Every now and then the stars and planets align in life and great things just fall into your lap.  Anyone who has met my daughter Henley knows that she is animal crazy just like her mom and dad.  Although we have two horses already they are adult size horses and just not the right fit to be Henley’s first horse.  Well a couple months ago I was chatting with my mother when she asked me does Henley want a pony?  I resisted the urge to immediately scream of course my daughter wants a pony, I thought I better run that by my wonderful loving husband.  Surprisingly my husband was completely on board with getting said pony and actually thought it was a brilliant idea.

Plans started forming as to how and when Henley’s new pony would get here as he lived in South Carolina at the time.  Janet one of my mom’s friends had this pony for her children and he sounded perfect.  Dickens  is a Pony of The Americas pony and is absolutely adorable.  He is in his late 20’s and has had many little girls who have loved him and cared for him.  Janet being wonderful offered to drive Dickens all the way up to upstate New York for us.

Yesterday was the day that sweet Dickens finally arrived!  They didn’t get here until late last night as they were driving and Henley didn’t get to meet him until this morning.  The pure joy and delight on my child’s face when she realized there was an extra horse in the barn and that it was hers was amazing.  Henley immediately pet Dickens and told him he was a good boy, she then proceeded to feed him several carrots.  The gentleness of this pony with my daughter amazed me he seemed to just know this little person is mine and I must take good care of her!  I think that this sweet pony is going to thrive here with my little girl and I cannot wait to see how their bond and relationship grow!

Well it’s only 8am here and I have already had to wrangle the sheep twice. Until yesterday I would say our ram is an angel who never escapes …. until yesterday. Unfortunately wonder dog Gus does not move Cliff our ram. The ram just stares at Gus and Gus gets frustrated. This means every time Cliff gets out I have to walk out and put a halter on him and drag him back to where he is supposed to be. Well this morning I have had enough so he gets to spend the day with his new pal Hubert. I was going to move Norma over with the big girls but in true farming fashion she flopped down and played dead. I had Henley strapped to me so I wasn’t in the mood for dragging Norma to the other pasture. Everyone will just have to get along today. After I got Cliff put away I sent Gus to fetch his ewes which he did marvelously. Here’s hoping the sheep stay where I put them for a bit.

Here at Cacia Farms we offer a wide variety of extracurricular activities for our sheep. We host the founding chapter of Kill The Border collie club where the president Luna the Lunatic will enlighten you on all the proper ways to make your herding dogs life more difficult. This includes intimidation techniques as well as general flock disruption while being moved. We also offer a fence jumping where you will learn all the latest techniques in slipping through your fences. Classes offered range from beginner to advanced including the simple slip between the electric braid to high jumps over the top and for our very advanced members we will be covering the fence plow. The fence plow is the very best as it will allow all your friends not in the club to join you on your grass eating adventures. Another great club to join us the ever popular squash the shepherd club this is great fun in the evenings when they come out to give us grain the objective is to see who can run over the shepherd first and get to the grain bucket. These are just a few of the wonderful activities offered here at the farm and don’t forget the regular sheepy activities of grazing and dirt bathing (the dirtier the fleece the better)!

Please contact the local presidents of each club for your membership application.

Kill The Border Collie club – Luna the Lunatic

Fence Jumping – Tulip the Terrible.

Squash the Shepherd – Purl

Sheep Protective Services – Purdy Awesome

Well as usual we are getting things done in the midst of chaos.  Having a toddle to help on the farm is not always super helpful believe it or not!  Our yard is littered with dog toys, kid toys (sometimes I can’t tell which is which), kiddie pools (which of course the border collie uses also) and various other items to trip over.  We are trying to get as much fence put up as possible before winter which means Henley and I are putting fence insulators on while her daddy pounds in posts.  My barn is set up so that I can enclose Henley behind the gate to the feed room keeping her put of the way of horses being shuffled from outside to their stalls.  This works well until she found out how to get the lid off the grain and taste tested most of the animal grain (sheep apparently is her favorite).  Adjusting to farming with kids is much different but the joy my kiddo experiences on this farm is worth the extra time it take me to do everything!

We have been busy here getting ready for all the animals to come home. The barn is mostly done and is ready for the horses to come home along with a batch of baby chickens. My incubator eggs are two weeks from hatching. We candled the eggs and about 9 of them out of 14 that shipped are developing well. Fence is being put up and Jeff is going to pick up hay today. On Friday night we will be having the farm edition of date night by picking up the llama together. I am so happy that soon everyone will be home!