There has been a lot going on lately on the farm!
This past week alone we had baby goats born, a baby alpaca born and a new horse arrive. In the past month we had our first Open House of the season and my dad built a screened porch addition for our store!
Squirt had her babies last week. She had 2 little boys. My mom named them Jiminy and Cricket. As someone who grew up in the 90's, I love anything with a good Disney reference! The black and white baby is Jiminy and the brown baby is Cricket.
Luckily, I was staying the night at the farm while my mom was out of town. We knew Squirt was close to having her babies. She had milk in her udders for a bit at that point! I went out to feed in the morning and baby goats had arrived! As with all baby goats, they are causing mischief, climbing on their mama and bouncing everywhere they go. At just a week, they are also trying to eat grain with their mama already!
Cassie had her baby last week also. It too is a boy.
We will be having a name the baby
contest at our Open House this coming weekend, Oct 23rd & 24th!
Smokey had lost another companion. My mom's friend had been boarding her horse, Jack, with us while her barn was being built. Jack and Smokey got on well and Smokey was happy to have a friend. Unfortunately, the barn was finished being built so Jack went to his new home. Smokey was depressed again at loosing another friend. He wouldn't even take a treat from me. Luckily, my mom has another friend that just bought a new stable where she has hunter/jumpers. The stable came with a horse that was not a hunter/jumper. She gifted my mom the horse so Smokey has a new friend.
The new horse we are calling Nash. He is a haflinger and is a good size horse. He is 24 (the same age as Smokey)! And has been trained to pull carts! Too bad Thomas's old cart is too small. He and Smokey are getting along well and Smokey is loving pets and treats again! The first few days Smokey and Nash were staying in the same stall (by choice!) They now are fine going into their own stalls
Last month my dad hurt his back. His chiropractor told him that he should be moving, that sitting or lying down for lengths of time would exasperate the problem and take longer to heal. So he had to be active but not do things that hurt his back. My mom has been talking about wanting to screen in the front porch and use it for part of the store for awhile now. He was able to work on the porch without it hurting too much!
He did a wonderful job didn't he!
We had our first Open House of the season a couple of weeks ago. It went really well. We had the boys out to go for walks, new signs on the path, the To The Max Food Truck was out and plenty of alpaca stuff to buy! We will have our next Open House this weekend! Hope to see you there!
-Dani