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All Quiet on the Home Front
26 June 2009
Suddenly, after almost 6 weeks the house is empty of guests and Aaron and I have returned to our normal routine. Christ, did we really work that hard all those weeks ago??
Aaron is suddenly racing around on weekday afternoons again. There’s drop offs, pick ups, feeding out, making feeds, walking dogs, checking water troughs, etc, etc. With daylight disappearing about 5:30 Aaron is racing around at great pace competing with the onset of dusk.
All the extra company in the house has meant that every evening has been filled with conversation and laughter and the tv has been a mute box against the wall. When we first moved north I had a desire to confine the tv to the bar, making the livingroom a tv-free zone. The many sporting events in Aaron’s schedule of must watch tv put paid to that idea though.
However, over time Aaron has had less and less time to devote to watching sport. The tv has always been on in the evenings though. I’ve watched the box of course. When it’s there you do. But Aaron has controlled the remote and for the most part the programmes we watch. Long ago I learnt there’s a limited number of programmes Aaron will watch and if I pick the wrong one Aaron either makes disparaging comments about my taste or leaves the room in a huff claiming I make it impossible for him to stay. So for the most part tv watching has been all about sport or comedy.
But that is all in the past. Times change, attitudes change and suddenly last week Aaron rang Sky and cancelled his membership. Come mid July we’re being switched off from Sky and without a tv arial completely switched off from tv. I don’t think I’ll miss it.
I know its disappearance from our lives will mean I read more and write more.
How long this will last I’m not sure but as we try to make cuts to our spending I suspect it’ll be gone for a year at the very least. We’ve still got the Internet and Aaron’s still got his book club and wine club memberships to keep him happy.
It blows me away though that Aaron gave up sport before he gave up classic books.
A Difficult Weekend
Paul and Nicky arrived Friday night for their quarterly visit. We are always so happy to have them visit and yet something wasn’t quite right. Aaron was unnaturally quiet and I have been feeling under the weather so wasn’t exactly bursting with energy.
Friday evening Aaron discovered that Hazel had had a lamb. It was with nervousness we observed this new addition to the block on Saturday morning. Hazel’s previous lamb was unnaturally big and was born with severe hip problems. It had died after only 2 days. The latest lamb spent a lot of time just sitting down. I saw it get up twice and feed but when Aaron went to check on it in the afternoon it refused to stand.
“It’s going to die”
“It’ll be fine” I said “It’s not even a day old. Give it a chance”
About an hour later it was standing next to its mother and then as Aaron watched, Thyme’s young ram walked up to it and rammed it so hard in the head it went flying down the bank into a pool of water.
Aaron raced into the paddock to rescue it but it slowly came staggering over the brow of the hill, shaking its head madly.
Sunday morning it was still sitting, moving its head around but not getting up for a feed. I watched it for a while, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I checked on it twice more before lunchtime and the 2nd time I checked on it I knew the end was near. I went up to the lamb. It was barely alive. When I picked it up its neck twisted grotesquely to the side. Hazel fretted and stamped and ran around in circles.
I suspect the lamb had received severe concussion and possibly nerve damage and being weak to start with it had no chance. I lay it gently back down on the grass and walked back up the hill. Hazel ran back up to her baby. And there she stayed.
And tomorrow morning I will collect the poor wee thing, dig a hole and bury its tiny little body. And Hazel will stress and fret and wonder why we keep taking her babies and I will cry at the sadness of it all.
Of course that’s not where the story ends. We cannot let Hazel get pregnant again as she is likely to have another sickly lamb. It’s not fair on the lamb and it’s not fair on Hazel. And so there is only one option for us and that is to cull Hazel.
It’s not an option I’m happy with but I accept it.
Plans Change
Faced with the loss of a lamb and now Hazel, I looked around the block at the frostbitten grass and found myself having to face some hard truths. It is yet another winter we are short on feed and now we know the Arapawa lamb yields virtually no meat I have to accept that our sheep are little more than ornamental lawnmowers eating grass that could be saved for cows and pigs.
We have 2 flocks and if I look at things from a cold, hard financial perspective, it’s 2 too many.
I broached the subject with Aaron, suggesting that if we get put Hazel in the freezer then we should do the same with Tulip as she has a faulty udder and is incredibly skittish. He agreed.
And then I admitted that as much as I hated the idea it would make sense to sell off the rest of them. Aaron being Aaron agreed immediately but seemed more keen on putting them all in the freezer. This was one step too far too fast for me. I suddenly felt weighted down by an incredible sadness.
We talked about the subject again this evening. I want to sell Thyme and Herb as they are both strong, sturdy sheep with good genes. However, it is unlikely we will be able to sell any sheep just yet as most places will be destocking because of feed shortage. I suggested we wait until spring. We also cannot cull Tulip yet as she is most likely pregnant and due soon.
I want to sell Spike with his 2 girls but as Treacle is heavily pregnant I don’t want to cause her stress by selling her yet. But then Aaron suggested that maybe we should keep those 3 and so we talked some more and our decision on whether to keep them or not will rest solely on how much meat Hazel and Tulip yield. If it is a decent amount then we will keep 3 sheep. If it is barely more than we got from the lambs then we will sell them.
It’s not an easy decision for me to make. I feel extreme guilt for getting rid of animals just because they don’t fit into our lifestyle anymore. Guilt is not a good reason for keeping animals though. It costs us to keep the sheep and we just can’t justify throwing away that money anymore.
