Farm Happenings

We are off to a good start at the petting barn. Some days are great like Wednesday when we had  63 people, but other days are very slow & long.... Mostly because I am at the store, knowing that I have so much to do at home & that's hard. I don't think the weather helps it's too hot or too rainy.

Speaking of all the rain it's been impossible to make hay, making a very frustrated farmer Mark. He took a chance yesterday & it poured buckets. Plan b is to do wrapped/silage bales. He's been having a problem with the Grandpa tractor. He got parts & fixed it, but then the tire was going flat, so yesterday he brought it to be fixed. Flat again today, found another tire only to realize  hay/ field is too wet to rake...try again tomorrow & hope it doesn't rain tonight. Joys of farming.

On a positive note all the animals are doing great! We are checking everyday to see if our beef cow, Black Beauty has had her calf. That will be exciting, don't really care if it's a heifer or a bull, just want everything to go smoothly. Sheep are content, we move their pasture every 5-7 days & have had no worm issues. It's so nice to have the land to do that! We got the pigs out to pasture & they sure are enjoying the green grass. It's so cute at chore time when they come running for their food. Turkeys are lovin' their space. They make such  nice sounding little chirps. They love roaming around. Makes my heart content to see everyone outside and I feel so good knowing that we are going to have a abundance of tasty meat.

Nancy & K3

Daisy Duke & I

Star Flower & Bella

Nancy, waiting for some love.

3 week old Golden Comets

Disaster Avoided

Friday morning I get to the petting barn. I walk in the barn into the "milk room", I start mixing the calves milk, and I hear clanging from inside the barn. I know that sound is the grain bins...great, whose out? It's the ponies. Their faces are covered with chick mash & the cover is off the sweet feed. Oh no! Ponies that eat too much can colic ( which can be fatal). I put them back in their stall. There is no poop on the floor, so  I think that means they weren't out long. I will watch them all day, worry, and hope they are fine.

I am alone at the barn, waiting for customers, when I hear barking outside. Hmmm,  maybe the kids are here with the puppy. I walk to the door and I hear the barking coming from down the road. That's strange since their isn't any house close by. Suddenly, I see across the road my ram lambs running and a dog chasing them. The grass is really tall, so I just see them leaping out of the grass. I have no idea what kind of dog, or how many. There is no one around, so I run up to the landlords house burst open the door. Their house cleaner D. is cleaning. She tells me no one is home, and asks whats the problem. I tell her there is something after my sheep & run out the door. Meanwhile, K2 & 3 are just getting out of their car at the barn with my niece & nephew. I tell them to put the kids back in the car, call Dad, call Uncle Jerry or our neighbor...anyone with a gun. I am a dog lover, but I don't know if this is a wild dog, or if there is more than one, and I don't want to lose my lambs. I run into the barn & grab a shovel. I am fully expecting that I will have to beat  this dog off my sheep. While I ran to get the shovel, D. had come out of the house, climbed the fence and started yelling at the dog. By the time I get across the road and over the fence with the shovel she had caught the dog.  The dog had a collar, obviously it was someones dog. There was two lambs missing. I go on a search and find them terrified hiding in the brush. One had been bitten, just a small puncture wound on his face. We crate the dog & try to find the owner. After an hour the lambs still hadn't come back to the group, so Mark & I decide to go round them up. My reward for this is poison ivy, all over my legs. We find the owner & they come and get their dog. She had accidentally got out & they felt really bad. The dog wasn't being vicious       (since she stopped when she was yelled at), she was just playing - not the dogs fault or the owners. Animals are unpredictable and things happen.

Ponies were fine, lambs were fine, all was good when I left the barn for the night.....until 10 when we get a phone call from Leo, sheep are out.

Mark, K3, and I head out. Of course Leo & Arlene come to help (best landlords ever....). We finally track them down up the road in the neighbors field. It's the ram lambs, obviously still scared from the morning attack. Another neighbor stops to help & we corner them and all dive for sheep. Then we throw them in the back of my car & bring them to the barn. I am laughing because we have 6 ram lambs & K3 all crushed in the back of the Mariner. K1 has my Fusion, because I wanted a bigger "Farm" car....there have been  many times like this that I am so happy I have the Mariner.

