Everyone on Critter Farm

Chester and the llamas hope you are enjoying your holiday:

Pete and Reggie hope you are happy and healthy:

They'd like to remind you to be sure to slow down and enjoy the moment:

It's ok to be silly once in a while:

If you can look cute while doing it, all the better:

Try not to worry about the stuff behind you:

And be sure to give lots of kisses to the ones you love:

If you have guests, enjoy them while they're here:

They'll be gone sooner than you know it:

And then you can take a well-deserved break!:


From all of us here on Critter Farm, Merry Christmas to you!

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Eve morning on Critter Farm

My day yesterday: a short summary

- OR - How I spent the Winter Solstice (December 21st) in 10 simple photos

#1: I decorated a birthday table for my son. In our home, the birthday person receives their gifts the morning of their birthday:

#2: I watched my son and his best friend giggle like little boys over the giant candy necklaces I got them:

#3: I took (and was in) some silly photos around the Christmas tree:

#4: I sat by the fire and briefly felt sorry for myself that my babies are all grown up:

#5: I went out to the middle pasture and practiced "kiss for a treat" with Toni the llama. I'm getting really good at it:

#6: As it grew dark, I remembered I hadn't planted my garlic yet, so out I went:

I planted 3 varieties this year: Music (seed stock from my own garden), Chinese Pink (one of the earliest harvestable garlics), and Oregon Blue (I really like the name).

#7: See? It was almost dark. I hope my rows are straight:

#8: But since I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator, I'm used to these conditions. Some of my best work is done in the dark:

Wait. Did that sound naughty?

#9: When I came inside, I lit every candle on my dining table and went to work on my holiday cards:

Better late than not at all, right?

And this was pretty much my day. With a number of other things in between that I don't have photos of.

Wait, here's one more:

#10: Gratuitous photo of the birthday boy. Doesn't he have a wonderful smile?:

My Solstice baby turns 18

Forgive me while I interrupt this normally farm-centered blog to have a purely selfish moment of reminscence. You see, eighteen years ago today, I was deliverin' a baby.

Now - the poor little guy - as if coming into the world three days before Christmas wasn't hard enough, his mama insisted on dressing him like a zebra:

Picture proof to show that I was, indeed, the one to give him his first driving lesson:

He was a beauty, this baby:

And, for as long as I can remember, he has always done things his own way:

At an early age, he developed a strong love for pickles:

and animals:

He was, and continues to be, my boy with the impish grin:

He has experimented with many personal styles throughout the years.
(Those may or may not be my underwear he's wearing):



His hair has been an ongoing work of art:
This was the "blue" phase:

Followed by the "red" phase:

Somewhere in here was the bleached blonde phase (where IS that picture?!)
Followed by the extremely curly phase:

Then the extremely straight phase:

Followed by the still-straight-but-rather-matted phase:

Followed by the "afro" stage:

Followed by the "dreadlock" stage:

Are you keeping up?

Throughout the years, his love of animals has remained strong:




A child full of enthusiasm and self-confidence:

he is now a young man who loves to jump hurdles:

paddle dragon boats:

emcee school events:

volunteer for Habitat for Humanity:

and peform a lead role in the school play:


How fast the time went.
Is it wrong of me to be so incredibly proud of him, but desperately miss my little boy?

Happy Birthday, Aidan.
Thanks for still taking goofy pictures with your mama:

Donkey cookies

Yes, really. I made cookies for my donkey.

It was so easy. I added a few simple ingredients:

Mixed them all together:

Rolled them into little, bite-sized balls:

And after baking for ten minutes, voila!:

Little donkey nuggets of joy:

With warm treat in hand, off I went to find a taste tester:

When I offered one to Chester, there was little hesitation. He basically inhaled it:

Did you know a donkey's lips could get so long?:

I decided another opinion would be good. Toni didn't have to be asked twice, either:

Though her eating style is a bit daintier than Chester's:

Dolly was right behind Toni, ready to gobble up the donkey treat (shhhh, I didn't tell the llamas the treats were meant for donkeys...):

I'm sneaky in another way, too. I take these llama-hand-feeding opportunities to rub the soft spot under my stand-offish llama's chin. Oooooh, soft:

Kai was really the only one I couldn't convince of their wholesome goodness:

Moving on with my treats, I went off to find my goats. Pete and Reggie had no doubt that I had baked these just for them:

The chickens didn't care who they had been baked for:

15 out of 16 animals *loved* these cookies. I'd say these were a giant hit here on Critter Farm.

If you'd like to bake these for your special, fruit-n-veggie eating animal, here's the recipe:

Baked Donkey Delights

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 Tbs molasses
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup diced apple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees Celsius). Combine ingredients in the order listed. Form the batter into small balls and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Note: Because fresh, natural ingredients and no preservatives are used in this recipe, to extend their freshness you'll want to refrigerate the ones you don't use within the first day or so.

Me and my shadow

I really like to take pictures. I spend hours outside on our property, following my various animals around and snapping photo after photo after photo. So many of these photos never make it on this blog, because most of them are either blurry or too dark or only interesting to me, but sometimes, even though a picture isn't the highest quality, something about it tugs at me, and I decide I want to share it after all.

So. Here are a few shots that, even though they're not the greatest quality, I really like. A lot. The subject matter in all these shots? My beautiful donkey, Chester, of course.

I was photographing the llama girls in the pasture the other day when I noticed a presence behind me:

He nuzzled me a bit, but mostly, he just wanted to stand close:

This is what I saw when I turned around:

I hope this means he likes how I smell:

Chester has a few trust issues that we're working on. I'm hoping that lots of time spent and gentle attention given is going to help him to overcome some of his fears. Sometimes he doesn't want to be touched and petted and scratched - frequently, he just wants to be very close and sniff:

I'm ok with this:

A bit later, I caught Chet taking a little nap in the sun with his nose pressed to a tree:

He's a big one for eye contact, this guy:

It's interesting that some of my most favorite photographs aren't always the ones perfectly captured. More often than not, it's those spontaneous, blurry, sometimes overexposed pictures that squeeze my heart the most.

