A Sunny Winter Day

 Today was a good day in animal land. The sun finally came out for the afternoon and I must say the farm pets enjoyed it thoroughly.  In this picture the mother goat is nearly asleep. The goats are so fair weather that they won't go out of the barn for water when the wind blows, let along when it's snowing. The chickens love the goats for some reason and the goats don't seem to mind the chicken ladies too much either.

 The donkey boys like the sun to shine too! They were caught several times throughout the day laying down and just soaking it all in. That is, when the mother goat isn't chasing them and stomping her feet in their direction. Funniest thing I have ever seen as that darn goat is afraid of her own shadow but acts very tough when the donkeys are around. You should see a pygmy goat put the sneak on a pair of miniature donkeys. It's almost sad. It really seems to empower her, nutty goat.

 And here is Ollie and the mother goat hanging out in the snow. It seems humorous to me that they won't go out into the snow in the barnyard which they have access to all day but put them out in the orchard area and snow doesn't seem to bother them at all.

Donkey Boys

It is harder than one might think to get a picture of a baby mini donkey with goofy Christmas antlers on his head. It is next to impossible to get a picture of two of them together.

So we bribed them. The boys love carrots. This one is the shyer of the two and he seems to know that manners will get him further than pushy behavior. His brother is still learning this lesson.

He is also more photogenic. He will actually stand there and let you take his picture even if he hates dumb antlers that make him look silly.

Poncho has to be snuck up on to get a picture. He comes running to see if you have treats in your pocket so getting a decent photo of him becomes more challenging. Most of my pictures of him are from 1 foot above his sweet little face while he begs for carrots.

Now that the ground is covered in snow the boys stay a little closer to the barn. Doyle plows them areas to hang out in but all that sticks through the snow to graze on is chicory. Too bad them chewing on the tops wouldn't kill the stuff like it did all my cherry trees. These guys can prune very fast when you aren't looking.