You Gotta Be....

This morning I opened. *deep and wonderful breath* I LOVE opening. It was such a crisp morning everything smelled dewy and I always enjoy my morning walk to the shelter office when the sun is just coming up. I look behind me to see the cattle already grazing on the hilly pasture and look below to see the geriatric cows, Joni, Neal, and Hank doing the same. Then I try to contain my giddiness. I would have thought, a month into this internship, that the excitement would wear off, but it seems to be growing. When I played derby, after practice I would always say that my lungs felt happy from such a good workout. They really did. They felt filled with fresh oxygen and really strong. I felt my best after practice. Anyways, Farm Sanctuary is to my soul what derby practice was to my lungs. Whoa check that analogy out...haha! So yeah, still loving every day here.

After I opened I helped Leanne wrap Curly's busted horn, one of the sheep from the Iso Santa Cruz herd. I had to pretty much stand with him between my legs and hold his good horn with one hand and his chin with another. He did a really good job :) I really am enjoying any time I get to assist or just watch the caregivers with different treatments.

I then drove the scary van to Chico to drop of fecal samples at the vet and pick up feed. There was also a failed pit bull rescue mission between Orland and Chico. Two of them were running up and down the farm street and I tried to get them but they were scared and ran off. Hope they are okay.  As I was driving into town "You gotta be" by Des'ree came on the radio. Nostalgia! Took me back! That was my first ever cassette tape. I remember cleaning up all my barbies that were scattered around the room to that tune. Let us reminisce:



By the time I got back I had a couple hours of barn cleaning to do and then we had our monthly Chico shopping trip.

I'm going to throw in a few more photos. These are nothing new to people who I'm friends with on facebook, but to all you other readers out there:

 

Me and Coco. This is that goat hug I was talking about in a previous post. YES they hug, and it's the best thing in the whole wide world! Far better than any human hug!

Buddy and Chili playing with my shoe laces. 

 I don't know who this pretty lady is but I think the picture turned out well.

If that isn't just the best smile ever...and that's coming right out of a nap! That's Johnny :)

 Bo looks a little freaked out here! Hahah!

Okay, more photos later. Blogger uploader is being super slow!

Riding with Ramona

Today started out like any other day on the farm. I opened, collected eggs and hard boiled them, prepared produce for the chickens and did some laundry. My last task of the day was to feed out the pig produce to the rescue barn pigs. I toted my buckets full of carrots, celery, cucumbers, and zucchinis up to the barn, dropped them off before entering so I could separate the pigs without them freaking out about their food arriving, and put Kiwi and Fergus into their stall. I prepared their bowls and fed them. Next were Ramona, Lassen, and Matilda. Feeding them is always a bit trickier. Balancing three bowls while trying to maneuver a latched gate and three hungry pigs is no easy feat. I made it through the gate and ran out to the pasture so the pigs would follow. They all chowed down. Sweet, I thought, mission accomplished. Not quite. While I wasn't looking Ramona finished her produce and had pushed open the unlatched gate. I threw down the empty feed bowls and bolted towards the back side of the barn and saw her trotting merrily towards the vegan house. When she noticed that I'd come up behind her she picked up her pace. I needed to get ahead of her to cut her off. Somehow I managed to jump in front of her path. We stared each other down, and I could see her little mind working. You couldn't be farther from the truth if you ever thought pigs were stupid. And Ramona is not only extremely intelligent, she is also quite stubborn. She was bound and determined to continue on the path she started on whether I was in front of her or not.  She eyed me a bit longer, gave me what I now know was a mischievous grin and ran towards me. Before I knew what had happened Ramona shoved her snout between my legs and lifted me up off the ground and onto her back and kept running. It was almost as if she were saying "Hop on! We are going for a ride!" I held on for dear freakin' life! I couldn't help but laugh a little bit as this was happening because I'm sure it looked hilarious! After a few seconds Ramona paused, lowered her snout and let me off. I ran into the vegan house, grabbed and apple and coaxed her back into the barn. What a ride. Sure made for an interesting day! I must say, I never would have imagined, in all the times I looked at Ramona's sponsor picture on my fridge, that one day I'd be given a piggie back ride by her!

Anyways, I also wanted to show off these pictures of me feeding produce to the chickens. Stephanie was out and about taking photos and was able to get some pretty good candid ones :)

Don't think I even need to say it, but I'm loving every day here more and more!

Produce and Pig Checks

Anyone who knows me knows how much joy I get from feeding my pups Emmett and Cynthia. It makes me so happy to take care of them and know that they need me. I'm kind of missing the little tykes but I'm getting my feeding fulfillment by feeding out produce to the pigs. Feeding produce entails cutting up tons of fruits and veggies and just dishing them out. It's kind of one of my new favorite projects :)

This morning I assisted Molly and Carrie with pig health care. Holy intense experience. Pigs scream like you would not believe! Today they got their hooves trimmed, ears cleaned, an allover body check and a couple vaccinations. It was tons of fun because you really get to see each one's personality. Who's the whiner, the one in charge, the baby etc. It was freezing cold this morning too and I didn't double layer my socks so all I could think of was my hot shower at the end of the day. Unfortunately our hot water went out!!! Soooo sad :( I'm having hot cocoa instead and we are baking cookies tonight. Hopefully that will warm me up!