No goodbye

big black's left the farm, half a day before scheduled.

the death truck was in the area and so stopped by the farm to pick her up before they were on their way to the slaughter house in Leknes.

And i wasn't there to see her off.
which probably is a good thing, coz i think i'd probably have a mental breakdown if i were there to see her being carted away in a truck to her death.

tomorrow when i get back it'd just be an empty stall.

I wasn't even this sad when pan pan died last dec.

Seeing red

Last friday, i finally finish painting the whole cabin. Coz of the weather, it took me 6 afternoons over a span of almost an entire month to get it done. (by the way, that blue blue sky above was the first after 5 days of rain and cloudy skies)

Check out the verandah railings. Those individual planks almost killed me. Gotta paint both front and back and go round the sides as well.... *faint*

Now the cabin's spanking new. You can practically see the light bouncing off it.

Oh and check out the little table i painted at the bottom of the steps... Uh-huh... pretty detail right?!?!?!?! Unni was so surprised when she saw it, coz she had only mentioned it in passing to paint it so it'd look part of the cabin.

The season of painting is here as you can see. So far, we've charged through 5 cans of paint already. And i've just opened the 6th. Inhaling paint under the beating sun... that's just a leathal combination which leaves me with a headache the rest of the day.

Thank goodness for cloudy days....


oh yah, and let it be known, that the Gimsoy RED SPIDER was invented by me!

2nd month-sary

Today marks my 2nd month of work on the farm.

Work's ending this weekend.

Means no more getting up early!!

Staying indoors

Last saturday was the last time the cows spent their day in the field. Coz there's no more fresh grass for them to graze on and coz the weather's getting cold, it's now time to bring them into the cow house and keep them there, all the way through winter. That's months and months of staying indoors in a tiny stall!

That was a rainy, gloomy day. I go out and all the cows were already standing at the exit area desperately waiting to be brought into the warm and toasty cow house. So there they've gotta cross the road and head back up the slope to the cow house.




Now that they are indoors, also means that there's more work to do getting the grass to them every morning and evening so that they can eat 24/7 not stop, as they always do.

Which means i gotta get from this...
(that's a new ball of grass Inge's bringing onto the grass machine which churns out the grass onto the wagon below for me to cart away)

To this...



The whole centre aisle has to be filled with grass for the cows to eat. And they eat a hell lot. We go through about one ball each day. That's me moving up to 700kg (about 28-30 wagon trips) of grass in a day for those hungry eating machines.

Berry seasonnn!

Summer and autumn are berry picking seasons. One after another, berries take turns to be in season, so you can pretty much end up picking berries continuously for a few months starting from end of july till now.

Multebaer (cloudberry) comes first,
followed by Blaabaer (blueberry),
Rips (redcurrent) and finally Tyttebaer (lingonberry)

If you'd recall, we've covered Multebaer and Blaabaer previously, so now's Rips and Tyttebaer's turn.

Every Saturday Unni and I head down to the local shop to get the groceries. Thing about living in a small place, there are no rules. Which means that you can ask the shop owner to leave stuff outside the door for you to collect after hours, get stuff and pay later, buy half a block of cheese, and pick as many rips you want from behind the shop. The rips trees were located behind the shop. I went ahead and started first while Unni went on with the grocery shopping. I got to the back of the shop and it was berry heaven I tell ya. Rips were everywhere!!



Unni and I picked and picked and picked, 2 buckets full and the rips on the trees still looked as much!


Well as usual, after berry picking, it’s time to berry sort… *YAWNNNNN*

After an hour and a half of sorting. It was done! *YAY*


It’s tyttbaer season now. So the other weekend, Unni, Bcc and I head to the mountains to pick tyttebaer. Tyttbaer grows close to the ground in clumps, and coupled with some of the ground turning red coz of the changing seasons, it was difficult to spot them.


