Farmer Mary’s internet and phone are both a bit funny right now.  Will let you know if the number changes-hopefully to be resolved this week!

While buying fencing for a friend I was offered the opportunity to adopt two former show geese because their owner was moving to Florida.  Doris is a Toulouse  and Chester is an African Brown. Both are 11 years old and very friendly. They eat dry dog food and Chester enjoys announcing the arrival of anyone in the driveway.  Come see them soon!

In the photo, thanks to my neighbor, Anna Martin, for the photograph while my camera is lost, Doris is to the left.

Daisy, a mix of Saanan and Alpine goat breeds, loves to be walked on a leash, hand fed, loves to nurse from her foster mom, Hannah Montana, and generally thinks she’s another dog at the farm…she almost jumped into a birthday cake lately so she may be heading to housing at the barn with the other livestock soon.  She has a cute new little  house she sleeps in.  In this photo she is wearing a bandana left over from a birthday party at the farm.

Bunny Ruby snuck out of her cage and honeymooned with Ralph, the Angora, and they proudly announce the birth of their five babies.  At 16 days old they have upright ears and lots of fur, finally, after having looked like hairless rats.  They look like teeny tiny bunnies now, with eyes open.

Here they are at 5 days old. Here is one at two weeks old. These five are available, eventually, for adoption.

After losing many of my adult ducks to a fox my remaining brown Runner Duck Mom settled into marriage with a black and white breed unknown. She has been setting on eggs in a doghouse in the chicken pen, and hatched 12 babies two days ago who are tall and skinny like Mom, and black and white like Dad. Today they are out in the yard with Mom in front of the line and Dad in the back keeping an eye out.  Here’s a photo with Mom at two days old.

Meanwhile, I thought the fox had eaten my last remaining white female Muscovy (heavy meat duck with bright red caruncles on their face) but she was nesting on 21 eggs in my wellhouse.  Snuggled down in insulation she would come and go via. warped plywood lid…after 28 days she hatched 19 beautiful babies last week and all are doing well.

Here they are with Mom, at one day old.

Meanwhile, inside, Farmer Mary’s incubator held peacock and guinea eggs…so far five guineas and one peacock have hatched.  Here is a photo of two adult male guineas at the farm. I am hoping to hatch some females.

Here is the baby peacock at about 10 minutes old.

He’s dried off and fluffy now and staying inside at 99degrees for a week or two.

Meanwhile our new peacocks, Joseph and his wife Rachel are enjoying life at the farm. Lucky visitors get a chanced to see Josph’s gorgeous tail feathers.

Another photo by my neighbor, Anna.

Bring your holiday visitors to Winterpast Farm. Get out of the house and hike in the woods, toss some wood in the whole house woodstove, meet the new donkey and new ducks. WEAR BOOTS!

Farmer Mary is particularly enjoying a nice two week break from Middle School Math!  Her kids are busy chopping wood for the whole house woodstove.  If you have extra energy, a chainsaw or axe or spare firewood, come join us!

Grandma Dot bought Farmer Mary a baby (7 months) miniature donkey for Christmas.  He came today, a bit early so we can take him along with other animals to the Living Nativity at our church (Crossroads Fellowship in Raleigh) next Wednesday.

Here’s a photo of “Barnabas” settling in.  A neighbor came to see him and she was working on a “12 Days of Christmas” photo session for her blog; hence the Santa hat on Barnabas.  We found lots of animals to put the Santa hat on here at the farm!

Come visit Barnabas soon. He likes to be brushed and soon, I hope, will like to be led around the farm.

My neighbor has software that adds a Santa Hat and red nose to any photo-check out what she did with Lucky the Llama!

My bedroom is upstairs in an old farmhouse dating from the 1730’s. It’s under the attic eaves, uninsulated (except at night by a Great Dane called Bentley!) and the window by my bed won’t close completely. That window overlooks a new chicken and duck enclosure which is mostly a good thing. If I hear a chicken or duck commotion in the early hours it means a racoon is visiting and I can run outside, usually in time to head off trouble.

Most mornings I awaken to the sound of “Bob”, a huge Barred Rock (that’s a breed with little  black and white sort of squares all over) crowing in the crepe myrtle under my bedroom window.  That’s around 5:30 or 6 which is right when I need to get up anyway.

This morning I woke to a new sound.  I lay in bed analyzing it…I was happy when I quickly realized that it wasn’t an animal in pain so I knew I didn’t have to get up, find my flashlight and run out in the rain.  It didn’t sound like a car-Ghoston Road is notorious for car wrecks on rainy nights and the farm is right on a curve that late night drivers often miss especially if they see a deer.  It was a repetitive noise…sort of like a old metal sign twisting in the wind at an old abandoned gas station somewhere…an image from an old movie I’ve seen I guess.

