Cleo's Cottage

We moved to this place 9 years ago. A fairly basic old house on a very basic block of land. It had a lavender hedge, a dead gum tree and a few young trees - pittosporum, a cyprus hedge (!!), a fig, a leptospermum and a silver birch.

We came here with two babies, a cavalier king charles spanial named Kimba and a hope that this would be home. Despite putting a fence all around the yard, one morning, a couple of months after moving in, our dog was hit on the road and died. Heartbroken, exhausted from unsleeping twins, feeling isolated and  defeated, our house went back on the market. 

But during the contract with the estate agent, things changed. I met new friends at the local playgroup, our kids started sleeping a little bit more, I started to fall in love with our little patch and a big ginger cat marched into our lives like she belonged here. She was an adult cat and clearly very comfortable here. We think she may have been left by previous owners and not come out until Kimba was gone. But whatever her story, she came to us, found a little place in our hearts and our home. We named her Cleo after the ginger cat in the children's story 'Cleo the cat', which we happened to have out from the library that day and who did much the same thing as our Cleo (ie. marched in, had a bowl of milk and made herself at home). 

Over the years we got chickens, then a new puppy and then some guinea pigs.  Another puppy a couple of years later and then more chickens.  Kittens for the boys a couple of years back and then goats and bees last year. The house has changed and changed again. Not a single one of the original plants remain, but a thick bushy garden and a food forest have grown around us. And all through it, Cleo, who was never really a house cat, was there. She tended to stay in the front garden, never keen on venturing indoors, but very happy for a cuddle and a pat in the evening sun shining on our verandah, and a pretty, fluffy welcoming party near our front door. 

We don't know how old she was when she came to us - we never took her to the vets (though we wormed her and treated her for fleas regularly). A couple of years after her arrival she seemed to become an old lady though - still able to fight of the odd stray cat, but happy to just sleep and dribble on anyone willing to cuddle her. 

This year, we noticed something wrong with her eyes. The pupils stopped dilating and were huge black pools at all times of the day. She went blind and restricted her movements to the verandah. The boys made sure she had a warm blanket in a bed, a bowl of food always present nearby and we tried to keep stuff out of her way. But she seemed happy still. Greeting everyone with a miaow and a smooch, purring like a little engine if you'd sit with her for a while. 

Then yesterday, she wasn't there. Just gone, the way she just came. We think her time had come and in her lovely, independent lady way, she went away to die. We'll miss her fluffy, chatty presence on our verandah. 

I think that maybe Cleo was sent to us to make this place our home. A little feline guardian angel to bring warmth and sometimes humour to our family and what was then a relatively unloveable garden. And now, here we are, having nearly sold it again this year, but realised that it is always going to be home and special to us, maybe her task was done. 

And I think, as a final tribute and thanks to her, we've finally, after the last three years of trying to, decided on a name for our home, and therefore put that last stamp of 'ours' on this place. From now on "Cleo's Cottage" is where we belong. 

Hey there Jorgie girl....

We've had our Jorgie girl for just over six weeks now, and I've got to say, I'm loving being a goat owner!

The first week was a big tricky - Jorgie was noisy and stubborn. She missed her goat herd and wasn't sure about us. We hadn't learnt how to handle her well and doing anything with her was difficult. Then I had my hand surgery and had to take a week off of handling her altogether. I still fed her, patted her and spent time chatting to her, but with stitches in my palm, it wasn't worth risking taking a pig-headed goat out on her lead. 

I was concerned about not handling her as much for a week, but as it turned out, I think it was good for her. By the end of that week she had settled into her home. She still bleats when we go out or leave her, but for the most part, she is settled and content to sit on her seat in the sun and chew her cud. Happy goat!

Now, I spend time with Jorgie every day, and it is amongst the most peaceful and enjoyable times. I've been wanting to share them for a while, so I took the camera out and here it is.... A day with Jorgie. 