And as usual, the thing with picking berries in the wild, there’s always the pretend-berry nearby.
bogus berry on the right. Tyttebaer on the left. It's a much darker red with green leaves.

At the end of 2 hours, we hadn’t picked much. Maybe it’s coz bcc and I kept getting distracted with some surprise blueberries we found still growing in the area. So not really focused with the picking.


At the end of the day, we pick this much only.

That’s after 2 hours of work, with the 3 of us. I think we should have just gone to the shop to buy the berries, coz they sell it for KR39 (SGD10) per kg there.

But then again, freshly picked berries are a different class of berries altogether okayyyyyyy!

0481

NEWSFLASH!!!!

Latest news is that 0495 is gonna be saved from the gallows. Apparently Unni went back to think about it after i told her that she was one of my favourites and she decided that they could keep it, coz she was still considered a young cow and her milk this morning wasn't too bad. so she'll live.

BUT IN RETURN, 0481 is gonna go!!! Apparently her milk ain't so good.

BWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

she's another one of my favourites. She's code named the 'Big black' coz she's big and i mean bigger than other cows and black... DUH.

A while back when all the other cows were still on 1.5 scoops of feed, she was the only milking cow getting less. 1 scoop each time only. There she would be eagerly waiting for me to dish out her feed and she'd get only 1 scoop.

She's had problems with her legs, so she's always walking very much slower than the rest. Each time i walk the cows in from the field in, she'd always be at the back, slowly trudging along. But coz no cow ever walks alone, i'd have to wait for her to come and walk with her into the cow house.

taken on the last day the cows were in the field,
that's her, slowly walking right at the back, while the rest were already at the door

It's probably good that her last days was spent in the cow house, so she wouldn't have to make the daily trips in and out of the cow house, coz she'd always take one step at a time, the others would have already gone into the field and charged towards the green grass, and there she would be, just making her way to the field.

that's her at the back. as usual


So one cow is saved, and another going to the gallows.

I wonder if cows know when they get to the slaughter house.

Well, i hope that when the time comes, she won't be scared.

The most popular room in the house

Recently Graatas has been hanging out in my room quite alot.

That cat really sleeps i tell you. For 5 hours at a shot that kind. One afternoon, i go to my room around 3+ in the afternoon and find the 2 sleeping on my bed. Maybe they like the red woollen cover that's on my bed. It keeps the heat in... warm and toasty!!!


after clearing the garage with Unni, having dinner, going for the evening milk, taking a shower and going back to my room,


There's a difference between a cat just lounging around taking a quick nap and another which is in deep sleep. The former, wakes up when it hears the slightest movement of anything aorund, the latter, can practically sleep through a thunderstorm. Graatas was in deep deep sleep, there i was in my room moving things around, banging here and there and he didn't even budge.

Finally he gets up at around 9pm, and starts to do a little self-cleaning, Mitzy comes by and joins in the self-grooming too.


when our Divo was done cleaning himself, he just hopped off and left, no doubt going out for a night kill. Not even a word of thanks for sleeping on my bed the whole day loh!


a minute later, Mitzy leaves too.

Rining in autumn

Summer’s gone. Autumn’s here, which means trees are not only turning yellow, but the temperature’s going down into the single digit range. And according to bcc, it’s gonna stay that way.

The other morning, Unni tells me that we’ve got the first freeze of the season. It was cold cold cold over the night and the ground froze. No wonder I had seen ice on the grass ball Inge brought in during the morning milk. Well bcc says it's common, well not where i come from! of course it deserves a post by itself loh.


Good thing that Bcc’s got heating in the bathroom floors but I keep telling Bcc that she should invest in a toilet seat warmer!

Going high tech

Check out the newest techno equipment in bcc's house man!

That's a DVD recorder!!!!!!!!!!

Which means you can record tv programmes and burn them into DVDs. There's even a 160gb hard disk for you to store stuff in it! You can even zoom in onto the images!

