Horse has an itch!

What do you do when your back itches? 
Sassy, our quarter horse, has an itch and is enjoying a roll in the dirt.

chickens!

Some fun chicken pictures.  I have mentioned before that when it starts to get colder outside and the days get shorter, chickens 'molt' or lose all their feathers a few at a time to replace them with new feathers.  My poor little hen looks so unhappy with her bald head and naked back.  She will have feathers back soon!  Look at the blue color of the feathers growing in on her back!

Also at this time of year when the days are shorter and they chickens are molting, the hens lay far fewer eggs.  Growing new feathers takes alot of energy!  Here is where our eggs come from:

 

 

The hens go into the little boxes to lay their eggs.  They make alot of noise when they are laying eggs!  Different hens lay different eggs.  You can tell what color egg a chicken will lay by looking at the feathers on their ears.  We'll look at some pictures of this on another day!

And lastly, everybody in the chicken house does perch to go to sleep.  These hens and roosters are awake.  They are probably wondering why I am in their house as evening is coming. 

Autumn leaves falling

On our farm, we have many trees that are over 100 years old.  Do you know what tree these leaves are from: 

These leaves are from the Gingko tree.  The shape of the leaves can vary a bit but they often have a fan shape.  Once you recognize the leaves, you will notice this tree all over.  In the fall, the leaves turn a bright yellow color and, my favorite thing, often the leaves all fall off the tree in a very short time period.  Look at my video below and you can see the leaves falling like snow flakes.  If you listen to the sound, you can hear them as they hit the ground.  This often happens just after the first frost of the season.  They call the Gingko tree a living fossil because fossil records of the Gingko tree date back 270 million years.  They trees are native to China.

The dogs you see in this video include our lab, Belle, and our two Briards, Costaud and Clara.

Hello Piglet!

It has been awhile since we visited mama pig (a sow) and her piglet, Piglet!  He is doing well and growing every day.  We have two breeds of pigs on the farm.  These are mulefoot hogs.  They have hooves like a mule or horse instead of having what looks like two toes.  Our pigs are very friendly with people.  Piglet is about 10 weeks old. 

Love of animals- This is how it started

I have always loved animals and laugh at some of the early pictures of me.  Here I am with my first dog, Muffy, a minature poodle.  Muffy put up with alot. 

 That brings us to today.  I had to pick up dog food and a walking harness for our newly adopted dog, Dicky.  I can't resist browsing at all the birds and animals at the pet store.  I think I could spend hours looking at the hamsters running on their wheels, rats, fish... Check out this Parakeet.  I've never seen one that was robin egg blue.  Such pretty birds. 

Donkey

It is a beautiful fall day here.  I went to another farm today and spent some time admiring Peppy the Donkey.  I love his big furry rabbit ears.  Do you know that donkeys are sometimes companions for horses?  They help keep the horse calm and happy because a horse naturally likes to have company. 

Saturday mornings on the farm

It's 930am and finally, I am sitting to eat breakfast.  Many things happen on our farm by 930am.  Here is some of what I happend this morning:

Happy dogs!

A ground hog visitor!

Visitors to the farm meeting 5 month old Buttercup!

Traveler meeting new friends!

And lastly, a check on Blanca the turkey who must have been cold last night as so many feathers are just starting to grow!  Can you see all the short spikes coming out of her pink skin?  All in neat rows.  They are new feathers starting to grow.  A chicken, turkey or duck loses feathers in the fall and then a new set of feathers grows back.  This is molting and we talked about it earlier this week.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!