Welcome back!! It’s the first day of spring here, and today’s post is the 16th post here, (!) and is about our 6 new cows, an update on the lovely, sassy, Mackenzie, and Tiger Lily the snake hunter! Oh, and Bojo…. turns out we’re not the only ones living in our new house! Have fun!
Firstly, cows! We recently moved house, and along with us came one horse (Mackenzie!), one cow (Onyx!), and our cats. But already the motley herd is up to seven cows! One Nguni x Speckle Park and her calf, and four Belmont Reds. Nguni’s are a breed native to south Africa, so they are super hardy, and have a smaller frame. Speckle Parks are medium framed cows native to Canada and bred from Aberdeen Angus and Hereford, and Belmont Reds are 50% African breed, 25% Shorthorn, and 25% Hereford. They are tough, super curious and sweet by nature! 😊The calf is so funny – she looks at me like she really wants to say hello, but cant quite muster up the courage. The other day, she snuck up on me and nudged my back, then, terrified by her own courage, took off. She was back two minutes later though, this time after my hair… The Belmont’s are her new partners in crime, so inquisitive! Mama couldn’t be bothered, so she just stood back and ate. Here are some pics:
The other day, I had my first proper canter up a hill on Mackenzie! It was even better than I had thought, and she loved it! It’s great exercise, and I don’t have to worry about slowing down because when we get to the top, she’s tired! Wow, Mackenzie, tired. 😂 Energy…that’s half Arabian for you! We’ve been loving exploring up and down and around, and she just wants to keep going even when she’s in need of a warm down and sponge off! I have been having a little trouble with catching her though… I’m not sure why yet, but working on it. She has been loving handwalks though, jumping up and down small banks and exploring. All in all, pretty good!
Our cat Tiger Lily has been putting us on edge lately. They were in the garage to settle in, and then we let them out and two days later, Tiger Lily was found laying next to a dead baby brown snake! She has killed at least one before (A 5 foot – 1.50m brown), but it is not the safest hobby! Then, the day after, she was walking down for a pat in the paddock. We were fencing in the gully, and all of a sudden she pounced on something. Then Onyx bolted up the paddock at her, and she took off up the hill with a snake wriggling around in her jaws and Onyx hot on her tail! She jumped through the fence, and a fight ensued with us watching helplessly. After about a minute it stopped, and we quickly drove up the hill in the farm car. To our horror, she had killed the snake, but her eye was shut and on closer inspection, she had bite marks under it!😲 We rushed her to the vet, but thankfully, she was okay and it was a dry bite. Two days later, she got a mildly venomous Yellow-faced whipsnake. She is so cuddly and loving and friendly, yet she is a very fast hunter and cold blooded killer!😇🙂↔️🫣
Speaking of snakes… Mum got quite the fright the other day. She was leaning over the handrail of the front deck looking for her sandal when she noticed a carpet python mere inches from her left hand. She screamed, and we all came running, but fortunately, Bojo is relatively harmless. We watched it ascend the post in a concertina pattern, and slither along into the roof. It has since showed up sleeping in the rafters (it had probably eaten because it was too big to fit in the little hole into the roof), and sleeping under the tin on the back deck. At least it keeps the rats at bay.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading and I hope it was super fun! Love, Amarylli🩵🐴
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