Category: Nico – from our point of view

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New Zealand and Labour weekend …

We are now officially in spring-summer mode as we go into our long weekend from work… “hahaha” I say, “a farmer’s work is never done!” but I decided since it was a beautiful day today, I would take Leigh out for a joy ride in the merc… since she has had her roof fixed and we can now put the top down.

It was a lovely drive down to a country diner to have lunch – pizza and drink – then on to the beach on the east coast in Amberley (about 1hour away). Home via the east coast and back (in a big circle) to our home at the foot of the mountains, (took us about 4 hours round trip).

On another note… Ema – our lamb is now 1 month and 1 week and few days old, she is now in the paddock 24/7 and sleeps with the other lambs/mamas and wethers. She still has her milk from a bottle 4 times a day, with the last feed at night 10pm/11pm given by Leigh.

She is still feisty and will get out of the paddock any chance she can, and so we have spent quite a bit of time putting up netting around the house fence to keep her in. It’s only a matter of time until she gets too big to fit through the fence wire, but in the mean time she is constantly trying to get out if she hears our voices.

Nico is a little sad today… his bested friend Louie is no longer around… Nico has been looking for him all day, and he has been meowing at us when he comes inside. Unfortunately our neighbour rang to say that Louie had been run over on the road outside their house in the late evening, so now we have a sad memory of Louie.

Bye from us all at Fairwether farm …

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How are we… down on the farm?

This month has seemed very long … and it’s only the 9th … that’s because we are still waiting for our ewes to produce their lambs.

We have also found that one of our wethers – Sugar #1 is not well again. It seems that when we get nor’west winds he gets a bout of pneumonia and why that is, we don’t know yet. We are having the vet look at him today, and we are concerned about a seeming unusual lopsidedness to his abdomen so it’s not looking good for our boy. I know… he’s only a sheep and a wether but I worry about all our sheep – I take my role as shepherd very seriously. Having said that… I also know (although this is hard) that we can not keep all the sheep we bred as we will be overrun and that is no good for our pasture or our breeding programme. In order to keep the best of the bred I will have to sell on the new ram lambs and wethers. The good news is that I have found someone wanting a ram lamb for their new flock, so one little boy will have a good life. I am hoping I get more interest in some others.

Spring is definitely making us feel better and the lambs we do have are now old enough to run around together – get into mischief and generally make a nuisance of themselves with the other ‘nearly mums’. Nico is also making himself known to the lambs, and of course he too is getting into mischief …

Well that’s all for now… see you all again soon.

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First of spring… Shepherd Clare’s morning

What an interesting start to spring… we are having our first real snow dump for 2020.

Luckily the new lambs are now old enough to cope (2 are 2 weeks and other 2 are 4 days old) so they won’t have too much trouble with the ‘white stuff’. They have a barn anyway so that will keep them warm.

I gave them sheep nuts and hay this morning so they will be ok. Hopefully no gals will decide that today is the day to give birth (we have 5 more mamas to go).

Nico has asked me to post for him… he said he’s too cold n wet to do anything but sit by the heater now…

Well I’m off to get breakfast and a hot coffee… cheers to you all….

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Nico and the lambs…

Well I know… all new ‘parents’ think their kids are the greatest… and shepherds’ are no exception, they think their ‘lambs’ are the best and cutest…but just look at this… I just think that the combination of the ‘shepherd’s cat, Nico and the lambs is just too cute not to take photos of… and that Mama Lumpy #2 is the best mum for allowing Nico to ‘talk to her babies.

 

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Nico the Shepherd’s Cat …. my story

I is Nico…..this is my story. The human mamma – “Shepherd Clare” told you how I come to live with her and other human.
https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/thebirchesspringfield.com/1483

Now I will tell you wot I do in my life on the farm as Shepherd’s Cat. My new life started when I got to the farm….oooo lots of new things to see and smells…waz a very happy kitten……I haz lots of toys…

I went outside in the ‘big world’ ….tiz huge…. has forest n (Shepherd says paddocks) grasses n mices n rabbits.

When it rains… or is cold I’z stay indoors and play…humans gives me toys…n boxes..

