2022 FARM UPDATE

Hi, A few years have past since we have written anything on our blog. Frankly, I lost the "way" to access  it! After many years of silence on this forum, I managed to figure it out today. You will be hearing about all our current news soon....stay tuned friends.

DOLLY AND BABY

Dolly and Baby became members of the farm in October of 2006. They are 1/2 Romanian Sheep Dog and 1/2 Husky. Half the time they are content to Watch the rest of the farm animals grazing in the fields and the other half, they would like to at least Chase the lambs! Time has mellowed these sisters and now their favorite pass time is greeting visitors. In April of this year, 2016, we lost Baby. Needless to say, Dolly and I were heartbroken. Now you will find Dolly at your car door when you come to see the farm, unless she is too tired from her job at daily greeter. She weighs about 74 pounds and is mainly Fur! She loves kids!
We look forward to your visit.
TOLLEN FARM is OPEN for visitors Thursday through Sunday from 10 to 4. Please go to our Facebook page and LIKE it for updates on what is happening on the farm. You can find a link here on the home page.

RAZZY ARRIVES!

Our new baby Donkey arrived on June 6, 2014. He is a 32 pound baby!
His mom is a "jenny" by the name of Chocolate Suprise.
His full registered name will be Tollen Farm Chocolate Rascal.
At one month, he weighed in at 62 pounds. He is really growing fast!
At 3 + months, he is too big for me to weigh! I am guessing that he weighs about 100 pounds. He still has plenty of baby "fuzz" all over. His face and chest areas are beginning to shed out to his real coat which will be dark brown like his sire, "Cisco Kid".

Photo taken 6/29/2014

WAITING FOR BABY!

Here at the farm we are waiting for the birth of our first baby mini donkey foal in 5 years.
 It's been a long while since we've had a new baby donkey around here.
With the sales of a few of the herd, it was time to breed one or two of the Jennys.
We bred Chocolate Suprise to Cisco Kid last June and she is due to foal this June.
The gestation period for a mini donkey is 360 days. At this writing, June 18th, she is
over due by 13 days.
Many Jennys take a bit longer to decide to foal..in fact one of ours took 13 months!
We will post photos of the new foal when it does arrive !

Stay tuned!

SPRING ON THE FARM!

APPLE BLOSSOMS IN THE ORCHARD

My 2 ewes each had a set of TRIPLETS ! I write that word in capitol letters as it is that rare! Usually the "girls" each have twins. This spring they outdid themselves!

Camilla had triplets outside in the apple orchard on a sunny day and her good friend , Gracie, ended up having triplets the next morning in the barn.

When I arrived at the barn in the morning, 2 lambs were already born and the third one was not in evidence yet...After about 30 minutes, Gracie began the paw the ground and circle, a sure sign that something is unfinished! She laid down and pushed a bit but when her 2 babies began to baa, she got back up to check on them.

 I could see 2 toes sticking out . That view would be normal if there were also a nose but that was not the case. The 2 feet that I was seeing were back feet and they were upside down!

This third lamb was going to need some very quick help to make it into the world alive! I waited until the back legs were a bit farther out and then I pulled that little baby out FAST!

OK, it began to breathe ! Within about 15 minutes, it was trying to get up and trying to stand.

I knew then that it would make it!

After I made sure that all 3 new babies had been able to get a nice drink of warm milk from their mom, I left everybody alone.

I did check them later on and everybody was doing fine.

The 6 lambs are all growing and frolicking in the orchard. They   are now 3 weeks old. 

I have set up a special place in the barn where they can go to get water, grain, and hay.

 It is called a "creep"and the  ewes cannot get into the area. 

If they could get into the 'creep", they would eat up all the food that is there for the little ones.

You are welcome to come visit on the days that we are open.

Thursday through Sunday from 10 to 4 April - September

COWBOY AND COWGIRL BOOTS

I can't tell you exactly when it happened or why, but I began to "find" slightly used cowboy/girl boots in my travels and began to collect them. I have boots from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Oregon, California, and Nevada. It seems that every time I go on a road trip, it becomes a quest to find MORE BOOTS!
There are about 11 pair in my office that I am keeping , for now anyway, and an ever growing number of pairs in the shop.The current count in the shop is about 60 pair.
 If you are looking for a good pair of used boots, you just might find some you love right here on the farm!
There are men's boots, ladies bots, kid's boots and some that work for anyone who likes them!
The great thing about most of the men's boots is that women can wear then too! That does not hold true in reverse!

