Erin's Farm NFP

08/28/2024

Happy Wishlist Wednesday once again!

Today we’re looking into the future! Much like recent weather, it’s so bright we could really use some SHADE! ☀️

Fruit trees are a great way to provide shade, a bit of shelter, and feed for our field animals! Plus, trees benefit us humans, too! We would love to strategically plant a few in the big fields, and we know from the few we have up front that the animals love the fresh treats we can pick from them! Maybe you have a mature fruit tree and too many pears/apples? We would love to use up your extras if you leave them at the gate!

Also on the list! More hose! You guys are awesome and we have received several already! During some mid-summer cleaning it was so great to be able to pitch the hoses that had been taped together in places and were still springing leaks! As you can imagine, we go through a LOT of water each day! Hoses are one of those great items that we can put up for use in the spring or “just in case” times even if we have a few ready to go!

Thank you all for your continued love and support! We couldn’t do it without you!!

08/27/2024

⭐️UPDATE⭐️
Remember this starving dog that was found in front of our farm just a few weeks ago by some good Samaritans?

He’s been thriving with out friends at Hobart Humane Society! He is now available for adoption!

https://www.facebook.com/share/8bqHZgw3rwpsTgAL/?mibextid=WC7FNe

08/26/2024

🐴🥵It’s been ridiculously hot the last few days🥵🐴

The mini horses have been drinking their water trough dry a few times a day in this heat and they practically tackle me in the morning when I come over with the hose.

🚌Here is today’s math problem for our grammar school homeschool kiddos :

“Each horse can drink about 10 gallons of water per day (or more on a hot day like today). If Farmer Erin has 43 rescued horses, how many gallons of water does she need to fill the water troughs up to every day so that their thirsty needs are met?” 🧐🤔

👇👇👇Write your answer in the comments! 👇👇

08/25/2024

🐴“Yoga on the Farm” was lovely yesterday with a lot of unique animal interactions along the way. This time we let the mini horses come in with us, as well as the sheep, goats, pigs & dogs. It was sweet to watch them inch closer & closer to us pretending to graze. Really they were wanting to spy on us to check us out and see what we were doing.

🐷My favorite moment was watching “Arlo” the pig ~ fresh out of wallowing in the mud~ dripping wet with mud sludge start to make his rounds coming right up to everyone . 🤣🤣

It’s always a fun time, and Melissa is a fantastic instructor! She makes it fun and easy for all levels, and she make sure to help you tune in to what the animals are doing around you! ❤️❤️

We have more dates coming soon in the next 2 weeks! We may even cool off & relax with a sunset class! 🐷🐴🐑🐐 Stay tuned!! The dates and times will be announced here on this page!

08/24/2024

Miss Rosie is a fan favorite amongst visitors! One of the friendliest cats on the farm, you can often find her in the arms of a guest or wandering around being the social butterfly that she is!

Cats play an important role on farms and fill many jobs; we'd like to think of Rosie as a sort of guidance counselor as well - always there when you need a snuggle!

08/21/2024

Two of our very special rescued & retired souls need monthly sponsors! Beautiful Arya & handsome Tucker!

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the horse barn fun! Visit your horse any day of the week, groom them, take them for walks & spoil them with treats while you sponsor their retirement.

Contact Erin at the farm for more information!

08/21/2024

Really missing this kiddo today. Things just aren’t the same without her ❤️

08/21/2024

Trashcans and Straw Bales, Oh My!

As we continue to clean up for fall and start prepping for Winter (in farming if you're not early you're late!) we're looking at a need for Straw Bales and Galvanized Cans for treats! These cans are great for keeping mice, chickens, and dogs out of the donated foods we receive and straw bales are great bedding for multiple critters on the farm!

If you happen to grab any of these to donate you can leave them at the gate anytime! Thanks again for being there for us!

08/21/2024

Our featured animal of the week is more generalized this time. Today we focus on the Mara. Patagonian Maras are from South America and are a part of the rodent family! For this reason, they don't make great pets...which is how we ended up with them!

They are herbivores and enjoy fresh produce treats but in nature they are mainly browsers of tropical leaves. We order a special pelleted diet called “Mazuri Primate Leafeater” for them that is made up of leaves from their native plant diet in South America, where they live.

Naturally a prey animal they scatter when feeling scared and can run 35 miles per hour - so vou definitely don't want to have to catch them if they tunnel out of your apartment...or their pen! They are very gentle creatures though and we are earning their trust. A handful will actually come up and take lettuce from your hands, which is pretty cool!

08/19/2024

With schools back in session we thought we'd drop a little knowledge on ya here, too!

