21.8.2024

 

The midwives are here. They arrived about lunch time and are helping Mar give birth in the donga.  We had the goat, Joy, and the old black sheep all very close to giving birth as well. Edd betted that Mar would be the first, I had a bet on Joy and Josh got the black sheep as he missed out on choosing.  The black sheep lambed a week ago and has a lovely black and white lamb and much to our surprise that left Josh as the winner. 

 

Today, Joy tried to wander away from the herd up the paddock on her own. Her tail bones are loose so she could kid any moment and still come in second.  It is really weird to think that Mar is birthing the second great grand child to actually be born on our land.   We are just hoping that everything is going OK.

 

It has been a busy time with Josh and Stevo at work building in Edd’s shed. Also, last Friday we went to the funeral of our friend, Mozzie, the farrier who looked after our horses for years and took us trail riding into the mountains after Xmas each year. It was a huge funeral and started with the burial in the local cemetery.  The hunt club was represented by two men in full gear and a pack of hounds. The hounds circled round the graves but were generally exceptionally well behaved.   When the coffin was lowered the mounted huntsman blew the hunting horn, a fitting tribute.

 

Once the burial was over, we all trooped down to the large upstairs room at the race course for a more formal ceremony. The mounted huntsman took the hounds on a gallop round the race course as part of the send-off.  Beth sang halleluiah and a song I wrote about Mozz for his eightieth birthday, it made everyone laugh, but the horse on the race course brought tears. We have lost a unique and special character and our community loses some of its richness.