Spring... almost

Well earlier this week it was almost spring like - but today (Saturday) it has turned icy cold and raining. Earlier in the week we had a great few days of no rain, warmth even. Have managed to get in a few rides this week, and Choc seems to be getting fitter, albeit incredibly slowly. He only gets about 30 mins work, a lot of walking with some trot work and today he had a little tiny bit of canter work on the lunge (which is a big deal for him as he still has trouble realising he's allowed to canter). Got some pics from the other day when it was warm enough to ride in a t shirt:






The toxdefy is working great with him, he has been so calm and relaxed about everything, quite a different horse! Am really enjoying riding him as a result although he is not the only unfit one....

The cow in calf is still not showing any signs of calving early which is good, she's due in two weeks so hopefully we'll have a bit more grass for her by then. Still very low on grass here and the hay is getting pretty low but the grass is growing. Just real slow....

We are getting some honey bees for the farm soon too. I met some beekeepers a few days ago who set up the hives at your place, look after the bees and in return you get some honey (and they presumably take a big chunk of it too). Ben wasn't too sure but I think it'll be fine, they won't bother us unless we bother them.

The two piglets arrive this afternoon too (provisionally called Hock and Ham), and their pen and shelter is all set up ready to go. Have a few people interested in buying some ham and bacon already which is good. Funny how it's never hard to sell homekill meat!

It's raining. Again.

Just when you think the ground might get a chance to dry up.... I actually saw some dry dirt a couple of days ago - it'll be all gone by now though. Been pouring down for hours.

This lovely map is courtesy of MetService:
Looks pretty icky. The pink stuff is pretty much what is lurking over us right now.

Tuesdsay and Wednesday look a bit better - I'd like to say "sunny" but I doubt it somehow!

Hope it eases up a bit before the cow calves or her little nursery paddock will be a mud pit in now time.



In the middle of this pic is the swampy bit in the gully of the paddock next to the house. Usually you can't see water in it but we've seen water sitting in there for the past few weeks. Overnight it has gone nuts - just nowhere for the water to go.
The mud in front of the fence is where the pic below of the pregnant cow was taken, looks almost dry there!




And the poor chooks, clustered on the back porch. They really think they should be inside, in front of the fire, with a nice bowl of muesli...

The stork is coming...

Well it looks like we are going to have a baby here on the farm. Not a two legged one (god forbid) but one of the heifers is pregnant - her in the middle there with the large belly...

She wasn't meant to get pregnant, long story involving a neighbouring grazer's bull on our boundary paddock. But she is due in about 3 weeks and doing ok so far. Will bring her up closer to the house and yards a week before she's due and hope the blinkin rain stops so the paddock doesn't turn to mud. It's the smallest paddock but also the flattest and will be easy to keep an eye on her there. She's a lovely girl so hopefully things go ok and we don't need to get the vet out for her. She's not huge but the bull wasn't huge either so fingers crossed....

It was actually sunny most of the day today - freezing cold but it wasn't raining so I'm not complaining! Took Choc to the arena and did some ground work and lunged him for a wee bit, including over some poles and low jumps (all of 20cm). He is really unfit so not working him too hard yet, plus the arena is a bit hard going right now and needs a good harrow.

Will hop on this weekend hopefully, although he has what looks like rain scald on his back so might be a very short ride if it's not looking any better. He was a lot better today than on Monday when he was quite full of himself and bounced around a lot. Have him on magnesium and Tox-Defy which is hopefully helping. Today he went quite nicely, working long and low quite easily and mostly behaving (apart from the odd attempt to run out of the arena, grrrr).

Still car hunting, which is a bit of a pain. Seen one I really quite like but the owners want to let the auction run and it doesn't end for another 10 days. Have one to look at this weekend, has done less miles so hopefully the rest of it is ok too.

More animals

Found some more pics so here are the next lot of animals:

Maddy is a TB mare who I have on lease until the end of the year. She is madly in love with Bert, who belongs to a grazer here. The only time I've come off her was when she made a beeline for him and did an impressive last minute spin that sent me onto her neck and into my specialty dismount (forward over the right shoulder). Then madam proceeded to show no interest at all in him and went straight over to the juiciest looking patch of grass.

