Road trip..........

This is a view of Mt. Washington as we drove by on our way to Northern Vermont on Monday morning. Dad and I traveled with my Uncle and his girlfriend to a large farm in Barton, VT to deliver a draft horse, pick up a draft horse and a cow and calf.

This is the view from the farm in VT, looking towards Canada. This was an incredible 180 degree view. It was a beautiful, clear day and you could see for miles. The entire trip took about 9 hours from start to finish.

The folks at the farm had a variety of animals. They had many sows and many litters of piglets. They are just adorable!!
Very photogenic :) I am getting so anxious for Charlotte to have her babies - we have a while to go but imagine cuddling one of these little creatures......
This little guy has the markings of a wild hog. These marking help to camouflage them in the wild. Handsome isn't he? They had dozens of them in every shape, size & color. They were very happy to answer my questions about sows, baby pigs and farrowing pens (where Charlotte will have her babies).

The main reason for the trip was to swap around a couple of Belgium draft horses. Tom, the first draft I posted about awhile back, has gone to live at this farm and the horse on the left, who will now be called Tom has come to live here. The horse on the right, Tyler is his mate that my Dad brought home last week.

Tom, Dad & Tyler

These two are very well behaved, very well matched and get along great. They are also very comfortable around people. The first Tom we had wasn't all that eager to work double nor was he all that eager to make friends. That doesn't work so well when you have to work side by side with another horse all summer long in a public environment. All in all, a good solution for everyone. Now they have to be worked in harness everyday to get in shape for a summer of carriage work at Acadia National Park.

My Dad had told me that this farmer had a cow and with a calf that he wanted to sell and that the price was right. So..............well, I guess you can figure out the rest :)

This is Molly and her one month old heifer calf, Annie. The farmer believes she is a shorthorn cross. She appears to have a beefy type build and so does her calf. I'll know more when she gets her new hair coat and sheds a few manure tags. She has hard a pretty tough winter and needs a couple of weeks to just eat, relax and chew her cud. I've got her quarantined until we have a vet check. This will give her plenty of time to eat her fill and regain some of the weight she needs before she meet the other cattle here. The calf is in great shape. It's pretty obvious that all Molly was getting was going right to her calf. She has a good temperament and I think she will fit in just right around here :)