I start my day by helping Shepherd Clare feed da sheeps…I like to visit with them… they are my woolly friends…I’z good with da sheep…I’z help…

Iz big now and allow outside at night time…though Mamma worries when I don’t come home till late….(7pm)…

Next time I’z tell you about my best friend…Louie he lives next door…

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The new normal…

We would like to think the world will go back to ‘normal’ once the virus is eliminated (or contained) but I think we need to be prepared to accept that things will not go back to the way they were. New Zealand has taken a cautious step out of level 3 to level 2; that means we can visit family and friends and perhaps do some of the things that we use to do. For us things will be the same; we socialise with friends and family and have small gatherings in our homes and clubs.

We hear now that in the last week of June we will probably go to level 1. I will look forward to seeing my friends at the Spinning and Weaving club and seeing more of my family in the weeks to come.

The isolation period – March 26 till now (26 May) has been been an interesting time on the farm. The first week we had problems with the septic tank, the second week issues with the electricity, then in the ensuing weeks, the tank had issues again, the oven decided to breakdown – we have had more problems during this time than at any other time.

June and winter…

With the colder weather coming we are gearing up for lambing in the coldest winter month – August. I will pack a birthing kit with the necessary equipment in case we have trouble with any of the mums or lambs; unlike the last lambing season (2018) when I did not have anything and luckily we did not have any particular trouble. I have grown in confidence around the sheep and they accept me in ‘most situations’ but of course birthing brings its own challenges. I intend to create a ‘birthing-holding’ area inside the sheep barn so that the mothers can come and go, and I can contain a mother with their lambs if I need to. Luckily Gotland Pelt sheep are very good at birthing on their own and raising their lambs, but I need to be ready in case things go bad.

I am hoping that we will have a quiet winter period with time to clean up from autumn and prepare for the colder winter months.

I hope you all continue to be safe and well…

The next time we chat it will be winter and all the glory that the season brings…… maybe snow…… definitely frosts……new ideas for spinning…..new plans for the farm…..news on what Nico the ‘shepherd’s cat’ has been doing…

Take care ….

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Monday 11 May… a light is on and someone is home

We had some good news today….. New Zealand is going to our level 2 at the end of this week. For us, this will not mean a great change in our life, as we are isolated by the fact that we live in a remote area away from the city. It takes us 45 minutes to drive into the city of Christchurch, 45 minutes to our local supermarket and 30 minutes to buy our milk from the farmer. We have approximately 300 people living in the settlement of Springfield, Canterbury, and although we have neighbours around us, we do not see them on a daily basis; but they are there if we need them.

Level 2 for most of New Zealand though, means that they will be able to go to the malls, church, shops, movies and cafes etc. For me, I will enjoy getting a hair cut and maybe a coffee or takeaways, other than that nothing much will change for us, as we do the farm stuff anyway on a regular basis and only go out occasionally. I will though, look forward to seeing family and friends again.

This has been an interesting time, and I know a lot of you will have experienced similar things. Last weekend, with the lifting of some restrictions, we went for a drive to the beach (still 45 minutes for us) and took a picnic coffee with us. The people out walking passed by and we talked about the beautiful day, the weather, or other mundane topics, but we all felt a kinship with our common issue. I hope that in the days to come we do not lose that sense of camaraderie. It would be nice to think that we had more sense of community than perhaps we did before.

Of course farm work continues….. the ram, Tuppence, went back to the owners as he (hopefully) has done a good job and we will have lambs in the spring. The flock are settling down again after his stay. It is good to be able to hand feed them all again without worrying about him being the aggressive little ‘boy’ that he had become.

Nico continues to help with the farm, keeping an eye on the sheep and lazing in his bed afterwards as he’s ‘tired’ from all the farm work he has to do, (well checking out the stockyards to make sure there are no mice is hard work, talking to all the sheep to make sure there are none missing is tiring…. no wonder he wants a nap, all that counting makes me tired too).

Take care everyone, and in the days to come, I will show you what else I have been doing on the farm.

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The shepherd’s cat -Nico out on the farm

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Nico, our Manx kitten, so I thought I’d give you an update on what he’s been doing lately. Nico is now six months old and has adapted well to farm life. He loves to visit the flock every morning – or night – depending on who is feeding them any particular day (I feed them in the morning and Leigh feeds them late afternoon) and since there is plenty of nice grass at present we have gone to feeding them once a day.

