In my letters to Elder Braeburn I find myself giving him the update on all the farm animals, which he actually seems to enjoy. It keeps him from feeling homesick I'm sure. Just imagining throwing hay to the horses with the wind blowing it back in your face can make Yorkshire seem lovely I bet!
So, here is the update - species by species!!
Horses:
Pepper is Nova Spy's new horse. He got him earlier this summer and the relationship started off a bit rocky. They are both doing a bit better and I think Pepper will stay the winter, at least, with us.
Nikita, Prairie Spy's grey mare, is being "marish" right now. Meaning that she rules the other horses completely, and is just a pill. She kicked a wall in the barn and bent it all up and is just being a prima donna. Prairie Spy doesn't mind, though. He adores her and when she does something dumb he just nods his head and slowly drawls, "well, everybody's entitled to a bad day now and then."
Dancer is a yearling and beautiful and lovely. She has the most gorgeous face. She and Pepper band together while Nikita is being a tyrant!
The Dogs:
Jack and Pete are happy and well.
The Goats and Sheep:
The boys lambs did great this summer. All 6 survived and thrived. They are ready to sell now. We have debated breeding them and keeping them over the winter, but with hay prices so high, I think we will sell them. Kyra, the one remaining mother goat, is healthy. Her babies (Felina and Rita) are fatties because they are still nursing. We need to separate them. They are also hellions and wild and won't let us catch them. They have excellent conformation though! Maggie's babies are lovely and nice (Robin and Lady). They are slightly smaller than the other ones because they haven't had milk on demand for 6 full months!
The Chickens:
Our chickens are not pleasing me right now. We have way too many roosters and none of the hens are laying. They are kind of welfare birds. We are going to thin the rooster population shortly. We do have one fantastic black bantie hen who hatched out a little clutch of eggs. We tucked her in her own side of the coop and she and the babies are doing great.
The Cats:
Ah, the cats. It brings a song to mind, "Now just like everybody, you've got troubles of your own..." We have lots of cats. The problem is that all the neighbors cats and strays hang out in the barn and eat all the cat food so the cats that we like prowl around the house and meaow and look hungry and miserable and beg you to feed them. We've got to do something about that.
Alice, the last remaining cat from our original litter (I'm going to have the kids do a kitten history chart some day soon to just keep track of all the cats we've had) anyway, Alice had kittens. She is a good mom and keeps her babies safe. She decided the safest place was the window well. Granny Smith took pity on them one day when it was raining really hard and went out and brought them inside to dry off.
They were very adorable and took a nap in the laundry basket.
And then explored the large "Prairie Spy Mountain".
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