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"!