Attingham Park

Since I've been to Attingham Park three times in the last week I thought I better write about it!
As with all National Trust properties it's a beautiful place and has a mixed history. Attingham as a property has seen a lot. The man who commisioned to have it built died before it was completed so it was passed to his son when it was finished. The son however changed the design of the house and had more work done. He furnished it extravagantly and lived beyond his means until he was forced to flee to Italy to evade his creditors. 
Furniture and fittings were sold and the building left largely abandoned for many years until, in the 1920s, Lord and Lady Berwick moved in and tried to restore some dignity to the place. The trust took over the building around the 1980s and have been restoring the building and adding to the collections since. 

The trust is also restoring the gardens and greenhouses. The gardens are always my favourite part of any property tat we visit and at this time of year I like to see the volunteers planting out the new seedling and also seeing the early flowers coming into bloom.

 
  At the moment in the gardens they have a focus on what it would have been like during the war. They have a pen of chickens on one of the vege plots and this cute sign to show you that, during war years, chickens were enlisted too! These chooks were super friendly too and wandered over to the mesh to eyeball us and see if we were going to feed them. 

 Every large garden should have a cat to keep the rats and mice down. This curious fella followed me and Dad through the green houses and out to the gate. I think perhaps he too was hoping we might give him some breakfast.

While I'm on the subject of animals I should mention one of my favourite reasons for visiting Attingham is the deer herd. They have so many that it's really quite a sight the first time you see them. I'm not sure on the trusts breeding policy but since it's spring I'm hoping I might see some fawns soon at the feet of the does. 

 
 For now though I am content just to see the hinds and the stags with their large antlers. They really are a beautiful creature.

Attingham is also a farm and has a few different herds of cows and sheep that graze the outer pastures. Today we saw this gorgeous little bull calf out the back of the property with his mother. I have a thing for cows, espeicially speckled ones .

 Not content with pets and farm animals, Attingham is also a haven for wildlife. Squirrels, rabbits and pheasants all call the fields and woods their home as well as wood peckers, crows and hares. There is even a pair of swans nesting in the reeds this year.

I really enjoy going to Attingham as there is always something new to see in the garden and there are so many animals to watch. If you are ever in the Shropshire area you should really give it a visit.
 

Cash From Crap and Curious Kids

Argh where have I been? I would like to say that I've been off on some wild adventures that have left me no time for the comp but no such luck. The truth is that with work picking up I have been averaging about 15km a day behind the mower and by the time I home, get clean and get fed I'm so brain dead that I just do things that don't require a lot of thinking like crochet, colouring in or simply staring at the tele.
Today was just too interesting not to write about though and I actually had my camera with me so got some good pics. We were up at 7am again this morning (on a Saturday! It's a crime) because today was the day of our combined garage sale with a few of the other people from the village.

I was actually quite surprised at the amount of people who came out to see what we had. People were already waiting at the door when we opened up and there was a pretty constant flow until 10am. By then we were totally frozen through and rather over it, sitting in the cold isn't much fun with out customers so by 10.30 we started to pack up and cleared out. I kept an eye on the hall after we got home and only two cars showed up after we left so we didn't miss many customers.

 We made about $60 which I was pretty pleased with considering we were selling just crap. I have a terrible sense of what people want though it would seem. Things that I thought would be snapped up were totally ignored and other items that I thought were a waste of time carrying over were sold really quick. Who knew CDs were still popular? I took over a stack of mine that have been sitting in a draw for years thinking I would be bringing them all back and almost all of them sold, they weren't even good artists.

Some old comp speakers, a box of coffee jars, a CD player/radio clock, a breadmaker and a bunch of plates all of which I thought would be better in the trash managed to sell. It's amazing what people will buy.

 After the garage sale we went to my Uncles to drop off some pig scraps and while we were there I heard a strange but cute bleating noise from one of the sheds so went to investigate and look what I found! He has recently aquired about two dozen goat kids and they are adorable!

