s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Jodie produced a lovely white boy (of course) today. She’s our first “maiden” to give birth — meaning this is her first cria — and maidens are statistically a good bit more likely to have problems, either with birthing or with mothering, so we were a wee bit apprehensive (especially given our luck of late). I’m happy to say it was a smooth, fast birth. The boy’s a little bit undercooked, but is in good shape and plenty active.

Here’s some pics of the older cria. If you mouse over them, it’ll tell you who they are.

A nice moody sunset shot of Victoria:

And finally, the newest additions (if you figure that Jodie’s cria isn’t new to the farm, so much as he’s new to the outside of Jodie…):

Yes. We have geese now. Strictly, five geese (the grey ones) and one gander (the white one). They’re Pilgrim geese, five months old, and as silly as you would expect. They were an impulse purchase off TradeMe (although we’d admired the geese we saw hanging out with alpacas on a couple of the farms we visted on our last South Island alpaca holiday, so it wasn’t completely out of the blue), and I was actually surprised and pleased that they turned out to be Pilgrim geese, which are prettier and supposedly sweeter-tempered than ordinary white geese, which is what I’d actually been expecting, based on the auction description.

We’ve had them a week, and they’ve managed to work out that they don’t need to try and smoosh themselves into the corner of the shed to escape us when we come near. Now they amble into the corner in an orderly fashion and watch to see if we’ve brought them food, which we usually have. Having established that the shed is where yummy food like the hen feed and the old carrots and banana peels (and whatever leftovers our local fruiterers have pressed upon Stephen) happen, we’ve been experimenting now with letting them out for a few hours each day to graze (geese eat grass) and maybe play in the stream, and then herding them back into the little shed-and-run we’ve been keeping them in (that first little shelter Stephen built in the Gallop paddock). Geese, it turns out, are rather easier to herd than alpacas, in that they tend to pack up and move in a convenient little goosey knot.

Eventually, we’re hoping to maybe get some goose eggs, and feathers, and possibly goslings. In the meantime, though, they’re fun, and different, and pretty. And they make these charming little gweep, gweep, gweep sounds that are just a hoot.

As readers of this blog know, the last few weeks have been rather harrowing. While we knew going in that “if you have livestock, you are going to have deadstock”, it does not make it any easier when an animal dies.

So, is it worth it? Yes. This new lifestyle can produce some rattling lows, but it also produces some amazing highs. While our previous suburban life was “smoother” (the highs and lows were less severe), on average the farm life is better. We have, though our obersavations and interventions, saved the lives of many animals.

We saved Cindy last year when we pulled out her stuck, dead cria.

I saved Jim in the woods, after he got chased by a dog and ended up badly tangled in supplejack.

We have saved four cria through bottle-feeding colostrum/milk. (Miniya, Gabriella (Angela’s cria), Mora, Enfield)
We saved Basilisk by pulling him out of Jasmine when he had a leg stuck back.

We saved Zahir from a parasite infection when Tam noticed he was feeling ill.

I could not save Floppy, the premature cria that died last year, but what I learned caring for him may one day save another.