You Give Me Fever

Once a week or so we put Banjo and Pumpkin in with the animals in the front pasture. This is our lazy way of giving everyone some extra exercise. Banjo and Pumpkin love getting to spend some time with the girls. After humping Pumpkin all week (and being humped by Pumpkin-it's only fair), Banjo is eager to get his hooves on members of his own species.


When Pumpkin and Banjo are initially released into the pasture, there are always a few minutes of pure chaos. The alpacas do not like Pumpkin and make effort to stomp him to death (don't worry about Pumpkin, he loves it). Lotta spends her time trying to get between the alpacas and Pumpkin. Once the stomping fest is over, Lotta and Pumpkin wrestle until they drop.





Banjo could care less about all of the chasing and stomping. He has one thing on his mind-Leche. Leche is apparently very "hot" as far as goats go. She is even sexier from the back side as far as I can gather from Banjo's behavior. Poor Leche has to be on her toes to resist Banjo's advances.

She escaped! I'll be frank-I put in this action shot because I think Banjos swinging sac is funny (sorry).

Here Leche is using Glenn (and Pearl) as a human shield.

Finally, Banjo got so fed up with trying to catch Leche he tried to make it with Oliver. Oliver politely declined the offer and went on playing with his stick.

I'll end this post with a picture of our new rooster. He is gorgeous and needs a name! We welcome suggestions. Photo by Glenn.

Oh, and also a picture of Pearl. I can't leave her out!

Banjo Bigalow: Goat Gigolo

As a nurse-midwife, I spend much of my time at work counseling teens about the physical perils of unprotected sex: unintended pregnancy and infections. Imagine my shock and dismay when I pulled into the driveway and noticed multiple teens engaging in risky sexual behavior, right in the front pasture. Banjo, with his smooth black coat and long spotted ears, has swept our neutered male goat and two female goats off of their feet. When Oliver screamed happily, "I see his penis!", I knew it was time to separate the goats. There will be NO teen pregnancies-not on THIS farm.

Glenn decided to put Banjo together with the only animal he would be unable to hump: Pumpkin. Pumpkin was overwhelmed with excitement to have a new companion. It took Banjo several hours before he decided he liked sharing his space with Pumpkin. Now the two are enjoying the benefits of bachelorhood together: late nights in the dog house, mid afternoon wrestling, and just chilling without any distraction from the ladies.

AND THE WINNING NAME IS.....

BANJO!

A panel of eight impartial judges had the difficult task of narrowing our ten favorite entries down to one. In a surprise turn of events "Banjo" slipped into the top ten early Saturday morning and gained momentum throughout the day. We appreciated all of your thoughtful, funny, gross, literary, cute, gangster and regal name entries! We especially loved Ramses, Henry VIII, Rex, G-Love, Artax, Gobo, Yagi, Mac and Guenther. A special thank you to Kelly for entering the most disgusting name: Squirt.

Congratulations Andrea! Banjo thanks you for an excellent name.

Beneficial Bee Lip Balm Giveaway!

We need help naming our fourth baby goat. Glenn, Oliver and I picked him up last Wednesday and have yet to figure out a fitting name for him. This goat will be the father of all of our baby goats in the coming years. We are told he will be big, stinky and urine soaked, but sweet.

The Rules:

1. Please leave your name suggestion in the comments section of this blog. You can leave as many name suggestions as you want. If you feel weird about leaving blog comments, you can e-mail me.

2. If your name is chosen, we will ship your lip balm to you. We are happy to ship all over the world.

3. Names like Shadow and Midnight will disqualify you immediately.

4. The winner will receive a four season gift pack (all four of our lip balm scents in a cute box).

5. The winner will be notified on Saturday July 17th.

6. Bribes will be accepted, but will not guarantee a win.

I tried to take some nice pictures of the new goat this afternoon for the blog. My plan was to have an Oliver-free blog, but the new goat decided otherwise. Like all of the other animals on this farm, the goat thinks Oliver is the greatest. So, Oliver ended up being in virtually every shot because the goat wouldn't leave his side!





