Morning Bray Farm

Bernard regards the poop scoopin’ rake with awe.

When Bernard is around, Don calls scoopin’ poop donkey lacrosse.  

 And, as usual, Bernard thinks that’s hysterically funny. Probably because he’s a goober.

‘Tis the season for baby birds once again. These little guys were sitting on the barn floor Sunday afternoon.

I just love how well-defined their little mouths are. I wonder if they are designed that way to act as beacons for mom and dad.

I always find it comforting to hear their little peeps resonating throughout the barn.

Some interesting facts about sparrows from whatbird.com:

• The Old Testament Bible associates the symbol of the sparrow with loneliness and solitude, while the New Testament views it as a sign of insignificance. Poor House Sparrow.
• In Japan the sparrow is traditionally a symbol of loyalty, perhaps because of its sociable nature and how it gets along in large numbers.
• These birds return to their birthplace after every migration (a characteristic known as philopatric). Because of this, local populations have adapted to the color of their habitat resulting in 15 distinct subspecies in the West.
• A group of house sparrows are collectively known as a “blight”, “humiliation”, and “subdivision” of sparrows.

I don’t know if we’ll ever understand Meggie’s behavior. We trimmed some trees and bushes back yesterday afternoon and shared the cuttings with all of the critters. While everyone else happily dug in, it seemed that Meggie first needed to show the plum-tree branch who was in charge.

We visited Santa Fe yesterday. According to one of our travel guides, Burro Alley is one of the top 10 sights in Santa Fe’s old town.

Burros carried firewood on their backs down this notorious alley lined with gambling halls in the 1830s and 40s.

“For many years, the people of Santa Fe relied on the burro for their welfare.”   

We were an entire 50 miles away from home and the boys. Don demonstrated how easy it is to go into donkey withdrawal.

Thanks to Carson for taking this very relaxing photo of Leland the last time she visited Morning Bray Farm. ♥

We’ve noticed Ellsworth and Fergus playing together a lot lately. 

They look happy together,

and seem to have a genuinely good time.

They don’t mind if Bernard or Nigel want to join in their fun,

but the play between Ellsworth and Fergus often seems to go on indefinitely.

While all the play was going on yesterday morning, Bernard was only interested in what time breakfast was being served. I think he was serious.

Poor Bernard. I know personally that being short sometimes has its advantages. On the other hand, sometimes it’s downright tough.

Yo, ‘Worth. Do you think you could score me some of those leaves?

You mean these leaves up here?

Yes, Ellsworth. Those leaves up there.

Dang, these are some good leaves Bernard.

I promise I’ll be your best friend forever…

Canada geese were still hanging out in our pasture yesterday after we irrigated Saturday. Seeing as how Fergus and Nigel hail from just outside Death Valley National Park in California, I wonder if they’ve ever seen geese before coming to Morning Bray Farm. Fergus seemed quite intrigued.

 Poor Fergus. The geese didn’t seem quite as intrigued by him.

Wrapping things up from our 100th post celebration, Sandra asked to see what a Morning Bray Farm tote bag looks like. Here it is:

CeeCee asked us to explain how the boys had four very distinct emotions going on in the photo for that post. The answer: apple slices. ♥