At about 7am (sometimes earlier) Jorgie starts calling out to us to let us know its breakfast time. I toss some clothes over my PJ's and head outside. She's usually by the gate waiting for me. 

"Goodmorning! I'm ready for my breakfast."

We finished building the stanchion and milking table last weekend, so Jorgie now has her breakfast up there as 'training' for being our little milking goat. She's not keen on getting in there, but she's getting better at it, and once she's in, she relaxes and is fine. She eats her chaff and completo breakfast while I brush her, run my hands over her belly and udder, and generally get her comfortable with being handled and reducing her udder shyness. 

Eating breakfast on our homemade (all recycled) milking table.

After breaky, Jorgie goes back to her yard while I finish my morning chores and have some breakfast myself!  If the weather is bad, Jorgie likes to lay on the table in her stall and look out of her 'window'. Lachlan's cat, Pouncy, can often be found in her stall too, curled up on the warm straw. Our dog, cats and ducks all love Jorgie and like to get close to her. She is grateful for their company, but if they come too close, she head butts them away :)
 

Looking out of her stall "window" while standing on her table/platform.

In bad weather, or if I'm away from home all day, I give Jorgie fresh hay in her feeder. We don't leave hay there all the time as she won't eat it after a while and it just goes to waste. 

Fresh hay in the hay feeder that I made for her.

When I'm out and about in the garden, I like to stop by and give Jorgie 'treats'. She loves geranium leaves, mallow leaves, pittosporum branches and beetroot leaves, but roses are her favourite by far!  I've read a lot about goats eating habits and have heard that they love banana skins and citrus peel - Jorgie doesn't. But she does like most weeds and carrots (though she'll only eat carrot tops that are still connected to carrots in the ground, and not the ones I've broken off the carrots *sigh*). She doesn't eat everything, and is quite fussy about what she chooses. And, with relief, we have found that she isn't interested in eating the washing off the line. 



Jorgie likes celery leaves and I like the stems - perfect for sharing a snack straight from the vegie garden.

If I'm weeding, I often take Jorgie with me. Her favourite grazing spot is along the driveway (near her friends the ducks). I leave her lead on and let her browse while I work close by. Mostly, she just mosies along eating happily, but if I see her try to eat something I don't want eaten, I can grab her lead and steer her away. 

Most afternoons, Jorgie has tethering time. I have a few places I like to tether her, and the next door neighbour said I'm welcome to tether on their nature strip too. She gets a couple of hours out there to fill her belly. 



Lots of luscious weeds along the fenceline to eat while tethered.

On sunny days, Jorgie can often be found sunbathing on her bench in her yard. We built this bench for us originally, but she adopted it and loves sitting up there watching the world go by or snoozing. She can see a lot of our yard from there, and also into the school, where there is often someone happy to say hello to her. 

I spy a sunbathing goat.

Sometimes we take Jorgie for a walk around town. We have to be careful of our route as there are a few dogs that are happy to chase her. But mostly, walking her is a lot of fun and she happily laps up the attention of people who stop for a chat. 

Stu has taken on the job of grooming Jorgie and she loves to stand in the sun and have a good brush. Hoof care is my job though and it's not so much fun as I tentatively follow the guidelines I was taught by her breeder and hope I'm doing it all right. 

I'm looking forward to Jorgie having her kid/s. Unfortunately, we don't have a good due date as no one saw her mated and she was in with the buck about 6 weeks!  But the earliest she'll be due is mid October, and she is just beginning to develop her udder this week, so I'm anticipating the birth sometime in about a month. 

After her grazing time, Jorgie goes back to her pen for the night. She has a little more chaff to convince her to go to bed (we divided up her daily rations so we could do this), and eventually, she settles down in her stall for the night. 

A goat anchor

We didn't get our goat, Jorgie, with the intention of tethering her. I've read some horror stories of goats hanging themselves from their tether, of getting themselves tangled, spilling their water etc. It is just not an ideal way to keep a goat - or any animal for that matter.

