2018 seemed to fly by! It was mostly a great year and I’m pretty happy about writing my first book – or at least the first draft of it.
I’ve been a total slacker about writing on my blog the past months. I finished my draft memoir right before my birthday Thanksgiving week and ever since then my brain has been mush. So in my mind, I deserved the writing break.
While I’ve taken a break from writing and working on my site I haven’t taken a break from farm life. In fact, my sister gifted me with a new animal family member…meet…Daisy:
I mean, that face! I had no idea rabbits could be so playful. She’s settling in nicely but don’t let that sweet face fool you, she’s cute AND destructive. She’s already eaten most of her Christmas presents! From the looks of it, the two natural balls in the picture above won’t make it very long either.
It’s been fun learning about Daisy’s preferences. The cage she grew up in was small and bare. I moved her into a spacious crate with lots of hay bedding as soon as I brought her home. Immediately she dove into the hay and started playing wildly with it. It was like watching someone win the lottery. The hay was such a simple, but huge pleasure to her I was inspired to see what else I could delight her with. I added a bowl of herbs and a random stick – both of which she liked. I propped the stick up so she can jump over or go under it…which she does repeatedly.
Since she lived in a house and a garage for the first two years of her life I wanted to make sure she had natural light and a view of the other animals. Now she has 24/7 chicken TV to entertain her. She even seems to have made friends with one of my disabled hens who I’ve caught hanging out with her.
The weather has been gloomy but not too cold lately, still, I didn’t want her to get chilly in the barn. I gave her a mild heat lamp, placed out of reach so she can’t knock it down.
Watching her root around in her hay bedding gave me an idea. For some reason, I have a few old mail boxes in my barn. I dusted one off, filled it with hay and put it in her condo. I waited to see what she would do with the sizable addition to her home. Her little velvet nose wiggled rapidly as she slowly inspected the new item. I pushed the stuffed hay down a bit so she could peer inside the mailbox…then she lost her mind.
Daisy ran in and out of the mailbox and got to work redecorating. She shoved hay this way and that and built out her home to her exacting specifications. It made me emotional to see this little bunny so happy. It’s going to be fun learning more about her.
The gloomy days tend to make the animals less active and a little slower. Most of the birds have completed their molts with the exception of a few of them. My beautiful Halston has a little longer to go before he completes his molt but he’s already looking quite fab to my eyes:
I’m happy to say Maybelle has made a complete recovery after surviving the attack several months ago. She’s living alone here and hangs out with Luca daily. At some point I’ll need to get more goats. Animals, like people, are happiest when they have company.
Now that solstice has passed the chickens have been cued to start laying. The longer the days get the more they will come online and produce eggs again. In the meantime, Luca is waiting patiently for his favorite treat. Who doesn’t like farm fresh eggs?
I hope you have a wonderful 2019!