We are Grateful in 2016

2016 has been a great year and as Thanksgiving approaches we recognize that we have a lot for which to be grateful!

1. We are grateful for all of you who trusted us with your birthday parties, community events, company parties, day care children, senior citizen residents, graduation parties, etc.

2.  We are grateful for all of you who invited us back or came to see us for the second, third, fourth time....

3.  We are grateful for all of the nice people we meet.  I'm sorry that the news is full of reports about how awful people are, because that is NOT our experience!

4.  We are grateful for those of you who allowed us to experiment with your group (you know who you are) with animals in training, or trying something new.

5. We are grateful for our animals.  We really have a great animal family.  We are awed every day that we can have such close contact with such wonderful creatures!

Animals we've added since last Thanksgiving...(from the top) Noah the chinchilla
Boaz the Flemish giant rabbit, our mixed flock (though the rooster that is usually
with them didn't come to the door for this picture), and Abish the two-toed sloth.
(below) just one video of Abish...see more on the GEE Funny Farm Facebook page,

6.  We are grateful for all of you who have liked our Facebook page and made comments, liked and/or shared our posts.  You made it possible for the word to get out about us!

7. We are thankful for all of you who took the time to write a review on Facebook or Gigsalad.com or through email. It helps others have an idea of what to expect, and it makes us feel good because we really do want to do a great job every time!

8.  We are thankful for people who have already booked for next year.  What a blessing THAT is!  All of you who have booked for this year and next are helping to pay for the veterinarian care, food, and housing for our animals.

9.  We are grateful for all of the people who help care for our animals.  Our veterinarians, Dr. Loof who has taken care of most of our animals, Dr. Herlugson who takes care of my parrots, and Dr. Johnson who has stepped in to take care of my horses the last two years while Dr. Loof is recovering from a serious illness; our farrier, Gary; our assistants Krystal and Angele; our hay guys, Wayne and Rob who grow the hay that gets us through winter; and our USDA Inspector, Jessica. We are also grateful to Angele and her husband, Gary, for the beautiful cabinets they brought us for our animal food prep area.  It is wonderful to have so much storage and a great place to prep food!

The great cabinets we have to store dishes, utensils, and food.
They are wonderful!

10. And we are grateful that we live in such a beautiful place. We have to say that we are enjoying the lovely weather right now and we are grateful that winter is a little slow in coming.

One of our pastures....

Thanks to all of you for our best year yet. We've been able to see people for the 4th or 5th time and have been able to do some new things!  We are grateful to all of you for making that happen!

Memorable Moments from Visits To and From GEE Funny Farm

  

Lizzy, the bearded dragon



We pulled up to a preschool and started unloading animals.  As I took out Lizzy, the bearded dragon, children in the playground area called out:

“Hey, does that dragon have wings?”

I answered, “No, she doesn’t have wings.”
“Does it breathe fire?”
“No, sorry, she is just a plain ol’ bearded dragon.” I’m thinking to myself, “Wow!  I hope they aren’t disappointed!”
Then I pulled out Sariah, the goose.

Sariah the goose being pet,
even if she doesn't lay golden eggs.

“Does that goose lay golden eggs?”
I gulped, “No, she is just a plain old goose.  Wow!  You guys are going to be a tough audience!”
They laughed.  The teacher said, “Umm, we’ve been reading fairy tales.”
They were a great group and they liked Lizzy and Sariah, even if they were just plain ol’ animals.

 I start out each event asking, “Who here is an animal trainer?”  I let kids who raise their hand tell me which animal they trained and what they trained it to do.  I mentioned this to the USDA Inspector. 

“What is something they said they’ve trained?” 
“Well, one kid said he trained his pitbull to sit.”
“Tell them to teach their pitbulls “release!” she muttered.

 Other things kids have trained:

• A giraffe…to run.
• A dog to sit. (more than one has said this)
• A cat to use the litter box.
• A cat to stand up for a treat.
• A bird to talk when it is told to (I needed to meet with this trainer since I can't do that!)
• A train to go on the track.

We were at one event that had really been misrepresented to us.  There were too many people and we had too few helpers and our animals weren’t secure.  My assistant at the time was shocked to look over and see a child squeezing one of our chicks.  An adult was standing there watching and asked, “How many chicks do you lose at events like this?” My assistant grabbed the chick and put it into a traveling cage and snapped, “None!  We don’t do events like this!” (Well, I thought it was memorable.)

We were at a camp for kids with special needs and every time he pet an animal one young man sang out, “I did it!”  He was so excited about it.  It was fun!

We were at a preschool and one of the little boys was very afraid of the animals at first and didn’t want to stay.  By the time we left, he had pet all of them (early on I remembered the young man who sang out, “I did it” and suggested that this little boy say it, too, and he did, with a big grin) – that was a successful visit!

Gabriel

We have Gabriel, a Shetland wether (a male that has been neutered), and he has had multi-denominational experiences.  He has gone to one Christian church to give people an idea of what a lamb might look like that would be slaughtered as a Pascal lamb.  He stood out in the foyer and allowed people to pet his regal body and he went up on stage and stood regally, after he ‘marked’ his area with a few droppings.  Gabriel also showed up at a Jewish family’s home as the Pascal offering as a practical joke (we’d been promised that he would remain unscathed – which we already knew since in both cases he was NOT unblemished).  After we made that visit, the family walked us down to the Rabbi’s home where we surprised HIS family. 

We had a group at the farm and during the hayride we got StUcK!  Everyone had to get out of the hay wagon while David got the tractor out (luckily he was in his office and ran out to help).  All the moms and the kids were very good sports!!  They waited patiently and then reloaded when David was ready!  We are thankful for visitors (and people we visit) that go with the flow!!

The front duck is a runner duck.

We went to the birthday party of a 2-year-old.  We’d been told that he was an animal lover and it was no exaggeration!  He sat and petted animal after animal for over an hour.  His birthday gift?  A couple of ducks!  He made frequent visits to a neighbor’s where he had fallen for the runner ducks the neighbor had.

Another 2-year-old wasn’t very interested in the animals at his party, but one of the other little boys was ready to go with us and an even younger girl pet every animal much to the surprise of her mother!

We were at an event where there were chairs set up for the children with the plan for the adults to sit back at tables behind.  The organizer was shocked when adults sat in the first row!!  And once we went to an assisted living place.  The plan was for there to be three groups that would come out so it wouldn’t be crowded and everyone would have an opportunity to meet and pet the animals.  We were asked to set up in a patio area.  To our surprise, and the surprise of the organizer, EVERYONE came out at once.  It was very crowded, but the people were so excited and very patient as we made our way around walkers and wheelchairs and people with canes.  In spite of the crowd, it was fun! It just goes to show that people are never too young or too old to get involved with our animals!!