BoxVale Farm: Farmers are REAL busy!

A farmer's day:

*Wake up at 6/7am depending on weather (now is winter) or lazy-ness

*Feed chicken, ducks and turkey

*Feed the three dogs, Preston, Missie & Magsie

*Feed PIGGIES with boiled sorghum and barley (or wheat) which was cooked the day before

`

*Trying to block the 18 piglets from stealing the feed

*Put a fire to cook the sorghum for tomorrow

That's the big boiler to cook the sorghum & barley for the piggies. Using firewood, it will take half a day to cook it.

*Feed the horse which had a foal. There are around 40 horses in this farm. The others will feed on their own.

*Feed milking cows and milk three of the cows, Salsa, Dutchess & Grazette. Only one cow, Jam who feed on her own and we don’t milk her.  

*Using the balance of strength and fingers position to grab the cow’s tits =P

*Oohhh sore hands…. But actually there is some skill to help beginner, get the calf to suck first then only milk so that the milk flows more easily.

*After that, let all of them out to the magic paddock and we always say: ”Go, Go shopping!”, and sometimes we PETER always sings an advertisement song: “Shopping time, shopping center, there is so much grass!”. Hahaha, hope they can understand us…

*Strain the freshly squeezed milk

*Feed the three cats, Sammy, Tim Tam and Meow Weow

*Let the sheepies out for walk walk.

*Make sure the sheepies doesn’t get into the chicken cage and steal food.

*9.30am Have breakfast with fresh milk and freshly hatched eggs.

*Have a break.

*About 3pm, open the chicken cage for them to ‘exercise’, that’s how we call them ‘free range chicken’.

*Feed the mother pigs again. No wonder they r so fatty!

*Walk towards the paddock to call the milkers and their calves back to yard for feed and so their calves can drink some milk. Keep the calves in their pent and let the cows out.

*Feed the one and only horse which has a foal

*Chase the sheepies back to their pent. IF we’re in luck the sheepies will just be nearby, if not, we have to walk few kms to chase them back. And make sure there are 14 of them! Cause the dingos (wild dogs) love sheeps!!! Aaarghhh… really tiring…..

"How many sheeps are there?" This is the question we need to answer everyday.

*Close the chicken cage by dark.

********That’s it for the day!**********

That’s quite a long list eh. There are other duties like picking fire woods, mixing feed for the chicken, refill animal’s feed, sometimes butchering, watering the garden and fixing fence once in a while. 

Sausage making! It’s really not hard to make sausages. We just cut the pork shoulder meat into smaller pieces then put into the meat mincer. Then add salt, sage and garlic/ginger to the mince. Then put the mixed mince into a tube that uses water power to push it into the intestine wrappers. 

During our free time.....