Now is that cooooooooooooooooooool or what!!!!

Now i can watch the V for Vendetta dvd that bcc bought... which by the way has been BANNED in sg!

Deja vu

So last Wednesday the black rabbit succumbed to the cold weather one day before all the rabbits were taken into the warm and toasty barn.

The next day, Unni discovers this!!

Baby rabbits born to the cage-mate of the dead rabbit. The mother rabbit was much older and about twice the size of the male baby black rabbit somemore! It's scandalous in the rabbit world i tell ya.

Anyhow, the mother rabbit made a small depression in the grass, took some of her fur and put her babies inside. Double warm and toasty! All pink and naked and cuddled together, it was difficult to make out how many there were. But there was definitely an all black one amongst them. Unni was then planning to wait for them to grow a little bigger before giving one away to the goat farmer who has been asking for a rabbit.For the next few days, we leave the babies alone, giving the nursing mother more food and water.

4 days later, after the morning milk, Unni goes up to the barn to feed the rabbits. She calls me up and when I get there, the rabbit babies are all dead! So we took them out of the cage and took them to the field to be buried.

Well if you wanted to know, there were going to be 2 whites, 1 black and a spotted black and white rabbit.

After all the dead rabbit drama, we area back to square one. Well almost. Current stock take stands at

2 black and whites
2 whites
1 brown
1 grey

Déjà vu or what. Once again, I was the last human to see it. Well bcc and I actually. I’m a jinxed rabbit killer man.

0495

Yesterday i get news that 0495 is heading for the slaughter house.

One of her teats ain't doing so well, and she's only being milked on 3 now. The only thing that can save her now is a calf. and she's not carrying one. So instead of putting her on Penicilin for a week or 2, she's going off to the slaughter house. Anyway there are many more pregnant young cows out in the fields, so she's not desperately needed.

0495's one of my favourite cows. She's always the last one to be unbuckled when the cows are let out to the fields and she'd always politely waits for all the other cows to pass her before she backs out. Even when coming in, coz her stall is nearest the door, she usually walks at the back and is one of the last ones to get in.

She's the last milking cow to be fed, but always waits patiently for her food to be served unlike other cows which are desperately trying to break free of their buckles to charge to the food.

Oh and even though she's one of the dirtiest cows, she never kicks me when i wash her udder. considering the fact that i've been kicked at least once by almost every cow. That's GOOOOODDDD ok!

Today's (thurs) is my off day and i usually return to the farm the morning after my off day. But coz she's going to be carted off early Friday morning, i'm going back to the farm tonight so i can be there to see her off tomorrow.


I washed her udder yesterday evening and was thinking 'this is the last time i'm gonna be washing it!!!! BBBBBWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

Tomorrow shall be a day of mourningggggggggg...........

Silly Billes!

Tourist season’s over. Which means no cleaning toilets, no changing bedsheets and no kids! No kids also means lonely times for the 3 Silly Billies. Coz there isn’t anyone who’d come by to bring them for walks. Which explains why they always make a hell lot of noise each time any of us leave the house. During times like these, the only solution is to bring the goats away. The goats don’t actually belong to the farm. Unni rents them from a goat farm near Leknes. It’s mainly for the tourists and the kids during the tourist season. So now that the tourist season is over, the goats can go off to.

Saturday, Unni decides that it’s time for the goats to go off. After going to the local shop, we go home and get the goats ready for the road trip. Coz they’d probably pee and poop in the car, it was decided that they’d be traveling in big black garbage bags.

Then began the great goat adventure.

First thing was to line the car with garbage bags so that they don’t dirty the new car.

Then we had to figure a way to get the goats into the bags. Coz all 3 of them would come running to you when they see humans, we tied 2 of them to the fence first and dealt with the Silly Billy No. 3.

