The Line Up
While I believe that it’s best to keep animals who are producers of something, I still love and keep Lily. She is fourteen years old and I have had her since she was a four month old puppy who would tear around the house like a mad dog.
Today, Lily sleeps. I used to let her spend time with my chickens, but the ducks bullied her, so now she stays outside the farm yard. She likes to go for a walk in her wheel chair and sniff things and she is a quality snorer. Lily does not give milk or eggs, but she is loyal and loving companion.
(Note: Lily passed away on December 11, 2009. She was 15 and a half years old)
Lily, the glamorous Farm Pug at the Goat Justice League Farm, spends her day not bothering any of the chickens or goats. She is fourteen years old and is a competitive napper. She is best known as the inspiration behind Seattle’s Pug Gala, the largest - not a dog show - pug gathering in the world.
A Farm Pug
The Goats
Born on Glimmercroft Farm in May of 2006 and raised by her dam, Brownie was shy when she came to the Goat Justice League Farm. However, she soon got used to people and now happily approaches strangers to test out how the zippers of their jackets taste.
When Snowflake’s kids were born last year, she was not very nice to them and enjoyed bossing them around by butting them. We were concerned about what type of mother she would be, but in March of 2008 when she gave birth to two doelings — Rosie Fluffy Socks and Phyllis Schulman, she proved herself a mother extra-ordinaire. She now gives 11 cups of milk a day.
Brownie once appeared on the front cover of The Seattle Post Intelligencer and made her debut television appearance on Evening Magazine where she dazzled television audiences by trying to eat Michael King’s newspaper.
Note: Brownie passed away unexpectedly Feb 10, 2010. She was just 10 days from kidding.
Born on Geri Grey’s Sweetbrier Ridge Farm in Monroe, Washington, on April, 2006, Snowflake was bottle raised and was quite a social goat when she arrived at the Goat Justice League Farm. She had her first set of kids last year — two bucklings, Joel Salatin and Abraham Lincoln. She gave birth at 1:30 am on June 12 to Richard Conlin the Kid and Bessie, now renamed Jacki O. See, 2009 Kids for details.
Like Brownie, Snowflake was a devoted mother but needs to work on her aunt skills.
Chickens
Our beautiful big black hen, Tiny, was named when she was in fact, tiny. When we first got her as a chick, it was evident that something had not gone quite right with her hatching and the woman we got her from said that she might have some type of mild mental retardation. Turns out, this wasn’t the case. She is, as chickens go, very highly capable. Now she is robust and healthy.
We were told she is a black orpington, but someone has since told us she’s an australorp and that black orpington’s are incredibly rare. Wow, what if she is an incredibly rare chicken. Maybe she’ll be discovered by the Discovery Channel and the Goat Justice League Farm will star in a documentary and Bill Gates will hire me to run a farm in his back yard and I’ll make oodles. But then again, Tiny is probably just a black australorp and that is fine with us.
Note, 8/9/08 Tiny has since become an adoptive mother of 6 chicks (Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep and Mutant Spot) and she has moved to Yakima with them and lives in a luxury chicken coop at the truly beautiful vineyard, Wilridge Winery, owned by my cool neighbors. If you are ever in Yakima, look her up. You’ll be able to taste some excellent wines and see a different a beautiful part of Washington State.
Miles the Hen had an exciting early pre-life/life. I bought her egg on eBay and it was mailed from Kansas or somewhere like that. Before hatching, her egg rested in an incubator in our bathroom. Upon her hatching, my 5 year old (now 8) named her Miles, but it turns out Miles is a girl, which is lucky for her since the hatchlings who turned out to be roosters went to a “special rooster sanctuary.” Miles, a fine example of a buff orpington, lays lovely light brown eggs. She has lots of attitude and enjoys spending her time pecking around the farm, rolling in the dirt, and relaxing in the sun. Many people have tried to hypnotize her, but her inner strength has never allowed her to alter her consciousness. If I entered Miles in a chicken competition, she would win every chicken blue ribbon that exists. She is just that fine a bird.
This is Katie, a Red Star. She is a terrific egg layer. She used to be named Lulu, but when the chicken Katie died, Spencer, the farm boy, insisted on changing Lulu’s name to Katie. Katie is a docile hen, easy to catch and happy to sit for a while in your arms. She too likes pecking and scratching around the chicken yard and lying in the sun. No one has even tried to hypnotise her. Katie was named by Farm Boy, Spencer, after his two aunts, Katie and Katy.
Diamond and Ruby are americaunas. We got them for free at the Langly Feed Store last spring when we spent more than $25 on other stuff. Diamond and Ruby lay gorgeous green eggs. They are especially tame. Like Katy and Tiny and Miles, Diamond and Ruby enjoy pecking scratching, taking dust baths, and lying in the sun. They are always going into the goat shed when it’s raining, which they aren’t really supposed to do, and when I shoo them out, they show no remorse.
This is Sofia, one of my 40,000 plus honey bees. It is actually pretty hard for me to tell her apart from Antonia and Isabella, but I think this is Sophia. In keeping with my policy of naming all my farm animals, all of my honey bees have names. Baby bees are always hatching out, and I like to give my bees Italian names, so if you have a lot of Italian girl name ideas (fewer boys names needed) I could sure use the help.
I just got my hive this spring and only just put the honey super on. Last year, the woman who had my hive got 10 gallons of honey. I harvested honey at the end of July and got five gallons! Later in September, I got another three and a half gallons.
Bees are an important element of my farm because they make honey and I like ice cream. One day I plan to make an ice cream from ingredients solely from my back yard. If I’ve still got raspberries by late summer, I’ll make raspberry ice cream using eggs, cream, milk, honey, and raspberries.
Bees
Farm Boy
Spencer, Age 9, is my farm boy. Probably not as helpful around the farm as children of yester-year, he is an excellent chicken wrangler. He is great at catching chickens and moving them to where ever they need to go. He is also very enthusiastic about the farm, which helps keep me going whenever I worry that it may all be too much work.
To get milk, the does need to have kids and to do this, they do need to visit with a buck. However, this doesn’t mean I need to own a buck. When my doe goes into heat, I simply pop her into the trunk of my station wagon and drive her to a brief rendezvous with a stud buck in the country for a $50 fee. This is much simpler and less expensive than keeping a buck.
Don’t you need a boy goat?
Farm Husband
My poor, long suffering husband, Don Kneass, must not be forgotten. He carries giant bales of hay down to the goat area every few months and gave me a hand retrofitting the chicken coop to keep out rats. This was a major help. Don has mixed feelings about the farming since he loves the food, loves the experience for the farm boy, but he doesn’t think it’s quite fair that I get to mess around with farming much of the day while he has to go to work. Any ideas on how this whole project might make me money? Send them my way.