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We are working on an entire make-over as far as all of our fencing goes. The chicken enclosure was set up with recycling material last year (not in a good way) and the geese who had to spend some time in there this winter (because they would go for a walk in the village otherwise) did some damage. The actual goose enclosure was set up with the wrong fence as the geese - as huge as they are - managed to squeeze through the holes. Therefore, everything will be newly structured. One part of the old chicken enclosure will be redone and then used by our five dwarf chickens when they are old enough to be outside, the other part will be expanded to a huge chicken and goose enclosure which will include a sand box for the chickens and a little pool for the geese. The former goose enclosure will be used for our sheep when they are not running around on the pony fields. And the entire field will be fenced in as well, so that our dog Leia cannot run away anymore and the geese do not get too far in case they try to escape on their nightly walk into the barn. Well, this will be a lot work, but it has to be finished by the middle of April when Andrea starts her stage direction internship at the Schlosstheatre in Celle.
Mirco now has six ponies on his Pony Farm. Since Kim has to semi-retire, Mirco is in need of at least one more pony. Today, Carissa and Garfield moved in. They come from the same place as two other of Mirco's ponies: Wursti and Prince. It was a very windy and cold day, but the two ponies got integrated peacefully. They are still kept outside the barn by the other ponies for most of the time though.
Only five days after Schnucki had her first lamb, Wilma had hers. It really surprised us as there were signs only briefly before Wilma went into labor around 1:30pm. Although we considered ourselves kind of experienced now after being there for Schnucki five days ago, things were a lot more difficult and scary this time. Wilma had a very hard time during labor, although her lamb was much smaller than Schnucki's. In fact, it was so small and fragile that we were very afraid of how things would turn out. It didn't get up nearly as quickly as Schucki's lamb and it took almost two hours before the first sucking attempts were made - which didn't work. We were very concerned as the first five to six hours are very important. After those hours, the milk doesn't provide the necessary "ingredients" for the newborn anymore. It was also a very cold day and the little one was shivering a lot despite the two heat lamps. The vet came over and was optimistic though. We took his advice and kept trying to get the lamb to drink. Wyman even had to milk Wilma and fed her lamb with one of Glenny's former bottles. By the end of the day, the first successful yet Brief sucking attempts were made. We were still very concerned the next few days until the Little girl seemed to have been out of the weather. We are also collecting name suggestions for her. All of our animals can be sponsored. Our sheep can each be sponsored for 3€/3.50USD per month. Here is the PayPal link. Sponsors are listed on our website next to a photo of the sponsored animal - unless this is not wanted. February 6th, 2018 was also a very sad day. One life began, another one ended. When we wanted to close in the chickens for the night, we noticed that two chickens were missing: Bertha and Henrietta. We finally found Bertha who was walking around our property, kind of being lost. But we couldn't find Henrietta. Wyman joked that it was hard to find a white chicken in the snow. Andrea then looked at Henrietta's favorite spot, the manure pile. And there she was, dead with bleeding wounds. It must have been the fox. We later heard that foxes are now also hunting much earlier during the day as they are hungry during these cold days. We felt so guilty that we didn't keep Henrietta safe and decided that from now on the chickens' freedom had to be limited. We moved them to a provisional home inside the barn with a very small enclosure attached until the new big one is finished. Today we wanted to introduce all our chickens to Johnny, their first rooster. We had to postpone this. May Henrietta rest in peace. Just a day before we had also lost our dwarf hamster Pino. Both Henrietta and Pino were buried a few days later.
The first baby on our Pony Farm was born on February 1st, 2018! Our sheep Schnucki had her first baby lamb. Around 6pm, Andrea said that the lamb might be coming soon ("soon" meant within a few days), but only 5 hours later Schnucki went into labor. Her "little" boy was born at 11:33pm, the labor only lasted about 30 minutes. We were very excited and a little scared when everything started (to say the least), but were so happy when things turned out fine. The vet came the next morning to check on Mama and child and said that the lamb was not only a boy, but a big boy (Jolson fans will get this). Very soon he will be named, we are collecting suggestions from the horse riding kiddies.
All of our animals can be sponsored. Each of our sheep can be sponsored for 3€/3.50USD per month. Here is the PayPal link. |
Author: Andrea
Mother, filmmaker, translator, editor. Archives
December 2019
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