it's just me and the animals

phoebe and her boys are gone on holiday. I am caretaking for a week, and have to feed a million chooks, ducks, 2 cats (one is extremely pregnant) a mother pig and her six little piglets, OHMYGOD, and an huge angry lady pig who I don’t doubt would love nothing more than to eat me for breakfast…

I also have to keep an eye on the cattle, which involves a whole lot of them staring at me any chance they get, bellowing loudly, and me staring back at them thinking how good fences are.

its just me. on a farm. which is interesting. I like solitude, but it takes a bit of getting used to this kind of middle of nowhere, long long walk (I don’t drive) through the dark night, to any other human, type solitude, so hooray for telephones. I might get lonesome and spooked otherwise. I house-sit for mum and dad, which is even more isolated, but I am good friends with the neighbours and have tv, music, and the comfort of my childhood home.

tv is good for quieting the mind. but there is no tv and limited electricity here, which means enough solar power to heat water, power two dim lights and run a freezer. maybe my computer for an hour a night if I don’t listen to the radio...

solitude and silence. let’s see if I don’t go completely crazy huh.

so far I like it. phoebe has an incredible garden, pretty and plentiful and I could just wander around in it for hours. I picked cherry tomatoes, spinach, basil and zucchini, roasted the tomatoes with garlic and olive oil, collected the eggs, then made a delicious quiche.

I spent an hour on the HUGE trampoline. watching the amazing sunset and the piglets, who were delighting in chasing the chooks and chickens who just roam about the garden. if they managed to catch one they’d eat it*, but even so they are incredibly adorable. I haven’t seen much that is cuter than six baby pigs playing chase.

*pigs like to eat other animals even more than I like to eat them.

now It’s dark, i just have to find a way to entertain myself long enough til it’s time to go to bed. trying not to get spooked by the noises. which are everywhere.

there are so many creatures in them thar hills, and this house, and those paddocks, and outside the windows. geckos, curlews, crickets, creaks and thuds, the clock tick tocks so slowly and the wind has a lot to say too.

I say goodnight. sleep tight.