So Nico will follow us out to the workshed to help us get the bucket and the nuts; he has to check out the workshed as well, to make sure no mice have appeared since he was last in there. The routine is then go out to the main gate and open it, call the flock by rattling the bucket (which they know is ‘nut time’) and they all come running over to the ‘breakfast bar’ (a piece of grass cut so that the nuts don’t get lost in the long grass).

Nico, as a good shepherd’s cat, either climbs on the fence or squeezes under the fence into the paddock to ‘visit’ with the sheep too. He will go right up to them and hunker down while they have a look at him and sniff him. He is very brave, as they are sooooooo big, but they are also gentle and just nose him.

He loves to walk around the paddock as I check the water troughs, fences, pick up any rubbish blown in from the main road, and generally look at the sheep and give them a scratch and talk with them. This is the time when I look at how the flock are moving, see if any of them are limping, got sores or anything; this has been a routine now for 2 years and it means I can keep on top of any unusual health issues (hopefully) before it gets too bad.

Anyway back to Nico, sometimes he will stay in the paddock for an hour or so, looking for the mice in the long grass (he caught 3 the other day) and then will come back and look for me in the garden or house.

Nico has also ventured out at night……… As a worried parent, I was not happy about this but as a cat, he thought it was his right to go out exploring, so now we let him stay out for a while after dinner. He usually comes inside about an hour after dark and then we shut the cat door for the night. He can’t get out until I get up in the morning and open the flap. I know I am a little paranoid, but we lost Pippin in the night because he crossed over the main road and got hit by a fast car/truck.

Well that’s the adventures of Nico for today………….. come back and visit soon, and I will have more stories to tell…………………………

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Week 5 – level 4

At the time of writing we are all waiting to go up to level 3, next week. The time has been spent as I usually spend my time, knitting, looking after the sheep and Nico, the kitten; oh and I forgot, husband Leigh had a birthday in that time so we celebrated at “I so late” cafe.

Today is a grey day and not conducive to going outside so Nico is using my work room as a playground, boxes, balls, toys and anything else he thinks he wants to play with.

Nico is now 6 months old and thinks he is old enough to play outside at night time. He will ‘hunt’ mice in the paddock by the house in the twilight and early evening and now we have let him go out for a while, but the first time he stayed out I was really worried (you know the first time the kids go out at night!! ) but he came inside on his own, so not worried now.

Level 3 for us will look pretty much the same as level 4 – we will stay home most of the time and do work around the farm, autumn is here now and so leaves pile up if not attended to, looking after the ‘girls’ as I hope the are pregnant and turning over the vegetable plots so they can rest over winter. Oh and clean out the barn for the new lambs when they arrive, organise the shearing in July /August, keep the weed spraying up and keeping the house work going as well; have I forgotten anything? Keep us in meals, food shopping and a bit of knitting and spinning on the side, I think that’s all.

Keep well everyone, this is working, and so I wish everyone reading the blog a safe and enjoyable month. See you again soon, 

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First week of New Zealand isolation.

Well the week has gone ok, and we are getting use to staying home. Much of what we do is the same whether we are in isolation or just getting on with our normal daily routine except we can’t pop out for a coffee at our favourite shop.

Nico has been house-bound for a couple of days because he is a ‘woosey cat’ when it comes to rain (I don’t know why because he is fascinated by water from the taps or any water in the basins). Well anyway I thought I’d make him some toys to play with and to entertain him. Here is Nico at play.

Our first venture to the grocery shop yesterday meant that we had to be inventive with our shopping; 1 person 1 trolley so we split the list into two and did the shopping as individuals. Leigh is good at the stocking of the pantry shelves, so he did that and I got the vegetables and the meat plus good things to eat oh and I found some ping pong balls for Nico to play with.

We had to space ourselves out prior to entering the shop and so when we got there the line was quite long. So our shopping which usually takes 3/4 hour took us half hour to get to the front of the line and then another hour to do get the goods, pay for them and put them in the car. We shopped for two weeks so we wont have to do that again for a while. People were very polite, we chatted with the people in the line but everyone was ‘subdued’ and a little worried; but I have to say the shop assistants were great, no fuss and they were polite and well organised.

We can do this; world!!!! We will come out of this again.

The sun is shining today and that always makes me feel better. Take care all; 

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