Piglet Tails

I love piglet tails.  Each time I go to feed the piglets I take a few minutes to scratch them behind their ears, pet them and pull on their tails.  Look at this cute little curled up tail!

I expected a pig tail to be round all the way down like a dog's tail.  I was surprised when I was touching a tail to find that in fact, the end is flattened....like a beaver tail or a fly swatter.  Maybe that is what a pig tail is for:  to swat flies.  What do you think?

 I was also surprised to see them wag their tails when they are happy or excited like a dog does.  (Click the link below to see the video of piglets eating breakfast.  Not alot of tail wagging but still cute little piglets!  I'll update with some tail wagging later!)

Tail wagging during breakfast

Duke and Daisy, our draft horses

Have I introduced you to Duke and Daisy, our Haflingers that we use as draft horses?

Duke and Daisy are a team and they are trained to pull a wagon or things like plows to help us do farm work.  Here is Duke pulling Frank in a cart.

Daisy is the mother of baby Buttercup.  We didn't know Daisy was pregnant when we bought her and brought her home about seven months before Buttercup gave a surprise appearance.  This is a picture of Buttercup on her birthday, May 5th, 2013.  Could she be any cuter?  What a wonderful surprise!

Just a week later, Buttercup finally got her name.  As we weren't expecting her, we didn't have any names picked out for our new little lady.  On May 10th, I walked out into the field to see how she was doing and there she was with her mom in a field filled with Buttercups.  Our little Buttercup!  What a nice addition she's been to our world!  (I had to give momma Daisy a dish of grain to get her to stand still.)

Sundays are for Gratitude: What do you love love love about Autumn?

Good Morning! It is brisk out there this morning...had to find my hat! Continuing the Sundays are for gratitude trend, what do you love love love about this time of year?

What do you love about Autumn?

I love this time of year when the days are still a bit on the warm side but the nights are cool and crisp.  I love to see the dark sky filled with stars at night.
Welcome Autumn.  Some reasons why I love you:

Warm sweaters
Warm comforters
Fall colors
Falling leaves
Cool days
Cold nights
Squash
Apples
Pumpkin Pie
Winter coats on the horses, and on Gandolf (our Great Pyrenees)
Apple spice scent
Hot drinks
Mittens
Football
The World Series (Go Kansas City Royals!)
Fires in the fireplace
Crockpots
The Sunday smell of a roast throughout the house
The Roosters crowing later in the morning!

What do you love about Autumn?
Have a Happy Sunday everyone!  Enjoy this beautiful day!

One of the many inhabitants of our farm- Ground Hog!

We have many nut trees on our farm including Chinese Chestnuts, Oaks and Walnuts.  Just outside of our house, the Chinese Chestnut is dropping it's nuts right now.  They have spiny shells and hurt the dogs feet if they step on them.  But this little guy loves them!  Every day I see him out there chomping away enjoying himself.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch!

I enjoyed seeing a momma hen raise her chick so much that the next hen who wanted to sit on eggs, I've let sit.  She isn't letting me get close to her.

There are really three hens sharing sitting duties on this nest and I hadn't been able to get a look at how many eggs there might be.  And momma hens are viscous.  Finally, all three cleared out for a moment and I got a look.

YIKES!  This could result in many chicks!  But you know what!?  It's true- you should never count your chickens before they hatch.  Not all of these eggs will hatch for a variety of reasons.  Some eggs just don't mature into chicks and sometimes the egg was never fertilized.  It takes 21 days from the time a momma hen starts sitting on her eggs until they hatch.  We'll see soon who shows up!

Thursday morning on the farm...resting Gandolf, fighting turkeys, nosy geese

I love mornings on the farm.  It's usually quiet with just the birds chirping- nature and farm animals just waking up.

It's hard to sneak up on Gandolf, but he was enjoying a relaxing morning in his house after protecting everyone last night.  This guy is so handsome- I just love him.  Wish you could see the size of his paws in this picture!

First thing in the morning, I open the chicken houses and the goose house.  They geese come charging out, turn the corner, flap their wings while the run for about twenty yards.  Toulouse geese are really too heavy to fly although they sometimes make it off the ground about four feet in the air before they come down.  I'll try to get a video of this sometime for you!  In the meantime, here are a couple of my geese checking me out.

This morning there was a turkey fight!  No idea why but in the end, nobody was hurt.
You can see this on YouTube at Turkey Fight!  I love how Cherokee, my Narragansett Tom (that's what you call a male turkey) watches over the fight like a referee!

And lastly, we have a little groundhog living near our house.  He's a happy guy these days because the Chinese Chestnut Tree has dropped it's chestnuts and he's always standing up in this area munching away.  I'll try and get a better picture but it's difficult to sneak up on him and get close enough.

Happy Thursday everyone!

A Squishy Egg?

http://youtu.be/GUHh4AGscC0
A Squishy Egg?

Yesterday I found a strange egg and had to make an emergency video because I wanted to show it to you!  I get no prizes for beauty nor composition in this video (yikes on both accounts) but wanted to show you this weird egg!  You'll never see this in the egg carton you get from the store!
http://youtu.be/GUHh4AGscC0

A hug makes it better!

Sometimes having a pet turkey to hog makes everything better!