Amber (on the right, Dee is on the left) is a lovely chestnut crossbred mare I had for about 18 months. Unfortunately I lost her to colic on Waitangi Day, 2007. Found out just before then that she was about 26 years old. Not bad for an old girl. She was so much fun to ride, we used to cruise around the farm bareback heaps. I rode her up until about 8 months before she colicked.


This is Mera, our first cat (and if she had her way, she'd be the only cat). She is grumpy, a bit fat, hates being cuddled and likes to sleep on a hay bale. She also will lick her left front leg if you scratch her just in front of her tail. For a grumpy fat cat she is surprisingly good at catching birds and mice. Maybe they think she's not worth worrying about?! We got Mera from the pound in mid-2005, she was on the verge of being put to sleep as she'd been in there so long. She turned up pregnant and with ringworm (keep telling her she was just a grotty slapper when we met her), and when we first saw her she was quite a bit slimmer... oops.


Sunny (Sundance Kid) is the opposite to Mera - he will do anything for a cuddle and would be the ultimate demo cat. You can do anything with him and he loves to follow us around the farm, "helping" move the cows, watching me do stuff with the horses, getting in the way of horse hooves (had a few close calls), and he also loves having a nosey in cars. He is petrified of the chickens. He often falls asleep like this with his tongue half hanging out. He's only little still, about a year old and tries to get Mera to play - and fails. She just practices her boxing skills on him instead.

RIP Hilux

Well the Hilux is terminal. Head gaskets are the least of its problems by the sound of it. Am so over that car. Not going to get it fixed, with either sell it off cheap and tell them what's wrong with it or just use it as a farm vehicle. Would quite like to get something for it though.

In the mean time, a short intro to some of the animals, starting with (the most important ones!) the horses:

Bobby was my first horse, a chestnut SB gelding. His race name was Donaghadee and his dad was Noodlum, famous as being half owned by Rob Muldoon. He took off with me on our second or third ride but really was just a big softy once he realised he wasn't the boss. I had to have him put to sleep in January 2007 after finding him drenched in sweat, looking in heaps of pain and with a very bloated tummy. I suspect he had cancer but will never really know. He's buried in the paddock in a spot he used to like snoozing in.


Dee (Delightful Whoopi - a hideous name if ever there was....), a 17 year old SB mare who really is a mare. Dislikes schooling with a passion, is a wee bit blonde but the easiest horse to keep. She is a paddock mate for now as we just don't click when riding. Half heartedly trying to sell her but don't want her to go to a place that won't understand her quirks. Her claim to fame is winning Champion Standardbred in hand at the Clevedon A&P in 2007.

Choc is my latest acquisition, a black SB gelding. I got him pretty much unbacked - he'd been sat on twice and when I went to meet him his trainer rode him for the second time and fell off, a great start! So I have been working on schooling him and he's doing well but we have canter problems (not that uncommon funnily enough...) He is a trotter so doesn't pace but just needs to learn he's allowed to canter I think. He's a clever boy, almost a bit too clever. Likes jumping, got very excited by popping over logs and trotting up and down some steps at the local PC's xc course - trot, trot, yeehaaaaa buck! He likes to be the center of attention and will chase the others away from me if he feels he hasn't had enough attention. If he was a dog he'd be a labrador who tried to sit on your lap all the time.

There are a few others, but no photos right now. Plus there are 10 chooks, 30-something cows, 3 goats (Basil, Rosie and Caramel) and two budgies. And two cats, Mera a grumpy ginger female and Sundance Kid (Sunny), a silver tabby boy and the smoochiest cat in the world.

The first post

Well here it is, my venture into blogging. Have to say its not a very auspicious day to start it all - being the 13th, and the day the Hilux had a hissy fit on the motorway at 5.45am this morning with steam pouring out the bonnet. Never had to stop on the side of the motorway before and can't say I can recommend it.

Anyway the Hilux is apparently now driveable (although mechanic did say "good luck"!!!) but needs more tests. Great. Because I haven't spent quite enough on that blinkin thing already. Seriously considered getting rid of it and buying a 1.3litre Corolla, but really, they don't tow horse floats too well and not sure how it'd cope with hauling hay around on a trailer. So the Hilux stays. For now.

This blog isn't meant to be about my car at all though - it's meant to be about our life on the 80 acre farm we live on in west Auckland, with horses, cows, goats, chooks a couple of cats and the odd possum. Things are a bit sodden there right now but I'm sure the grass is trying to grow through the mud and no doubt we'll soon be complaining about the lack of water and heat.