Comings and Goings

About a month ago, we had a very tumultuous week here at Ecotone. After a farm visit by one of our good friends, Cody Hopkins of Falling Sky Farm, we decided that if it did feel chaotic around the farm - and it did - then it was chaotic at the farm. Deciding to scale-back and focus our energies on laying hens and pigs, we found new homes for the 25 guineas, the 5 turkeys, the 3 geese, and of course, Billy. We put all these critters on Craigslist, and within a week they were all re-homed. Billy found a wonderful new home with the folks below, and is destined to be a 4H show goat for the young man below.

The turkeys went to a young family that recently moved from California to Tennessee due to the water situation there. The geese went to a couple in Cookeville, and the guineas went with a pair of sisters to Hendersonville.

Also during this week, we received the first of two shipments of this year's laying chicks. Unfortunately, the first box all arrived dead due to the cold. The next box, however, all arrived alive and well, as did the replacement shipment for the first. With this year's layers, we add five heritage or standard breeds that will produce several new colors of eggs. Jen and I have been spending a lot of time with them in the brooder, as there's nothing cuter than baby chicks! Below is a video of them in the brooder.

In what was perhaps the most difficult movement of life that week, Cloe was hit by a car on Harper Road late Friday night. The folks that hit her stopped by to tell us, as they live near by and had seen Cloe and Cletus playing the pasture. They had clearly been going very fast, as she was a good 10 feet from the road, as well as drinking. But our fences, ultimately, were the problem, and Jen and I spent the next few weekends learning how to put up barbed-wire fence and fixing the fences. Cloe was a wonderful companion, and a rascal of the highest order. She will be missed for a long time.

Finally, because Cletus was noticeably down during the weeks after Cloe's death, after we fixed the fence I began looking for a new companion for him. Thus, I'm pleased to introduce Daisy, who when we got her on March 15th was 7 weeks old. Like Cletus, she's a Great Pyrenees, and unlike Cloe, she's got a badger mask. Within a few days, Cletus was back to his old self, rolling in the grass with his new friend and acting like a puppy all over again. She's really a spunky pup, biting Ozark and Cletus' legs and making them have some fun in the spring sun!