beat the heat with comic relief.

choppy learns his ABC's (always be closing)

a glimpse at the elusive jerry cat

oh brother!

del ray's orbit gum commercial

raspberry dream

LOL!

you gotta walk down that road...

snow day.

warning! dexter spoiler alert!

whole lotta rosie.

the original odd couple

del ray's in love. in love with jeliza-rose. and she doesn't mind. quite a pair they make. he, a tiny miniature pincher. she, a great pyrenees mix. she, an outdoor guardian dog. he, an indoor wind-up toy. but on cold days, when the temp is in the single digits and the belgrade winds are gusting over 50 mph, the two come together to share a warm wingback chair inside and hide not their forbidden love.

sheep love roses.

our sheep are strangely attracted to jeliza-rose. they flock to her as if she were the sheep messiah. she doesn't exactly know what to make of it.

hot dog!

today was a scorcher. the first of this year. heat index near 100. and uncompromising humidity. the dogs have found creative ways to cool off. while i long for a pool. or a margarita. or both.

jeliza-rose finds carport naps helpful

choppy gets a tasty beverarge

then crawls under the saturn shade

and practices his mechanic skills

delray finds flashing to be quite refreshing

while little bit finds solace in making other dogs hotter

meet samson & delilah.

my apoligies for taking so long with introducing our new piglets, samson & delilah. but life got in the way. family illness. sick goats. baby turkeys. oh, and the nicest surprise of all, snow. yes, i awoke to a few inches of white yesterday. glad i didn't plant my 'taters yet.

so, please allow me to introduce.... all the way from columbia, missouri... sampson & deliha. our guinea hogs. i put the emphasis on hogs, because they are in no way related to guinea pigs (which are cute in their own right, but quite a different species). guinea hogs are a heritage breed hog. there are very few of them in missouri. or even in america. and we are lucky to have this cute little pair as a new member of our farm family.

where as i failed miserably with speedy introductions, the piglets succeeded by taking matters into their own hooves. they snuck out of their pen and made the rounds. introducing themselves to all the other animals.

"s'up, jeliza-rose"

"hey, we're the new pigs""albert, nice to meet you"

"so, you're marla?"

misty morning.

woke up to fog everywhere. rolling in over the hills. i dreamt i was on the british moors during lambing season on my way to town for tea and pudding. but then i spotted baby snakes and reality set in.

baby snakes

donkeys in the mist

jeliza-rose

positive thinking.

wish i had something good to post. but things have been not so pretty on the farm. stressful is more like it. winter has been rough. most of the problems revolve around the GLOPs (our guardian dogs). their goat hair-pulling escalated into physical harm on our older goat, bernadett. it breaks my heart to see bernie in pain. but i'm hoping and praying and doing everything possible to rehabilitate her. she spent the night in the house (and i babied her by giving her lots of wheat bread, alfalfa hay, and vitamin water). we gave her a shot of penicillin, some aspirin, and a dose of probiotics and wrapped up her wounds. today i moved her to an isolated kidding pen in the barn. she seems more comfortable outside. and tonight, i'll probably put her daughter bianka in the pen with her to keep her company and warm.

so, what do we do about the dogs? we are going to have to keep them separate from the goats during the day. their chewing on the goats is actually common behavior for livestock guardian dogs of their age. and most people don't allow young dogs 24 hour access to goats. we gave it our best shot, and it didn't work. so this weekend we are going to begin fencing in our front yard (which is over an acre). the GLOPs will be in the front yard during the day, and sleep with the goats at night. fencing the yard was something we wanted to do anyways so that our indoor dogs could be outside off-lead.

in the meantime, i have to keep lil'ann on a lead during the day. she is the instigator. she seems to have an irresistible desire to "play" with the goats. she's not very pleased about being in "time-out" but it's better than the alternative (giving her up or her accidentally killing a goat).

i love bernadett so much. she has so much personality. i need positive thoughts right now to help get her through this tough time. we need her here.

bernadett

deficient dogs, braying burros, and one cured chicken.

our GLOPs have been bad. well, actually only one GLOP, lil'ann. she's going through a very destructive adolescent phase. you know the dogs that pull all the stuffing out of toys and scatter it across the lawn... well, imagine if they had a furry goat to play with instead. i believe she learned this horrible habit when patrik was sick and his hair was falling out. just recently, she started doing it with our healthy goats. regular scolding has not helped. neither has a tea tree no-bite bitter spray. it is very stressful on the goats, obviously. and very stressful on jeliza-rose (her sister) who finds this behaviour very upsetting. i have been able to salvage most of the hair but we are afraid one of the goats will get seriously hurt. so drastic times, seek drastic measures. a shock collar and a video camera have been obtained. i've been spying on her for the past few days from the comfort of my living room. so far, she has been absolutely perfect. maybe she figured it out. maybe her phase ended. maybe it was the full moon. regardless, i'm waiting here inside with my remote control just in case.

