Here is Poppy. She is a Jack Russell Terrier. But I think she thinks she's a sheep dog.... or I should say a chicken dog.
The other afternoon we were all out in the yard. Robin was fixing the door on the chicken run and we had let the hens out to run around the garden for awhile. The children and I were in fits of laughter as we watched Poppy interacting with the hens. She was quite intrigued with them for awhile, and would cautiously approach them, and if they moved, she'd jump back. She's all bark that girl, but scared of the hens if they get too close. One of the more bolder hens (I think it was Betsy Trotwood, but we are still sorting out who is who, but if it was Betsy Trotwood then she fits her name perfectly, for it was a very Betsy Trotwood thing to do), got close enough to peck Poppy on the nose!
We are still waiting for the hens to lay eggs for us. I am starting to wonder if it has something to do with the water bowl I temporarily have for them. I stole it from Cricket (our black Lab) until I can get down to the store to get a proper water bowl for the hens. I'm really not trying to put them off laying.
But Poppy thinks she is a chicken dog. She spent the entire time trying to round them up. My camera is not the best, but I did get a few shots of her pathetic attempts.
Apparently her mother likes to round up people! Poppy is supposed to be a pure bred, but I'm starting to wonder.....
Our hens arrived three days ago. Today is the day that we should be letting them out, although we haven't got the fenced run up yet. We built this hen house all by ourselves - it was supposed to be a homeschooling project, and it started out that way, but when I got sick for 3 months (morning sickness), I had to get Robin to finish it off - and for someone who is not a natural handyman, he did a great job. Even Brad (our builder/math tutor) was impressed. We just have to put the ridge on the roof, and the perspex window in, and it's all done. Thankfully, Canterbury is not traditionally a rainy area!
Here is a picture of the nesting boxes inside.
The hens arrived in two cardboard boxes from the hatchery. Theodore was very brave and carried them over to the hen house - he didn't even squeel when one of the hens pecked his thumb.
Maybe I should have made it his job to care for the chickens. But Meredith (6) asked me (before they arrived) if it could be her job and I agreed, and now I have to teach her how not to be chicken about the chickens!
Here are our six hens just arrived in their new house. The one with the white feathery tail on the roost is named Dora. We haven't distinguished the others yet, but their names will be:
Betsy Trotwood - Peggotty - Agnes - Little Em'ly and Mrs. Macawber
I have asked two teachers - one old and one young which classic story those names are out of, and netiher could tell me.
And here is Poppy, enjoying the sunshine while we put the straw into the hen's house.
It is nearly 11pm at night and my dear husband is out searching for our 8 month old Jack Russel dog, Poppy.
We had our neighbourhood bonfire tonight, and she was having a lovely time going around and meeting everyone - the children just loved her. Then the fireworks began, so Robin shut Poppy and our other dog - the Labrador - Cricket up in the garage. All was going well until Cricket decided to go crazy jumping around, and somehow - I don't know how he managed to do it - jumped high enough up on the wall, right where the buttons are for opening the garage doors. And out they both came and Poppy must have bolted then.
Cricket ran straight up to the fireworks, so we were busy trying to get him back into the garage. Poppy is such a feisty little thing - she's not timid, so I'm hoping that she's just hiding under a hedge around here somewhere and will come back in the morning. The kids were praying some very sweet prayers tonight that she'll come back.
Our dog Cricket has his favourite hunting ground on a huge dirt mound out by the vege garden. It's left over from when we were building the house. The weeds have grown up all over it and it provides quite a good sort of wilderness area for dogs. Cricket spends a lot of his time digging and sniffing out something in the dirt pile. We're not sure what it is exactly. It will either be rabbits or mice. We suspect mice. He's really too slow to catch rabbits, though he tries hard, but he has been known to hunt out and chew mice .... while they're still wriggling. Just as good as a cat, really!
I took these pictures of him in the dirt mound over the weekend. He's dug this huge hole - he almost fits his entire body into it. He barks at Poppy (the Jack Russel terrier) whenever she snoops around hoping to get a piece of the action. He's very territorial with his 'dig', and he comes up filthy dirty and looking like a chocolate Lab instead of a black Lab. He makes us laugh. He's really great fun to have around.
