so much for that.

we loaded the car right up to the roof yesterday and headed out to the farm. it is 82 km away. that's 50 miles. we listened to and out come the wolves as we drove. that's one of my all time favourite albums.
we got there and put up the HUGE tent. here it is, with views from inside.just beyond that line of trees is the river. there were fly fishermen out enjoying the day. it was
seriously perfect. not too hot but definitley not cold, no bugs, a light breeze... it was heaven.


this is pippin. she's the ideal farmdog. friendly, well-trained, big... the boy was obsessed with her and spent as much time with her as possible.


these are twiggy, toots and tagalong. they are alpine goats.
twiggy has gender identification issues - she is technically a she, but doesn't get pregnant, has a beard, is more aggressive than a typical female goat, a bit taller...
toots is my favourite. she's more reticent than twiggy, but friendly and loves a good scratch behind the ears. she's pregnant and due in about two weeks.
tagalong is pregnant, too, due at the same time as toots. she's shy so i didn't really spend time with her.
i spent lots of time feeding the goats, scratching the goats, talking to the goats, showing my kids how to treat goats... the goats eventually got bored of me and started ignoring me. and it turns out that they don't really like rice bread. or peanut butter on rice cakes. they just aren't into gluten-free food, i guess.


the boy and pippin checking out the chicken tractor. according to wikipedia,

A chicken tractor is basically a movable chicken cage without a floor. It is usually of light construction so one person can drag it around the yard, it may have a couple of wheels at one end to make this job easier.

The chicken tractor has a number of advantages over fixed cages: The chickens always have fresh ground to scratch at and grass to eat. The cage never needs cleaning; when the enclosed area starts to look worn or patchy, the cage is simple dragged to a new location, the droppings left behind help to fertilize the soil.

i didn't get any pictures of the chickens themselves, but most of them looked just like this. there was one rooster, also black. his feathers had a beautiful sheen to them. the boy spent hours looking at the chickens, feeding the chickens, talking to the chickens, traumatizing the chickens... he seems to be as attracted to chickens as i am to goats.

that night it got cold. really cold. really, really cold. down to freezing. and believe me, we were freezing. we had stacks of blankets but i still lay awake for most of the night, shivering. breastfeeding when there is frost on the ground is really no fun. it was awful.

i was too tired and couldn't cope with the thought of another night like that, so in the morning i decided to come back to the city.

we spent the morning doing a little bit of weeding and lots of enjoying the sun and the animals. my dude mowed a section of the lawn with the ride-on mower. i spent a good amount of time sitting on the grass with tracy, the chick who lives there. her daughter is the same age as my baby, and the two of them adore one another. they are collectively the fattest, cutest, doolingest things on the farm.

so here i am, back home. i'm disappointed that i couldn't stay for the week, but it was not to be. i'll get back out there in a couple of weeks.