Welcome to Hydeaway Farm, the home of Hydeaway Jerseys, Hydeaway Heifer Hotel and Joyful Jerseys.
Deep in the hills of the Highveld, South Africa, lies a small farm of 227 hectares. The entrance is surmounted by a large sign reading "Hydeaway Jerseys" but all you can see is Holsteins.
We bought our first cow more than ten years ago. Her name was Princess and we hand-milked her under a tree every day. On April Fool's Day, 2000, we moved to Hydeaway Farm. We should've known, it's April Fool's all year long around here. We moved here with a pregnant Princess, a cow named Peanut, and a bull named Polo. Oh, and a donkey. Named Benjamin. Eleven years later, not only are we known as Hydeaway Heifer Hotel*, raising around 270 Holstein heifers for a nearby farmer, we are also Hydeaway Jersey Stud, and mighty proud of it. With 100 cows in milk and a total of over 200 registered Jerseys, we're small but getting there. Oh, and we also still have the donkey, and eight horses, and about two hundred chickens, and eight dogs, and four geese, and a rabbit, and a guinea fowl named Stripy, and a very very odd sense of humour.
"We" consist of Dinki (47), Jon (47 but older than Dinki), Firn (15), and Rain (13). Add twelve or thirteen workers and way too many rats and you have the big happy Hydeaway family.
Welcome to our website. Enjoy, but be sure to wear protective gear. We're not quite sure if insanity is catching yet and we're so far round the bend that we couldn't poke it with a long, long pole. Insane or not, we are very happy and we have keenness coming out of our ears; we do our best, we laugh, we live, we love, and we do it all in the Name of God. Want to join us? It's a lot of fun.
Read about our latest (mis)adventures in our News page and blog (links are on the top right). If you'd like a view of life through ballet-tinted glasses, have a look at Rain's page and blog. For the most accurate story of the farm, told from Dinki's point of view, click on her link. Or if you'd like to hear about horses, horses, and more horses, go to Firn's blog. Jon can't be persuaded to blog, probably because's he's too busy fixing something that the girls and their critters just broke again.
*The designer of this website, an aspiring writer, would like to note that her record is unblemished. In other words, I didn't come up with that one.
Be kindly affectioned to one another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. ~ Romans 12:10-12 |
