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!!

GEE Funny Farm Memes

 A meme is a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way (Dictionary.com). I'm telling you that because when I was first told that we should make some, I didn't know what one was.

We’ve tried our hand at a few memes:

 

 

 

 

 However, we are sure that there are other clever ideas that could be passed down with pictures that we have.  We’d love for you to try your hand:

 

 

Have any ideas?  Or if you see a picture on our Facebook page, let me know your ideas for a meme.  We'll give you credit for the idea.  This could be fun; let's hear your ideas!!

Thanks for the Memories!!

Last Saturday, we had a birthday party at the GEE Funny Farm! Eight kids and two adults came to visit ME (and some of the other animals). Of course I was the most important visitee:) Everyone held me and took pictures of me - it was awesome!!

Besides the wonderful time they had with me, they took in two (that's right, TWO) presentations. One was about care of animals -- I was part of that -- and the other was food and fiber. They met Aramis the mini horse, Moses the mini donkey, Timothy the goat (and saw his feet get trimmed), Boaz the rabbit (he, too, got his feet trimmed and his scent gland cleaned out - YUCK!), Isaac my cage buddy, and Abish the green aracari -- and that was for the FIRST presentation. All of us got attention, which we all LOVE -- the kids brushed and pet and oohed and ahhed in delight -- ya gotta love it!

They took a break and matched eggs to birds (it isn't as easy as you would think) and learned how to tell if eggs are fresh or old. Then they tasted some goat's milk.

For the second presentation they met and milked Martha the goat. These kids have talent!! They all got milk on the first try! They met one of the chickens, a turkey, and the goose. It was a fowl time - ha! Then they met Liahona the llama and Nephi the alpaca. And finally, they got to pet Eunice the emu.

They also got to pick a bar of goat's milk soap (you can make all sorts of things out of goat's milk -- who would have thought?!?). Choosing some wool, they patted and rubbed in water, made bubbles and wet felted the wool around the soap. When they use their bar of soap, they will have a built-in washcloth. Pretty cool, huh?!

They also took a hayride around the property to see the animals, including Clancy the wallaby and Kathy's horse, Porthos.

They had planned to have cake at our place, but it was so windy they decided to have it at home. It was also a good bargaining chip to get them to leave!! Even after an afternoon at the Farm, the kids were still excited to be here. It is because we are AWESOME -- though I am the MOST awesome.

I sure liked the attention -- I hope they, or some of their buddies, come again soon!

Later -- Asimov!!

"Independence" Means: Taking a Long Walk Before Adoring Fans

I know: You probably lost faith in my expertise as a valuable reporter on the goings-on at the Gee Funny Farm after my last disappointing and despicably unimpressive report. Well, I will do my best to make it up to you even though I do still have to catch up.

On July 2nd, we headed out to the town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin in all our glorious -- er, glory to participate in their Independence Day parade. Perhaps you were there cooling in the shade of a tree as we rushed along through the hot, steamy, baking, roasting--and did I mention "HOT"? --streets. Our party included two going-on elder adults (I say with all the fondness I possess for David and Kathy, but, hey, they are grandparents and for people it takes some age to get to that point), one younger adult, two lovely teenage girls, one pre-teen, one preschooler, and one baby. (All but the lovely teenage girls are Gee family descendants. Ain't they all lucky?) And that's not even the animals, eh!

Well, on to the animals! Of course, I (Asimov, the umbrella cockatoo) was there in all my splendor, and so was Shiblon, the Angora goat; Obadiah, the Oberhasli goat; Liahona, the llama; and Moses, the miniature donkey.

We all got shuffled around to different handlers for various reasons. I, for example, was ousted from the wagon because the two-and-a-half-year-old was struggling to keep up. It was okay with me because it was hard to keep hold of my perch in that wagon while we were jolting along. Plus, I mean, I'd always rather be held anyway. And, I understand about short legs. I tell you, preschoolers and birds are not made for long-distance walking.

The other difficulty was Moses. Adorable, braying, silly Moses refused to walk through the middle of the street. He was switched from a teenager to Kathy and she coaxed him along. And then, all of a sudden, those humans caught on. His problem? The man-holes were scaring the tar out of him. And who can blame him? The very name suggests dropping to your doom. We animals know that you people think only in terms of yourself linguistically-speaking, so in our heads we just tack right on man/donkey/horse/etc.-holes and we say, "If you think I'm going over that death trap, you, my friend, have another think coming!" As a bird, of course, I don't take issue with these sorts of things and I don't feel the need to add myself to that list. If everybody had wings, you all would be better off.

