Meet the Newbies

So … my little hobby farm has grown since we last visited. Meet MayMay (white) and Dottie (brown). These two little goaties were born down the road at the Tryon farm. After helping out there for a few seasons I became ‘goat smitten’. May and Dot were offspring of the pygmy buck and a Boer doe. They’ll be a year old in another two months. We carefully built a goat habitat complete with a climber on the hillside.

I was delighted to learn just how well my ‘kids’ and ‘kids’ mix. The girls just LOVE the goats. And the goats LOVE kids. Good playmates.

As I mentioned yesterday the real attachment surprise was Darby. She took one look at Dot and decided she was hers. Matching ‘spots’ – matching colours – and matching gentle temperament.

We moved on from Guinea hens (aka kamikaze birds who played ‘chicken’ with the traffic on our road) to regular barnyard birds. Sophie (above left) came from a farm down the road where she was the low bird in the pecking order. We outfitted her with a sewn back saddle for a few months to allow her poor bare back to recover. If we left it bare out chickens pecked at her too! On the right is Goldie. He was hatched in a local kindergarten class. The only one of 24 eggs to hatch. Coincidence … I think not. 😉 He is a special character who is convinced he is human. He has a crossed beak, can’t see so well from one eye and took a long time to learn how to get up onto perches. His favourite activity is being cuddled as many times a day as he can convince me to stop and pick him up. He does a little dance around my legs begging for some ‘up time’.

And then there is Smoke. The little kitten in this merry bed of three. Smoke was one of a group of feral kittens born here last summer. All the rest have gone onto their own homes. He has brought back the ‘kitten nature’ in both of Teddy and Oz. We have a great time watching them all race and wrestle.

So here we are – three jennies, two goats, three chickens, three cats and two old girls hanging out at home living a hermit existence. Thanks for your welcoming messages!