A Local Farm. January 9, 2013
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: boars, Buckland, bulls, farm animals, farm life, Farmer Chuck, hogs, Llamas, sheep, the Berkshires
trackback
Along the way yesterday, I came across a cool local farm.
OK, I didn’t exactly “come across” it – I hoped to get a few photos of this place, a very organic mix of buildings and animals along a dead-end road in Buckland.
Well, as it happened, I ran into the owner, who gave me a tour! :)
He had hogs in a little barn right off the road:
Quite a few of them, from full-grown to this year’s model:
They were cute up close, in a swineish way:
Gotta love that snoot! :)
…and cattle, including this painfully skeptical one-ton bull:
Normally, one wouldn’t cross the fence to visit such, but his Farmer-Dude assured me he had been bottle fed by his Momma, and was gentle enough to approach.
This side-o’-beef licked and slobbered my pants into the next wash as I scratched his coarse head with one hand and snapped this photo with the other:
I dug it, though I stuck to my car seat on the way home.
There were also sheep, cute little buggers too, but when I tried to take their photo, their Guardian Llama reared up in my face:
Word had it he’d lost several of his little charges recently to coyotes, and he wasn’t in the mood to humor strangers.
I had a great time talking to the farmer, a kindred spirit who wasn’t shy about proclaiming himself to be a Socialist (!) in this land of hicks and hippies.
This was a cool interlude in my day, weaving between hill-town hicks and the hippy peace-niks.
Ah, Life in the Berks! :)
I really like the texture and roughness of the barns. Amazing shot of the llama. I’ve only seen them so calm. It never occurred to me that they could be guardians.
As much as Farmer Chuck’s animals are all as gentle as pets, I was warned to give this Excitable Boy some space.
Llamas are very commonly used as protection for sheep in these parts; they’ll stay with a flock as long as there’s only one of them. Otherwise they pair up and ignore the sheep! I understand the protective factor comes from them being so big, and confusing to coyotes, rather than being all that physically aggressive, though I had no desire to find out what a hoof in the face might feel like.
I don’t know why this stately guy lost some of his charges; perhaps the action was at night and he was sleeping on the job…
It’s a shame there are so few family farms of this type left. The animals look to be a pretty contented bunch and I love the close-up of the friendly bull.
Susan, yes, the denizens of this farm are as happy as meat gets. Not every local farm has this luxury; these people are flat broke due to health issues and a limited income, but they brought a worldview here with them which does our area proud.
Goes to show that you don’t have to have been born here to deserve to be called “local.”
There’s nothing like a good world view.
I hope all is well.