Cranky's FARM

08/09/2026

🌱🐄 EIGHT WONDERFUL HUMANS. THREE HOURS. ONE BOX TRAILER FULL OF FIREWEED! 💚

After our slightly desperate last-minute pleas for help, eight wonderful people turned up for our Weeding Bee on Saturday — and we cannot thank them enough!

Despite it being a VERY warm afternoon, everyone rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into removing Fireweed from the cattle paddocks.

And get stuck into it they did...

🌱 By the end of three hours, we'd removed an entire box trailer FULL of Fireweed!

That's a whole trailer load that won't be growing, spreading seed or needing to be sprayed — a pretty fantastic result for one Saturday afternoon.

Of course, there were also 27 Cranky cows supervising proceedings. 🐄😂

We have a sneaking suspicion our volunteers enjoyed spending a few hours amongst the herd almost as much as the cows enjoyed having eight new potential scratch-givers wandering around their paddocks. ❤️

It was hot. It was sweaty. It was dirty. But we think it was also a genuinely enjoyable and very worthwhile three hours.

Afterwards, five of our volunteers stayed for dinner, which was another really lovely part of the day. We shared some yummy vegan food, had a chat and got to know some of the people who had just given up their afternoon to help our sanctuary. 🌱🍔

Sometimes volunteering isn't just about how much work gets done. It's also about bringing people together and giving our supporters a chance to spend time in the place — and with the animals — they're helping.

So to all eight of you: THANK YOU! 💚

You gave us your time, energy and quite a lot of sweat, and together we achieved something that would have taken us an awfully long time on our own.

One trailer of Fireweed gone, eight new members of the Cranky cow fan club, and one paddock looking considerably better. 🌱🐄💚

We'd call that a Saturday afternoon very well spent.

04/09/2026

🐐 When you’re 15 and 16, you’ve earned a few extra creature comforts. 💚

Bambi and Bootsy are making very good use of the scratchy bristles we’ve attached to the wall of their shed — perfect for getting to those hard-to-reach itchy spots. 😂

Scratching and rubbing are completely natural behaviours for goats. Providing safe scratching surfaces helps them groom themselves, remove loose hair and dead skin, relieve an itch and, importantly, gives them another form of enrichment in their environment.

But you might notice that these two aren’t hanging out in the main goat yard anymore.

At 15 and 16 years old, Bambi and Bootsy are very much part of Cranky’s growing community of senior citizens. 🥹

They now have their own special area where life can move at a slightly slower pace and we can keep a closer eye on them, tailor their feeding and care, and give them that little bit of extra attention that older bodies sometimes need.

Because rescue doesn’t end when an animal is safe.

For us, rescue is a promise to be there through every stage of their life — including the years when they need us the most. ❤️

And Bambi and Bootsy certainly aren’t the only oldies calling Cranky’s home these days. We have quite the retirement village happening around here. 👵🐐🐄🐴🐴

In fact… we’ve got something VERY exciting coming soon that is all about helping us keep that promise to our beautiful old folk. 👀✨

We’re not quite ready to spill the beans yet… but trust us, you’re going to want to keep an eye on this page. 💎😉

04/09/2026

Lorenzo and his ridiculously nimble little lippies. 😂💋🫏

This is apparently what love looks like after all these years… Lorenzo gently trying to drag my finger into his mouth while I remind him that my finger is NOT food. 😂

And if you watch closely, you can see he’s not actually trying to hurt me at all. Those clever old lips are doing all the work — just grabbing, investigating and seeing whether perhaps, by some miracle, my finger has turned into something edible. 😂

There’s just so much trust between this beautiful old man and me. He knows I’m safe, I know him well enough to know exactly what he’s doing, and we quite simply love each other to bits. ❤️

Lorenzo may be an old fella these days, but those lippies are still VERY much in working order. 😂

My beautiful boy. 🫏❤️

04/09/2026

🚨🐄 WELL… THIS IS A LITTLE AWKWARD. 🐄🚨

🎟️ LAST CHANCE TO BOOK:
https://crankysfarm.org.au/public-events

Our Weeding Bee is supposed to be happening TOMORROW afternoon and, as things currently stand…

Not one person has booked to come and help. 😳

We have to admit, we're really disappointed. We know everyone is busy and we never take anyone's time for granted, but we genuinely thought we might be able to rustle up a few willing hands to help us tackle the Fireweed in one of our main cattle paddocks.

But what we're perhaps MOST shocked about is this…

Apparently nobody wants to spend an afternoon in a paddock with 27 cows. 🤯🐄

TWENTY-SEVEN.

Twenty-seven inquisitive bovines wandering around supervising your work, sticking their noses into your business, following you around and quite possibly demanding scratches and cuddles.

Frankly, we're questioning everything we thought we knew about people. 😂

All jokes aside though, we really do need the help.

The Fireweed needs to be removed and we'd much rather tackle as much of it as possible by hand than resort to spraying herbicides across the paddock. That's better for our environment and much kinder to our already-stretched sanctuary finances.

🌱 And you absolutely DO NOT have to stay for the whole afternoon.

If you can give us an hour, wonderful. Two hours, even better. The whole afternoon, we'll probably want to hug you ourselves.

Any amount of help is better than no help at all.

⚠️ IMPORTANT — PLEASE READ THIS BIT!

If you were intending to come tomorrow but simply haven't booked yet, you MUST book through our website.

We need to know who is attending and if you haven't booked, unfortunately you won't be able to participate.

⏰ BOOKINGS CLOSE AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.

