Somebody's Watching Me .....

Do you ever feel like you're being followed, so you turn around to see who's there?  She definitely did not like the flash and backed right out of the chute!

Just Returned ..........

We're back from a trip to Columbia, MO for a wedding ........ we don't travel much for long periods of time since we have to get someone to take care of the animals.  Thanks to one of our good friends for handling feeding duties twice a day while we were gone.  Columbia is a typical college town, complete with interesting bumper stickers and dreadlocks(looks like a lot of effort goes into these).   Both pics were snapped at the Columbia Farmers' Market.

The University of Missouri campus is just beautiful & so was the weather.  

Then it was off to the State Capitol in Jefferson City on the way home.  Here's a detail shot of the art & architecture in the capitol building. 

 

At 10am on Sunday morning, we ended up getting a private tour of the building including the House Lounge & the now famous/formerly infamous Thomas Hart Benson "Social History of Missouri" mural. 

We had a great trip and now it's good to be back home ........ always lots to do here! 

Look Who's Here!

Introducing Glenda, our new donkey!  We have been waiting for Glenda to be ready after we picked her out.  She is taking the place of Claire as our flock guardian.  Our friend & breeder stands behind her donkeys with a guarantee.  Not all guard animals, be they dogs, llamas, donkeys, or mules are suited to all species or situations in which they are placed.  While conditioned to all types of animals such as cattle, sheep & lambs, goats & kids, chickens, guineas, alpacas, etc., sometimes a particular "match" doesn't work out.  Guard animals have been known to take a dislike to certain indivduals &/or certain colors of animals or even ignore the animals that they are supposed to watch over.  Long story short, is that the beautiful chocolate Claire returned to "donkey valley" and will be working as a breeding jenny.  She has an excellent temperment and should be a great mother.
Meanwhile, Glenda will be learning her way around Wild Rose Farm.  After she arrived and was unloaded, she went straight down the aisleway to join her new sheepy charges.

A Ram By Any Other Name .....

Guess who did this damage at Wild Rose Farm?  Of course, it was the ram.  This was the second time in 3 weeks that he broke a fence board around his pen.  This time he broke 2 different boards, so it was time for an intervention of sorts.

Here is the repair underway. The board at "ramming height" has been replaced by a triple layer of lumber all the way around the pen. Actually, this isn't the first ram to break boards ..... they seem to pick a spot in between posts where the boards have some "give". Then they just worry that spot until it breaks. We had the spare lumber available after tearing out a retaining wall, so there really wasn't any expense involved. To be fair, fall is coming & with the shortening days, it's time for sheep breeding season to start. During the repair operation, the ram stood in the paddock and gazed wistfully down at the ewes!

All Faired Out!?!

The fair season is winding down now & we're into typical September weather.  The clouds were fluffy and the wind was blowing on Saturday morning when we got to Canfield.  Our first stop was the Jersey & Guernsey dairy cattle show where we got out of the wind for a while. 

I just love the "colored breeds" of dairy cows.  Looks like the Guernsey breeders are having fun with the judge .......
Speaking of judging, we talked about "reasons" in the blurb about the market hog about a week ago.  Here is the scorecard from the hay & grain judge for the Grand Champion Hay.  I would guess that 100 is perfect in this particular scorecard  ...... it sure looked tasty!

I suspect that Wild Rose Farm was one very few people snapping pictures of champion hay, but we had to get in line to wait for the next picture.  This is the 2010 Canfield Fair Grand Champion Squash!  Can you imagine loading this one up for the journey to the fair?  Wow.  Those world champion growers keep pushing the limits. 

On our way out of the fair, we passed this colorful exhibit near the old fashioned steam engine displays ....

So, another year, and another Canfield Fair is almost over.  After traipsing around all day enjoying the food and exhibits, we felt a little like these sheep.  I bet it's their last fair of the season too! 

Seen @ Big Knob Grange Fair

A TRUE FAIR CLASSIC !!!!!

Look at the shine on that Caddy ....

Country Commentary - It Speaks For Itself !!!

Dear Wild Rose Farm followers ........ it's off to the Canfield Fair on Saturday, so stay tuned.  What will we find to share with you next time???

One Busy Dog!

This is Squeak ...... Squeak belongs to our friend shown here helping us load some of his nice 2nd cutting hay onto our trailer. 

She is an Australian Cattle Dog or what is commonly called a "Blue Heeler".  She is 2 years old and what a bundle of energy she is ...... She lives on a farm and has cattle to herd, but she also loves to play games.  Apparently she is a groundhog killing machine, which is a good thing on a farm.  Ground hog holes can cause horses & cattle to break their legs if they step into them.  The other Blue Heeler on this farm, Zippy, is a "retired" red colored dog ..... in her prime, she used to lurk near the cattle at feeding time and snap starlings out of the air!

Anyway, here's Squeak worrying a tire swing for fun ....... just jumping all over it.  This is the best picture we got ..... even the sport setting didn't seem to be fast enough.

Next she furiously barks and chases a bowling ball all over the driveway.  The fingerholes are stuffed with corncobs to prevent her from getting a grip on it with her teeth.  Another favorite game?  Chasing a Kong Toy whipped into the fields off the end of a pool cue for leverage.  She usually catches it in the air on the 1st bounce and runs back with it for more.  Who needs TV when you've got this kind of entertainment?
Green Acres is the place to be .............  :)