Posts Tagged ‘alpaca’
5
Nov
Posted by Laura in Adventures, Community, Cook's Country Connection, Corgi, Farming, Great Pyrenees, Poultry, Sisters, Small Business, Small Town Life, Walli Pajari-Williams. Tagged: 5 Stages of Grief: Kubler-Ross, alpaca, animals, cook, Cook Dollar Barn, Cook's Country Connection, Corgi, Dogs, farm creatures, farming, gardening, Ginormous White Slobbering Dog, Great Pyrenees, Grieving, Guinea Hens, horse, Jai, llama, mn, pajari, poo, Poultry, rabbit. 34 comments
Losing Cook Dollar Barn was one of the worst experiences we have lived through. It wasn’t just a store; it was an important social hub for the Pajari Girls, and our little town, too. Every day, the list of people and things we miss gets longer. And when people told us that there must be something even better around the corner, we KNEW they were lying.
Now, we are headed back. Back in “A“ Barn, if not “The Barn”.
So here’s the scoop: barring zoning, insurance or licensing issues, Her Highness The Queen of Poo (Lois) is hoping to open the Peterson family homestead as a petting farm/ event location this summer! Can we get a whoop whoop??
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26
Dec
Posted by Laura in Adventures, Blogging, Christmas, Cook's Country Connection, Corgi, Dogs, Farming, Great Pyrenees, Parent of The Year, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Safety, Sisters, Uncategorized, Walli Pajari-Williams, Winter. Tagged: alpaca, animals, cook, Cook Dollar Barn, Cook's Country Connection, Corgi, Dogs, farm creatures, farming, Ginormous White Slobbering Dog, Great Pyrenees, horse, humor, Ice, Jai, llama, mn, pajari, puppy brain. 6 comments
Any activity outside when the high temp is one degree above zero and the low is 17 below zero is an adventure. Eldest Spawn and New Guy Clint took this lovely family photo on their way to their next Christmas, while Middle and Youngest Spawn stayed in the house, and Lois, Big Guy and I watered and fed the herd.
This is the Pajari Family Wave, aka “Say ‘Cheese’!” . PS: Thanks eldest spawn, for posting to FB…I can kiss the Parent of the Year Award away again this year.
I felt about 5 years old borrowing my sister’s husband’s Carhartt bibs. I’m an average 5’6″, but I still had a six inch roll on the bottom cuffs. The man’s a freakin Sasquatch..
This is my big sister Lois sporting her super warm South Park Kenny coat. She likes having her picture taken in this coat. Pretty sure she’s giving me the Pajari Family Wave; hard to tell with mittens though. Thanks, Husimann!!
Smile, Sissy!! And Little Bit.. 🙂
She said “Climb up here and blow in this wet, metal fitting.” It felt like a trick…
I was pretty sure this was gonna be me.
…but I did it anyway. It was that, or fight with a hundred-foot frozen hose tomorrow.
See Big Guy waaaaay down there? He is the shorter tree between the two pines. Said the water shot outta the end of the hose EIGHT FEET.
Walli Pajari-Williams and GusGus love the snow. Here’s a short video of Corgis in Winter.
The alpacas didn’t seem particularly grateful.
I’m sure Jai is part polar bear. He loves winter, and was playing with the lovely ice candle ring I made for Lois and Big Guy.
Next, we decided the herd needed some extra calories for Christmas and cold weather. I made a short video of their approach. This bunch is VERY food-motivated. I was pretty sure this video would end up on a 48 Hours Special as my death sequence.
The pines in the foreground are the windbreak where I found Narnia and pine cones for a craft project. You can just barely see the huge pine (in the background) we visited on our adventure the other night.
After that, we needed a kettle of hot water for hot chocolate and Ice Hole Butterscotch Schnapps. And a little nap. Merry Christmas from our barn to yours!!
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19
Dec
Posted by Laura in Adventures, Christmas, Cook's Country Connection, Dogs, Family History, Farming, Gardening, Genealogy, Great Pyrenees, Sisters, Stupid Rheumatoid Arthritis, Uncategorized, Winter. Tagged: alpaca, animals, cook, Cook's Country Connection, Dogs, farm creatures, farming, gardening, Ginormous White Slobbering Dog, Great Pyrenees, horse, Jai, llama, mn, plants. 6 comments
Yesterday, I had two adventures at The Farm. On the first adventure, I took along a basket to collect pine cones for a craft idea and ended up walking down memory lane.
