Chip is Mocha’s daughter, and she got her name (from the kids, of course) because of her “chocolate chips” on her white body. You can read the story of Mocha and Chip on Mocha’s page here.
Category: Animals
Mocha the Donkey
This is Mocha, our female Jerusalem donkey. She came along with her daughter, Chip, from some friends of ours who breed and rescue all kinds of animals.
When Mocha and Chip first arrived, we put them in the same paddock as our other donkey family – Chocolate, Vanilla, and Turtle (the goat who think’s he’s a donkey). As soon as Chocolate realized that he had two new female “friends,” he started singing. Well, at least it looked like he was trying to serenade them. He started “hee-hawing” and “getting really friendly” with the new girls, if you know what I mean. (Sure wish we had the video camera running. It was quite entertaining.)
After a couple of minutes, Vanilla, Chocolate’s life-long female friend – who happens to be at least a foot taller than Chocolate, making certain activities darn near impossible – let out a groaning song…sort of as if to say, “How dare you!” And then she lit out after Chocolate – who was chasing Mocha and Chip around the paddock.
At that point, I guess Turtle felt left out, so he joined in the fray…and we had a galloping, singing, groaning train of donkeys (with a goat-caboose) running around the paddock for a good 10 minutes. Again, wish we had the video camera handy.
They eventually all settled down, and are getting along quite nicely. Vanilla is still stand-offish, but Chocolate, Mocha and Chip are friendly and affectionate, and love to eat treats right out of your hand.
The Guineas
Not a great picture of them, but these little guys (gals, actually) look like a cross between a miniature turkey and a peacock. While they do produce eggs, their real function on our property is to alert us and the other animals to predators, specifically aerial predators. When they sense danger, Guinea fowl have a unique call that, to me, sounds like a squeaky old manual water pump. They also help with pest control, foraging around the property with the chickens and ducks throughout the day.
The Rabbits
This is Coconut, one of our four bunnies. The other three are Spot, Bruiser, and Shadow. Spot has spots all over her, Bruiser has a “bruised” eye, and Shadow has grey “shadows” all over her. We’ll get their pictures up here soon.
We decided to raise rabbits because, well, one day the kids said, “Look what Pop-Pop brought us!” And now we’re in the rabbit business.
Black Butterfly
Blurry, I know, but Melissa saw this beautiful black and yellow butterfly on one of our nightly walks. He was just sitting there, relaxing on some foliage, begging to be photographed – from a distance.
Hatched Here
Here’s a couple of close-up shots of the two ducks that hatched here this summer (2016). The first is the lavender Muscovy, and we think she’s a female because of her relative size. She’s also the one with the gimpy leg.
Below is her salt-and-pepper brother, who is almost twice her size – although you really can’t tell that from these two pictures.
Chickens: The Next Generation
This is one of our “next generation” of chickens – 6 more hens and another rooster. Not sure what kind these are yet, but they should start laying in early 2017.
Little Green Frog
Saw scores of these little guys jumping feverishly away from me as I was mowing in the back yard the other day. Looks like one of them found safety on the ledge of the house.
Frog on a Post
Came home the other night to find this little guy resting, perfectly camouflaged on a whitewashed post.
The Chickens
Shortly after we announced that we won the bid on our property, our friends, Michael and Sue Laprise, bought us six Red Sexlinks chicks as a housewarming present. Unfortunately, only two are left…life lessons on the farm. They started laying in June 2016 and are very reliable producers for us.
Not long after we moved onto the property, my parents brought one of our kids back from spending the night at “Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop’s” house…along with an assortment of laying hens, including the Barred Rock below.
As I mentioned, we’ve lost a number of chickens, and one of the countermeasures we took was to acquire a rooster (below). We found him through Craigslist, and he joined our flock in the summer of 2016. He’s a rather tiny rooster, but he knows his job and does it well.
