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Showing posts from November, 2016

Dogs, Ducks and Death

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Caretaker Farm has had dogs since Dorothy and Audrey moved onto the farm in 1990. Those international visitors who have stayed with us over the past 23 years will remember them  well starting with Minty, Bart, Duchess, Maxie, Lucy, Frodo, Jack, Gypsy and Ruby in that order of arrival. Also there were the 4 lots of puppies bred by Lucy, Gypsy and Ruby and then sold by my daughter Tamarah, (whose dogs were bred), to people she vetted so carefully and kept contact with over the years.         Duchess, having a beer! The various Wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) who have stayed and worked on the farm over the past 23 years have walked, played with, washed and loved the dogs. Interestingly this farm seems to have attracted to it international visitors who are very tolerant of dogs although we have had a few with cat allergies who have not been able to stay for long due to their reaction to cat hairs in the wwoofer house. Part of the farm daily routine when we had 6 dogs

Caretaker Farm Miracle

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 This evening around 7.45pm I decided to quickly visit the chicken house and collect the eggs as it has been two days since I did this and we have a couple of broody hens who are sitting on the fresh laid eggs and keeping them warm so the eggs start to develop and therefore I should have done this yesterday...anyway thats another story... So in the half light I put my hand under under one of the broody hens, taking great care that she didnt peck me, picked up the other loose eggs in the boxes  and then reached under yet another broody hen to extract the eggs when I felt a soft body of another type of animal. I admit to freaking out at first thinking that the body I felt was that of a rat as it had a tail and then found to my surprise that it was a kitten and that actually there were three kittens all keeping warm under this broody chicken. What a shock-how did they get there? This chicken house is shut up with wire and metal walls and full of about 35 hens and one rooster? There