New Additions to the Family

Hello Family and friends;

Here's a little update about farm life.  We’ve had several new additions since I last wrote, so here is a brief introduction.

 The latest is a little puppy –Lab/Pit Bull/ Shar Pei mix.  We had been thinking we needed another dog for our dog Bear to train.  We didn’t know where to look, so I said a little prayer that a dog would come to us.  A few days later, I was at the farmer’s market in Rockford.  A van pulled up and a really nice family brought out a bunch of puppies that were for sale.  I had a great feeling that this puppy had a nice background and was well-loved and cared for.  One of the other vendors suggested the name Chumley and so he became, with Chum for short.  (I had sold about $36 worth at the market, paid $100 for the dog and then got a ticket for $124 for failing to stop at a stop sign in my hurry to take him home, so it was an expensive day.) 

Another addition is a little goat called Poppy.  He is a wether, so can’t be milked or bred.  We like goat meat, but the lady Ray bought him from insisted that he promise never to kill and eat him.  Ray bought him anyway because he loves his goats. We did kill our turkeys, which was very traumatic.  Ray had fallen in love with them as babies and had them sleeping on his chest on the sofa.  However, they were nice and fat and were only going to get tougher if we waited, so it was done. The cat that we got for free turned out to be a wonderful cat and a fantastic mouser, but she got pregnant almost immediately.  We don’t want an inside cat, so we set her up in the barn in a modified dog house.  However, she decided that it would be safer having her babies in the attic above Ray’s shop.  So there was no chance to socialize the kittens and the three boys were on their way to becoming wild tomcats.





  We absolutely had to tame them.  It has involved a bowl of milk every afternoon with me slowly getting closer and closer and talking to them.  Now I can pet them and even pick them up without getting scratched and clawed.  So now we can actually catch them in order to give them away! Then there are the chickens who are doing very well.  They have all started laying now, and we have three that lay beautiful blue eggs.  At first the eggs were very small and there was a lot of surprised cackling and complaining as they worked hard to push them out.  It becomes easier after a while.  We have one rooster now but our neighbours have extra roosters if we want them.  We do, but it means re-fencing the goat area so that they can stay apart from the other, very possessive rooster. Lastly, we have the bees. 

We are up to five hives now, having lost two over the winter, but catching a swarm and dividing a hive brings us back to where we want it.  Generally they are very passive and friendly, but for some reason, I got chased out of the garden three times yesterday while trying to pick raspberries.  It’s usually one kamekaze bee that comes at you with a high-pitched buzz and will not back off.  The first time, the bee was trying to sting my eye but got my lip instead.  I escaped the next two attacks and finally put on my bee suit and finished picking. So we have lots of responsibilities now and lots of creatures depending on us.  We chose this life and are very content but I figure it’s okay to complain once in a while.
So you're all caught up.  It's super hot today and a good day for staying inside and writing.



Love to all.  Ray and Fern.