FALL ON THE FARM - BARN ADDITION IN PROGRESS

Today we are adding onto the existing Donkey Barn. The barn was built a few years back for the Mini Donkeys but since that time, we have rescued 4 Arabian Horses and they don't all "fit" in the space as well as 12 donkeys did! We do have lots of rain in Oregon and the "girls" like to stand under some shelter when it gets too wet out. The problem is that "Huck" the boss mare won't let anyone else in the barn! She stands in the alley way and hogs the whole barn for herself! The proposed addition will allow all 4 horses to share the space by giving "Huck" a stall of her own. She won't be able to drive everyone else out if she is contained. With two new stalls added, all of the horses will be able to get under cover and keep dry. That's the plan. We'll let you know if it works out the way 'we" humans think it will!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG ON THE FARM!

Hi
Spring is here and we OPENED TODAY for the 2013 season.
 We will be open Thursday through Sunday from 10 to 4 weekly.

The ewes are getting ready to lamb. They are actually due this weekend.
 Camilla, the Lincoln Ewe is HUGE!
She keeps laying around so I know she is close to lambing.
 I will not be surprised if she has TRIPLETS.
No, they are not that common but twins are very common around here every year.

We have searched high and low and found a huge selection of great new treasures for you to discover!
Come on out, pet a donkeys, and see the sheep and horses. We still have our llama, Jamocha Almond Fudge here too.
You're sure to find something to take home that you will love.
We'll be looking for you!
Tonie.

Tinker Bell and Poncho

This is a photo of Tinker Bell and Poncho. Tinker Bell is wearing the red halter and Poncho is in the blue halter. These two Minis were born 1 month apart . Poncho was born in August of  2009.
Poncho's dam is Serena and his sire is Cisco Kid. Both of his parents live here on the farm. Cisco is a dark chocolate brown Jack and Serena is a slate grey Jenny. Poncho's coloring is similar to his sire, but a lighter brown. He has the greatest disposition! He loves everybody. He grew up with a loving, caring, momma and got lots of attention.
Tinker Bell was born in September of 2009. Her dam is Bray Dee and her sire is Cowboy. Bray Dee is a grey dun colored donkey and Cowboy is a brown,grey,spotted donkey.  Tinker Bell 's coloring matches her dam",( grey dun).
It seems that Bray Dee, while she loved her baby, did not want to nurse her! It took a bit of persuasion from me to get her to accept her baby. Sometimes the jenny's teats are so swollen with milk that anything touching them is very painful. Once she had been tied up and restrained so that the baby could nurse, the pressure was released and nursing became less painful  and everybody was happy. The problem for Tinker Bell was that at the age of 3 months, Bray Dee decided that she did not want to nurse her any more. I leave the minis with their dams for 6 months and they nurse frequently every day. Since Bray Dee "kicked her baby off" at 3 months, Tinker Bell did grow as big as she might have otherwise  done. She has always been smaller.
She and Poncho became close buddies. They were raised together and played together every day while their dams grazed in the fields. The two were separated from their dams at 6 months of age and stayed close. Poncho was gelded and the two of them remain in the herd as friends. If one of the two is moved to a different field for some reason, the other one brays and gets upset. They have formed a very close attachment to each other.
For the last 2 summers, these two minis have been attending "summer camp" around the corner at a horse stable. The kids who come to camp to learn about horses get to play with the donkeys too. Minis LOVE kids and kids Love minis so it is a win win situation for everyone.
These two cuties are for sale as a pair. They can never be split up. Donkeys form very strong attachments and have been known to "pine away" if parted from a buddy!
Needless to say, they would make a wonderful addition to any farm!
Come visit the farm and meet the Minis!

FALL AT THE FARM

Our farm is beginning to get things taken care of and stored before the fall rains and winter weather hits. There is always a "wish list" of items and repairs that we want or would like to get taken care of before all the wet weather arrives.
Hay is a huge issue when thinking about FOOD for all the hungry mouths around here. Storing enough for the whole season is not possible for us so this summer, we loaded the barns with every bit of hay we could stuff in them and still house the "critters".
It is just about impossible to get to the barn that is located down in the orchard when everything turns wet. The horse barn isn't easy either. When we have a few dry days in mid winter, or cold frozen ground days, we put more hay in the barns.
 It is sometimes a nip and tuck situation, waiting for good enough weather and timing the delivery right  so that we don't RUN OUT of hay !

OPENING DAY IS APRIL 6TH FOR THE 2012 SEASON!