If you are new to the blog, you may not know that my sister and I live next door to each other; she and her husband and creatures live on the land (and in the house!) our great-grandparents homesteaded in 1900; and I in the house our Grampa Ralph built next door. When we were little, our grandpa’s brother, Uncle Uno lived in the Farm house, and we spent hours between both places while our parents worked. Every day, grandpa would go next door to visit his brother, who was housebound with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Several days a week for the last 11 years, I have gone next door to let assorted dogs out (or in, or whatever their little hearts desire). Our family has watched this land and the humans (& creatures) that live here grow, reproduce, mature, die, and begin again for nearly 113 years, and the land has watched us right back.
Come for a walk with me. I’m sorry the captions are in white….I can’t change that 😦
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28
Aug
Posted by Laura in Blogging, Dogs, Driving Horses, Farming, Gardening, Great Pyrenees, Poultry, Sisters, Vermiculture. Tagged: alpaca, composting, Cook's Country Connection, farming, gardening, horse, llama, organic fertilizer, poo, rabbit, vermiculture, worms. 12 comments
Don’t be scared…it’s only fertilizer.
So my sister and I were sitting by the bonfire tonight, talking about all the by-products we use from The Funny Farm (now Cook’s Country Connection), and naturally the talk turned to poo. Her critters produce a LOT of it. And since we are both avid gardeners, this is a good thing. The trouble is, all poo is not created equal. Thus, I decided to share an overview of the poo we fertilize with, and why. (Please note: NPK is the amount of Nitrogen, Phosporus, and Potassium in fertilizer. Most synthetic fertilizer is 20, 10,5. However, we prefer the organic, homegrown type that comes from all the critters. It takes a bigger volume of fertilizer, but it’s worth it. And free. And we have to something with all that poo!)
- Horse/Donkey Poo: Little Bit, Itchy, Squirt, Toby and Jack eat a LOT. Horses are less-efficient at digesting than other farm animals, so they poo a lot, too. Cleaning up after them often requires a front-end loader and a strong back. That’s why I usually just supervise. Horse and donkey poo is “hot”, meaning it’s high in nitrogen and can burn plants if not aged or composted. (The average NPK for horses is .7, .30, .60.) Also, weeds can be an issue with horse poo, since a lot of the seeds pass right on through. However, every equine on the place is an eating machine, so there are large quantities of horse poo available.
Lois with (clockwise from bottom left) Itchy, Little Bit, and Squirt
- Rabbit Poo: Zip the bunny was easy to litterbox train–unfortunately he had a tendency to chew on things he shouldn’t. Like wiring. Therefore, his accomodations were upgraded to an indoor-outdoor hutch with a wrap-around porch. Bunnies usually poo in the corner farthest from their food, so collecting rabbit poo is easy. The average NPK is 2.4, 1.4, .6. Bunny poo is already pelletized, so it’s convenient, too! And it’s safe to put directly around plants, like llama beans…no need to compost first. Luckily, Lois brought home another bunny today from our friend Diane 🙂
- Worm Poo: I love composting! Two summers ago, our high school math/science teacher, Mrs. Ann Bidle, had a worm bin as part of a class project. When the project was over, she gave me the worms and bin 🙂 Most people know that earthworms are excellent for the garden. They aerate the soil, break down organic matter, and add vital good bacteria that helps plants grow bigger faster. I spread the castings from my worm bins around two of my apple trees this spring, and they are literally weighed down to the ground with pie apples. My lilacs love castings, too. I also add excess worms to my regular compost bins and piles to get things moving faster. If you want more info on vermiculture, check out this blog: http://www.redwormcomposting.com/getting-started/. Average NPK varies greatly depending on what worms are fed.
- Llama Beans & Alpaca Poo: Talk about the perfect organic fertilizer! It’s compact, has very little smell, releases nutrients slowly, can be added directly to the garden, is easy to collect (they tend to go in a few central locations), and face it- Jill, Belle, Madelyn and Maddox are just plain fun to be around. The underbites and humming alone are priceless.
Madelyn, one of the newest additions to the Funny Farm.
Lois and Jade sniffing noses with Bella Llama
Check out this Nicotiana I started from seed and transplanted to the flower bed that had llama beans. It’s easily twice the size of the others I started and placed elsewhere. The average NPK for llamas is 1.5, .2, 1.1.
- WITH llama beans…
- Dog/Cat Poo: Unfortunately, dog and cat poo are NOT good for much. Never use pet waste in gardens or compost. (Assuming you have normal pets ie: cat, dog, rodent, etc.) If you know something we don’t, please let us know. The big dogs alone weigh close to 300 pounds, so you can just imagine the sheer volume of poo they produce.
Cats do reduce the amount of mouse poo on the farm, however. Which is good. Nobody wants mouse poo in their feed.
As you can see, using poo for fertilizer is not only good gardening…it’s a way of life on The Funny Farm. Any questions? Ask Lois…she is FULL of poo In fact, she’s the Queen of Poo. True story! Google it and see!!
What’s your favorite poo for gardening?
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