The night before the market in Lake Bolac in aid of the Great Victorian Bike Ride I had visions of our three, six month old Wessex Saddleback gilts which we were showing, escaping and causing destruction around the market stalls running around in their rapid rocking horse style run, their ears flapping all over the place and up ending stall holder tables, tipping over old ladies sipping tea and generally causing havoc.
The Great Victorian Bike ride is an 8 day non-competitive cycling event covering several hundreds of kilometres where the participants, from the age of 14 months to over 70 years old and even a unicyclist, cycle from one town to the next.
With the prospect of 4200 captive riders we decided it would be a great opportunity to set up a stall and spotlight The Rare Breeds Trust of Australia in conjunction with Greenvale Homestead.
The day before market day I made the trip to Daylesford to pick up the RBTA marketing material (in doing so allowing the real-estate where it had made its self at home for the past little while to be finally vacuumed, much to the excitement of the crew at Fernleigh Farm and gave them a little more breathing room in the office). I picked up the item which I primarily made the trip for, that being the RBTA free standing sign, only to discover after my 2 hour drive home that I’d only actually picked up the base of the sign minus the sign itself.
We decided to put the gilts in the tandem trailer the night before as (a), they were in their house and it would be simpler than chasing them around their paddock to load them up, or at least so we thought, and (b), if there were any issues getting them loaded then we would have them loaded ready for the next day and not rushing it on the day. The original plan at the site was to put them in a portable pen however considering the effort getting them into the trailer and the sheer stubbornness of the lasses, it was going to be an easier proposition to actually leave them in the trailer.
I don’t remember ever changing a tire in my life on route however that was my next challenge of the day. On the way to the market and on the same road as the cyclists, fortunately long before the first rider was due on the scene, I had a blow out. Although I consider myself very mechanically minded, and I hope not too many of my friends read this but, I had to consult the manual to work out how to get the spare off.
The cyclists had in the first few days battled consistent head winds from the start of the ride in Ballarat to the rest day in Halls Gap in the Grampians. So it was a relief that they had a very supportive tail wind from Halls Gap to Lake Bolac, fortunate of course for the riders but not for the stall holders. All day we fought a losing battle, at least I did to anchor the static displays and merchandise. Extra pegs and ropes were deployed to stop the tent collapsing. The surplus pegs I had I used to pin down music stands for the girls playing their wind instruments, which was short lived as the direction of the wind meant that very few people could actually hear them and they relocated.
The pigs however were in heaven, comfortable in the hay and the wind to keep the flies off and adored by the visitors who fed them the near fresh rolls from the locally famous Willaura bakery. Two of our gilts had been given names however the third, as yet had not, so we decided to have a competition to “Name that Pig” the winner of which would receive a family membership the RBTA sponsored by Greenvale Homestead. The winning name was Maisey with an honorary mention to Boudicca however the latter wasn’t probably a name our young guests at Greenvale Homestead could relate to, that being the name of an English woman who commanded an army to rebel against the Roman Empire. There were also the few unimaginative entries such as dinner, bacon and crackling.
Most people couldn’t get over how big the pigs were for their age, Malcolm Cowan a fellow RBTA member who was participating in the bike ride and who deals with Wessex Saddlebacks in Tasmania estimated them to be between 55 and 60 kgs, and suggested in not exactly these words that they may nearly be ready for dinner.
Our other breed as part of the Greenvale Homestead RBTA exhibit was my one and only Transylvanian Naked Neck Chicken. I can appreciate exactly why they are a rare breed after being sent two dozen supposedly fertile eggs and only hatching one from the incubator. It found comfort at in the straw bedding in the enclosed section of the hutch and only rarely making an appearance. So every now and then I coaxed it out by lifting the lid slightly and giving it a gentle hand. While my visions of the pigs escaping did not materialize, the Naked neck literally jumped at the chance to fulfil my premonition and burst out of the hutch forcing the lid open and fleeing to freedom. The numbers of volunteers grew as entrapment continued to elude us. Then I saw a chance to capture the escapee and dove horizontally at the chickens legs as if the move was taken straight from a road runner cartoon, and as part of the cartoon stunt, my hands crossed and the chicken slipped free once again. Finally a spare sheet was used as a throw net and the squawking chicken was at last in custody.
There was one other interesting farm animal exhibit that we were honoured to have as our market neighbour and that was a local sheep called Lucky, a sheep born on Anzac day in 1986 and is supposed to be the oldest recorded sheep in the world. Looking, I must say very good for its age.
After a big day I drove back to Greenvale with the Pigs and as I was struggling getting the pigs off the trailer, the Vic Roads bike riders who were staying at the homestead looked on with refreshments in hand from the homestead verandah. I joined them a little later and in jest said “you could have come to my aid to get the pigs off the trailer” only to be informed, and to the amusement of the rest of the guests, that in addition to the Vic Roads crew our presence was graced by a number of off duty police officers also participating in the bike ride.
A number of crops around the district and through out Victoria haven't had a great time due either to lack of rain, rain at an inappropriate time or frosts. Although we were lucky on most fronts we had a couple of paddocks that didn't have a great time due to weeds. The estimated yield of the crop on those paddocks meant that if cut at the right time it would be financially more beneficial to cut the crop for hay. And so we made hay......
