Should a circumstance arise when Giselle and Graham must leave the farm for a day or longer, I have the pleasure of caring for and spending quality time with the Marama animals (excluding the sheep and cattle in the paddocks, of course), which are all lovely non-humanoids. This means

Missy (house cow)

Mick (Missy’s calf)

Spot (female lamb in middle)

Sherlock (male lamb, whom I named)

Watson (youngest male lamb, whom I also named)

Rose (herding dog)

Kuna (Rose’s puppy)

Hatch (huntaway dog)

Ted (Graham’s mate)

Bentley (rooster) and his Ladies (hens; there are actually 16 now)

Clyde (female house cat)

Tiger (Clyde’s kitten)

Wizard (male house cat)

…and I rehearse our harmony together; and boy, our songs are long because of the schedule they require. This is how they are composed (original instructions from Giselle):

8 am – 1. Feed lambs; take their bedding out of their drum to hang out to dry on fence; check they have water.
2. Milk Missy; fill her water bucket up.
3. Let dogs out; put Kuna & Rose together with their chains, then onto dog lead which is hanging on kennel; fill up their water bowls (nearest door); use small shovel hanging up beside water tap to clean out any mess the dogs have made.
4. Fill cat bowls once inside.
5. Then walk all the dogs to the top of the hill (airstrip)! If hot weather, on the way back, there is a round water trough on the left hand side on flat piece of road near the horses; let them all drink and swim if they want to! Walk for an hour; they need it! Once back, tie the dogs up under the large tree if dry or in garage if wet; give them a bone or pig’s ear to chew on; Kuna can have milk or eggs or something! Make sure they can access water to drink and let off every two hours for break/toilet.

Have a cold drink, cup of coffee, play with the lambs!

Lunchtime – say 1:00 pm? 1. Let chickens out; put some food scraps into their netted outdoor area; collect eggs for house.
2. Collect our mail & newspapers from the letterbox; feel free to read the newspapers!
3. Take dogs for a wander but away from Missy!
4. Feed lambs their mid-day meal. 🙂

Around 4:00 pm – Take dogs for another long walk.

Around 5:00 pm – Milk Missy.

Around 7:00 pm – 1. Put chickens to bed!
2. Put dogs into their kennels with fresh water, some dog roll [say 3-4 inches wide] and biscuits [4-6 each]; take care to keep well away from Missy!
3. Ted gets fed once they are all done; he can have some milk, meat scraps or egg and some dog biscuits from jar in pantry (looks like dog food).
4. Feed lambs last time.
5. Fill cat bowls for night.

Needless to say, there may not be other people staying in my cottage at the moment, but I am definitely not alone or hardly ever catch a stroke of boredom. The animals keep me on my toes!

Some even come to visit.

“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”  ~Albert Einstein