My day at the Barn

Also known as the petting zoo.

It was very similar to being in Kansas again, meeting up with some friends at their farm. Only I had to clean out the stalls instead of just playing with the animals.

And the stalls were for 5 guinea pigs. 

Yes, the 5 guinea pigs had two stalls big enough for a horse each.  That's a lot of mulch and saw dust to move and replace for 5 guinea pigs.  They were very happy when it was all done.  Yesterday was more physical than any other day so far at Lone Pine and I won't be able to walk upright tomorrow.  :) 

I had a goat escape the fenced enclosure. Luckily, he escaped into the barnyard where the children could pet him so it wasn't that large of a crisis.  He actually spent the rest of the day happily prancing around the barnyard in front of all of the animals still locked up.

The other goats were especially ticked at the unfairness of it all.  The sheep were somewhat annoyed but didn't vocalize quite as much as the goats.

I took the Shetland ponies for a walk around the pasture on leads.  The kangaroos weren't exactly sure about them. Of course the ponies wanted to stop at every blade of grass and eat. 

There are 2 giant hogs, Oink and Doris, who received fresh fruit rinds and lettuce.  They were also treated to the old mulch out of the guinea pig stalls and were very happy.  Both of them stood right under where I had to toss it and they were covered it eucalyptus when I was done.  Oink absolutely loves eucalyptus branches and for a treat, she gets 3 or 4 of them to go make a bed out of.  It is fun to watch here take them into her stall and arrange just so. 

Before the Birds of Prey show, we needed to lock up the fully grown chickens in the barnyard (to avoid distractions for the raptors) and close the barnyard and pasture because that is the birds demonstration area.  We were also responsible for keeping people out of the pasture during the show.  Part of the time I was on my own because the Sea Eagle doesn't like men in general and also doesn't like the barn keeper I was working with yesterday.  She had to go inside when Eiluca was flying to avoid an attack. 
 
Another fun filled day with more hands on animal encounters than any other so far.  :)