It has been a most interesting week… Filled of course with chickens and eggs, with sheep also in residence here we have diverged a little to the tune of sheep herding in preparation for shearing. Only people and a quad bike in action, I was just getting the hang of it by the fifth and final group attempt :-). Some of these newly shorn sheep a little unlucky, I then watched one of them, whom we shall call Mr Chops, go from alive to very dead and skinned… The other girls not wanting to watch at all, I actually found this most interesting…
This week a crazy thought entered my head… I shared this with my farm host. “if I died in a chicken field would they eat me…?!” “Yes” he replied. “Is there anything they don't eat?” I asked. Some kinds of grass was the reply… So humans, yes, other chickens, yes, some kinds of grass, not so much…! Crazy chickens!!!! Though in calling them crazy, unfortunately for one said chicken this week, who I somewhat originally named Mrs Chicken, I thought I killed it running over it with the quad bike… I cradled it and said sorry. It closed its eyes. I had to walk away. I had to collect the eggs from the other chickens… I returned to the quad bike all sad. I found it moving with open eyes!! I was most surprised. Thank goodness, though with a broken leg I feared for it through the cold night… My host assures me it can be nursed back to health again :-). The day after this dramatic episode we went through the gate to collect the eggs. One of the dogs was lying on its side. Its eyes were shut. It looked in pain… I thought I had cursed the farm… All thankfully ok, we think he had just awoken from a big sleep and was looking for some attention.
Some amazing banter this week, it included questions of whether you should run in reverse if you see a snake (you certainly don't want to be running towards it!), whether you can eat gingerbread houses, being 'inchy' rather than itchy and i’ve also been told that I speak the 'Australian' language well for someone not from here. It’s not as if we speak the same language do we…?! There has been some interesting chat about 'demountable' houses, rocks tasting better than parrots and we have eaten some amazing sticky date pudding. Now also taking to drinking coffee (apparently third time round is a winner) I have been enjoying daily latte's! David, you'd be proud of me :-). Moving onto a different farm in a couple of days, the chickens have certainly provided a lot of entertainment… :-). Over 20,000 eggs collected, washed, packed and labelled, I think that is quite enough for now! An interesting introduction to WA, and yet more contrast to Australia, I wonder what interestingness the next place will hold…
Scottish Footprints 