meanwhile, cripple creek needs a new name. she is doing brilliantly. and has grown most of the feathers back on her head. the weather has been exceptionally warm so she has been enjoying being out and about.

and stella loves to holler. especially when there is the possibility of food involved. today's surprise afternoon carrot snack was loudly received.

out for a stroll with cripple creek

oh my god! carrots!

a word from the GLOPS.

hewwo. dis is wil'ann. i was given puhmishun to make an announcement. furst off, GWOPS wuv snow. it's twoo. we do. it doesn't bodder us at awl. secondwy, our twin pygmy goats viowet & daisy just turned one yeewrs ode dis week. happy burfday cwackah goats. we awso hurd dat some baby chickuns waz hatched. i tink wike sevunteen of 'em or someting.

dat's my sistah jahwiza-woses finding out how many chickuns waz borned.

awso newswuthy... owiver da beagle waz adopted by a nice wady named patty. he moved to da city wast night to wiv at hiz new fowevah home. and finawy, we haven't escaped in monfs. da new ewectric fence is a weel doozy. oh, and baby snakes stinks.

stinks!

it's raspberry harvesting time...

misery in missouri tour.

please take a virtual tour of the "misery in missouri" exibit. but keep a box of kleenex nearby. some of the puppy mill stories are heartbreaking. my photo "jeliza roses" is in the artist insight section #5.

GLOPs on TV.

i just got back from springfield, mo where i attended the "misery in missouri" exhibit/benefit. it was the first time my work has ever been on display in a gallery. i was stoaked! felt good to be acknowledged and to be supporting a good cause. came home to discover that jeliza rose made it on tv! you can see her portrait on the wall in the opening shot of this fox news story.

my first art exhibit!

i entered some of my photos into an upcoming art show called "misery in missouri" and one of my photos was accepted!! this will be the first time my work has been on display! the exhibit is to bring awareness to the deplorable conditions of puppy mills. and i would like to thank my gorgeous model, jeliza-rose for donating her time and face.

feeding the GLOPs.

i am dedicating this post to the spectacle that is "feeding the puppies." it seems crazy to still call them puppies. they are big girls now. but i can't quite call them dogs. doesn't seem right. they aren't full grown. and they haven't even had their 1st birthday party yet. they prefer to be called "the gorgeous ladies of pyrenees" or GLOPs. so, GLOPs it is.

the GLOPs, unlike all other barn animals here, do NOT graze on pasture. they try it every so often to see what all the fuss is about. but they prefer diamond dog food. it helps them grow "fat and sleek." however, even though the pups don't like grass, goats LOVE dog food. they love any food, really, if it makes noise and comes out of a bag or a scoop or a dish. ditto the pigs. and the cows. and the donkey. and the llama. they hear the food hit the pan and things get crazy. so, to keep the chaos under control, the dogs get to eat behind closed gates. chaos still ensues, but it is controlled chaos.

who want's some GLOP food?

we do!

no excuses.

the sky opened up. rains came and washed away the hot. i was actually cold last night. so i should write, right?

first off, donkey is still pregnant.

secondly, i am at war with bugs. everyday a new insect invades my garden. the latest, colorado potato beetles. they must be terribly disappointed. i am nowhere near colorado. and i don't grow potatoes. still they like to graze on tomato plants. i just can't believe the damage that has been done to my plants. luckily, the bugs only like unripe fruit. so the tomatoes that made it past the cute little baby green stage, have survived. and i do believe i will partake of my first red sun-riped tomato this evening for dinner.

the puppies have graduated from being confined to the barn at night to full-time free range 24-hour guardian dogs. they have been doing a great job. barking, growling and sounding scary. keeping our field free of coyotes during the wee hours. needless to say, they don't sleep much at night. poor things are just downright pooped during the day. but we are very proud of them. our goats now get to graze at their leisure. not just when we open the barnyard gate. freedom seems to make for happier healthier animals.

cabbage loopers like brocolli

future dinner

oooh, the damage done


what guardian dogs do during the day


happy freedom

giant steps for baby snakes.

somebody likes baby goats. likes them so much she entered the barn for the very first time. you've come a long way, baby!

farm of fools.

happy april fools day from washington county, MO!!!! can't believe it's april already. i have officially been a farm girl for 6 months. my how time flies when you are knee deep in mud. so... what did i do on this fine day, you ask?

i was entertained by our new twin acrobats, violet and daisy (named after the famous sideshow twins) while their giant puppy sisters watched in awe...

listened to dagmar & cocoa declare, "mud, what mud?"...

and told baby snakes the old joke about 3 cows and a bucket of feed which she found hillarious. all in all, a pretty good day.