Tag Archives: winslow farm

February 1, 2012 · 2:51 pm

Little Cubby

I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of Mr. Cubby this week, but he’s the small black dog that’s made it into a few posts in the past. I’ll seek him out for a photo op next time if he’s out and about.

I arrived at the farm and spotted a lost Cubby moving in slow circles around Claudius the swan’s area. His coat had unvelcroed itself from around his belly and was flapping helplessly around his neck. I called to him but he didn’t respond. It was only then that I realized that I hadn’t seen him for a while. As I got closer, I continued calling to him but he didn’t respond until I was almost upon him. He looked up at my face and I noticed that one of his eye sockets was closed shut. His face is entirely black and I almost missed this detail. It seems that the poor old man had lost an eye recently, in addition to the fact that his other eye looked pretty blind and he’d become very hard of hearing.

I gently put his coat back on and he leaned in for pets from me. I chatted with Deb about it when I found her and she confirmed the eye removal, the hearing loss, and that the remaining sight was limited. I love that she keeps him going and that she spared some of the farm’s money to keep him alive and comfortable.

When any animal reaches old age, there are tough decisions that go into determining the end of their life. It is rare that an animal is given the opportunity to parish by natural causes. With over 300 animals at the farm, Deb has many more of these decisions to make than anyone else I personally know. Since he obviously spends most of his time in Deb’s cozy house, I’m not worried about his infrequent challenging adventures outside.  And while Cubby’s life might not continue much longer, I’m happy that he has such a caring and wonderful person looking out for him until then.

Here’s to you, little Cubby! I’ll put your coat back on whenever you need me to and cheer you on as you slowly continue exploring your world.

Leave a comment

Filed under dogs, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,

January 23, 2012 · 7:32 pm

Lesson Learned

On a typical day, one of the kids brings Spirit and Lunar up to the barn and I either help get them into the barn or they bring them all the way to their pens. No matter what though, Gulliver and Athena do not get their food before the horses have arrived. Today, everyone was super busy around the farm and Gulliver and Athena were waiting for me. After a while, I realized that the horses probably weren’t coming any time soon, so I fed my waiting buddies. They were just standing there staring at me, after all.

Once I gave them their grain, I realized that the doors to the barn wouldn’t shut all the way due to frost heaves. I discovered this when the alpaca ladies came around looking to steal Athena’s food. Outwitting them, I put up an impromptu gate made of a rake and a broom that formed an “x” across the remaining opening. They recognized this as a “do not enter” sign and gave up easily.

Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me until too late that I’d left Athena defenseless against Spirit and Lunar, who’d soon be coming. Even more unfortunate, because she was in a hurry, the girl who brought them up let them run through the gate and shut it behind them. This left the task of getting them into the barn a solo project. I’ve mentioned before that both Spirit and Lunar, although they react differently, are food aggressive. I panicked and tried to close the doors more, which only made a tighter hole for them to get into. It was one they could definitely enter but without the room to turn around properly could not as easily exit. I did my best to get them out of the space but when one would vacate, the other would enter. Poor Athena was trapped in a corner with no escape. Rest assured, they didn’t touch her.

My outcome wasn’t as lucky. After I finally got Spirit out of the space, I tried to shoe him on to get him to go around the barn by tapping his butt with my hand. He countered by tapping my ribs with his back leg. Yes, I am totally fine. It was only a warning kick that barely made contact. But it reminded me, immediately, just how small I am compared to him and just how much I take that for granted. I was very lucky that he didn’t kick me for real.

Somehow, without touching either of them, I managed to get first Lunar and, once she was locked up tight, Spirit, to go by Athena through the barn. Neither of them stopped again for her food which felt miraculous.

I don’t know if Gulliver could tell that I was upset, but he was extra cuddly with me tonight. I left the farm happy and ready for next week, a serious lesson under my belt.

2 Comments

Filed under alpacas, athena, behavior, goats, gulliver, horses, lunar, sheep, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,

January 20, 2012 · 5:53 pm

Wow, how time flies!

I can’t believe that my last post was on November 21st! It feels like 14 million things have happened since then. Although, realistically, it’s kind of amazing to me how consistent it is there each week. My duties pretty much stay the same, with an added blanket or an extra scoop of grain mixed in. Gulliver continues to be one of the most amazing beings I can imagine and cuddling with him is excellent every single time. That’s really no excuse not to write though, so I’m going to sit here eating gummy bears and try to fill in lost time.

