Horny cows

Now that I have your attention (and hopefully a few more hits than I usually get ), this post is about cattle.  Nguni cattle to be exact. Everyone else who arrived here for other reasons is going to be sorely disappointed.

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with animals found in very rural areas of our country.  From the little fat black pigs and the climbing goats in the Transkei to the brown jackal-like dogs in the rural townships. Also the poor scrawny coal-cart donkeys and the very strange-looking cattle.

As I got older I realised the cattle were the most intriguing. I don’t think I have even seen two that look the same.  The variation is not only in their beautiful hides and colours but also in their horns, ears and body shape. These are the Nguni cattle.

Yesterday we stopped to photograph a few on a trip to Mariepskop mountain. I was with my friends Sue and Rose, and while Sue patiently drove forwards and backwards for me to get good photos, Rose made wise-crack cow jokes from the back seat.  I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.

The Nguni is widely acknowledged to be an outstanding beef breed for optimal production under our harsh African conditions.

These indigenous Nguni cattle, long the mainstay of traditional Zulu culture, are possibly some of the most beautiful cattle in the world, with their variously patterned and multicoloured hides in demand everywhere.

The Nguni is a calm, but alert breed of cattle and has excellent mothering qualities. They have exceptional resistance to ticks and tick-borne diseases and require the minimum amount of handling. Nguni cope well in sourveld regions, and also graze in mountainous areas. They forage from Acacia trees and Combretum species of trees even in the presence of ample grass. This hardy animal makes for an excellent choice in an arduous environment, but will excel even more in more favourable conditions

The ancestors of Nguni cattle were brought by the Xhosa, Zulu and Swazi people, during their migration to South Africa between 600 and 700 AD. Since then, these animals have played an important social and economic role in the development of these societies and are used as a bride’s dowry. The number of animals held by a village or individual determined much of their importance to the rest of the world. King Shaka of the Zulus understood this cultural and economic importance and seized control of the Nguni herds on his dominions. Shaka also bred the Ngunis according to colour patterns in order to produce skins for the several regiments of his army, henceforward recognized by them. His elite personal guard was recognised by pure white, from animals of the royal herd, the inyonikayiphumuli.

(from Wikipedia)

Here are some pictures I took yesterday to show you the huge variation in shape, size and horn structure.

Down and straight (note how one horn has had to be trimmed)

Up (with tiny ears)

Small horns with HUGE ears

Confused???

Beautiful patterns on their hides

Do all cows feet look like this? I’m not sure…..

Quite a strange-looking (yet beautiful) bunch aren’t they?

A winter walk – my wonderland

Ever since Cleo arrived with us I have been trying to photograph her. Somehow my camera does not like her and she does not like the camera. She refuses to look at me when I want to take a picture and gets all coy, meanwhile my camera sees a fuzzy black thing and can not focus on her properly. Today I decided to take my camera along on our daily walk to see if the late afternoon light will help with the photography.

It’s really dry here right now so the colours contrast well.

See the bird just above her head that she is watching. She really wanted to chase it but listens to me when I tell her not to.

Happy feet

You know how families develop their own words – normally stemming from a child who mispronounced something. I have met families where nick names are rather strange and others who have peculiar words for objects. It sometimes sounds really strange when you see four grown adults in a family calling something a boo-boo, and they all know what they are talking about.

When I was growing up our family was no different, and to this day common household items are still called strange things like a “hot ‘n trot tray”  (from Salton Hot Tray), my daughter being called a Bean, and macaroni is lekkeroni.  At the ripe old age of 18  the Bean found out that Harper Lee wrote the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and not “Tequila Mockingbird” and that chutney was not chuckney.

A common word in our family is “fud”.  This is our word for a paw. So all our pets have fuds not paws and the dirty marks they make on the floor are fudprints.

Our Cleo is still a little unsure of her new surroundings and in order not to lose her fuds she keeps them all in one spot when she sleeps.

What strange words do your families use?

Meet Cleo

Cleo used to be a companion dog to an old lady who passed away.  She was taken over by her builder who developed a particularly strong bond with her. They lived happily together until the builder packed his bags and left the farm he was working on. He left Cleo alone at the farm. For months Cleo would sit on the road from where she saw her master leave, crying for him to come home. He never did.  The farm owner has been feeding Cleo for six months now but can’t take her home because he already has three dogs who would fight with her. He says he has never seen such a well behaved dog but she is pining for company.

