Introducing Sherry. Our USA representative on our international land tour. Sherry is a long time member of The Fellowship. She does not have a blog and she has been commenting so long I am sure you would love to learn a little more about her and her animals. PLUS she is proudly owned by Timatanga Moana’s cousin Percy. Back to the snow we go!
Us:
My husband and I live on 38 acres in east central Wisconsin, the glaciated kettle moraine area. Means nothing is flat! We share our house with Eli, a 4 year old Wirehair Pointing Griffon, John’s buddy and partner in hunting upland birds and ducks, and Macadoodle, a 5 year old schnauzer?, poodle?, yorkie? Who’s your daddy? dog, my buddy. (He likes John too, in fact he likes EVERYBODY).
The land is made up of wetland (marsh/swamp) pasture and 11 acres tilled. We trade use of the tilled area with the local dairy farmer for hay for our animals. While we raise vegetables for our own use we mostly ‘farm’ pets.
Our house is a typical Midwest farm house, the original log part was built in 1886 and one of the grandsons and one of the great grandsons of the original settlers live right down the road.
Our Critters:
We currently have Red Sally and Ember, a Rocky Mountain Mare and a Kentucky Mountain Mare respectively. They are gaited horses that give a nice smooth running walk rather than a trot which is much easier on our old – and getting older fast! – bodies.
I know everybody thinks the breed they have/like is the best but, having had a thoroughbred, quarter horses, an appaloosa, paints and arabs I have to say the mountain horses have the nicest dispositions ever.
Winston is a Sicilian mini donkey gelding. He’s a friendly guy but wary. He came from a situation where he received very little handling so everything was new to him. I would like to train him to pull a cart, another thing for my list of things that would be fun to try.
Otis is a Nigerian Dwarf wether. He’s a sweetie, adores having his head scratched between the floppy horns he’s not supposed to have as we was disbudded.
Her Majesty Fanny is a miniature fainting goat. At less than a year she is a sassy thing, she’ll follow you anywhere and will literally climb in your lap if you let her.
Portly Percival is a kunekune barrow and has the character of a pig three times his size. He’s constantly carrying on a conversation whether there’s anyone there to listen or not. He’s great friends with Fanny, even when she uses him as a step stool. He only protests when she stands on his head.
Odette, a golden laced Wyandotte, Sylvia, a black austrolorp, Berniece, an americauna and Gretchen, a barred Plymouth rock make up the ladies league and are very full of themselves. They’ve ostracized the two rouen duck hens, Betty and Geraldine who were given to my stepson by one of his misguided friends on his 30th birthday. Ergo, we got the call: daaad, you want some ducks?
Our Life:
John and I are both retired and thoroughly enjoying it. The first question of the morning is ‘what day IS it?’.We supplement the furnace heat with a woodstove in the kitchen so we do a lot of cutting, hauling and stacking wood. John, having been a heavy equipment operator has a lot of “toys” to keep him busy when he’s not hunting or fishing. I have several small looms that I like to experiment with as well as way too many ‘things I’d like to try’ to keep me occupied in the winter and several flower gardens as well as all the animals to fill up the summer. For both of us there are more books to read than we’ll finish in our lifetimes. We have a good life, with good friends and good family.
Morning chores can be raucous here in east central Wisconsin. Sally & Ember, the Mountain Horse mares, bang on their hay feeder (the equine equivalent of pounding on the table). Winston the mini donk lets loose with his foghorn bray, Otis and Her Majesty Fanny, the Nigerian Dwarf Wether and Mini Fainting goat keep up a plaintive bleating and Portly Percy, the kunekune is shrieking to feed him NOW because he’s going to keel over from hunger and make Fanny get off his head. Add to that, Odette, Sylvia, Berniece and Gretchen, the ladies league of laying hens cackling to open that door and Betty and Geraldine the Rouen duck hens shouting to ‘let us out’ it can be deafening! It’s a good thing we live out here in the country or surely we’d have neighbors complaining.
Love Sherry.
The Kitchen's Garden 
65 responses to “Deodar Farm, 1886”
Thank you so much for this tour, Sherry! I’ve read your comments more than once on the Lounge of Comments so it nice to meet you!
Linda ❤⊱彡
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer
Thank you Linda, I enjoy your blog.
Thank-you for sharing your wonderful menagerie, Sherry. What lovely animals – one can tell from the photos how you feel about them, as with Miss C’s critters at the farmy. It would be grand to have an update from you occasionally, as I will be thinking of you now. 😊
I do enjoy the animals while letting them be the animals they are.
Oh what a delightful post 😀 your place sounds wonderful. Love the antics of the animals at feed time. Imagine if you had a rooster! Super photos ..Thank you so much for sharing
We actually did have a duck drake, he got a little too nasty to the chickens so he had to ‘move on’. I can hear neighbors’ roosters from three different directions though!
😀
I fell like I get to know you more an more and just took a walk around through the farm. I fell in love with Winston..he is a handsome boy. Great pictures as always 🙂
Winston is a character. He either runs away from you or is in your face. He likes to rest his chin under mine so I can scratch his cheeks.
Fifty years ago my new young husband & I right out of university had our first full time jobs in Wisconsin & we drove around the countryside on weekends for fun looking at small farmhouses with a few acres & I (can’t say he did) dreamed the pet animal farm dream. I’ve always remembered especially one dear old frame house in Cedar Point (I think) that looked so much like yours….Thank you, Sherry, for introducing us to your beautiful life, my long ago dream. I laughed at your sketches. Wonderful visit!
There are so many beautiful old farm houses, I like to imagine the lives lived in them. I’ve always loved old houses with all their problems and quirks.
I wouldn’t know where to start if I visited you… don’t worry, lock the doors or pull down the blinds… it’s unlikely I’ll track you down from Australia! But you have such great furred and feathered company sharing your wonderful life 🙂
A shovel in hand is always a good place to start around here!
I was very much taken with your dogs…the hunting dog is so interesting with the woolly furry body and sleek head and the little dog looks a sweetie too..your pig is just too much…ha..love him too! Enjoyed the horse and donkey…something very special about such creatures. The hens of the ladies league look like they are ready to run things themselves if need be. Donated ducks from a son’s friends..how nice…good thing they found a home. Goats are not easy creatures from what I’ve read about them but worth their weight in gold in story material! We had a mixed farm and I loved the animals and the lifestyle. My dad used horses to work the land from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.. One of my brothers loved it too and farmed with modern machinery but the other one couldn’t stand farming and was “bored stiff” and left for the big city life. My sister still lives on the farm and owns it now and my younger brother and myself get to visit there often. It is a blessing still.
Wisconsin was on our list of places to move the family. Brent, my husband, would LOVE it. I think the people of Wisconsin are very friendly. But for me personally, i’d have to learn how to deal with all that cold 🙂
I could do with a little less winter myself. Mostly you just put your head down, power through it and make sure you have some ‘inside’ hobbies. It does meet my criteria – it gets cold enough to kill the bugs over winter, not a fan of bugs!
Eli is known as a ‘clean head’, the majority of grifs are much woolier, he would have more whiskers but he allows Mac to nibble them off. We have been lucky with the goats, we had two other Nigerian Dwarfs besides Otis and none of them attempted to climb and the fainting goats are known for not climbing. I have been besotted with horses my whole life, one of my earliest memories is my uncle letting me ‘ride’ his work horse back to the barn. Isn’t it interesting how children raised in one family take such divergent paths? There is something about a farm that allows you a big exhale.
Now it’s near time for the afternoon feeding, soon they’ll all be clamoring again. I want to thank all of you for your kind comments and thank you, Celi, for letting me blather on. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
Thank you. 🙂
An Illinoian with family near the Twin Cities, I am often motoring through WI and love its rural beauty – and the Kettle Morraine area. It was nice meeting your family of critters, Sherry. We’re freezing here just outside of Chicago. Brrrrrr. 10 degrees and dropping.
Oh you must have had fun and laughter naming all the ‘critters’!! What a gorgeous menagerie 🙂 ! An urban gal I at the time I raised my children I thought I had my hands full with two pups, two tanks of fish, mice and birds: this would have been so much more satisfying!! Have to go back and say ‘hello’ again, but I think I left my attention with Eli – somehow feel we would ‘get along’!!
It was wonderful to meet you, and the farm crew. Seeing the snow and frosted animals made me think about what we’re missing at Miss C’s farm right now, so I appreciate some touching base here in the USA 🙂
You have found perfect retirement! What a wonderful assemblage you have. Thanks for sharing!
What a delightful post and person!