Monday, August 3, 2009

Snowball

If you know me even a little bit you know that I am not an animal girl. I love animals as long as I don't have to touch them. I understand that people who have dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, and lizards love them and don't understand why I don't. I'm not sure why I don't like animals, I don't remember ever liking the animals on our hobby farm when I lived at home so it must have been for a long time and for no reason, besides being allergic now.

I remember feeding the pigs, scared to death every time I had to do it by myself.... taking the ice cream pail full of slop and throwing it over the fence while the pigs rammed into the fence and tried to climb up the sides to get more..... YIKES!!

I remember feeding the chickens, throwing the feed all over the fenced in outside pen. The worst part of that was then collecting the eggs. How many of you have been pecked by a chicken? Those darn chickens did not want to get off their eggs and if we left them in there we got yelled at so we have to make sure we got them all. That meant pulling the chickens out of the coops to find out there was nothing under them. I was so scared of touching them, mom would yell "just reach in and grab them by the neck and pull them out"..... I'm thinkin' NO!! Oh and heaven forbid if we dropped an egg because we got pecked to death, then all the chickens would run to eat it, mom yelled if that happened too.

We also had a cow or two, the only thing I remember about them is shaking the gallon jar of cream to make butter. Every morning we would pass the jar around the breakfast table until we had butter, when you have enough kids you don't have to shake it very often. Thank goodness there were boys in the family that had to milk them, they did it by hand, no milking machine for 2 cows.

What's this story all about, well let me tell you. Thursday night Starla, Gayle and I went for a walk in the animal barns at the fair. I'm not sure why we did but that's not the point I guess. First we don't even know if we could open the gate or not, we finally ask a guy if we can come in, he says sure but they are weighing the animals. Okay big deal, we open another fence and go into a pig barn, those pigs are huge. I see wild pigs, not in pens and wonder why we are in there with them. Kinda freaking out I think we should go back on the other side of the fence where all the other people are, we are the only ones in the fence, this can't be right!! Finally when a wild pig gets back into his pen and another one is let loose and another one is coming off the scale and another one is being unloaded from a truck.... we believe we're in the wrong place. Okay so they weren't wild but they could have been!!

Next is the cow barn, oh my them is some big animals. They are really really cute but I'm glad I had my zoom lens on so I didn't have to get close. One girl was holding a baby goat and there's three of us that walk by and she decides to move over by me and let me pet the baby goat..... why pick me? The goats were also cute with their big ole ears.

We laughed at the bunnies, chickens and roosters names. Those 4H kids have quite the imagination. Like I said I love animals..... photographing them!! I'm guessing Snowball doesn't roam the muddy barnyard before fair week.

Thank you to all those people that love animals, they need you and so do I. Loving the white eyelashes, too bad baby snow wouldn't leave momma's side for me to get a better picture.

4 comments:

Deb said...

I loved petting and touching all the animals. I think I have a sister named Julie who is just like you.

jules said...

I feel the same way. We went to the fair too, walked through those barns. I never touched any of them, but I did look at some. The baby goats were cute, but I didn't touch them. Some dogs are ok, when they are puppies. I know, I know. How can one be raised on a farm and feel this way? I remember collecting eggs with the same experience as you. Yikes! Pigs, no way. Cows are way too big. Cats, no thanks. What's a girl to do?

Patti said...

I am on Julie's side. I have been known to cuddle with puppies but as soon as they get bigger, forget it. We went to the fair but did not even go near the barns. My theory...just stay away from those darn barns.

Shannon E. said...

Like and Love the animals. Pigs are mean looking and totally have scared me my whole life. We were always told they eat little kids and damn it when you are a little kids they scare you. I think that is why I am fascinated by farms now. I took Ian to a farm twice this summer and he screamed the whold times. Cows just freaked him out. I guess I will try again next year! I think all baby animals are cute,(well not turkey's) but for the most part the cuteness wears off. This picture is adorable---LOVE IT!!!.