Em Nau Farm BLOG

December is a Busy Time

Over the past month we have acquired two very handsome gentlemen at Em Nau.

The first arrival was Sam, who along with Julius, will be our resident bucks.  Sam came to us from NSW and on his first day was put in with the does as the buck’s pen wasn’t quite finished.  Brett showed him his sleeping accommodation and where the water and food areas were BUT he went straight to work and mounted one of the does – much to our amusement.  We now expect a large influx of kids come Easter.

Our second arrival was Doug, a very fine bull, who we have staying with us for a short holiday until the end of January.  Doug has proved very popular with our cows who are treating him like a rock star.  We expect, come September 2013, we will have plenty of tiny hooves jumping and twisting around the paddocks.

The other major point of note was Heather catching, taming and releasing her first serpent.  In her words

Ok - to the more experienced and significantly braver people - I will fess up and disclose that yes, it was ONLY a carpet snake, but it was still a snake. And in my books, a snake is a snake is a snake - and the only good one is an elsewhere one!

This must have been the snake we saw curled up high in the poinciana tree about a week or so ago. I spotted it/him/her late in the afternoon, and Brett wisely said/decided that if it was still there in the morning, he would catch and relocate it. (Yeah, good onya.) Of course, it wasn't there in the morning and we've/I've been waiting for it to show up again ever since. And so this morning, when I went to feed the chooks, the new chickens (about size of a fluffy pigeon) were all huddled together and looking most upset - then I spotted said snake with two pigeon sized lumps in his/her/its guts - no wonder they were upset.

So, picture this - keeping in mind I've never done this before - I grab a chaff bag and 2 rakes with the metal prongs - oh, yes, and there's a slight breeze blowing.... I didn't want to - ok, I was too scared to touch the damned thing, so trying to manoeuvre the chaff bag to stay open and close to the ground, while it's flailing in the breeze, and trying to hold 2 rakes to keep the damned slithery thing still - and not too close to me - and in a position to as to enter said chaff bag, and also wondering if I'm gonna make it angry and it's gonna do a quick slither my way and latch onto the hairy freckly leg! Oh yeah, it was a barrell of laughs! - No.

Anyway, after much swearing and flailing of chaff bag and manoeuvring of rakes and quick-step dancing on my part, I managed to get said snake into aforementioned chaff bag, and b*gger me - the little t*rd (he wasn't that little) was holding onto the opening of the chaff bag with the last couple of skinny pointy slithery inches of his/her/its tail - but after a shake or several, ALL snake was finally in the bottom of the bag. Given my significant stash and array of cable ties, I chose an appropriate snake/chaff bag one - secured the bag under the mat in the back of the ute, then we went for a drive.

It was while I was driving up the driveway and then onto an adjacent postcode and council region, I started wondering HOW I was to release said slithery thing without it doing a quick U-bolt and coming for me... Hmmm....

But all's well that ends well. Sneaky double-chicken-sized-fat-guts slithery thing is now slithering far far far away from here. The remainder of the little pigeon sized chickens can be happily pecked and taunted by the bigger older chooks in the pen.

And I can reflect upon how it wasn't that bad, and I might even be able to do it again - but only when I really have to do so....

Have a happy Christmas and New Year

Brett and Heather