Welcome to Arthur Creek Farm.

Yes, it has been quite some time since I posted a blog about the progress of our farm life.

To bring you up to speed, here is a quick summary that is also jam packed with animal cuteness!
The biggest distraction to my lack of blog posts is that we found more animals to take care of, and what better thing to do on a farm than to have animals. We already had Watson and Cassie our cats. At the end of November, I bought a complete beehive with brood and a super. Luckily, they mostly take care of themselves. Early December after a fleeting trip down to Stanthorpe via the Gold Coast, we introduced two beautiful Maremma puppies to the family. They were twelve weeks old, and we named the boys Arthur (after the farm) and Merlin.

They are livestock guardian dogs, and we needed to bond with them and train them to work. We went on many wonderful forest walks, and they were kind of good at staying with us. They enjoyed eating the kangaroo poo and would dash off on a chase if they spotted a kangaroo, who would successfully get away. As time went on, they disappeared for a little bit longer than we liked and we decided to keep them on leash, for their safety. We didn’t get our first goats till February. The dogs were three months old and had settled in at home, finding under the house is a good place to snooze during the day and they lay out on the lawn at night, keeping a vigil. Almost a year later they are a bit spoilt and still not out with the goats in the paddock, as we wanted but we do like that they keep an eye on the house and as the house is elevated from the paddocks, they do oversee the welfare of the herd and bark if there are any intruders. Mainly bandicoots and kangaroo, maybe feral dogs. Definitely the odd goanna.

So, as I mentioned, we bought our first goats in February. The boys.

Jason found them on Gumtree and the eldest Terry was seven months old. He is a handsome boy. This is his one year birthday picture…

The next in line, one month younger, is Darren but we didn’t like that name for him and considering his colouring we named him Gandalf the Grey. Gandalf or Gandy for short is very affectionate and will win anyone over with his charm. And this is his one year birthday photo!

The next two were twins. They were a part of triplets, but one was stillborn. We named them Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain. Keeping with the Arthurian legend. Unfortunately, we wanted to wether them, so they would not go into rut. Sir Lancelot was healthy but as he literally lost his balls, he also didn’t grow as he normally would and is now a bit under size, we didn’t realise this at the time. His brother wasn’t well in the first place and despite our extensive efforts to make him healthy. We ended up taking him to the vet to put him to sleep. Ironically, he cost more to dispose of than to buy! But we did try hard to help and gave him food, vitamins, lots of cuddles and tummy rubs. It was heartbreaking but our first taste of survival on the farm. Its life and things happen, one has to accept that. I am happy to report all our boys are extremely healthy.
Only a week later, we found Rose or Rosemary as Jason prefers. She is a grey landrace breed and had two daughters, who we named Daisy and Lily. Rosie is a wonderful mum. She was also pregnant!

Another few days and we brought home “The Models!” These beautiful dairy girls know how to stride around the paddock and look fabulous! A little shy at first and I remember getting almost knocked out by one as she was anxious to get out of the trailer and I was inside with them as we let one out at a time or at least that was the plan. These girls, Britany, Taffy, Kimba and Jasmine completed our ‘family’. They will always be with us.

So to complete our menagerie, I had to get chickens! We bought three from a local farmer, which Jason dubbed very original names such as White, Brown and Blue (more a blue grey). They were supposedly around fifteen weeks old. After a few weeks Blue ended up being a boy. The other two hens and almost a month later we were given our first egg! White was going well giving us one a day, then Brown joined in. We were overjoyed! And that completed our very busy February! More catch ups to come tomorrow. 😀