Saying goodbye to dogs

So I had to say goodbye to Josie today. She was our Lab-Ridgeback dog that we had since she was a puppy three years ago. She is a really good dog- very active and friendly. But she dug a lot and dug a hole under our pasture gate, allowing two goats to escape, one of which was killed. So we could not keep her here. We found a nice home on acreage with three children to play with. They do not care about digging and do not have livestock. So it is a really good fit, but I am still crying. I am not used to giving away animals that I am so attached to, even if it is for the best.

We had already found a home for our Rottweiler Queenie who was also involved in the attack. We found a Navy home for her with older children and no other animals. So we found a good home for her too.

New pack llamas

So we purchased three pack llamas today. We have had guard llamas but have been looking for packing animals to help us with hiking and hunting. We found these wonderful animals that had been used for packing for years. They are quite well behaved and beautiful. Here's Chance:

Here's Oreo:
And here's Walker:
We also got pack gear in the deal. Here are some of the panniers and pads:
And here's a couple of the 5 packs:
So we are set. All we need now is a trailer and a trail!

Happy Halloween!

< 1 second of fame

So I made it in the New York Times today. No, it is not for a scientific breakthrough, a humanitarian effort, nor environmental preservation. No, my contribution to the world is playing a computer game. Here's the link:

To Harvest Squash, Click Here

Here's my paragraph in the article:

“I was having all these deaths on the farm and hurting myself on a daily basis doing real farming,” said Donna Schoonover, of Schoonover Farm in Skagit County, Wash., who raises sheep, goats and Satin Angora rabbits (real ones!). “This was a way to remind myself of the mythology of farming, and why I started farming in the first place.”

So "all these deaths" refers to when I mowed the pheasant nest and Fern was killed by the dogs, both in September. "Hurting myself" referred to the injury updates while we were building the hay loft. I did mention that "We raise livestock: Shetland sheep, Nigerian Dwarf goats, Dexter-Highland cows and Satin Angora rabbits. We also have donkeys, llamas, and poultry (turkey, chicken, geese, ducks, pheasants, peafowl). And we have an orchard and make hard apple cider. And we have a large vegetable garden. " So that was edited- not sure why only Satin Angora rabbits were specified though.

Anyway, I will now bask in the glory of my fame and then go out to the barn in the rain/mud and trim goat hooves.

Pumpkin food

This is food I cooked today from a pumpkin that I won as a door prize at our Northwest Shetland meeting on Saturday. This is an Amish pumpkin that John grows with the help of sheep pellets. His pumpkins are awesome so I was so please to get one as a prize. So today I made pumpkin soup. pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bars and pumpkin bread, all from this one pumpkin. Most of this will be frozen as we cannot eat this much pumpkin food all at once!