Haiku Farm 2011

Aarene lives so far north of Seattle that the squirrels change color. (In general Canadian squirrels are black, American squirrels are grey. Aarene says they have both at Haiku farm.)



On another rainy but blessedly snowfree day we made our way up to see Aarene and her animals. We especially wanted to see the changes she has made to her farm since our last visit in 2009.



I think it's wonderful that Aarene and I both finally have our own horse properties, both bought at around the same time. What could we possibly learn from Aarene that we have not experienced in the development of our own land?



Since I did not want to go riding, we had lots of time for tea and catching up. Mimsy and Luna, the shelties, already knew me but Puzzle the cat didn't. As we sat there and drank our tea (Aarene knew exactly what kind of tea I like), Puzzle joined us by sitting in the unoccupied chair.




This cat is calm, entitled, and I think he may even by king of the household. I couldn't resist him! When Aarene gave us some frittata made from her own eggs, the cat was at my feet and very carefully placed both front paws on my leg, "Share?"



Who could say no!

He eventually sat on my lap, something I really wish my own diminutive tiger cat would do.

He loves his laser light toy, and when Aarene started giving the dogs treats (I asked to see their tricks), he was right in the middle of it, hoping to get something good too.



What a self-assured animal!



One of her tricks: Luna crawling on command. I believe it was Luna who feels it is her job to alert us to passing logging trucks at the top of her voice *lol*.



Puzzle actually play-fights the dogs! He jumped on Mimsy, biting her necks, and tries to "take her down"!!



Funnily, he'd end up with a mouthful of long fluff in his mouth and have to stop and try to spit it out every so often.

We finally went outside into the drizzle to see the outside animals and the changes they'd made to the place. It definitely looked different to us, but it was Winter this time.


My man went straight to the barn and started checking out the differences.







I saw that the chickens were all safely contained in their winter garden and approached. Wow they are gonna have some nice vegetables next year with chickens running over it all winter! I like how they all match. Aarene let me feed them and I was shocked to find a chicken leg bone in there - they eat chicken scraps? EW!



They do make pleasant clucking noises as they forage, and the eggs taste great. I'm tempted...



Luna says, "At the moment, there are no logging trucks driving by." Aarene said that this dog is not very bright, in fact, she experiences every day on the farm as if it's the first day. I told her she has to see the Drew Barrymore film "50 first dates."

Aarene went to get some hay for the horses.


Here is Hana, peering at Aarene as she emerges from the hay barn.



Then we were shocked to see some mare nastiness - both mares attacked each other at the same moment, both of them turning and kicking each other! They circled and glared and I was like "omgosh, omgosh, someone's gonna get hurt!" and my man even commented about how the ears were pressed so far back you couldn't see them.



Aarene walked in there with an armload of hay, told them to back off, separated them into their separate areas, and did not get injured.



They weren't gonna fight with her in there. Whew!



They have their mud management down pretty well - this is not mud, this is hogfuel. I loved the fine hay they have, that would be really chewable for Baasha.



A wet Fiddle says, "It's better than snow."



Then I met one of the goats. He was standing on this mountain begging for treats, I guess, but I just wanted to touch his nose. He had the cutest nose and mouth, I kept touching it. I never knew goats had cute muzzles. I loved the way he stood at attention with his front legs pressed together.

Aarene explained to us the insulation system they are using with their metal/pole barn. Ours has a condensation problem and we'll be adding some insulation too, but not between the beams and roof panels like Aarene's, cuz ours is already built. I'm very curious about insulation solutions but my man is on it, talking to contractors already. Aarene's barn is really lovely and large, really perfect for two horses, or even three or four! With only two they will have 12X12 box stalls with doors opening to large paddocks. Then she'll have the other two stalls for tack and hay, with a 12 foot wide aisle in the middle. Very nice.

Eventually we had to leave, cuz librarians must loan books. I wanted to pick up some Hoofmaker for my next door neighbor in Germany and I trusted that there would be a feed/tack store nearby. Aarene drew me a map and helped us find the place, but it was really hard because we drove by it a few times and did not even recognize it as a feed/tack store! It had no sign indicating what type of store it was, it just had the big words CO-OP on it. I walked in hesitantly and someone tried to give me a sample of dog/cat food. I said "Is this a feed store?" "Yes." "OK!" I went and got my man and we started looking in the horsie aisle. I felt so at home there, an American horse supply section!

I laughed at these outrageously pink buckets and asked my man to take my photo. Finally we asked the clerk for help and she said they were out, but that the other Co-op has it, in Marysville. So we had another off-I-5 adventure looking and found another Co-op and sure enough they had it. They were so nice, geez, America is so full of helpful chatty clerks! They act like they have all the time in the world to help you, and one lady went over the ingredient list item by item with me, making sure it was the right formula. I saw a big popcorn machine and the clerk confirmed, "Yes, it's FREE POPCORN!" and even though I was full of frittata, I took a bag. I really miss all the free stuff America gives out at hardware/feed stores.



It was a really good day -- if you are ever in the very top left corner of the lower 48, stop by Haiku Farm! Here is Seattle welcoming us home.