The Prize (minus the bees):

Naked Goat Wrestling + Breastfeeding Squirrels + Poultry = A Wonderful Wednesday

Oliver had another wild, naked morning in the pasture today. I think he would be happy if we just left him out there to live with the goats. At times he certainly acts more like a goat than a human. Patches and Oliver love to knock heads together while Leche always tries to get a piece of the action.

Oliver finally put on some clothes and he strapped on his squirrel to head to town for my doctor's appointment. At the young age of four, Oliver is already quite the staunch lactivist. He is not ashamed to nurse his squirrel named "Pearl" on demand in public. If his baby needs a nurse, then damn it, she is getting one. As you can tell, she is one satisfied squirrel.

After measuring my belly and listening to the baby, Oliver and I headed to the post office. We opened the door and could hear loud chirping sounds. Our chicks and keets (baby guinea fowl) had arrived! We ordered our birds this time from Sandhill Preservation because we like that they are a no-kill chick facility.

Oli really enjoyed being able to hold one chick and one keet.


The babies are all settled in for the night. I'm looking forward to see what guinea fowl personalities are like. The keets are the smaller brown or lavender babies in the photo below.

As an added bonus to an already spectacular day, our resident wild turkey "Gerdie" decided to hang out with us all day. She has two poults and does an excellent job of keeping them from being eaten by a fox. I'm happy she has chosen our property as her home! I think it's a pretty nice place to raise children.

Good News (Another Annoyingly Optimistic Post)

1. Thank You Pacific Wildlife Care!

A few weeks ago Glenn found an abandoned baby bird near the milking parlor at Rinconada Dairy. He brought the little bird home to me to mother. Usually I jump at the chance to help a little animal, but domesticated animals are more my bag. I like to leave wild animals in the hands of professionals to ensure correct diet and care (plus, it is illegal to keep wildlife). Luckily we have a great local organization called Pacific Wildlife Care. I called PWC and was met by a local volunteer named Debbie. Debbie, a fellow nurse, took our baby sparrow home to help her feed and grow.

Oliver was not too happy about having someone else raise his baby. He named her Celestial and the two had a lovely breakfast together before we made Oliver say goodbye to his new friend.

Last week Debbie called us and let us know Celestial was doing great and was ready to be released. She was being raised with two other sparrows. Debbie wanted to know if we would like to be present for the release. We decided to release all three sparrows at Rinconada Dairy because it is a great place for a sparrow to live.

It was wonderful watching all three birds fly up to the nearest oak. They are already surrounded by a family of sparrows. In the picture below I have circled all three birds at the time of release. They moved so fast, it was hard to get a clear picture.


2. Business is Booming (or Beeping Just a Little)

I don't write about our small business too much, mainly because it has taken a back seat to everything else in our lives. We finally got it together enough the past few months to create a display for our balms. We are selling at two cool shops: one in California and one in Rhode Island. The lip balm seems to be doing quite well as we have gotten orders from both shops to refill the displays. Perhaps next year on our taxes we will be able to show that we broke even rather than claiming -77 dollars!


3. Jessica B-B, Author?

Some of you (the three of you who read my blog) might remember that I was attempting to write a children's book. I wrote a book based loosely on this blog post:

Another Weird Bee Post

Then one night back in December I was feeling adventurous, so I sent an email query to an independent publishing house. I was surprised to hear back from the editor the next day requesting the full manuscript. Then five long months later, after I had finally given up all hope, I received an email from the editor. She said my manuscript was a "strong contender" and wanted to send it to a focus group. She asked if the publishing house could have exclusive review of it during the focus group process. I'm so satisfied to have made it this far in the children's book writing experience, I don't really even need my MS to be published (although that would be unbelievable). An editor read my MS and actually liked it-I'm THRILLED!

