Category: Comments from Farside

Down on the Farm

currently I’m irked by the weather report. Today and maybe tomorrow I’d planned to clear up blogs and submissions due, then on Monday go back to the new book I’m writing and which I hope to have finished before the end of next month. This programme may not be assisted by Cyclone Pam, said to …

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‘Thunderous’ Applause.

Here in New Zealand we may have slightly different cat food available, I’m not certain. But my Ocicat, Thunder, gets a three-way mix in cat biscuits – he refuses to eat almost any other form of cat food, although he’s happy to occasionally steal something from my plate if I’m not watching closely enough. I …

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Mystery

Sadly it isn’t the usual mystery we get around here. They tend to be mostly amusing, this isn’t. Last year a friend gave me a gorgeous and very large rooster named Oscar. Oscar was a good rooster, quiet, gentle, and not a nuisance. But about a week ago he canished, and there’s been no sign …

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Nice Weather – What a Shame.

Yes, it’s been a warm, sunny, dry January. Just what farmers didn’t want. We’ve had exactly 50mls, spread over 5 nights during the month. That’s not as bad as it could have been, we did get something, but twice that would have been better for grass growth. Now, all we have to do is hope …

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How My Farm Fares

Well, we’re solidly into 2015, the year of Back to the Future (as we keep being reminded by TV) and a lot less has changed on the farm. The gaggle has had an unsuccessful year in gosling-production, so no change there. The hens managed to hatch only four chicks, no change there either. Raspberry bushes …

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Shearing Time Again

It was shearing this week. I got all the woollies in, the shearer arrived, and we ran the sheep into the shearing pen and got started. No problems there, but boy, were they confused when we finished. For the rest of the day I had ten sheep running about the place screaming, unable to recognize …

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Coincidences

As may be guessed from the recent HUFF review, I’ve been re-readinmg all my Tanya Huff books over Christmas. Last to be read were the three ‘Summoning’ books which I like best of all her work. I was just reading Austin the cat’s demand yet again to be fed – when my own resident feline …

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Hot Weather and Raspberries.

The one being the cause of the other. Thunder is spending much of his day lately lying under the fruit-laden raspberry bushes, relaxing as they ripen and waiting for some fool starling to descend to eat raspberries. At which time the bushes will part abruptly and a large cat will hurtle upwards, paws swinging, grabbing …

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A Bit Worried

I’m not at all certain, but I have a nasty feeling we may be going to have a dry summer. Temperatures are warming fast, only 10mls of wet so far this month, the recent gales have ripped the moisture out of plant life, and while the wild birds on the place produced an early hatch, …

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Christmas is coming

and the geese are getting fat, as the Guy Fawkes rhyme goes. Mine are, so they’re lucky I plan on never eating them. But the spring grass is in with a vengeance and I’m still waiting for goslings. All four of the girls sat at intervals over October, with a net result of nothing. Currently …

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