The Keeper finally put the first graduating class of her flight academy out. This is the first five to come out into the barn of the original 60. Seems she is down to 43.  This is the first bunch to wander around the barn. The Keeper was so upset because she came out in the morning and one of the five was missing. 

This little bugger was located 12 hours after it was missed.  Seems it was hanging out in the abandoned workshop on the property. So the original five are back together again. Happy Trails To You! 

Look at our old friend Dakota. This is the horse that the Keeper was helping last summer. He was skinny and had a giant hole in his hip. After the Keeper did her do, Dakota went to live with a nice lady  a few towns over. Unfortunately, our barn is full and we couldn't keep him. He seems to be doing fine. Check out his little fat belly and you can't even see where the hole in his hip was located. He looks great. Happy Trails to You and to Dakota!  

Tux is back and he is hungry!  He has been back for a couple of days now and ll he does is eat and take naps.  He doesn't stray very far from the barn at all. 

Tux is back in his old napping place.  

Tux is the black and white kitty. He is seen here with his brother. 

Here Tux is being a bit naughty. He loved to lick the molasses off of the horses sweet feed.

Clancy is so lost without him, he is trying to eat salad with the chickens! 

Clancy and Tux used to sit by the door and pretend they were door stops. One on either side of the door. 

One of the last pics we have of Tux, enjoying a fresh egg provided by our own chickens. 

Now Clancy sits by the door all by himself. 

It has been said that when a vanishes without a trace and no amount of looking or posting can find them, they have gone off to get married.  Basically, they are off starting a life of their own.  We hope this is true of Tux and that he has a great life with his new wife. Apparently, the male cats have to move in with the female cats. We just hope some day he will feel like coming to visit. 

For now Clancy is watching over the barn. We will all adjust to Tux's new life choice. Until then Happy Trails To You! 

Check them out. There are three of what we call the Dalmatian Chickens in the flight pen. The Keeper started the babies in  there first pen with training perches. Before they can be turned out to be free range chickens, they need to know how to perch on higher things so they are just not sitting ducks for the local wild life. The Keeper has this cage to get them started on perching higher up. This is the first step. So far they just sat on the bottom and looked around. They went back in their pen at night so they can have their light. 

Second day in the training pen had to be done inside, it was 18 degrees outside.  There is definite progress being made, Notice there are three of the chickies on the bottom perch. They have moved up from the floor of the pen. 

It has been a couple of days, but we are getting there. It is still freezing outside at the time of these pics, but we have Chickies on two of the upper perches.  We are aiming for the top perch. Hopefully these little Chickies will get the idea and be able to pull it off. 

It took a week, but we have success. Check out the cage. We have a Chickie on the the top perch!  Life is good. Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

Well, we have been offline for awhile. Things have been absolutely crazy around here. The weather has been jumping up and down from the teens to the eighties in just hours. We have had snow ( we never have snow), we have had sleet storms and the streets have iced over several times. ( Again, we don't have that down here)  It has been crazy!  We have had horses in the barn colicking, (not me), thank goodness. The baby chickens have come down with something and the Keeper has been having to doctor all of them. Plus we are drowning in tons and tons of mud.   And we had one of our barn cats disappear. 
I have pictures and stories for all of these things, but we must be patient. The Keeper is trying to keep up with everything. She assures me that she will post it all in the next couple of day. Thank Heavens for Spring Break. 
To keep you entertained until then, here is a picture of a little trespasser we had at the barn tonight.  

This little guy was caught trying to sneak in the barn to chow down on our chickens. He was not a happy camper as you can see. Obviously, he will not win the congeniality award. The Keeper woke him from a sleep to load him in the truck. Boy, you talk about someone needing coffee...
No worries, he has been relocated to a nice area with a large body of water and plenty of trees and food sources.  He took his his bad attitude with him when the Keeper opened the cage right into the undergrowth. We wish him well on his new adventures, and new diet that does not include our chickens.
Until next time, Happy Trails To You!