Seahorse Farm

This is the completely impossible; this is the unreachable dream. My 12 year-old self would ~never~ believe this is where I would be at 28. The smell of horse in the air and the sound of my rooster calling for his hens, the buzz of cicadas and the babble of our creek after a replenishing rain…this is my haven. We have tons of work to do - renovations, tilling, gardening, learning, fixing, painting, installing - but the raw beauty is emotionally breathtaking. I will never stop being grateful.

The girls have questions. Mainly “who the heck are *they*?” - The babies made their debut outside today! They won’t stay outside long since they are more sensitive to wind and temperature changes. And…not to mention…they weren’t sold on these huge velociraptors talking to them.

I’m so glad I spent 45m scrubbing all the dirt off this man. 🤗 - We had a tough riding session today. One of us wanted a leisurely trail ride after a week off. The other wanted to stay home and eat food. Long story short, I got dumped off his back and he got his butt *worked* in the arena for being so rude. Don’t worry. We made up and even got to practice some trot poles as we build up to getting ready to jump! - Lesson learned. No weeks off for our Little Sassypants. 💜

The last of our Spring Babies: Titania the Cinnamon Queen. - Cinnamon Queens are mix between a Rhode Island Red hen (like Juliet!) and a Rhode Island White rooster. Titania is named after the comedic fairy queen in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” - Titania was supposed to come home last week with our 3 Easter Eggers, but she did not hatch in time. Fortunately, we have another broody hen - Rosalind - who happily took her under her wing, literally! (None of those other eggs under Ros will hatch since we don’t have a roo and I’ll remove them later today.)

Good morning from (most of) the Seahorse Farm Avian Department! ☀️ - Miranda is still keeping her adopted babies in where it is warm. I’m sure they’ll make their debut soon!

I took my boys for a trail ride yesterday and couldn’t stop being stunned by the moment as it happened. - I’ve been on so many trail rides. But none with my own horse. My dog and my (!!) horse get along, and we were able to walk and slowly trot successfully along a trail. Kipper behaved beautifully and didn’t even lunge after the snake or the several squirrels on the trail and Jethro was great except for the 20s we had to pause and make sure the American flag in front of someone’s house wasn’t a monster. You never know. - Someone pinch me.

Welcome home, Rooster and Goose! - With some investigation, it seems like Rooster is a boy and Goose is a girl. It’s super hard to check the gender of baby birds, so we’ll confirm in a few weeks when they grow bigger. - These little yellow babies are peckin ducks and will be beautiful white ducks when they grow up. They both have little bowed legs and enlarged hocks, so they have special medicine called niacin to help them. Niacin is basically B3 and is found in foods they love such as peas, tuna fish, sweet potatoes, and even sardines. These little babies are getting the Royal Treatment while they recover from owie legs. - Good news - we expect these birds to make a full recovery and live a happy life.

“Are those….BUGS?!?”

Someone forgot her clothes today… - ‘tis the season for nakey chickens. Their feathers will take about 8 weeks to regrow. In the meantime, please censor your eyes!

New resident alert! ⚠️ We discovered where the eggs have been going. And promptly issued an eviction notice assisted by the fierce Desdemona. Did you know opossum are basically harmless? They are more likely to just play dead than actually attack and an opossum bite is very rare. I felt literally no fear while I was trying to get this little thing out of my coop. Opossums are the only marsupial in North America and are famous for playing dead. This little one clearly wasn’t threatened enough to play dead or even hiss at me, but she did bare her teeth to my angry hen. Although this opossum helped herself to my eggs, she also keeps the area free of a lot of common pests such as rats, mice, ticks, and roaches. She’s not welcome in my coop (and especially not welcome in my henhouse), but she’s more than welcome in my yard.

Little love wants her breakfast RIGHT. NOW. Daphne is our foster kitten. She is not up for adoption yet, but she will be! 🧡

It’s aaaaalmost baby time!-Brontë gets affectionately dubbed “⚠️ Danger Rabbit ⚠️” when she is pregnant because she becomes terrifyingly protective of her space. I saw that she had pulled some hair for a nest overnight so I went to go check…and she, in absolutely no uncertain terms, told me to LEAVE. Since I value my fingers, I listened.-We should have babies in the next day or so!

One of our neighbors came over to our house to let us know one of our rabbits got out. This sweet Rex is not one of our Holland Lops, but he’s off the street and joined the crew!-In honor of Great Britain’s new Rex, meet King Charles, Chip for short. Chip appears to be a pure Rex rabbit with his cute little curly whiskers and eyebrows and stunningly soft fur. He is completely fearless of the other animals and has a very funny little personality.-We’ll be taking care of HRM until we find his owners…or become his owners.-Long live the King! 🇬🇧

SURPRISE! There are ~four~ nuggets! - We found one outside of the nest absolutely freezing cold. We heated it up with a blow dryer and put it right back into the warm nest. The little one made it through the night and is toasty and pink today! 💜

Happy slappy tippy tappy feet are flappy 🦆

📚STORY TIME📚 - Little miss Tigger had a very serious ~something~ happen her this week. My current working hypothesis is she suffered some sort of stroke (heat, perhaps?). - That being said, Tigger lost all control of her body and was barely breathing when I found her. Sure she was dying, I collected my family to say goodbye. I made her a comfortable bed inside so she would be able to pass in comfort and peace. - The next day, however, she showed more alertness in her eyes and, throughout the course of the day, regained movement in one of her legs. I fed her critical care and water through a syringe as well as helped her move into new resting positions in hopes that, maybe, just maybe, she would be okay. If anything, she would be comfortable. She still had no control over her body with the exception of her one leg. - Yesterday, she made incredible recovery moves showing excitement for her food, and even moving around some. She was holding her head up when I went to check on her and, as the day ended, was even (kinda) hopping around some. - This is today. Kisses, happily eating, and moving around almost completely normally, exhausting as that may be. Although she is not out of the woods yet, I’m happy to see her amazing progress! - Sweet Tigs is one heck of a fighter.

We’re growing again! - Introducing Tigger, our new eight-week-old doe! She’s a Vienna marked sable point beauty with an incredibly soft coat and we love her already. 🐰💘

Bunny update 🐰 - Matilda’s babies are 3 weeks old and ridiculously cute. We have two bucks and two does. - The doe we’re keeping doesn’t have a name yet. What do you think — Daisy? Or Pearl?

Sound on for tiny baby noises! - Tilly’s babies are doing so well. They are growing quickly and are incredibly active for such tiny beans!

Happy bunnies love outside time