Our mini-donkeys are stars in this video!

 

Multi-talented book author, blogger, podcaster, and videographer, Laura Camby McCaskill, came to visit us on Our Tiny Farm last summer. She creates wonderful videos on animals, especially those in rescue and sanctuary situations. She heard about our "mini-donkey visit fundraiser" for Veterans Healing Farm and asked if she could do a video on Our Tiny Farm. Of course I said yes, so here is a link to her wonderful video on our donkeys which was released on November 1:

As for those donkey visits, our plan was to offer them as an agritourism business, but it has been a real learning experience on what all that entails. Structuring the business, finding affordable insurance, figuring out how to fit this into our already busy lives, and crunching the numbers to make sure it can be profitable for us but affordable for our guests has been a big effort. So, we are not ready for paying guests! I will let you know if we decide to move forward with it as a business.

 

 

Pause in the Mini-Donkey Visits

 

The mini-donkey visit fundraiser we held last spring for the Veterans Healing Farm was a HUGE success, and now we want to consider making mini-donkey visits a real farm business. But we quickly learned that we weren't really prepared to do that. Presently we are working with a local Small Business Center to structure a business and with our insurance company to provide appropriate coverage for our farm and our visitors. Once we are able to accept paying visitors, if we decide to go that route, we will post it here, on our Facebook page, and on our Google Business page. Thank you for your patience.

Plan a Visit with the Miniature Donkeys-A Fundraiser for Veterans Healing Farm

 

The mini-donkey visit fundraiser is over and we are not currently accepting reservations.

The mini-donkey fundraiser for VETERANS HEALING FARM raised $1,650! It was so successful that we are now considering making it a permanent part of our farm. We need a little time to work out the business, tax, and insurance end of things and will let you know as soon as we have made a decision. Thanks for your support!

Visiting the Donkeys

 

In response to the lovely article in AVL Today about our donkeys, we need to set some times and rules for visiting the donkeys. Please keep in mind, that we are just offering this as a fundraiser for Veterans Healing Farm and educational opportunity on Our Tiny Farm. We are in the beta testing phase to see if this is a good fit for us and the donkeys in the long run.

Presently, we will welcome visitors on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays only (with the exception of these Saturdays: March 19th, May 14th, May 21st, June 25, July 23, Sept. 24th and the month of October). You must make an appointment at least one day in advance! Please contact us through the contact form in the right sidebar or through ourtinyfarmnc@gmail.com. We might schedule several groups together but will try to not have more than five or six people here at a time. Visits are for an hour.

Dress for being outdoors and on a farm. We do not have a public restroom (we will handle urgent needs, but try to use the restroom before you arrive). Safety is our primary obligation to you and the donkeys, so we will assess each visitor situation to determine how best to have you interact with the donkeys. For example, if you have young children, we will probably separate the donkeys and let the children visit with one donkey on a halter and lead. There are electric fences, poop, mud, dust, and everything else that you would expect to encounter on a farm. There will be hand sanitizer, and a washing station when its warm enough, available that you will be asked to use; especially the children. Please do not feed the donkeys anything except what we provide to you. If it rains, we will meet in the barn. 

Currently we are requesting $10 per visitor which will be donated to Veterans Healing Farm.

Six Little Donkeys on Our Tiny Farm

 

It has been a while since I posted on our blog, so thought I would spend some time on this sunny,  Friday afternoon in February to catch up. As I mentioned last October, we had two new little donkeys join our herd. These are two beautiful true miniature donkeys. They are about three years old and just as sweet as can be. One is white with black spots. Her name is Pickles; she's the one on the far left in the photo above. The other one is a brown-grey and her name is Waffles; she is the second from the left in the photo above. They are now very much a part of the herd, and in fact, Waffles is the alpha jenny. In other words, she's the boss!

Interest in our donkeys continues to grow. We receive more inquires, questions, and comments about them every month. Today we had a journalist from Asheville come out to do a story on the donkeys. It was heartwarming to see the joy on her face when those six little donkeys gathered around her for pets and treats. We should probably give some serious thought to adding an agritourism element to Our Tiny Farm!

We did get a good snowfall last month, with 14 inches measured on the farm. It was very cold and blustery, so five of the donkeys wore their colorful winter coats (i.e., blankets) for a few days. We were a little concerned about Pickles and Waffles because they had just moved here from California and had never experienced real cold weather before. There was no need to worry, they did just fine.

But the snow was new to the new donkeys. The photo above was taken right after Waffles was let out of the barn and when bounding out into the snow for the first time. The look of surprise on her face was precious!

It was a very pretty snow that stayed around much longer than usual for our area in the southern mountains of western North Carolina.

We have had remarkable sunrises and sunsets for months. I don't know why they are so vibrant right now, but I am enjoying it. The sunrise above was on Christmas eve morning.

In addition to our little herd of donkeys, we have a trio of lively and entertaining cats who bring us joy and laughter every day. This box is now a permanent fixture on the table for "the queen".

And now I am going to sign off and give some serious thought to "mini-donkey agritourism"!