The chooks seem to think they are pretty neat too and spend a lot of their time with them, helping them drink their milk and eat their grain.

 They are cheeky little things and very curious. They all wanted to have a nibble at my camera strap, gumboots or jeans so needless to say I came away rather slobbery but happy.

Tongue out cuteness!

 For some reason this little chap was the only one with floppy ears! As a bonus he stuck his tongue out at me too! Cuteness overload or what?

 This cheeky bugger was trying to eat my hair while I was trying to get a close up of the others. He even climbed onto my knee to get a better chomp.

By the end I was totally surrounded, I had three chomping on my camera strap, one chewing my hair, another trying to climb onto my back and another sticking it's head in my gumboot! It was totally worth the mooch and I rather felt like I had stumbled across a free petting zoo. Great day.

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?

Taranaki Touring. Part 1

I apologise if it seems like I wandered off for awhile because, well, I did...
The interesting thing about being a house sitter is that you never really know when the jobs will come in. Sometimes I seem to get multiple requests just when it's highly inconvenient  and other times the requests arrive just when I'm waiting a break and are really quite welcome. They can be a blessing or a burden depending on the circumstances. The last job I did was a real blessing, my cousin wanted me to look after her farm while her and her family went away. She lives in a rural area about 2 hours drive from where I live and about 1 hour away from New Plymouth which is a town that I was planning to explore with Dad.
The entire area around where she lives is very scenic so it was really a gift for me and Dad to be able to stay there and have not only free accommodation but get paid to stay. We did of course have to look after her animals which included a house dog (an elderly terrier), 3 chickens, 2 pigs, a cat and 8 farm dogs which may sound a lot but only took an hour or so to care for morning and night.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. On the Thursday we traveled up in a very leisurely manner. We were taking the coast road so we stopped at all the beaches along the way and found things of interest at every one. At the first beach we stopped at there is a bit of a camp ground and some of the people who were staying there had apparently had a party on the beach the night before. They had set up a wind break and benches out of drift wood and had themselves a large bonfire. When we arrived the ashes were still warm so being the pyromaniacs that we are we wanted to see if we could get it going again. I found some beach tumble weeds ( I have no idea of the proper name, they are some sort of seed from the sea grasses I think and when its windy they roll along the beach like mini tumbleweeds. Turns out they make good tinder) and Dad got some small sticks which we stacked onto the warm ashes and then we wandered off along the beach. On our way back we saw someone else adding sticks to the fire before scuttling off down the beach so we reclaimed our space and built up the flames until we had some big logs on there. The people we had seen adding sticks then came back to join us and had a chat with us while they enjoyed the heat from our fire. It was all very impromptu but that always makes the best memories.
 

The next stop along the way was a beach which I knew sometimes had seals and I was really hoping there would be one there. I was in luck! I always forget how much they smell though, like some sort of mix between old wet dog and stinky fish and ocean. The one we saw was alone and somewhat nervous so although we got close enough to take pictures it wasn't too keen on us being around and headed down the cliff and out to sea not long after we had moved away.

 Up next was a beach that had a super cool old sea wall that we just had to walk along even if the tide was coming in and making it look a little dodgy. It was perfectly fine of course and we didn't even get splashed by the waves. There was also a ship wreck washed up on the beach that we had a mooch around and through. A few years ago when my sister visited we went to the same ship wreck and as she stood in front of it for me to take a photo a huge wave came over and splashed her! It was hilarious at the time and so we couldn't resist going over to it to take photos again but we did make sure the waves were breaking further out first.

The final beach on our tour had lots of rocks which made a great rock hopping course. Even at 71 Dad is still a keen rock hopper and he even made it to the ocean edge before me. Although I did get a little distracted looking in the rock pools for awhile. I didn't see much life except a few little quick darting fish but I did find a rubber end to a milking machine which will make a good dog toy.

