I got it wrong

This little calf does not want to be called Aida she  wants to be called Del.  She is so calm and so sweet, there is not one fussy bone in her body. She has no aspirations for the stage, and no interest in tragedy. She reminds me so intensely of my Aunty Del  that I have called her Del.  And then I ran into another problem. I could no sooner call my Great Aunty Del  just plain Del than fly to the moon. So this wee calf will be Aunty Del.  Aunty Del lived in the country is a small low ceilinged cottage and ate icecream at any meal she felt like.  She often wore pink and purple and plaid and sometimes all at once. She was a treasure. So there it is. Sometimes names just turn out that way.  One thing I know is that if you get the name wrong you must change it immediately. No time to waste.  The name Aida belongs to someone else.

Here is Aunty Del.  She sucked my thumb all the way home, standing just as calm as you please in the back of the cooking oil car.

So now we have a new heifer to be trained as another milk cow for when Daisy is ready to retire.  Often a milk cow will work with a family for many years but with Daisy’s recurring mastitis she may have to go out to pasture earlier than expected. However that is still a few years away.

Godot got so excited about being able to fly that he flew straight into the mulberry tree. 

He is pretty hard to see up there but the view must have been wonderful as he was up there for hours. Later at dusk after he had found his way down and was intent on wandering down to the creek that is now a raging torrent, the dogs and I very very slowly herded him back to the barn. 

Yesterday Poppy and Tima got into a fight. I am not entirely sure why,  no-one was talking, but it may have to do with the fact that Poppy does not want to share Sheila.

Tima was smacked on her very smackable bottom and was sent to bed.

And when she got to her bed she found a cat in it. Marmalade is everyone’s friend though so no-one really cared.

The chicks and the ducks have been separated, (much to the chickens relief .. have you ever tried to live with a duck in a small space?)  and moved upstairs. The chicks are feathering out and  the ducks are huge. The chicks have graduated to the wood box on the verandah and the ducklings are in a bullet-proof pen beside Tima.  No mink will get in there. The new meat chicks arrival is imminent (maybe tomorrow or the next day) so the brooder tub needs to be cleaned out and prepared for the next batch.

Thank goodness the weather has finally begun to warm up.

Good morning.

I hope you are all having a lovely day.

Now, off to work for us all!

Your friend on the farmy

celi