DONE: No.37 - Be A Penguin Zookeeper For A Day

PENGUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   HUNNERS OF PENGUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not sure I can actually write a proper blog post about this challenge without actually just fainting at the thought that me and Stewart got to feed PENGUINS!!!!!!!!!!

For anybody who doesn't actually know, me and Stewart are pretty much obsessed by penguins. We are HUGELY into penguins and have been for a very long time.   It was one of the first things we found out that we had in common with each other when we met way back in 1993.  It pretty much sealed the relationship to be honest!

But, let's be a 'serious'(?) birthday challenge blogger and describe the actual adventure. So the task/challenge, 'Be a Penguin Zookeeper For A Day'.  Checked out a lot of places and finally settled for going to Living Coasts in Torquay.  I was impressed by their conservation work and the fact they have a few joint projects with places in South Africa - which is where me and Stewart got to see our first penguins in the wild.  Didn't have a full day experience, instead it was a penguin feeding opportunity.  You turn up as soon as the aquarium is open and head straight to Penguin Beach.  When we got there and saw all the penguins I actually thought I might puke with excitement at  the thought I was actually going to be getting the chance to get seriously close to them!

Two types of penguins here - African penguins (exactly the ones we saw in South Africa) and Macaronis - the exceedingly groovy yellow crested ones.  It's actually quite a nice enclosure and I was relieved that these guys are outside.  I'm aware of a few places where the penguins are kept indoors and that's seriously quite sad.  But. We were met by Jason the keeper who would be looking after us and he gave us a lot of information about this colony.  A fair amount of stuff we already knew but there was a lot I didn't so I learned some new facts. It was also obvious that he knew these penguins almost as individuals - the glee when he talked about the different personalities and the different pairings!!!!   He himself described the lives of the penguins as being a bit like a soap opera.

We then got taken to the 'kitchen' which was basically just a place filled with an immense amount of  fish - mostly sprats I do believe.  Lots of fish.  A serious amount of fish! We had to wear gloves - whether that was to protect the penguins from our germs or us from the smell of the fish I don't know but I was personally glad we had them!!

Didn't know this beforehand, but if you've paid for the penguin feeding experience you basically become part of the advertised 'penguins getting fed' attraction!  So when we walked back out through the enclosure there was a huge crowd of parents and children waiting to see the penguins getting fed - BY US!!!!   We basically walked through the colony and took our seats on some steps with buckets of fish between the three of us and that was it, the penguins came to us.

 


It was amazing that in a really short space of time we actually got to start spotting differing personalities.   The macaronis in particular were pretty bonkers.  There was one called 'Flower' who was really intrigued by my wellies and another called Violet who was happy to sit behind us.  Both of these penguins, by the way, would peck us insistently when they wanted attention and wanted more fish.   Not all the penguins want to be hand fed though - I'll tell you about these later - but it was amazing how many were quite bolshy and would come straight up to us, peck us to ask for a fish, we'd give them a fish and then they'd immediately chuck it away and ask for another one!!!  The fish that were dropped were not wasted though.

I can't tell you exactly for how long we got to sit hand feeding fish to these penguins.  Time almost stopped still.  It was ages before I realised I didn't have any bloody photographs!   Don't think either of us were aware of the crowds watching it was 100% completely all about having penguins voluntarily and being happy to being really close to you, eyeing you up and pecking you.  We were both completely having wee conversations back at them either saying 'hello you hungry' or 'bugger off you only want to chuck the fish away'.  It was BWILLIANT!

Eventually it was time to stop.  When the feeding takes place, they stop everybody from walking through the enclosure and on to the next bits - it's kind of a penguin 'boardwalk'.

The fish that the penguins had chucked away, dropped, ignored etc., is not wasted. It was part of our jobs to quickly clear the board walk of discarded fish - so it wasn't a slippy hazard for visitors and so we weren't wasting fish - and gather up into a separate bucket.  After this, we then walked right back into the enclosure and we put these discarded fish into a few different wee pools.  Cleans the fish again and means that the penguins who aren't bothered about being hand fed can go and eat as and when they want.

