Post by wiradjuriwoman on Jul 21, 2008 5:43:36 GMT -5
Hi There everbody,Maggie's the name and farming is my game, being a small land holder farmer in the lower half of Western Australia is a great life....with four miniature horses (only 2 are mine 1 belongs to the daughter 1 to the son in law as it is their property) I own sheep, goats and a jersey cow in calf and ready to drop next month (August 2008) 14 turkeys that are breeding shortly (we are in the middle of winter) plus my 40 odd ducks of mixed breeds but mainly khaki cambells with some muscovy's, we have hens of all breeds shapes and sizes plus some geese and 14 guinea fowls.
Now my goats are majority Angoras coloured white, black and red, I have a few nubian goats and 1 saanen goat.
My sheep are Merino,Dohne, Dorset and Suffolk, plus Thumper who is a Ram and a character of his own..... Thumper thinks he is a goat and is love with one of the Nubian goats named Candy Can, they cannot be seperated as they sleep together, walk together, eat together etc etc.
My animals are my family, now after raising five children to adulthood and having the joy of raising a teenage stepson, I needed a break so I travelled all over Australia and saw many farms in my travels and thought you poor people you can never get away!!!!!.... what did I do when we stopped travelling!!! bought three goats 1 buck and two does in kid.....and it went on from there....Now I realise what everyone was getting out of the farming, Love, Affection, fun, laughter and and a whole lot of contentment and happiness....
I wake in the morning to a baby lamb calling for his bottle, next to him in another part of the sick bay is Buster a young Ram of 12 mths who was knocked down so many times he could not walk so we put him into an enclosed indoor area,well Buster is up and ready now to go out when the weather impoves, he just has to be reintroduced to the mob....We have a few more who are indoors too, two of our goats who have trouble walking but are not crippled, plus Bo-Peep who was badly attacked by a dog and had her back muscles ripped apart, I did not think she would live, she not only lives but is 99.9% better minus a tail of course, and she suffers from fear of dogs and no wonder with the damage they did to her.
I forgot to mention 'The Bear' he is my Dohne Ram who is 2yrs old and I hand raised, his mum drowned in a dam giving birth to him, having raised so many kids and lambs I am very attached to each and every one of them, but the bear is such a sookie that if he is put away from us he loses condition very fast..
I breed some miniature sheep and goats, I also breed minaure poultry as in the bantams (HAHA) so I guess my miniature horses a natural hobby for me...I have just bought 'Pearl' our new Jersey so have a lot to learn about her although I have done animal Husbandry and was brought up on a farm many years ago... , Pearl is aged seven and she has calfed a few times before...she is also registered.
With foxes and free roaming domestic dogs I lose some of my stock in a devestating manner, people who live in a rural are should never allow their dogs to roam free.. people who defend foxes should see the damage afox can do to a new born lamb or goat kid as well as to poultry... Please dont get me wrong I respect the fox as a working animal.. I just wish he/she wouldnt
work on my property..
We have six cats that kept inside at night as we do care for the birds etc at night and we have 6 dogs YES 6, but four are very small and 1 is a labrador aged 13yrs and a Kelpie aged about 7yrs, the four small ones are a puppy which will grow to be large, we think he is a Huntaway, the council guys dropped him off as they did not have the heart to put him into the pens on a cold weekend, we have had him 4 weeks now, we have 1 Pomeranium male and 2 jack russells 1 male (Neutered)1 female pregnant to the pom.
We have a strange array of pets though as when I feed the cats in the morning on the front step as I put them out, the poultry run up and attack my cats to get the biscuits, remembering most of my poultry are very small bantams.
I love my crazy place.... Oh I will put a photo of myself when I work out how to upload one through the browser...