrow and Soph can start drinking from her. Otherwise…… I’m going to have to be the feeding Mum and Luce the very tentative, loving and cleaning Mum! I have my limits!

7 days later Dear Diary…. well there you go….I’m pleased to announce that Sophie’s GPS has kicked in! Yes… on the 9th she discovered she could get milk on tap. It was a bit of a mission but we got her there.
The problem was that she wasn’t going low enough to find mums teat. She found her udder ( totally impossible to miss it… Dolly Parton has serious competition) but Soph was not going under the udder. So as we were milking Lucy on the milking ramp I decided to take the teat from the bottle and put it behind Lucy’s teat. It was the perfect height, Soph had no trouble finding it and she was away! Hallelujah!!!!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💃🕺🏻💃🕺🏻💃🕺🏻 But was she going to find it once Lucy was off the ramp?? As expected, Soph went looking for the teat and needless to say she was too high. Then, I was totally gob smacked as to what happened next….Lucy lifted her back leg & pushed Sophie’s head downwards with her leg. 1st time Sophie stepped back and it didn’t work. But then Sophie came back in, once again too high and again Lucy lifted her leg, gently pushed Sophs head downwards and gold was struck! It was amazing!!!! Why the bloody hell Lucy didn’t do this 9 days ago is beyond me! Maybe she was just not ready.. who knows🤷‍♀️. I’m now OFFICIALLY off calf duty. Mom & baby are doing fine! 👍 Just love the animal world!

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Lets hope after last years daunting experience, things will go a little smoother for Lucy and her new moral supporter. Which brings me to our newest Little Gwelo family member. Everyone… this is Blue. Blue is a Friesian and is a rather large girl. When I mean large, I don’t mean fat either. And I’m pleased to say, that she will be calving in the next 10 days. She introduced herself as she came charging off the truck, down the ramp and straight to the field for lunch. Lucy huffed and puffed and bounced around like raging lunatic to show she was boss of the paddock, (which she is not, Bella is) but as Bell can’t jump around like a cow on smack.. Lucy did it for her! But, 10 min later, the two were heads down and sharing lunch. Think they will be okay. And there you have it! One baby soon and the other in October.

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So, you know a little about Flo and where she comes from. We don’t really know much about her past, except that she was found by Retired Working Dog Society. All we really know is that she came to them in a really bad way. After working with her for 7 months, she was allowed to be rehomed. And her new life started with us.

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Flo is much like Scooby Doo at times, she is just as dumb as he is too. But there are times when she shows potential. She is also a bit of a kleptomaniac. Anything from shoes, but only one of the pair, to the cats scratching pole. Yip.. one evening, while we were watching tv, she quietly strolls past us with the cats scratching pole hanging out of her mouth. Like this was a normal thing to do..Nothing to see here folks, I’m just walking past! She also seem to be a little OCD because she puts the shoes and all other items she had taken, in a straight line on the lawn. Like she was at a country market, ready to sell her wares. Anyway….

She had sort of been trained to be a yard dog. That means big bark and jumping around like a duracell bunny who had drunk 12 cans of Red Bull, to get the sheep into the race or yard. Her energy is astounding. She is also supposed to be able to respond to a whistle, but at times her focus is so on the sheep that she is oblivious to the whistle. Oh.. we had to buy the whistle cos neither T or I could do the Whoop whop whistle she was supposed obey.

Well last week T was away. But being along on the farm is never a problem. There comes days where you are really busy and in bed by 8pm because you are knackered and there are days that just go so smoothly! This was NOT one of those days.

