Day 13 - Fantasy Land

I've been having a bit of a hard time lately finding things to write about as I find winter a bit of a miserable time and I don't want to fill this space with negative thoughts. The other day at work though my imagination ran away with me and I planned out a whole future career idea for myself so I'll write a bit about that instead. I apologise in advance if I goon too long. My fantasy lives interest me far more than my real one!

So my idea was to start a petting zoo! Wanganui doesn't currently have one and I always find this strange since the people here love animals and I know quite a few people who have crazy little collections. Perhaps they just don't want to share them. I personally dislike children so a petting zoo is perhaps an bad idea for me too since the majority of the custom would be people with children. I think I could perhaps tolerate them though if they were there to appreciate my animals.
So what would I have?
Sheep of course. Llamas/Alpacas (even though they scare me), goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea pigs, cows, donkeys, lizards etc etc etc

I even planned out admission fees and money making ventures. I thought entry should be cheap, $5 for an adult $2 for a child. That way on the brochure it would look really enticing with lots of bang for your buck. The catch of course would be to offer loads of pay for extras that the kids would pester their parents to pay for. Pony rides for $2. Little bags of pellets for feeding the animals $1. Pig races, where the kids and parents can both be involved $2 for a ticket, choose which pig you think will win and if you're correct you win a bag of lollies to share.

Another idea I had was lamb feeding of course. I think this would have to be free though and just a first in first serve basis, 4 feeds a day and what ever lambs I can scrounge from neighbouring farmers. I could offer to raise them as a free service and then return them to them afterwards. Win win for both parties as the farmers get a hassle free orphan at no expense and I would get a good supply of adorable babies to draw in the punters without having a surplus of adult sheep that aren't required.
There would have to be a few adult sheep kept around though. I reckon I could harness train a few and put them in front of a little carriage. $5 a ride for two kids or one kid and one adult. It would have to be a minimum of 2 sheep pulling the cart but 4 all harnessed up would look impressive.
The milk from the lambs could be sourced from the cows. After all most dairy breeds produce far too much for just one calf so in theory I could have lambs and a calf all being supplied by one cow. Milking could be another demonstration for the public or perhaps even another pay to have a go at thing.

There would be set times for holding rabbit and guinea pigs in a controlled area. A comfy chair to set the kid in with a towel on it's knee and then add the animals. Safe for the rodents and no mess for the humans. In theory!
I would love a reptile room too with large tanks containing whatever types of lizards or snakes that are permitted in this country and special handling times for these too. Also feeding times at some point during the day as an extra little event for the customers.

I would also love for it to have a large herb and vegetable garden for people to wander around and show their kids how things grow. There would be lots of little signs to say what things are and how long they take to grow.
There would of course have to be a cafe and shop. I thought it would be cool to sell produce from the animals and garden. Fresh grown fruit and veg could be used in the cafe or sold fresh. Eggs from the chickens and ducks could be sold. Wollen clothing items made from the sheep or alpaca fleece. Honey from local bees. Herbs from the garden could be sold dried, fresh or even in beauty products. Perhaps even milk from the cows.

I would love to have a lake for the ducks and geese. Preferably with fish in so that people can feed those too. Paddle boats could be hired. In my mind there would be a grass verge on one side for people to picnic on leading down to a pier where they could look into the water and feed the fish or climb onto the boats. The rest of the lake would have a forest edge with a walking track through it and at some point a tree tower that can be climbed to get a good view over the park.
So what do you think? Am I nuts or am I onto something? All I gotta do now is find a million odd dollars to set the place up and I'll be away!

Day 11 - My Weekend

I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking for this post. I was housesitting at the weekend on a lifestyle block. It sure makes me wish I had my own 5 to 10 acres! I will one day.
They had about a dozen chooks all of different breeds that produce a pretty array of different size an coloured eggs.

These boys were the loudest of my charges and you sure knew about it if you were late for a feed. They were rather pretty though so it was easy to forgive them.

There were two dogs, total opposites of each other. This is Jake who was very forward, loving and wanted to be involved with everything. The other dog was a collie called Star who was very shy and scared. You can just make out her legs on the far right as she heads away from the camera. Jake though sat like this for 5 minutes straight patiently waiting for me to take his picture.

There were 4 cats, all of whom worshiped the heater. two were very shy and one was my total shadow whilst in the house. It liked to sit near me when I watched tele and help me out in the kitchen when I was prepping the lambs milk.

One last picture. I just couldn't resist a quick pic of these cabbages. Most of these pics were rather hurried as the weather was so terrible this weekend I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet. I hope you enjoyed my visual account of my weekend.
Did you do anything exciting this weekend? Or did you take any great pictures?

The Bitch Can Bake

Life has been pretty slow around here lately. The grass is barely growing and the weather has been pretty terrible so work is patchy at best. This week I have managed to do 2 hours in two days so far. I am also house sitting in the evenings though which is lucky for my bank account but not quite a substitute for a real pay check.

