Farm Pandamonium!

I dislike not documenting life.  Some people take photographs, others scrapbook, saving ticket stubs and memorabilia.  I write.  I write to keep the feelings in brain from spilling over, like releasing a pressure valve to keep from exploding.  I’m a terrible photographer and I throw stuff away.  Writing is remembering.  Writing is history written in the present.

All of the things I will write about truly deserve their own blog with their own further explanations. I’ve read catch up blogs that carry on and on so I won’t do that.  Here is what I will do.  In the last month since I posted about rabbits we have:

#1 Carly created artwork from the bones we salvaged from our rabbit harvest.  The art is called Bonart by Rosefield farm.  Her creative energy in this endeavor has been inspiring and she comes up with new ideas all the time.  But the art should speak for itself: http://www.facebook.com/BonartByRosefieldFarm?fref=ts

A selection of Carly's creativity

Rings from rabbit vertebra

 

#2 Last year we added ducks to our flock.  At one time we had ten – far too many.  We downsized our duck flock at the end of last summer.  As we got our flock down to a more manageable number we realized how much we really enjoy chickens and their eggs.  We adopted three new ones.  A feathery footed Brahma – Princess Ozma, a Russian Orloff – Catherine the Great, and a Black Wyandotte – Sister Naname.  We love our birds.

Dagny tolerating the new baby chicks

#3 Meet Harvey! Carly and I both felt the itch to bring a new dog into the home.  We went to visit one that wasn’t the right fit. After some casual looking, Carly found Harvey.  The thing about Harvey was that he was in Bend.  So after a week-long vetting process we were finally allowed to meet him.  His German Shepherd/Gordon Setter coloring was gorgeous and so was his personality.  Some people go to Bend for a weekend of skiing.  We went to adopt a dog.  Harvey has been in the home for about a month.  He is much different than Grimsby and is curious.  He has found his way into the pantry where he has eaten a few loaves of bread and four bags of flour.  Let’s hope he doesn’t have a gluten allergy!  Harvey is a yard dog and follows me around the farm.  He’s taken a trip to 1000 acres too.  That is where he learned to swim.

Love at first sight!

 Extreme close up!

Sleepy boy

#4 Kits! Kits! Kits! We have seventeen cute, cuddly, and eventually delicious baby bunnies.  Seventeen is a big number.  These rabbits came from three separate mothers and each litter is unique.  Big Gray is our new momma who all has big fat babies.  Mama had her typical mixed litter with Papa of one gray, one brown, and a bunch of spotted ones.  Baby Mama and her husband Emannymilo made some cute little gray ones.  Those ones needed a bath after getting way too dirty in their cage that was somehow exposed to the rain for a day.

 Mel has a fistful of bunnies!

 Mama & Papa's litter

 Big Gray's bunnies

 Ears & Tails

 Stupidly cute

I took a bath!

Father-baby meeting with Emannymilo

#5 Suck it Chickens!  After three years of chickens in the backyard we have finally built a fence to discourage the chickens from the back garden.  When I designed this fence the intent was to keep out the chickens without creating shade in our already sun starved yard.  Because we are always looking to maximize our space I put planters in the rail that are currently sprouting lettuce, radicchio, basil, and baby bok choy.  With the new protection there has also been a planting of lettuce, turnips, radishes, and spinach that will be on our table before the summer heat gets too intense.

Gotta Start somewhere

That looks like a fence!

We grow salads in our fence!

Bobby gets one last romp in the garden

Carly likes the new fence.  Harvey doesn't

I know that blogs like this can be laborious to go through.  I like to take the time to enjoy the small things in life instead of blasting out a bunch of news all at once.  This is the only way we can sufficiently update it all.  The spring season is busy, and there are plenty of other things developing on the farm.  Keep checking back and come visit us soon!