Missing Willow Farm

Haven’t yet made it out to the barn to see our new baby chicks, maybe this afternoon when my Aunt Carol and Uncle Lynn stop by for a visit on their big East Coast road trip.  I did, however, find this photo from a week ago in my camera.  Our beltie cow Jessica follows Jenna along the fence line whenever she sees her.  It doesn’t matter which direction Jenna is going, Jessica lopes along until she catches up.  She ignores the other dogs, it’s just Jenna she finds fascinating.  They have the same coloring, maybe she thinks Jenna is a tiny calf who runs really fast?

Horseback riding is something I haven’t done in 35 years.  I had a chance to go last Monday on a beautiful trail in the company of friends and a beagle.  Unfortunately, soon after I got this shot the horse took off and I came off.  An emergency room visit confirmed I have no broken bones, thankfully, but still couldn’t lift my left leg.  It’s been five days and I’m getting around OK with a walker.  The hospital gave me an NSAID pain reliever prescription (dude… seriously?)  Luckily we’ve got a stash of the good stuff from a 1999 surgery that’s still potent.  Since my fall, we’ve added 11 baby chicks to the farm that I haven’t seen yet.  As soon as I’m feeling up to a trip to the barn, I’ll post a photo.  Can’t wait to see them myself!

Anderson Cooper is what we decided to call our new ram.  Andy for short.  He’s a handsome silver haired gentleman and the ladies all love him.  🙂

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Jenna gets a chance every day to move our sheep around, whether they need it or not.  She loves it and it reminds everyone who’s the boss.  She’s very very good at it.  She came to us trained, so we had to learn how to give her herding commands.  I’m positive she’s way smarter than us about it.  She’ll occasionally shoot me a look like… Really woman?  Is that what you want me to do?   Smart girl.  She’s the perfect farm dog.

Autumn leaves won’t last long this year here in SW Virginia.  I think we’ve hit our peak, a weak earlier than usual.  We’ve had a few gloomy, rainy days which I love.  This is the view from our front door.  Greenhouse, raised beds, asparagus patch, playhouse complete with flagpole, satellite dish and mailbox (aka our garden storage shed) and our rowboat sitting on top of our dock neglected.  We haven’t been for a boat ride in a while.  I think we need to go fishing!

Hermione and CoCo come out of the barn to see what’s all the commotion.  The answer is the cow is being fed.  The other goats and sheep (who have already been fed) are trying to steal the cow’s food.  She’s bigger than everyone but doesn’t challenge them.  It takes our border collie Jenna to get them off of her food.  There’s lots of snarling and nipping going on.  Why don’t I have a photo of that?  The answer is pandemonium!  We normally feed the cow remotely but the goats got into our feed room last night and made a mess so she got fed by the barn today.  Thankfully, we keep our food in metal garbage cans so they just ran amok and scattered trash and electrical components around the pasture.  No over-eating, which can be deadly.  Never a dull moment on the farm!

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Jenna looks forward to heading out to the pasture every morning but not before a few rounds of retrieving her wubba.  Our steep driveway keeps her heart healthy.  It’s also her potty (see the little stream on the right)?  That’s some good peeing, Jenna!  I guess the world is a dog’s toilet when you think about it.

Sophia’s got the most expressive face of any dog I’ve ever seen.  I think it’s because her fur is lighter around her eyes, it’s almost like sad clown makeup.  She and her brother Milos know their job and do it well.  Stray dogs steer clear of our place since they arrived.  The farm we got our ram from last weekend lost seven sheep to their neighbor’s dogs already this year.  They have no livestock guardians.  We’ve got really good goat fence which keeps most everything out….. except roosters.

Nothing escapes the scrutiny of our goats.  Any time something new comes into the pasture, they run to check it out.  That includes our Kawasaki Mule, which we have to remove the keys from if we park it for any amount of time.  We had a buck who twice removed the keys with his lips.  He could also open the pasture gate, which requires studying to figure it out.  Hardly anyone gets how to open it the first time.  It’s like a farm I.Q. test.   We got a gate lock, and he went to a new home.

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  The new stock trailer was needed because we had to go pick up a ram.  He’s a katahdin, just like our Kat Von Sheep.  A katahdin is a hair breed.  They don’t have wool so don’t need shearing.  They’re also nicely resistant to intestinal parasites.  My husband trimmed his hooves while he was still in the trailer.  When the door opened, he bolted out and tore around our pasture until he came across the rest of our flock, which brought him to a screeching halt.  He’s already making friends, the ladies seem to like him.  He hasn’t told us his name yet.