How did I forget about this?

I used to spend hours out in the field with the goats, cows, dogs and pigs. I don't know how I let that go by the wayside.  Tonight I went out at sunset to spend some time with them and I was reminded how beautiful our farm is and the contented feeling I get when Raisa wraps her head over my shoulders as I scratch her chest, or the dogs press up against me as I crouch on the ground. Nighttime is really the best time to be with them. They aren't begging for food - just attention.  They truly love being together and with me. There are many acres they could be running on, but they choose to be gathered together in this small space.

Rory loves the pigs and they don't seem to mind her licking them.

It's easy to hole myself up in my studio and paint all day and forget how beautiful our place is. I need to go out more often and appreciate what I have and not take it for granted.

As I was walking back to the house a fog was settling over the pasture. I couldn't get a good photo to really capture the feeling. This is the best my iPhone could do.

Kunekune pigs and thinking about babies again

It's been almost a year since I've blogged. I felt like the farm happenings haven't been interesting enough to share with anyone since we've scaled down. I was finding it hard to trailer animals to the butcher, so we sold off some animals and stopped breeding. Well, that couldn't last forever, could it?
I miss the babies. In a weak moment I called a friend and asked if I could borrow his blue eyed fainting goat buck to breed my girls to.  Rufus is a shy little guy. The girls like him and he likes them, but I don't know if they've had any action yet.   If nothing else, he's very photogenic and makes a good model for painting.

Goat babies aren't the only babies in our future. As of last night we've added 4 Kunekune pigs to our menagerie. Kunekunes are small, very docile, grazing pigs. After boarding some potbellied pigs for friends of ours it made me miss having pigs. When I did a Craigslist search for piglets, I came across the Kunekunes, which I've wanted for several years. They're comical little pigs, with short, upturned noses and squat, round bodies, maturing at about 200lbs. They're quick to roll over for tummy rubs - the perfect pig in my book. It was pouring rain this morning so I didn't get a lot of great pictures. Maybe I'll blog again and post more.

Again, perfect subjects for paintings. I haven't come up with names for them yet. I need to get to know them better.

More to come....maybe.