So this is our last-minute call-out to the Cranky's community.

If you've got some spare time tomorrow afternoon, please come and give us a hand. Pull some weeds. Meet some lovely people. Help us avoid spraying the paddock.

And for goodness' sake…

COME AND CUDDLE ONE OF THESE 27 POOR, APPARENTLY UNWANTED COWS. 😂🐄❤️

📅 Tomorrow — Saturday 5 September
⏰ From 2pm
📍 Cranky's FARM, Mount Mee
🌱 Come for as much or as little time as you can manage.

🎟️ BOOKINGS CLOSE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT:
https://crankysfarm.org.au/public-events

Who's going to save our Weeding Bee?! 🙏🌱🐄

02/09/2026

🌱🐄 WE REALLY NEED SOME HELP THIS SATURDAY! 🐄🌱

🎟️ BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE:
https://crankysfarm.org.au/public-events

As you can see in the video, the cattle aren't the only things growing well in this paddock at the moment — unfortunately, so is the Fireweed.

This Saturday 5 September from 2pm, we're holding a Weeding Bee right here at the sanctuary, and at the moment we've only got TWO wonderful people booked in to come and help us. 💚

We're incredibly grateful to those two people for putting their hands up, but we could really, really do with a few more!

We need to get on top of the Fireweed in this paddock and we'd much rather physically remove it than have to resort to spraying herbicides. Avoiding spraying wherever possible is better for the environment — and it's also considerably better for the sanctuary's already-stretched finances.

But pulling it by hand requires people, and that's where we're hoping some of you might come to our rescue. 🙏

You don't need any experience. We'll show you what to look for and what to do.

And there's one pretty big perk...

🐄 You'll be weeding WITH the cattle!

The herd will remain in the paddock while we're working, so expect visits from inquisitive bovines, noses appearing over shoulders and compulsory work stoppages whenever someone decides pats are more important than Fireweed removal. ❤️

📅 Saturday 5 September
⏰ From 2pm
📍 On site at Cranky's FARM

🚗 We encourage carpooling wherever possible, as parking at the sanctuary is limited. We'll help attendees connect so people can organise to travel together where they can.

🍔🌭 And if you'd like to hang around afterwards, you can join us for a casual burger or hot dog for a small charge just to help cover the cost of the food.

If you've ever thought "I'd love to actually come out and help Cranky's", this is one of those times when we genuinely need you.

We've got two helpers. We'd love to turn that into ten! 🌱💚

Come pull some weeds, spend the afternoon with the herd and help us avoid having to spray this paddock.

🎟️ You must book so we know you're coming — please don't just turn up on the day.

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE:
https://crankysfarm.org.au/public-events

We'd really love to see you there! 🐄🌱💚

PS: please ignore the shenanigans in the background at the end of the video (never work with children or animals). ;)

02/09/2026

01/09/2026

Sometimes the best moments at the sanctuary are the quiet ones. ❤️

Just me sitting for a minute with our beautiful old lady Bambi beside me, enjoying some pats and a little one-on-one attention.

And, of course, it didn’t take long for Lorenzo to realise there were cuddles happening without him. 😂

There’s something pretty special about earning the trust of these old souls. They don’t need much in moments like this — just a gentle hand, some company and the chance to stand beside someone they know is safe.

Bambi and Lorenzo are both well into their senior years now, and these little moments with them feel more precious than ever.

No drama. No agenda. Just an old goat, an even older donkey, and a few quiet minutes together. ❤️

These are the moments that make all the hard work worth it.

28/08/2026

Apparently Mia has decided that the sanctuary is under attack. 😂🐑

Here she is, our dear old lady sheep, summoning every ounce of courage she has to protect herself from the enormous, terrifying, absolutely fearsome beast in front of her…

Gimli. The Chihuahua. 😂

There’s foot stamping. There’s posturing. There are some very serious warnings being issued.

Meanwhile Gimli, all 3 kilos of him, is completely oblivious. 🤣

Mia may be getting on in years, but she would like everyone to know that she is VERY BRAVE and will absolutely stand her ground when confronted by a giant, scary predator who could probably fit in her feed bucket.❤️🐑

27/08/2026

🙄 Oh look… more of our terribly mistreated cattle.

Just look at them.

Lying around in the sun. Relaxed. Healthy. Chewing their cud. Not a care in the world.

Clearly we have absolutely no idea how to look after cattle. 😂

Following our recent posts about Ferdinand, we've had a few helpful comments from self-proclaimed “farmers” informing us of everything we're apparently doing wrong.

One particularly insightful observation was that Ferdinand looked “flat” and that there “must be something wrong with him” because, in one of our videos, he was… sitting down calmly.

Well, allow us to introduce you to some more of our apparently “flat” cattle.

Here's the thing: our cattle are calm.

When we walk into their paddock, they don't immediately leap to their feet and run away.

They stay where they are.

They continue relaxing.

They continue chewing their cud.

Sometimes they barely even acknowledge us.

Why?

Because they're not scared of us.

They don't associate humans approaching them with being chased, moved, loaded, yelled at or something unpleasant happening.

They know us. They trust us. And they feel safe enough in our presence to remain lying down.

So yes, if your measure of a healthy cow is one that immediately jumps to its feet and moves away when a human approaches, our cattle probably do look a little strange.

We'll happily take that criticism. 😉

Meanwhile, we'll leave this obviously terribly mistreated bunch to continue their exhausting afternoon of lying in the sunshine, chewing their cud and feeling completely safe. 🐂☀️