So when we decided to buy ourselves a miniature goat, we built a suitable enclosure and shelter for her, and that is where she spends most of her time. 

Her enclosure is small though - big enough for moving around, sleeping and playing for a couple of goats, but not big enough for her to browse. 

We often take Jorgie for a walk to browse along the way, but you can only spend a certain amount of time doing that, and we have a few areas of our garden that grow beautiful browse that she could eat (that is, our lawns). We could let her free range in those areas, but as she is partial to roses, apple trees herbs and vegetable plants, I'm not sure she'd spend her time eating the grass and weeds!

So I did some research and some thinking and came up with a method of tethering her in those areas of the garden that I would normally have to mow. My tethering system reduces tangling risk, allows her to always access water, is portable and adaptable so that I can control where she has access to. 

And here it is:

It's an old car tyre (free from any tyre shop) that we have half filled with rapid set concrete. We lined the bottom of the tyre with a feed bag first, then poured in the concrete (and a few scraps of old concrete to make up more volume). While the concrete was wet, we inserted an eye bolt with a long stem and the washer and nut attached (they help to anchor the eye bolt so the goat can't pull it out of the concrete). We also pushed the base of a bucket into the concrete to make an indentation to support a bowl (or half bucket) of water. 

To tether the goat, we put the tyre on the middle of the area we want her to browse in (using a trolley or two people to move it because its really heavy!) then add a bowl of water (it needs to sit in the indentation and be shorter than the top of the tyre so it doesn't catch the chain) and attach the goat to the eyebolt using a d-shackle and a chain. You can adjust the length of the chain to meet your needs - that is, make it long for a big area, or short for a small area. 

The anchor has a really low centre of gravity, so the goat can't knock/pull it over. The water can't be knocked over as it is secure inside the tyre and in the unlikely event that the goats chain gets tangled on the anchor, she'll always have access to the water. 

It's a good system, but to be safe, always use it carefully. Make sure there aren't obstacles your goat can get tangled on; Check for plants you don't want your goat to eat within the goat's reach (plants you want or poisonous plants); make sure your goat has some shade, especially on hot days; make sure dogs or other animals (strange people?) can't get at your goat; And check your goat is ok regularly - ie. don't tether her when you're not home!

This isn't a long term tethering system, but is a great way to mow the lawns without using petrol and give our goat lovely fresh (and free!) browse. And the anchor cost less than $15 to build - bargain!

Goat people - if you see any problems with my design, please let me know, I'm hoping I've covered everything, but am open to suggestions!

Getting to know Jorgie

Over the weekend, we took a trip to visit our goat. Jorgie is still living on the farm with the other goats as we are going away for a couple of weeks soon and don't want to leave her in someone else's care so soon after getting her. We're also still waiting to confirm that she is pregnant before we take her away from her boyfriend.



Here comes Jorgie!

 It was lovely to spend some time with her though. The boys love her!  Stu aptly described her personality as cat-like. She comes straight to us when you go to the paddock, has a pat and a cuddle with everyone, and then, when she's had enough, she wanders off, tail in air. If you call her back, she raises an ear to tell you she heard you, but keeps walking. If you follow her, she's OK with that, but she won't let you just catch her, much to the children's frustration. 



"I've had enough now"

She has a beautiful cashmere through her goat at the moment and feels like a soft minke blanket, only better.  

Kisses through the fence

Oscar is the buck that she's in with at the moment. He's super friendly, and had a lovely time rubbing his bucky smell onto all of us. 

Oscar the buck

We visited some of the other goats too. Itty Bitty and Shadow are more like dogs than cats - you can't get rid of them!  This pleased the boys, but I'm quite pleased that we're getting a more independent goat. In the paddock with Itty and Shadow are a range of other ladies. Young ones and a few retired girls. Mini goats can live to around 20 years, but the breeders we're buying from, stop breeding their girls at about 10-13.  There are also a small group of adorable alpacas. Very cute!

Goats and alpacas galore!

