By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary
Greetings, and thank you again for supporting the animals at VINE Sanctuary by contributing to our Feed Fund!
After a very wet spring, we're having a cool and dry summer on-site at the sanctuary. The days are long, and it's always a struggle to stretch our small staff to cover all of the daylight hours.
Members of our animal care team start work at 6 AM. Morning chores include opening the doors of all eleven bird coops, watching the birds as they exit to make sure everybody seems OK; filling up the water and feed bowls in all of the foraging yards used by birds; giving elder and disabled cows, goats, and sheep their morning meds and fortified feed; filling up the huge water troughs attached to each of the big barns; and hiking or ATV-ing up to the middle and back pastures to check on all of the cows there.
That last chore can be delightful but also time-consuming and tiring, depending on where the herds have taken themselves to graze and whether the cows are close together or spread out along the ridge or in the forest.
The newest member of the back pasture community is Ro, who had a prickly encounter with a porcupine while exploring her new surroundings but has otherwise settled into her new community smoothly. In the front pasture, the newest community member is Pippin, who has already figured out how to "help" unload the pickup truck on feed store day.
The prices on all of the grains and seeds we haul home every week have gone up, none more than sunflower seeds, which also can be hard to find. Sometimes, Cheryl — who is celebrating her 15th anniversary at the sanctuary this month — has to drive to several farm and feed stores to find all of the sunflower seeds we need. (Because of the high calcium in their shells, they are an especially important component of the diets of several sorts of birds at the sanctuary.)
Speaking of anniversaries, we're still celebrating our 25th! Over the years, we've learned so much from our non-human community members. We feel obliged to share those lessons, and the stories of animals at the sanctuary, as wildely as we can. That has meant writing and also inviting scholars and other writers to visit, so that they can learn and then share that knowledge too.
Next month, we'll be hosting a special meeting of the VINE Book Club dedicated to the 20+ books that mention the sanctuary. You're welcome to join us! The Zoom event will be held on September 28 starting at 3 PM US EDT and is free and open to all. Register here.
Other daily chores at the sanctuary include barn cleaning, coop cleaning, and carting the messy results of those chores to our giant compost piles with our small tractor. When daily chores are done, it's time for weekly, semi-weekly, monthly, and seasonal chores. The big tractor helps to put out 500-pound bales of hay several times each week and shifting those compost piles quarterly. Three times a week, we distribute fresh fruits and vegetables donated by a nearby grocery store. Every day ends with dinner for special needs cows, goats, and sheep; another cow count; and closing the coops after the birds have taken themselves inside for the night.
We couldn't do any of this without the support of our extended community of care! We're especially grateful to those who donate on a regular schedule, just as we do routine things regularly. Thank you again for helping us to ensure that every animal at the sanctuary gets plenty to eat every day!
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