A day of mixed emotions

Yesterday I attended the funeral of our young friend. Yes, of course it was very sad, and it was extremely hard to see that tiny coffin. However, nothing can change the fact that he is no longer with us, and I guess that whilst we must allow oursleves to grieve over the tragic loss of someone so young, we must also move on and be grateful that he came into our lives.

As I mentioned on another website recently, because of Tom's age, he will not remember all of this upset. Beyond the first few swimming lessons when he will no doubt ask where Rueben is, I doubt very much whether he will even give it all another thought. But I will. And I will try to use the whole experience to make me a better person....a better mum. At times, I am too quick to chastise Tom, I sometimes forget that he is in fact only 3yo and cannot be expected to remember everything I say and all the rules we impose. If I've learnt anything from Rueben's death, it is that life is so very precious and it really can be taken away in an instant.

So I am going to enjoy my kids. Be more accepting of their faults. Sure, I'm not going to let them run rings around me and rest assured, there will be a measure of discipline in our house, but I am going to get off his back a bit more. I'm positive that there will come a time in his life when I will find myself chastising him on a regular basis (ie teenage years)........I don't need to be doing it now.

On a brighter note, this week we were judged in the Semex-Holstein Australia on farm challenge. This is where you nominate a number of cows to be judged based on conformation and other physical traits. We submitted 2 cows per class (2yo, 3yo, 4yo, 5yo & mature class). One of our 3yo cows - Craiglands Luckystrike 3111 - came third in her class. This is a great acheivement as the 2 and 3yo classes were very competitive.

When we selected her, and then on the day of judging, she was looking to be a standout cow - one that we would potentially be able to take to the show. This made me inwardly groan as she is a predominately white cow. Lordy.....the washing that is in front of me!!!

Craiglands Luckystrike 3111

A huge thanks goes to Mike Huth of BOS Trading who spent a couple of days with us selecting cows for the on farm challenge. The bugger of it all (for him), is that it was an ABS cow that got up on the day, rather than a BOS one!! We'll see how we go in the Colac on farm challenge in a few weeks time with a BOS PT daughter!

Also this week, Bridie had another trip to the maternal & child health nurse for a weighing. Again, she has put on weight - 210gms - which is great. She now weighs a whopping (not) 7.1kg at 9 months of age. LOL. Yes, she is going to be a petite little thing.