Did you know pigs are approximately as smart as 3 year olds? Maybe even more so as some pigs have actually been trained to play video games!

08/18/2024

We have a chance to win $500 please vote grass every day!

Southlake Kia will host the "Vote For Your Charity" contest to support local organizations every month.

08/17/2024

Join us for our golf outing farm fundraiser! You can sign up and play the day of! So, don’t worry if you don’t sign up ahead of time, you won’t miss it!

08/17/2024

🐄💔Our hearts are broken over the sudden loss of one of our most precious souls. 💔🐄

Sweet Amelia came to us almost 3 years ago & joined our special needs crew as our 3rd handicapped cattle. With your support, we were able to fit her with a prosthesis and immediately she was trekking around the farm living her best life and stealing everyone’s heart.

When animals are handicapped, we always know that we are on borrowed time with them. For the past few months, Amelia was having more trouble getting around and we knew her time to leave us was coming sooner than later.

We will always remember her cuteness & her sweet cuddles, but also her strength and courageous soul. She was a fighter and pushed herself to live her best life. As soon as she got her prosthesis, she was on fire running around exploring the farm! She loved every second of her new mobility. She also inspired many handicapped children that visited the farm and taught them that it was OK to be a little bit different.

We are incredibly grateful for the precious time that we had with Amelia & we know that she’s at peace now running on all 4 legs through grass pastures over that rainbow bridge. Rest in peace, sweet Amelia. Thank you so much for opening our hearts with your precious soul. We love you so much.💔

If you would like to leave a donation in Amelias memory to our veterinary fund, we would be forever grateful. Because we had that veterinary fund we were able to take her in & give her a chance, and she had 3 additional years that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

All donations are 100% tax deductible due to our non profit 501(c)(3) charity status.

PayPal: [email protected]
Venmo: -Farm #4990
CashApp: $ErinsFarm
Checks: 5200 S. Liverpool Rd. Hobart IN., 46342
Zelle (773)575-4990

Through our website & Network for Good:
https://erinsfarm.networkforgood.com/projects/101080-main-giving-page

Become a monthly donor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/erinsfarm

08/14/2024

‼️🐂 Emergency for Pat Kelly!! 🐂‼️

Our Sweet handsome “googalie eyed love muffin,” Pat kelly is at Purdue today. For the last week he’s been not acting right. We noticed during last week’s farm camp session that he was acting ”off”.

He has a sore leg that he’s been favoring & he’s not eating as much & has lost some weight. We are at Purdue today to get some leg xrays, feet trimming & bloodwork done to see what’s going on so we can get this handsome man back home to his girlfriend Lucy!! 🐄

Please consider a donation today to our Emergency Veterinary Fund! Days like this are what its for!

All donations are 100% tax deductible due to our non profit 501(c)(3) charity status.

To donate:

PayPal: [email protected]
Venmo: -Farm #4990
CashApp: $ErinsFarm
Checks: 5200 S. Liverpool Rd. Hobart IN., 46342
Zelle (773)575-4990

Through our website & Network for Good:
https://erinsfarm.networkforgood.com/projects/101080-main-giving-page

Become a monthly donor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/erinsfarm

08/14/2024

Happy Wishlist Wednesday, y'all!!

First off THANK YOU for participating in these Wishlist's!! We've been organizing like crazy over here and putting away hoses, scoops, wicker enrichment balls - it's so cool to see the support from you guys!

We're still in need of gravel and things that run out quickly - like pine shavings and fly sprays! So those are our big items this week! If you're able to donate or have them shipped directly to the farm they can be left at the gate any time!

Again, we appreciate you all so much!

08/13/2024

🐷🐐Here's a little sprinkle of cuteness
to start your week off 😍
Saturday's Yoga on the Farm class at
Erin's Farm NFP was just magical ✨️

Join us for the next session
Saturday August 24th @ 10:30am!
Plenty of spots available ~

Text Erin @ (773)575-4990
to reserve yours 🐐🐷

08/12/2024

Hey all! I’m Lynn and I help Erin with some of our posts/emails/and Farm Camp days!

On this particular day the Farm Camp kiddos were filling bowls for Erin to feed the Big Pigs! Listen to how demanding they are! It’s one of the things I love most on farm days - listening to the animals use their voices!

And don’t worry, they were happily fed shortly after this, but since they get breakfast before Open Farm days start I know many of you have never gotten to hear it before and it’s too cool to miss out on!

08/11/2024

🐶🚓Last night around 1 AM our barking dogs & the flurry of flashing police lights woke us up. 🚓🐶

We went outside to find out that some good Samaritan’s had pulled over in front of our farm after
finding this poor emaciated dog on the road.