One Monday, I spent a while walking around the corral with Lunar, my arm slung over her back. I’m not sure how adequately I can describe how cool that was.

The pheasant has continued to plague me. He is such a jerk! On the same day as the walk with Lunar, he made the mistake of trying to attack me with her at my side. She stomped after him with such force, neighing loudly, that it even scared me! Score!

A few weeks ago, I went down to the barn to collect Gulliver and there is a maze of gates to get through on the way back. He was so impatient that he didn’t wait for me to open one of the gates all the way and he got stuck. It took a while to stop laughing before I could free him.

Opie, the little piggy who spends most of her time snoring under a blanket, was out and about while on my way to collect Gulliver. I squatted down to say hello to her. She had food all over her snout and she kindly shared some with my knee. It was just about one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I scratched her head for a while and then continued on my mission.

Right about when the cold weather was kicking in for the season, I was given the task again to put on the horse coats. A little out of practice, Spirit’s snort of derision after I finally got his on said it all. Oh well, practice makes perfect, right?

Another day, I walked passed the regular gaggle of roosters (you thought I’d say “geese”, didn’t you? Nope. They just wait until I’m walking through and try to eat my coat). Standing among them was one of the peacocks. I don’t know why it was such a “wow” moment for me but it caught me off guard. There he was, going about his business, just hanging out, and yet he’s fluorescent blue. So normal and out of place at the same time. Majestic. I thought, “Yup. I get to spend time at a place where walking by a peacock is just a regular Monday. Awesome.”

Recently, Spirit and Cloud (the mule) have fallen in love. Hard core – don’t ever leave me – I’ll just scream on the top of my lungs until I see you again – love. When one of the kids brings Spirit up to the barn, blood curdling cries of anguish can be heard down by the lower barn as Cloud pierces the air with her mournful song. And no matter how much food and comfort I try to give him, Spirit yells at me for a solid five minutes in between bites of his dinner. Cloud has even been known to use her powers by breaking down fences to get to him. Now that’s Love.

Speaking of love, here are some videos of my friends being awesome:

3 Comments

Filed under alpacas, athena, goats, gulliver, horses, humor, pheasant, piggies, roosters, videos, waterford, winslow farm

Tagged as , , ,

November 21, 2011 · 9:13 pm

Athena Beans!

Today I had a Wheaton College student training with me in the barn. We got to talking about Athena  and I mentioned that I gave up on trying to pet her a long time ago. I went into Gully’s pen a bit later for our weekly smoosh fest and she stayed outside with Athena. I watched as she reached down and petted her on the head. ???

I waited until she left and went out to Athena. There was a lot of ego riding on this for me. If she moved away, I’d be crushed. Tentatively, I reached my hand out and patted her on the head. No movement. Astonished, I buried my hand in her vast depths of fluff. She is SO soft!! I started petting her nose and went as far as scratching behinds her ears. Not a single motion to get up and leave passed through her. I have attained petting status!!!

Now that my original Winslow goal has been accomplished, I can’t wait to focus on her more. I’m also excited to discover what my new goal will be. Petting the alpacas, maybe?

1 Comment

Filed under athena, behavior, sheep, winslow farm

Tagged as , , ,

October 24, 2011 · 5:28 pm

Best Buddies?

Today when I went in for my weekly lovefest, I found Niko in Gulliver’s pen. I pet her for a while as Gully finished eating and then he turned around to face us. Niko was on my lap and Gully reached down and took a bite of her hair. As she cried out in pain, I said, “No, Gulliver! We don’t chew on our friends!”

For a while we sat there and I doled out the pets to both of them. I took a few flash photos and Gully protested by jumping off of the landing and stood outside the pen staring at me. Was I ever happy when he came back over (with significant pleading on my part, of course) and leaned his head back in the mix.

Oh, Mondays, how I love you.

Flash!

“No, thank you.”

PS ~ Sometimes Gully makes purring noises. I know, right?

2 Comments

Filed under behavior, cats, goats, gulliver, humor, photography, winslow farm

Tagged as , , , ,

October 10, 2011 · 5:10 pm

Gulliver fell asleep while I pet him today.

It was awesome.

He also put his head on my lap and later he tucked it into my shoulder. Both these actions were new, too. The way he usually cuddles is by leaning into my hand and resting his forehead on my arm.

But really, it all goes back to that final nod of his head, sending him into a short but happy slumber.

1 Comment

Filed under goats, gulliver, winslow farm

Tagged as , , ,

August 19, 2011 · 5:00 pm

Rain, rain, rain.

The last two weeks have been all about rain. I’ve spent much of the time dashing around from barn to barn, waiting for the drops to stop and hiding out in the big barn. Since there’s not much to say about the rain, here are a few pics.

Sudden downpour…

that lasts forever…

All the animals are driven inside. Most are far enough away from the rain. Not Miss Athena, though.

Little Bailey, sopping wet.

Captain Oblivious chomps away at his hay.

And just as quickly, the storm is gone.

Back to the grind.

Buddies!

Kitty in a box!

Leave a comment

Filed under athena, cats, goats, gulliver, horses, sheep, spirit, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,

July 30, 2011 · 6:26 pm

Tiny Aerialists

While going about my business this week, I flicked what I thought was one of the giant flesh-eating horse flies off of my head. Instead, I watched as a dragonfly did a swan dive off of me and landed on its back in the dirt. With any non-threatening bug or beetle, my reaction would be, “oh no! I’ve got to help!”, but with a dragonfly, that feeling goes so much deeper.

My kinship with dragonflies go back many many years. Instead of writing it out here, I am sharing a blog post from my other blog. I’m mainly doing this because there are photos and even a video on the post and they add to the story. Please take a moment to read the post here.

After that encounter, I started to interact more with dragonflies. I’ve noticed how willing they are to hang around and it thrills me to pieces. So potentially killing one that sought me out crushed me. I gingerly picked it up and, wanting to make sure it was ok, placed it on my shirt.

It stayed there for about half an hour while I carefully scooped the corral and got dinner ready for my other lovely friends. When I finally had a moment to focus, I turned my full attention on it. I did my sing-song request that I do to my cats when I want to hold them and I swear (and yes, I’m sure it was something completely unrelated but I’m the one living on this cloud), it lifted its two front legs and pushed them in and out way that was similar to a “pick me up” gesture. I put out a finger and the dragonfly climbed on. We stayed that way for a few minutes until it was ready to go. From there it flew up to the top of the barn door where I could keep an eye out. Eventually, while lost in my duties, it flew away.

I wish I had the words to encompass how the experience made me feel or to truly explain why I feel like I am so connected to these tiny creatures. Since moving to Mass, I’ve noticed more dragonflies and have had many small interactions with them, but having that dragonfly hold onto me like that was out of this world.

Leave a comment

Filed under behavior, dragonflies, nature, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,

July 4, 2011 · 11:10 am

A month and a half was practically forever!

It takes me longer than most to adjust to new schedules and somehow the blog slipped away. And once a few weeks passed, it started feeling overwhelming. Rest assured though, I still went to Winslow every week. Goal going forward with a new job: No neglecting Minding the Minis!

Yes, you read “new job” right. It turns out that the nursery business, in addition to being seasonal, is greatly affected by the weather and current economy. So, even though I would have been laid off  for a few months each year (had NO idea), having a bad summer means letting go of extra hands like me. While I’m sad to leave the animals behind, my job was so focused elsewhere that I only had a few moments with them each day. Now I can visit the nursery just to feed them. Score!

Being at Winslow, as always, has been an oasis from the rest of the world for me. Lots of little moments have been lost in my writing absence but I will have lots of pictures to share…once I sift through the virtual pile.

In the meantime, here’s an anecdote from last week. I’ve talked about Waterford, the 450 pound pig, many times. Over the past month, I’ve started getting him into his pen by myself. For some reason, he’s been following me easily in without the aid of food. I sing-song to him and he gets up and trots after me, or in a few rare cases, he’s just seen me and off he went. Whenever I regale Deb with these small adventures, she’s always surprised at him and then follows up with warnings.

Feeling cocky, I went for another notch on my success belt on Monday and he completely ignored me. After singing his name, he followed me to the pen and then realized I had no food. He braked that big giant body, turned around and walked away. Hmmm. After a brief barn visit, I emerged with a scoop of hay pellets and he followed me once more. He went in but didn’t leave enough room for me to easily put the grain into his bucket.

So I nudged him.

He nudged back.

He does this very quickly, accompanies it with a snarl, a bite and jams his tusk in really hard.

While thinking, “oh. Ow!“, I quickly threw the food in and closed the gate. I can officially report that when he gets pissed, he means business and he acts on it fast. Much faster than his laissez faire attitude lets on. And he delivered the blow to my knee cap. While it broke skin, it didn’t bleed, but it was in ridiculous pain that night.

When I told Deb about it our adventure, her response was, “No one ever believes me.” Oh, I definitely believed her but really needed to experience it for myself in order to not want to experience it again.

I still love his big floppy ears though!

1 Comment

Filed under behavior, piggies, waterford, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,

May 19, 2011 · 4:18 pm

New Friends!

I just started a job at a nursery where they have a handful of ponies that were rescued. I know, perfect job, right? Don’t worry, I’ll still be going to Winslow every week. As I adjust from waking up whenever I feel like it to being at work AT 7:30am, I’ve been passed out drooling by 9pm for a little over a week. As I adjust, I’ll be able to write these on time. Until then, double posts it is!

Taking it a step farther, I’m going to rely on my pictures to catch you up:

I love that birds can sleep standing up. I love even more that these geese all hunkered down for a nap together.

I also enjoyed that this emu went back to sleep while I fussed around him getting camera angles. And it never ceases to fascinate me how these giant birds fold into themselves like this. It’s just so bizarre!

Look at this beautiful girl! I took this while Little Miss Peahen was on a date with the albino peacock. They walked around their yard in circles while cooing at each other. Adorable.

My, what great hooves you have, Gully!

Athena keeps topping herself in the great photo department. “Don’t you just LOVE my manicure??”

Aside from the fact that having tons of cats around is awesome to begin with, I love that I meet new ones all the time. This is Me Lord (I know, right? Great name!). He seeks me out every week now and accompanies me on all sorts of visits. Ultimate affectionate spewing from this cat here!

And THIS is Bailey. She lives in the barn and was pretty shy at the beginning. Once she gave me her seal of approval, she revealed how cuddly she is. And what awesome markings! It’s a bit hard to tell from the picture, but her face is split right down the middle of her nose. One side is calico and the other half is solid black, minus the stark white whiskers that spring out of her face.

Oh, how I love this girl.

Speaking of the felines, I discovered this hut for the cats this week. It is located right in the middle of everything! (Insert snarky comment about my awesome powers of observation.)

~

And now a couple of introductions:

Here is a gaggle of the geese at the nursery. They are usually in a giant penned in area that I can’t see from inside – disappointing! – but that morning, they were out and about among the flowers. “HONK!”

I’d like for you to meet Bear.

He is one of the ponies at the nursery and we took to each other immediately. On my first visit, all of the ponies came forward to say hello (and “I’d like some food, please.”) which was a wonderful start. For animals who clearly had a rough time before they ended up at the nursery, as evidenced immediately by their lack of body fat and brittle mane hair, it felt great that they all sniffed my hand. Three let me pet their heads, one allowed me to scratch his rear, and one wouldn’t let me make contact at all.

Over the next few posts, I will introduce them fully, but now, a bit more about Bear. This incredibly soft guy (most of the ponies have amazingly soft almost angora-ish hair – I’d go as far as to say fur) stood apart from all of them. Not only did he like being pet, but he allowed me to put my forehead on his. He allowed neck hugs. He even stared into my eyes. Our connection was immediate and every time I’ve visited him since, he’s just as affectionate. Lunar does not stare into my eyes even though I know how much she loves me, so having Bear just gaze and gaze at me is a whole new level of connecting. Instant love.

What had the most impact on me, though, was when I mistakenly moved my arm abruptly, a few visits in, and he literally jumped backwards. I had no idea that he had a history of abuse. While devastated about his past, I was overjoyed that he’d trusted me from the start. With a bit of coaxing, he came back to the fence for more hugs and I have been careful since that moment about keeping my animation in check.

Every day, I spend half of my lunch break with the ponies (and Jeffrey the goat!). I discovered on my second or third visit that they LOVE dandelions, so on most days, I pick a bunch on my way to see them. I think they are all fantastic munchkins and am enjoying learning about each of them, but Bear certainly made a beeline into my heart.

Leave a comment

Filed under athena, cats, emus, geese, goats, gulliver, horses, niko, peacocks, sheep, winslow farm

Tagged as , ,