“Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining”
 
We had rain today, we had hail, clouds then rain, then wind.  Despair not, young chickens, our new design chicken houses have a lovely high dome 😊 You can safely sit undercover, contemplate life and share all the gossip.
 
Then, finally, we got the SUN! Always hope and inevitable happiness will follow.
#hope #rainandsun #hail #therain #eggs #pastured #freechickens #undercover #safe #pasturedeggs #weather #poetry #farmlife
--from the poem "The Rainy Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 
Photography by Haydn

"Such a frost...
The sweating farmers
    Turn in their sleep
        Like oxen on spits."

Oscillating between frozen fields and almost-snow, to storms, to sun, to blue skies today: not the easiest week to be farming chickens in the pasture! Sleepless nights and long hours.

#hotandcold #winter #frost #frozen #eggs #pastured #freezing #poetry #farmlife #hardweek 

--from the poem "The Warm and the Cold" by Ted Hughes

“Eggs are Art and you are the Artist” - still reeling post-Canberra Royal Poultry Show – more ribbons to add to our collection 😊 Especially proud of our junior’s entry: egg decorated as a mouse – all edible, all healthy lunchbox material, all perfectly safe to try at home 😊
Fantastic creativity in all entries, kudos to all participants!
#eggshow #champion #eggs #pasturedeggs #royalshowcanberra #poultryshow #ribbons #edibleart #foodart
 
-- paraphrased from the saying about Food as Art

 “…And then a little lamb bolts up behind
  The hill and wags his tail to meet the yowe…”
 
The first lambs have been ‘bolting’ at the farm, white and clean, jumpy and always, always hungry 😊
My favourite view is the big A-shape they make with their back legs, so that they can keep their balance 😊
Sheep rotate with our chickens and the cropping, to complete our sustainable, bio-diverse approach to farming, and restore our soils.
 
#lambs #pastured #eggs #sustainable #rotational #regenerative #farming #littlelamb #alwayshungry #hungrylamb
--from the poem “Young Lambs” by John Clare

“I pondered how the bliss would look--
And would it feel as big--
When I could take it in my hand—”
 
This whooper egg, in the clover patch of new grass, with the drops of long-awaited rain we finally got: BLISS, in my hand.
 
#giant #egg #pastured #eggs #pasturedeggs #bliss #giantegg #whooper #poetry #farmlife #farmersbliss #doubleyolker
 
--from the poem number 271 by Emily Dickinson

“I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I [walk in the mead]
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.”
 
It's here!!! We would all do a handstand, crazy happy. We will slip on the mud and fall on the chickens. Humans happy, chickens not very happy at all.
Thinking of all the farmers up North.
 
#rain #poetry #hurray #rainarrived #muchneeded #mud #pastured #eggs #wet #chickens @hilltopsfreerange
--from the wonderful poem “Rain” by Shel Silverstein, with slight modifications by Hilltops Free Range

"We’ve been drought-ruined in the West--
    And ever in my dreaming
I see wide miles of waving crops
    And sheets of water gleaming"
 
While we are still dreaming of water this week, we broke the collection bike, we over-oiled the land cruiser, and spent our time fixing water taps, fences, leaks. However, we have also enjoyed spectacular skies at sunset, and all is well once the truck is packed and ready!
 
#sunset #skies #bigskies #workwelldone #busy #norain #drought #farmwork #eggs #pasturedeggs #poetry #dreaming #outback #broken #farmlife #oil                         
 
- from the poem "The Water" by Henry Lawson

Pause and reflect, commemorate and remember. The stunning #Boorowa #WarMemorial on an autumn day  #ANZACDay #lestweforget #rememberanceday

“’O where are you going?’ said reader to rider,
   ‘That valley is fatal where furnaces burn’”
 
Meeting riders like this hen every afternoon. They especially like to wander in the golden hour, before sunset. Where are you going?? There may not be ‘furnaces burning’, but there is Reynard or Tod, and his Vixen, and Foxen litter, and Eagles and Baza, and Falcon… “Don’t worry,” she tells me, “I come back for supper” :)
 
#runaway #escape #pastured #eggs #freedom #running #chicken #hen #pasturedeggs #freetoexplore #explorer #freerange #explore #comeback #intime
--from the poem "O Where Are You Going?" by the great W H Auden

It was an egg inside an egg! Our MONSTER egg we found on Friday, was an egg inside the egg, and it weighed a whooping 182grams!
 
Some young chicken was getting confused, she forgot to lay the egg yesterday...
#monster #egg #egginsideegg #double #twins #nestingdolls #pastured #weirdegg #bigegg #giant #giantegg #pasturedeggs

"I bought a Maserati
and a new Mercedes-Benz,
plus a brand new Lamborghini
I could show off to my friends.
...
For though it’s fun to be
the richest [dog] alive,
I’m sure I’ll like it better
when I’m old enough to drive."

