Old MacDonald Had A Farm...

...and the Aardsma's have one, too! And a big one, at that. I know I've talked before about the animal side of our farm, in the early days of The Aardsma Weekly, but nearly all of the animals I mentioned in that article are dead and gone. All the old (and new) sheds and barns are occupied with a new generation of some new kinds of animals.

The two cows that live in the newly completed shed in the backyard are my favorite animals. Mac, the older Brown Swiss bull, who, I suppose, could still be classified as a calf, is big, a bully, and rude. The smaller one, Don, is shy, meek, and mild. (Any of you really intelligent readers will have figured out by now that Mac and Don were named after the MacDonald mentioned in the headline.) I enjoy perching on the gate to their pen and rubbing their thick necks, scratching their backs, and stroking their soft, soft coats. However, I never get to enjoy it for long because Mac starts chewing on my legs if I stick around long enough for him to get bored.

Our cows taking a nap...or trying to. Photo by me.

I don't like the muddy, squealing, selfish pigs that wallow around in a grassless pasture on the west side of our barn. Nobody likes the two pigs very much at all. So, the 'porkers' live a pretty peaceful life, "fattening themselves up for the freezer," as Mom likes to say.

We have about 27 turkeys that wander all over a fenced-off portion of the backyard. The ugly things spend their days eating, sleeping, taking dust baths, and fighting. I don't like them very much either. But they do make pretty good conversationalists. I'm not sure who started the rumor that all turkeys do is gobble. The fact is, they also squawk, hiss, cluck, and sing strange, high-pitched songs. Some of us have gotten pretty good at imitating the turkey's different calls, and sometimes I think there is a turkey in the house! As for myself, I have carried on quite a few conversations with one high-strung hen in particular. She always becomes very distressed after a few minutes of shared clucks and squawks, and she runs off to discover the unseen turkey that has been talking so eloquently with her.

I do like the chickens, but only because they provide delicious meat and eggs. We raise two kinds of chickens: egg-layers and meat chickens. Matthew has special pens for the meat chickens, which we get as yellow, fluffy chicks. The meat chicks spend the few short weeks of their lives getting fatter and fatter...until finally they are done up for the freezer to provide two or three meals a week for us. The egg-laying chickens live in a big pen with a long run. They give us about a dozen eggs a day. Some of the eggs we sell, but we eat or cook with most of them. The egg-layers are all hens, of course, but we do have three roosters that live with them. Those roosters are constantly trying to sort out who's boss. Every few hours we hear blood-curdling squalls coming from the chicken pen, but we don't really notice anymore. We only smile and say, "Just the roosters murdering each other."

The many sheep in the backyard hold some hilarious memories for some of us. The three ewes we have (Dolly, Polly, and Molly) each had twins this spring. The six lambs are now getting quite big. They aren't very friendly, but Beka has a special 'affection' for them. When they were born, she was present for two of the births. She also had the pleasure of helping one pair get starting nursing. Beka claims that her legs were sore for days from kneeling in the sheep pen, trying to get 'those dumb sheep to nurse!' She also says that her ears got blasted several times as the distraught mother made her presence loudly known, right in Beka's face.

"Hey, neighbor!" The ram and young bull checking each other out for the first time. Photo by me.

Without a doubt, the most beautiful part of our farm are the five homing pigeons Matthew recently acquired. They are gorgeous as they fly in a flash of colors around and around our property. The five live in converted rabbit-pens, under Timmy's watchful eye. I love to watch the pigeons fly, especially the single white one we have. He is very fast, and stands out among his blue friends. Matthew hopes to raise many young ones in the future!

Matthew also picked up a few rabbits a week or two ago. They are Californian rabbits, black and white. Personally, I don't think them all that interesting, but Matthew seems to. He plans to breed and sell them.

What is a farm without a dog? We don't think that a farm without a dog is anything. We have a faithful Shetland Sheepdog who does the honors of the place, barking at welcome people, chasing the cats, digging in the garden, and chewing on chicken bones! Despite his many faults, he is a very good, and pretty, dog. His name is Buddy, and he belongs to Matthew. He is absolutely devoted to his master, and goes crazy every time Matthew comes home. He sleeps on Matthew's bed (Beka won't even sit on that bed anymore), and generally plays "man's best friend" to his heart's content. But above all, he makes his rounds of the farm, keeps the sheep in order, and enjoys taunting the cows from the safety of the fence!

Faithful dog Buddy takes a quick break from his many pressing duties. Photo by me.

The Weekly Bible Verse

1 Corinthians 1:25: For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Bits and Pieces

We have started house construction again. This time, Dad and Beka are hard at work constructing our new porch. We are all excited to get a porch for the first time. (It's actually going to be more like a roof with poles until next summer when Dad will put the floor part on.) They will be moving from the porch to the roof shortly. Of course, along with construction comes stress, heat, work, and sweat. I am having fun (honestly) making two meals per day, doing three meals of dishes per day, doing laundry, and also keeping up with my school-work. I have found myself wondering over the past few days what I ever did with myself before school started! Now I work hard all morning to do the breakfast dishes and get lunch going, eat lunch, do the lunch dishes, and head to my room for a few hours of delightful peace. Well, as peaceful as learning about sets can be.

Beka working on the new porch. Photo by me.

September is finally here. It seemed like August was very long this year. And with September comes some slightly cooler weather, fall, the end of the garden year, school, jackets, and (yum!) hot chocolate in the morning.

A Word About The Weather

It has been actually very cool for half of this week, but now it is scorching again. We all thought fall was here, but I guess we were wrong! It WAS nice to have cold nights instead of hot ones for a while, but we'll live with a few more hot ones before fall REALLY gets here.

A Word Of Wisdom

If your parcel-man seems a little grouchy every now and again, take pity on him. If he's anything like our parcel-man, he goes through some pretty strange things. For example, our's recently had to climb up a wobbly ladder to the roof give Dad the computer pad to sign! Beka and Dad were working on the roof, and they couldn't exactly come down very fast! (And then he apologized for not being able to stay and help!)