Over the weekend we worked on our chicken coup. We definitely needed Robin for this part. The maths alone would have had me spinning. It seems a bit rickety just now, until we get the roof on, but this is one chicken house that will not blow away in our strong 'nor westers! We have to move it just a smidgen over a bit away from the vege garden (although I am going to be fencing the chickens), and I think we're going to need a tow truck to move it! The long pieces of wood in the center of the coup are from the children playing around in it after we'd finished.
Sometimes I wish I lived in a different era. My husband took our little 3 month old puppy to the vet's on Friday to get her final vaccinations. When he got home he informed me that Poppy had been microchipped. A little chip that was injected into the back of her neck.
Our "all wise" (I could say annoying and interfering) government bought in this new law last year that all registered dogs born after a certain date who are not working dogs, have to be microchipped. Apparently this will stop dog attacks on children. I really do have to wonder about the intelligence of some of those people in parliament - they're either very very stupid, or they have some hidden agenda. I think me the latter. Thank the Lord it is an election year! Ireally do object to my puppy having a microchip injected into her. I was bought up with Barry Smith and David Wilkerson and all those other 'end time' preachers, and it just goes against the grain to even have an animal with one of these things in them.
We have almost finished the foundation and floor of our chicken house. It's hard to get time to work on it, but yesterday we managed to get the floor attached, and now we can work on the framing.
I have the four corner posts for the walls, and will visit the DIY store later this week to get the rest of the framing materials. I'm not sure yet how to attach the four corner posts to the floor - might need dh to help out on that one!
I'm still having a difficult time with photobucket. I don't know why it won't shrink my pictures - it keeps closing down on me everytime I try to resize my photos - so I hope you don't mind the larger size pictures. Here is my son (8) working on the foundation, and the completed floor.
I have been reading up about this amazing breed of goats lately, thinking that I would like to get some next year. My 5 year lifestyle farming plan puts goats in our second year of being on the land. The hens are the first year. This breed is somewhat mysterious in its history, but there is some evidence to support that they were introduced to New Zealand by Captain James Cook in 1777 on one of his voyages to our islands. He released a pair of them on a large island (Arapawa Island) in the Marlborough Sounds (the same area where we recently took our holiday). It has recently been proven that they are from the English goat which died out in its native England last century due to a harsh winter. So the Arapawa Island goats are the only ones of this particular breed that is left in the world, although efforts have been made to preserve the bloodlines by sending small herds to England and the USA, so that in case of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease here, the breed will be safe.
Well, I read in the newspaper this morning that our government - under the Department of Conservation - are planning a cull of these goats in the next week or so! Apparently they are threatening a rare native plant on Arapawa Island, although this is debatable. The organization which protects this breed say that there are only up to 500 maximum on the island and they only occupy 1/5th of the large island, and that it is in fact the sheep and cattle which are eating the plant.
Over 2000 letters of protest against the cull have been sent to the DOC and to the government ministers involved in this, only to be ignored, which does not suprise me in the least. This current government of New Zealand are democratic in name only. They are just bulldozing through some ridiculous and draconian laws, and closing their ears to the people of New Zealand. Their arrogance is incredible. Reading the Hiding Place challenged me to pray for these leaders in love - a very hard thing for me to do. It's election year though, which is a mercy.
I don't know whether to speed up my 5 year plan and get my Arapawa goats now, or not? I have absolutely nothing in place for them - housing or fencing or feed. If I was going to fast-track it, what would be the essential things to get? Do any of you expert goat-breeders have any advice?
Yesterday I ordered my hens. Six 18 week old Brown Shavers are arriving here at the beginning of August. The demand for hens is so great at the moment that August is the first I can get them, but that's ok with me, because it's probably going to take me that long to get prepared for them.
I had this great (crazy) idea that we could build our own hen house. We had looked at henhouses down the road and they are terrifically expensive - in the thousands of dollars which seems ridiculous to me. We looked at buying an old shed from trademe (our equivalent of ebay), but getting it here seemed to be a problem, so I looked up henhouse plans on the internet and found a solution. We'd build our own as a homeschooling project. My 8 year old son is desperate for woodworking classes, but he's not old enough yet to go to the homeschooling group class (another year to wait), and so I thought, 'is there any reason why we can't build our own?' No, I don't think so.
