So much of what we’re doing at the farm/sanctuary is improvisation that we have no choice but to create a vision and accept ambiguity on the daily journey.
We received a request to adopt a house pig - Rue, who’s 80 pounds at 4 years old and extremely well behaved. We’ve been socializing her with the other pigs and thus far, all is proceeding as expected - they challenge each other across a fence and eventually accept their place in the social hierarchy. Now that we have 5 pigs, the question we asked is what is their ideal living arrangement - how can we create a pig “condo complex” that works in summer and winter for everyone.
Sometimes a sense of urgency is needed to motivate change. We have 8 baby turkeys and they needed a safe outdoor home. Although we built an aviary last year, Penny, the Yorkshire pig, was living in the aviary at night because she was not ready to spend the night with Tofu and Lunchbox, the pot belly pigs. Although we knew it would cause one night of anxiety, we put all of them together in a paddock and gave Penny a separate crate so that she could have a private space. After a few nights, she began sleeping with the other pigs and now all of them cluster in a single pig pile, completely happy together. The empty aviary became the home for the baby turkeys.
We put Rue and Hazel together in a paddock separated by fence. At this point they are rubbing noses and not fighting. After another month, we’ll take down the fence.
The new arrangement - 3 pigs living in one paddock and 2 pigs living in another - completely supports our daily routines and workflow. The farm is a continuous experiment and this time it all worked.
Similarly, it’s clear that our 5 horses will have a natural grouping - the dominant Arabian (Amber) and the assertive Welsh Pony (Sweetie) will get along perfectly. The older Welsh Pony (Pippin), the shy Welsh Pony (Grace), and the good natured Welsh Pony (Millie) will be a perfect herd.
Our new paddocks and run ins are progressing well. The horse groups above will occupy two paddocks, we’ll leave one paddock open for exercising/running, and leave a paddock for whatever flexibility we need to continue our sanctuary mission.
The last experimental animal grouping that is working very well is the combination of goats and a donkey. Star the donkey is doing well on her diet/exercise program and after a year, she’ll have a healthy weight. The goats can eat her food but she cannot eat the goats food. They keep each other company and are very happy.
If you asked me a few years ago if we would be the stewards of horses, donkeys, pigs, llamas, alpacas, geese, ducks, chickens, guinea fowl turkeys, Great Pyrenees and bees, I would have questioned your sanity. Now every creature is part of the daily fabric of our lives and we treasure all of them.
The Sanctuary volunteer program is in full gear with multiple people donating time to the sanctuary every day. They are grooming horses, walking the donkey, feeding poultry, cleaning paddocks, and socializing with the pigs. The sanctuary has become such a community destination that there is not a moment of private time left on the property - and we’re ok with that. My advice to our family - always stay dressed!
A mother rabbit had a litter of 4 babies in the middle of the orchard. I did not realize that rabbits create hidden burrows in grasslands so that their young are just under the surface. While walking through the orchard I heard a squeak and picked up the baby pictured below - I returned her immediately to her mother and the family in the rabbit den.
It’s early Summer harvest time and we’ve picked a few hundred heads of lettuce, 4 beds of basil, strawberries, cucumbers, and peas. Garlic, tomatoes, and peppers are next in line.
Will I ever have time to continue the volume of writing I once did? As building the sanctuary and nursing the animals back to health is replaced with maintaining the sanctuary and helping the animals thrive, there is a certain routine that will return to each day. Waking up a dawn, feeding/watering, walking, cleaning, and medications takes about 2 hours. Then comes, the work day. Evening chores to prepare everyone for a safe and quiet night takes about 2 hours. It’s common for Kathy and I to sit down for the first time each day at 9pm. As I reflect on this stage of life - 33 years of marriage, 20 years as a CIO, and a married daughter living in her own household - having the joyful chaos of the farm and sanctuary 7x24x365 is exactly right.
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