Day 94 - Farm Elephant

I've long collected elephants and one year for my birthday, Chuck got me this one. He lugged that rascal into our living room and gift wrapped him.

That was several moves ago, and we never left him behind. He's held this coveted spot for 18 years now. He's about 18 inches tall and concrete - so NOT lightweight.

Day 78 - Chicken Houses

Alabama is chicken raising country - the above picture is just two of the many that are less than a mile from my house. They're big giant buildings - I couldn't get far enough away from them to even get the three that sit right together in the same photo.

In the hot summertime there are huge fans blowing in the front openings.

The bottom photo is the "poop barn" - it probably has another name, but that's what it is. When they clean out the barns (with a backhoe, bulldozer, or whatever) they can't just leave it sitting out in the 'open' like they used to. It has to be IN a barn - hence the poop barn. It's actually quite close to the chicken houses - just a little off to the right of the top photo.

Day 49 - Goat Barn

Well, as the title says, this is my goat barn and corral. It's kinda off to the side just outside my back yard. It has four stalls and an entry door from the yard (just to the left of the tree). Wouldn't be big enough for larger animals, but it was designed for the goats. Chuck built it when we first got the goats. The wood siding is wood that came off the old 'cellar house' (used to store vegetables on the farm) that was falling down. I helped nail the siding on and those boards are hard as a rock!

The tree closest to the door is covered with wisteria and while it's not particularly healthy for the tree, it smells wonderful in the springtime when it blooms.

If you enlarge the picture you can see my goats (I'm down to five - YEA!).

Day 29 - Horse Farm

Well, next to the pasture with the donkeys is a horse farm. Though there were no horses visible when I went by today. They have "Paso Finas".

Day 28 - Donkeys

No - not mine - thankfully - I have enough critters.

A neighbor down the road. He's a doctor and I think these are his stress relievers (hard to imagine, right?). He started with two females - and has added, apparently has both now as there was a baby. He called the first one's his "girls".

Day 27 - Halloween

....no, not the holiday - my cat!

It seems I'm on a tear with the animals. Halloween is my outside cat. She "was" THE barn cat while Chuck was alive. He went down to the barn every day to feed and talk to her, and she would follow him around the field when he was out there. Over the years she had MANY kittens (Fluffy was one - though they look nothing alike), and caught many mice and....

Her mother had come to our barn and had a litter of kittens - then got out in the road and got killed. Chuck raised the kittens and over the years they all disappeared except Halloween.

When Chuck died, she moved to the back yard - then she moved to the deck... where she presently lives. When she moved to the deck it was time to visit the vet - I did NOT need a constant supply of kittens.

She thinks the dogs are there for her to rub on and , she's become quite tame over the years. She has a nice box and bed on my deck and I feed her on a table where the dogs can't get her food.

She's 13 years old - and that's a long time for a barn cat to survive. She still appears as agile as she ever was, but doesn't usually stray very far from the deck.