YouTube Problems

I received an email from YouTube today:

I have no idea what I did or what videos I had that violated their 'Community Guidelines.'

This is the first email I received about my violations. Nothing was sent earlier.

It seems that YouTube doesn't like backyard hobby farmers who try to teach kids about animals.

If you go to my YouTube channel, this is what you get.
Because seeing videos of animals being treated well must be wrong.

This isn't true. Account owners do not receive an email
detailing the reason for the termination.
The first photo is a screen shot of the email I received. 

Neither my blog nor my YouTube channel (Welcome Home Farm) are monetized. I do it because it's my way to give back to a wonderful community of backyard hobby farmers, help a few people who want to be hobby farmers, and let young kids ask questions and learn about what we do on our farm.

Please be patient as I go back to photos for a while and figure out what's going on with YouTube.

I'll try to upload as many videos as possible directly to Blogger. I was thinking of switching to Vimeo, but Blogger and Vimeo don't talk to each other.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Yes, even when YouTube shuts you down, you don't have to pass along someone else's bad behavior to the next person you meet. You can still do something nice for someone else every day.

Dogs and Goat Horns

It was a beautiful morning! This is what it looked like when I went out to the barn this morning. I love working on the farm because I have the chance to see the mountains and the clouds beyond the barn. I love seeing the frost on the grass, too. I think it's so pretty!

Dear Layna,
Yes, we have two dogs. Our dogs names are Scout and JJ. This week we have another dog named Surry. She belongs to Quin and Xander. They are away for Fall Break so Surry gets to stay on the farm.

Surry loves the farm, she loves being outside.

Like many dogs, Surry likes to howl when she hears the sirens. If you listen closely you can hear Scout howling, too.

We have really good dogs!

Do you obey your parents and your teacher as well as our dogs obey me?

I love these dogs! They obey, they play, they do good work on the farm, and they don't bark very much!

JJ is on the left in the back of the photo. JJ is a girl.
Scout is in the front. Scout is a boy.
They will sit here as long as I tell them to.
They won't move unless I tell them it's ok to get up.

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It's really important that we remove horns from baby goats. Goats horns can grow very big! Your teacher has a big goat horn to look at.

I don't think your parents would let you play with your friends if you were carrying knives in your hands. Goats love to play, just like you do. If they have horns on their heads they can hurt each other or people. They don't want to hurt anyone on purpose, so we make sure they are safe. We take off their horns when they are babies.

Sometimes the horns grow back, but not very well. Those small, weak horns are called scurs.

A few weeks ago we had to trim Curly's horn. He has a scur that grows around into his head.

Curly doesn't mind us cutting his scur off. It doesn't hurt to cut it off. Trimming scurs is just like trimming fingernails (or hooves!)

Can you see the little sore that was underneath Curly's horn?
We have to take Curly's horn off because it grows around in a circle and right into his head.

We put some Neosporin on the sore spot so it heals up nicely. Neosporin is the same for goats, dogs, and people!

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Are you getting ready for Halloween at your house?

Here's something that I made this week. It wraps around a pillow. I like to work on the farm. I like to sew and embroider. And I love to play and teach guitar! I don't like to watch TV or play games on the computer. Some people think it's funny that I don't like TV or computer games. I'm happy with my hobbies!

What kinds of things do you like to do? What hobbies do you have? Do you like to read, or play with Legos? What are you going to do next week during Fall Break?

I hope you have a great Fall Break next week! I hope you do nice things for other people even when you aren't in school!

Cider Day 2018!

It was great to visit at your school last week! I hope you enjoyed the cider. It's a lot of work to make cider but it's delicious so we do it every year.

We work hard picking apples a few days before we come to school.

Dear Emery,
Yes, we have one apple tree. It's a small tree and doesn't grow apples yet. We have friends and neighbors who have apple trees and they are so generous that they share their apples with us so we can bring them to your school!


Have you ever picked apples from a tree?

Everyone in our family helps pick apples! 

We filled a lot of buckets with apples!

We pack the truck the night before we head to school.
It's faster if we are all loading than if I have to load it all myself.

Your custodian, Mr. Stewart, and some 6th graders helped us unload the truck and get everything set up.

Mr. Stewart helped us grind the apples to make cider.
So did the custodian.
He used to have Cider Day in his home town when he was growing up!

After we grind the apples up,
we put them in the press and squeeze the cider out of them.

I was wrong in the video. We use a hydraulic bottle jack. 

We made enough cider for everyone to have a taste!

I hope you enjoyed our visit!

The day after we visit your school we always invite the neighbors over to make apples from their cider. They have a great time, even though no one is smiling in the photo.
They get to taste cider, just like you do!
They get to see all the animals, and they get to play on the playground.
It's a great day!

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Look how big the ducklings are getting!

The chicks are growing, too!

Dot is growing beautiful speckled feathers. 

It's been a great week helping other people with cider and showing them around the farm. I hope you've done some nice things for other people, too!