Dropped off the grid for a bit this weekend. There was a scheduled power outage here for 12 hours last night, so I invited my buddy Tammy up and we stayed at Harry and Chatman’s farm. Here’s a pic of the living room with Walt, Harry, Chatman, Tammy, and about eight of the dogs and a couple of the cats (there were 12 dogs total there last night, and a half dozen indoor cats, as well as the 12 barn cats, three pigs, a dozen hens, three donkeys, Otis the bull, a goat and a couple sheep, and countless others I am forgetting):
They have a fully furnished efficiency+ apartment above the barn (with a picture window looking out onto the farm on one side and another picture window looking down inside the barn so you can see all the animals from your bedroom), and let me tell you, the rooster and the donkeys make quite the ruckus in the morning (not to mention the pigs), and man, I have to tell you, when Chatman came and fed the hens late this morning, they were mightily pissed and let him know it, clucking all over the place defiantly and one hen challenged him and gave off some aggressive “I’m not sure about this guy” calls.
And before anyone asks, none of the animals are ever used for food (‘cept the eggs). They are all rescues, and they don’t even sell the wool from the sheep, they just throw it in the yard for birds nests. And it is so funny watching a half dozen dogs lounging around in the barn with cats sleeping on them while hens walked around talking and eating. It’s like Doctor Doolittle’s wet dream. Oh, and Tammy watched a hen lay an egg and just couldn’t get over watching a hen squeeze one out and then we picked it and the others up and went in and had bacon and eggs. City people.
Oh, and I have been doing the “JUST HOLD DOWN ON THE BUTTON AND ONE OF 100 PICS WILL TURN OUT OK” thing with the iPhone 5s. Here are two new attempts:
It was nice being off the grid without internet and phone even though it was only for under 24 hours. Oh, and you should totally see Rosie on a farm- I think some more clues into her background were divulged today. She has always loved Chatman, but today, she followed Chatman all over the place while he did the morning feedings. Chatman said most dogs won’t go into the pens with him, but Rosie just stuck by him the whole time and totally acted like she had been around livestock her entire life, so there may be a chance she was from a farm before being dumped. She just followed him everywhere and had a good old time, and I actually stopped keeping an eye on her because she was just following the pack and Chatman.
I shouldn’t be surprised- she is a working dog. Russell, my parents former Jack Russell terrorist, was at his best when dad was out in the yard. He would spend all day “helping” him, never leaving his side and always willing to “help.”