Living with Livestock - an acquired taste!

G'Day all and welcome :-)

I love my livestock. It's addictive even. I find it very hard to say no to a pair of dark brown eyes, cute cloven hooves, or a set of soft and glossy feathers. There's just something in me that is inherently drawn to keeping animals. So much so that I'm forbidden to go to a cattle auction yard unaccompanied - since I already have a menagerie at home - and even then when properly escorted I manage to sneak one or two in the car.

I've been guilty of telling the quick lie "we've had that one for ages" or possibly "oh that one, you're just noticing her because she's moulted" and of course the famous "but honey, it was a giveaway". 

     

I've been known to go up the mountain for a bobby bull calf to put on my cow, and come home with a pair of heifers instead (but they were so cheap!) and I'm certainly known to be a sucker for visiting the sale pens at the country markets, the cash just forces it's way out of my wallet and into my hand, I swear!

I'm the person who gets calls from friends whenever they have an animal related question, or better yet, when they've come across a stray. Need milk or colostrum for a suddenly orphaned calf? I'm your girl. Need bags of CMPK because it's 2am and your cow has milk fever but the vet is going to cost you your first born? Yep that's me too. 

Somehow got possession of a stray sheep that wandered onto your property from god-only-knows-where and have no idea what to do with it? Morgan will know, she's got livestock, right?

And that's the thing. At some stage during my foray into farming, I went from having "a couple of chooks and a dog" to OWNING LIVESTOCK.

It used to be that when someone said the words "owns cattle" I imagine a weathered man in faded blue jeans, well worn boots and a wide brimmed Akubra. Stockwhip curled at the ready, perhaps leaning against a post & rail cattle chute, with a fire pit nearby - branding irons aglow upon hot coals.

I certainly wouldn't have conjured up an image of myself in my present state. A 30 years old, mother-of-one, in knee high gumboots (or barefoot, often as not) and a long braid falling down my back. Have to say I do kinda rock the jeans & Akubra look - though I don't wear my hat when I'm milking, it would just annoy Annabelle.

Owning livestock, (and at the moment I've got two cows, one beefy heifer calf, a horse, about 50 chickens, 4 turkeys, two great danes and a 3yo toddler girl) means a great deal of chores. Lots of work that the "normal" suburban mum doesn't have to fit into her day. 

It makes for long days when you're milking at 5am, before you get ready for work (& kindy) as well as collecting eggs in the afternoon, alongside the regular stuff like doing the laundry. 

I have different shoes for home and work - because anything worn in my front yard is likely to have some kind of manure embedded in the sole. Not to mention making sure I don't run late and have to throw out hay while I'm in my work clothes, nothing worse than the telltale itch of lucerne twigs in your shirt!

It's worth the work for someone like me though. When you're drawn to keep animals you don't notice the odour of a freshly fallen cowpie. You simply get used to collecting it in the barrow from the places likely to be frequented by visitors, and putting it in the veg patch, ready for the next bed to be dug over. The crow of a cockerel in the dark hours of the morning doesn't wake me anymore - but the dull thumping of hooves at 3am, signifying something chasing the stock in the paddock will.

And I don't mind being the "farmer" friend. People ask me about things to do with the cows, or the chooks, or the garden - and I'm all too happy to share what I know. 

It's a delight to be able to provide someone else with eggs from my beautiful free range, happy chickens, because unlike them, I can own livestock. Or to be able to go to a barbeque and take some prime cuts of meat from the last beast we butchered, home grown, happy beef - because I can own livestock. 

It's not for everyone, but it sure is for me. 

M

Beans Beans the magical.... legume!

G'day all and welcome.

Have I mentioned I'm an avid veggie gardener? I grow a few different types of veggies, and I'm willing to give most anything a go, but my favourites are pumpkins and other cucurbits, and the whole beta vulgaris family, which is beetroot and silverbeets etc. I always have corn growing, and tend to swap between sweet corn for eating, and some of the older varities for flour or cornbread. 

One of the plant varities I always have to have growing, is beans! Green beans, beans for drying and then cooking into mexican style food.... it's one of the real benefits of living in QLD, is that we always have enough warmth and sunlight for beans unless it's the very coldest part of winter. I'm not a fan of the less-hardy french type or bush beans, I like good old fashioned runner beans (or pole beans, or climbing beans... depending on where you come from!).

