Apifera Farm - where art, story, animals & woman merge. Home to artist Katherine Dunn

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©Katherine Dunn.





Friday, March 02, 2007

Ears and sun for Frankie, pizza for me















It's been raining, continuously,some snow, no sun breaks...dank...Wine weather, as in wine, not whine.

I cheered myself this week by painting animals. Little Frankie [short for Franklinia] deserved a painting, and to cheer us both up I gave her big suns and red toenails. I also gave her back her birth ears [many owners ago, they left her out in the cold and her eartips froze off - they also sawed off her horns, rather than disbudding her properly and humanely][Thank you to our dear goat friend Ruthie for also taking part in this piece vicariously].

Frankie's day is quite simple. Get up, push other goats and rams out of the way so she can be FIRST at the hay bale...Eat, eat, eat, waddle around [she definitely waddles]...and then the best part of her day is spent squeezing under the pasture fence and ending up in the front garden of the 'big house' where she has discovered the muscari and tulips are coming up. Frankie had an eventful time at Sunday's birthday hot dog bash for Martyn - she was chased by one of the 3 year old guests until she decided it was better to hang out with the rams. Things have to be pretty bad before Frankie leaves her favorite area for the ram area. Everyone kept referring to Frankie as "he" and my five year old niece kept announcing to everyone, "Frankie is a girl!!!" [She also refers to the donkeys as 'bunny horses'.]




Frankie is also asked a lot if she is expecting...ah well, when you are 1 foot high and eat all day, one can look quite pregnant at the end of the day....

I am hoping for the warmer weather and sun this weekend. We are on the countdown for lambing. Daisy is about to bust. It's time for CDT shots, my 3rd least favorite thing to do on the farm. I am hoping not to inject myself as much as last year. Meanwhile, there is mud everywhere, including in my hair, and under the pillow. The latter I can't quite explain, but I suspect Big Tony...he has rarely left the fire this week....

In closing, I can only say how excited I am, for it is Friday, and that means it is Apifera Farm Pizza Night - our new tradition of making pizza from scratch, good wine, and the fire...When I was little, I used to get so excited at the end of the school day knowing my mom was making one of my favorite meals - pizza night is like that.