DONE - No.27 - Milk A Cow

This challenge was actually given to me by Stewart, how he came up with it or where it came from  I have absolutely no idea. But when he told me I was seriously interested.  And now I've done it I would say that the day we had absolutely super exceeded expectations!

After a wee bit of research on where to do it I came across a small farm called The Old Parsonage Farm (Dartington Dairy) which is in Totnes, Devon.    Their milking experience involves both Jersey dairy cows and a herd of goats - mixed breeds.  It turned out to be more than just turning up and 'having a go' a couple of times.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, half decent weather thankfully, and we were met on arrival by Jimmy, a super friendly border collie (I think). There was also an adorable wee Jack Russell dog called Shandy but I didn't get any pictures.  Jimmy and Shandy escorted us throughout the whole experience.

We did also have human company in the shape of farmer Jon, a truly personable and enthusiastic farmer who was extremely generous with his knowledge and encouragement.  He was also brilliant at sharing not just the history of this particular farm, of whom he and his wife Lynne are the current tenant farmers, but also gave us a really good overview of dairy farming in general.   Coming, as you already know, from a Glasgow tower block I didn't grow up with much experience or knowledge of the actual nitty gritty of the farming world so his explanations and descriptions over the next two hours were fascinating to me and Stewart.  In particular, it turned out that this farm in the last century was actually quite innovative and apparently was the first to try out artificial insemination and soil testing among other things.

To start with we saw the herd being brought in to the milking parlour by the herdsman - another Stewart/Stuart.

This last picture actually cracks me up - I didn't spot it at the time, but look at the two gorgeous cows right at the back - completely facing the wrong way and staring straight at us.   They've both got such gorgeous faces though!

So, to the actual nitty gritty of the day - the chance to get hands on experience actually milking cows.  Now, I know a lot of people probably thought this would involve us sitting on a milking stool and hand milking lovely cows straight into a bucket.  Well, it didn't, this is a working farm, so it involved us using machinery in a milking parlour.  Was I disappointed - absolutely not!  We still got to milk cows and see how it happens everyday.   To begin with you do actually have to work the teats initially before you can put the machinery on.  So, I did get this hands on experience to begin with.  I know that this photo makes it look as if I found it distasteful but in actual fact I just didn't want to get it wrong and I didn't want to distress the cow!

After this is done each cow's teats are cleaned and dried before the machinery goes on to the teats.   We both put fingers in to the actual machines ourselves to feel the suction and it's really gentle.   So, four teats per cow, you have to pat the cow to let her know you're there, then you gently place the suckers over the teats.   The entire time the cows were in the parlour they were truly content and chilled out - this is a relatively small scale farm so the cows are seen as individuals with personalities and they are seriously well cared for.   You could tell...

 So, after we helped with a few cows each we moved on to a smaller milking parlour to help with the goats.  This was AMAZING!   Goats are so friendly and curious and inquisitive and attention seeking and they were quite frankly, quite bonkers.  Which suits me and Stewart right down to a 'T'. There were a few different breeds of goats and in total - if I remember correctly - they have around 160.  The goats go in 10 at a time, they have to go in order and it should work perfectly and it mostly did with only a couple of times two goats trying to get in to one stall.  It's mostly the same when it comes to milking goats but they only have two teats each.   Don't have any pictures of us milking the goats I'm afraid.   We got too carried away with just playing!

 

We did though help out by milking most of the 160 including putting the machinery on, and taking it off when they had finished.   Jon and Lynne mostly sell the cows milk to some local cheese producers and the goats milk they use to make their own ice cream and yoghurt.  At the end of our time on the farm we each got to taste their ice cream - I tried gin and elderflower, Stewart had real fresh mint and choc chip.  Both were bloody delicious.

This was a brilliant experience.  Jon was a superb host, the animals were beautiful, so well cared for and with proper wee personalities.   I think it's quite a new venture (though he has been farming all his life) and he has plenty of ideas for expanding the educational side of things as well as trying to get his ice cream out there as a high class artisinal product.   I can only wish them the best of success.  If you are interested - go to www.dartingtondairy.com  Tip though for if you do visit or do something similar - REMEMBER TO WEAR YOUR WELLIES!

