Cider Bend: September

Fall is definitely in the air at the farm. Everyone is starting to get their winter coats, the days are getting shorter, and the mornings are crisp and cold. I have a feeling our fall might be short, and I am really not ready for winter.

Cats:

Floof and Michem are doing great! Stormy is starting to hang out more in the hay barn now that the weather is cooler at night. We've had to run a couple other cats off, so they don't try to take over her warm winter area. 

Floof lives a pretty stress free, cushy life. 😄

Goats:

I got in a rut and didn't get the goats out much this summer. I'm back to starting to take them on walks and I've been letting them out in the pasture during the days to hang out with the cows. 

Chickens:

The chickens are still as fun as ever!

I let Tillie and Fern out to wander around the barn while I do my morning chores. One morning I was out cleaning corrals, and when I came back in, Tillie was in the donkey's stall. She's never done that before! Good thing the donkeys were eating and had no idea she was in there. I'm not sure what they would have done. Tillie couldn't figure out how to get back out, so I had to rescue her. 😅

I clean the coop out once a week, and Harriette comes in to visit me every single time. She just wanders around chatting at me. 😃

Here's Meatball sitting on another chicken. She's a total weirdo!

We get an average of a dozen eggs a day during the summer. I'm sure that will slow down once the cold weather hits, but right now it's hard to keep up! We sell some, and come up with every creative way we can think of to use up eggs, and I still end up with tons of them sitting on my counter.

Cows:

Opal and Ace got to have corn husks for the first time this month. it took a while for them to learn how to eat them, but now they are huge fans. 

I'm usually out doing chores in the morning right as the sun is coming up. I've been able to get some really good pictures of the cows with pretty sunrises.

I love this one!

Ace

Opal

Donkeys:

I feel like the world went a little crazy in September. So much heaviness, meanness, and negativity. I made a reel about how grateful I am for my farm. It's my little slice of peace while the world is busy using social media to hate on each other. All my little critters help keep me grounded and away from all the ugliness of the world. Nothing can calm my soul quite like an animal can.

Mark, Sawyer, and Amanda let the donkeys out in the dry lot so they could work on some stuff in their corral area. Clover was full of cute sass. It's my favorite thing!

Clover and Willow had their annual vet check up. They got their vaccines, and got their teeth floated for the first time. They gave them a light sedation for the process, and it was funny watching drunk donkeys. Floating their teeth is a process where they file down any teeth that get sharp. If you don't do it, eating becomes hard for them because their teeth poke into their gums. I could tell Willow needed it done, because I was finding little tuffs of chewed up food that she would spit out because it was getting painful for her to chew it up. She also had a few loose baby teeth that were hanging on, and also pushing into her gums. The vet removed a couple of those from Willow and one from Clover. The girls were so good during the process. Clover is a fighter if she is nervous about something, so even under sedation, they had to back her into the barn wall so she wouldn't have anywhere else to go. She's a tough little thing.

I added fresh bedding to the donkey's stall, and Willow helped me through the whole process. She is so dang smart, and so cute!

Random Stuff:

Our fruit trees kicked butt this year! The plum tree was so loaded! We picked them, and Mark made lots of plum jam, and fruit leather. Next year we'll have a freeze dryer, so we'll be able to process the fruit in a fun way.

Every branch looked like this!

So many plums!

I thought my garden was about done producing, so I ignored it for a week. When I went out, I had so many squash and zucchinis. 😂

We finally started picking our corn!

I was cleaning the donkey's stall on a rainy morning, and found a cute salamander walking through the stall. I got it out so it wouldn't get stepped on, and let it go on the canal road. When I went back in the barn, I found another one! The cute little pair must have come in the barn to get out of the rain. 

Cutest little smile!

Here's the second one!

I captured this beautiful picture of my barn with the sunset.

I was down in Utah one weekend pacing my friend at the Bear 100. Mark, Sawyer, and Amanda spent a Saturday working on the farm. Amanda painted a couple of our spindles, that we use as tables. I LOVE how they turned out!

So cute! We leave this big spindle outside the pasture gate to put halters and stuff on.

This is a half spindle that I use as the table to weigh the animal's food. It looks so much better than it did before. I love it!

That's about it on the farm for September. The next month should be spent getting everything prepped for winter! I can't believe how fast this year is flying by.