SAVE THE DATE!
COME SEE ALL THE NEW AND EXCITING ITEMS WE HAVE FOUND
 TO HELP YOU DECORATE YOUR CREATED SPACES. WE HAVE
UNUSUAL, ECLECTIC, FUN, USEFUL, WHIMSICAL, AND AWESOME STUFF!
CHECK OUT THE FARM SHOPS AND PET SOME OF THE ANIMALS.
SAVE THE DATES!  MAY 18 & 19TH   AND COME TO THE THE ANNUAL
 DONKEY BIRTHDAY PARTY
ADMISSION IS $1.00 PER PERSON.
JOIN US WHILE WE CELEBRATE THEIR BIRTHDAYS
SHARE SOME CAKE AND HAVE SOME LEMONADE
PLAY PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY
WHILE YOU ARE HERE, YOU'RE SURE TO FIND SOME GREAT TREASURES TO PURCHASE FOR YOUR OWN HOME OR GARDEN!

WINTER IS HERE!

THERE REALLY ISN'T ANYTHING QUITE AS AWFUL AS MUD!
Oh how I hate to slip and slide through the mud to the barn!
It seems as if we are having plenty of RAIN to keep those fields slippery!
Have you ever WALKED RIGHT OUT OF YOUR BOOT?  Yep, your foot keeps moving but your boot is planted in about a half a foot of mud and it stays put. The next thing you know is that your stocking foot is landing in "gooey" mud!
The best thing I can think of in those situations is to think about SPRING!
It will come one of these days and the grass will grow and the sun will shine.
Around here, the lambs are due to begin arriving in mid March, just in time for Spring Vacation from the local schools.
I don't usually let the moms and babies out of the barn until the lambs are about a week old. They need to "mother up" with their moms and get introduced to the flock. They also need shots and their tails need to be docked.
I will post some photos of the new lambs as soon as they begin to arrive.
Meanwhile we will all live with the MUD!

HORSE UPDATE

AUGUST 2nd two of the horses were put in the round pen to begin training. The round pen, is just that, ROUND.
It is a 60 foot circle where 1 horse and 1 person can inter act in a controlled space.
The person's goal is to get the horse to Walk, Trot. Whoa. and Stand on command.
It also gives the trainer a place to work off some of the horse's EXTRA ENERGY safely!
Many horses need time in the round pen to be able to settle down enough for a rider to safely mount and ride.
Our 4 horses are not broke to ride YET.
We are beginning at the BEGINNING!
Snowy and Baby Girl are the first two to be introduced to Sabra and the round pen training.
I watched and this morning, I took Huck in for a brief session. She was so worried about being there without her pals and watching them run around in the field, that it took most of her time in the pen to just get her to pay attention to me and then to WALK around the circle.
TROT isn't an option with her yet. She finally settled down and would complete 2 whole circles with me walking fairly close to her. She is not comfortable very far from me right now.
Next in the pen was Polly.
She did pretty well EXCEPT for wanting to STOP all the time and eat the grass. When I got her past that point, she walked the circle with me quite a ways away from her on the long line and also was able to complete a couple of circles at a trot. WHOA is yet to be accomplished quickly.
We will update our progress with the horses and put in a couple of photos as soon as we get a new camera!

DONKEYS ON PARADE

WE ARE ALWAYS HAPPY TO SHOW OFF OUR HERD.
WE ARE OPEN THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY APRIL
THROUGH SEPTEMBER FROM 10 TO 4.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME AT ANOTHER TIME THAT WORKS IN YOUR SCHEDULE, PLEASE CALL TONIE AT :
503-682-1604.
THERE ARE PRESENTLY, 12 DONKEYS IN OUR HERD.
STARTING WITH THE OLDEST AND WORKING DOWN THROUGH THE HERD, HERE ARE THEIR NAMES:

CHOCOLATE DELIGHT a chocolate brown jenny
SERENA a slate grey jenny with a black nose
SHADOW a slate grey jenny with a white blaze on face
COWBOY a spotted, brown, grey. white jack, (our stud jack)
CISCO KID a dark brown jack ,( stud jack )
SMOOCHIE a grey-dunn jenny
EMMA a grey-dunn jenny
COMMANCHE MOON a spotted jack ( stud jack)
CHOCOLATE'S SUPRISE red and brown jenny
PONCHO grey dunn gelding
TINKER BELL grey dunn jenny
BRONCO BILLY grey dunn jack with red and black ears and black stripe