Still Undefeated

2016. What a year this one has been. Very few positive highlights this time around.

At the beginning January I was in contact with a koolie breeder and on February 3 we made the trip to Melbourne to pick up nine week old Skuggi. Calving season started, and we woke up one morning to find the boss had taken all our new calves to a new home. We never got to say goodbye. On March 11, a cow stood on Freya and snapped both bones in her foreleg. That was a long, long weekend. She came home on March 17 and started the long road to recovery - twelve weeks before she was allowed to run again. On March 23 I went into the city with Sparkie to meet up with some friends, but everyone canceled. On the train home, I recieved news that our farm had been sold and we had four weeks left in our house. On April 21 we said goodbye to our beautiful calves that we'd raised and trained.

On May 1, we went to the Dog Lover's Show with some friends and Sparkie behaved perfectly. Six days later we moved into our new house. On May 17 Sparkie became very ill. It was one week before she was allowed to come home. We didn't get a diagnosis until the end of that week - inflammatory bowel disease. With a careful diet she recovered and was finally able to go back to work a month later.

While Sparkie was in recovery, we brought four calves of our own. We lost one to scours within a week. We brought another one to replace him, and we lost that one to pneumonia within the same time frame. The third replacement calf got coccidiosis and it was close for a while, but he survived.

On July 4, the day before we lost the second calf, Daddy came home from work and said he'd been laid off, because the boss couldn't afford to pay him anymore. We ended up working only on weekends to cover the rent.

Things continued to go downhill. Us kids were told we could have hay, grain, and milk for our calves as payment for our work at the farm. Well of course eventually we weaned our calves so milk wasn't needed. And within a few months he stopped providing hay, and by the end of October there was no more grain either.

We tried to find a new job, but nobody would take us on with our five dogs, four calves, rats, and a cat. Daddy got a part time job on another farm nearby but now they can't afford to pay us weekly as promised, and they're suggesting monthly payments. Which we can't live on.

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I wrote this on a dark, dark day, when everything looked so hopeless. The following morning, we got a call from our boss/landlord, offering us our job back. Maybe this is the upswing, finally. We will see. These last few days of 2016 are hanging on though, and it’s not just us that are struggling. The deaths of people I knew through movies and TV and even books are hard to hear of, gone too young and my heart breaks for their families left behind. May 2017 be better for all of us.

 

VIDEO “2016 || A Year In Review” (click for video)

The Christmas Season

Over the years I've noticed the feelings I have for Christmas changing. What used to be excitement as the end of the year approaches is now relief, and Christmas is less about "Jesus's birthday" and more a celebration that we have survived another year.

The Christmas season signals the start of the end of the year and in recent years, that can never come soon enough.

2011 was crap. 2012 wasn't much better. In 2013 things improved, but 2014 brought it all down again. 2015 was all over the place. And 2016 has been one struggle after another. Each December, I can't wait for the new year to start in the hope that things will get better. Maybe 2017 will be the year that it finally does.

We got our job back this week but it's not in time to fix our bank account for Christmas shopping. Our present pile is very small this year.

But, we are still here. Still fighting. Still hoping tomorrow will be better. And these days, that's what Christmas is about - the celebration that despite everything we've been through, we have not given up.

I’m Still Here

Well it’s been a very long time since I last posted here. Nothing much has changed. We’re still struggling on at the same farm. There’s some crap going on with pay and stuff, but I won’t go into it yet. I will just say that it is a struggle to stay motivated to do anything right now.

 

Sparkie went for her Public Access Test again on September 22 and passed easily. I am thinking, and the trainer said the same thing, that she probably won’t go for a third PAT in two years, because by that time she’ll be nearly ten years old.

With that in mind, Skuggi, now eleven months old, started going into shops with me about five weeks ago. We’ve only done very short outings so far but he’s doing really well.

SKUGGI AT THE SUPERMARKERT << click for video

Our calves are so big now. The oldest one, Spartan, is nearly seven months old and my baby Logan is five and a half months.

 

But aside from that there’s not much to report, which is why this blog has been quiet for a long time.

Dairy Farm Life || "No Doubt" (video)

It's been six weeks since we lost our job. We are still at the farm, and still looking for another place to go with no success. 

We have four calves again and they're all growing so fast. Logan, my Jersey steer, is now eleven weeks old. The two Friesian/Jersey heifers Stormfly and Goldie are both twelve weeks. And our new Friesian/Wagyu/Jersey steer Spartan is eighteen weeks. We got him three weeks ago, hardly handled and never haltered. As you can see in the video below, he is so calm and friendly now!