Well that's pretty much it for our first day of traveling. From the last beach we headed straight on to my cousins farm, arriving about 5pm and the family at about 6pm after showing me around and telling what needed doing while they were away. We settled our selves in and since it had been a long day we turned in early to prepare for the next day of adventure.
Look out for part two which I'll be posting soon.

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!  

Not Your Normal Work Day

Tuesday was take the dog to work day! I had decided over the weekend that there was little else I could do in Troy's garden to improve matters without first weed spraying all the bricks and paths. I always figure that it doesn't matter how good the flowers look if the path to them is a mess. So first thing Tuesday morning I went round, loaded Rush onto the ute so that he was out the way and soaked that place with a good strong solution of weed killer. 

 

Now anyone with any sense should realise that poison and pets aren't a great mix but the general consensus around here is that so long as pets are away from the area for two hours or so and don't eat the plant material they should be fine. Hence why Rush came to work for the day! I had to have him tied up for most of the day but he was attached to a 3 metre long rope which meant he still had a bit of freedom and I let him off when I could.

It's really quite liberating having a job that is so flexible and although it wouldn't be ideal taking Rush to work with us everyday it seemed to go better than I hoped. He got a bit of exercise, got to meet a few people and sniff his way around the lawns we were doing so I think he enjoyed himself and I even took him to the river for a swim at lunchtime.

Before we dropped him home I bought him a huge bone from the local pet shop as a blatant distraction in the hopes that he won't feel the need to chew the foliage in his garden and it also counted as his wages for his first honest days work!

 

When we got home there was a message to say that our home kill sausages and pork joints were ready so we jumped back in the truck to collect it. Along the way a bumblebee managed to kamikaze it's way into the ute and onto Mum's lap which wouldn't be a big deal apart from the fact that she is deathly afraid of them and was operating a 2 tonne vehicle at the time. Luckily it didn't sting her on impact or I think we would have ended up in the ditch. I froze in horror for a moment trying to decide whether to rid mum of the bee or make a grab for the steering wheel but Mum seemed to be staying on course so I grabbed a cloth, scooped up the bee and shook it clear outside the window. Terror over (or so we thought) we continued on our way.

Just as we turned into the village where the butcher lives Mum gave a squeal and stopped the truck in the middle of the road. Again, luckily, we were on a quiet country lane. Turns out the stinger from the bee had been on her neck and as we turned it stung her. I dived out and ran around to her side of the ute and on the door where she had flicked it was the bum end of the bee (which is disgusting, just so you know) I searched her shoulder and top to make sure there wasn't a second bee and then made her get out so I could check the seat and floor and get rid of the bum end. Mum was in half panic at this point because as a kid she somehow got a bumble bee trapped in her armpit and it stung her repeatedly so she was waiting for the extra stings.

Once back in the truck I delved into our first aid kit (the glove box) and used the witch hazel spray on her neck. It doesn't really do much but it's cooling and it helps mentally.

After that we were finally able to go see the butcher and collect our small order of 80 kgs of meat! We now have two chest freezers full to the brim with sausages, pork patties, pork roasts and various other cuts. It's all amazing for the first month or so but soon enough I'll be desperate for some beef or chicken or lamb or anything that's not pork!

By the time I got back to the Waites and sorted all the animals I could hardly be bothered to feed myself. As I wandered through the garden I picked an asparagus shoot for my starter followed by a cob of corn for my main and then I grabbed an apple off the tree for dessert. This really is my favourite time of year and there's something special about being able to forage your dinner, even if it is only from a well tended veg bed. 

 

Meep! Sheep!

It's high time I introduced you to my favourite pets, my sheep! They are also my only pets but that's just a technicality. Our current mob are all between four and six years old and are very friendly. They like to be petted and when at home they follow us around hoping for treats. Jack is our only boy and my personal fav as he is such a fuss bucket. He likes to lean against my leg so that I can scratch the top of his head and if I stop too soon he chews on my tshirt to remind me to carry on! He's a cheeky chap but amazingly gentle considering he weighs more than I do. 

