I Never Want to Leave.

Today, being my day off, I did a little laundry. I've never line dried my clothes before, but let me tell you...it's a magical experience :) Birds chirping, rolling hills in the background, blue skies above....I could go on and on. And then, I went to collect my laundry later this afternoon and found Elliot was keeping an eye on it.

I really wanted to go all around the farm today but my camera ran out of batteries. So I only made it to the rescue barn to visit Oliver and Elliot and the pigs. Here are some snapshots of the day:

 

 This is Blaise, our house kitty, but he frequently wanders around the farm.

 

 Oliver was super interested in Blaise

Blaise was not so interested in Oliver.

This is Fergus. If my hand wasn't in the picture this would be PERFECT!

Ramona rooting around. This is the pig Trisha and I sponsor.

 Matilda. Love her.

And finally, what really made my day....little Oliver still suckles...and he was going to town! I seriously need some lotion now.

So that was my awesome day! Going to top it off with some falafel and friends!

Edit: I made a quick stop to the goat barn today and got some photos with my phone.

 

Chili

 

Melvin

Smells Like Farm!

Sweet Jesus I stink. Today I did a lot of cleaning. Meaning I was up close and personal with all sorts of messes. Cow pies, pig plops...only the good stuff :) I am so tired and I can't wait to take a shower! This was a short update but I figure you don't want the nitty gritty on scooping pig poop! I did get a wee bit of time with the goats today though. I have 4 favorites: Chili, Melvin, Molly, and Buddy. I was trying to rake and put the remnants in trash can but the goats kept knocking it over, or sticking their head in the can! And then buddy would just walk up to me and start leaning on me until I gave him a sufficient scratch under the chin. So raking was not too successful! I hope to get some pictures of them tomorrow!

Opening, Hay Feeds, and Waters Oh My!

Another gorgeous day on the farm. I opened again and I'm semi starting to get the hang of it. After open I gathered more eggs and hard boiled them, did some laundry, and helped with hay feeds. Hay feeds were a lot of fun. We started out with the sheep and just dumped piles of food here and there for them. Ian is my favorite sheep I think. Even before we were dumping the food out he was all up in our business hahah! We then went up to the main herd of cattle at tried to coax Valentino out of the current pasture into a different one so he could be fed a special diet. He was not having it! I was patting his rear end and Mike, the caregiver, was holding a bowl of food. He walked a few feet but wouldn't follow us the rest of the way. I also met Cupid out there too...a cute Holstein. He was very excited about the hay in the back of the truck. He was taking huge mouthfuls of it because he knew we were driving away soon!

Before lunch I spent my time in the geriatric cow pasture cutting hunks of grass to feed to the Rescue Barn pigs...which includes Ramona :) And after lunch I cleaned waters...which took forever! But it was nice because you get to be around all the animals. The turkey girls still hate me for the record. You know that bit of fat on the back of your arm? Hurts like a mother when a turkey takes a bite at that! Or the backs of your knees! I still love them though. They are so talkative! And, I never saw "The Birds" but I feel like the turkey girls would have been perfect in that film. When I bent down to do all the waters 3 of them surrounded me, pecking and making their turkey noises...kind of freaky!

One more day and then I have the day off. I can't wait because I'm really going to get to walk around the farm and get to know the animals better! Should be fun!

Bird Love

Oh man what a day! So, today was my first day opening, meaning I went around to all the barns, counted and checked on the animals, and let them out. It was kind of confusing but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Animals are moved from certain barns to other areas of the farm for a number of reason, so it keeps you on your toes keeping up with all the messages, but they have a great system out here for communicating changes to the staff and interns. I'm definitely going to have to get use to all the change and the diversity in projects this internship has to offer. Which is a good lesson for me since I tend to enjoy knowing what to expect :)

When I was little, I was bitten by a Turkey at the Puyallup Fair. Today, I was pecked at by at least 3 of the Turkey girls as I was opening up their barn and head counting. It was kind of funny this time though and didn't hurt as much as I remember it hurting when I was younger. These chicks are craaa-zay! But I love them! Yes, even though they were pecking at my legs and feet...I love them :) Letting the geese out this morning was just as exciting. They are soooo loud! Honking...and sometimes hissing. Romeo is one of the white geese and he is so far from being a charming Romeo! He stretches his neck out and points his bill to the sky, puffs out his chest and honks...then proceeds to waddle towards and attack you. Hahah :) I really can't help but to love him though. He is just so proud!

At noon we had our Ed Lunch which is when Sophia, the education coordinator, makes us lunch and we all sit and talk about a specific issue. Today we talked about the different reasons people go vegan, and the animals it effects. It was interesting because we discussed some of the gray areas of veganism and just shared our opinions. One example was owning leather jackets/boots/accessories, prior to going vegan and then once you've gone vegan the question becomes "what do you do with them?". I really liked it because it was everyone just sharing their opinions and wasn't a huge debate. Personally I'm working through my non vegan clothing items and replacing them with vegan options.

