My current house sit finds me on a dairy farm in Gordonton, which is north of Hamilton and about a ten-minute drive from the suburb of Rototuna and its shopping centre. This is my second visit to this particular place. I looked after it back in February of this year.
Shorter stay this time round, I’m here for a week while the owners have a break over at the Mount, and then it’s straight on to a repeat stay in Taranaki.
Same as in February, the contract milker takes care of the milkings and farm work. My role here is to mind the farm owners’ home and pets, which consist of the couple of doggies (Dart and Merlot), one eleven-year-old kitty cat (Glen), a handful of chookies, and four turtles.
The turtles live in an enclosure out the front of the house. They’re pretty shy so you don’t see very often, but if you quietly sneak up to their enclosure you can spot them basking in the sun by their pool.
The doggies get a good walk around the farm each day. By and large they’re both pretty good off the lead, but Dart can get distracted by tempting things in the paddock (e.g. rabbits) so it pays to have her lead on hand so she doesn’t wander off too far. Glen seems to remember me from last time and has been camping with me from the first night.
Glen
Merlot
Dart
Chookies
