Boy have I been slacking! Statement not question. I always get lazy when the weather gets cold. Each year it gets harder and harder to motivate myself to brave the weather. Seems like I get cold easier and warm up harder. Winter hasn’t even “officially” begun and I’m trying to go into hibernation.

In the midst of this seasonal malaise I got an invitation from one of my co-workers. He knew I have an interest in photographing “critters’ as he refers to them and his pygmy goats had just had babies. He wondered if I’d like to come down to see his little “farm-ette” and take some pictures. He warned me to wear boots because it might be muddy. I assured him that wasn’t a problem as I had grown up on the same kind of “farm-ette” (I love that word)

Our definition of a “farm-ette” is a little land on which a few animals are raised for fun and maybe a little profit. Whatever combination of animals you like. This includes the old-fashioned “family farm” as long as it isn’t too big. The homeowner has another job that pays the bills and for the animal hobby. I grew up on a “family farm”. At various times we had chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, goats and horses but my Dad worked at his business every day as well as the farming.

My friend has a similar situation. He raises Silky chickens, Alpacas and pygmy goats and a couple of horses along with the family pets like cats and birds. Although I didn’t get to see them I believe he said he had a couple of parrots.

We started our tour in the chicken coop. These aren’t the regular  run-of-the-mill chickens. These are called silky chickens and they are cute as can be. The hens have a  Pom-Pom on the top of their heads and male and female are really fluffy. They are just the cutest things. There were some chicks and I went about trying to catch them in pictures…boy are they fast!

After my only partly successful attempt to photograph those feisty birds we walked through the alpaca paddock heading to the pygmy goats. The Alpacas were a bit more willing to stand still and “pose” but still kind of wary of a stranger.

Then we reached the goats. Pygmy goats aren’t even as tall as a big dog. I think the adults only came to about my knees and they were very friendly.

The little “kids” were bouncing all over, climbing on feed sacks, opening and closing the barn door, just getting into everything.

Here the light was very dim so it was once again a photographic challenge but I can tell you these are really cute babies.

I’m glad my friend thought to invite me over and take the time to show me around. Like “Charlie” of Charlie’s Angels my friend wished to remain in the background so all we’ll see of him are his hands . 🙂

I just  love the animals. It was a great afternoon and the “shot-in-the-arm” I needed.

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