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No.33. in my series of short stories.
Lambs chickens piglets we always had a Farmyard friend.
This is me at around 3 years
of age at Nans farm in Jennacubbine in the
Goomalling Shire, in the wheatbelt of Perth, Western Australia.
We had great fun chasing piglets in and out of the mud after a good rain and getting very muddy ourselves. Though the lambs were cute they were always hungry and head butting you for some more milk, its ok for a while but they become a nuisance and the novelty wears off.
Often extremely dirty from messing around in the sheep sheds or pig pens and having so much fun, bath time was inevitable but never until late in the day and often not every day, as water was scarce and came from the small water tank in the house yard. If it had been a dry winter there was never enough water or just not enough water tanks. Our bath water was boiled in the copper and bucketed from the laundry into the old tin bath and never much more than a couple of inches high, problem was that I was the youngest and got the last bath which wasn't so nice after several other dirty kids. The walls of the bathroom were made of galvanised iron nailed to a wooden frame and it was bloody cold in winter and extremely hot in summer.
There was no electricity to the property and at dinner time after dark we sat at the dining room table where we had a really nice large centre table lamp, it was tall with a lovely glass chimney with a wick in the centre and the lamp ran on kerosene. In winter we sat in front of the wood fire where we would read a bedtime story, sat and did some drawing or on the odd occasion we had to write to our long lost mother. I so much enjoyed the times when we were all together.
At bedtime nan would light a kerosene hurricane lamp for my sister and me to put on the bedside table between our twin beds. I didn't much like it as the light attracted the moths and they hung around by the dozens bombarding me, so I often pulled the bed clothes up so they couldn't attack. I still have a moth phobia.
We woke in the morning to sounds of cockatoos screaming, cows mooing, chickens clucking, and the rooster always had to have a say. The mornings were so peaceful after coming from the city. Up for breakfast of weet bix with boiled water and some fresh toast and Vegemite and no fresh eggs for me as I was allergic to them. So many farmyard stories further down the track.