Let me introduce you to my “family” starting with Steve, my wonderful husband, who has so much patience with me and all of my ideas, as well as my crazy schedule.  Although he cringes when he hears me say “I’ve been thinking”, because he knows that a lot work is in the near future, he is still willing to listen and help me. Whether it be massive amounts of landscaping, cleaning the garage, tiling the basement floor or building a new chicken coop he is always willing (mostly) to go boldly forward. His knowledge and skills are greatly appreciated and extensively used.

The rest of the “farm family” are of the non-human kind.  Inside is Mikey, our orange tabby cat and Tilley our dog. Mikey spends most of his time doing what cats are best at – sleeping in a spot of sunlight. Mikey, when not sleeping, occupies his time picking out the small screens (about 3 inches in diameter) in our floor heating/AC vents. We are currently missing at least ten of these grates – I have no idea where they could be and he certainly didn’t eat them. Oh well, he is such a loving and adorable little guy... he is forgiven. Tilley is of uncertain parentage and is an energetic sweetheart. She splits her time from trying to get Mikey to play with her; watching the birds, equines and other local wildlife; and sleeping. Ah, the life of a dog.

The outdoor farm members are: Cleatus, Jake, Buddy, Murphy, Sam, Wilson, Little Mag Pie (Maggie) and Rosie in order of age. Sam, Maggie and Rosie are all registered Quarter Horses ages 7, 3 and 2 respectively. Cleatus, Jake, Buddy, Murphy and Wilson are mules ages 13, 12, 10, 7 and 5 respectively. The answer to your question is that a mule is a hybrid animal whose father is a donkey (or Jack) and mother is a horse (Mare).  Murphy as a 6 month old showed up with his mother in our next door neighbor’s field. He was so cute that we couldn’t resist and that started our equine acquisition process as well as initiating the major overhaul of the shed that now is a 36’ x 24’ barn, not counting the front 8’ overhang to protect the stalls on the front and the 10’ deep equipment shed that was added to the back side of the barn which houses the workshop. Jake is our most recent addition and is a half-brother (same father) to Buddy and Murphy who are full brothers.

The last farm residents are “The Girls”, our flock of 8 chickens. When we bought our Clarke County, Virginia home, there were 3 resident chickens: Greta (Garbo), Marlena (Dietrich) and Ginger (Rogers) that conveyed with the property, along with their small chicken coop. Although they are no longer with us, we have continued to expand the flock to its current size. Of course we outgrew the small coop fairly quickly so we built a large, enclosed run and coop, using 1” poplar boards that we reclaimed from the original shed during the construction of the barn. It is large, airy and lots of space for the girls. Most every day we let the girls out to “free-range” to eat bugs and fresh grass and true to their nature, they come back to roost every evening.

Thanks for reading this issue. Check back periodically for more!