Thanksgiving

It's dreary and chilly on Thanksgiving Day, but all the animals are toasty in their straw beds.
Isn't this new heifer calf the cutest baby ever?

Calf Crib

Here's the calf's playpen.
He's on the front porch in a wind-proof corner, with a tarp around three sides and the top. The hay keeps him warm, as do the T-shirt and Becky's windbreaker coat.
Snowflake was in a big hurry to make friends with him.
He downed his second bottle tonight.
After tomorrow morning, if he's still thriving, I'll have no worries about him.
Those first 24 hours, whether dam-raised or bottle-fed, are the toughest.

Nuts and Fruits

Katie and Snowflake are two crazy nuts who were cozily watching Dan plant fruit trees. But on Providence Farm, if you put your arm around a dog, sure enough, another dog will come and demand equal treatment.
Lily is the third nut this morning.

Handsome Danny planted two pear trees, three peach trees, and a flowering crab apple in the orchard. He will be planting two sweet cherries up by the garden, plus two (much smaller than the last) red maples down the driveway.

Goin' on a Bear Hunt

Our neighbor had seen a bear while he was hunting on our property. As soon as he told us a bear was down back, we grabbed a rifle for self defense in case the need arose, and naturally rushed to try and see the bear.
Joe Houndog lead the procession, verifying the neighbor's assertion of bear activity by sniffing ends of branches and looking at us with horrified eyes and deeply wrinkled brow, reminiscent of the Grinch's dog Max.
When we got to the scene of the bear sighting, Joe explained through vivid body language that the bear had lumbered away through thick underbrush.
As you can see, the day was beautiful, and the path tempting.
Next time I may actually get a picture of Mr. Bear.

New Book

Jane Austen believed in writing about only that which you know first hand.
She would be proud of Katie's work.
Here's the book that Kate wrote this morning. I'll bet you can figure out what Scott and Joe Houndog were doing last night.

Random Photos of Today

Just a glimpse of the day.
There are actually interesting farm things about which to blog, but I don't have the mental capacity to photograph then tell the story behind all the livestock.
After soccer season, I may blog all day long, since nothing else will occupy my time.

Dog Soccer

Scott playing goalie.

Scenes from a Spring Day

Ha. Our very own blossoms. Take that, Sunny California!
See the goats in the background? I need to get them penned up before our pretty apple blossoms are no more.



These pretty little purple flowers tempted me to lie down and take a photo that included them.

And when you lie down in the yard on Providence Farm, you attract friendly, curious animals...

and more animals.

All I Wanted for Christmas

I haven't been sleeping well since the 7th of December. That's when I foolishly let Scott out at Gretchen's house and he ran off. Without a collar.
Since then, I've been without my trusty farm hand through three daughter's illnesses, an arctic chill, and a snowstorm.
Today an excellent friend called to tell me where Scott was hanging out. It was wonderful to see my long lost puppy!
I feel like everything's right in the world now that my pooch is back.

Population Explosion

We started with a dog and two cows. This is what's happened...

Play Dead, Dogs

Here's what the dogs all looked like today. I don't know why it was such a good day to sprawl in a shocking manner, but it was.

Californian Animals

Here I am being mauled in many ways by my brother's family's animals.

Snowflake is demanding pets while JoJo eats my pony tail.

Now my ponytail has a hard, pointed end to it from the pony slobber.

Oh, Possum

Yesterday morning we heard the dogs baying hysterically down in the woods. Becky ran down to the commotion after we realized that this was no ordinary deer chase. She found that Joe Houndog had treed a possum, in a sense.

Here is the poor little guy in his tree. You can see where Joe has scratched up the bark and also slobbered all over the entrance to the possum's hiding place.

I'll bet that was scary!

*No possums or dogs were harmed during the filming of this blog post.

King of the Hill

On the extra dirt, a king reigns.

JoJo Playing

I wanted to send pony videos as an email, but can't. So now we'll have pony videos on the blog for all to see!

Here she is running with the pack. I couldn't tell in the little viewfinder which creature was pony and which were dogs.

Snowflake in Clover

Jack is Back

Jack decided to work a little moving goats back where they belong.
Tancup is the goatling he's moving, and I have to respect him for getting that done. She doesn't move easily.

How Jack lost his job

What I really need is a good farm dog. A dog who will jump in and make himself useful when he sees a need.
What I don't need is a dog who fraternizes with the enemy, inviting them into the van for a wild party when they get loose.

Some dogs will do anything to be popular.

The Pokey Little Puppy

Gretchen's puppies are growing up and getting cuter.
This is from Easter Sunday.

Puppies!

"It's one of life's imponderables."
That was Gretchen's response to me when I asked how she got so lucky to receive, apparently from the Beagle angel, a momma and four puppies.

She took my advice and took momma and babies to the vet to have shots, heart worm testing, and worming.
I can't wait for that update. It's too bad taking care of critters is so expensive.