Prairie Oysters (Lambs Balls) Part 1

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Day 1619



It was Friday 11 April and we had left Walla Walla enroute for Wagga Wagga via a coffee break in Culcairn, yes that’s what I said, Walla Walla to Wagga Wagga, both in New South Wales.

Our final destination on this short trip/excursion was our favourite farm, Woodstock, Caroline and Helen, had done “face plant” and Helen had said “We are lamb marking on Friday so avoid the sheep yards”, which I took as they were indeed “marking lambs” which I thought would be giving them some form of “Woodstock” registration number so if they became lost or stolen then the police would know where they originated from.

I also considered when Helen said avoid the sheep yards, was code for “have an easy day, go sit in the farm house, drink tea, eat my fantastic slice, read your book, fuss the dogs, all those lovely things we like to do and NOT go and help mark smelly unruly sheep that won’t do as they are told, (how naive am I?)

Our morning journey was great the day was warm with little traffic, I personally love rural Australia and am never tired of the scenery and the drive was great, we arrived at Woodstock at about 11.30, turned off the main road at the Woodstock post box, and down the dusty track to the house.

Where the tree’s end just over the cattle grid you have a view into a paddock, on your left hand side, just before the machinery shed and sheep yards and as we past the cattle grid we were confronted with 100 or so sheep and lambs just wandering around, which I assumed these woolley creatures were the ones Robert and Helen had “marked” this very morning.

One thing we did notice was that some of the “little lambs” had blood on their back sides, but we didn’t give it a second thought really and just parked that thing in my mind for later.

Did you see how I inserted the word “little” before the word lamb to make you go ahh?

Well, we parked the truck up by the garages where we usually park and were hoping to be welcomed by the Woodstock dog chorus, but no! Every one of our doggy friends must have been out working as all the cages were empty and there was no dog chorus.

We grabbed our stuff, went inside the house and put the kettle on, it is very difficult for me to be able to express in writing just how much I love being on the farm, it’s a place that is not only packed with so many memories, but is a place, that is not only a big boys heaven with all things big boys need, but is a place of absolute beauty and serenity for me a similar feeling I had about the house I was born in.

I went outside and had a look at the lawn, bugger it looks like it has not long being done and didn’t therefore need me to whizz around on the tractor mover, so went back in and sat down.

Half an hour later Helen arrived back at the homestead, dare I say, looking completely worn out, man that sheep marking must have been hard work.

It’s great to see Helen, that last time was when we stayed at the farm on the first Monte Christo’s trip, and soon, as usual, we were knee deep in conversation.

The afternoon moved in and I thought it was perfect opportunity to go and have a nana nap, one of my favourite pastimes, sheep were wandering past the bottom of the lawn and Kimba appeared, walking up to the house, she was walking really slowly and even though we called her with excitement in our voices this poor girl was absolutely tuckered, and as she has a bad hip this was accentuated, as much as she wanted to get to us her tired body would not let her.

Now Kimba is a dog I have a huge soft spot for, she has an absolutely beautiful temperament, even though Toby would not agree with this. When she finally got to the house she accepted a quick pat and a fuss then flopped behind the chair and fell asleep.

In the meantime Robert had dropped back to the house in the Kubota, with Toby and Hoover on the back, and honestly I have never seen Toby so placid, he couldn’t even raise a lick, he stayed in the tray whilst Hoover got out and lay on the floor, when it was time to go again, Robert called him back into the Kubota and he wouldn’t move, Robert went through every stage of shouting at Hoover to get him back to work, but Hoover was incredibly reluctant and needed a helping hand to get on the truck.

So, whilst Andy slid off for a Nana nap, and us girls were going to have a little bit of R&R, in other words, probably play word games on the Ipad, however just as we were settling in for the afternoon, Helen received a phone call which meant she had to go out, so I offered to give a hand.

Some lambs had escaped from a field, Helen grabbed a couple of capable dogs, Wally and Trixie, and off we went. The field was not far away, as soon as we got there we could see the lambs next to the fence line. Helen pulled over, the dogs were despatched and the lambs were rounded up back into the field with their mums and cousins.