They were kind enough to stop & call for help. He
was eventually brought to our friends at The Humane Society of Hobart, Inc.

Please contact the local police if you have any information on where this dog came from & please send some donations to the Humane Society for his care!

What is going on?!? 🤬
⭐️ update in comments⭐️

08/10/2024

08/10/2024

Today’s is Seagull!!

Seagull is one of our rescued “big pigs” who loves bobbing for apples, swimming in the pond, and sneaking through the gate to say hello to Farm Camp kids as they fill up his breakfast bowl! 😂

Out of the 10 big pigs in their area (Arnold will probably be joining them soon, bringing our rescued and safe industry-farm-food-pig total to 11 in the pond area!) Seagull is one of the most friendly! He’s very curious and knows when we bring buckets into his home they’re filled with treats!

Come by the big pig gate on your next visit, throw a pig-safe treat over, and 9 times out of 10 Seagull will rush to meet you!

08/10/2024

☀️Today at the farm! ☀️
Melissa Malenky from “The Zen Den” in Chesterton will start this fun adventure of “Yoga on the Farm” with us!

Fees:
Adults 16+ $35 pp ($30 for patreons level $5+)
Kids 7-15y $16 pp ($12.50 for patreons level $5+)

ALL WELCOME 7+
Little Kids have to be able to sit/stay on the mat and participate during the yoga time.
Bring your own yoga mat or borrow one of ours!

Each class is approximately 45 minutes with the additional time used for animal cuddling & photo opps & exploring the farm.

🐐🐽Goat & Piggie Yoga on the farm🐽🐐
Goat and Piggy yoga takes place behind the main building in our large mini pig & goat field. The ground is relatively flat and stable. There will be full sun & no shade. We will be joined by our heard of approximately 30 sheep and goats as well as the 25 mini pigs. Approx 50 spots available

SATURDAY AUGUST 10th — 10:30am
SATURDAY AUGUST 25th — 10:30 am

🌟To reserve a spot : TEXT ERIN @ THE FARM # (773)575-4990🌟Reservations required 🌟

08/09/2024

‼️🐴🥲BEN update🥲🐴‼️

I can’t believe I have to make another post like this.
I was recently on a call with 3 different doctors on speakerphone down at Purdue about Ben. Things with Ben were not looking good.

I wish I could say that I didn’t see this coming, but I did. Early on if anybody asked how Roxy and Ben were, I would say the truth that I knew in my heart. That despite the fact that they were both improving (at the time) I had a very bad feeling about Bens recovery. I often said that I thought Roxy would make it, but I predicted that Ben might have to be put down.

But the doctors kept encouraging us that things were going well and improving , so I went on with it, knowing that he was in the best hands with the best doctors.

So here’s the thing.
With founder (which he has in his left front foot) the delicate laminae that holds the FRONT of the bone in place (like velcro) was somehow inflamed and had separated letting go of the front of the bone.
The part that holds the BACK of the bone in place is the digital flexor tendon.
Once the laminae lets go of the front of the bone, the tendon pulls the bone up in the back (since there’s no resistance). This causes the front of the bone to point down, sometimes coming out of the bottom of the foot. (we previously posted x-rays of this in a video.)

In a healthy horse with a good solid other front leg, there are different ways you could fix this founder scenario. Sometimes it can heal over time with corrective shoeing. (like 6-12+ months) .

Other times you can do a “tenectomy” surgery cutting that digital flexor tendon that is pulling the bone up from the back & into that painful pointed down position. Usually then overtime you could train (via shoeing) the bone to rotate back into a better more normal position. But it’s never 100% cure. You are always doing corrective shoeing to keep them pain free or in less pain.

However, this healing process means that the opposite leg will have to be taking on all of the additional weight during that time of the recovery (which could be up to a year or more.)

The front two legs of the horse carry the most weight as the head, neck and shoulders all come down on those two front legs. Horses need at least 1 good strong front leg. Ben has 2 bad front legs.

The problem with Ben, is that his opposite front leg has an extremely over calcified arthritic knee, making it very painful to stand on for long periods & struggling to carry the extra weight.

On a horse that ONLY had 1 arthritic knee and perfectly healthy opposite leg, there is a arthrodesis surgery that can be successful to fix the arthritic knee & stop the pain by fusing it. However, that surgery takes a recovery period that will need a horse to put his weight on the opposite leg.

Ben cannot do that because putting the weight on the opposite leg would force that foundered bone out of the bottom of his foot which is extremely painful & often unrecoverable.

