Foster horses

There is a wonderful rescue - mostly horses rescued from slaughterhouse auctions, but other farm animals too - called Bear Valley Rescue. We got our landlord to donate pasture for the summer (thanks man!!), and we are looking after four of their foster horses. This picture shows the two young'uns, Mercy (on the left, 2 years) and Raffy (on the right, a bit older I think). There is also Reba, who is 22 years old and not fond of humans without treats, and Twenty, who is presumably about the same age as Reba (I forget). Twenty is the oldest looking and has the most mobility issues and less teeth, so he gets what the wife calls "Senior Meal Deal" every day or thereabouts. He has to be separated out to eat it though because the others are so pushy!

Here is another shot of some of the pasture, with all the horses shown, as well as the old barn that we see out the kitchen (front of house) window every day, which is so beautiful:

I'm learning slowly about how to be around horses, because I don't have much experience being around them (similar to the chickens!). The difference is, the horses could kill me whereas Neil the rooster [probably] couldn't actually kill me.

But I still use a rooster stick, just in case!

Now let's chat chickens

We just got some rescue chickens. We didn't do the actual rescuing (from battery cages at a factory farm), but rather took over the care of these chickens from another rescue organization called Bear Valley Rescue. We wanted egg laying hens, and didn't know we didn't need a rooster. :) Here is that rooster, who is called Neil, taking care of business.

This is one of his hens - there are five of them, including a bigger, different looking one that came as a pair with Neil. She is called Alice. They are all called Alice. Here is one of the Alices, checking me out checking her out. :)

There is a definite learning curve involved in the caring for chickens when you've hardly ever seen one before in real life! I use a "rooster stick" and many other, evolving tactics to deal with Neil. He is quite... well, let's just say he does his job well. This is me with my rooster stick, after having told him to move out of the way so I can gather some eggs (we get about two a day, total - these hens were tossed aside partly because their laying capacity wasn't really good anymore).

I am getting better every day at handling Neil and learning how to speak chicken! They are so very adorable. I really am surprised at how attached I've become. I simply love these birds, just as much as I love our dogs and cats. And there are more dogs...

Happy (beagle mix) and Kafka (Taiwanese Aboriginal Mountain Hunting Dog, or "Tugo") are like peas and carrots, and have been together ever since Kafka was discovered under a car as a puppy, in Taiwan, where Janneane taught English for seven years. Happy was the poster boy for the animal rescue organization over there. His story will be shared on this blog at some point - it's quite amazing. Here are the two munchkins, always together, forever bonded.

Of course the cats

Of course we have cats. We live on a farm! One of the four actually came with the farm. His name is Cesar and here he is (orange fluffy) with our senior girl, Suki (grey fluffy). She and Lolli (picture forthcoming) came from England and then were surrendered at the humane society. We adopted them both.

First, the dogs

I live on a farm.

This is not that unusual, perhaps, unless and until you find out a little bit about me and my background. How I got here is quite remarkable. I can barely believe it sometimes, although I definitely am grateful. Right now I am about to take ten dogs outside after an afternoon nap, and we will walk around a one-acre "corral" which is beautiful spring green. We will play - especially the 5-week old puppies we are fostering right now. Oh, and the 5-month old puppy we just adopted, named Billy Sue! We will see the chickens in their run out the front door, and maybe we will hang out on the deck and listen to the rooster, Neil, strut his stuff. We will maybe catch a glimpse of the four new foster horses that were dropped off here this morning. And we will hear the 30 k winds in the trees against a blue and white sky. The big Alberta sky.

Then my wifey will come home from her second job (more like her third, actually) at the local greenhouse, and we will feed and water the horses, the cats, the dogs, the chickens, and eventually, ourselves. This is a typical day. This has not always been a typical day for me. I am 37 years old, and this year is the first year I have truly surrendered to living in the moment and accepting what is.

This is Sugar. She's 13 years old. I've had her as my trusty sidekick for many years. I believe she was about 3 when I adopted her from a friend of a friend sort of situation. Back then, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I sure loved that girl, and I loved dogs, and all animals for that matter. And there was no way she was going to a shelter or another unstable home.

I gave her a sometimes unstable home. Now she is in her retirement phase, living out her days peacefully and joyfully on the farm, with her brothers and sisters and her two moms. She and I are finally blissfully stable.