To glare

Glare
Pronunciation: \ˈgler\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): glared; glar·ing
Etymology: Middle English glaren
Date: 13th century

- To look with fierce, piercing eyes; to stare earnestly, angrily, or fiercely.
- To stare angrily or fiercely
- To stare with a fiercely or angrily piercing look

I was just thinking about this word and wondered what you thought.

Is this considered glaring?

What about this?

How about now?

Ok. I was just wondering.

Light hanging and wreath making

So. It's still cold here. Our low this morning was 11.1 degrees and tonight is supposed to get colder yet. Did my sweet, little, temperate state of Oregon get moved back east when I wasn't looking?

As I mentioned the other day, December 1st marks the beginning of holiday decorating for us and this doesn't just mean unpacking my Santa collection and playing my favorite holiday tunes. Yes, despite the serious chill around here, and in between breaking ice on animal waterers, stoking the fire in the fireplace, and trying to keep fingers and toes warm, some signs of the holidays are starting to appear outside, too.

External holiday lights are a must. Normally, they would go on the outside of the human house, but this year it was decided (by me and the goats) that the goathouse should be lit up. As I climbed the ladder to the goathouse roof, two furry heads popped out to help me:

Reggie appointed himself look-out goat:

I got these cool little plastic clips that slide under the shingles to hold the lights in place:

At one point, Reggie rested his little head on my boot:

Even once the looking-out portion of his job was finished, Reggie stayed here for the longest time. I think he thought he was serving an important purpose, but who knows for sure:

Yup, just standin' here:

Ta daaaaa....who knew it would be so difficult to take decent pictures of holiday lights at night in the dark:

Next, it was time to make my wreath. Yesterday turned out to be the PERFECT day to gather my supplies for my first-time wreath-making adventure.

I decided that, instead of using the wire wreath frames I had purchased from Michael's, I would use some of my grape vines:

I cut vines up to 10 feet long:

The trick with grape vine cutting is to spare the little tendrils that grab onto everything. These look very pretty left on the vine:

I gathered some holly:

I had found Douglas Fir (state tree of Oregon - FYI) branches a few days earlier, so now I was set. I brought everything inside and laid it out on the table:

Here's one of my grape vine wreath frames:

And here's my finished product:

I liked the look of the grape vine, so I left a portion of it visible at the top. It gives the wreath an asymmetrical look that I like:

Ready for company:

Roxy was a bit bored by the whole inside crafty thing and much prefers hanging out up at the barn:

C-c-c-cold

It's been cold here. We have been experiencing what our local meteorologists are enjoying referring to as the "ARCTIC BLAST". Whatever anyone calls it, it is making it quite inconvenient for O.N.A.T.T.C.'s (Oregonians Not Accustomed To True Cold) to water their critters.

Ice is suddenly a cumbersome factor to deal with:

Water buckets and stock tanks freeze, ice must then be broken:

As you can see, I have all the appropriate tools for the job. The picture below is me cracking the ice with the handle of the toilet brush I use to scrub the inside of the buckets when they get dirty:

and then scooping out the ice shards with an aquarium net:

Bottom line, though, it gets the job done, which is what counts, right?:

This was before it got even colder, though, and last night the ice became thicker. Early this morning, we hit our lowest low to date this year: 14.7 degrees. This is very cold for Northwest Oregon. The ice on the stock tank was thick; I had to use a broom handle to break it today:

Here is my goats', Pete and Reggie's, water bucket after I cracked the surface. The little goat berries were frozen solid and couldn't be budged:

Workarounds are necessary when faucets and hoses freeze. Here is the bucket I use to tote warm water from the laundry room down to the chicken coop:

Here is my helper. Maybe someday he'll carry that bucket of water for me:

With the forecast predicting even colder temperatures to come, last night, I put up the heat lamp in the chicken coop just in case I suddenly decided it was needed:

Dottie, ever the curious, is always the first to scope the new stuff out:

Everyone was anxious to see everything in the new light:

Bippity was the first to move in for a closer look:

I have to believe she was seeing stars after this:

Pretty soon, everyone was roosting under the warmth of the light and it wasn't even dark yet! So, I unplugged the light.

Last year, I turned on the heat lamp for them when the temperatures dipped below 22. This year, my chickens have just seemed hardier to me and, since it was still 25 degrees when I went to sleep last night, I decided not to turn on the lamp. When I awoke, I was concerned to see the coop thermometer read only 18.7 degrees (yes, I have a digital thermometer in the coop that I can read from the house):

Fortunately, everyone was just fine this morning. I am so impressed with the hardiness of my birds. This called for a celebration of warm oatmeal and pasta:

And even despite the cold, I had two eggs waiting for me in the coop nest box:

Two gifts from my girls on a day where the temperature never made it above freezing:

And this is what awaited me when I stepped out of the coop:

A blooming Jade

My husband has a special way with houseplants. One of the many plants that thrive in our home under his care is the jade. Almost 25 years after receiving a jade plant from a friend, we now have numerous "baby" jade plants around the house. The biggest one recently decided it was time to bloom:

This plant is about six years old and has never bloomed before. We've been excited to watch these buds develop and open:

Every summer, Jim puts all his potted jades outside on the deck where they get a lot of sun. The jades love this and their leaf edges turn crimson from all the wonderful sunlight:

When the temperatures start to dip in fall, it's time for them all to come inside again:

Pretty, huh?: