Zeke

Although having a cat isn't an integral part of living in the country, it wouldn't be fair to not mention Zeke.

Zeke moved to Taupo with me from Auckland, and didn't really take living in an apartment very well. He would do anything to not go outside, and was a bit grumpy really! When we moved to this place, Zeke stayed inside 2 days, and then he was settled! We let him out, and he hasn't looked back! As you can see from the picture, Zeke is really enjoying the outside... his white fur isn't enjoying it so much.

Zeke gets a bit of a hard time from the dogs, but I think secretly he enjoys it! There is also a weird situation going on with him and the sheep... they seem to be fascinated with each other and will go up to each other at the fence to have a smell. When we first caught Lamby and he was tied to the fence, he would call Zeke over when he saw him walking in the back yard.

Now that all the animals have been introduced, I can start updating about every day life!

Puppies

We went and picked up our 6 week old border collie Max a week after we moved in. He was a quiet sweet puppy for about a day, and then showed his true colours!

Max was born August 26, so is now 4 1/2 months. Having never had border collies before, it was quite a surprise the amount of energy he had for such a small boy! He is also very smart, he had learned to sit within a week, and now knows so many phrases: "dad's home", "where's Zeke?" (cat), "where's Coal?", "where's Eddie?" (toy), "go in the car", "where's lamby?", "sheep", "ready" (when I'm about to throw a toy", as well as all the usual sit, down, 5, kisses, wait, etc.

Unfortunately his energy and intelligence were hard to handle! He would go into the paddock to chase the sheep, which is good instinct, but not so good without supervision! When he was in the paddock, he would not come back... and he was very fast! I was getting to my wits end having to entertain him all day and keep him active and thinking... so we started on the lookout for another pup.


Coal was about 7 weeks or so when we got him. His father was a border collie, and mother a huntaway. He's very good at pulling the sad eyes like in the picture.

Coal is the complete opposite of Max. He's quiet, is happy to play but happy to sit down too, and nowhere near as smart. He was born 11 October (3 days before Lamby), so is now almost 3 months. He knows how to sit, and is getting good at down. He can also do 'wait', but I'm not sure if he understands, or if he just can't be bothered!

Max had just got big enough to not be able to fit through the fence into the paddocks... but Coal is not at that stage yet! He has been hit by John Campbell (which caused him a bit of pain and problems with peeing for a couple of days), and Mama who was trying to protect her lamb.

Max is showing great sheepdog abilities. From what we've seen, 6 months is the age to start training, but Dave has taken him a few times to chase the sheep, and he's incredible! He doesn't know directions, he just knows what his instinct says. He reads the sheep well, will move stalk forward and lay down when told... and is fast to catch up if they get past him! I will take photos next time he's practicing. We aren't sure about Coal yet, it might take him a bit longer. He seems to have some instinct, and this morning Dave came back from talking to the neighbour to find Coal had the sheep all in the corner (including Mama and lamb!), and was just sitting down in front of them.

Our dogs love the sheep, and especially Lamby is their best friend. Lamby especially is used to the dogs, and likes playing with them. Him and max would sometimes race up and down the fence, the Lamby puts his head down for the dogs to lick/gently bite through the fence.

That's enough about the dogs for now, I'm sure there will be plenty more posts about them, as they are a big part of our country life! I suppose Zeke should get a mention, but maybe tomorrow.

Chickens

Before we could get chickens, we had to build them a chicken coop. It didn't really take long, and it's quite a decent sized place.

Our first 4 chickens (3 of them are in the photo above) came from a place in Taupo that sells eggs as free range. The ones we got were apparently getting old and were being replaced, so they were cheap! 1 of them was fairly sick for quite a while, and unfortunately Dave found her dead this morning.

These chickens, along with 2 others we got from the people with the Dorpers, are very friendly! They will sit down for us when we go into the coop and put their wings out waiting for a pat. One of them appears to be the boss, and we call her Bishop Tamaki (it was better than barebum, as she was missing feathers when she arrived).


Apart from our normal chickens, we also got some chickens that were interesting breeds. Dave really wanted some Araucana chickens as he's had them before and they lay eggs with green shells. We got 4 Araucana's, 2 lavender (they are the light grey looking ones), 1 blue and 1 black. While we were there, we also got 2 Orpingtons... they are supposed to be very friendly, but they aren't!

As far as eggs go, none of the Araucana's have laid any yet! The Orpington's certainly aren't regular... but our first old hens keep us going!

We will end up getting more eventually, and would like to end up with free range chickens in the end.

The last photo I will post is the size range of eggs we get... starting with the eggs from the little chickens that have just started laying, normal egg, then giant egg! (ouch..)



Tomorrow... the dogs :)

Finally... quiet sheep!

Our sheep population double instantly when the Dorper girls arrived. At that time we had Lamby, Mama, and jumping ram (who was tied up).

The 3 girls are various ages.. the oldest, named Suzy Haezelwood, is the mother to the next one down named Lyn Mason. The youngest of the 3 is named Susan Boyle. After we had the girls, we went and picked up the ram, John Campbell. I think he is about 5 months or so now.

As you can see from the picture, these are the sheep we dreamed of! They are friendly and quiet, we can move them using a food bucket, they will eat bread out of our hands, and come over for a pat. You can also see that John Campbell and Lamby are best friends (they are the 2 closest to the camera).

Suzy and Lyn especially don't have the "right" markings, although there don't seem to be many out there that do. Susan Boyle almost does, and John Campbell does, so hopefully as time goes on we will get some lambs that are "right". Though, to be honest, we aren't really worried. There aren't many people around who care about sheep markings, and if they do, we probably don't want to deal with them!

The Dorper's also shed their wool, as Suzy is doing at the moment. They do seem to have problems with their feet, but we would much rather maintain them than have mental Arapawa's around!

The Story So Far

Around september 09, my husband and I decided we wanted a change of lifestyle, and decided to move from our modern apartment with too many neighbours to a lifestyle block about 10mins from Taupo. Dave has lived in the country previously, but this is all new to me!

At the moment on our 1ha, we have 7 sheep (dorper and arapawa, more about that later), 12 chickens, 2 puppies and a cat. I will introduce our past and present animals another time. We do not keep any of our animals for food, they are purely pets. We chose unusual sheep so we can breed from them and sell some of the offspring.

I would love to look back on this blog in a few years and see where we started from. I don't know that anyone will find this interesting, but this is our life at the moment, and I'd love to record this time in history for us! Let's hope I keep up with the writing..