Addie’s Blog #6 – Halfway there!

Halfway there!

Another busy week of calving. We now have 103 cows in, out of 270 so we aren’t far off halfway. Have to admit it’s been hard adjusting to early morning milkings again – running home getting our 5-year-old ready for school and off to the school bus then back to finish off milking and feed the calves while dragging my 2-year-old here, there and everywhere! What fun! 🤩. Mornings are chaotic and I now believe other mums when they say they look forward to the weekends and a little bit of slower pace without the school run.

We have 34 beautiful keeper calves so far – wanting about 60 if possible. We have had quite a bit of rain over the past week so everywhere is a bit sloppy and muddy. Always satisfying when you collect the calves and put them in the nice clean and warm calf sheds for them to dry off. We are feeding our calves by Adlib system, so they are in pens of 10 where they have 100L of calf milk over 24 hours. Once they have spent a few days in the baby pen and have learned to feed on the feeder they then move to Adlib. We fill their feeders every morning with our milk trailer, and it just makes life so much easier and smooth sailing. Calves are doing fantastic so far! No sickness to report.

Kip and I have completed a bit of fencing in between jobs. It’s so nice on a beautiful fine west coast day to be out and about on the farm in the paddocks working away.

We have our second podcast recording this Wednesday with Rural Exchange. Will be nice to catch up with Dom and no doubt talk about this chaotic time of the season where each day consists of a NW red shopping bag full of snacks for the 2 year old, answering the 2 year old when she yells out MUM from the side by side for the 75th time, listening to the 2 year old say Moo and calvies for the 99th time while trying to listen to kip as he calls out cow numbers that have calved so I can record them 🤪 honestly I think I’ve told the kids it’s 7pm bedtime at 6.30pm a few times lately just to catch some quiet time! 😝

My mum has been coming down every weekend to look after our girls and clean my house which is just amazing! Aren’t mums just a godsend!? Even when I’m grumpy and tired coming in for lunch from a hectic morning, covered in mud, bit of calf poo with a touch of cow poo in my hair Mums in her element hanging out with the girls while cleaning my sliding door for fingerprints and trying to find the couch underneath my mountain of washing she’s been folding for the last hour. And she still seems to have a smile on her face? How come I don’t have a smile on my face when I do those jobs 🧐😜

Not much to report on the financial side of things as we are in the middle of calving and haven’t spoken to CMK during this time. They must know it’s best to stay away haha. Looking forward to a catch up with them next month.

We have 2 birthdays this month! Indy turns 13 this weekend and Summer turns 2 at the end of August. Will be great to celebrate these milestones with a family dinner and catch up with people that aren’t ourselves! 😝