By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
The rain arrived as predicted and “That Bloomin Goat” had been hanging around the house all day.
It was sitting on the verandah at morning tea and lunch and went to sleep in Richie’s lap at one stage.
Dear Richie hadn’t mentioned anything but I later discovered the goat had eaten one of my beautiful ferns.
Later in the afternoon I caught the goat standing in the wheelbarrow eating the rosebushes.
He had already pruned the bottom of every bush!
Late afternoon saw the arrival of new cottage guests in a V8 SS Commodore ute.
The goat was still hanging around and screaming out for his bottle when it dawned on me that the shiny Commodore might appeal to him as a new aerobatics launching pad.
I hurriedly grabbed him and carried him up to his cage, suggesting to Richie that it might be best if he stayed there for a couple of days.
Our weekend guests in the cottage were a mother and daughter.
Daughter Kateland is an apprentice carpenter and absolutely loved the animals.
If I had a dollar for every photo she took I wouldn’t have to work for a week. She fell in love with That Bloomin Goat.
Saying goodbye to them as they were leaving we got to talking about her apprenticeship.
She mentioned how lucky she was to have Selwyn as her teacher – Selwyn was “like” 60 years old she said.
Kateland had also started learning panel beating before choosing carpentry and again she was lucky to have a great teacher. He was also “like” at least 60 years old she said with emphasis on the 60.
“No way – 60 years old!” I replied in a shocked voice, looking over at her mother.
Mum grinned at me and said, “I’m 58 this year!”
I can just imagine Kateland getting home and telling her work mates the next day about her farm adventure and then, “You wouldn’t believe it, the farmers were like, really old, at least 60 I reckon!!!!”
Monday was a public holiday and the day dawned with a huge fog and the promise of a clear blue sky.
I was grateful for the opportunity to try and catch up on a few jobs.
I chose to start in the garden first and pulled out all the stalks the cows had left behind after last week’s garden rampage.
Digging the soil over revealed lots of fat juicy worms, a good sign.
By 11am I had planted seeds of Moon and Stars watermelon, Delice de la Table rock melons, Golden Bantam sweetcorn and Black Jack zucchini.
Now all I have to do it wait and pray nothing eats the seeds.
New guests arrived at the cottage, turning up in seriously kitted out 4WDs, and they were all well over 60!
I later spotted them heading up the hill with a fair load of film gear and a giant microphone – it turns out they are studying birds.
They most certainly have picked the right place for that!
They spotted the turquoise parrot, which is a species on the decline.
They also found the not so rare striated pardalote nesting inside the exhaust pipe of one of our old cars and also, to their delight, under the eaves of the cottage.
We have a guest booked in for next May coming from Texas in the US, specifically to study the birds in our area.
He will be hoping to see the turquoise parrot and also the glossy black cockatoo.
I initially thought the cockie would be easy to find as I have seen them at the Tenterfield Golf Club.
It turns out there are five types of black cockatoo in Australia and the one at the golf club is not, in fact, the glossy black. If anyone knows where my guest might sight one I would be very grateful if they can let me know.
Another guest, Bec, wandered up to the house on the weekend and I showed her around the garden.
She asked about a prolific ground cover plant with a lovely purple flower.
I said I had no idea what is was.
Bec worked at a garden centre and was suspicious it was the noxious blue periwinkle.
Sure enough, a check revealed that was exactly what it was.
Our bird enthusiasts were also extremely knowledgeable flora people and discovered another noxious week in our garden which they kindly grubbed out and bagged up for me.
I am very grateful and continually surprised with acts of kindness and generosity from our guests.
On a sad note, CJ decided to move on a few weeks ago. Things did not turn out as we planned but we are very grateful indeed to her for help on the farm and everything she did for us.
CJ also brought joy to all of our guests with her great sense of humour, clever wit and patience with the children, showing them the tricks she had taught the animals, how the ducks would eat out of their hands, and much more than I can ever say.
With the recent rain and spring flush our Welsh mountain pony cross, Dainty, has foundered.
It happened quite quickly and I hadn’t picked up on it. Erin, who had come out to check the ponies, spotted it in her very timely visit.
Dainty is now in a very small paddock behind the house and should make a full recovery.
It was a valuable lesson for me to check the ponies closely at least once a week.
Have a good week
Judy