Besides the man-hole dilemma faced by confused humans, the other funny thing was watching poor Keegan (the young adult I mentioned) wearing jeans, t-shirt, socks, and tennis shoes with a baby strapped to her person and pulling the wagon with her older son and all the extra flyers and cards in it. Okay, so I felt pity for her on that sauna of a day. And I felt grateful that I have not had any offspring and that even if I did, we parrots don't work that way. But I about died laughing when a (shirtless, shoeless, shorts-clad) man drinking some (probably ice-cold) beverage, sitting in the shade said with a smile, "Hot day, isn't it?" And oblivious Keegan said mildly, "Yup, pretty hot." She didn't make the connection until much later that he was being ironic. But I am more astute than she is. Whoever that dude is, he should come visit the farm and give me a few more laughs. Sometimes you humans are too much fun!

Waukesha Deaf Organization

Hey! Did you know that there are some people who can't hear (are deaf ) who have adopted a positive attitude toward their deafness. They choose to notice the advantages to their deafness. I once overheard Kathy's daughter Keegan sharing this fact from a class entitled Deaf Culture with a Deaf woman at the university she attended (Brigham Young University). The professor was married to a hearing man and had hearing children. She said that an alarm went off in their town by accident and took some time to turn off. It was driving her husband crazy, but this woman wasn't fazed at all. When it was time for bed? Well, no problem, she could drift off into dreamland undisturbed, while her husband was miserable. Another major bonus she shared? Bickering children are always on mute. Ah, the peace of a quiet household. I suppose there are days that she would be glad not to hear the noise level at the GEE Funny Farm -- that Isaac is always talking or whistling.

[Note: You may not have known that there was such a thing as Deaf Culture. Or you may have thought that people who can't hear would prefer to be called hard-of-hearing rather than Deaf. Well, it just so happens that many people in the United States (and around the world) take pride in their identity as Deaf and prefer to think of themselves as who they are (deaf) rather than as who they are not (as in "not hearing"). Those who choose to identify themselves in this way participate in a language (American Sign Language) and a culture with rules and guidelines and expectations. And while some people would prefer to be called "hard-of-hearing," there are many, many people who would prefer to be called "Deaf" (capital "D"). A site you might check out is called www.deafculture.com. -- Heh. We weren't kidding about this educational experiences thing now were we? *Wink*Wink*)

Why did I share the previous anecdote? Well, when the Waukesha Deaf Organization visited, Isaac pointed out how glad these folks must have been not to have to hear MY silky tones. Issac thinks he's so funny -- well, he's not! The fact of the matter is, I'm generally quite well-mannered and soft-spoken . . . when I'm the center of attention (no winking involved here!).

Members of the Waukesha Deaf Organization visited us back in June. Arriving at the Gee Funny Farm was a little tricky because this summer Highway 83 (where we are located) was Construction Central, but for those who made it, they were awed and amazed by my dazzling performance (as always). And they may have been pleasantly interested in one or two other things like the bottle fed Navajo churro lamb, Keturah. Ugh -- those babies steal a lot of the attention that is meant for ME! Oh, and one person about had heart failure when Abish, the green aracari toucan landed on him - well, he'd been warned! I stay on MY perch unless someone offers me a hand...

. . . All right, the fact of the matter is, after time passes, I do tend to forget about everything that happened that doesn't involve me. So sue me. Playing catch up isn't my strong point. I'll keep up better in the future.

A Visit From Some Bird Lovers

I know what you're thinking: "Aren't all people bird lovers?" The fact of the matter is, yes, I'm sure they are. But, more specifically, we were visited by a group of people who own birds. The group is called the Cream City Feathered Friends. One lucky woman had a bunch of cockatoos, maybe seven? Can you imagine the Heaven she lives in? The only thing that could make it better for her would be if one of those were me. (Although she got confused while she was here and fell in love with Abish, the green aracari toucan and didn't give me the attention I deserve. Not as discerning as I would have expected, but that's some people for you . . . Ah well, at least my Kathy knows my true worth.)

Perhaps because these people have parrots and love birds, they were especially admiring when I displayed my talents. Apparently, not every bird is smart enough to wave, turn, and kiss on command. And not every bird can nod when asked if he would like a cracker. No, I am one of a kind.

I have to admit that I did get a little jealous of one bird I heard about. I heard that one couple that attended this event had a cockatoo who gets to go cruising on their motorcycle with them. Seems to me that that would be worth trying. The closest I've ever gotten is looping my beak over a car window that's slightly ajar as we're driving down the open road. Man, do I love the feel of the wind surging beneath my wings. I tell you, that is one lucky bird.

As for this group's fun farm activities, they stopped to admire and pet our most unique and ancient-looking bird character here just before their hayride. While visiting Eunice the emu, Abinadi, our beautiful brown llama, came up to check out the visitors. Abinadi was born here on the farm and it shows. He has such charm and such manners. I don't usually wax poetic about anybody, well anybody but me that is, but Abinadi and Liahona (also a llama) are sort of special. Apparently, one fellow even got a little kiss from Abinadi. You would know about Abinadi's gift with people if you had heard this man when he came back after the hayride. When they first arrived, his wife had been saying she wanted llamas and he didn't seem very excited, but now here he was offering to buy or kidnap ours. No such luck. Kathy doesn't plan to part with him and she's keeping a wary eye open for anything suspicious. You, my friend, are going to have to keep a' searching.

In sum, it was a very successful visit. We liked them. They liked us. Now, on to our next visitors, the Waukesha Deaf Organization. And then we'll be headed on parade in Oconomowoc on July 2. To keep up with our activities, check out our calendar of events: http://www.geefunnyfarm.com/Events_on_the_Farm.html. We are certainly keeping ourselves busy this summer!

The Star of the Show

Oh, yesterday how I loved you. Yesterday was the beautiful, marvelous, happy day in which eleven cute little brownies (the human kind, not the chocolate kind) came to see the Funny Farm. They were excited and delighted to arrive and glimpse a llama, an alpaca, a miniature donkey, a miniature horse, two sheep, and three goats. They struggled to keep their active little rear ends on their benches because these eight and nine-year-olds were just so enthusiastic. I loved it. Or I would have loved it if I had actually gotten to witness it.

No, I, Asimov, the beloved and devoted Umbrella Cockatoo of Kathy Gee, found myself shut up in the back of the Jeep enclosed in a little bitty cage sharing the trunk with a bunny and a bunch of cheeping chicks. All right, so I ought to be glad that it was even warm enough that I could go out on display at all. And I ought to be glad that my Kathy is so conscientious about my safety that she didn't leave me out there the whole time to catch a cold. But I admit I've never claimed to be a saint. (Well, maybe I have, but anyway...) I want my cake and eat it too. I wanted to see those little Girl Scouts and not just hear them.

I could hear their giggles, and peals of laughter, and shouts of observation, and random outbursts about their or their families previous animal experiences. I heard them ooh and ahh over the softness of alpaca fur. I heard them vie for their chance to pet Aramis the rambunctious neighing miniature horse. I heard their snorts of disgust when Kathy demonstrated how to clean a bunny's scent glands (and I don't blame them). I heard them attribute my musical demonstrations (okay, loud complaining) coming from the back of the car to the emu, can you believe it?! Emus have none of the finer acoustic qualities that I pride myself on. As you can imagine, I was miffed. Female emus sound like a bass drum and males grunt and growl. You can't even tell it's an emu making the noise. When I want to be heard and you can see me, then you know that it's me making the noise. None of this sneaking, weirdo noise-making for me. Ah hem. Anyway.

The moment came when I was unveiled for their viewing pleasure. And, as you can imagine, they adored me. With a little cracker persuasion (apparently there were no French fries available, but, hey, honestly I'm flexible where food is concerned) I waved, and turned, and kissed, and nodded to their endless delight. Then one of those perceptive and eager little mites asked my Kathy if they could hold me, and, while it hadn't been planned, she complied. A minute or so of holding for each of the girls for what you people call a "photo opportunity" and then a chance to pet my gorgeous feathers and then those girls felt themselves to be in something bordering on Heaven. And that basically ended their Gee Funny Farm experience.

Okay, they did get to practice goat milking with some plastic gloves. And, okay, they did get to watch Kathy milk a goat, but, psh, what's that? Nothing. I was the resolution, the finale, what you might call the star of the show. I only hope they come again soon. Honestly, I think I'm in love.