Little Farm at Hobbit Hill

I finally have my little farm - cross ducks & goats off my bucket list!  I love animals SO much - they make me happy & calm (ok, most of the time, maybe not when they eat household items or take off down the road like naughty boys and girls).  Being a board of directors member at the local animal shelter has fed my love of animals - and put my husband through many tests.  As we hit 44 animals last weekend, I promised my husband I was done adopting.  Since I do the majority of the animal care (plus work 40 hrs and mother 2 children - my house IS a disaster) I know I have certainly hit my limit (ok, I might have gone over just a teensy bit).  We have 4 dogs - Bella, Boston, Riley & Ramsey, 2 guinea pigs - Emma & Willow, 1 hamster - Lucky, 6 ducks - Della, Daphne, Daisy, April, May and June, 1 Turkey - Miss Thanksgiving, 1 Rooster - Little Roo, 4 hens - Penny, Henny, Laverne & Shirley, 4 guinea hens - One, Two, Three and Four, 12 chicks - no names yet, 7 rabbits - Aurora, Elizabeth, Maisy, Ashley, Snow White, Noel and Caroline . . . and lastly our 2 mini goats - Lewis & Clark.  While the hubsters may not be thrilled with all the animals and certainly does not get my love of goats, the kids think all these animals are fantastic.  They love to help feed, bathe and collect eggs. They talk to them, visit them and have learned about death when some have passed.  I've brought rabbits and birds to school for share day and school events.  It is truly an awesome experience I love sharing with them. 

 

Everyday we learn new things both good and bad from our tiny farm . . .                                                  

Guinea hens love mirrors, it keeps them away from the house windows, they love looking at themselves.  Mirrors in mini barns are not a good thing when goats also live in said barn - goats think it is another goat in that mirror and rear up and crash their head down into the identical goat's head. A big board covering the top of the fenced in chick area keeps the big chickens out of the little coop.  It also serves as something fun for goats to climb on, freaking out little chicks with all their stomping. Goats will climb anything, including hen nesting boxes.  Hens do not like to lay their eggs in nesting boxes full of goat pee and poop.  Hens will lay eggs in creative places when they have to, including on top of extra bales of hay that are stored away.   Riley Boo Bear loves eggs so much, and is so disappointed he cannot get into the barn anymore due to the fence, he follows the guinea hens around the yard waiting for an egg to drop.  He also waits for Scarlett to come out of the hen house with all the eggs and tries to stare her down, giving her puppy dog eyes for just one egg.  Sometimes she caves.

 Guinea hen shit smells yucky.  Turkey shit smells worse.  Duck shit is the ultimate foul smell!!! Turkeys are very tolerant of running goats.  Turkeys can gain so much weight they become top heavy and can't walk very well.  My husband, who is a hunter, will not kill Miss Turkey to put her out of her misery 'cause she is a pet.  I might have to do it. I'm trying to picture myself chopping off her head.

 Boston would kill anyone of the animals if he had the chance, including the goats I believe.  He thinks we bought him a chasing farm and is very mad that he is gated, fenced and leashed all the time now. Bella could care less about any of them.  She is an Australian Cattle Dog, I wonder if she will try to herd the ducks when they are bigger. Duck shit really smells.  I mean really smells.  Ducks are so adorable, grow SO fast and are fun to watch swim, but they are like having a newborn.  They want to eat and drink all the time, I'm constantly cleaning up their poop, giving them baths and being woken up by them.  And, they smell.  If you've never seen 6 pubescent ducks wolf down a plate of cut up greens and suck up a huge dish of water, you are missing out. Little quacks and chirps and slurping of water.

Roosters crow all day, not just in the morning.  Little Roo makes the craziest exorcist like noise when his girls Laverne & Shirley are laying eggs.  Roo is so happy with the hens I brought home he doesn't know which one to hump first.  Penny really doesn't like it, I think she feels sexually harassed.  Penny lays green eggs.  Jason and I joked about this for days - it finally hit my kids in the back of the car one day OOHHHH you mean like Dr. Seuss green eggs and ham!!!!

Did I mention duck shit really, really smells?!

 I find myself singing "and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee" as I feed the animals.

 

 

 If chickens like you enough, they will follow you around - even into your house.  I learned this while staying with my cousin in North Carolina this past winter.  Her ladies were extremely friendly and would wait at the sliding glass door to come in.  Once the door was open they would step into the kitchen and look around.  It was awesome.  Of the four hens we adopted, Penny - who has a ton of personality, follows all of us around the yard.  She followed me right into the house one afternoon. My husband and I walk around saying "Penny, Penny, Penny" imitating Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, laughing at ourselves as we do it.

The chaos of our mini farm is an escape for me.  It allows me to enjoy my favorite things - being outside - especially on our land,  hanging with animals, hanging with my kids and teaching them about animals and rescuing animals in need.  My husband is amused (and yes, a little annoyed) about all the animals but he enjoys moments like watching the ducks swim, having a rabbit come up to be pet, or a chicken follow him to his car.  He has been so wonderful through all of this.  He tried to say no, but I didn't listen.  He would throw a little temper tantrum.  I would wait it out and then work on him. I got tired of him saying no.  I joined the board at the animal shelter.  I then began just bringing animals home, sneaking kennels past the front door with a grin on my face as he peeked out the front window.  I casually mentioned the goats, knowing the shelter had to keep them for 8 days trying to find their owners. 8 days and then my wish might come true.  I mentioned them one or two more times.  He didn't say a word.  I took that as a yes, meaning my silence meant I knew he said yes. I left him a message on fb . . . oh btw, we get the goats this weekend. He pitched a tiny fit.  I let him do it, knowing he needed to and that there was absolutely no way in hell I was not bringing the goats home.  The shelter let me know they were mine if I wanted them - damn it, I was adoping the goats. Then I bought fence posts and here we are . . . chaotic Little Farm at Hobbit Hill.