The Bean and I have decided that we would  like to take Cleo in and give her a happy loving home.  We fetch her tomorrow morning.  I can’t wait!

Soft, hairy and gentle.

Yup, it’s a tarantula.

And those are my hands

My sweet angel

Today my Fred passed away suddenly.  He had slept with me for the night, and left the cottage at around 7am to go exploring.  At 9am we heard him meowing strangely outside the window and we rushed out to find him in distress. The Bean carried him inside and lay him on my bed while we rushed to dress and take him to the vet.  The vet diagnosed epilepsy, gave him Valium and Atropine and sent us home with pills for epilepsy. She said he would be groggy and we must let him sleep it off.  He would not settle when we got home and he started vomiting and gasping for breath.  He died in my arms not 30 minutes after we got home.

I am thankful that he had a happy life, that he did not suffer a long illness. However I am still in shock – it was so sudden and unexpected.

He was a very special boy,  knowing instinctively when we were sad or ill. He would distract us with his antics or sit and purr on me for hours when I had a migraine.  He purred by my side every night to put me to sleep, slipping under the covers himself if it was chilly. He was my companion through some very tough times and we had a special language, I understood him and he understood me.

He is buried under a big marula tree just outside my cottage.  The Bean and I dug his grave and buried him scooping the sand with our hands while tears ran down our faces.

Fred, tonight we lit a candle for you in the window so that you would not feel alone, you can see it from your resting place.

Rest in peace my angel

I don’t know how I am going to sleep without you tonight.

 

Insomnia in the bush

What does one do when you are all alone in your cottage in the middle of the bush and you can’t sleep?

I read. If I don’t have a book I check my email, facebook and blog comments on my cellphone.  I normally fall asleep quickly so I don’t have a back-up plan after that.

Last night I ran out of options.

So I had an impromptu photo shoot on my bed   Isn’t he sweet?

PS:  The mosquitoes have stopped now so his poor nose should heal up in a week or two.

Related Articles

• Insomnia (inclineyourmind.wordpress.com)

Missing the obvious….

When I planned to grow my own food in the middle of a game reserve I knew I was going up against the odds.  Careful planning of the beds was necessary to avoid my food being eaten by other creatures. Firstly, I had to think of every animal on the reserve and plan how to stop them eating the vegetables.  My final plan is to have a caged in area with shade cloth to protect the plants.  While it will take me some time to get this ready I decided to plant out one raised bed to at least get some growing done.  I planned to use netting around the bed to keep porcupines and small buck out and hoped that the baboons would be preoccupied with the citrus orchards a few kilometers away.

This last weekend I planted all my seeds directly into the bed. I did not erect the netting as there were no visible plants to eat yet.  I was confident that all would be well with my seeds.

But I missed something very, very obvious and when I went to check if the bed was still damp this morning I saw to my horror – two scratched heaps of sand exactly where I planted my seeds.  My first thought was – darn it – I didn’t know that porcupines dig in the sand for seeds.  I took a closer look and saw some very familiar spoor.  I am getting quite good at identifying spoor – especially these ones because I see them all over my dining room table!  Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Darn it Fred!  This is not your giant litter box!

Photo of Fred by the Bean

After a long day of bird watching…

its good to have a snooze…..

Fred asleep on my binoculars and bird book.  He shows great interest in the book. The Bean calls it his menu.

 

Today I’m posting a few links to blog posts that I really enjoyed this week.

• Mpumalanga Journal – this blogger writes from an area just south of us.  It’s a heart warming story about Fos the miracle dog and it shows what we have to deal with living in this environment. Another reason why I have hesitated in getting a dog.

• miss minimalist – 10 ways we can live more like butterflies this year.

• down—to—earth – about slowing down and living in the moment.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

 

Photo play

My Bean has always been interested in photography but has not had too much opportunity to play.  Her boyfriend has lent her a camera for a while and she has been following everyone and everything – just like the paparazzi.  Here are a few of her first efforts.

She enjoys manipulating her images too.  You can take a look at some of her work here.  I think she is doing rather well already. Don’t you?