This and that...oh, and the coop.

This last weekend was really busy!

For those of you who asked, the Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary event on Saturday night at the Chaos Cafe' went really well. Close to $500 was raised and it all went to the farm. We were nervous at first because the cafe' itself is an extremely small locale but it was packed to the gills, and people were very generous with their admission donations. My two biggest fans were there to meet me: my mom and step dad. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took turned out. In case you don't believe me, here's one of the better ones I got (the black and white striped arm you see on the lower right side is my son Aidan):


6:00AM Sunday morning found us, Aidan and me, driving to the airport. Aidan is spending spring break this year in Port Arthur, Texas working with Habitat for Humanity on Hurricane Rita efforts. After saying goodbye to him (my baby!), I tearily strolled along the little alleyway of trendy shops at the PDX airport and something amazing caught my eye:



Yes, those are chicken purses!! Really big, rubbery plastic ones! I almost died laughing. Have you noticed all the farm-themed trinkets, and mugs, and clothing (Carhartt's is big time!) adorning city store shelves these days? For probably the first time in my life, I'm not devastatingly uncool! :-)

After leaving the airport, I made my two-hour drive south down to the Lighthouse Farm Animal Sanctuary for their annual Easter Egg Hunt. There was still a lot to be done prior to the 1:00PM start time. My first task was to wash 13 dozen (!) freshly laid, free-range eggs to offer later, for a small donation to the farm, to anyone who desired them:

Then it was time to prepare the "other eggs" for the hunt. Every year, colorful plastic eggs are filled, some with cut up veggies and apples, others with grain and oats, to be "hidden" then around the farm. Families with children come, make a ($10 suggested) donation to the farm, grab a small Easter basket, and set off to gather these eggs. With the contents of the eggs emptied into their hands, they then walk around and feed any of the animals they choose to feed.

Despite really crappy (cold, blustery, heavy rain, lots of mud) conditions, we probably had over 200 people turn out. And the smiles, again, despite the weather, I saw on the children's faces were wonderful:

See this little girl on the left?:

I zoomed in on her face - her expression of surprise is priceless:

I'd never seen so many people going in and out of the barn:

Luke, the pig, delighted in all the attention:

Everybody loved feeding Oyte the donkey:

Chewy wasn't shy about asking for more treats (can you see her tongue?):

It was a very good weekend for the Lighthouse Farm Animal Sanctuary!

And finally...
A quick coop update: We're still not done, but efforts are certainly not stalled:

No, despite all appearances below, those long branches to the left are NOT holding the coop up. I found these in the woods and plan to cut them down to use for big-girl roosts. I might even make a small ladder roost with them for the outside run:

And the windows are in! :-) (Thanks for the suggestions I received on where to look - I went to a place called the ReBuilding Center that specializes in used materials - it's a really cool place and I found two, beautiful, cheap, sorta-too-fancy-but-they-are-matching windows):



Happy Spring!