Amy Arrives
At lunchtime Arthur’s new girlfriend Amy arrived. It was a fair old trip from Waiuku to our place and she was straight out the horse float when the door went down. Aaron pulled the boards off Arthur’s fence and out shot Arthur. Before we knew what was happening Arthur had disappeared and was walking at great pace up Gary’s drive. I ran after him and turned him around. Amy was wandering around on the drive by the float.
I’m not sure how it went so smoothly but within a few minutes both pigs were back in the paddock and the boards were nailed back into place.
It is fair to say Arthur got very excited very quickly and Amy seemed a little overwhelmed with the full on attention. However, as we checked on them through the afternoon it became clear that Arthur had calmed down and Amy seemed fairly happy.
No doubt Arthur will be a very happy, much calmer pig for the next few weeks.
Having said that, he’s been very calm and well mannered all this week and has even started eating vegetables again.
Stanley has also calmed down considerably in the last few weeks but as yet he is still not that keen on his veges. But what he doesn’t eat Mabel’s piglets clear up during the day as they roam about the property in search of adventure, and of course food.
Friday evening Aaron discovered that Hazel had had a lamb. It was with nervousness we observed this new addition to the block on Saturday morning. Hazel’s previous lamb was unnaturally big and was born with severe hip problems. It had died after only 2 days. The latest lamb spent a lot of time just sitting down. I saw it get up twice and feed but when Aaron went to check on it in the afternoon it refused to stand.
“It’s going to die”
“It’ll be fine” I said “It’s not even a day old. Give it a chance”
About an hour later it was standing next to its mother and then as Aaron watched, Thyme’s young ram walked up to it and rammed it so hard in the head it went flying down the bank into a pool of water.
Aaron raced into the paddock to rescue it but it slowly came staggering over the brow of the hill, shaking its head madly.
Sunday morning it was still sitting, moving its head around but not getting up for a feed. I watched it for a while, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I checked on it twice more before lunchtime and the 2nd time I checked on it I knew the end was near. I went up to the lamb. It was barely alive. When I picked it up its neck twisted grotesquely to the side. Hazel fretted and stamped and ran around in circles.
I suspect the lamb had received severe concussion and possibly nerve damage and being weak to start with it had no chance. I lay it gently back down on the grass and walked back up the hill. Hazel ran back up to her baby. And there she stayed.
And tomorrow morning I will collect the poor wee thing, dig a hole and bury its tiny little body. And Hazel will stress and fret and wonder why we keep taking her babies and I will cry at the sadness of it all.
Of course that’s not where the story ends. We cannot let Hazel get pregnant again as she is likely to have another sickly lamb. It’s not fair on the lamb and it’s not fair on Hazel. And so there is only one option for us and that is to cull Hazel.
It’s not an option I’m happy with but I accept it.
Plans Change
Faced with the loss of a lamb and now Hazel, I looked around the block at the frostbitten grass and found myself having to face some hard truths. It is yet another winter we are short on feed and now we know the Arapawa lamb yields virtually no meat I have to accept that our sheep are little more than ornamental lawnmowers eating grass that could be saved for cows and pigs.
We have 2 flocks and if I look at things from a cold, hard financial perspective, it’s 2 too many.
I broached the subject with Aaron, suggesting that if we get put Hazel in the freezer then we should do the same with Tulip as she has a faulty udder and is incredibly skittish. He agreed.
And then I admitted that as much as I hated the idea it would make sense to sell off the rest of them. Aaron being Aaron agreed immediately but seemed more keen on putting them all in the freezer. This was one step too far too fast for me. I suddenly felt weighted down by an incredible sadness.
We talked about the subject again this evening. I want to sell Thyme and Herb as they are both strong, sturdy sheep with good genes. However, it is unlikely we will be able to sell any sheep just yet as most places will be destocking because of feed shortage. I suggested we wait until spring. We also cannot cull Tulip yet as she is most likely pregnant and due soon.
I want to sell Spike with his 2 girls but as Treacle is heavily pregnant I don’t want to cause her stress by selling her yet. But then Aaron suggested that maybe we should keep those 3 and so we talked some more and our decision on whether to keep them or not will rest solely on how much meat Hazel and Tulip yield. If it is a decent amount then we will keep 3 sheep. If it is barely more than we got from the lambs then we will sell them.
It’s not an easy decision for me to make. I feel extreme guilt for getting rid of animals just because they don’t fit into our lifestyle anymore. Guilt is not a good reason for keeping animals though. It costs us to keep the sheep and we just can’t justify throwing away that money anymore.
Amy Arrives
At lunchtime Arthur’s new girlfriend Amy arrived. It was a fair old trip from Waiuku to our place and she was straight out the horse float when the door went down. Aaron pulled the boards off Arthur’s fence and out shot Arthur. Before we knew what was happening Arthur had disappeared and was walking at great pace up Gary’s drive. I ran after him and turned him around. Amy was wandering around on the drive by the float.
I’m not sure how it went so smoothly but within a few minutes both pigs were back in the paddock and the boards were nailed back into place.
It is fair to say Arthur got very excited very quickly and Amy seemed a little overwhelmed with the full on attention. However, as we checked on them through the afternoon it became clear that Arthur had calmed down and Amy seemed fairly happy.
No doubt Arthur will be a very happy, much calmer pig for the next few weeks.
Having said that, he’s been very calm and well mannered all this week and has even started eating vegetables again.
Stanley has also calmed down considerably in the last few weeks but as yet he is still not that keen on his veges. But what he doesn’t eat Mabel’s piglets clear up during the day as they roam about the property in search of adventure, and of course food.
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