Future Farm Boy or Spiderman?

This is the story about a little boy who left his momma to become a farm hand. Not really, but my 3-year-old nephew, Gabriel, did come to spend a couple days with me so his momma could finish writing a term paper.

It was a very busy and diverse time for him. You see, just because you're company doesn't mean the farm chores have stopped. Gabriel learned first-hand how to do some important farm jobs:

He....
cleaned and filled the donkey's water buckets with fresh water:

...was able to locate and observe many potato bugs that were running through the straw outside the stalls:


...scaled the big, green farm gate multiple times:

...successfully closed the huge barn door:

and carried a lead rope all the way back to the house where it was a source of entertainment for his remaining time with me:


When the chores were done, we headed into the city. Portland's Rose Festival was going on and the Dragon Boat races were in full swing. My son, Aidan, was co-captain of his high school's first Dragon Boat race.

We got to see Aidan's boat win!:

and Gabriel was excited to high-five Aidan as congratulations:

You'll no doubt notice the Spiderman suit. This was a must-wear item for Gabriel and a real crowd pleaser. Of course, and reasonably so, I had to refer to him as "Spiderman" or "Spidey", while he was in costume.

"Spidey" had a ball running through Salmon Street Springs, er, I mean, he expertly maneuvered through acid waters, narrowly escaping death:

He scaled tall concrete posts (without falling down once):

And - what are the chances - Spidey had a close encounter with Spongebob Squarepants!:

This was a very cool moment for my little super hero:

After all the excitement, even Spiderman needed to rehydrate:

I guess maybe Gabriel doesn't have to decide between being Farm Boy extraordinaire:

or Spiderman:

After all, even Peter Parker had his day job when he wasn't being Spiderman, didn't he?

Such a patient dog

"Ok, you guys, the dog's back. Pretend you don't notice":

"Na nie, na nie...see my butt!":

"Dum, de, dum, dum, dee...just walkin' behind the doggy...":

"Ooops, I dropped something. Oh, silly me, did I hit you with my tail feathers?":

"Ok, here's the plan. This time I'll walk in front and you walk behind. Let's see if we can't get a rise out of her":

Yawn. "You guys bore me...":

"Oh, yeah? Well what if I do....*THIS*":

"..Or if I do...*THIS*":

"Aw, man, who does she think she is, ignoring us like that? Stupid dog. Hey, let's go eat some leaves off the flowering rose":

"Stupid chickens.":

Introducing....the donkeys of Critter Farm

"What?", you say. "But we already know all about the donkeys!"
Yes, I think pretty much everyone knows that Danni has donkeys at this point. However, you really only know them as a group. I have been remiss in presenting them to you as the incredible individuals that they are.

As previously mentioned, on Sunday, May 25th, six rescue donkeys from Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue completed their 2-day journey from Tehachapi, California to arrive at our little farm in Oregon.

My job now is to act as donkey foster mama for these six, continuing with the "gentling" activities they have learned (being haltered, walking on a lead, lifting feet for picking and trimming, being brushed, etc.), and announcing to all NW Oregonians and SW Washingtonians (and anyone else willing to listen) that I have *the* perfect donkey pet for them!

And so....here are their stories:

In Stall #1 we have:

The "Burro Boys". These three were located on public land in Oatman, Arizona. Every year, a certain number of burros are removed from an ever-growing herd to maintain population control. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contacts Peaceful Valley regularly to schedule a PVDR burro pickup. These boys have been with Peaceful Valley for a little over six months and have been gentled as pets.

Name: Pistol, gelding

Age: 6 years old
Temperament: Is the self-proclaimed leader of the herd. He feels like an "old soul" to me, one who, in his relatively short life, has seen a lot. He can seem like a bit of a loner but he is always watching what's going on and what others are doing. He loves the ladies and adores having his hiney (rear-end) scratched. Seriously. He falls into almost a trance when you do this for him. He's absolutely gorgeous. Silky, almost-black coat with a white belly and incredible muscle tone, he is a beautiful boy.

Name: Velvet's Baby, gelding

Age: 3 years old
Temperament: Energetic and enthusiastic, he thinks maybe he should be the leader instead of Pistol, but he hasn't convinced anyone else yet. He doesn't much care for coffee breath (mine) in the morning and much prefers it if I have a peppermint before I speak to him. He is, however, always happy to see me. He loves having his sides brushed. He and Brownie tend to hang together when they're out in the pasture.

Name: Brownie, gelding

Age: 3 years old
Temperament: Sweet and friendly, Brownie will go out of his way to get some love. He really likes having his cheeks and ears scratched and sometimes enjoys just having you stand still so he can lean on you a bit. He's a very peaceful boy.

In stall #2 we have: (from left to right) Sarah, Holly and Ian:

Arriving at Peaceful Vally as "surrenders", Holly and Sarah were given up to the Rescue because their original owners, an elderly couple, had suffered some property losses due to a huge fire in the San Diego area and could no longer care for these girls. Holly and Sarah have bonded to tightly to each other and PVDR has made it a requirement for the two of them to be adopted out together:
 Holly and Sarah

Name: Holly, jennet

Age: 3 years old
Temperament: Soft-hearted, mild-mannered, yet knows what she wants, she is tightly bonded to Holly. She loves rolling on the ground and also having her muzzle kissed. She has the most gorgeous thick, curly, reddish brown coat.

Name: Sarah, jennet

Age: 7 years old
Temperament: Timid at anything new, but feisty and energetic when she's in her element. This is the sweet girl that had the recent encounter with our electric fence. She is the most exotic looking of all the donkeys, with incredible features, beautiful, thick, stand-up mane, interesting leg markings and gorgeous eyes.