Here's a shot of the bottom of my bean trellis, I sprinkled a handful of Zebra Beans along here when I pulled the old stalks off two weeks or so ago, and look at the little beanstalks grow! No wonder the story of Jack and the Beanstalk wasn't called "Jack and the Grapevine" instead, eh?

In fact these Zebra Beans are so prolific and easy to grow I have them coming up in a couple of spots in the garden - where the wind or maybe a bird has landed a pod from the original stalks. In a couple of those spots I'll just pop in a couple of bamboo sticks, and make a crude bean-teepee. If they're happy to grow, I'm happy to eat them!

Beans don't need much in the way of high-nitrogen fertilizers, as they get it from the air - and are known to improve nitrogen content in the soil they're grown in. this makes them a perfect companion for things like corn, which is a heavy feeder. 

The native americans used the three sisters method - growing corn, then planting beans at the base to grow up the stem and fertilize the soil, and then planting pumpkins or squash as a ground cover to keep the weeds under control (as well as make pumpkins!). This is an excellent example of harmony in nature - companion planting at it's very best.

I'll add to this blog a new picture here and there as these beanstalks climb their trellis and start producing. 

Then I might even add some of my favourite ways to cook them!

M

Welcome to my farm... Glenkeachie Homestead.

Hi there.

My name is Morgan, and I'm a farmer.

It's not my fault really, you see my father is an avid vegetable gardener, as was his before him. My mother has always had chickens in the backyard, and had a milking cow (or four...lol) when I was young. So it's natural progression I guess. In my genetics, to be inclined to keep livestock, and a veg patch of my own.

As an adult, I started of course, with the humble backyard chook. Or six. Then a dozen, then 20 or so... Chickens are notoriously a "Gateway Livestock" and should be treated with extreme caution for new homesteaders. They're addictive you see. To date I've found no 12-step program to keep me away from farming!

Over the last ten years or so I've experimented. I've tried duck (muscovy ducks) and decided that I love them, but that I need a bigger farm to keep them as I'd like to, so we've none at the moment. I've tried sheep (dorper x) and found that sheep were very flighty and prone to panic. I'd like to try them again in the future, when we can keep them in a paddock just for the sheep. 

I've also tried goats... boer goats. Let me tell you something about goats, they're smart. They work out which room you sleep in, and then stand outside just before dawn and bleat loud enough to wake the dead... ask me how I know! Let's just say it was a "tasty experiment" in the end, and goat keeping is another thing I've shelved for the future.

So our current little plot of paradise is home to my milking cow Annabelle (who is a jersey x brown swiss) and her calf at foot (a beef cross, by a Santa Gertrudis sire) plus the two dairy heifers I bought last year to foster on her. and that's the cow herd. 

Then there is Reuben, my Waler x QH gelding. He's a beautiful paddock ornament that I don't get nearly as much chance to ride as I'd like! But he likes to hang out with the cows, and he likes pats, snuggles, general grooming, and bananas. Don't come between Reuben & bananas!!

We also keep two great danes, Ivory and Paroo. You'll get to see fun photos of them in my blog, largely because Ivory is a photobomber... Level : EXPERT. The pair of them like to supervise anything I'm doing outside, from hanging out the towels to digging in the garden - they help out where they can.

The poultry.... as before mentioned, are addictive and prolific. I keep my addiction under control by selling pullets (young hens) and selling eggs to friends and family for a meagre contribution to my grain bill. I do a sell off every so often, usually when someone asks me "how many chickens do you have?" and I actually have to count them, and I realise I have WAAAAAY too many.

In addition to the chicken population, we keep American Bronze Turkeys. They're one of the heritage breeds, so they're not the biggest meat variety out there, but they are very pretty and they seem to keep the snakes and hawks away. 

I believe I've covered everyone, although I'd love to add more creatures to my menagerie, we're on a very small block for a farm. It's approx 2.4 acres you see, more of a "farmlet" or a "farmish yard", and the worst part of that... it's a rental.  We're working towards a new farm, hopefully in the not too distant future. So for the moment I'll share my tips on living frugally, keeping livestock in a smaller space, and keeping a small vegetable garden.

Hope you enjoy!!

M