Family Day

Squishy's been getting pretty antsy in her pen so I let her and SoZH come out for a sunny afternoon. I was worried that the other chickens would pick on the chick and that Squishy wouldn't protect him - I kept a close eye on them the whole time. 

The other chickens were very interested at first but Squishy is a good mom; she chased everyone away - except for the baby daddy himself. I think it's unlikely that roosters know when a chick is theirs, but ZH was sure nice with his son.

After scratching around and eating some cucumbers, it was time for a dust bath.

SoZH wasn't sure what was going on at first.

He kept trying to cuddle up to mom and she'd shove him away with her feet. 

Adults only in the spa.

Then he suddenly caught on to how good a sunny dust bath feels.

Pure dusty bliss.

A little splintery, but mostly blissful.

Family at the spa.

Meanwhile, goats were hanging out in their favourite spot.

They go up on that table to sun themselves, chew their cud, groom themselves, wrestle each other...

Abby used to think she was the only table hopper on the farm.

"Wheee!"

"What??"

Speaking of "what??". 

Little Brown (probably the chicken with the most original name of all) seems to be going full kamikaze on Ryan.

Winding Down

 I think it's nearing the end of farm stand season - everything in the greenhouse has slowed way down. Today I got a handful of cherry tomatoes instead of the pounds I was getting just a few weeks ago. We'll still have cooler weather stuff in the fall (lettuce, kale, winter squash) and hopefully some eggs...but no more delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans or zucchini!

Ryan trying to sell some produce (and probably himself, too - he isn't a big fan of his foster sister Lexi).

I thought there weren't many beans anymore but I picked a big bowl full this morning.

Nathan's first foray into preserving - this tomato relish/chutney is really spicy and really good.

Ryan getting ready for another day on the farm. He gets to bring me the sheep almost every morning since I've been checking Ewean's foot. 

Walt's also doing some morning stretches.

From L to R: Hank, Skyler, Walt, Saul and Gus. Skyler and Gus are the definite (and I think only) girls.

Hank the rooster.

But not the King Rooster. Zebra Head just keeps growing...

Nom nom nom blackberries.

Another case of bumblefoot...at least this time I knew what to do. Sheba is a lot heavier than Speckles so she's having more trouble hobbling around.

The girls were pretty excited to come out for another walk today.

May stretching for the tastiest leaves. This is how Maggie now stands up for grain - it's almost on command.

It's hard to get pictures of Maggie because every time I bend down, she comes running over to see if I have anything for her. 

Mother Clucker helping with the brush removal.

We leave for our trip tomorrow. It's a bit nerve wracking leaving all the animals (the dogs are coming with us). I had to stop myself from writing an essay to our landlord about goat care. I limited it to a paragraph...or two...

Planet Farm

We outdid ourselves with visitors this weekend - 3 different sets in 3 days! We hiked, had bbqs, swam in the river, went to an unexpectedly big party at our neighbours' house (who knew that our town had a real live jazz/blues band!?), ate pizza at a cidery, had a few campfires in our new auction-won firepit and taught two very awesome kids all about cloacas and ram testicles. 

I never had a chance to take any photos, so these are all courtesy of Jeff and Billy.

Planet Farm

Zebra Head announcing that it's mid morning..or maybe midday...early afternoon...late afternoon..

Bella holding Speckles. We had to perform bumblefoot surgery on Specks since it seemed like I didn't get the infected 'plug' out the first time. This time we got a bunch of hardened gunk out so hopefully her foot will heal now.

Charlie and Skyler T. Those are blackberries in the food dish that the girls picked for the chicks.

Ryan bringing the sheep over so that we could feed them. There are 4 new horses here that are boarding in the sheep paddock. They're really sweet but they're making it hard to take care of the sheep. They push the sheep out of the way when I want to check eyes/feet and crowd the fence for any treats I have. I'm hoping we can put them in a different paddock soon or else divide the current field in two sections.

The new horses - I don't know their names yet.

Sam is also new to the farm. He's the biggest horse I've ever seen in my life.

Jax wasn't sure what to make of the farm animals. Here is he learning to ignore chickens.

We wanted Little Brown to come teach Jax a lesson when he barked at the chickens. She chases Abby and grabs bits of Abby's hair, if she can. She wouldn't do it to Jax.

I'd better go pick some tomatoes. We skipped a few mornings and there are so many ripe every day now!

One for Woolly Bully

There was definitely no time to update the blog this weekend. The weather changed from a rainy, grey week to extreme heat just in time for our 8 guests to arrive. It was so hot that Nathan took both ends off the greenhouse and we built Zeb and Thomas an extra shade shelter since Molly the horse was hogging the first shelter. We knew they needed another one when we saw Thomas chasing Zeb all over the field (who knows why) and then suddenly collapse, breathing really hard. Zeb didn't even look winded - maybe his stint with Lucy last week got him in shape.

While we were building the shade shelter, our guests were sitting on stumps watching us and enjoying the traditional bbq in the paddock. We were concentrating on pounding the posts in when we heard screaming. Before we even really noticed what was happening, all of our friends were inside Nathan's truck with doors and windows closed. Woolly Bully had been walking along the fence and he took a half-hearted 3-step charge at Abby (she very easily avoided him), which I admit may have been panic inducing for a newcomer to the farm. I wish we had had a camera out there...

It was also finally hot enough to swim in the creek we discovered a few months ago. We all hiked in there to swim on Saturday, then went to a nearby lake on Sunday and to the ocean on Monday. Apparently there's a lazy river nearby that the locals tube down in the summer - that's next on the list!

When we cooked dinner on Saturday it was so nice to hear things like "this is how chicken is supposed to taste!" and "I don't normally like green beans but these are delicious!".

Carrots, beans, broccoli, peas and basil...everything is growing so quickly now!

Including the "chicks". Zebra Head now crows every morning....but they still take naps throughout the day. 

They also still sleep in a pile instead of on their roosts, and try to burrow underneath each other like they would with their mother.