Also in Stall #2:
Ian. My skinny, bony, sweet boy. Ian is three years old and was born at the PVDR Ranch. This little guy has had a good life so far. He desperately wants to join Sarah and Holly's exclusive "club", but tends to get pushed out of the way a lot.

Name: Ian, gelding

Age: 3 years old
Temperament: Ian has a mellow, calm temperament. He loves to be loved on, and will stand absolutely still when being patted, brushed or scratched. This guy *loves* to be brushed. Ian is able to adapt easily to either group, the surrenders or the burros. Sometimes it feels like this little guy is still trying to figure out where he really belongs.

I feel much better now, having given each of these wonderful donkeys their own personal introduction. I wonder what they'd say about me if they had the chance. :-)

Stretching their legs

There's a perceived notion among many people that donkeys are lazy and tend to mostly stand around looking bored and miserable. This couldn't be farther from the truth.

Want to see for yourself?:

What's my hen trying to tell me?

I need some advice.

As I've blogged about a lot, I have 12 chickens. They are now three months old. All seem to be very healthy and quite happy. I have a wide variety of different breeds and I've noticed that each chicken has a different temperament and personality. I have one Buff Orpington who, until now, has always been docile but more than a little timid. She's friendly but she pretty much does her own thing. She has never paid me that much attention.

Until now.

Spongebob (named by my 8-year-old nephew, Andrew) has started walking circles around me when I'm sitting at the coop, making very unusual deep-throated chicken chirping sounds that I don't recognize. She will then jump into my lap and look at me intently, occasionally pecking me and my clothes, while continuing to make that odd deep chirping sound. Do any of you recognize this sound? What is she trying to tell me?

I'm including a video of her in my lap. Unfortunately, my A.D.D. sort of kicked in and I filmed my other chickens, too, but I think you'll get what I'm wondering about:


What say you, the experts?

Please don't run through the electric fence, honey

Oh my. What a night we had.

Last night was an important learning experience for the humans of Critter Farm. It was also an experience that, I hope, will not ever be repeated. Holly, one of my jennets (female donkey), became disoriented and walked into our electric fence. This freaked her out so much, that she then fought her way *through* it. All the way through it - to the other side.

Of course, I take full blame for the situation. Up until now, I have let the donkeys tell me when they want to come in for the night. This is generally between 7:00 and 7:30pm. Last night, though, I looked out the window at 7:30 and nobody was waiting at the barn. Finally, around 8:30 - it was still light out but the sun was setting - I decided it was time to go round them up.

By the time I got their water buckets filled and had gotten their bucket of "tempt-you-to-the-barn" sweet feed, it was definitely dusk. I was rattling the bucket at the barn gate, calling "Donkeys!! Donkeys!" I could see them looking up at me, but not really moving toward me. Finally, my three burro boys came trotting up and quickly and easily went into their stalls. The two girls, Sarah and Holly, and the youngster, Ian, were still hanging out in the middle pasture.

My sweet man, Jim, offered to help coax them up and took off with the sweet feed bucket. Ian Donkey came pretty quickly and was on the other side of the fence separating the two pastures with Jim now. Holly, forgetting there was no gate where Jim and Ian were standing (with the treat bucket), walked straight into the fence. I was coming down the hill to help just as this whole thing transpired. I heard the panicked noise she made in her confusion and watched her come bursting through the fence. It was horrible.

Things I've learned:
1) Don't try to stall donkeys at dusk in a wooded area. It's dark and hard to see.
2) Don't hold a tempting bucket of treats outside a fence section that has no gate.

Thankfully, sweet Holly is fine today:

but she was pretty frazzled last night. She was pacing in her stall and even her best buddy, Sarah, was unable to soothe her. Talking to her in a quiet and low voice, I went into her stall and started to brush her. She let me brush her for almost forty-five minutes. Generally, she's a "quick and to the point" kinda girl with the brushing, so I felt happy that she let me comfort her in this way. She was much calmer when I finished our brushing session and she nuzzled my face before I left her stall.

Now I'm off to find some materials to repair the fence. Two of the seven strands are broken, leaving a huge gap in the middle of the fence:

I am so glad it was an inside pasture fence and not a fence to the road:

Donkeys in the morning

If I had any questions about whether donkeys like to go out in the rain, they were fully answered for me this morning.

They don't.

Family Saturday on the farm

My sister and her three kids came to visit yesterday to meet the donkeys. I was anxious to see how the donkeys would react to new people, especially children.

After an initial assessment period by the donkeys, they decided the newcomers were safe and came over in force. My sister, Stephanie, and her oldest son, Andrew, were a bit taken aback by the sudden show of attention:

But my niece, Julia, was completely in her element:

We decided to take a walk in the woods. Nobody realized at first that we were being followed. Donkeys are very stealth when they want to be. Suddenly Julia felt something behind her:

Ian, one of my young donkeys, decided he really liked my sister:

Pretty soon, all the donks were gathered and keeping an eye on us:

Everywhere Steph went, Ian, the donk, would follow. Here's Steph posing with her new friend:

All the donkeys were fascinated with the kids and would watch them intently:

A bit later, my chickens caught their first donkey glimpse:

And the donkeys saw the chickens:

Neither group was at all impressed and they soon went back to doing what they all do best...eating:

Look at this sweet nose, don't you just want to give it a big kiss?:

Donkeys love kisses: