The Cottage at the End of the Pavement

Sep
25


Morgan describes our house as the cottage at the end of the pavement. She said that’s how she tells people how to get here. I found this description mildly entertaining, though I told her it might not help people. It is a little house, though I’m not sure it’s technically a cottage. But in any case, it’s the end of the pavement part that might throw people. (Though it would certainly cut short the lengthy directions I send people when I’m having a party.) I reminded her that while the hard road does end at our farm, our farm goes well past the house, and you can’t see the end of the pavement at the point where you reach our house. You have to keep driving on up the road, over the hill. By the time you reach the end of our farm, where the pavement actually ends and you realize that must have been the cottage back there, it’s not that easy to turn around.

We’ll see how many people she can direct here.

I finally got some pics of the other new little banties. Here’s the rooster:

And the little black hen:

You can see their size better in relation to the other chickens.

And here’s some of the rest of the passel at the end of the pavement. Glory Bee, looking big. (BP, lounging.)

Annabelle.

Nutmeggy.

Goat Burger, contemplative. “Why do they call me Goat Burger?”

The gang.

Mr. Pibb, Sprite in the background. (The Pibbster is in fine form. It’s breeding season. He was even sniffing Annabelle’s behind today.)

Fanta.

Mr. Jack.

Coco, working hard.

Chloe.

Chloe carries the best breeding of all my Pyrs–she has champion bloodlines. I keep telling her that we have high expectations! I hope she doesn’t feel too pressured! Smart kids are so much trouble!

Sweet, sugary Shortcake.

She’s been following me around–just out of reach–for peppermint treats I’ve been keeping in my pockets.

She’ll reach way, way for it if I hold my hand out to give her one.

She’s careful to maintain just enough space between us to run if I tried to do anything untoward, like put a halter on her. I haven’t been trying this past week. I’m just letting her follow me around and get peppermint treats IF she’s willing to stick her neck out and get one. I’ll get serious with her and try out some of the suggestions (thank you) from the comments on my post about her soon. Right now, I’m just trying to get back to a good starting point with her. I had her where she’d take peppermint treats from my hand before. Then I started putting a halter on her and she stopped coming up to me for treats. We’re going back to square one where I can at least get close to her before I try something else.

I walked around the other side of the barn and went way out in the field to find Jack and Poky, and guess who watched me the whole time all the way from the back barnyard?

She’s always watching me.

I’m not sure if she’s just extraordinarily paranoid about me or if….

…she secretly likes me.





Comments

  1. UlrikeDG says:

    Morgan, just paint a sign that says, “The Cottage at the End of the Pavement” in fancy letters. That’ll show your mom! 😆

  2. steakandeggs says:

    I just love your farm and all the pretty pictures of your animals. Thank you for taking the time to show us. I think maybe you have found Shortcake’s weakness. :heart:

    I will be glad when your book comes out, and I am looking forward to reading it.

  3. Country Blossom says:

    Shortcake likes you. Tho she is still guarding her heart, hoping she can trust you. She will come to the bright side soon. You are doing good! :snoopy:

  4. fowlers says:

    Awe,,,everything looks so pretty and green:::: I love looking at your photo’s::: keep em comin! Make Shortcake some pepermint flavored cookies:::

  5. Miss Judy says:

    I am not saying anything the least bit bad about Coco or Gwen ( is that right? I can’t keep up with all of the names of the new people on your farm) but…Chloe is very pretty.

  6. ibpallets (Sharon B.) says:

    Shortcake is a sweetheart, she was so patient at your farm party. She’s just making sure she has a forever home before she gives her heart to you completely! 😀

  7. yvonnem says:

    Suzanne, Are you going to breed Chloe? I know you alway have all of your dogs and cats spayed/neutered, which is good, but I see potential in her, she is gorgeous, and you haven’t mentioned having her spayed. $$$

    • Suzanne McMinn says:

      Yvonne, no, I won’t be breeding Chloe. An unspayed female dog doesn’t make a good livestock guardian dog as they attract other dogs from far and wide to the farm. There are more than enough qualified people breeding Pyrs.

      If anyone is interested in a Pyr with Chloe’s breeding and conformation, which is a very fine show background, you can find the breeder here (link below) and they do ship dogs if you’re not close enough to pick a dog up. Chloe was placed as a family/livestock guardian (and I’ve gone on to train her specifically as a livestock guardian partnered with Coco), but they do offer puppies for show also of course, and for companion/pet, chosen based on their characteristics at 8 weeks of age. (Registrations offered with the puppies depend on whether they are for show/breeding, companion/pet, or for family/livestock guardianship.)
      https://www.maplewaykennel.com/pyrpups.htm

      If you scroll down, the puppies shown on that page include Chloe, who was Girl 4 “Autumn” as a puppy. I’m sure they have more puppies by now and there’s an email link at the top right on that page.

  8. wormlady says:

    We wondered about the banties. They are so petite! Are you going to put up a picture of your feeder with the metal roof? We left the party before I pointed it out to my husband. I need one of those, but I’m not the builder, and my sketches never make sense to him.
    Next topic: Not that you need it, but I do look forward to your posts, so want to share with others, so I’m passing on the lovely blog award to you. Details: https://dandeliondairy.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/an-award-for-me/

  9. The High Altitude Tea Duchess says:

    Hello! I was wondering what kind of camera you use and if it comes with a zoom/telephoto lens? Would love some close ups of the chickens.

  10. SwissMiss says:

    I think Shortcake likes you, doesn’t totally trust you yet, but likes you and those peppermint treats. The pictures of her and Zip show horses that are interested in what you are doing and relaxed body language. Shortcake has such an expressive face. It will just take time for her to be catchable. Is there a reason why you don’t leave halters on the horses? Our horse almost always had a halter on in the pasture. She could be a pill to catch but as soon as you touched the halter she was fine. Shortcake might have always been difficult to catch, but I bet someone decided to “discipline” the reluctance out of her and made matters much worse.
    Also have you ever used a drag in your pastures? It would help break down the piles of poo so they would seep back into the soil faster. All it takes to make a drag is a piece of chain link fence or hog panel, a chain to pull it with the tractor and maybe some wood/boards/rocks to weight it and/or keep it from curling. This would also help with fly control next year. An old harrow would work too.
    The boys and I saw someone walking a Great Pyr last night and he was huge. I’m guessing it was a he based on the height of the dog against the people, This one looked to be pure white and definitely would be a house dog in that area.

    Jeanne

    • Suzanne McMinn says:

      SwissMiss, any time I’ve left a halter on in photos for more than 5 minutes, people seem to have a fit…. I think there’s a lot of concern about horses getting hung up on them in various ways. I do leave halters on my cows, and always have, but not the horses. If I started leaving halters on the horses, I’d probably never hear the end of it!

  11. SwissMiss says:

    LOL well I can understand not wanting to go through that. Our farm was just the opposite, the horse always wore the halter and the cows didn’t. The only halters were on the show stock and sick ones in the barn. The cows wore neck chains with numbers but I don’t remember any deaths due to neck chains. I think my horse wore a halter for 26 of her 27 years of life. Her only serious injuries came from being chased through the woven wire fence and a barb wire fence by a pack of feral dogs. Oh and one time getting a little too bossy to the boss cow who had horns and knew how to use them to put upstart young horses in their place.

    Jeanne

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