 

Monday was sunny and hot so in the evening so we went to check on the flock of 5 pet sheep who are currently grazing in a neighbours orchard and since we have had so little grass growth we took them some hay and apples as a treat. I was leaning on the fence enjoying the antics of the chooks who were running in and out under the noses of the sheep to try and get some apples when Ruffles came up towards me and did a graceful little pirouette. I couldn't help snort a laugh at her but realised as soon as I laughed that dancing sheep mean trouble. 

 

I called Mum over and we both watched her for a few minutes, she was wagging her bum around and licking her lips and side stepping her back legs which would be hilarious to watch if we didn't know that it usually means fly strike. So we raced home for some supplies and were back in the orchard within 5 minutes with some more apples to coax them over. I'm the official sheep holder and Mum does the doctoring just because having kids makes her less squeamish and means she has more experience when it comes to patching things up and I'm younger and better on my feet so firstly I'm less likely to fall and secondly, if I do, I should heal quicker.

Once everyone was distracted munching on apples I, rather unceremoniously, grabbed Ruffles by the leg and then got her head into a lock between my knees. It's not very dignified for anyone involved but it's the easiest way for me to control her without hurting her. She's not particularly bothered by the whole idea either since she's gotten used to it over the years. In fact she's so relaxed about it that while Mum prepped her gear Ruffles happily nibbled on tit bits of apple from my pocket.

Treating fly strike isn't a fun job but luckily we had caught it early and we have a magic liquid that you pour into the wool and all the maggots just up and leave on their own accord. It's hideously fascinating to watch and very satisfying to see your pet so instantly free of such horrible pests, if only they had something similar for fleas. Once the procedure was done we reassured everyone with lots of ear tickles and bum scratches and of course they obliged me by posing for some photos. I'm always pleased when they still like us after we have to do something unpleasant to them and I like to think that they know we are only doing it to help them. After all sheep are so easily frightened and once the fear grips them it takes ages to calm them down, perhaps it just goes to show how much time we put into them as lambs has desensitised them to us and our weird ways. 

 

A Bit Of A Freak Storm

So Today Was Odd...

It started out well enough, a little cloudy and some light drizzle which cleared up quick enough to not be too much of a nuisance. I did some chores in town in the morning then returned to the Waites for lunch. I was over ambitious in my estimation of how hungry I was though and made enough for two which I nevertheless ate by myself anyway even if it did take me an hour.

At 12.30 a creepily sudden wind started up like I was in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie with trees creaking and branches snapping and leaves flying through the air. The sun disappeared and dark clouds rolled in. And then the rain came and it poured! I was getting pretty freaked out listening to the house groan so I abandoned ship and headed into town to spend a little time at the library which I hoped would be quieter. I was there for about 2 hours and when I emerged it was brilliant blue skies all round, bright and sunny like an innocent child’s smile after a temper tantrum. It really was bizarre.

I headed back out the farm and wandered through the gardens inspecting the damage. A few large branches had come down but luckily not anywhere too inconvenient. Multitudes of small branches, twigs and leaves litter the lawn and a fair amount of fruit had been sacrificed too. 

 

Inexplicably there was also a bucket in the vegetable garden, I've got no idea where it came from but I put it to use collecting the fallen fruit. I'm actually not much of a fan of fruit and I knew I would never be able to eat a whole bucket load so I treated Mother and threw it over the fence into her paddock. Turns out cows like oranges, who knew.. 

 

As ever Mother cow wasn't keen to share even with her own calf who came over to have a look. Although after a third orange, which I assume was horrendously sour because she started to drool and didn't seem so keen to take a fourth, she allowed the calf in for a look. Little baby cow is only young yet so whole fruit aren't really manageable for her but she did eat the leaves off one of the apples and seemed happy with that. I stood talking to them for a few minutes, taking a few pics and then left them to it. It remains to be seen if they finish the fruit.