So I downloaded the plans for $5, printed them out, and yesterday me and the kids went down to our local buiding supply store. A young man there helped us out, loaded up the trailer, charged us for the wood (gulp, gulp - not as cheap as I would have liked), and we crawled home. I'd had to let the back of the trailer down to fit the large sheet of plywood (that's going to be the floor) into the trailer, and I was worried all those bits of wood might go sliding out the back as we drove home, because I didn't have anything to secure it with.
We got home ok, and when I got out and looked at the supplies, then looked at the plans, then looked at our location for the hen house, I had this sudden feeling of doubt, and being overwhelmed. Can I really do this??? I didn't even know what type of nails to buy for it - I think the young man at the store was very kind - he only smiled a little bit.
I reminded myself to take it one step at a time - just do the next thing. I'm looking forward to getting started, I just hope it won't be one big disaster - although the hens probably aren't fussy. The young man at the store told me he thought it looked fairly straight forward - I hope he's right!
We'd just settled the children into bed tonight and I was catching up on some reading when I looked up and out the window to see a cute little hedgehog fast trotting across our lawn - heading straight for the vegetable garden.
I rushed out with the camera. I love hedgehogs - they're so sweet. As I got closer to him he stuck his head in one of the peastraw bales to act like he wasn't there I guess. They have the cutest little faces. But does anyone know if they eat produce? Something is nibbling away at my ripening pumpkins. I was blaming the rabbits, but maybe this hedgehog is to blame. Anyone know?
Our dear wee puppy, Poppy has had a fun evening playing with the children and our other dog Cricket, in the garden. I think she's exhausted. Here is a cute picture I took of her sleeping on my dh's old shoes.
We have a new member in our family... and she's soooooo sweet. She's an 8 week old Jack Russell terrier, and is the daughter of our builder's dog, Briar who our children have gotten to know over the last 2 years of our dealings with Lance, the builder. When we heard that Briar was having puppies, we told Lance we'd love to get one, and he very kindly gave us one. The mum is a really nice-natured un-yappy dog. So yesterday we went to pick her up and we're really enjoying her - she doesn't even cry at night!
This little pup was Lance and his wife's favourite. She has five big splodges on her back and they nick-named her 'five-spot'. We had a hard time coming up with a name, but thought that 'Poppy' really suited her. We've had her 24 hours now, and she already knows her name.
We actually weren't supposed to get her for another 2 weeks, but Lance said she was ready to go - the mum has already kicked them out of her basket, and they're fully weaned. So today I had to go into our little town 10 minutes away to find a basket for her. I only expected to be away 1/2 an hour. Well - 2 hours later, I finally get home. I ended up going to 3 Warehouses (our equivalent of Walmart), and 2 pet shops before I finally found a suitable basket. It's a stifling hot day here today so it wasn't pleasant in the car, so we treated ourselves to an icecream on the way home. It was another good reminder to me why I don't want to live in town again! Sooo lovely to come back to my peaceful haven here in the country.
When I took the basket I wanted up to the counter, the shopgirl said to me, "these baskets are selling like hotcakes. They're just flying out the door." I told her I knew why!! I think they must be the only shop in all of Christchurch who has them!
I have come to the conclusion that it's almost impossible to get a decent photo of my dog.
'Cricket' is a four year old (almost 5) black Labrador and he's still a puppy - well, he still acts like one, and he's still got the energy of one. We have all this beautiful golden barley growing around our house at the moment, and Cricket loves to run through it sniffing out mice and rabbits. And with his glossy black coat, he looks really beautiful in it, and when you call his name he pokes his head up suddenly out of the barley and pricks up his ears, and puts his head on one side (as Labradors do), and he just looks too cute! So I thought I'd try and get a photo of him in the barley as we won't have it for much longer as the contractor is coming to harvest it soon. Well, I was out there for ages trying to get a picture. We have a little delay on our digital camera which makes it extra difficult to take good pictures of moving targets. Here is the evidence of my attempts - with an 'almost' proper photo of dear old Cricket at the end, plus one photo of him raiding the compost bin we've just begun - and I promise you we do give him plenty of food - he's just a Labrador - and that explains everything! We all love him. He's bought a lot of laughs to our household.
I just had to post this photo! Aren't they so sweet! We spent another day today gardening out at our land, and when checking on the birds we found that some of the eggs had already hatched, and one was in the process of hatching. Here's the picture:
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
Just as good as a cat, really!