First of all.. I had Dave the shearer coming to shear our lambs. They were getting a little woolly and with the heat, they could get maggots. They also needed to be drenched. Dave could only do it this week as he was going away for a couple of weeks, so I had to get them sorted. So, I took the kids and we went for a slow walk through the fields, moving the lambs into the centre field where all I needed to do was push them up the main run and into the yards. This works well when you have 2 people and a dog.. but I had 1 person and 5 dogs. The only dog that could help me, decided to sit on the deck and watch. No doubt Ned was rolling over in laughter watching us trying to bring the lambs in. Me trying to get Jess behind the sheep while keeping Scooby next to me, as I know she will just scatter them, and shouting at Maggie and Ollie to stop eating the sheep shit. its was a bloody night mare. Eventually I decided to take all the dogs home and come back just with Jess. Maybe if things were a little quieter, it may just work. As I’m walking home, I see Dave heading towards me… Thanks God!!! a 2nd set of hands and at least someone who know how to bring lambs in.

Now I know Flo will not just sit quietly on the deck and watch us bring in sheep.. hell no!! this is what she has trained for all her life and she was determined to help! Fortunately, we had built a large 4 sqm dog run and that was going to be her home for the next 3 hours.

I breath a sigh of relief and head back to Dave to help bring the lambs up the run. We almost had the lambs through the gate, when all we see is the bouncing dog come running down, barking and telling us, she is here to help. WTF!!!!! how the bloody hell did she get out. So all the lambs turn on their hooves and start running back into the field. OMG… we had to start all over again. My language was a rainbow of colour as I tried to call her back in.

10 min later I finally get here back into the house gates, I take her back to the dog run and wonder how the hell she got out! The door was till closed and the run still standing. Did she jump over the top – 2m… I could see it happening. So… then I got an idea. I put backing the run and walk away. Needless to say, she went ballistic. I stopped, turned to her and said, Okay.. come girls, lets go. And Low and behold, she runs to a piece of the fencing that had not been secured down and ssssssqqqqqqquuuuuueeezzzzes her self through this 10cm gap! Now I was the cartoon charactor as my bottom jaw just dropped to the grown. The best part was, she was really impressed with herself that a) she got out again and b) she showed me how clever she is! Or was she…I shot inside, got some wire and tied the fencing down. Put her back inside and walked away. And deja vu… she went ballistic. I stopped, turned to her and told her to come. But oh dear… her escape route was no more. Then she got mad! She bounced around the enclosure and scratched at every corner to try get out. I smiled quietly, but inside was euphoria! If I had a bottle of champagne, I would have popped the cork there and then, taken swigs out the bottle and skipped all the way back down to Dave, but.. I didn’t! By this time Dave had once again collected the lambs and was walking them up the run, with a little help from Jess. I joined the back of the flock and chest out, I marched along side Dave with a smile on my face. But that is where the smiling stopped. For the next 4 hours, drenching the lambs and then drafting them because some needed shearing and some didn’t. Dave started shearing, so it was left to me to ensure he was not held up and that there was alway a lamb in tow to shear.

24 degrees and glowing like a sow (female pig), I get a call from our stock agent to tell me they will be delivering our 11 new pedigree South Suffolk ewe lambs. AAAHhhhh… I need this like a hole in the head.. but wait.. we bought 12 – where is the other one. MMM.. say our agent. Not sure, they picked up 12 but only delivered 11. That was not what I wanted to hear, now I was the one that went ballistic. Then I found out that they delivered them to the market instead of bringing them start to us. I know now why they did this..I would have been up for murder if that truckie had delivered a girl that died en route. This matter is not closed, but I had to get the new girls off the truck and on to grass and then back to Dave to keep the shearing going.

An hour later, I shoot home to go to the loo, only to find a white ute outside the gate. Mmmm.. who is this. It was Hayden, the Bee man. OMG, I forgot that he was coming to mark out where the 35 hives where going to be housed. I apologies sincerely as I ran past him and headed straight for the toilet, as this was not going to hold for very much longer. I have no doubt, he thought I was one tit short of an udder. But once I had relieved and composed myself, I went out to meet him. A lovely man and very understanding as I told him, to head to the first field, find the reeds and put his white stick there. That was the most sheltered, first sunny spot and well protected spot for the bees. He obviously noticed my haste and very kindly said, I’ve got it, you carry on. Back to Dave to finish the shearing.

