Waiter!! There's a fish in my water...

I've received a number of questions lately from people about the lone goldfish I've shown in pictures that I keep in my donkey/llama stock tank up at the barn.

In the wet and often humid environment of northwest Oregon, mosquitoes can be a real problem. Any pools, puddles or containers of open, standing water beckon to female mosquitoes looking for a place to lay their eggs. Within 48 hours of being laid, these eggs hatch and and become mosquito larvae that must then live in water from 7 to 14 days, depending on the water temperature, to develop into adulthood. The precious goldfish, that I have lovingly placed in my stock tank, gobble these little larvae (and other bugs) up like candy. I like this. A lot.

Now, this handsome and hard working fish wasn't always alone. In May of 2010, we brought home three, small feeder goldfish from the store. One, unfortunately, immediately passed on and then there were two:

These two enthusiastically helped to eat bugs and mosquito larvae throughout the summer and fall and also seemed to enjoy nibbling on the algae that grows so quickly on the sides of the tank during warm weather.

In May, when I first put the fish into the tank, I watched closely to see how the donkeys and llamas would react. I was able to catch Dolly llama, who now lives in Washington with Marcee of "Fancyin' the Farm Life", getting her first drink after the fish had been added:

In she goes:

"Wait a second... what's this?!":

"Hold on, there it goes":

(smack, smack) "Hmmm...I detect a subtle fish flavor with robust forest and maple leaf undertones..":

"Tasty!":

Sadly, though, the white and orange fishy died, leaving Mr. Goldy as the sole remaining stock tank fish:

And he has been a robust guy, too, surviving even the heartiest wind storms that dump all sorts of debris on his head:

He has even survived ice chunk water:

and frozen solid water:

Every morning when I go up to the barn, one of my "to do's" is to scoop out the accumulated debris in the stock tank from the night before:

Every few weeks, depending on the time of year, the tank needs a good scrubbing:

At that point, my goldfish goes into the bucket and hangs out:

...while I drain and scrub and wash:

and then refill the tank:

He and I both love a pristine stock tank:

Even with Mr. Goldy floating around, Chester has never noticed anything unusual about the water at all:

But, then, he's not really the picky sort when it comes to his food and drink:

Come spring, if Mr. Goldy hangs in there, I'll add some new buddies for him to make friends with:

Scenes from the second day

We aren't like most folks. Our Christmas preparations do not begin any time in November, not even the day after Thanksgiving. For as long as I can recall, December 1st has always been our first day of holiday cheer. What this means, though, is that rarely do we get our tree until the 2nd weekend of December. In fact, I can recall, on more than one occasion, not getting our tree even until the 3rd weekend in December.

For this reason, we are never in a huge hurry to "undecorate" after Christmas. Our decorations always stay up until after the first of the New Year.

So, guess what today was...
Aside from it being January 2nd, it was also the day to take down the tree:

I pulled on my special Valentine's Day knee socks ($2.49 special at Kohl's):

...and got to work. Ornaments were pulled down from the tree:

Our personalized license plates were put into their special box until next year:

Holiday mugs were wrapped carefully:

The Santa collection was carefully packed away:

as were the snowmen:

The Christmas penguins were unplugged and removed from their front porch position of prestige:

Then it was time to carry the tree out to the awaiting pasture crowd:

Kai was the quickest to come and investigate:

Chester was close behind:

Beau, last but not least, was a bit more cautious:

But he, too, warmed quickly to the big, edible treat:

Before the final holiday box was closed this afternoon, Roxy decided to give the Santa hat and beard one last try:

I think she's happy the holidays are over, don't you?:

New Year's Day

New Year's Day dawned bright and very cold here. My part of Oregon has been frozen solid for the last few days and that always changes life a bit on a farm that is normally extremely wet but relatively warm in the winter. So it was no surprise that I was thinking a lot about ice this morning as I went out to feed my critters.

The freezing temperatures have created works of art out of simple objects I've left lying around. An old screw on a wooden plank takes on a whole new look:

An old horseshoe found out in the pasture last year is transformed into an object of many textures:

Our clay fireplace now has icy moss adorning its sides:

Likewise, the shrubs and bushes all look like they were were decorated especially for this holiday morning:



The chickens received warm cheesy rice for breakfast with a few ripe banana pieces thrown in for variety:

Poor, sweet Cowgirl. While the rest of my hens have made it through their feather molt and have a full body of feathers to keep them warm again, Cowgirl just began dropping hers about a week and a half ago:

She's having to keep warm with only about half the amount of feathers she normally carries on her body, poor lass:

Beau and Chester wished me a sweet good morning. Actually, in this photo they are letting me know that I am late to breakfast:

Outside the barn, ice needed breaking on the stock tank:

And I scooped the pieces out with my tiny blue fish net:

Mr. stock-tank-goldfish is alive and well. He has no problem withstanding the water freezing solid over his head:

Chester's furry winter brow is a hearty one this year:

Even at meal times, my Kai llama is ever on guard. Here she is watching a dog with jingle bells attached to his collar (poor guy) run past on the road above. She was entirely unimpressed:

And here's Chester, telling me I've admired Kai llama for long enough and need to appreciate him again:

This is bad. This is telling me that despite all the precautions I took to prevent my barn water from freezing, not only did it freeze, but something has gone wrong and I have a burst pipe or something. Water marks and icicles next to closed spigots are bad, bad signs:

Have you ever wondered what frozen donkey poop looks like? Well, now you don't have to. I enjoy the ring these little icicle balls make when they hit my metal wheelbarrow:

Later on, my goat boys told me they wanted to go for a walk:

...so, of course, we did:

Kai llama, Pete and Reggie then "did lunch" together in the center pasture:

Back inside, Roxy politely told me that she was finished with the Christmas tree for this year (it will come down tomorrow):

...and then immediately offered me my choice of toys to throw for her:

So, here's a toast to the New Year:
Goodbye Two-Thousand-and-Ten,
I was really ready for you to end,
Anticipating the bright new year,
I've got plans and I'm full of good cheer!
:-)

p.s. Chester and Beau think they're really cute.