JACK is a two month old Khatadin lamb
He arrived last night and took a bottle well and slept in a dog crate in Farmer Mary’s house. CHARLIE the farm dog is used to small animals in the house and they interacted well.
This morning the lamb followed Farmer Mary around the house, and later joined her, quite unexpectedly, in the bath!
After drying off JACK went outside to make new friends. He met the pigs.
He enjoyed a pineneedle snack. Charlie took him around to meet everyone.
He visited SNUFFLES, a bunny who was originally born at and then adopted from Winterpast and who is now staying at the farm for a week while her family is on vacation.
Farmer Mary tried to get JACK to take a bottle, but he preferred a nap in her lap. He likes rubbing on his face and head.
Come meet JACK soon!!
Late this afternoon OLIVIA enjoyed helping celebrate third birthday in Cary. The nice weather and gorgeous green grass made for fun afternoon.
HENRY the guinea pig was popular and the bunnies of all ages got alot of snuggle
Farmer Mary is happy to talk with you about bringing her friendly animals to your home, neighborhood, church, preschool……
Farmer Mary and friends of all ages enjoyed reading GREEN EGGS AND HAM together today. Young readers alternated pages and enjoyed it so much we went onto more Seuss books.
We will definitely plan more reading events at the farm!!
You guess….he is about two months old and he moves to Winterpast Farm this Sunday evening. Walks on a leash and still takes a bottle. He would love a snuggle with YOU!
In case you are wondering how Farmer Mary comes up with names for all the animals, this year is quite different. After the Newtown shooting Farmer Mary decided to name new babies after the children who lost their lives…children who aren’t able to enjoy trips to petting zoos or snuggles with baby bunnies. Hence OLIVIA the goat and now JACK (which also is the name of the son of the person who donated the lamb to Winterpast Farm)
You might wonder why would you need or want to catch a peacock? In this particular instance Farmer Mary wants to catch her young male peacock who has been freely roaming the farm since he hatched about three years ago. He is mature enough to “get married” and she would like to have him visit the peahens for a few weeks. This just happens to be the time of year that peacocks mate and lay eggs. That is why, when you visit Winterpast Farm, you may hear the males odd noise (some describe it as a dying cat sound)
Today Farmer Mary tried luring the male (named JUSTIN BEIBER) with scratch feed (a combination of corn and wheat grains) on top of the peacock pen where JOSEPH and RACHEL and SELENA live now.
No luck, but he wasn’t really hungry. Will continue then story tomorrow…..
UPDATE the next day
Had a chance to grab him this morning but would have had to drop eggs I had just gathered…next time I would choose to drop the eggs!
UPDATE the next day…SUCCESS!!!!
Early in the morning I tried to lure J.B. with food and came close to grabbing him. An hour or so later, CHESTER the goose grabbed the peacock and held on. I had never seen CHESTER even near the peacock ever. CHARLIE the farm dog joined in the chase and the goose let go, then J.B. unwisely wedged himself behind a fence where Farmer Mary and daughter, Elizabeth, could grab him. Next was getting JOSEPH the peacock out of the pen which was harder than we expected. A few really lovely tail feathers were lost in that process.
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JOSEPH has never been out of the pen in all the four or so years he has lived at the farm. JUSTIN has never been in a pen since he hatched here in an incubator three years ago. When we put JUSTIN in the pen the two peahens went right up to him, so we are hopeful for fertile eggs and babies this Spring.