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December 2007 - January 2008 - February 2008 - April 2008

Volume 2 Issue 4                                                                                  May 2008

A month ago, here in Southern California, we experienced some very strange weather.  We had marble sized hail that actually stayed on the ground, leaving us with what looked like 3 – 4 inches of snow.  Every once in a while, we will have hail, but in almost 45 years (my whole life); I have never seen it stay on the ground like it did.  We also had a small tornado just a couple of miles from our house.  Only a few days before all of this, we had temperatures in the 90’s.  On this crazy weather day, it dropped into the low 40’s.

All of our animals survived the rugged storm, but the next day our little goat, Wiggles, died.  He was one of our males born last year.  It is always hard on us, when an animal dies.  We have well over a hundred animals, but they are all pets.  Another recent death was a young chinchilla named Sebastian.  Our animals receive a lot of attention from us, so we become quite attached to each one.

We have been getting ready for summer by getting the sheep shorn (we had someone do the sheep) and we did the shearing ourselves on the 15 alpacas.  My little year old lamb, Shebaa, had her first hair cut and she did not know what to make of it.  She was out of sorts for a couple of days.  Oscar the camel has now shed his winter coat, so he too is ready for the warmer weather.  If you are going to visit the farm some time this summer, plan on coming during the cooler morning hours.

If you do come, bring a picnic lunch.  We fenced off a nice section that is shaded, where families and/or groups can eat and not be bothered by the animals.  While eating, you can watch the Sulcata tortoises that are kept in the same area.  We have two females, Holly and Heather, who each way about 40 – 50 pounds.  We also have a male named Ram who weighs somewhere around 100 pounds.  There has been some spring time activity amongst these guys, so hopefully, one of these days we will get some baby tortoises.

Mr. Joe’s Farm stays very busy, between various farm tours by families and various groups and also off-site events that we do.  I always tell people, it is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun.”  When you get a chance, come hang with us for awhile on the farm.  You will have a great time.

P.S. There is a new addition to the farm. A mini horse was born on June 20.