Autumn is here.  Some of my friends are upset about this, but I am thrilled.  I am sick of the wildfires and sick of all of the plants struggling for lack of water.

I did enjoy seeing the peacock sitting on the feed shed roof in the morning.  He is starting to lose his feathers.  Let me know if you are interested in some.  They are gorgeous.

The animal chore are going well. It takes longer to give them clean water than to feed them. But I get to pet the pigs while the water is filling. As I have mentioned Porky really enjoys it. Penelope not as much.

The chicken hen is still setting on the peahen eggs.  This morning the peahen stopped by her nest. I am not sure what this was about.  Or if she even knows those are her eggs that she chose not to set on.  

Here is where Magpie enjoys hanging out now days.  She is an old skinny goat, and I doubt she will make it through this winter.  But for now she likes her extra treats and sunning herself in the farm cart.  

As it is autumn, I decided to assess the squash situation.  There does not seem to be nearly as many this year, and they are not ripening as fast as usual.  I am not sure why since we had plenty of sunshine this summer until the recent smoke.  But here are some of the squash I could find:

I am hoping there are a lot more hiding under the leaves.  We will find out with the first frost, I guess.

Today was also a schedule appointment to get the donkeys’ teeth fixed.  We chose to bring them in to save a little money.  Here they are in the barn where our vet does his large animal work.

Olivia needed to have 6 teeth removed with sedation. And it was all my fault. She had been losing some weight so I had been supplementing her with grain. That only accelerated the teeth rotting. I should have had her teeth looked at a long time ago. She was miserable afterward, and Marty was trying to comfort her.

Then it was Marty’s turn.

They had to back him up in the stall since he is so small and was insisting on backing up.  You can tell everything about a donkey by their ear positions.  Marty is not thrilled with his teeth being examined.  

But Olivia’s ears were starting to show some signs of improvement.

We got them safely home, and Olivia ate afterwards so that is a good sign. I now know what to feed her, and she should start putting on some weight with her teeth fixed. We will need to do a better job with regular dental visits. But at least she shouldn’t have more dental pain. Marty’s teeth were not as bad, and he is already chunky. He will need to go on hay now rather than grass to keep his teeth and hooves healthy. Olivia is 26 and Marty is 19 so older donkey care is in order.

PS: We are trying to get the end of summer chores done that were waylaid by the smoke. Yesterday I got the trailer’s roof brushed off. Today we got the snowmobile shelter tarp’s replaced. There are still end of summer chores that did not get done but an atmospheric river is showing up tomorrow morning so time has run out.