I love Facebook memories….
They jolt my mind with so many of the amazing things we’ve done. Crazy adventures, brave moments and hours of special times with my older children.
Farm days
Today as I was scrolling to find some photos of my nephews for my sister, I came across this precious memory from when 3 of my children and I lived on a small farm in the country village of Byrne valley, KZN.
We lived on the farm for about 4 months before moving to Montague in the Cape. It was idealic.
A place of healing and learning. I can be quoted as saying that no amount of school learning could replace the mountain of knowledge my children learnt on the farm.
Cows
Although the farm had many animals, the cows were a source of constant amusement. The kids would wake up at 4am to go help the farmer and his children to get them into the fields, go down to the milking shed after lessons and help milk the cow and herd them again before it got dark.
We would often just sit on the grassy green hillside fields alongside them or open our front door and be greeted by a couple of cows grazing on the lawn.
My favourite was a little black and white jersey cow, she had a white heart patch on her forehead.
A once in a life time experience
We had arrived on the farm in time for the cows to birth and there were 4 pregnant cows. The kids were eager to see a live birth as we had missed the first 3 finding the new born calves happily stand in next to their mom’s one morning.
The farmer had been keeping the kids , his 2 girls and my 3 kids, up to date on the last cows progress and everyone was ready to attend the birth.
The entire day they kept checking on her and to this day I’m not sure one cow has ever had so many “midwives”.
Getting them settled that night was a task on its own. Talk was all about the cow. What to do if the calf was stuck. How to help the calf and 101 cow facts I hadn’t known.
And then it happened. At 3.30am, in the darkness of a night lit only by the bright moons glow, the farmer bashed unceremoneously on my door.
He had been sleeping in the field and the cows labour had begun.
My kids, who usually took hours just to get dressed, were out the door and running along side the farmer to watch the birth of the new calf.
My job that night was to make coffee, it was cold and I’d opted to stay in bed a bit longer.
An hour later, 5 excited kids sat around my dining room table drinking warm hot chocolate and telling me all about the birth.
The cow had gotten stuck and both Ronan and Kerri had assisted the farmer by pulling one of the calf legs while Shaun comforted the cow, stroking her head.
The calf had been born safely.
Just Moo-valous
As soon as their hot chocolate was done and the sun shone to welcome day, the kids headed back to the field to go meet the baby calf and play with the cows.
This is one of my fondest memories of this farm. The excitement in the kids voices and their enthusiasm to experience life.
Nature has an amazing effect on children.
