Welcome Home Farm: Happy Birthday, Echo!

Welcome back!

Do you know someone with a birthday today? I do!

It's Echo's 3rd birthday today!

She had her first calf when she was a little over 2 years old. She should have her new calf close to the end of the school year. She will be 3 years old when she has her second baby. Animals grow to be adults much faster than people do.

Cows don't get cake for their birthday.

People can eat many different kinds of food.
If animals eat different kinds of food they can get sick.
Echo's birthday treat is a loaf of bread, a few stale rolls,
a cut up banana, and a few carrots.
She gets bread almost every day, so that isn't very different.
She gets banana peels almost every day, too.

Does it look like Echo liked her treat today?

Here's a picture of Echo when she was a baby.

Echo just finished eating a delicious dandelion.

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It's not a surprise that Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, is wrong about spring being 6 weeks away. He's wrong most of the time.

Did you know that there is a tortoise in California that can predict the weather, too? Her name is Maxine. She came out of her burrow on February 7th at 12:06 pm. Maxine thinks winter is over.

We find about 10-12 eggs every day.
We find a duck egg almost every day. I think Quin's duck is laying the duck eggs because she's the youngest girl duck that we have and they usually start laying before the older duck does.

Spring is right around the corner according to the ducks and the chickens!

We'll have to wash these eggs off. Sometimes they are dirty when we pick them up.

One of the good things about Spring is that it's warmer outside.
One of the bad things about Spring is it's muddy in the pasture.
The chickens and the ducks don't mind. They like the puddles.

We like the chickens because they lay eggs. We also like the chickens because they clean up the little bits of grain that get spilled inside the barn, and around the barn yard. Chickens love to scratch the dirt and dig. They help spread the poo around so we don't have to clean it up in the barn yard.

The turkey helps clean up the grain, too.
Can you see him in the back?
He would much rather share breakfast with the goats because the
grain is easier to get in the feed tub.

The chickens like to share breakfast in the feed tubs, too.

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We plant seeds when we think Spring is close, too.
I planted some herb seeds a few days ago.
I'll let show you some pictures as they grow.

I'll be planting some tomato seeds soon, too. We have special lights and a set of shelves that help us start growing seeds indoors before we can put them in the garden. It's too cold and wet to plant seeds in the garden right now. If we plant them inside then they will be ready to go in the garden about the same time you are out of school.

The goats love to play in the spring. They love to bang their heads together. I'll try to get a video so you can see them playing.

Once in a while one of the goats get hurt when they are playing rough. Clover's leg got hurt this week. She had to spend 2 days resting in a stall by herself until she was strong enough to play outside again.

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