farm talk

I've come to the conclusion that the most commonly used phrase at Full Belly is definitely: "six of one, half a dozen of the other". Gotta say, I've never heard used so many times in one day. Another favorite phrase: "a couple three".

chicken herding

My laughter keeps me from being able to successfully snatch the chicken that Rawley and I are attempting to capture. A few times I've almost gotten her but I'm giggling so much that I can't seem to get the hand-eye coordination quite right and I keep missing her. As we run through the orchard on our somewhat ridiculous mission, I can't help but think how funny we must look, flailing behind a freaked out chicken that keeps darting back and forth between the peach trees. Finally my partner in crime arrives, Nellie to the rescue!

With her intense crouching stance, Nellie slinks around the back stealthily and flushes the chicken my direction. I see my chance and gain composure, just in time to lunge at the blur of feathers that goes darting by. In a flapping of wings and loud squawks, I manage to hold on to one leg and I swing her around so she's tucked safely under my arm. We walk over to the fence and I toss the hen towards the rest of the flock where she settles and begins to peck at the ground.

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Over the past few weeks I've been discovering Nellie's amazing herding abilities. Being a pure-bred Border Collie, herding is definitely in her blood. But I didn't realize she was actually staying true to her ancestors until I started noticing all of her quirky behavior. Nellie is constantly on the move, she has to have something to do at all times of the day. Normally her job is to follow Judith around and she does so with utmost intensity, taking her job very seriously. When Judith isn't here however, Nellie is suddenly left with nothing to do. In these moments of emptiness she resorts to stalking piglets, lambs, cats, chickens, or any other furry beings that she feels merit attention.

Witnessing this ability going to waste, I decided to begin the process of harnessing her skills. I started with lots of treats and I would take her out on runs to make her like me more. Then, as our trust grew, I started taking her with me to my work. It worked like magic, the second she saw the first loose chicken, her instincts kicked in: she crouched down low and locked eyes on the hen, watching its every move. Walking slowly towards it, she would force it in one direction or the other. As a team we've actually been able to capture quite a few chickens and I'm working on getting her to recognize commands so that she can be even more useful in my chicken trapping quests.

Orphans

With two moms dead the count in the orphan house has almost tripled. We now have eight abandoned lambs! As you can imagine, feeding times have gotten a lot more hectic in recent times. The newer babies haven’t yet gotten used to their new surroundings and most of them aren’t very interested in being bottle fed. This presents a problem because we have to spend a lot of time forcing the nipple into their mouths so that they get the hang of the new drill. This battle is further complicated by the three originals, PB and J, who are constantly getting in the way. As soon as you manage to swat Beatrice away from the bottle that isn’t hers, Jake comes up behind you from the other side and pushes the bottle out of the other lamb’s mouth, nibbling with his now sharp teeth. While you try to deal with him, Poppy comes in from the rear and jumps over anybody that’s in her way to try to clamber for a suck at the nipple. What a mess. Luckily we are getting a proper feeder tomorrow which is basically a five gallon bucket with ten nipples at the bottom. But I know even this wont solve all our problems because we will still have to watch out for guzzlers like Jake who could probably finish off an entire bucket by himself in record time.

A powerful sound.

Bottle feeding baby lambs or working in the greenhouse will never become uninteresting to me, but now that I am getting more accustomed to these everyday tasks I finally have some room to discover the smaller details of the farm.

With new babies being born every day, the farm is brimming with animals. But with so much attention on them, I realize it is not often that I stop to think about the many other animals that also share the farm. I came to this realization over the weekend as I was strolling through the orchard and heard the most beautiful of sounds. Between a gurgling and a whistling, the magical noises this bird made were unlike anything I could ever hope to imitate. The noise moved me so much that it made me question why I had never heard it before. With this new enlightenment, I've developed a greater awareness of the birds around me:

On my many short trips down Highway 16, from one side of the farm to the other, I am now beginning to notice the many hawks -- such a rarity in Berkeley -- perching casually by the side of the road.

Also in the past week I’ve been encountering a flock of the most beautiful and vibrant blue birds. They don’t ever stay long enough for me to get a good enough look at them but the flash of bright blue wings which offset a beautiful rusty chest are enough to dazzle anyone.

On my run after work today I passed a juniper tree and upset a flock of doves that were settling in for the night. As I ran by, the tree suddenly seemed to tremble and a dozen white doves burst from the tree in a flutter, making me stop in awe as the tree came to life.

If only animals could talk

O'Magnum Mysterium! Oh Great Mystery! Today two ewes stopped walking. Just  like that! In the morning, they ran out to pasture but then early this evening when we were moving the sheep out of the rain into the barn we noticed two moms lying in the straw, completely listless. With four people we managed to drag them both in to the barn where we were able to look them over closely, again, and again, and again, and again....But with each check our hopes dwindled. There were no obvious problems. It wasn't milk fever, mastitis, poisoning, a snake bite, an infection, not even a calcium deficiency. They simply lay there like limp dolls, breathing shallowly, with temperatures of 104. Even Dru who has been around sheep for years and years had never seen anything like it. It was the most terrible feeling, not knowing what was going on and just feeling totally helpless. I sat with them for a few hours, stroking their heads and singing to them. I thought, if they die, at least they'll die a bit happier.

 

farm talk

I've come to the conclusion that the most commonly used phrase at Full Belly is definitely: "six of one, half a dozen of the other". Gotta say, I've never heard used so many times in one day. Another favorite phrase: "a couple three".