Hang on a minute, you say, where is day 3? On the Wednesday, after two hectic days and several early mornings before they arrived, my fibro came knocking. So they all caught a bus into the city to explore, and I stayed home and watched Buffy and rested.
I needed my rest because the next day I had arranged a private tour of
Cranky's Farm, a farm animal sanctuary that I had been to a few times before. We had an incredible tour, and got to meet so many glorious animals. The goats were off doing their own goaty thing in a far paddock, but we met cows, pigs, equines, and birds.
Jonny is one of two mini horses they have at the farm. Both were rescued at separate times, but both had horrific foot conditions. Happily both were rehabilitated, and now they are silly little jerks together. They also have three donkeys as well.
Marley is a tiny calf, only 39 days old, who they rescued and are hand raising. He was so tiny and gentle and sweet. He has been unwell for the last week, so please keep him in your thoughts. They also have a calf there called Fern, a bit older than Marley, who is partially blind but very sassy.
Their big paddock houses a beautiful herd of cows! They were thankfully up the top of the paddock, not down the bottom of the giant hill where the goats were, so we could easily visit with them.
I also got to meet my favourite cow Freckles. I love him. He is typically a shy cow, so when I have been there before for open days he stayed away from the big group. But this time I was blessed with a little sniff and a tiny pat. Thank you Freckles! Isn't he handsome?
Next up was a visit with Lopez, an ex-racehorse. He is beautiful! I love horses.
Lopez was in a paddock with a beautiful giant Moreton Bay fig tree. The rest of us waited under the shade here while Helen trekked down to the bottom of the property to see if she could find their resident platypus who lives in a pond there. She did not have any sightings, but was definitely in a platypus vicinity.
The final cow on our tour to meet was Peggy, who is a lovely girl. She had a femoral head osteotomy for a broken hip after she first arrived. We do that on cats and dogs, I had no idea it could be done on a large cow! She was chilling and snoozing in the sun, and couldn't be bothered getting up for us but was very happy to receive pats and adoration.
We finished by meeting some of the birds they have there, including Gloria the turkey and (not pictured) Frank the duck.
After our tour, we went to a lookout just a few minutes down the road to admire the view and also use the public bathrooms. It was a pretty view!
And then we headed to another little park called Cedar Creek, which claimed to also be home to platypi and other wildlife. It was a pretty place, though my ankles absolutely did not want to stabilise on the rocks so I ended up sitting under a tree doing some reading while the others explored. We only saw birds, but birds are still cool, including a kookaburra.
Then we headed home. We had eaten a decent breakfast before we left, and I had packed some Clif Bars and dried fruit for snacking on, but we found ourselves close to
VeganYumm, a vegan bakery, so stopped in to get some treats for a late lunch when we got home. I had a creamy chicken pie (not pictured), which was OK. But I was able to get a naked cinnamon roll, my favourite! I hate it when people ruing a perfectly good cinnamon roll with glaze or icing.
We had a small dinner after our very late lunch, and ordered in some Pizza Hut vegan pizza and vegan cheese garlic bread.
Stay tuned for a much more food heavy post from day 5!
Cute Kitty of the Post
Close up of Mirabelle's little white chest sprinkle, and her whiskers (which are not white but are just shiny in the light).
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