Transporting Livestock

When we were rationalising things in preparation for our move to Bathurst, we took a careful look at what we had in our back garden. We had spent a lot of time and effort getting it to a point where we liked looking at it, and whilst we knew we couldn’t just take all the plants with us, we had other, non-plant things that reflected our personalities. We had to look at these things to see whether they were things we could let go of, or not.

the offending rain gauge

I’m a bit of a weather obsessive. Dad tried to teach all us kids about weather maps (isobars, high pressure systems, etc, etc), and whilst not all of it stuck in my head, the interest in the weather took hold. Anyway, because of this, we have a rain gauge. It’s getting quite old (it’s hard to read the numbers on the side of it, which kind of defeats the purpose of having it), so maybe we just buy a new one?

We have a wind-chime that my brother gave me as a gift. The bit that dangles down to catch the wind has fallen off, so it doesn’t chime very often (some would say that is the best kind of wind-chime to have!). Perhaps I can let go of the thought that throwing it out would be an insult to my brother. I do like the sound of wind-chimes, but I’m sure they sell them in Bathurst, so I can get one there.

Yes, I know, I’ve wandered off the point again. How does this all relate to transporting livestock?

Well, we have a worm farm. I’m pretty diligent about collecting scraps in the kitchen so things that can go into the worm farm don’t go into the garbage. Over the years, I’ve used the worm wee (or worm tea, as some more delicately put it) and the worm poo (worm castings) on the garden with wonderful results. And the worm factory is a couple of storeys high now.

But, would you believe it? Les had just assumed that we wouldn’t be taking it with us! He thought it fell into the category of “just get a new one” when we are in Bathurst. Hah! No way! What a waste of all that goodness, and it’s needed for setting up the vegie patch. Nothing better than worm waste to improve the soil.

So, the challenge was, how do we move the worm farm? Pretty sure the removalists won’t take it. If they won’t take any foodstuffs where the packets are open, I can’t see them taking a worm farm. Once Les had accepted that we were taking the worm farm with us, he quickly got onto solving the problem of how to transport our livestock, and their home, from Sydney to Bathurst, in our little Corolla. Issue #1 – how to fit the farm into the boot. Issue #2 – how to not make an almighty mess of the car. Issue #3 – how to make sure we don’t lose too many of the worms, through them going walkabout in the car (can a worm do that?).

garden decoration that IS going to Bathurst

Issue #1 was dealt with by taking the legs off the farm – easy peasy. Issue #2 was dealt with by making sure the tap was closed tightly, putting the farm on top of things to have it resting level, enclosing the whole thing inside a couple of heavy duty garbage bags, with a tarp underneath. Issue #3 wasn’t dealt with at all. I suppose I didn’t really think of that issue until we got to Bathurst and found that some of the worms had, indeed, gone walkabout. Why did they want to stray away from where the food was? Oh, well.

But, overall, it was a successful move. We didn’t lose too many worms, and the worm farm is now safely hidden down the side of the house, under a tree, with plenty of shade, and fairly easy for me to get to from the kitchen.

I just hope the transporting of our other livestock (Maggie the nutso cat) goes as smoothly!