Orange, it is Orange again!

So there we were, two days ago, in the sun...

the Home Field had finally dried up after the last flooding a couple of weeks ago, 

and all the animals, 

cow and calf, 

sheep and lambs,

goats and goatlings,

geese and goslings,

all went out on the field for the day. 

Just as well, because the grazing on Side Field is minimal now, 

after all, they have been solidly grazing it for a couple of weeks.

We had a phone call last night:

sheep to be sheared this afternoon providing it did not rain.

It did.

Rain.

And what a surprise,

We are under Orange alert for flooding again. 

Crikey but it goes on and on this year,

It is not usual,

It is not normal,

That is what all the locals are saying.

We had to go and rescue Bonny and her mum Elise from the rain.

They are delicate creatures, cows. 

At least ours are.

Bonny has the unfortunate habit of going on strike in mid stride.

Down she goes, flattening herself on the ground

including her head and neck. 

She will not budge.

We have to physically haul her to her feet,

meanwhile she is pushing herself down into the ground.

She did this as we tried to rescue her from the rain,

shame that her moment of going on strike

coincided with Lester trying to her out of the hedge.

Both he and she got muddy and wet.

Not to worry,

we got her and her mum into the barn eventually.

Bonny was shivering,

I grabbed a towel from the clean pile of laundry,

and we rubbed her down.

And then Elise virtually did a moo-growl at us.

Most intimidating it was.

With her head lowered, and speaking in that tone of voice,

well,

we thought she was going to charge us.

Lester said that perhaps I should use a different towel next time.

Lester said that red is not a good colour to flash in front of cows.

I said that the towel was terracotta.

Lester said that it was as near to the colour red as made no difference.

Goats milking twice a day giving two litres of milk.

Cow milking once a day, giving one litre and a bit.

That is a lot of milk coming into the kitchen.

Not to worry, 

am going to have a go at making a cheddar cheese tomorrow.

Also have a dish of cream,

so perhaps butter?

One litre.....

This is our first litre of cow's milk.

It came from Elise.

Bonny, her calf, was put in the small stall beside her, 

although Elise does not agree with the separation, 

because she has been complaining all night. 

After milking the goats last night,

Lester said that he thought we ought to start milking Elise.

I did not.

I was tired.

But we did.

Without rope or halter, 

Lester encouraged Elise to stand long enough to be milked.

The bucket of grain helped.

I was impressed by his calmness and persistency,

his lack of tension.

I just waited to be kicked.

It is nice to be constantly surprised by one's partner.

Coming and going....

Well the Adour paid a visit to our doorstep again, but did not come as close as it last time. And the amazing thing was, that within two hours the mass of water had disappeared as if a plug had been pulled out. One minute there was water, the next minute, none. Actually, that is not quite right so may I rephrase and say, one minute the water was there, but after I had had my nap, it had gone!

Almost had a calf and then not, as well. Yesterday morning she was up and having a suckle from mum, then the next minute she was in a heap with her head laying at an odd angle, which previously on other animals has signalled that they have given up and are getting ready to pass over. This was worrying. So Lester rushed off to the vets, and I just faffed. Didn't know what to do, so just sat down on the straw beside her, put her head on my lap, and just stroked her. Elise came over to have a look to see what I was up to, did a gentle blow of air in my face as if to say "She is in your hands", and then wandered off again. 

So I sat there for a while, then went indoors and had a look on the internet for any helpful hints, then thought I would give her a half pint of goats milk because internet forums had been saying that that is what one should do if the calf looks hungry, and since I don't think she was getting any milk from mum, this is what I thought I ought to do. 

And by crikey it is hard to know what to do for animals, but one can only do one's best, so I did just that. She was up on her feet by the time I returned, trying to get something from mum but not managing to, so I showed her the bottle, she took it down in one hit, skipped about, then danced over to mum, gave her udder a jolly good shove, which seemed to produce a result sufficient to make her deny the second half of the bottle I offered her. 

She probably would have been alright if I had not intervened, but she was definitely perkier after that little bit of help from the bottle. 

Today she is out in the Sheep paddock with mum and two little goatlings, romping around, being a youngster with the two young goatlings. 

The tomatoes have died, half the potato crop looks dire, and everything else is not coming  up. This is when one could give up, but after all the work we have done, we must keep going. So off down to Tarbes I went this afternoon, and purchased more tomato plants, some peppers, aubergines, parsley, basil, coriander, and two peanut plants. We should have had all this in seed pots, which would have saved us the money I spent today, but we didn't because the weather has not let us. We shall not be beaten. We shall have no plums because the weather has demolished the crop, but the apples stayed put, and no apricots either. Not to worry, the kiwis are starting to open out their flowers, and there are still bees flying from the bee hive, (we thought we had lost them due to the bad weather of the last six weeks), so perhaps the bees will help pollinate those kiwis so we get a crop from them. 

Otherwise..........

................her name is Bonny.

She went on strike this evening. Must have run her legs off because she refused to get up so we could get her back into the barn for the night. Elise went alright. She knew that she had munchings waiting for her, but Bonny was not going to move. 

It is worrying when she does that. Automatically one thinks that she is sick. Lester managed to get her to move, but she was reluctant. Not to worry. We have managed Day Three of having our surprise calf, and she has managed three days of having us give her mum a helping hand.