Working For The Weekend (and every other day as well)

Life got hectic for a while there.

We worked every day on the farm with no days off, for six weeks.

Sparkie was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which is being controlled with a strict diet. She’s back to normal, now completely recovered from the surgery, and has even gone back at work as an assistance dog.

We brought four little calves from local dairy farms, to raise as pets. Three of them thrived, but the little grey bull struggled, and after a few weeks he passed away. We rescued another calf to replace him, a big patchy boy. He was strong and energetic. But then he got scours, and then he got bloat, and when he was just three weeks old we lost him to pneumonia.

On the same day the second calf passed away, our boss told us he could not afford to pay us anymore. It's because the companies that buy the milk are barely paying farmers anything anymore. For some farms it's not even enough to keep the dairy going.

We can stay here for now, doing weekend work on the farm to pay for rent. The boss sounds keen to keep us here at the house and said that when the milk price goes back up we’ll be able to have our job back. But there are some big issues with this whole thing so I’m not sure what will happen next.

Dairy Farm Life || “If It’s Not Too Late” (click for video)

Say Something

I apologise for not blogging for over a month. A lot has happened in those four weeks.

 

Sparkie and me went with some friends to the Dog Lover’s Show in Melbourne on May 1. It was by far the biggest event we’ve ever been to, but Sparkie was so incredible even around thousands of people and dogs. She got to ride a tram for the first time too and was just so calm and focused the entire outing.

 

On the 6th, we moved into the new house. Ten days later my dad started working on the farm. The following day, the 17th, I woke at 7am to Sparkie throwing up. I took her outside, where she went to the toilet and then I brought her back inside. I got about another hour of sleep before Sparkie started shivering. I took her outside and she vomited again, and then the diarrhea started. She refused her breakfast. She drank some water only to throw it straight back up. Dad had the car at work fifteen minutes away, and as usual he didn’t get home until around 1pm.

We got Sparkie to the vet around 3pm. She was still fairly alert, although tired. Over the next week there was a rollercoaster of good news and bad news. The diagnosis went from gastro, to very bad gastro, to pancreatitis, to pancreatitis/colitis, and when Sparkie continued to go downhill, further tests revealed a mass inside her stomach. They operated on Friday morning, but the mass couldn’t be removed due to its position. They took samples and sent them off to be tested.

 

After the surgery though, Sparkie improved, so much so that they allowed her to come home yesterday. She’s wanting to play already, although as soon as she gets out of bed she seems to remember she’s still recovering. She’s still on antibiotics and pain medication and a bland diet, but she is doing better. We’re still awaiting the results of the test.

Unfortunately with Sparkie out of action we’ve had to cancel our planned trip to Sydney next week.

 

On the bright side though, Freya got her first day of freedom yesterday since she broke her leg on March 11. So much fun to watch! Her leg has completely healed so she no longer has to stay on lead while the other dogs run.

Ignorance

On Tuesday next week, all the cows will be sold. The (probably) last group of little calves were taken away last Tuesday. This morning our older calves, including the ones we trained, went to another farm.

 

We’ve been on this farm for seven months, which is the longest time we’ve spent in one place in eight years, and the longest time we’ve spent in one place in Australia ever. And for the first time in all our travels, I am not actually eager to leave. I’ve tamed three cows while we were here. They were all wild when we arrived but I eventually could pat these three, and feed them grass from my hand. But one by one, they’re being sold and I’m saying goodbye. I only have one left now, “Coconut Twist,” a tall mostly white cow with sawn off horns. And within a week, I’ll be losing her too.

 

And then there’s the twenty calves we raised from wobbly newborns to now, shiny fatties nearly chest high. They trust people so much. We still regularly haltered our four special ones and walk them around the property to eat green grass. This morning they all went to a different farm. Seeing my pretty, fluffy Alianovna leave after raising her for six months was so, so sad.

Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned here, is that cows are not stupid. Society is ignorant. Calling someone a cow infers that they are fat, stupid, ugly. But the truth is cows are none of those things. Fat, maybe, at least the pregnant ones are, but they are definitely not ugly, or stupid. Of course, as with any species there will be exceptions, but cows in general are beautiful, intelligent animals. They have friends within the herd. They get upset when they’re alone. They can learn tricks, commands, behaviours. They have spots they love to be scratched in – under the jaw, on the neck, Alianovna even enjoyed her front legs being brushed. They have their own likes and dislikes, attitudes, reactions. And I love them.

If I could have brought Alianovna, I would. But she was not for sale, and if she was, she’d cost nearly $1000 right now, and as long as she remains healthy, the cost will continue to rise the bigger she gets, until she hits the tipping point to older cow and then it drops again. And hay also costs so much and is hard to get your hands on because everyone needs it.

