Barn Day . at Walnetto Farm that is everyday!

A walking tour of Walnetto Farm. We are small only 4.3 acres but that is enough to allow us to raise livestock, have a garden and honey bees. We have been working on being self reliant as I spoke of in the last post for many years. It will never be perfect thank God as we would then be done and on a farm there is always something to do!

 This is P.T. one of our many cats, we have 8 including the house and barn. One of the "professional hazards" of being in veterinary medicine. P.T. is a 50/50  cat. In and out but most certainly in at night. The crew in the window are (L to R) Chloe, Monkey and far right Mollie.
Both Monkey and Mollie are three legged which at least in Mollie's case illustrates why we prefer not to leave our cats out at night. We do live at 1000 ft. in the eastern edge of the coastal range in Mendocino Co. There often are things that go bump in the night around looking for an easy meal.

The beauty on the right is one of the many flowering plants that I have in locations all over the farm. This one lives on the front porch below my office window. I am the flower person here and Geoffrey is most certainly the "all business" veggie guy!


Below left are the "teenagers" . These five girls Maggie Mae, Wonderlust, KC, Katy and Onyx are  5 month old doelings . They love to have their ears rubbed, Maggie Mae in particular , and will most likely all be staying in the herd a bit. We will see.






If these two look like impending trouble you are right. Justice followed by Liberty are the last kids born this year on July 2. They are  6 weeks old and full of it. Love to cuddle when they get their bottles and love to nibble on bare legs when one is wearing shorts. OUCH!!

Some of the older does enjoying a mid afternoon snooze.  The  small ones are two wethers belonging to one of them who are almost two months old. Time to start looking for a new home of sorts for them.

We have had Great Pyrenees now for 21 years and it seems like only yesterday when our first joined the herd for predator protection. We have had five of our own but for many year worked with Great Pyrenees Rescue of Nor. Cal and have fostered and transported dozens more. They are wonderful dogs, hard working, intelligent and self motivated. Our current dog Spinner has been with us for almost eleven years. She will be eleven in November and she is slowing down but will live her days out doing what she has known all her life. Spin was whelped on a working horse/sheep ranch . When you are eleven and have worked all your life you more then deserve a good nap on a daily basis.

We are ending our first year with our first hive. These bees came with the land. The original hive was over 60 years old. Over the years feral bees have taken place of the original deliberate occupants. We got rid of the old boxes and frames which were rotting and were lucky to have the bees stay with us instead of swarm after both a change of housing and the location of the hive.  Visit an older post and see what we did to get to this

point. http://walnettofarm.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-full-day-of-fall-and-things-are.html  

A lovely plum tree is just one of many fruit trees we got when we moved here. These are a prune type and last year I dehydrated many of them . They are really sweet and great to munch when on the way to or from our barn. We also have multiple apple trees some over one hundred years old and various nut trees plus a persimmon and pears.

Full circle now back to the garden area by the front porch. The sculpture below I purchased about 10 years ago at a stand in the central valley just north of Fresno. I enjoy it all year round and this goat is without question the easiest keeper we have!  Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day.