Cranky's Farm Open Day

A few weeks ago, my friend Amy and I took a little road trip out to Cranky's Farm for their open day. I was so excited, it had been a long time since I had been to a farm animal sanctuary, and we both needed a pick me up from the joy that comes from seeing animals just doing their things and being happy and at peace.

We arrived right as the first tour of the cow paddock was about to start. It was a huge paddock, with a steep slope. And did I mention it was extremely windy? It was SO WINDY! But that was OK. That meant that by the time I was all rugged up with a hoodie, sunglasses, and a mask there was very little exposed skin for the sun to attack. Of course, sunscreen was applied liberally. The event was meant to have masks mandatory unless you were eating, but probably only about a quarter of us had maskes on, and it wasn't being enforced, which was dissapointing. It was during a post-lockdown period where there was still a mask mandate. Sigh. At least there was lots of space to keep our distance most of the time!

But back to the cows! Who also shared their paddock with some cutie donkeys named Jack and Hannah. As was only right, there was a lot of respect given to the cows and how they wanted to interact. Several of them didn't want to interact at all, which was fine. I patted a lovely boy called Fifteen. And I spied my sponsor cow Freckles from a far. Freckles is a shy boy. The donkeys had no respect for the boundaries of humans though, and would nudge us freely with their noses to get more pats!



Hannah has diabetes, and so she has these extra fatty deposits on her neck and her butt. It gives her a cutie little bootie. But she is being managed very well at the farm.



We visited with their horse Lopez, who is a rescued ex-trotter. I have a very special place in my heart for horses, and I am always delighted to see them being able to just be horses and not have to perform. I got to feed him some carrots, I love their velvety lips!



Our next stop was to visit the goats and the chickens!







I was very excited to meet a very special goat who I also sponsor. Her name is Mrs Black aka Mumma. She is a very senior goat, so she spends her days in her own little area away from the shenanigans of the younger goats that are too much for her. The farm gives a lot of love and attention to her to help her with her little arthritic joints and old lady needs. Visiting with her was very special, she loved gettting scritches.



Sweetpea is a little pigglet who recently was rescued. At the moment she lives in the house and is apparently toilet trained! She is very cute and cheeky. She made a little guest appearance.



A break for lunch, which was provided. They had a lot of food that they were loading up plates with. My plate had two different types of pasta salad, a sausage, a bolognese pie, and some falafel. They also had a bake sale stall there.



Sonny the pig was chilling in his paddock for the day, he accepted some pats. Pigs are very amazing.



After lunch, we took a walk down another very steep paddock in the big wind to see the dam where a platypus lives. I was so hoping to see a platypus!!!! Sadly, there was no platypus to be seen. I suspect the wind meant that they decided to stay nice and sheltered some where. So please enjoy this pretty photo, and know that a platypus does live there, and was there somewhere, even if we didn't see them.



Our final visit was with Spring, the superstar goatling! Spring is about eight months old. She was rescued as a tiny goat along with her brother, but Spring had very contracted tendons, and some genetic issues that meant she was was smaller than she should have been. Her brother Nicholas is now out and about with the other goats. But Spring lives in the house. She had a long road of leg splinting to help her walk, and now she walks amazingly! She has her own instagram page, and I definitely didn't want to leave without a glimpse! To keep her from getting overwhelmed, they wisely only brought her out for a short time on her terms. She is SO CUTE! And such a floof.



After this we were ready to make our drive back to Brisbane. I was looking forward to a hot shower! But it was such a wonderful day. I hope to go out there again sometime, and perhaps get a glimpse of the elusive platypus! We are very lucky in Brisbane to have several farm animal sanctuaries surrounding us, doing so much really good work. I am glad that these animals have a safe space to go. I wish that could be extended to all the animals.