DONE: NO.30 - Grow Strawberries, A Sunflower.....Anything

The nursery rhyme goes, 'Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow, with silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row'.  In this case, how does Lesley's garden grow - with a lot of bloody luck, success in only some instances and a summer where the weather in Wales was determined to screw me over.   

I grew up in a tower block in Glasgow and never actually lived in a 'house' with a garden until 2001 when I was 33 years old so gardening and plants and flowers and the ability to grow things was/is something completely alien to me.   Our first house, in Leatherhead, the garden we pretty much 'gave over to nature'!   As in, we did nothing with it.  There was a huge tree which kept the sun from the garden and we pretty much left the existing plants and bushes to their own devices - we did though properly have wildlife in the garden with lots of different birds, loads of butterflies and eventually  hedgehogs, squirrels and for a short glorious time, baby fox cubs.

So,to Caerphilly.  Been here for, coming up to, 5 years now and with the exception of a couple of summers ago when I tried to grow some flowers - and did have success - we have yet again pretty much ignored the garden.  But no more!   I'm fed up with the garden being a mess so this year as part of my challenge I was determined to keep the outdoor space tidy and neat and also wanted to see if I could grow something, anything!!!!!     Decided to pretty much hedge my bets and to begin with I prepared some soil and some pots and planted wildflowers, a strawberry plant and some sunflowers.

Had to wait till mid May before I could prepare this as the weather had been pretty crap but eventually I did manage.   I knew it was going to take some time before I'd see any results but when the seeds went in I was SO excited and I really have tried very hard.  I've REALLY tried.  Over the last few months I've kept these plants watered, I've fed them, I've visited and inspected them on a regular basis and I have to admit I have kind of chatted to them and offered them encouragement.  Not going to lie, the chats have occurred mainly at the end of a day when I've had a glass of wine in my hand.  Anyway, after about 4-6 weeks, things did start happening!

 

 Unfortunately, at this point something went horribly wrong with the three pots of sunflowers.  It seems that we had a few too many hungry slugs who I have now discovered really like the leaves of sunflower plants.  So even though at this stage I was really excited and thought the plants looked really healthy, the slugs absolutely devoured them over the next few weeks so I ended up with nothing left in these wee pots.  Thankfully I kind of realised it was happening so introduced a tomato plant in to the garden in the hope I'd still have 3 successes.  The sunflower disaster has definitely pissed me off though, but next year......

 

Still, kept going and made sure to water and feed and check the plants and miraculously, from these green shoots, proper pretty plants started to develop and flourish.   With the strawberry plant, it has always seemed really healthy and I've had a lot of strawberries begin to develop but it's a bit hit and miss as to whether I pick them in time or they start to wither.  But, I've had 5 tasty and sweet strawberries which ain't a lot - but it's better than nothing!

The tomato plant I brought in to the mix late.  I started it off in a pot, looked like it was overgrowing in the pot so replanted it in soil.    I'm 'kind' of chuffed with this plant cos it looks really healthy and I have easily 20 plus tomatoes on the plant but unfortunately they are stubbornly staying green.  I would love them to ripen and go red and become edible but I'm not sure it's going to happen.  But, to me it's a healthy looking strong plant.

With the actual wildflowers.  I LOVE these! Right from the beginning we didn't really know what to expect, these kind of scatter bags are complete lotteries.   You don't entirely know what's going to be growing, or where, and that is very much part of the excitement and fun.  But, the flower patch has really taken, the flowers are strong and wild, and they have been attracting bees all summer.  On average there are 10 plus bees on these plants and the combination of flowers and colours pretty much seems to change on a regular basis.

So, growing strawberries, a sunflower, anything.....I'd say this has been a successful task.  I've enjoyed it, it's been exciting and for sure this is something I'll be continuing.  Next year's challenge definitely involves successfully growing sunflowers - that's my major mission - and I'd like to expand my range of pots and different things.