Flat Stanley Visits Welcome Home Farm

A few months ago my niece sent Flat Stanley for a visit. Although the note from the teacher asked that we take Flat Stanley for a visit around our town to visit special landmarks, my niece asked that we take Flat Stanley for a visit to our farm.

Here's what happened that day.

Dear Niece,
I hope you enjoy the pictures of Flat Stanley on our farm. The name of our farm is Welcome Home Farm because we take in so many animals that other people have to give away. It is about 1.5 acres and we live in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. We don't get much rain each year, so we do a lot of watering with sprinklers. We get most of our water as snow in the mountains that flows down in streams and rivers throughout the summer.

I’m sorry Flat Stanley is missing an arm. The animals on the farm must have confused Flat Stanley with the Little Gingerbread Boy!

Here are some photos of Flat Stanley and the animals. Some of the pictures don’t have Flat Stanley in them, I hope that’s okay.

Flat Stanley loves Daisy! She is so fluffy and soft. Daisy is a picky eater, too. Daisy's mom is a llama, her father is a huacaya alpaca, so she is a 'huarizo' and is very friendly. She has a gentle disposition and a quiet temperament, and she is very curious and playful!


Flat Stanley is in this picture. Can you see him holding onto the green feeder in the middle of the picture? Glacier, the white goat with the little ears, is looking right at him. Hmmm.... what is she thinking?

Oh, no! Glacier was really sniffing Flat Stanley in the last picture! She thought Flat Stanley was the Little Gingerbread boy! Run Flat Stanley, run!
Poor Flat Stanley lost an arm before I could rescue him. Goat's are usually picky eaters.

The white goats in the picture are called 'Saanen'. They give the most milk of any breed of dairy goat. The brown and spotted goat is a Nubian. She has long, floppy ears and has very creamy milk. We have four goats at Welcome Home Farm, three Saanens and one Nubian.

Here they are posing for their picture!

Flat Stanley visited the turkey next. Turkey's feathers are all out and puffed up. I think he is showing off for Flat Stanley. Who do you think is prettier, Turkey or Flat Stanley?
This kind of turkey is called a Royal Palm. This is as big as he will get. Most turkeys get much larger than ours. He weighs about 20 pounds. He is a really good flyer and we have to keep him in the pen or he picks on the chickens and ducks.


We thought that Flat Stanley would like the bunnies. These are mini-rex bunnies and are so soft! But, the bunnies thought Flat Stanley was the Little Gingerbread Boy, too! I don't know if he was tasty or not, I took him away from the cage as quickly as I could!


This chicken is trying to play Hide and Seek with Flat Stanley! The black and white chicken is a Wyandotte. Our animals have never seen anything like Flat Stanley on our farm.

These chickens didn’t like Flat Stanley, and we wanted to keep Flat Stanley safe, so we took a picture of them without Flat Stanley.
There are two brown chickens in this photo, they are Ameraucanas. They lay green eggs! Have you ever read "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss? Well, these lovely ladies lay eggs that are green on the outside, they look just like a regular egg when we crack them open.

The white chickens are Cochins. Cochins are fluffy and come in lots of different colors. They are so fluffy that they have feathers growing down to their feet. They are very tame and easy to catch. They lay brown eggs.

We have other chickens, too, but they were off playing in the garden and chasing bugs while we were taking pictures. We like Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns, Orpingtons, and Wyandottes. Usually you can't have that many breeds of chickens living together, but since we let them run all over the farm, they get along quite well.

The ducks were afraid of Flat Stanley, that is why they are running away!
The brown ducks are called Golden 300 ducks. They lay lots of eggs all year, just like chickens! In fact, Golden's lay more eggs every year than most chicken breeds. Duck eggs are delicious and they make cakes lighter and moister, and they give breads (and cinnamon rolls) a finer texture. The white duck is a Pekin duck. They don't lay many eggs, but they are very pretty.


Here is a picture of Midnight. She is a cat with an attitude! Sometimes she likes visitors, and sometimes she doesn't. But she always likes mice, so we like having her around.


Midnight finds little spaces in the hay stacks to sleep at night when it is cold. She also likes to chase the baby goats around. We decided to keep Flat Stanley away from Midnight just in case Midnight decided to chase Flat Stanley.

Poor Flat Stanley! I don't know if he liked his trip to Welcome Home Farm. The animals either thought he was a treat, or they ran away from him.


Oh, look! The Rooster liked Flat Stanley and was happy to have his picture taken with his new friend! This new friend doesn’t think that Flat Stanley is a cookie! He is a tiny rooster. Small chickens are called "bantams". That just means that they are little chickens. This little rooster has a big crow, but he is much smaller than any of the other chickens on the farm.


Flat Stanley is still smiling. I think he liked his trip to the farm after all!

Love,
Aunty