The upside to lack of work though that I have energy to burn around the house and at the moment my new little fad seems to be baking. I've done sugar cookies, dog biscuits and cupcakes in the last 2 weeks as well as getting a bit more adventurous about making dinner.

What I really want to write about though is a new experimental recipe that I've been playing with. In my head I like to call it Lembas after the elven bread in the Lord of the Rings but I think Traveller's Biscuit is perhaps more accurate and lowers expectations!

The weird part in all this (if it wasn't weird enough that I try to bake fictional food) is that the idea originally came to me from making food for a dog. The dog biscuit recipe I have is so simple and lends itself so well to adaptations that I wondered if it could be made palatable for people. Turns out it can! Well palatable to me and Mum but we aren't fussy eaters.

Anyway! My plan was born from laziness really as I have been doing a lot of house sitting lately and I hate having to cook in kitchens I don't know, also it seems like a lot of effort for one person. So I decided I would make a meal in a biscuit, a 'complete and balanced diet' to keep me fuelled while I was away with minimum effort. Ta dah my travelling biscuits were born!

The basis of the recipe is oats and flour which I could say are my carbs, eggs and chorizo for protein. Carrot, leek and parsley for fibre and vitamins. Beef stock for flavour and salt and cheese for fat. Pretty well rounded huh.

Of course all the fresh ingredients can be swapped in or out or added to. The amounts change depending on what I have in the fridge at the time or what I fancy. My ultimate hope for these biscuits is that I can use them as exercise food, for long walks with the dog or perhaps even exploring by myself whether by foot or by car. They have a flexible consistency so don't crumb in the pocket and wouldn't break if accidentally sat on. They can last about a week with out needing to be in the fridge and taste alright hot or cold. They aren't a five star meal but they have everything necessary and if followed with a chocolate bar I reckon they could keep someone going all day. As a side bonus they are even safe for my furry friend if I feel he needs a snack.

So there you have it. The latest instalment of the weird things that I come with to fill time in the winter. What odd things do you do to while away the dark hours?

Clueless About Chickens

Being an animal lover and farming enthusiast I like to think that I'm quite well qualified for my part time job as a pet sitter. I'm even vet nurse trained, not that it amounts to much but it makes me look good on paper.
As kids me and my sister had rabbits, guinea pigs and gerbils as well as fish.  We started with cold water fish and progressed to tropical. We were even breeding guppies at one point, although not necessarily on purpose.
I've also owned rats, a goat, a cat, a hedgehog and two dogs (neither for much more than a year but long enough to fall in love). I've helped care for degus, bearded dragons, mice, pigs, horses, sheep and cows. I've worked with both beef and dairy cattle and even did a season of calf rearing.
The point I'm trying to make is that I have basic knowledge and experience with a good variety of domestic animals and I have owned or cared for almost all of the species commonly owned as pets. I have only one area of complete ignorance and that is birds.  Apart from a short term shared ownership of an elderly and vicious budgie that i was terrified of, I have very little idea about birds.  I've looked after peoples chickens of course but my knowledge is quite literally limited to the fact that you put grain in the coop and take eggs out.  

I don't know anything about when or what they need to lay eggs.  Is a rooster necessary? Why and when do they go clucky and how do you stop it? Do they sit on the nest all day and if so when do they eat? Nutritional requirements, health issues, breed differences, behavior and life span are all a mystery to me. 
I'm currently looking after 16 hens and a crabby rooster which is a bit of a worry considering how little I know. The hens are mostly very well behaved although it did take a week and a half for one of them to trust me enough to be in the coop at the same time as me.  Another sneaky girl started laying her eggs in a cupboard in the tool shed and it took me 9 days to find her nest which was looking rather full by then! I water tested the eggs and they all seem fine, she hadn't been sitting on them so I guess they were stored in a cool dark place.  

The rooster however is turning out to be a nuisance. For the first week he was great, he looked after his hens and left me alone. Then one day he decided to wage war and have a go at me which didn't go down well with me considering I'm not an uber fan of birds anyway and its always somewhat nerve wracking to have something attacking you in the vicinity of your ankles!  Especially when I was only wearing jandals and shorts, it felt like I had rather too much flesh exposed when there was a grumpy chicken flashing his talons around. 

Like a good nerd I went straight to google to see what I could do and it suggested following him around and picking him up if possible. I haven't managed to pick him up but I have found that if I extend my arms towards him he will walk away from me which is all cool until I turn my back on him and he rushes me again.  So we play a weird game of follow the rooster every night now until I can lock him in the coop at which point I then go and fetch the grain and return to feed the hens. I really quite resent him though as he has turned my pleasant evening task into an absolute chore. I really hate having to go and pit my wits again a damn bird every night especially since I do them no harm. Why can't he just be nice and eat the grain and follow his hens and pretend I don't exist like they do.

If anyone has any tips or hints or useful facts about chickens I'd very much like to hear them. Any ideas about how to cope with an errant rooster would also be much appreciated!