Country practice is pooch perfect
Meet Steve and Rambo, two Jack Russell terriers that love life on the farm.
Meet Steve and Rambo, surely two of the cutest farm dogs ever. My friends C and J own a country property that’s not too far from where I live but it feels a planet removed, not just in scenery but its connection to nature and the sheer busyness of keeping it alive and thriving. These two Jack Russell terriers have it soft, however, with a special travelling get-up for forays in an open-sided vehicle of a sturdy character but what the contraption is called I dare not ask as I am an urban creature, born and bred.
Spending a day and night at this magical place has given me new insight into the rhythms of farm life and just how much there is to do. And then to do again. Not only is there the cycle of planting and harvesting and wrangling intruders (hello, snakes) but the resilience needed to be almost off the grid and, frequently, dependent completely on one’s own wiles.
C and J have neighbours within cooee (well, almost) and a village fairly close but both have work gigs that require them to head separately to the city and so one or other is alone at times, and they have to know how to change a tyre and fix anything and everything. C and I did have a bush mechanics cameo when the tail-lights on her (frankly enormous) 4WD wouldn’t turn off. But to be fair, all I did was hold the torch while she produced some sort of toolkit out of a back pocket. She said I was very helpful, but she’s polite like that.
Incidentally, I have discovered that Airbnb and Dairy Australia have teamed up for a Dairy Destinations project wherein accommodation is available in dairy-producing regions and, in some cases, in cottages or studios on working farms.
It’s been a long time since my high-school visit to the Rotolactor at Camden, a sort of milking merry-go-round for cows. Such contraptions are old hat now but I like the sound of a dairy spread at Central Tilba in NSW where there’s a jersey cow called Poppy.
Count me in, as long as I can borrow Steve and Rambo to go along for the ride.