As Mark always says...." We're Livin' the Dream...."

We are OPEN!

The reason, I haven't blogged in a month is we have been crazy busy getting our petting barn ready for opening day,and moving animals.In the last month we also have hayed (with all this rainy weather, we had to take advantage of the few good days we had). Our oldest K1 graduated from high school. The 1st weekend of June was graduation, the 2nd weekend was her party, and the 3rd was our opening. CRAZY! There were nights we didn't eat dinner until 9:45- Seriously!but it was all worth it!  Pictures of the animals at the end are late afternoon on opening day - after we had 100 people! Farmers were tired too! We are open Wednesday - Sunday , 10 - 5.  Hope to see you!

Arlene gets all the credit for this - she is amazing!

Built by my awesome Hubby!

Inside the play barn , my nephews - Love it!

Q calls these puppets -  K1 painted 5 of them. 

Happy sheep in the pasture.

Happy cows - enjoying the shade!

Farmer Mark - mowing hay.

Farmer Tracy - tedding hay!

Opening day flowers from my favorite sister!

Opening day flowers from our sweet landlords .

K3 

Sleeping Shirley

Ava & Pepsi

Ace, Bella, Starflower

Daisy Duke

Nala & S'more

Charlotte & Freckles

S'more greets me in the morning...

When it rain, it pours...

Both literally & figuratively...

It poured buckets all weekend. It was 43 degrees. The freshly sheared alpacas were cold even in the barn. I froze my a** off all weekend. It started on Saturday when we had to process 80 chickens, we had a canopy, but we were wet & cold. The process took over 3 hrs. Then of course we had the puppies that had to go out all day & night. Sunday, I had to walk out & check the sheep, again I got wet & cold.... At times like these Mark will look at me and say " We're livin the dream, babe" This is why we have been together for 20 years....

Since my last blog we had to put our horse Dora down, she was 29 years old. This happened 3 days after we put our sheep Phoebe down.Then the pup Shirley got sick & we had to take her to the vet. Doesn't the saying go bad things happen in threes?

Monday was sunny & warm, singling a good week ahead.

 My brother and sister-in law found us a chinchilla. We haven't named her yet. 

 Figuring out how to put the cage together was a challenge.

 K3 lovin the dogs!

Everyone was happy on Monday to have sun & be outside! 

Getting a drink all together after playing & running!

Oh, my crazy life!

Every day is insanity around here. We have have TWO HUNDRED animals, 3 teenagers, 2 businesses  and remodeling the barn....Here's what's been happenin"

Meat birds are growing like crazy, this was last week. They seem to enjoy the fresh air & being outside, but don't forge like the layers.

 Here is problem sheep Anna. She is our only one with horns & she kept getting her horns stuck in the fence & we would hear her blatin' and have to go help her out, SEVERAL times a day!

 Finally, we moved them over to the new barn with lots of green grass. YAH!

Here are the baby turkeys- they are doing great!

My favorite signs of spring. Asparagus from my garden & lilacs from my bushes. Lilacs remind me of my Mom. We used to pick them & have them in every room in the house! She loved them.

Here is one of the guinea pigs- Checkers, they were moved over to the new barn last weekend.

Carter is reluctantly accepting the puppies!

Betta & Shirley are so cute & sweet I can't stop taking pictures of them. Poor Shirley wasn't feeling good last night. The good news is she whines instead of pooping in her crate, the bad news is I took her out at 11, 12, 2:30, 3:30, 6. It was like having an infant! I do have to say I am so proud of K3, she wanted these pups & she takes care of them all day when she is home. I take the night so she can sleep, but she has been so responsible. She loves them!

Daisy & Gigi are also at the barn. They are out to pasture with the ponies. Here they are in the barn waiting for their hair cut!

Gigi the rock star!

Daisy Duke!

Mark is a happy farmer this weekend. He doubled his herd! We have a bred Angus & her yearling.

They are happy with all the green grass!

Nancy & Abby!

Last weekend I drove to Burlington to get the puppies with K3, than I met Mark in New Haven & we switched cars & kids. I turned around & went back to Burlington with K 1 & 2. They both qualified in the drive for excellence contest...but didn't win the new car :(

K3 & her boyfriend had their senior ball last night. Boy, I sure do have pretty girls!