Cow breeding 101

Odd phone call of the day: "why is my cow bellowing?'

Now I'm by no means a cow expert but suggested the two things that occured to me "She's either hungry or she's bulling" (bulling being the term for being in the mood to meet a handsome bull and indulge in a little bovine slap and tickle).

The answer perplexed me "but X (who was apparently raised on a dairy farm) said she wouldn't be bulling while she still had a calf on her"

Umm hello...

So cow fact number 1 - a cow in milk can and will come into heat and will fall pregnant again. Not only do our beefy cows prove this every year if this wasn't the way it worked the dairy industry would need twice as many cows.

And I imagine if you didn't already know that you didn't really need to know that (apart from todays caller) and don't care anyway. Too bad, I thought I would tell you whether you needed to know or not. (be aware there may be a surprise test later)

Minor girly (or boring middle aged housewife) thought

Last time I bought foundation (of the type that you place upon the skin of your face to cover uneven skin tones and other imperfections) the girl in the pharmacy persuaded me - with the aid of some of the powder on a large brush - that I absolutely needed Mineral Makeup this time.

And after a month or two I must admit I am happy enough with the product as it appears on my face.

I'm not that cheerful about the product as it appears on all flat surfaces close to where I apply it. The stuff goes everywhere.

One must suffer (the trials of dusting) to be beautiful (or less splotchy faced than normal) obviously.

Procrastination

It's a pleasant sort of day - mildly windy but the sun is shining.

Working from home I really should go out and have a bit of a ride in the middle of the day.

So it requires me to
Get changed into riding gear
Go out catch Ears, give her a cursory brush over and saddle up
Go for a ride
Come back, unsaddle, give the old girl a rapid ten minute going over with brushes and turn her out again, if I don't go fast she won't be sweaty.
Get changed
Get back to work.

I've just spent 40 minutes thinking about it and don't have time now.

OMG - you won't believe this! (well I don't)

I'll have to check again in the morning to make sure it is real....

BUT

They re-aligned the driveway today. They moved the letterbox over, they widened the access, they put some very solid basecourse down.... all very nice, they fixed the drainage ditch that shouldn't be there,

AND THEY FILLED IN THE DITCH AT THE END OF THE DRIVE

It is now no more than the slightest of indentations.

It had just finished raining when I went to admire it - the water was running off superbly, nowhere near our place but they seem to have diverted it quite well into the neighbours - the ones who started all this in the first place. I think they are worse off out of all this. (Actually I know they are worse off but that is another story altogether really).

Now I just hope that Inroads and the Council don't find any reason to start it all over again.

Reg I'm sorry I doubted you - you are almost (but not quite) forgiven.

So this is how to spend Ratepayers money...

I would give quite a bit at the moment to live on a private road where no one could come along and mess with it any time they felt like it.

Last week we got some flourescent markings on the drive. Very ominous. They are also, for some bizarre and unfathomable reason, filling in the ditch on the other side of the road. I don't get it obviously (despite an engineering paper or two at univesity that covered drainage and water flows) I can't see the point in filling in a ditch (apart from the one at the end of our drive obviously), it isn't causing any problems over there on the bush reserve side of the road, sometimes it even diverts water.

This morning I get a call from Reg from Inroads. The main thing he wants to impart is that they will be moving our mailbox. It transpires this is because they feel the need to realign our driveway. I don't know why they think they should realign our driveway - not even sure who it belongs to - I thought it was ours but since they seem to think they can play with it without even notifying us perhaps not (does this mean we should give them a call when it needs some gravel on it?). The letterbox is obviously ours and therefore can't be touched without advising us.

I can't see why this is anything except a waste of time and money and I say so. A strange thing happens. Reg from Inroads agrees with me. He agrees that they should just fit a culvert and get over it. He agrees that it is a huge stuff up. He agrees the whole thing has been a huge stuff up. Then he tells me he has to do what the council staff tell him to so while he would like to fix it properly he can't.

I am left a little speechless and pondering whether this is another boys club excuse or if he actually means it.

I tell him I hope he is feeling photogenic for when the media want to talk to him about it in that case.

I wonder where they intend to move the mailbox to. As it is ours I guess we are able to move it back if we aren't happy - unlike the ditch which isn't ours so we are warned of dire things happening if we should touch it.

We still have a drainage problem. Wonder if they plan to do anything about that.