The Funny Farm

My name is Amos.

I live on a farm with my family

I am seven-years old.

My sister Kate is three-years old.

We live with our mother who takes care of us, And the animals.

On our farm there are many animals. We have pigs. Ducks. Chickens. Birds. Horses. Cats. The animals have to be fed every morning, and evening.

Our mother rises early every morning when the sun is reaching above the horizon to welcome in the new day.

The laugh of the kookaburra echoes up the valley to the top of the hills. We can't tell if he is happy, or sad.

One day, after a shower of rain, mother went down to feed the animals to find two baby kookaburra's in a deep trough of water. Each of them were flapping their wet wings to stay afloat. To keep their head above the level of water.

Water dripped from the feathers of the kookaburra when mother scooped them from the trough. She placed the both of them on the nearest, flat corrugated iron roof to keep them safe until they dried. When the feathers were dry both the kookaburras flew away to land on a high tree branch.

In the summer the heat burns the grass brown. We have to give the animals more food. With no green grass on which to feed all day, they had to wait until feeding time. Or nibble of the dry grass.

When the rain returns the grass turns green so the animals can eat all day. The horses are not so dependent on us for feed.

We have two horses. Kate helps to feed the horses because she like to pat them. In the warmer weather we hose the horses to keep them cool, and clean.

Goldie is a mare. She used to be a race horse in her past life. The owner retired her because she had been injured racing. She is brown. Nine-years of age.

The other horse was called Dawnella. She was a foal. Her mother died not long after her birth. The death was cause by the bight of a tick. I had to feed the foal with milk from a bucket. No way did she accept to be feed with a bottle. She didn't even like being watched while she fed. When I walked away leaving the bucket on the ground she'd eat. Her coloring was chestnut with a white blaze down the middle of her forehead.

The both horses galloped around the paddock. When they couldn't see each other one whinnied to call to the other, then return to walk, and feed, together on the grass, of hay.

In each sty I had a number of pigs. The pigs loved being sprayed with water. They stood in the way when the stall was being washed clean. When the cement was still wet they rolled around then lay in the sun to dry.

The piglet were very small. They kept escaping from the sty. Everyone had to chase them to put them back with the mother. Their mother was a large sow called Snorkie. She had a very long snout, She had given birth to ten piglet. Some white. Other black. Some black and white.

All the pigs rushed to the side of the sty to be patted, and scratched behind the ears. Most of the pigs had been born in the wild before coming to the farm. They had been tamed. Liked all the attention given to them.

There was a dog called Sam. He was jealous of all the other animals. He chased the horses around the paddock when no one was at home. Sam also chased the chickens, and the cats. Kate, and I, chased Sam to keep him away from the other animals. He was placed on a chain to let the animals have some peace.

On a winter's morning sneakers would be soaked when we walked through the grass to feed the animals. The blades of the grass white from frost, and dew. Beads of moisture fell toward the ground when the sun rose above the horizon. The birds chattered, and squawked to bring in the new day.

Sam trotted along after mother's heels watching for the first movement from any of the animals who may have escaped. He'd chase them before he was stopped. His pink tongue hung between his sharp teeth which lined his powerful jaw. Once his jaws had closed there was no way anyone was able to open them.

On arriving at the animal pens, and sty’s, Sam ran around the fence barking.

He snapped at the chickens, pigs, and ducks.

Drool dripped from his mouth at the thought of eating the animals.

He cast them a look of challenge.

Greed showed in his eyes.

He hoped for one to escape for him to chase.

Catch.

Kill.

Eat.

Sam was very fast.

Sly, and cunning.

“Sam. Leave the chickens alone.”

Sam didn't listen.

He grabbed one chicken by a wing

Mother grabbed him before he was able to hurt the chicken. “You naughty boy. Leave the chicken go.”

Sam looked guilty.

No way was he going to lose his ill gotten gains.

He wouldn't open his mouth.

He looked daggers at mother from where he cowered on the ground.

Sam had been watching for us to be too busy to keep an eye on him.

He had dived quick to grab the escaped chicken.

Sam was smart at playing dumb while waiting his chance to catch his prey.

He had waited until we walked over to the shed to collect hay for the horses. Gaining an opportunity Sam grabbed for the nearest chicken.

He ran around with the chicken hanging from his mouth.

The chicken tried to escape and made a lot of noise.

He lay on the ground ready to make a meal of the chicken.

Sam dared anyone of us to try to take his catch.

Mother straddled Sam.

She knelt on the ground to wedge Sam between her knees.

Took hold of his upper, and lower, section of his mouth to pulled open his mouth.

The fought a battle of wills, and strength.

