As far as the animals are concerned, there’s more to autumn than simply pretty colors.
Tonka says that at his new home, candy falls from the trees.
He snuffles along, hunting for acorns with as much enthusiasm as a pig searching for truffles.
The goats do not eat acorns. Not yet. The goaties have a sweet tooth; they’ll wait until springtime when the nuts have sprouted and so are less bitter. However, they’re not wanting for delicacies this season. There’s a reason that this tree is dubbed a sugar maple.
Pip and Caper have been spending their days watching the leaves fluttering down and snarfing up the tastiest ones.
However, being lazy boys, given their druthers, they’d prefer to be hand fed.
Not all candy comes in a bag.
Cute! None of your animals are spoiled! :)
While I love the chickens, and admire Tonka’s graceful beauty…I have to admit it’s the goat boys that crack me up! I love how you capture their personalities in the photos and share their candor, honest, straight-forward joy of life. Precious! Hysterical! Thanks a million for the smile :)
Hilarious!
Gotta love those free snacks.
I have to admit when I was a youngster I ate (well really chewed and then spit out) a acorn once just to see what the fuss was about. Tonka can have them. ;-)
Before the tornado when I had three 90 year old oaks my fall mowing sounded more like a blender grinding up marbles. Oh and how I miss watching Lulu being driven nuts (pun intended) by the dozens of squirrels that descended on the yard. Your constant chasing of them and their constant teasing of her as they just stayed out of her reach on the side of the tree and barked and flipped their tail at her. ;-)
One reason I love coming to this site, makes me think of things I’ve forgotten or love to remember. Thanks Terry
My dad had a cow that died of kidney failure in the fall a few years ago, and the vet told him it was acorn poisoning. It is apparently a bigger problem for cows than for horses, but the tannins in acorns can be toxic to several kinds of livestock if they eat enough of them. Now my dad moves the cows to a pasture with fewer oak trees until the squirrels and deer have time to clean up the acorns. Just don’t want to see Tonka get sick! :)
Thank you for mentioning this. I’d thought about that problem.This farm hasn’t ever had an acorn poisoning event. OTOH, this is a bumper year for acorns (next year will be a boom year for chipmunks.) Because Tonka is in and fed before going out, and always has hay to eat, I am counting on his belly being cushioned enough to deal with the amount that he’s consuming.
I was wondering about the toxicity of the acorns too. we don’t have them here, but I’d heard of it.
What is under the nest boxes I that I see on the Barn Cam? As always love the boys pictures!
We had a bumper acorn crop last year but so far I’ve seen very few from our Oak wood. The squirrels are however, gorging on horse chestnuts and leaving the shells all over the drive and lawns. We don’t even have mature chestnut trees in our wood so they are shipping them in from my next door neighbours .Considering the size of the shells and a squirrel they must be exhausted.
Your photos always make me smile!
Beautiful autumn colored leaves….like candy corn for goats :)