By 4pm, we were done! I was F#&$ to say the least but I told Dave go and that I cleaned up. 3 huge bags of wool, bagged and closed. I headed home and let poor Flo out. She was not impressed with me. But hey, when aren’t kids pissed off with their parent for putting them on the naughty step!?

As I’m sitting in the kitchen, I see Flo running down the run to the fields where the lambs are. But how did she get out… all the gates are closed.. I know they are cos I bloody closed them. I shout at her to “get in” and all of a sudden she runs behind the water tank and voila.. she is back in the house grounds. So I take a walk to the tanks but I can’t see where she is getting out. There is no way she can get under the fencing or over it, there was 3 pieces of fence wire of the gate not attached to the bottom pole, I’m really boggled at this one. But I’m tried and desperately need a shower. I call all the kids in give them a treat and head for the shower. Enjoying my 5 minutes of peace, out the corner of my eye I see my towel going out the bathroom door! Mmmmm… my only words were “DROP IT” and it stopped moving. I get out the shower to find Flo sitting there like nothing was wrong. OMG.. was I not going to get any peace! I pick up the towel and head back to the shower. Once I was all nice and clean.. I step out the shower to see Flo again running down the main run to the field, through the bathroom window. WTF… I jammed my feet into my fluffy slippers and stark bollock naked I run outside, all the way to the water tanks (as I’m running I’m visualising a Baywatch Babe in motion, yet in reality, its more of a buffalo stampeed to the water hole) but I digress…I had to see where this Houdini is getting out. I stood there, in all my glory and fluffy slipper, hair plastered to my head and call her in and once again, she does not fail to impress as she crawls through those 3 pieces of fencing wire that weren’t hooked to the bottom of the gate. OMG… reallyy!!!!! Once she was in, I looked around to find something to close up the hole till tomorrow, where I could deal with it properly. I find a piece of wood and a step ladder. McGyver was back at work. I jammed the piece of wood through the gap and while I’m going this, I became fully aware that I was still totally naked only wearing slippers. Bent over, I looked back and asked the veggie to not keel over at the sight they are forced to witness, but this had to be done! I balanced the ladder against the gate and quickly headed back to house, hoping I would not have any unexpected visitors! Not needing the towel that Flo had dragged out, I slipped into a pair of trackie pants and t-shirt, poured myself a large Vodka and DIET tonic with a slice of lemon, counted the kids to ensure they were all indoors and took a huge swig of my drink! AND that was the best part of my day!

Anyone who knows our Friedrichs family know that there are 2 humans and all other 371 kids are of the furry, hairy or feathered nature.

Intros start with the kids who actually live with us. We try to adopt as often as we can or try foster. The thing with fostering, my heart won’t let them go because as far as “I’m” concerned, no one can look after them the way we can. So… our first adoption was Axi – this boys vocabulary was beyond belief. Terry’s boy from the time their eyes connected. Ax new that this man was going to make his life better and he, in return, would make T’s life unforgettable. From letting us know that it’s time for his walk, to telling T its 8pm and time for his treat, and make no mistake, it was 8pm! This boy gave us laugh after laugh. He love his hugs and crawling into bed with us… well that was just the dogs bollocks! He loved water. Any puddle, pool or bit of water he could find, he was in it! Sadly we lost Ax in August last year. The disease that claims 85% of German shepherds called anal furunculosis, (similar to that of Crohn’s Disease in humans), took Axi. The first of our fur babies had died, but his humungous bark and propelling tail, roam our house still and always will.

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Soon after we got Ax, we felt that he could not be alone and Keira (aka Kiki) was adopted. And some say what a small world.. Kiki came from Carterton. 2 years later, we moved to Carterton but she was not going back to her old home, she was going farming.

