thoughts from the farm

ever have those days when you just kind of feel crappy for no reason? or just like the littlest things bother you more than normal? that's the kind of day i'm having. although treading water in the sea of PMS isn't really helping either :P

anyways, that's not really what i wanted to talk about today. this is...

i never would have guessed that farm animals have so much personality! the classic example of a "dumb" animal is a donkey, yet ours has the most personality of any animal i've ever seen. her name is Freida. she loves her routine. you could set your watch by the sound of her hee hawing to be let in at 4:32 (which can be heard clearly throughout the park). when it rains or is too hot and i have to bring her in early several days in a row, she is very reluctant to go out in the mornings. some days she just flat out refuses. she's so smart we have to put a little clip in the latch of her gate because she can get it open otherwise. when we feed her oats, she picks up the bowl and dumps them out. i have no idea why.

we have two calves. they don't have names so we call them the lineback and the holstein. the lineback is the whiner. she doesn't even really moo that often, it's usually more of a mmrrrawww (if that makes sense...) but she makes the most noise. about an hour and a half before feeding time she starts up. she's stubborn about her laziness too. the holstein is much more energetic. when i bring out hay in the morning she bucks and runs around while i walk towards her. she's much louder than the lineback, but she's a little older too.

the goats are impatient. more than a few times, i have been stabbed in my backside by a goat horn on my way from the barn to the tree where we put their hay because they just can't wait that long. i stopped even walking out there, now i just throw it as far as i can. they're very friendly though. whenever i come to the gate they come and put their feet up so their faces are level with mine. if i stand still they nibble at my glasses and my hat or even my fingers if i let them. they don't get along with the sheep though. the goats and sheep both have gotten their heads stuck in the fence between them, trying to butt each other. the sheep don't really have horns, but they're feisty anyway. not very bright though. when it rains, they lose their scent trail to their pen, so i have to chase them all the way around the goat pen several times to get them to go to the gate. one of them will stand still for a considerable amount of time for me to brush her, but the other runs away and won't have it. if i chase her around the small pen in the barn long enough she'll surrender though.

the piglets are very funny. they seem a little disoriented, having lost one of their number (if i didn't mention this before, one of the piglets we had got sick and died). some of the others are showing the same symptoms as that one so i'm starting to worry. if i stand still they'll come over and scratch their little backs on my legs. they all curl up together to sleep.

who knew?