The kids on the farm amused us with their antics. An 11 month old kid sprinted sideways across a paddock towards us and  then leaped around madly which was very funny. Our boys were quite disturbed by the feeding methods of a pair of six week old buckling kids who were butting their mum very hard - I explained to them that having boy twins is the hardest thing in the world for a mum ;)

Goodbye for now Jorgie.

All in all a fun and informative visit. Can't wait to have our own goats here!

Our life less ordinary

If someone had asked me ten years ago, what I would do with a weekend in 2013, I don't know what I would have told them. I probably would have predicted spending it with Stu - right. I might have hoped I would have a couple of kids in tow - right again (though I would not have predicted the identical twin boys I ended up with!). But as for the rest....? What I do know is that there is NO WAY I would have predicted the list of things I've been up to with my little family this weekend!

Friday saw me planting out some more seeds in my vegie garden, hanging out with the kids at home and studying the new fitness program I'll be teaching next term. That night, we met Stu in Warrnambool to work on our tiny school's fabulous, parent run, pancake stall at the night markets. We worked really hard, but it was so much fun!

Saturday morning found us in the garden fixing a gate to stop our over friendly chooks camping on the back door step (and possibly being hurt by the dogs). Mum stopped in to say hi, then later, in the spirit of tiny towns, one of our friends and neighbours dropped in for a cuppa. We emptied our waterless toilet and made some adjustments, and spent some family time discussing the possibility of getting a milking goat, and debating the best solar power option.

That night, after a homemade curry packed with homegrown veg, I dressed up in a belly baring costume, did my hair, put on too much makeup and went to a local restaurant. It was completely booked out, and I was there to belly dance.... people really enjoyed watching me (and my dance buddy) performing the dances I had choreographed.... AND I got paid for doing it!  Can you believe that?!

A job as a belly dancer? !  I never would have guessed that one!

After dancing, I came home to a peaceful home (it was screen free Saturday of course) and cooled down with a homemade apple cider, hanging out with Stu and our books for a quiet night.

Early this morning, I was out and about with Stu for a run - yep, a run! Stu is helping build up my running stamina. Once I was spent, I was home for some yoga before breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent processing three of our home raised chickens for the freezer - a job that, while not exactly pleasant, was surprisingly satisfying and not as horrible as either of us expected it to be.

This afternoon, I have watched brand new chickens hatch, completed paperwork for this terms belly dance classes, crocheted a small gift and baked bread for the next couple of days. And while I was doing that, Stu was working on the belly dance website and the kids were enjoying their favourite thing - time together at home to just play.



Hatchlings!  Six hatched and at least two more on the way!

I'm exhausted! But would I change a thing? No way! And I would love to know what I'll be up to 10 years from now.



Tuesday garden journal

First of all, I want to say thank you for the replies on the blog and by email to my post yesterday.  It is lovely to hear peoples words of support and stories of others in the same situation.  I think it is wonderful to be able to choose live our lives this way, and hope that others understand that their choices are theirs and ours are ours.

~~

Onto today's post.  Linking up again with Squiggly Rainbow for a garden journal!

I've decided not to tell you about all of the work happening in the vegie gardens or on the pizza oven this week, and instead to share with you some little things that make me smile out in the garden at the moment.

I love the borage that is growing wild in my herb garden area. Stu hates its wildness. I love its wildness, its pretty blue flowers and the bees that it attracts. When its wildness gets too much, I rip it out and add it to the compost where it helps to speed up composting.

We have two Virgilia trees in our front garden that we planted there about 6 years ago.  They grew rapidly and now give our home its beautiful leafy look and our front garden lots of privacy from the road.  Each Spring they change from leafy green to delicate pink as they flower profusely, though strangely, one at a time.  The first is pretty pink now.

Our beautiful hen Specks hatched her adopted eggs this week!  We have 6 adorable fluffy black and speckled chickens.  They are safely enclosed in a pen near the vegie gardens and we are all loving watching their antics.

Hoping your Spring garden is making you smile too.
xo