Sunflowery
Every morning after he has fed the chickens Hugo hooks up the trailer to his beloved ride -on lawn mower, cuts about 30 – 40 stalks of sunflowers and driving about the farm, distributes them between the pigs and cows and meat chickens. Like a summer Santa without the hat. 
Tima is mad about them, she would walk across your prone body to get to sunflowers. She is getting large too, and Tane is not, so who knows. I will not say out loud that she may be expecting because we have gone down this road before.( And yes – again – who knows) The piglets eat the most sunflowers as though they are morning cereal, which is good. They are getting fat! 
But it is a race against birds now. Gorgeous birds, but they are eating the sunflowers as fast as they can. So soon we will be mowing the last of the crop. It has done well though. We hauled out lots of food from this garden. 
The ground is getting dry, which is good because we are cutting the hay tomorrow but bad for the gardens. The torrential rain we had earlier in the season slammed the soil into submission and now the ground is cracking.
Harlequin the last calf to recover from the scours has taken a turn for the worse again. Unlike the others she never reached full vigor and it has been a constant struggle though I thought she was improving. And now the pneumonia has hit her as well. Badly. Ironically her scours are better. I am feeding her little bits every few hours but her lungs have become noisy and she is not swallowing well anymore. I put the Little Bobby in with Naomi (and they are very sweet together) and Harley is in the hospital garden close to my bedroom window – under a shelter. So I can keep feeding her sips through the night. We will see.
The cows had their blood tests yesterday so we will know by the end of next week who is pregnant or who is not.
Pat is on her last day today. We have had a lovely time and I will miss her. Tomorrow she goes back to the train and we will wave her goodbye.
Hugo has requested that Pat teach him how to make the banana pudding before she leaves, he LOVES banana pudding, so today is his lesson day!
I know that life is sometimes hard but there is such good in life too. Especially around here.
I hope you have a lovely day,
Love your friend on the farm,
celi
c
26 Comments on “Sunflowery”
Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER:
DO A LITTLE SHOPPING:
Thank You So Much For Your Kind Help with Maintaining This Blog
We will miss you, Pat. We envy you your stay, and we’ll remember you by the photos and your banana pudding recipe! Thank you, and have a safe trip!
I love both your words and your pictures, connected or disconnected, but today has left me wanting more pictures. Please, please can we have photos of Hugo’s pudding lesson…? And my darling Tima and her furry consort, and Little getting Larger… Sorry, sorry, I’m being greedy. I hope your day is wonderful and that Harlequin holds on, or if not, that it goes peacefully for her.
Good Morning, Celi. – As always I love your sunflower shots from today. This plant as shown by your pics symbolize some greater thing for me… Have not experienced that before and cannot really express what it is. Not long and they are gone.
I’m sad for Harlequin… otherwise glad that she has you.
Thankyou Pat for representing us at the Farmy, I’m sure you had a wonderful time. Farewell…
Have a nice Sunday all!
So long Pat … sorry we didn’t get to chat more while you were there 🙂 Looking forward to seeing Hugo flexing his muscles on the hay rick. So sorry about Harly, but if she has a chance the best place is there on the Farmy. Hoping you find time for 5 minutes in the hammock today Miss C. Laura
I can’t believe how you have struggled with the wee cows. I feel for you, and I feel for them. I have googled scours to understand it better. Is the pneumonia linked to it? or is it a separate problem? Poor Harley.
Fond farewells Pat, thanks for the wonderful photos and being a great right hand for Celi. Happy trails home. Now i’m wondering what sort of birds eat the sunflowers ?
Must be the wild birds as finches and tomtits and so on. The very birds I feed on my balcony with sunflower seeds… They like them very, very much!
I can’t think of a bird that doesn’t love sunflower seeds!
True, sunflower seeds enjoyed by all, but they’d be different to what I see here in sub-tropical Oz, so I was curious.
Thanks Irmi, yes, probably…..none of those birds here. Where do you live?
I live in the southern part of Germany, in Munich… We love and protect our wild birds here. Especially the small ones . It’s the first time that I am feeding them all summer long. It is said that they do not find too much food for themselves anymore due to the aggressive agriculture. I love them to visit. And it seems they love me and their visits on my balcony too. Waiting for cleaning & supplying new food of course… 🙂
(Have visited your blog last night…)
I had so hoped all the calves were on the road to heath, so it is sad to hear about Harley. So hoping she will take a turn for the better today. Happy Sunday All!
It sounds like the pigs have a new best friend. I’m sorry to hear about poor Harlequin – I hope she pulls through 🙂
Safe travels, Pat. Miss c, I realized in reading today’s post that I feel the change of seasons through your words, your eyes, your life on the farmy you so generously share with us. Thank you. ❤
Life is hard…but good is there, we just need to see it.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Safe travels Pat. I enjoyed your pictures yesterday. Crossed fingers for Harlequin. The sunflowers provided beauty and fodder, the perfect food. I am with Kate, pictures of kitchen lessons would be a treat! Have a good Sunday.
Farewell and calm seas Pat! And yes, can we all have that “nanner puddin” tutorial? In photos would be the cream on the puddin! 🙂 Poor little Harley…what a struggle it’s been for you C. and these little guys. So hoping she pulls through…
And yes, Life is good but there is always that silver lining!
I hope Harly is on the mend by now. She couldn’t have a better carer.
It was so good to see one of the virtual Fellowship at the real-life Farmy. Thank you Pat for your contributions.
Having followed this blog almost as long as you’ve been writing it, something weird has intervened and stopped the links coming to my inbox, so I come looking for you. I have re-followed you today, and will keep my fingers crossed that it works.
Lots of love,
ViV xox
Poor little Harlequin, fingers crossed. Bye bye Pat, safe travels and I look forward to learning how to make your banana pudding!
if you have to let Harley go- at least you will know you did your best- I have so much respect for you and your Farmy.
So discouraging to hear about Harlequin. You give it your all and then some and still there is illness. I am so sorry. Goodbye to Pat and thanks for her fun pictures, spec. Hugo and Boo. That’s a biggie!
Ah, the best compliment of all for Pat… teaching Hugo to make the banana pudding! Those pesky birds are attacking what is left of my garden too… though I have discovered if I put a sprinkler out to distract them, I can keep them from eating my fruit and vegetables!! I have Mr. Owl out too, but they do not find him scary anymore. Rats! 🙁
A lovely post, and yes, we had a very productive day. Made more pickles, made another 2 litres of applesauce, and collected lots of seeds for next years garden. Hope your day is going well, c!
Back in Sept. of 2011 you mentioned forgetting something once you leave a room. Here’s an explanation: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/
Safe travels Pat. Isn’t the hard work what makes the good things even better? xx
So sorry to hear about Harlequin .. You seem to have been tending such calves for such a long time. Poor wee things. Hoping that somehow Celi it will improve. I can see the animals and the birds enjoying those sunflowers