Fairweather Farm

Our Christmas 2002 picture; even with bribery it's hard to get animals to pose for their picture!

From the left: Jolie, Racer (our buck), Lisa, Bluefeather the milk goat, Jay, Blackie, Diana, Brewster the Rooster (now deceased), Amelia, Henrietta, Florence, Mimi, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Aleczi.

This is our american gothic shot... though frankly Green Acres is more accurate. Jay loves his pitchfork; it was a present from my dad. My dad gave me one too, so we don't have to share. If only we didn't have to share the shovel...

Jay's daughter Lindsey loves the farm. She especially likes the chickens; she kept a close eye on who was laying, collected eggs and kept detailed records and gave them treats!

We got a lot of roosters in 2002, and some of them needed to go (in order to keep the motto "Eggs from Happy Chickens" true - the hens weren't too happy with those roosters)

Ringo was a particularly unpleasant fellow. This is his final moment. We keep a string tied to the victim's feet to prevent headless chickens running around.

Ringo's head

For being vegetarian for a long time, Jay and I are remarkably unsqueamish :-)

2002 was the year when Southern Oregon was filled with forest fires. Most of the fires were far away, although the air was filled with smoke all summer; but Grizzly Peak caught fire, just 5 miles or so away to the southeast.

It was scary, though since we were upwind we were in no danger. This shot was taken from immediately behind the mobile home. Those are the neighbor's horses in the foreground.

Jay in front of the hayfield. The trees in the background are around our little pond. In the distance you can see the snow at the top of Mt. Ashland. That's Jay's favorite place to be in the winter (he's headed up there as I write this in February of 2003). To find out more, check out Jay's Ski Site

We had snow one Thanksgiving when Lindsey was here. Jay and Lindsey went out to play in the snow, but instead of building a snowman they built a snow chicken. Shown here with the model, Guadaloupe.
The picture was taken the next day; as you can see when we get snow here it melts fast...

The ducks marching across the hayfield.

We herded the ducks across the field, down to the pond - ducks love ponds, right? And they seemed okay, but after a few minutes of splashing around they would climb out and head home. All in a row, waddling like mad through the rough stubble.

We don't really understand ducks.