If your here for quilting leave now..........
It was a day of all days when you came into the world.............barely breathing when you were born but we got you going.......the adventures of your birth are here..........

first drink.............

first steps............

life in the garden in the early days.........

your favourite hang out right at the chookshed gate where you could score some milk and a pat..............

You met the cows............

And Curly Pops (the other special girl)

You slept on the lawn and looked adorable............

Life started to get busy and Charlotte joined you..........

And a pile of other babies..........
you were still the "golden child" even when you busted my foot.......

You don't always get special babies like Indy...........she was growing up to be a sook just like Curly Pops...........

But now your just a precious memory in my life..............
Indy got sick and had been given some medicine but just kept going down hill...........
Poddies are never as strong when they don't get colostrum from the cows............magic powers in mothers milks............

How cute am i.............can I come sew in the Chookshed............

I can climb up the step tooo........please let me in.........

and of course Indy spotted a bottle..........got a sip of milk and Charlotte was over in a flash to join in too..........they never forget mik.............

2 days ago I had my babies down pat............everyone was feeding well finally..........

But that afternoon 2 more babies came into the yard and last night another one..............

I got some pics last night.............Indy(7 weeks)on the left and Charlotte (3 weeks) on the right

very comfortable in the Agapanthus............

Louie and Neige (French for snow) (< 1week) with Indy in the garden

We got some visitors on Sunday when the calves arrived so and they named Neige and Louie.........

Neige is a huge lump of a calf..........he is only very young but huge bone structure.........

Charlotte, Buuurt (< 2-3 days) and Bell (2 weeks)

Buuurt (think of a new calfs sound) and Louie are very alike but Buurt has some brown on the edge of his mouth

Thankfully we have some extra hands helping with them at the moment as we have 8 lambs 2 of  which we are feeding milk and one of those still can't stand up properly.......

....between feeding calves and checking dams morning and night life is busy here  morning and night.......

Holidays.........definietly NOT.........still haven't got to the bookwork or sewing.........but things have been hectic here..........so pleased to see the end of 2013 now I just need the end of the drought.........FIL is out of action again and looks like it will be for awhile....thank goodness Boy Wonder is around in school holidays as he has been working fulltime with Mr Chooky......feel bad about that but there is no other option..........

&&&

So much has happened in the last week........lost a cow.............not sure what was wrong with her.........so now we have a 3rd calf........under a week old when we got her last Saturday.........introducing "Bell" as chosen by a friend............thinking old fashioned, sweet and cute but that night she bellowed............and bellowed........until lights were out and as soon as it was daylight she bellowed some more.............but she is the perfect poddy now.........she is very well behaved like Indy..........quite, lovely nature etc

Miss Charlotte on the other hand should have been a cheeky naughty name..........Charlotte is too sweet a name for her.............she is loud...........licks and slobbered everything and will nibble if she gets a chance - ouch..........she is pushy and strong willed..............

Here she is with Indy........Charlotte at the front........Indy relaxed on the path...........

they are still living in the garden along with 4 lambs but we have put  a couple of barriers up so  that contains them as the lambs are feral and run away instead of coming to the water etc...........

one of my absolute favourite foods at Christmas is toast with ham and then balsamic soaked tomato  and onion...........the longer they have been soaking the better..........it is something we have every year for breaky with the neighbors..............

watering has been cut back in the house yard so 2 lawns areas have died...........

a favourite spot for the calves is between a Cecile Brunner rose and a duranta...........

Bell having a rest.............

I was on the back of the ute emptying the feeder the other day and snapped these pics...............sheep coming into the ute............

trying to get to the front of the feed line...............

water is keeping us busy.............checking for bogged sheep and that the troughs have water is a constant job............

43 deg here today awful weather but not as bad as some placces...........45 or 46 is forecast here tomorrow............OUCH........and i have visitors coming - that will be interesting.........

Anyway off to bed.............

Catch you later

Chookyblue

Indy is going so well...........she is a delight to have...........she is still in the garden............not sure how long that will last.......AS we now have 2 babies...........yesterday another one came home from the inlaws.............I tried to get a pic of them together but Indy wanted to say hi and walked up to me...........

Meet Charlotte..............Charlotte is noisy...........she bellows.............Indy rarely bellows and not so loud.........Charlotte was found down the paddock............very skinny........no mother around..........not sure if she was left by a poor drought mother or if she is a twin.......

She's a little flighty but I have given her one pat..........

We also have a bundle of cute black babies being delivered out in the paddocks here............they are so cute...........will try and get a photo...........

The other afternoon late I took Indy out for a walk to meet the cows...............at the moment she is still living in the garden but not sure how much longer that will last.......but she is doing less damage then the roos so that is ok..............

She is so cute............she wanders around the garden with me when I put hoses on and doing my jobs.....it's not a good idea to take her to the cloths line though as she slobbers on the sheets.......But I only need to walk out and call her name and she comes straight to me......

Occasionally she tries to nibble my legs etc......she rarely moos.......which is good because sometimes if pets are close they would wake you up and drive me nuts..........

I called the cows over..........hungry cows always come when you call them incase you have some food for them.............

these girls are all pregnant hence the big fat bellies.............shouldn't be too far off calving......

and they were very inquisitive of Indy............

Indy was really funny.......she was scared of them............she'd stand still for a bit then run away....I'd call her back over and then she would get a little brave again......she's just about to take off again in this photo........

Finally Curly Pops came over.............