After Ed Lunch I went and collected the eggs from all the birds. I bet you're wondering what we do with the eggs here at Farm Sanctuary...yes? I was too. Well, let me first say that a lot of these birds have been bred to lay eggs at an extreme rate in really harsh conditions.  A typical egg laying hen will lay 230 eggs a year. Where their ancestors were only laying 30 a year!!! Whoa! So they are constantly producing these eggs which depletes them of nutrients. Several suffer from osteoporosis. And can break bones very very easily. So, we collect the eggs and then hard boil them and then mash them up (shell and all) and feed them back to the birds, thereby giving them back the nutrients they lose when laying the egg. So that's what I did with my afternoon. The chickens were so cute when I was collecting the eggs, so curious. I'd bend down to grab an egg out and they would follow me, sit, watch, and some even let me pet them. It's funny because I find myself really loving the birds here and that's not at all what I expected. They are just so different than what I'd imagined them to be. Super curious, friendly (minus turkey girls and romeo...but you gotta love them anyways) and fun to watch. I'm really excited to have a day off because I want to spend a bit of time with the geese and turkey boys for sure.  Side note: There was this movie that Sophia mentioned at the Ed Lunch called Fowl Play, all about the egg industry, that I really want to watch. I'm going to check and see if they have it at the library here on my day off.

So, that was about it. I'm sitting here with some chocolate covered raisins and I think I'm about to raid the left over Chinese Food from our Chico excursion last night. I'm beat, and hungry. I open for the next couple days, so I hope to have the hang of it all by the beginning of next week :)

Oh, also, if you want to check Mr. Romeo out click here He is also adoptable for Valentine's Day! (flowers and chocolate are overrated!)

Full Day!

*happy sigh* Have I mentioned that I love this place? Today was my first full day on the farm and I started out getting trained on how to open up the place and let all the animals out. (I do that tomorrow by myself...scary!) Then I helped barn clean which is basically raking up all the old hay and laying down new. I had a little time to hang with Elliot and Oliver, two calves that live in the rescue barn behind where the vegan house is, in between tasks. Later we were shown around specific barns and told which animals to watch for...like Calvin. The coolest looking pig ever. He looks so sweet because his tongue hangs out of his mouth but he gets a bit nippy so you have to watch your backside :) And Ramona! The pig that Trisha and I adopted a year ago! Apparently she likes to try and sneak out on you.

I finished off the day with raking one of the sheep pastures that is kind of on a hill. Every now and then I'd look up and get a sudden urge to throw down my rake and belt out "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE...WITH THE SOUND OF MUUUUUSIC" Don't worry, I resisted. But it's soooo beautiful here! We had a few minutes before we had to be off the shelter and I really wanted to go hang out with Hank, one of the senior cows, but he was grazing far off in the distance. So instead I went and hung out with Elliot and Oliver again. It's been a wonderful day, and now we are going to close it with Vegan chinese food in Chico!!! I'm so excited! And starving!

No pictures today, but expect a ton on my next day off!!!

Day off

Yep, I already had my first day off today. It was pretty uneventful since I'm not allowed to really go hang out with any of the animals alone until I'm all trained up. I did end up tagging along though to meet the main cow herd. I was really surprised with the size of these guys! They are about as tall as I am! Molly, the intern coordinator, showed us proper cow etiquette haha, so we don't get accidentally stepped on. There is a one eyed cow here and I can't remember her name...I want to say Daphne? It starts with a D....anyways, makes me miss my little Willegars at home.

After I met the cows, I had some lunch and then took myself out for a little walk by the lake. The weather is great and I'm so thankful I'm no where near the Midwest storms at the moment!

As I was walking back to the house the sheep herd was grazing in the yard. They all turned to stare at me. It was quite a sight:

 

I also took some photos of the signs that are posted at the entrance to the Sanctuary. I just really like them :)

So that was my day. Hopefully things will start picking up, I know they will. Stay tuned :)

Windy Day!

So last night I fell asleep, while looking out my window, to an absolutely gorgeous night sky. The stars here are sooo bright! When I rolled over this morning, this is what I saw:

 

This is a bad picture because of the bug netting on my window, but a herd of sheep just grazed on by early this morning. Whoa!  I literally sat in bed and watched them go by.

After having my breakfast and getting ready I headed down to "The People Barn" for training with Sophia the education director of the shelter where we learned a bit about the history of the shelter and talked about why we were here and what we wanted to get out of this experience. THEN....we went and met the animals :) The wind here today was crazy! But much better than snow :) I met the senior cows and pigs, goats, turkeys, rabbits, sheep and chickens. Once we'd been shown around the farm I was trained on cleaning the small barns (turkeys, geese, chickens, rabbits). I LOVE the turkeys. I never thought they would be so curious and friendly but they were! They wanted to be in the barn while I was cleaning and they would hop up on  hay bails or peck and scratch at the new hay I would lay down. They even let me bet them (super soft by the way). It was a great day, but I'm exhausted.