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For us, we don’t care where we have to travel to to save a fur baby. We had to pick Kiki up from Ashurst which is an hour and a half from Carterton but 8 hours from Auckland. We jumped the car, Ax in the back and… ROAD TRIP!! If I can remember, we had to meet her current owner at 11am in a road stop just outside Palmerston North – Ashurst. We pitched tent (not literally… me and camping..mmmmm NAH!!!) in a pet friendly motel, which co-incidently was called The Big Five! Very out of Africa! Anyway.. early the next morning, off we go to pick up “SheKeira”. Needless to say, we were early but waited patiently for our new baby. Soon this little red bread tin on wheels stopped behind our car and out stepped this woman who looked like she had just fallen out of a comic book! Honestly, she look like a caricature. She had an obvious fondest for her skirt she was wearing. I’s assuming it was an 18th birthday present, unfortunately, it was not lycra so didn’t stretch, as she had with age. It was 3 sized too small, but hey.. if you love something that much, you will find a way to wear it and pray to God it wont split in public. Her top was a beautiful pink knit, which clashed with her bright red lipstick and green eyeshadow. The beehive hairstyle was a dead give away that she was locked in a time machine from the 60’s and had not yet caught up with the rest of society! But what truly took my breath away was the white tights and black high heel sandals! YES… stockings and sandals.. OMG… that just took me on the edge of cliff. As she waddled to the boot of her bread tin on wheels, I could see Keira desperately trying to get out. I didn’t blame her! Ms “Don’t I look fabulous” opened the boot and gave us Kiki’s bed/blanket and….. well that was it! No food bowl , no food, no toys.. nothing, nudda, zero, zip!!! The bed and blanket was dirty and disgusting. What tipped me over the edge of that cliff she took me to, was when she said.. “Oh we are so sad to see “the dog” go, but we know she is going to a good home” I could feel my blood boiling… not only because of the stocking and sandals or the dirty bed but “The Dog” WTF you stupid cow, she has a name!… I took a breath and told her to give me Keira. We put her in the car, dirty bed and blanket and off we went! The first place we found where we could dump the bed and blanket, we did. From that day, her name was Keira or Kiki and never Shekeira or The Dog again.

Kiki had a heart, a soul that was tender, troubled and scared but had plenty of space for love. She love me, she loved T, she loved Maggie. she would groom her for hours and loved the orphan lambs. She didn’t like confrontation or loud noise, fireworks were her worst. She loved the beach and learnt how to say “Orewa” which was the beach we would take her and Ax to for a swim in the sea. As long as she was by my side, she was happy. Slept next to my bed, albeit her comfy orthopedic bed was at the bottom of our bed. Sleeping next to me on the floor was better because she was closer. Playing frisby and rope were her delights and just being part of a real family… well… she was in heaven! On the 24th of January this year, we had to put Kiki down from the same illness as Ax. 85%…. it hurts, it breaks your heart and brings tears at every thought of her. But the memories and photo’s bring the smiles and precious moment we had with her

Shortly after T and I got married, I got the most wonderful surprise! A trip to Auckland airport and there she was.. My baby Maggie (aka Maggie Moo or Bugs) What was supposed to be a posh, lady like pooch… well that is not the Moo.. she is a farm dog and don’t you dare think otherwise. She has the scars to prove it! From thorns, to sharp wire fencing, to biting the sheep’s heels to get them moving… she is Miss Bossy Boots! But the exterior is all just a facade… she is the most loving, bossy, stubborn little miss prim you could meet. Not scared of anything as she thinks she is the size of a Rottie, her personality is just as big! But.. if the shit hits the fan and she can’t deal with the situation, running to mum and hiding behind her is all that need to be done! Mess with me…. you mess with my mummy and that is not a good thing!

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Soon after moving onto the farm, we knew we needed a dog that could help with the stock. Adoption was once again first choice. A retired working dog was exactly what we needed. A pooch who knew what to do and how to handle amateur farmers. In other word, teach the farmer! As you know, I found beautiful Ned from a notice at the vet. When we collected Ned we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. All we were told by her owner, was that she was about 9 years old and not really keen on people. Wonder why that is…. maybe because she has never had the opportunity to be with people. From what we could gather, she had been with the farmer all her life. Her life consisted of having puppies, rounding up sheep every couple of days and other than that, locked up in a cage all day! It took her almost 3 months for us to be able to pat her. This old girl had been through hell! And here is where I loose my respect of some farmers. The dogs are working dog and that is it! Locked in a cage and fed once a day, they have no social inter action. 2 years on and she is a happy lady. Still very very weary of people and takes time to get to know them. But she is a sweetheart when she comfortable. She was the first dog I had every really seen smile! Rare moments but memorable. She spends most days laying on the back of the quad bike or on her bed in front of the fire place.. Those are her safe place and happy places and if that makes her feel good, then so be it!

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Ned has now fully retired! Yip, a couple of weeks ago, we sent her out to bring the sheep in for us… she basically ran to edge of the field, stood there for a moment, had a look around, saw the trough, headed for the trough, en route stopped for a pee (as a dog has to go when a dog has to go), then jumped into the trough, had a swim, jumped out and trotted back home. As she trotted past us, she said…sorry, to old.. go get them yourself and she carried on to the deck at the house, planted her butt on the deck and fell asleep!

T then decided we should have a younger dog, who would learn to herd from the older dog. Then when the time came, it would take over from Ned and all would be hunky dory. Well..the theory was good, but the implementing maybe a little harder than first anticipated. That said…. we found Jess. A well breed heading dog at a $100. Mmmmm… any well breed dog would need another “0” on the price tag, but she was a cute pup and everyone knows, you see a puppy, that is it! you are done!!! And so, Jess came home with us. Jess (aka Dobby) is the jester of the family. OMG… all she needs is voice! Her expressions are so clear, you know exactly what she is thinking and when she gives you that F&%$ off look… you know exactly where to get off!

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This little girls lights up our home on a daily basis. Her and Maggie have such an awesome bond and she gives the best hugs in town! Truly an awesome girl!

We had been looking for another Dachshund (Sausage dog) for a while. At the price of these little sticks of dynamite, it would be cheaper for us to have a litter of our own and keep them. After 2 years of hunting we finally got another little baby… Oliver (aka Ollie and Gaggo – which means bug in some African language) But as Maggie was Bugs, Ollie was going to be Gaggo. At 4 months old now, Ollie is just here to bug the living daylights out of all the other dog! And like all pups, he chews everything in sight. No doubt he will become a bossy boots just like Maggie!

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But that was still not enough for us… no.. we decided we needed a Ned replacement. Jess was still too young and clueless and we had not taught her much, so hopefully we would find another Ned. We found an organization called The Retired Working Dog (RWD). After much chatting to these ladies, we found Flo but with Flo came Tye. You see… we had to pick Flo up from a farm 6 hours north of us, but en rout the RWD asked if we could pick up anther dog at the Feilding (spelling is correct) pound and bring him up. Seeing we were taking Flo, they had room for another rescue. Which we were happy to do. But when we got to the pound, this boy was so traumatized, that he tried to hide under piece of wood from a bench! What the hell had this boy been through!? The awesome lady at the pound, said that he was picked up, covered in ticks, to the extent that they were bursting and just falling off him. Scared out of his wits, he had been so badly mistreated.. kicked and beaten ,there was almost no soul left in this boy. My heart sank…how could people do this to these animals. What we have learn while becoming involved with farming, is that there are some farmer who are complete a-holes. If they no longer wants a dog, they will either shoot it or take it out and drop it off in the middle of no where and drive away! We think, this is what happened with this boy, whom the pound named Grant. Grant… who calls a dog Grant!!! I had no doubt the new owners or foster people would change his name. Even he thought the name was shite!

Anyway, we got him in the ute and head off to get Flo. But my heart felt for this boy… how much more did he have to endure. Yes he was going to the RWD, but he would no doubt be rehomed again and who is to say he would be treated any differently to how he was in the past. But, we dropped him off and took Flo. But this boy bugged me. I did mention in passing to the RWD that if they needed a foster home for him, we would take him. Well.. it was not a week later when I received a call from the RWD and asked if we would take Tim.(aka Grant). He was not a TIM… but he was not our dog, so TIM it was! I was pleased to take him, but was he going to be more than we could handle. Dog #6… another scatty rescue??? I met the RWD the following Sunday and took owner ship of Tim, who immediately became Tye. When called Grant and Tim, there was no response from this beautiful boy, but when I call him Tye, the response was instantaneous. Whether that was is name previously or he preferred it to Grant or Tim, we will never know!? Having never been in a house, let alone a bed and no cage..Tye has taken to family life well. After 2 weeks with us, we finally got a small wag from his tail. Baby steps… life is accomplished by using baby steps!

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No.. we are not done yet! We also have 2 Ragdoll cats and yes, Fussy was rescued and Mia was given to us as her owners where immigrating to a much warmer climate and she (Mia) would not have copped with the heat. So.. we took her in.

Fussy is very quiet, independent and I often forget his around. Patrolling the perimeter of the farm, this kitty must walk about 15km a day. He then comes inside and curls up on the spare bed and goes to sleep. He takes no crap from the hounds and personally, I think he has an identity crisis, in that he thinks he is a dog. But we don’t mind… if it makes him happy, he can be a dog! His closest friend was Kiki. Like I said… a love that could never be!

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New to the Friedrichs family is Mia (aka Meow). Completely different in personality to Fussy. She is just like a woman, chat chat chat chat chat! Tells me all about her day and where she has been. Very sociable, but not a big fan of Fussy just yet, but hopefully they will eventually becomes friends. She has settled in quite well and loves having Ollie chase her around the dinner table. Very affection indeed

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Last but by no means least, we have Flo… but she need a chapter all to herself.

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As I said in the my first blog, we did not buy the farm because of the house.  I actually think the previous owners sellotaped the house together when we came to view it, because when we moved in, we notice a couple of extra’s we didn’t know were there and not listed in the chattels.  Like the indoor garden in the bedroom .

Or when you sat on the toilet, if you didn’t sit directly on the seat,  you would end up seeing your arse without the use of a mirror.  Speaking of mirrors, when you used the one on the bathroom, best you look quickly because before you knew it, only your eyebrows and forehead was mirror height. Yip, the bathroom floor was sinking. The shower… OMG… we both wondered how the hell 6 people showered in the shower!?  No Bull…the shower literately dripped!  You couldn’t wash your hair because it would take a week to get the shampoo out!

That said the kitchen bay window was perfect to capture the morning sun The fact that I was pot planting at 9.15 on a Monday morning (and I was not on leave) was something that took a while for me to comprehend.  I worked from the age of 18 and now at 48, I didn’t have a 9-5 job.  Having always been career woman, it never crossed my mind that I would never not have a full time job. One never really knows what lies ahead, what path you will walk until its time for you to walk it!

Having to renovate the almost 100 year old farm house, we needed other accommodation. One of the building on the farm was an old deer shed.  We decided to fix the deer shed up and move into it while we renovated the farm house.  I wanted to be on site because anyone who has every built a house knows, that if you are not there all the time, everything that can go wrong will, go wrong!

So we start the conversion of the old deer shed. 

Yes, it needed a little work, but we thought with a little TLC, paint, a couple of windows and doors, we could make this home for a while.  And so we did and on the 1^st of May 2017 we moved into our new little abode!

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And before long we had a cosy home, big enough to house all the kids… perfect!

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