4. More Chicks

(Photo credit: Glenn)
Our friends have decided to start keeping chickens. Instead of ordering chicks, we picked out several pretty eggs and put them under our broody hen (she really wanted some babies). On day twenty, I checked under our hen Etta and found one chick. Over the next two days, four more arrived. One disappeared the first day. We think she may have fallen into a ground squirrel hole we didn't notice under the brooding box. Glenn cemented the floor of the coop and we haven't lost anymore. Poor little chick (I just had to bring things down a little). So now we have four chicks, two from brown eggs and two from blue eggs. I hope at least a couple will be egg layers!



4. One More Goat!

The sister of my coworker lives on the most beautiful property between Morro Bay and Atascadero. She raises goats and knew we were looking for a male (with different genetics) to eventually breed with our females. She called us because a shiny, black male was born a few weeks ago and wanted to know if we would like him. Here are pictures of our fourth (and final) goat. He will be staying with his mother to nurse for a good long time, which we are very happy about. Now we just need yet another name!

Three Goats, Three Alpacas, Two Swarms, One Livestock Guardian Dog, and a Fetus

I have several farm updates! I planned on blogging last week, but I got sick with a gallbladder issue and spent the last part of the week throwing up, going to the ED, and eating a liquid diet. (By the way, I promised myself I would not mention poop or vomit anymore in my posts, but here I go again, sorry). So, the good news is that I have lost a few pounds over the past few days. I was starting to get a little big around the middle. So here are the things that have happened around here over the past two weeks.

1. SWARM CAPTURE

Glenn was working in my parents' greenhouse last week, when he heard a swarm of bees fly into one of their oak trees. Glenn excitedly called me, so I rushed home from work to help him capture the swarm that landed 15-20 feet off the ground. I didn’t do much but take pictures and curse when the swarm landed on my head under the tree, but I can’t miss an opportunity to watch a swarm removal. Glenn went up the ladder countless times to collect all of the bees. The bees are satisfied with their new home and now live in our front yard.


2. ALPACA, DOG, GOAT

The three alpacas, dog and goat have all managed to work out their differences and seem to live in peace with each other. Our goat, Leche, thinks she is an alpaca, and has been seen grazing, sleeping and frolicking with the alpacas. When Lotta gets a little too rough for her, she runs to the alpacas for defense and they actually seem to take care of her. You can see Leche in the shelter eating with the alpacas, while Lotta is forced to stay outside.

Occasionally, Lotta will do something silly, like wake Mic up from a nap. Below Mic is giving Lotta a good warning spit in the face.


3. BABY BB

We decided to have an ultrasound this time around for some peace of mind (mine, mostly), but we did not find out the sex of the baby. Both grandmas came to the appointment as we were lucky enough to schedule it when Glenn’s parents were in town visiting. Here is a peek at her profile. Glenn is already claiming she looks like him. He’s probably right, Oliver was born looking like a miniature version of him (and that’s a good thing; Glenn is pretty cute).

4. NEW GOATS

Glenn brought home the new babies! We have been working with them, trying to get them on the bottle, but the male in particular seems to like eating alfalfa instead. Here are both Grandmas, each holding a new baby goat. In the second picture we are attempting to lure them back to the house with an alfalfa “carrot.”



5. WILDFLOWER BIKE RIDE

The annual Wildflower bike ride rode through again this year. As usual we woke up early to cheer on the bicyclists. Our alpacas and goats were quite a hit. Oliver served as the alpaca guide, taking photographs with the bicyclists and alpacas, and correcting people when they called Remmy or Mic a llama.

6. BACKYARD SWARM

Yesterday I heard a loud buzzing sound in the back under the oak trees. It turned out to be a swarm in action. I have only seen swarms once they have settled onto a tree, so this was a real treat for me. The air was thick with bees. It was beautiful! Just look at how many bees were in the air at the time of the swarm.