The surgery for the arthrodesis knee fusing is expensive costing around $10,000. But even if we had somebody give us a check tomorrow for $10,000, we still likely couldn’t do the surgery successfully.

Ben simply cannot recover from a right knee surgery, being unable to bear any weight on the left foundered leg.

And doing the tenectomy surgery on the left foundered leg with the 6 to 12+ months of recovery, puts all the weight and pressure on the right leg, which is already extremely painful & unstable due to the arthritic knee. Ben would likely eventually go down and be unable to stand at all.

The 3 doctors that I talked to seemed to be out of answers on what they could do to help Ben. They were looking for a miracle.

Today was a bad day for Ben and he was very uncomfortable and painful. He has good days and he has bad days, but today was a bad day. We really needed to start considering his quality of life.

The good thing is that he is in the best place possible. He is in a beautiful air-conditioned building, with 2 feet of soft shavings to lay down in to take the weight off his painful legs. And he has doctors and students loving on him and giving him treats and everything he needs, including IV pain meds if he needs them to be more comfortable. So he is as comfortable as he could ever be where he is right now at Purdue. In fact, in the last two weeks that he has been there in the hospital, he has probably been the most comfortable that that he has been in a very long time.

But the reality is that we will likely not be able to fix him, and moving forward is only going to prolong suffering & cost him tremendous more amounts of additional pain with very little or no guaranteed successful outcome.

The doctors didn’t come out and say it straight away, but when I asked if they were suggesting euthanasia, they were leaning that way. They themselves we’re looking for a miracle. We all slept on it, cried over it, researched more, doctors called doctors, looking for a miracle, etc.

In the end, we had to acknowledge that there’s really nothing more that we can do for Ben that can guarantee him the quality of life that he truly deserves.  The future for him right now is 24/7 suffering that he doesn’t deserve to be forced to endure. We heartbreakingly decided to humanly euthanize Ben and reunite him with his friend Roxy.

These decisions are never easy to make, and they are deliberated over for hours and days. Our hearts are completely broken once again.
Poor Ben. Poor Roxy.
What is sh*tty outcome for everybody.
(Sorry for cursing)

Ben and Roxy may have hardly have known me or us, but they had the whole world rooting for them. Ben will also be treated as he was one of our own. He will be cremated and buried with Roxy on the farm. They were both loved so much. And they truly felt that love from so many in those final hours. 

Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to give them what they deserve in their final hours. It could’ve been and would’ve ended so much worse for them if they had not been tied to our gate that morning. But instead they both left this world knowing that they were truly loved and hundreds of people were fighting for them. They were finally seen and they were finally heard, thanks to all of you.

If you would like to leave a donation to our Emergency Veterinary Fund in Bens memory, we would be forever grateful. That support helps us be prepared for situations like this when animals need urgent immediate care. 

—Erin

All donations are 100% tax deductible due to our non profit 501(c)(3) charity status.

PayPal: [email protected]
Venmo: -Farm #4990
CashApp: $ErinsFarm
Checks: 5200 S. Liverpool Rd. Hobart IN., 46342

Through our website & Network for Good:
https://erinsfarm.networkforgood.com/projects/101080-main-giving-page

Become a monthly donor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/erinsfarm

08/07/2024

Want a truly unique experience?!
The next Yoga on the Farm
session is this Saturday!
@ Erin’s Farm NFP

Class is open to all-levels even beginners
& suitable for ages 7 & up!

Please bring an old mat or
beach towel 🙏
Contact Erin @ (773)575-4990 to reserve spots!

08/07/2024

🤗🫵Are you coming to the golf outing?!! 🫵🤗

‼️JOIN US FOR OUR CHARITY GOLF OUTING!‼️
🏌️‍♀️⛳️🐐“Goat Ranch Open”🐐⛳️🏌️‍♂️
SATURDAY AUGUST 24th

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS AUGUST 14, 2024
(QUESTIONS? PLEASE CONTACT MARK OLSON AT 219.713.0052)

PLEASE RETURN REGISTRATION &
PAYMENT TO:
OLSON CHIROPRACTIC
11 W. OLD RIDGE ROAD

08/05/2024

Some lessons are learned better hands-on!

Did you know turtles have poor eyesight? They generally see bright reds and yellows and associate them with food!

We put that fact to the test with our farm camp kids last week! Sure enough, when this little guy spotted the red of the camper’s shoe he came over for a nibble! Don’t worry we made sure they had a good soak and a healthy lunch! 🥰

Side thought, Chickens will also come peck at shiny/red things! So the next time you come by mind your wedding rings! 😂

08/04/2024

🚨🐴Heartbreaking ROXY UPDATE 🐴🚨

If you recall from her last update, Roxy has been moved out if the ICU & into the regular ward across from Ben. They could see each other & were chatting with each other and it was very heartwarming. She was very happy to see her friend again.

