Cast of Characters-Part 2

We have always been huge animal lovers.  Up until now, we've only had dogs in our family, and for 2 years we had pet rats.  I know, sounds gross, but they were actually really sweet and cute in a ratty sort of way. 

Otto is our first family dog.  He is a total moma's boy, spoiled rotten, and the best snuggler ever.

He hates the cold, loves to lay under the wood stove, and steals my shoes to snuggle with when we're not home.  I am constantly searching for shoes because Otto always carried them off.  He isn't the toughest dog in the world, in fact he spends most of his time shivering, but we love him anyway!

 

Buddy is our newest dog.  We found him right before we moved to the farm in November.  We were searching for a "farm dog", a dog who could roam the property with the kids and protect them and our animals.  We answered an ad on craigslist about a wandering stray Australian Shepherd.   We went to meet him, and he was dirty and terrified.  Reece talked us into bringing him home for one night to get to know him.  He looked and acted like he may have run away from an abusive home.  He was so jumpy.  All it took was raising an arm in the air, and he would cower.  We gave him a bath and lots of love.  We fell in love with him and decided to keep him.  He has turned out to be an amazing dog.  He knows his job is to protect the kids and sleeps on the floor between their beds every night.  When we're outside, he follows every step, except occasionally when he gets a whiff of a rabbit and loses his mind!  He loves the snow and playing chase with Otto. 

When we moved here, we inherited 12 hens.  Being "city people" we've never even been around chickens much. I've always bought farm eggs from local farms, so I was super excited about having our own eggs!  They are a blast to have in the yard!  The kids have so much fun with them.  Unfortunately, we lost one of them last week.  All we found were feathers and a foot.  Welcome to farm life.  Now we have 11. 

The girls get lots of hugs!

and they eat very well!  All you have to do is say "Here chick, chick, chick", and they all coming running as fast as their little legs will carry them.

We just added a rooster to the mix.  His name is Fred. We think he's beautiful!

 

It took him a few days to try to show 12 women who the boss was.  I think they let him think he's the boss, but secretly the girls run the show.  We can't wait until Spring so we can hatch some baby chicks. 

Here are some of our girls:

 

 

 

Okay, so now you've met 18 of us.  Only 10 to go!