Whilst we were pushing them back toward the dam, Helen found a lamb without its Mum, so this little lamb was picked up and popped in the back of the car. It looked very matter of fact sat there with folded legs on the back seat, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

However we had not fixed the problem as to why the lambs escaped in the first place and unfortunately a couple of them that we had already rescued, decided that they needed to escape again.

I drove ahead to try and block them off to no avail, but Wally and Trixie were on the case and the lamb was soon cornered. Helen shouted at me “pick the lamb up!” I ran over toward the lamb and called off the dogs, I am thinking “I have never picked up a lamb before, how do I do it? What will it feel like? Will I hurt it?” Nonetheless I needed to do it and I bent down and rescued this defenceless little thing while Helen grabbed one of the others.

It felt very warm, its little heart was beating so fast and it didn’t squirm in my arms, it just settled into them. Helen told me to put the lamb in the back of the car, now we have 3 lambs in the back of the car.

This was obviously a problem for Trixie and Wally because they decided to sit in the front seat, my seat, they both looked at me as if to say “there are lambs in the back of the car and we are not sitting with them!” We had a bit of a standoff, but I won, they went to sit in the back whilst we took the lambs back up to where they should have been, I realised that Trixie was sitting where the orphan lamb was, I think she had pushed it onto the floor, she looked like she was gloating about it anyway!

We fixed the problem with the gate and headed back to the farm and dropped off the orphan to be with the other poddy lambs.

Helen and I finally settled down to a cup of tea and some word games.

When I woke from my nana, it was obvious that Caroline and Helen had been on a mission, Helen asked if we would “Do the dogs and the chooks and collect any eggs the girls had laid, so Caroline and I got a bucket of dog nuts and Caroline’s hat to put the eggs in.

Kimba was still spark out behind the chair, so we called her and shook the tin of dog nuts, but the poor thing was just too tired to even get up and we had to keep calling her and shaking her food until she finally thought, “Sod it “and got up and slowly walked to her compound.

We fed her first, and then went up to the others Toby, Hoover, Sam & Smokey, Trixie & Wally, were all in residence in the doggie Hilton and it seemed everyone had had a really busy day at Woodstock today.

The final stop was the chook shed were we fed the chickens and collected some eggs that had been left, and went back to the house.

With Robert back in, it was beer O’clock, the girls had opened the Wine and Robert had his West Coast Cooler.

Helen said she had done my favourite dish, honey chicken and rice, she really spoils me and it is appreciated. Dinner was served and we were all pleasantly chatting, then it happened, I opened my big mouth.

“Helen” I said, “when we came in this morning, there was some lambs that had blood on their backsides, Why was that I thought you were lamb marking?”

“Well” said Helen, “we were lamb marking, and this is when we cut the lambs tails off”, “What!” I said, as if I hadn’t heard, “we cut the lambs tails off”, I cringed like the big sook I am, I asked if it hurt the lambs and Helen went into great depths about the process of docking their tails, she did say that they were pretty pi**ed off for the first hour and a half then they seemed to get over it.

Wow I thought, those poor little lambs having their tails cut off, I asked Helen if they had a bucket of tails and she confirmed that they did and I was seriously considering a blog title with the word “Tails” in it but read on, and fella’s cross your legs!!

I was making light over the lambs tails when Helen told me what else they did today, in the “sheep marking process” so not only do they mark the sheep, and cut its tail off, but the little boy lambs, HAVE THEIR BALLS CUT OFF too!

Yes, just to confirm the little boy lambs have their nuts removed, and how they do it, basically put a rubber ring on their little conker sack and wait for them to shrivel up and become useless.

Man those poor little creatures having all that done to you, and I thought Woodstock was a great place to be.


TO BE CONTINUED !!!

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Photos

Wandering Sheep at Woodstock
These were the sheep and lambs, that were being "lamb Marked" little did I know what it entailed