Life Happens~

Autumn has arrived! 

The plants around the pond are turning gold and the Japanese maple is red.

My girls are now ladies.
So pretty and tall and smart as whips!

A new baby arrived in our circle/community and he needed a sweater.

Ruby is still rotten. And SMART. She pulls the gate over. brat.

Always knitting.

Always scheming and planning.

Beautiful organs from a pig harvest. We always marvel at the miracle and cycles of the life of our animals we raise to feed our family. So very appreciated.

Ruby and the turkey farts (as I called them).

The largest came is at a whopping 23 pounds!
Tucked into the freezer for Thanksgiving.

An our little Eve-ooo getting her SENIOR pictures taken!

sheesh.

AND, after some unfortunate kitty-peeing/territorial issues in the house, the cats are now having a daily playtime OUTside. Here is Ezmaralda on her first day out.

On her second day out she communed with the ranging hens.

She chased them once.  I told her if she catches one she can eat it.

I love how they match. It was my personal goal to have ALL black animals. 

But I so love the green eggs those brown Ameracaunas lay. So we compromise.

xo

reenie out.

Ruby's Roadtrip~

Meet Ruby.

Ruby is our silly rogue hen, she simply cannot be contained. She hops all the fences and we gave up returning her to the flock a long time ago, so she free ranges around the farm, sleeping on the tractor at night and laying her eggs in the straw bales.

She is friendly, sweet, visits everyone who stops by and LOVES 

when we let the turkeys loose to range (friends!!).

Today our favorite UPS guy, Todd, returned from a 7 month hiatus. 

We chatted for longer than usual, catching up on the latest happenings...

When he pulled out to leave, my friend Jackie was looking out the kitchen window and noticed chicken feet in the truck. We assumed the chicken jumped out as he pulled out to leave. We looked around for her for a bit, then gave up (sometimes Ruby hides very well) 

and laughed about how Ruby may have left with Todd. 

About 15 minutes later, we saw the UPS truck coming back down our lane!

Poor Todd got to his next stop about 3 miles away and opened the back of the truck to find a stowaway!

So Ruby had a roadtrip, Todd now has a new UPS story to tell, and we all had a good laugh.

Oh, Ruby.

The Peace of Wild Things~

The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Paul

Spring Pigs~ 2013

Hello, stinky piglets. Welcome to our farm!

This morning Paul and I drove to our favorite breeder in Salem, OR 

and picked up six 7 week old piglets. Three boys and three girls...

We named them Floyd, Daryl, Leroy, Daisy, Lulu and Earline.

They are so entertaining! For now they are in the orchard next to our house.

They will live there until they are trained to the electric fence and are large enough to move to our woods. Plus they are close enough to watch all day long.

Here is a quick video clip to share the cuteness-overload.

Spring is HERE! woohoo!

Welcome Straw, Stick & Brick

We did it-- the pigs are here.

They are equally cute and nasty.

Stinky, slurpy, grunty, fuzzy babies.

For now they are living in the garden area, with the hoop house for shelter and an electric fence to traipse around in. Once they are bigger they are moving up to the woods where Paul is clearing several acres for planned apple orchard. There they can forage around and pigerate the ground up for us.

So here is a special welcome to Straw, Stick and Brick.

get it?

Alton and His Friends

Our yard rabbit, Alton Brown, loves his chickens.

When we let the hens out to run and play,
 he gets very excited and runs in circles around them.

Eve compiled this cute and hilarious short video of him and his friends.

Song credit~ "Life's a Happy Song" The Muppets (Original Soundtrack) 2011 Walt Disney Records

Video © 2012 Eve Hanlin~

The Hanlin's Flying Fish~

Eve shot this video of the trout jumping in our pond...

They jump and eat the baby dragonflies and other bugs that hover over the water.

Otter Visit~ & Critter Invasions!

Sunday we had a very special visitor in our pond. 

We named him William. 

Monday morning he was gone, moved on to his next adventure I suppose...
The girls filmed him and took lots of photos...
We could walk to the edge of the pond and he just floated there and watched us.
He ate our trout, but since he only stayed a day we did not mind.

 

 Japonica Japanese azaela bush blooming by the pond. LOVE the color... Coral! yum.

 Hummingbird!

Western Tanager. Male's head turns during mating season. 

Adventures never cease here. Peculiar Ambitions is an appropriate name!
Last two days have brought some frightening bald eagle attacks on our hens! Yesterday it got away with one of the Ameracauna babies, but today it tried for Maureen (my chubby old hen I named after myself), but I screamed like an insane person and Xena barked and we scared it off. shudder.
That thing is HUGE! The eagle stood at about 3-4 feet tall. Wing span of 6-7 feet.
Hopefully it does not try again tomorrow.