 

The good news though is that we have another job lined up already, on a dairy farm only about 20 minutes from where we are now. We’ll start moving our stuff out there soon, at which time I’ll get better photos that aren’t taken through a smudgy window.

 

Meanwhile, on April 6, Skuggi had his first puppy school class. And it was a disaster. Skuggi completely shut down for the whole hour, refused treats, hid his face and peed all over the floor when another puppy approached him. He didn't want people contact either, only to be held by me and pretend he did not exist.

The video below, and the photo on the left, was taken just after class 3. He'd spent the class observing everything, he took treats, wagged his tail nearly the entire time, demonstrated his obedience for the class, and jumped excitedly all over the instructor. He also kept trying to shove his nose into the pocket of the lady sitting next to us to steal treats lol

I could not be more proud of my boy.

Puppy School With Skuggi (link to video)

Moving Right Along

Originally posted at www.herodogsblog.tumblr.com on 24 March, 2016.

Yesterday afternoon the boss called to say that the farm has finally been sold. We have just four weeks until we have to move back into the bus again.

It will be hard to leave. For six months we’ve worked here, taming cows, raising calves. I will miss my trained calf Alianovna, who I haven’t had time to walk since I got Skuggi and has now outgrown the halter I brought her for Christmas anyway (it was too big for her then!). I’ll miss the tamed milking cows Coconut Twist and One Fifty (AKA Dufflepud). I’ll miss having calves suck on top of my gumboots, miss the cows grabbing hay and grass from my hand with their ridiculously long tongues, miss riding the motorbike, morning walks to the mailbox, the dawn sky on fire. I’ll miss so much about living here.

But at the same time it’s been difficult. It’s calving season, and every day is a struggle. Broken bones, blood soaked into floorboards, dead eyes, tiny broken bodies. Every time a cow goes into labour there’s a 50/50 chance of something going wrong.

We pulled out a calf one night in the pouring rain, a big gold boy. Despite the downpour I still worked up a sweat under my rain jacket. He never took a breath. His mother lay exhausted on the concrete, oblivious to the loss of her baby, and I grieved for her.

Less than twenty-four hours later it was one hour of tension as a heifer took her time calving. Right about the time I thought it was going to be another loss, she got serious and within a few minutes, a wet bundle slid out into the windy world, wriggling and sneezing. It was a beautiful sight.

Dairy farming is both horror and happiness, grief and gratitude, separated only by the space of a second.

And at the end of the day, it will be both relief and regret I feel as we move on.

Moved

If you're interested in our adventures, go check out my new blog at www.herodogs.tumblr.com. Unfortunately due to poor internet connection I'm not able to upload my blogs to Blogspot without a whole lot of frustration. :(

I may return to this blog at some point, but for now all updates will be over at Tumblr.

Shadow

Not a whole lot has been happening lately. The farm has been for sale since we got here, as are all the cows, and despite a few people coming to look at it nobody's really been interested. The internet is still awful so it's taken me ages to get this post published, even with only one photo.

 

 

On February 3, we picked up Killarah Shadowed Hero (aka Skuggi, pronounced “skoogee” which is Icelandic for shadow) from the airport. He’s a purebred Koolie from a breeder in NSW and he’s now twelve weeks old. Hopefully when he is older he’ll be able to take over Sparkie’s service dog jobs as she retires.

 

 

We still have no grass here. Hopefully once summer ends we’ll finally get some proper rain. The cows are looking pretty skinny now and the boss can’t afford to give them any more hay than what we’re already giving them because the milk processers aren't paying enough for the milk. The calves though are looking fat and shiny, despite only getting grain and hay.

 

We’re less than two weeks out from the start of calving so things are about to get really busy.

Desert

By this day in 2015, this area had gotten just over 60mm of rain. So far this year we have only had 0.2mm. The grass is dying, brown and short. We’re feeding hay to all our stock because there’s literally nothing else for them to eat.

Photos on the left taken in September last year, photos on the right taken in December, in the same area.

 

We’ve started drying off cows in preparation for the next calving. The first calf is due on March 10. And within the next three weeks from then, there are over 100 others due. We’re still feeding milk to most of the calves that were born in Sept/Oct. A group of the oldest “milk mob” were weaned a few weeks ago. Today the three biggest from that group joined the “pizza mob” (calves from March calving last year) and were sent away to a place where they will get some better grass than what we have here.

 

So that’s my life right now. There’s something else that I didn’t mention, because he deserves his own blog post with a heap of photos, which I don’t have yet.