ILLOTF: Sex Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Sex Edition] [Yes, the sex edition.] [Find a tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.] [Find the Fishing and Canoeing Edition here.] [Find the Food Edition here.]

Warning: this blog is about to get X-rated.

Remember back in the Barn Animals Edition when I was out in the pasture feeding the alpacas and I said we'd revisit that in another post? Well, this is that post.

So, there I was, just feeding the alpacas,

when this alpaca decided to climb up on top of one of her buddies.

"She must be really hungry," I thought.

And so I just kept right on feeding them.

Then I started hearing the alpaca making some weird sounds, which I later learned was "orgling," basically a mating call and what gets things going, if you will.

I was a little shocked at the lack of modesty with these alpacas. I mean, we just met!

Before I knew it, another alpaca had gotten down on the ground and it had a buddy climbing on top.

"Please tell me you're getting this on camera."

"Is this really happening? This isn't normal is it? Does anybody else see this?"

And they just kept on doing it.  No matter how many times I laughed or turned away or said "seriously?" the orgling would not stop.

So, you know what they say....if you can't beat 'em, feed 'em?

Some things just make you work up an appetite.

Have you ever been photobombed by frisky alpacas? Doc has.  Please note that the alpaca he's trying to take a picture with below is being mounted by another orgling alpaca.

So it's safe to say that no matter the time or place, alpacas like to do it.

But, you know what? Ducks like to do it, too.

ILLOTF: Food Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Food Edition] [Find a tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.] [Find the Fishing and Canoeing Edition here.]

This food post is presented to you with limited commentary.

Farm-grown strawberries:

Huevos Rancheros (Mexican for breakfast? Yes.)

Eggs from the farm:

Wonderful cooks:

McDonald's, pay attention. This is what an egg mcmuffin should look like.

None for me:

My personal bartenders:

My first fig. Sweet.

Toppings:

Gourmet pizza:

Cook time: four minutes.

To melt the cheese:

That's all of my pictures, but only half the food eaten.

To sum it all up? I'm ready for seconds.

ILLOTF: Fishing & Canoeing Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Fishing and Canoeing Edition] [Find the tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.]

During our driving tour of the grounds on Friday, we stopped at a river bank to check out the water.  It was so peaceful there, with the sound of rushing water in the distance and birds flying and the occasional fish making bubbles in the water.

Hold that camera tight!

Jack told more stories about how he originally wanted to build the farm house where they'd have a view of the water.

We took a few pretty-background pictures before heading back to the house for the pool table delivery.

We decided to come back after lunch to try to catch some of those fish we kept hearing.  Chris got the rods set up for us.

And then Chris, Doc, and Allison waded out in the water to have a go at catching fish.  I sat on the bank and took pictures.

Things were kinda slow going.

At least I had entertainment on the bank with me.

Finally, after not much happening at all, Doc reeled in a fish! A tiny one, but a fish nonetheless.

Satisfied, we called it a day with the fishing.

Saturday, the plan was to get up and head out canoeing around 9:00 or 9:30.  Around 1:00, we finally made it to the load-in area of the river.  That's one of the things I love about the farm - there's really no reason to hurry.

The guys carried the canoes out to the water and got us all loaded up.  Jack made sure we had everything and sent us on our way.

We put all the manpower in the back of our canoe.

And I just enjoyed the ride up front.

Allison rode up front in the other canoe.

Chris did all the paddling in the back.

We quickly canoed to an area deep enough for fishing.  We hadn't even had our poles in the water for five minutes before Doc reeled this in!

And then about two minutes later he had another one, and it was big! Why do fish like him so much?

I demanded that he hand me the pole so I could get in on the action.  It was super exciting when I hooked my first fish! It tugged and I reeled and it swam and I pulled and I finally got it up to the boat so Doc could pull it up.  It was pretty big! And my first caught fish in my adult life.  Doc took it off the hook for me, and just as I was getting my camera ready so he could hand the fish over for a picture, the little sucker bit him and hopped back in the water.  Darn.  Lesson learned: always hold your fish over the boat, not over the water.

We stopped down the way to get out and do some fishing.  Chris taught Doc how to use his fly rod.  That's pretty fun to watch.  Of course, with Doc having the magic touch that day, he had a fish on that rod in no time.

Doc wasn't the only one catching fish, Chris had several too.  I guess it's not as exciting for him, though, since he fishes all the time.  He kept throwing them back in the water before I could get a picture.  Allison managed to get a photo of one of his catches.

We moved on along the river.  This was my view from the front seat...so pretty!

Chris and Allison sailed ahead of us while we hung back to do more fishing.  At this point, I was determined to get my picture taken with a fish. Doc kept offering to let me hold one of his for a picture but no, that was not going to do.  I would catch my own fish and I would get a picture with it, dang it.

I finally caught another one.  Reeled it in from far away and just as I pulled it out of the water it jumped off my line. 

Rinse and repeat.  The next fish I caught did the same darn thing. 

Doc told me I needed to pull hard when I felt a nibble so that I'd hook the fish really good.  Oh, it was on.  We were in the last bend of the river before getting out when I felt my nibble.  I yanked my pole back HARD!  Got 'em!

I was excited.  Such a thrill.  I could get into this fishing thing, but only if it's guaranteed that I'll always catch something.

You want to know the coolest part about my fish? As I handed him over to Doc to unhook him, we saw that he didn't even bite my hook. I hooked him through the nose!  The hook wasn't in his mouth at all.  Oops.  The absence of the hook in his mouth did not mean his mouth was empty.  As Doc laid him in the boat to grab some pliers, the fish coughed up another fish that he had in his mouth!  Oh yea, my fish counted as two!

It was ok for us to end our canoe trip then.  I was happy.

ILLOTF: Chicken Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Chicken Edition] [Find the tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.]

In addition to the cows, llamas, and alpacas on the farm, there are also chickens.  Eight of them to be exact.

They lay eggs all day long.  In fact, it's the sunlight that makes them lay eggs. That's why lots of chicken houses keep the lights on all night long, so they can mass produce lay eggs.  But not at this farm.  These chickens only lay eggs during real sunlight hours, and they get to sleep during the night.

This is Sheryl Crow. He's a rooster. Yes, he.  That's not a typo - at this farm, Sheryl Crow is a male.  (Are all roosters male? Wait, don't answer that.)

I don't think Jack and Jan meant to buy a rooster.  They thought he was another chicken, but turns out he wasn't.  The funny thing about Sheryl is that he sounds like he's still working on perfecting his cockadoodledo.  Because practice makes perfect, he doesn't just crow in the early morning like most roosters, he crows any time the mood strikes him.  And it strikes him about ever 15 seconds. But it's kinda the funniest cockadoodledo ever.

You can see him crowing here.

Saturday Jan let us go with her to feed Sheryl and his chickens and to check their house for new eggs.  She threw down the bag of food she'd been collecting and they came and gobbled it up.

While they pigged out, we snuck in to take their eggs.  Here's a picture of Doc with their house so you can get a feel for the size of it.

Allison and I went in first; it was like a grown-up Easter egg hunt!

Found one!

Their nests in the house are set up like bunk beds.  Can you see the other egg we found over to the far left?

We searched all over but only found those two eggs.  We were still proud of them. Look at their pretty blue and green colors!

Doc wanted to check out the inside so we sent him in while we admired our eggs.  Good luck, we told him.

And whattaya know, he stepped out with three more eggs! Show off.

According to Jan, after the chickens lay an egg, they sing a little "I just laid an egg" song.  Actually, I know it's true because she showed us a video of it, and its pretty hysterical.  Between Sheryl crowing all the time and the chickens bragging about laying eggs, the chicken pen can be pretty entertaining! Who knew?

There are ducks, too.  Did I already mention that? In with the chicken are a handful of pretty ducks - mallards, maybe?

Some of them know how to fly, but so far, they seem just fine staying put at the farm.  They have no desire to fly south or anywhere else.

The sunlight here is long gone so, like the chickens, I'm going to rest.  We'll have another edition tomorrow.  Goodnight!

ILLOTF: Caves and Cows Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Caves and Cows Edition] [Find the tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.]

Three posts in one day...can you tell I'm not motivated to work today??

In my tour of the grounds, I completely failed to mention one of the coolest parts of the property - this cave.

I think there may be others on the property, but this one's the biggest.

Jack told us about how it's always wet from the water that runs through the ground to it.

Doc helped me climb up on one of the ridges for a photo-op.

And I also found a wooly worm! I don't think I've held one of these since I was little.

The wooly worm wasn't the only thing living in the cave, there were also some teeny tiny frogs. Can you see one in this picture?

Me and Allison:

The cave was pretty cool.  It's near the river that runs through the property and Jack said before they put up the fence, a lot of people would get out of their boats and come explore it, looking for arrow heads.

That sums up the caves, now let's talk cows.  During our driving tour, we saw lots of 'em.

I feel like that cow pictured above is thinking, "what in the heck are you people looking at?"

These cows are all grass-fed so they're much healthier angus beef.  No corn or chemicals or antibiotics are used to fatten them up.  And you can see in the picture above that they all have a tag on their ear so they can be identified.

Bright and early Saturday morning, Doc, Chris, and I got out and about to see what was going on around the farm.  We ran into a large herd of cows hanging out by the water, and we decided to get out of the ranger and see if we could get close.

They looked at us like we were crazy when we got out, and we probably were.

But then I think they thought maybe we were going to feed them, and all of a sudden, there were lots of them staring at us!

We inched closer and they did too.  No zoom on this picture - this is how close we were!

And then someone made a quick movement and they all took off away from us.

Once they saw that nothing had happened, they started inching back towards us again.

The ones in the back would push the ones in the front closer to us.

So there the three of us were, lined up staring at them lined up staring back at us.  It looked like we were about to play a game of Red Rover, and guys, I don't think we would've won!

Red rover, red rover, DON't send 42A right over.

Doc picked some grass in an effort to get them even closer.  One cow was really staring him down.

But another fast move was made and they took off running again.  Oh well.

The main reason we had headed out early was to go to this meadow to look for deer. Chris had seen lots of them earlier in the morning, but by the time he brought us back, they were gone.

The meadow was really pretty, but I've gotta say, walking around that tall grass and thicket in a pair of heavy boots gave me a workout! I definitely broke a sweat.

When we gave up and decided to leave the meadow, Chris let me drive the ranger. It is awesome!! Way better than a golf cart - it goes much faster and can drive over anything.  You can see in this picture that I'm about to drive through a shallow part of the river.

When we came to another pasture, we finally saw a deer! It darted out in the open grass about a football field's length away from us.  Chris told us to wait there and he'd see if he could scare some more deer out of the trees. 

Can you see him in the picture above? He's the black dot on top of the hill.  I kept my camera ready and my eyes focused on the trees in case we saw another one.

And finally, we did! Can you see it?

Here's a hint in case you can't find the little deer.

Obviously in my excitement I didn't do a very good job of zooming or focusing or anything crazy like that. 

Now I've shown you alpacas, llamas, dogs, wooly worms, frogs, cows, and a deer. Up next: chickens.