Evil Fishing Farm Cats plus one dog for good measure

Something told me there were evil farm cat plans being set into place to raid the sacred sanctuary of the rescued goldfish from out of the Mad Bush Silt Pond yesterday. It began with Dream checking the dog was chained up..how cunning is that I wonder

With the thoughts of goldfish steaks on her mind Evil Farm Cat Dream licked her lips with relish before planning to go and find a fellow conspirator in his evilness Evil Farm Cat Sasquatch

Evil Farm cat Sasquatch was more than pleased to think about planz to have goldfish steaks
In order to fool the stoopid hooman Evil Farm Cat Sasquatch used the old looking as cute as possible trick
Meantime...Simon the goldfish watcher dog knew it was all a trick....

The motives of the two co-conspirators were all too obvious - goldfish steaks were now top of the list for a snack...
However the stoopid hooman was not as stoopid as the evil farm cats soon found out....

Foiled

Foiled

FOILED

FOILED!

STOOPID HOOMAN TAKE IT OFF NOW!

EVIL FARM CAT SASQUATCH - CLAWZ TEH STOOPID HOOMAN NOWZ!

It was all too obvious the stoopid hooman had already foiled the grand plans of the Evil Farm Cats we want Goldfish for Dinner League all too effectively...

Bah! Stoopid Hooman! Tomorrow you will pay for this outrage!

Grass? You've got grass? What's that?

I was asked the other day how my grass situation was on the farm here. Well I have loads still despite the drought we're having here in Northland. The shock there was not surprising. The only reason I have any at all is because I cut down on my stock. Glad I did. River's calf has to go shortly as he is starting to realise he is indeed a little bull. Lucky for him he's got some cows waiting for him further south on a family friend's farm.

Ocean and River are both of course still feeding their calves but the time is rapidly approaching for weaning. I don't think it's very fair for these two to be having to feed their babies and be expected to cope with this prolonged drought we've been having. If I said I wasn't worried my nose by now would be looking like Pinnochio's.

When you live in the city you take water for granted. You turn on the tap and water comes out of it. Try relying on a water tank for your water supply - and you won't be growling about your local water authority nagging at you to conserve water over a dry summer. Nope you end up being your own water authority and making your own restrictions. You have to or you end up paying a fortune for a fill up in the water tank. So far I haven't had to do that - but if rain doesn't come soon I'll be ringing up the water guy and getting 22,00 litres of water put into our tank.

We're recycling as much water as possible and using it to water the trees. I've had to cut right down on the water use otherwise we will be in trouble and end up with nothing at all. In farming the weather means everything. A prolonged drought means for those farming as a living that their income and livelihood is literally on the line. Dairy herds in Northland are now being dried off. Pasture growth is at zero and the moisture levels in the soil are now non-existent. It's bad really bad. Hopefully we'll get rain and soon.

You can tell I was having a silly moment with my camera. I had moved the cows and the old man onto a new break feed. I don't have to go down and get them either. I just call Come on! then watch the stampede of spoilt pet cows and little toads called calves head straight for the new green stuff. The old man at nearly 30 likes to take his time making his way up - I'm never in a hurry anyway. I hadn't had much time to spend lately just going and talking to the Terrorist. She is now 18 months old and is still not much bigger than a 6 month old Fresian calf. River's calf is as big as she is and he is barely 6 months!

Anyway I took all these silly photos just for the heck of it and decided to upload them. I even took photos of our dry stream bed, the rapidly drying up fishpond and a photo of one of the gold fish we rescued the other day that is now swimming around with the others in what used to be a trough for our cows and at one stage was someone's bath. Not anymore it's now a goldfish rescue centre. It's been hot, horrible and dry and everyone's temper's are getting frayed over this endless drought. It's on everyone's minds and many of my farmer friends are wondering how the heck they're going to pay their bills for the coming year. Not good. The local meat works will be working over time killing off the stock that can no longer be carried due the lack of pasture growth. Feed costs a fortune and with grass shortages demand increases and so does the price - so the excess stock has to be culled out. That's the reality of the decisions that have to be made.