-says one of our Maremmas, the only dog in the world who LOVES to get car rides. All of our Maremmas are either suspicious of the car, and only interested to 'mark territory' on the smelly tires, or scared of the car, they hate the vibrations and the noise; they also suspect a visit to the vet is coming! (trying to get a wild Maremma to the vet in a car is a WHOLE other story to tell).

But this guy, the minute you leave a car door open, he is up and inside, and he is settling comfortably, ready for some backseat driving!
#doginacar #backseat #driving #lovecars #Maremma #sheepdogs #pastured #eggs #farmlife #cars #showoff #dogdriver


from the poem "I Bought a Maserati", in the book "My Hippo Has the Hiccups" by Kenn Nesbitt, with modifications by Hilltops free range

Photography by Haydn

We’ve tried flexible chicken fencing, we’ve tried modern style cow fencing, we lately tried construction fencing (!?), hoping that was high enough. But there are always those chickens who fly like the eagle and would do anything to get to the other side!
 
Sometimes it’s their inner compass and sense of direction: they want to go where they were before (as our chickens roam around the paddocks and move every few weeks to a new pasture). The trouble is, all infrastructure is in the new area of the paddock, including water pipes and fox protection (a.k.a. Maremma’s). Big problem for the daily hunt for eggs as well.
 
I somehow need to remind them: your grass also looks greener – from the other side!!!
 
#green #pasture #fencing #problem #escaping #freedom #pastured #eggs #runaway #chickens #greenerpasture #otherside #greenergrass #grass #pasturedeggs
 
-Photography by Tom

"The storm hath passed;
  I hear the birds rejoice; the hen,
  Returned into the road again…
  The country smiles;"
 
It’s all clear skies and the storms have passed: the whole farm smiles! We gathered up some fallen branches, in the path of where we want to move the caravans next. Wonderful red box gum, it would be heartwarming in the fireplace – probably very soon, as the morning have become quite crispy here!
 
#gettingcold #coldmornings #fallenwood #boxgum #clearsky #pastured #eggs #hens #freedom #poetry #green #pasture #farmlife #tractor #jobs
 
--from the poem "Calm After Storm" by Count Giacomo Leopardi, the Italian 19th century Romantic with the longest name in the world (you don’t believe me? Try Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi)

Photography by Tom

The tempest and the hail storm left our water tanks full but put holes in the roof of one tools shed:

Lucky for us, the path of the hailstorm miraculously spared all our animals and other infrastructure on the farm! However, Boorowa town was badly hit, and we hope everyone is safe and well.
We just take the holes to the tools shed as ventilation and carry on! All water supply is welcome.
 
#hailstorm #hilltopsregion #water #summer #hail #eggs #water #pasturedeggs

"The heat’s a fire in the sky,
It makes the trees and people cry.
I’d leap in water, if I could,
But all the lakes have dried for good!”
 
..if not in the lake – jump in the watering bowl! 😂😂😂We’ve had a fair share of sizzling days this February, but our Maremma dogs always invent ways to leap into the water. Makes us want to jump in too! 😁
#keepingcool #water #hotsummer #pastured #eggs #farmlife #Maremma #dogs #cooldown #wateringbowl #invention
 
—Photography by Haydn
 
—from the poem “Sizzle” by William Blake

“I'm up and down, and round about,
Yet all the world can't find me out;
Though hundreds have employ'd their leisure,
They never yet could find my measure.”
 
We have one hen which lays perfect circles, every time! And since way back, we humans can measure the circumference of a circle, but we cannot find what the exact value of Pi is! Maybe this hen has finally solved this age old question?!
 
We are showing you the regular, ‘normal’ shape of an egg to compare, and the perfect circle on the left! We get one of those every day now.

#circle #circleegg #circular #egg #pasturedeggs #perfectcircle #pi #howmuchispi #
-- from the poem “On A Circle” by Jonathan Swift, all the way back in the 18th century!

“And when the Sun comes out,
After this Rain shall stop,
A wondrous Light will fill
Each dark, round drop;
I hope the Sun shines bright;
‘Twill be a lovely sight.”
 
We had those wild, stormy rains, we had the gusty winds, we had the power out, the internet connection down, the fencing down, the packing shed flooded, and so… both chickens and I really think that a bit of blue sky is a ‘lovely sight’ 😊
We hope everyone is now dry and lookup into some lovely sights 😊 😊 😊
#wild #weather #storms #bluesky #lovelysight #poetry #pastured #eggs #outdoors #summerrain #rains #aftertherain
 
-- from the poem “The Rain” by W.H. Davies