Fae Forest Farm

The puppies have arrived!! 9 healthy babies, 5 boys and 4 girls with a ton of blue (which blue is only the black genome with the added dilute genome, so that’s not a surprise)! Coats can clarify as they fully dry and throughout the first week or so but it looks like we have 2 blue with white marrkings, 2 blue brindle, 2 blue merle, 1 solid black (one single white toe), 1 reverse brindle and 1 blue harlequin.

Videos are in the comments

Oh boy… It’s gonna be a NOISY spring this year.

Annual cicadas emerge every year and do their thing crawling up trees and poles, buzzing, breeding and dying. But every 13 and 17 years a different species and their brood emerge and add their voices to the annual’s spring buzz. Well, apparently this year is the first time since 1803 (221 years!) that both 13 and 17 year broods will emerge around the same time.

But they say not to kill them (unless you want to eat them, as they are a protein rich food) or spray pesticides as they are an important part of your ecosystem. Nesting birds and other wildlife with young will thrive because of these guys and even herbivorous species like deer, rabbits and tortoises will be snacking on them! Pesticides can poison the wildlife that infest them, so be careful with your chemicals.

When the cicadas die after mating and laying eggs, they also supply important nutrients to the trees their new nymphs will be feeding off of and usually a larger food-crop is observed the year following these emergences due to what they return to the soil. We will see the cicada wasps out patrolling them too, and although they look like threatening hellspawn the wasps are harmless unless directly threatened and they have their role to play.

It is advised to leave them be, but if too many die in one place the decay can smell so it is suggested to compost or bury any large quantities of dead cicadas wherever you want plants to thrive and produce next year. For me, I may wear earmuffs gardening but my chickens will be happy and my compost will be bolstered!

I’m terrible about advertising, but I figured it was definitely time to make it “Facebook Official” and say that Cattie-Brie is pregnant!! She is due around April 28th, and she’ll be getting an ultrasound on April 19th to see how many puppies and general development. 🥰

Cattie-Brie was bred with with Duke on February 25th, 2024. Both help their owners in daily life, have been tested for service traits, and are continuing the legacy of breeding and training Great Danes as Service Dogs for those in need. Duke, and Cattie’s mother Javelin naturally alert, helping chances of puppies having the same ability.