Aussie word of the day: cheeky = ornary, mischievous. I think most people have heard this used in British TV/ movies as in "That cheeky bugger!"
Happy Birthday to Dad and Teagan! I'm taking a short pause out of my recent projects and job searching to tell you how my May has gone. Basically, I have been getting into the thick of farm life. After coming back to Perth, SM convinced me that I should get up early in the mornings to help he and his mum with some of the farm chores. I thought this was a good way to burn some calories while getting a good early start to my days so I happily agreed. For a few weeks we would get up around 6:30 a.m. and take trays of grassy looking barley from the fodder shed where they grow and store the barley. We chuck the squares of densely rooted barley onto the bed of the ute until it is piled nice and high, then it is distributed around the cow pastures. The cows LOVE this stuff... and the horses too.
After helping load the barley, I would walk the miniature ponies, Muffin and Murphy, down to their paddock. This is my favorite thing to do because Muffin and Murphy each have their own unique personalities. I would then walk back to the cow pasture to watch the cow babies being tormented by Fia, SM's mum's Lasa Apso {yip-yip, lap-dog}. The calves are very curious about Fia and sometimes follow her around the paddock as she runs between cow patties eating the cow poo and leftover bits of barley. Eventually, I got to ride around the paddocks with SM and his mum to distribute the barley. Then one day a new baby bull had to be castrated and tagged. I got out of the ute for this as SM took the calf down and the mom cow looked on in dazed, bewilderment as she chewed on her barley. After a while the mom cow hardly took notice of what was going on with her calf even as the calf starting mooing despairingly. That calf was a tough little fighter and struggled a lot in the process of being tagged, so I had to throw my whole body weight on it by laying across it's kicking back legs as SM held a firm grip on it's head and front legs. SM's mum thought the sight of me throwing myself across the little calf was funny.
Saturday, in preparation of doing a little photo shoot to post to this blog of the cows and me holding a new calf that was about to be tagged, drama ensued. We went down to the paddock in the afternoon while the cows were milling about not doing much of anything. Fia followed us and started tormenting the cows. The cows were quite alarmed by the little dogs presence and her being so close to their calves. They started mooing and walking towards her, then SM grabbed the bull calf that needed tagging. The mom cow, already upset by the dog, really starting giving hell when she noticed SM was holding her calf down. This did not bode well. Fia was running around SM and the calf and causing more excitement than necessary with the cows and the mom cow. Drooling and wild-eyed, the mom cow mooed excessively in desperation while circling SM and the calf. It looked like a very threatening situation to a small town girl like me who has never been so up close and personal with cows in all her life. SM had to let the calf go.
SM's mum got the dog away from the cows and went to get the ute. As she drove the ute into the paddock and SM went to grab the calf a second time to put it into the bed of the ute to tag it, another cow came running at me. I was walking up toward the fenceline to get away from the mob of cows that was coming toward the ute when I looked behind me and saw this great, big, brown, lug of a cow charging at me. I started running and got away while SM had a chuckle to himself at my stupidity. See, what I didn't know was that this cow that was running at me is one of the gentlest ones they have and probably she was running at me because she thought I had food as the ute is often an indicator of barley. At the time, however, with all the drama that was going on with the calf, I thought it was an angry mama cow coming to get me! Despite all this excitement, I didn't get any photos because my camera batteries were flat. Hopefully, the next calf will be mine and I will have photos to show.
And that has been the extent of my farmlife adventures so far. However, there is only a little more time for SM and I here on the farm as we will be moving into his new house in three weeks. We are looking forward to having our own place, but it won't be ours alone for long as we will be renting out some of the rooms. Paint and housewares are high on the list of priorities lately.
I'm still looking for jobs without much success. I've applied to around 10-15 jobs a week. I'm still working at my two hosptiality jobs and enjoying them both and the free time they allow me to look for other jobs. But looking for jobs unsuccessfully has been getting me down as one would expect which is why I began a free HTML/ webpage development course - I think I mentioned this in my last blog - and I have also started knitting. These two projects keep me distracted and entertained whilst being fruitful and lifting my spirits from the job searching doldrums. Last week I recommenced the long forgotten skill of knitting I learned in middle school. I have recently read a few cute, girly novels that emphasize the resurgence knitting has made in the last few years and I was inspired by these novels. The novels follow the young female characters lives whilst intertwining the knitting concept with the characters bonds. Young women around the US have taken to the needles and yarn once more and it has become quite the trend! A few weekends ago I joined SM's mum at the Perth Craft and Quilt Fair where I found the Stitch 'n Bitch knitting handbook and promptly bought it. This was serious! Since cracking the book open for the first time on Tuesday I've hardly been able to put the book or my knitting down.
Here is a look at the first six inches of my very first scarf done in garter stitch {and Chiefs colors}. I've already bought yarn and humongous fat needles to make a chunky garter stitch scarf too! One lucky reader will be getting the chunky one for her birthday {and no, it's not you mom!}
The winter weather has finally set in and the wet has begun. Aussies say there are two seasons in Australia - the wet and the dry. Couldn't be more accurate. It's time to put the doona on the bed. We are all doning our jumpers and uggies and we are dependent on the fire in the wood burning stove to warm the house. My foot is getting better... finally! I found out I have a stress fracture and now get to wear a stylish, little, black, medical bootie a la Gina's blue one she had after bunyon surgery... or was it black too? Anyhoo, that's all the news from Aussie land. Hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day "long weekend" as they say here in Oz.