The other day, I missed a number of calls from Purdue. I’ve always said “no news is good news,” right? So getting a number of missed calls from them during the day is not good.

We had farm camp in session and I was unable to answer the phone because the kids are here until 4 PM. In fact, it’s been a busy week in general between farm camp and Dean getting sick, I’m picking up extra shifts at the horse barn after camp etc.. my days and nights have just been jampacked.
But most of my messages during the week were that Roxy & Ben we’re doing fine and continuing to improve .

This last call was not that. I finally reached them hours after their last message, only to find out that Roxy had gone down. Meaning she had laid down, but could not get back up.

This is the first time she has laid down in the past two weeks. (With the exception of the day she arrived, and was on oxygen). Ever since then she’s been standing.

Her blood work and vitals, and everything seemed to be fine, and she was continuing to eat and drink. For the next few hours she was down. She was keeping her body sternal, and flipping her hips from side to side. This was good, and this was important.

Horses bodies are not designed to be laying down for long periods of time. Their organs simply cannot handle the pressure of being in that position for long. Normal horses will lay down from time to time to rest and sleep, but it’s rarely longer than an hour, or sometimes two or three hours in elderly horses. But anything longer than that is considered abnormal.

By the time I got a hold of them she had been down for a few hours already. My initial thought was that she might just be exhausted from standing so much.
Right? Her poor little skinny body had to be exhausted. But nothing had changed & reality was setting in for me. That this time she wasn’t going to get back up.

At first, they were hand feeding her and bringing her a bucket of water, and she was eating and drinking. They tried repeated attempts to get her up, but she had no interest in doing that at all. She even started to p**p laying down, which is very uncommon for horses. As tired as they are, they usually will stand up and move around to p**p.

Besides, the fact that her blood work was not bad, and she was not suffering from the refeeding syndrome, there was one thing that was changing negatively. They were only weighing her once a week to watch her wight. Since she was on a refeeding program and slowly getting more and more food, from 7 up to 16 lbs of feed increasing each day, we wouldn’t see a dramatic difference overnight, so daily weigh ins didn’t seem urgent.

But one thing they had noticed the day before she went down is that despite all these positive changes, in blood, respiration etc., she was still losing weight. In fact, she had dramatically lost even more weight since arriving at the hospital. Almost 100 more pounds lost!

There is no explanation for this. We have run a million tests. It didn’t make any sense. The only thing we can assume at this point is that she has some type of cancer that we have just not discovered yet.

So our options were limited.
1.) humanely euthanize her
2.) get her back to the ICU, on IV fluids, and put her in a sling so that she can stand.

The vet had indicated that going back to the ICU would be “supportive care” not “curative care” if we did #2. With the dramatic weight loss continuing the vet did not see a positive outcome or her regaining her ability to stand.

This was an incredibly difficult decision to make. Roxy had been such a fighter all of this time improving little by little every day. If she wanted to fight, I was prepared to keep fighting. If she was done, we had to respect that.

For the next 2 hours, the vet and I went back-and-forth. We would set a time and try to make her get up again, and if she didn’t get up, we’d euthanize.

We did this a few times. Each time her time was up, I hesitated, and gave her a few more minutes. I was wanting every indication from her that she wanted to fight, and then I would listen to her and go the distance. After all, she had the whole world rooting for her.

But as time went on she finally told us. She started to refuse to eat, despite her voracious appetite.

When the vet asked her to “stand and please don’t give up,” Roxy didn’t move her head.

When the vet told her “she was going to better place, that we were all sending love to her and she would be happy and free from all the bad in this world”, ….then Roxy moved her head up & towards her & looked directly at her.

It was a lmost like a “thank you”…
Everyone in the room was in tears.

Roxy was humanely euthanized surrounded by people that loved her.

We will do a full necropsy to see if we can get some answers.

Then she will be cremated and buried at the farm.
Her life mattered & we will treat her as one of our own ❤️
Erin

If you would like to leave at donation in Rox’s memory towards our veterinary fund for her medical bills, we would be forever grateful. Her best friend Ben is still in the hospital fighting to get better.

All donations are 100% tax deductible due to our non profit 501(c)(3) charity status.

PayPal: [email protected]
Venmo: -Farm
CashApp: $ErinsFarm
Checks: 5200 S. Liverpool Rd. Hobart IN., 46342

Through our website & Network for Good:
https://erinsfarm.networkforgood.com/projects/101080-main-giving-page

Become a monthly donor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/erinsfarm