I gave Curly Pops a big pat............and it was fun because I patted her tummy a little harder and someone inside hit back.............her 3rd baby is well on the way............

This is as close as they got............

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST BUT STICK WITH ME I HAVE LOTS TO SHARE
OK so todays list of jobs.................

1. bookwork

2.  finish my SSCS parcel
simple right.........
I FORGOT NOTHING IS EVER SIMPLE HERE!!!!!

Mr Chooky was going to do a job he didn't want to do at another property (couple hours tops) then back home to feed sheep.......so feeling guilty I said yes I would go help..........
I had a funny feeling the day was going to be delayed but had no idea to what extent..............
a couple of hours turned into 10hrs!!!!!!
Anyway when we got to the other property I said we should check the big dam out the back as the water is getting low........
On the way out checking the cows I got Mr Chooky to stop so I could jump out of the car and get this pic of a goanna...........different type to the one I had in my garden the other day.............
he's much bigger all round.............

Here he is up the tree...........Goanna's get frightened and they head for the nearest tree........
he was making a funny sound a huffing sound he was not happy with me taking his pic but obliged by staying in the one spot in the tree for a great shot...........
this sort have a fat tummy.......

We got out to the big dam and this guy was down having a drink so I got Mr Chooky to drive around the other side and I went hunting for him in the nearest tree...........
Again another type of Goanna.....think army camo gear here/ blotchy.....funny angle of the pic but you get to see him pretty well.............

Here's the dam.........very bad news here we have to move the stock out of this paddock ASAP it is buggered............silty and going green with a dead animal who got stuck in the mud on the other side too.........we don't want to lose cows in this dam.....we will have to desilt it ASAP...........3-4 days on  tractors probably..............I have a post to show you of desilting so you will know what I am talking about once I get it up on the blog.............

we went to check some more cattle as we will have to sell some and also checking the troughs and found a cow down calving..............
we walked her up towards the house a bit and left her..............went and did the job we needed to do...............then went back and checked her..............no progress.............we had absolutely nothing with us so we had to go home and get a bike and ropes and the calf puller and the gun (if all else failed)
by this time it was well after lunch............back out to the property we go......
I said to Mr Chooky so whats the plan..............he said I don't have one...........we couldn't get her to any cattle yards so we had to catch her in the paddock and tie her to the ute and get more ropes on her and try to contain her to pull the calf..............
this is the first time we got her............Mr Chooky gave me a serve right about now for taking pics instead of helping him - not that I knew what I was supposed to be doing!!!!!
We had her tied up more then this then she escaped............bugger......

This is the second time we caught her and she didn't escape this time...........Mr Chooky was trying to put the chains on the calves feet..........the calf was breech.........yee gods poor mother................
See the rope around her neck.............the previous time we caught her I had been pulling on that rope...........stupid thing is a hemp rope and I got what feels like a million fine splinters (3-5mm long) in my hands from it........my hands felt like they were burning.......I found some gloves for later......I pulled out about 20 of the splinters .....then later I dug out about 20 from each hand.....definitely no stitching for me tonight........the only needle I will be using will be to dig more splinters out.........
the rope going to the front of the pic was me pulling keeping her tight.......so she didn't escape again...........

the  she went down.........exhausted.........was easier to work on her then...........the calf was not an easy pull at all........real struggle....she would have died calving for sure as there is no way she would have pushed it out......the pic below is just after we got the calf out.............I had been right where the goo was coming out at the rear end..............Mr Chooky would have KILLED me if I pulled the camera out then when the calf was part way out as we were having such a struggle...........I didn't have a free hand either....
but there was no time to worry about the cow.............we had to get some life into the calf..............I thought it was dead then I saw the slightest movement..............so some gut pumping to clear the lungs and then we had it hanging off the back of the ute to drain it's airways.....clearing it's mouth out..........it wasn't looking good at this stage............but I wasn't doing mouth to mouth I can assure you............

finally she came to life much better.............we let Mum go and got out of the way............
Mum wasn't to interested in hanging around and we had to keep pushing her back to the calf..........who was sitting up but not up on her feet and not mooing for mum...........
Mum would stand there for a bit then leave again.............we would turn her back same thing happen again.......she was not cleaning her baby up at all........we waited with them for quite some time.....keeping Mum there................
in the end a storm was coming in and it was getting late and we had to make a decision..........the calf had still not got up on her feet.......Mum still not interested..........we could have a definite win win keep both alive if we take the calf home as a poddy...........if we lived there and could have shut her in a yard for the night and hope the calf gets up and "mothers up".........maybe we could have done that but that was not possible......

So into the back of the ute she went......dust was blowing and some lightning was hitting down..............we got a few spots as we were leaving but I think that was all we got.......
I got back home just as the storm hit here - dust blowing around pretty windy and then a couple of spots and all gone..........lasted about 2 mins..........
So here she is tonight having her first drink...........
she's a mess with all the afterbirth not cleaned up and the dirt stuck all over her.................

And now standing for the first time.........we had to drag her up onto her feet but she did stay standing on her own at times..........I rubbed her up a bit to try and clean her up a bit.....

and her she is in the garden tonight.............cute isn't she.........after all the effort I am so pleased we had a live calf.........i'm feeling confident about her....and the cow is alive she'll get sold from us but she didn't die calving......i'll have to give the calf some standing workouts tomorrow......her back legs are a bit dodgy but that's probably from pulling her out and they will feel a bit better tomorrow................