Coz he’s the smallest, it was pretty easy to get him into the bag. But being stuck in a bag, with only his head sticking out, I guess he must have gotten pretty stressed, so we brought in some animal feed to calm him down. Bad decision, coz he was soooo excited, he kept trying to run over to the feed and of course ended up tripping himself and falling over onto the ground.

Silly Billy.

Mitzy comes by to check out what all the commotion was about


So after getting him into the bag, we carried him over to the car and tied him to the back seat. He was the easiest. The rest we had a harder time, coz they were much bigger and fought back. But bring out the animal feed and everything works in your way… well, almost. After about an hour wrestling the 3 Silly Billies, we get all of them in the back of the car. The most difficult was Silly Billy No 1. Not just coz he’s the biggest, but coz he fought back a lot. He broke free of the bag, in the end we tied his legs together, which no doubt he broke free of soon after. After a lot of rope tying in the back, we got Silly Billy No 2 and 3 sitting in the corner with their heads in a bucket of feed and Silly Billy No 3 in another corner struggling to break free of his ropes.



The farm is located on the way to Leknes, about half hour drive away. After some turns, Silly Billy No 1 collapsed on the other 2 and coz he was tied up, he couldn’t get up and so let out a ‘blehhhhh’ and just lay there. With some help from me, he managed to stand up. Which was good, coz he was comfortable and kept quiet the rest of the way.


Aalan Gard is the goat farm located in ulu-ville. It has to be the ulu-est farm I’ve ever seen I tell you. You turn left from the main road, drive drive drive drive drive drive drive and drive and then you reach the farm. And it’s just the farm, a mountain behind it and nothing anywhere else for at least 2km.Knut comes out to meet us. We release the Silly Billies from the maze of ropes and he takes them into goat house. Of course I had to go take a peek.

that's Silly Billy No 1 dragged against his will into the goat house

The farm has 1 milking cow, 1 horse, a couple of sheep, a rabbit and about 120 goats, about 95 of them are milking goats. Like cows, they are milked twice a day. A process which takes about 1.5 hours. 18 goats can be lined up to be milked at once. Since they are much smaller, they only give about 1.5L of milk, which means up to 6 goats can be milked at one go and by the time the last milking machine is put on, the first one is probably ready to be taken out. Emily the Dutch working guest does the milking (she does the milking OK!) and tells me each time she has to wrestle with the baby goats which rush up to the milking goats to drink the milk. Then it’s a race to see who gets to the milking goat more quickly, coz she only gets 20s window to catch the baby goat before it drinks up all the milk from a goat.



that's where the goats line up in the stalls to be milked. the metal bowls is where the food is placed for them to have s quick meal while being milked

milk tank. much smaller one compared to the one that Unni has which can hold up to 1200L of milk

milk machines. Goats only have 2 teats unlike cows which have 4. Knut has 6 milking machines.

So while Unni and Knut were talking, I was going around taking pics of the goats. Bet ya didn’t know goats came in so many colours and sizes.






that's Silly Billy No 1 trying to challange another bigger goat in a game of head-butting

After, we head to the farm shop where Knut shows us where he makes the cheese. The budding entrepreneur even has a backyard where herbs and spices are grown and sold in the shop as well. So that’s how you become self-sustaining in ulu-ville.


We sat down for tea and a round of cheese-testing. Tea with a tinge of peppermint freshly harvested from the garden ok! And check out these cool goat napkins which came along with it!


that's the fresh peppermint leaves hanging in the middle


making brown cheese on the farm!


And then surprise surprise! Unni buys me a goat skin! Kinda like an end of work present. Apparently the goat is skinned on the farm and is sent away to be treated. It took a whole year before they got the skins back.


With so many animals, herb and spice gardens, a farm shop, it’s wayyyyyyyy cool to work on a farm like Knut’s. I was telling Bcc to secretly get me a job on the farm next year!

Oh by the way if you were wondering if i'd lose the 3 Silly Billies in the sea of Silly Billies...

WRONG!


ha, that's coz they kept following us around!