it never rains

but it pours. Unfortunately I mean figuratively rather than literally, as the wet stuff is in short supply. Firstly fires are still plaguing us - not on our place thankfully - but the national park fire that has been bouncing off boundaries for the past 8 weeks has come into properties to the north of where we live, (not far away at all, we are covered in smoke today) and of course, guess where Trevor is.

But in more exciting news on the home front, we have also been inundated with babies, the four legged kind (no two legged ones, but my sister in law is due any day so watch this space).

Meet Ralph:

Who apparently took quite some catching (tough little bugger!) and was not overly pleased with being rescued (luckily a charge from a baby calf can not do much damage, unless of course you are wearing thongs and his sharp little toes connect with yours)

However once he worked out that food was supplied, he settled down, not without taking himself off on a little adventure to visit the weaners over at the trucking yards (hello children, how many times do you have to be told to SHUT THE GATE!). This resulted in quite some action for the kids, as Ralph still wasn't keen on returning to our place, and there was much running helter skelter until I got him into a corner and he just gave in,  walking up to suck my fingers. Little stinker. He is tethered again today and kids have been most anxiously checking gates are shut, just in case!

Within hours of Ralph's arrival, came Polly and Percy:

who are small, black and exceedingly hard to photograph. And not all that friendly at this point in time, however that is not stopping kid #2 from trying to give them some love.

I am pleased to report all new babies are now feeding well, the bovine baby has gotten over his grumps and now looks hopefully for a bottle full of milk each time someone walks past, and the porcine variety small enough to stand in (and wallow) in their feed dish as they slurp up their milk. 

The Husband is disappointed that  they will be a tad small for Christmas dinner.

Kids are not.