The odd noise went on and on and I finally figured out the source-several of my hens have hatched a brood lately and the chicks are turning into teens and several are young roosters I”ll be needing to rehome.  It was the young roosters deciding to get a jump on Bob by crowing early.  This went on for about 10 minutes, along with the sound of the rain.  Then Bob cut in and the youngsters stopped.  I’d love to know if he elbowed them aside, saying “step aside boys, this is my job”…but chickens don’t have elbows.

Rain again this morning….I try really hard to envision lush pasture (meaning less expensive hay to buy) and Spring flowers but all  I see is mud mud mud everywhere I look. Poor Nelson, the pony, looks at me sadly every time he leaves the barn to slosh his way across the barnyard.

The ducks are happy as they can be with all this rain. I have three breeds of ducks now-Indian Runner, Muscovy, and Mallard. They eat all the grass seed I keep putting out and they pick all the grass out by the root. The mallards fly at about 5 feet across the yard now and then and the Indian Runners try to emulate, but they aren’t built for flying.  The Muscovy who are very heavy looking occasionally surprise me by being up on the roof of the house or on top of the duck pen.

I have one little week old chick in the house under lights. His Mother hen got eaten the very night he was hatching outside and luckily I was checking on the nest (she had taken over half the duck house to sit on a variety of duck and chicken eggs).  I brought him, half hatched and the other eggs inside to the incubator which I quickly set up to get him warm.  Two of the duck eggs looked good (I can look inside with a very strong light called a “candler” in a dark room and see the baby animal moving inside) but very sadly the incubator decided to stop working one night after this one hatched so he’s a single and a bit lonely.  He’s living in an aquarium at present on the dining room table and the dogs circle round all day.  They’d love to “meet” him if you know what I mean.

If anyone has a spare incubator I’d love to borrow it now that mine isn’t working.

On another note, I’m considering buying a darling miniature donkey that is available in Oxford.  This would be perfect for the “living Nativity” I do each year at our church. I am also looking at a Dad sheep since Sophie Brown, my Katahdin sheep is lonesome…I am wondering if anyone would sponsor one for naming and visiting privileges.

Update a week later-photo of the little chick outside for the first time. He’s still mostly inside, but came out for a photo shoot with Santa.

When I heard about the Grand Opening for a new Farmer’s Market  in Falls Village just off Durant Road this past Saturday I thought I’d check it out. I took along “Billy Jean” my 6 month old goat and she was a huge hit. The place was packed with people of all ages buying from a wide variety of booths -fresh flowers, worm composters, shrimp, homemade soap…It turned out to be a great place for me to hand out business cards for farm visits and group farm tours.

Go to http://www.northraleighfarmersmarket.com/market-snapshots.html to see photos of the grand opening including two of Billy Jean.  The market is open Saturdays from 8-12 in the morning and Wednesdays from 4-7 in the evening. Steve Elliot, the person in charge of the market has already requested a return visit so we will be there whenever we can.  We hope to see all of you there!

The Wake Forest Post Office called at 6a.m. yesterday morning to let me know my Indian Runner ducklings had arrived.  They were sent from MurrayMcMurray Hatchery in Iowa in a box.  The Post Office loves to get these very loud chicks out of their office as soon as possible!Right before chicks (chickens or ducks) hatch they pull the yolk up into their bodies and they can live on that for several days.  Here’s how the 10 new Runner Ducks looked on arrival. They are all healthy and I hope they’ll all survive.  Shipping stresses the chicks considerably, but they’re all eating and drinking water. 

Two of my older ducklings were taken out of an outdoor pen in the middle of the afternoon by a hawk the day before these arrived.  I have learned the hard way that  I need to put a roof over my duck pen.My camera is  having blurry issues but here are the ducklings settled into a new home. I put my one remaining older duckling with them for a while today and they all got along very well. Perhaps she’ll be the nanny.

UPDATE MAY 5

The older duck has taken to the “nanny” role perfectly and the ducklings are doing great.

My good friend Michelle Tilley and I participate annually in the Wakefield Middle School Career Fair…we’re a popular selection for middle schoolers who love animals…this year on Friday, April 3 it was rainy which limited us to indoors, but we had a wide selection ranging from an African Frog to a newborn baby chick. I took the incubator, very carefully, along and we watched one newborn chick who had hatched around 6am.  Several more chicks started  to peck through…but most of the chicks waited til I got back to the farm.

Later on that day one hatched in a visitor’s hand which was very exciting. 

Elizabeth and Alex will start at Wakefield Middle next year. They are tracked out from Pleasant Union Elementary this week so they came along to help.I’m happy to bring animals to classrooms…just ask.