Can You Handle One More Blog on Farm Memories?

The reason I like to relive moments on the farm and post them is because I feel like the "family farm" is slowly becoming a thing from the past. When I was a little girl we used to drive around the country side looking at all the new born animals. Baby lambs, calves, piglets, colts, kids (baby goats) and now you don't see that any longer. It is rare to even see cows grazing in the field, or horses running around a pasture. And pigs rooting in the mud, well that is gone forever, since all swine operations are in buildings now, entitled ''swine operations." I find this to be so sad.  You know there are many many many kids today that do not know where eggs come from?  I grew up on a farm but Art was true born "city boy."  He teases that when we became married he didn't know he was taking not only me, but cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, ducks, goats, pigs, turkeys, geese, and horses to have and to hold. :) He adapted very well. Now he even knows the difference between hay and straw!!  There was one more thing that I wanted to address about animals because I just love them so much and wanted to share this.

                                    Animals definitely have feelings.......

Even ducks.  Surprised? Well here is my story. We have raised every kind of duck there is.
Pekins, Cayugas, Muscovy, Khaki, Indian Runners, Mallards, Rouens, and one of our favorites little Call ducks. They are tiny little miniatures of regular ducks, just adorable.
Muscovys can reproduce like rabbits, they are great mothers and can handle up to 18 plus eggs. One summer we had several babies and so we were getting too many. Art knew of a lady that had a pond and wanted some ducks. So we gave her about 5 if I remember right.
A couple of them were Muscovy. She called me one evening and said she was worried about one of them, he wasn't eating or drinking and she was afraid he was going to die. So I told her yes, to definitely bring him back to us. The very minute she sat him down he ran over started eating corn and drinking water. We were all astonished. A duck being home sick, missing his home? Well this one did and he remained with us the rest of his life.

Most people know that horses are herd animals, they really need companionship. We had 4 horses  (2 Quarter horses, 1 Appaloosa, and 1 Arabian/Quarter mix and 1 miniature.)  The 4 big horses were all geldings (boys) and the little miniature was a little mare, so we kept her in a separate pen so she wouldn't get hurt.  3 yrs ago we had a unbelievable, horrible summer with them. One of our Quarter horses Bobby,  died of old age, he was close to 30. Then our Arabian mix Dan, developed cancer and died, and then the Appaloosa Z developed this horrible infection while we were on vacation and died. What a shock that was!!! Needless to say it ruined our vacation. Well this one was the buddy of our last Quarter horse Champ, that we had, and he took Z's death really really hard. Since he was the last of the big horses that was left he went into this depression. He didn't want to eat, or come out of the barn. He would eat if I went into the barn and fed him but he just stood in the corner. So not only was I was so upset over loosing Z, Champ was really worrying me. We didn't know what to do. We still had Whinnie, the miniature so we put her in a pen beside him and that seemed to help. So after a few weeks of that we put them together, as we felt she was safe with him. And wah-lah he was fine. 

Ok enough sad stories, this one is cute and cuddly.  You know how they say that girls, well most girls want to grow up and be moms?  Well chickens do too I guess. We had this one hen who just wanted babies so badly, she would sit on her eggs and then some bully would come and push her off, so they wouldn't hatch.  Not only were the hens hatching chicks that year but the cats were having kittens. One cat decided the best place to have hers was in one of the nesting boxes, smart cat.  So this hen must have thought, "surprise, the stork has arrived, instant babies."  She adopted them, and she would sit on them everyday and I or one of the girls would have to go out and pick her up so the mama kitty could feed them. Then she would get off and the chicken would resume her warming duties. Now how cute is that? You know we have pictures of all of this but they are packed away in a box, not on the computer, so you have to use your imagination.

I have more believe me but I don't want to stay stuck on one subject. I appreciate all the great and sincere comments that people have left after reading the farm blogs. This is what makes us all so unique we all have different backgrounds, and can share so many different memories. Making friends on this blog has been so much fun and enjoyable. Even though I haven't met any of you face to face I feel like I know you through your blogs and the comments you leave on mine.  So from Thorntown hugs and best wishes to you all.