Terry's 150 acre run off block across the road from my farm is as dry as a bone. Not one blade of green grass to be seen anywhere. The photos are near the bottom. The hills are all brown from the El Nino weather patterns we're experiencing at the moment - but that is part of the cylce of nature. We just have to learn to work with what we have. People get through hard times and bounce back. All I get is a tiny jersey Terrorist still calling me Mum.LOL. So have a chuckle, smile a lot if you're one of those stuck in a drought bad weather at the moment. Just think of the funnier times like I do when things get a little tough. I just remember that these three cows I have here all at one stage have been in my kitchen when they were still small calves looking for that bottle - or stealing my loaf of bread. Hope everyone is happy and well no matter where you are in the world - it's better to smile than to frown when things get a little hard. I think I need to draw another silly cartoon of myself just for a chuckle. Hope you like the photos silly as they are - I was having a silly moment. It's my birthday today so I can get away with it. And I'm now 46 if anyone is wondering...I don't feel a day over 20....oh my aching back....

No Drought about it! The great Goldfish Rescue of 2010.

I should have known. Right in the middle of editing and what happens????? A conspiracy by the Rain Gods to yet again foil my grand plans of great productions and all that kind of rubbish.

Meantime...little did I know not so good things were going on in the fishpond behind my house..I mean I should have done something sooner about the living things that swam in that pond that was once meant to be where our water tank was going ..until they found out a spring was there that is. So it became a fishpond and home to loads of green kermit types hell bent on calling those lily pads their own personal tropical resort until that was the Rain Gods decided it was time to turn off the tap so to speak. And in the doing I end up with a kitset graveyard in my fishpond. Fish don't have legs but of course stupid here kept on thinking they'd be fine...ermm nope they weren't.

An instruction given by the Mad Bush Farm Management (with the bad attitude gleam) today to the long suffering 12 year old worker to "Get the gumboots on and check the water level in the pond...or else all references to Twilight will be banned from this insane (poor excuse for a..) farm. On pain of having the word "Twilight Saga" removed from the vocabulary and a permanant ban on cute furry creatures...said long suffering 12 year old worker went stomping off in the heat with hot black gumboots, black t-shirt and short from with skinny legs hung out of them. the management should not have asked...

The 12 year old worker sent the 11 year old worker to notify the Mad Bush Farm Management (with an even badder attitude gleam due to the heat) that the Grim Reaper had come to pay a multitude of gold fish a personal visit..hence..a do it yourself Kitset Graveyard ...and with out the Resource consent at that...HOWEVER all was not lost declared the 12 year old worker as she now clomped around said silt laden murky pond in gumboots net in hand fishing out....oh never mind..you don't want to know. All was not lost..movement....and one fish was caught, Meantime Grandma had shown up during all of this saga and she decided she's come and land a hand..well Grandma supervised while the 12 year old worker continued to relocate the kitset graveyard int the pond and net as many of living goldfishy type souls as quickly as possible.. that meant the Management had to stop the editing of the grand production (our local town newspaper) shove on the leaking gumboots...useful in summer as ventilation holes but not in ponds...then decide what the heck to do with all of these darned goldfish. Meantime the cats had found the ...kitset graveyard relocation... Solution? Swipe the old bathtub from out of the tank paddock and use that for a temporary fishpond... lucky we have a spare trough... the survivors were grateful.

As for the 12 year old worker? She got her Twilight books to read...

Hey there's a Kiwi in our town!

Well no there isn't actually - not the bird one anyway. Lots of human ones running around. A group of some very talented adutls and kids got together and had created some wonderful mosiacs with a Kiwi theme on the planter tubs in the township's main street. I've been meaning to get some photos - we finally I did. And I visited Amy at the library while I was at it.We've had some rain but those Rain Gods had better sort their act out or we're going to end up looking like the Sahara Desert it is that dry. Dust everywhere right now. The pasture growth is in arrest because of the dry soil - moisture levels now are non existent. I've been editing so not much has been done around the farm although I have been naughty and have been doing some serious artwork.

The White King

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a UK based organisation called Lion Aid who asked me if I would consider donating them an artwork for a fundraising auction in the UK in March this year. I said yes. Above is the result. Titled "The White King" this is a portrait I did based on several reference photos I took of a white lion named Laduma at Zion Wildlife Gardens last year. I was really grateful to Sara for her help on getting all those wonderful photos. The team gave up their time for me, Amy and Mike to show us around and introduce us to the awesome big cats at the park. That is just something to remember always. I will be visiting again shortly to catch up with my wonderful friends at ZWG and to say hi to those incredible big cats and a little baboon named Foxy who I have a special love for. At 37 she is getting on in years. Foxy has nasal cancer so the team there are keeping a very close eye on her and making sure she gets the best of care. I hope to see her again sooner rather than later. Hope everyone is well and happy.