Our busy little corner of the world once again fell into that peaceful pool of ambient light, that adagio of gloaming. Yesterdays work floated along like a good wee farmy. I love it when we all search for a word. Words are such powerful scribbles. Such magnificent codes to decipher. You guys brought some perfect words into the comments conversation yesterday. 
The pigs began to eat from the kitchen, only left overs so far, but the bread and the eggs and the whey from the yoghurt making were home made. Evidently one has to hold one’s food down with ones elegant Hoofy FOOT so it cannot escape. Strawberries are tricky like that. In fact they like their fresh diet so much that they have not been eating the soy/corn mix that the hog farmer brought me quite so eagerly. Much to the delight of the barn chickens. Hmm. 
The little pigs were grunting with something akin to high exasperation when they realised that their other food was being stolen out from under their little piggie snouts. Those chickens better not get too brave.
You know that our goal is for the farm to feed the farm. To live simply eating good food we grow ourselves. Well the animals also get to eat the good food we grow. If you are newish maybe pop back to this post for some revelations of why this blog started in the first place. This summer we are aiming for Free days. Days when the farm feeds the farm. Truly sustainable days. These are called Free Days. The cows are already on those days, chomping away out in the meadows eating grass. Mama’s flock is very close. The pigs will get there, once I start milking Daisy. Then we can do without these nasty bags of smelly pig food ground so fine that I cannot work out what is in there at all. However it is important not to change an animals diet too drastically too fast.
On Monday Mia will come back into Mama’s flock. Do you see the little TonTon ears above the fence cross piece. He is back there watching. 
Daisy is till determined that there MUST be a way for a cow to open Pat’s gate. 
Naturally we had winds again. There was a red flag warning in the area yesterday. High Fire risk.

TonTon would like to point out that even dogs get affected by the Bendy Tree winds. The wind is upsetting his DO.
Good morning. How are you all this morning? This Thursday is the Farmy Retirement Home day. TonTon and I will be taking a basket full of little chickens and Minty. I have made a slideshow of some of the blog pictures and TonTon is going to take his BALL. High excitement. The elderly residents are going to come and visit us in their meeting room in the Home so I thought that if I cordon off one area, they might like to take turns at rolling the ball to Ton or even throwing it to him (gently) and he will catch it and eagerly return it to them for more. I sense that there may be a teensy bit of unruliness, but that would be fun for the residents too! I will take you, in the camera.
So, we have two days to prepare for that and then this Friday night, now that everything is settled down, we are leaving John in charge of the farmy, and you and I are going to fly out to The Central Valley in California to meet a new member of my family. We will make a fabulous celebratory New Zealand dinner on Saturday night out there and I will even make pavlova! Then in the wee hours of Monday morning I will jump back on another plane and be whisked back to Illinois by lunchtime. (Where is my chauffered time machine when I want it!)
So we have a busy few days ahead of us you and I.
celi



58 responses to “Putting your Best Foot forward.”
That TonTon sure has a shiny coat. Tell those birds to shake their tail feathers!
ha ha ha you had to say it! i depend on your for those comments greg! c
an egg a day makes for a shiny dog! c
Your pictures are beautiful!
Your chauffer for the time machine is here, ready, willing and able! It’s the people making it that are the problem! If I ever figure out who they are…I will give them what for!
Chicken bottoms in the air, so cute. I love when my girls are like that its so funny 😉
You have chooks too? Excellent, i shall pop over and see! c
Yes we have 10 of the Rhode Island Reds. Love them 🙂
They are good chooks.. they keep on keeping on! c
I have noticed this and they lay great eggs 🙂
I’m glad TonTon has a couple of days to get his Do back together! What fun you will have at the retirement home…I’m so glad you’re taking us with you!
Your plans for the retirement home visit sound fantastic. I look forward to hearing how it goes. And have a great NZ puffy pavlova dinner!
I winemaker I know use to feed his pigs left over cheeses from a local shop, specifically a ton of feta. He said that it made for some mighty tasty pork. 😉
Mr. N always talks about a machine that can teleport him places – especially on long car drives. Sounds like you could use one of the magic “buttons” he refers to this weekend. Have a wonderful visit with your family and I’m looking forward to hearing the stories from the Ton Ton’s visit with the elderly residents. 🙂
Playing catch up today when I think you´ll be in California. Hope all goes/went well! I love the idea fo Free Days – we try to work that with our chickies too.
Love the farmy, great pictures. The chicken “bottoms” were cute!