Finally, mother won with her determined effort to pries open the mouth to set the chicken free.

The chicken was too scared to move.

The shock of a near death experience had frozen her movements.

Still holding Sam to the ground she picked up the chicken to put in the pen out of harms way. She placed it in one of the nest boxed to rest.

After the episode with Sam the chicken became known by the name of Roly-poly. Ever time it moved it toppled over to roll in the dirt.

“Look mother. The chicken is funny. He goes roly-poly.”

“The chicken was hurt. Naughty Sam hurt the poor chicken,” mother told Kate, who had not been there when it was saved from the jaws of death.

“Bad Sam. He hurt Roly-poly.”

From that day forward, the chicken was called Roly-poly.

The injured chicken turned into a proud bantam rooster. Every time he escaped from the pen Sam lay in wait to catch him. But Roly-poly was able to fly to escape to the roof of the pen.

He stood there to crow down at Sam.

Proud of his escape tactics.

He'd beaten the dog.

Last week, Roly-poly nearly met his Waterloo.

He fell off the fence around the sty.

Roly-poly fell into the feeding trough of the pigs.

The pigs were standing near the trough waiting for more food.

Roly-poly fell.

The pigs dived their heads into the trough to fight for the food.

Once again luck was on his side.

He missed falling into the trough.

He was wedged between the trough, and the fence, out of reach of the hungry pigs.

Mother climbed over the fence to save him from being eaten.

Even though he had been in many scrapes, he still stood up against the much larger roosters in the pen. One day while they were fighting, mother grabbed two plastic buckets to place over the roosters to stop them from attacking each other. When she had stopped the fight, she placed the roosters in different pens. Roly-poly stayed with the hens, and the other rooster was placed in the pen with the ducks.

Being a proud rooster Roly-poly struts around the farm. He is free to do so now Sam has been given away to a new home. A place where there weren't any animals for him to chase.

Peace reigned again with all the animals.

The cats are also free to roam without being chased by Sam.

Jade is a tabby colored cat.

She produced a kitten which became known a Smoggy.

Smoggy is a tortoise shell color. Mostly black with ginger, and white, patches.

When tine went by more kittens arrived. One called Ginger because of the coloring of its coat.

Stripes was the other. He was a striped tabby cat.

The cats followed mother every where.

To feed the animals.

To hang out the washing.

Stripes, and Ginger, thought they were helping by swinging on the towels hanging from the line. Or try to crawl in with the washing to play.

We had a rain water tank at the side of the house. If the rain didn't fill it we had to turn on the windmill. The tank was made of cement. We had to keep check on the level of the water to know when we needed to refill with the windmill.

A ladder stayed propped against the side of the tank for us to climb up to look in the hole, or use a stick to measure the level. On one occasion, when mother had taken her turn up the ladder to check the water she had company.

She had finished cleaning the leaves from the strainer.

Went to step down to the next rung.

“Look out for Stripes,” yelled Amos.

Mother turned to look what happened below.

Stripes was on his way up the ladder to reach the top of the tank.

He didn't stop.

He pushed his way between mother, and the ladder, to reach the top

When he had achieved his position on the tank he turned to look down.

Ginger raced around the tank to find a different way to make to the top of the tank.

He tried the large gum tree close to the tank but it wasn't close enough for him to jump.

Finally, he took a chance with the ladder to make his way to the tank.

The two of them made their way back down the ladder to reach the ground.

We had a duckling called Squeak.

He was the first of the batch to be hatched.

We took him away from his mother because she still had a job to do.

Mother didn't want her to walk away from the not hatched eggs.

He was placed in a box with a light bulb to keep it warm until big enough to put back in the pen when the other ones arrived.

Squeak was lonely for some time because he didn't have a mother, or friends, in the box to keep warm.

He was happy when he was big enough to put in the pen with the other ducks.

We had to make sure he was locked away where the foxes didn't catch him.

Squeak is happy in the coupe with the hen, and chickens.

They make a happy family.

No more duckling were hatched because Willy water rat sneaked into the nest and stole the eggs.

We were moving the piglets from one pen to another when one escaped.

He ran toward the bush.

He didn't escape for long.

He came racing home with Jade, Stripes, and Ginger chasing him toward the sty.

The piglet squealed to his mother for help to save him from the cats.

The scene looked so funny with the cats chasing the piglet.

His little legs scooted across the ground.

Dodged around bushes, and logs, to find his way home to his mother.

We like living on our farm.

You never know what is going to happen next.

Some of our friends call our home the Funny Farm. They have seen the antics of our animals but is hard for them to believe what their eyes were seeing.

“Those animals are not animals,” our friends tell us.

“We know that. They are our mother's other children.