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Serenity Animal Farm, Clanton, AL (2025)

07/15/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Part 3 of 3. Last Thursday morning I was casually walking down the front steps of the house carrying a shovel over my shoulder. I had left the shovel on the porch the night before. Suddenly, out of nowhere, my head was covered in red devils. Dozens of red wasps jumped on it. I screamed, dropped the shovel and tried to run while swatting my head like I needed to be put in the nervous hospital. I fell down, when I stumbled down the stairs trying to get away. I quickly got up and tore off like the grim reaper was hot on my heals, still swatting my head as I ran. Those red devils were all over my head with another platoon of them chasing after me. I tore off headed for the lake, thinking I was going to run and jump right in. For some unknown reason I just tore right past it wide open in a dead run. I ran until I was slap out of breath, stopped and tore my shirt off. I quickly threw it on the ground and stomped it until I felt any red devil still hanging on was lifeless. Then I shook the shirt like I was trying to extinguish a fire before I put it back on. My head was on fire and itched like I had stuck it smack dab in a fire ant bed. Shortly thereafter I had twelve some odd lumps come up on my head from being stung, It felt like the surface of the moon when I scratched it. Might have known it was the one day I didn’t put a ball cap on. I went back to the house and slipped in the back door. I grabbed a bottle of Clorox and went around to the back yard. The dogs thought I was plum loco bending over pouring bleach on my head. So, if you see me in town this week and I have bleached blonde hair, it’s those red devils that caused it. I’m not going through a mid-life farm life crisis just yet. I waited way past dark to spray the nest. It was right above where you walked down the front steps. I can’t believe I never saw it until then, as many times as I’ve gone up and down those stairs. The only thing I can figure, was that the shovel I was toting must have come close and to their nest which caused them to attack. I didn’t get stung when I sprayed them with wasp spray. Why you ask? Because I outsmarted them. I was wearing my trusty ole bee suit. That bee suit and me have become real good friends lately. Now my problem is scratching my head. Those red devil bites sure enough itch all the time. I think I have already scratched two or three bald spots on my head already. Hopefully, nothing that won’t grow back in a few weeks.
Spiritually, they say wasps represent protection, suppressed emotions and boundaries. Really? To me, those red devils represent anger, bad words and sure enough aggression. I’m pretty sure sometime during this week as I was racing away from those red devils and yellow jackets or stomping them after I sprayed them, I was probably hollering some words that would embarrass me and the preacher. I’m not really sure, but I feel one or two may have slipped out. So, I guess wasps might suppress emotions. As for boundaries, if I find another nest I’m going to give them a new boundary they won’t ever forget in a can of wasp spray. After twenty-five stings in a single week, bald patches on my head and blonde hair, I think I’ve earned the right to be mad at them. Everyday is an adventure around here. Some make you just shake your head back and forth while others make you scratch it until your hair falls out. Just another day of farm life.

07/14/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Part 2 of 3. Two days later I was bushhogging up in the Alpaca field. As I turned the tractor to start down the next row I suddenly was swamped with yellow jackets all over me. They came out of the ground somewhere. I don’t know how I did it while swatting those things, but I stomped the gas and tore off trying to get away from them. The tractor raced around and around the field before I finally jumped off and tore out of there. I ran all the way down to the llama pen. At some point, they quit chasing me. Luckily, I had a long sleeve shirt on and only got stung four times. I left the tractor up on the hill and walked back to the house. Bees two. Mark zero. The next day when I walked back up there to get the tractor, the field looked crazy. As I was driving all around trying to outrun the yellow jackets, I didn’t turn the bush hog off. The field looked like I was cutting figure eights. Since I didn’t want to encounter those yellow jackets again, I put my old bee suit on and finished cutting the Alpaca field. I’m sure I probably looked a little crazy wearing a bee suit driving around on a tractor bush hogging. It worked is all that mattered to me. I finished and never saw another yellow jacket. I do know the thirty minutes I was finishing bush hogging, I almost passed out in that old bee suit and hood. It was like sitting in a hot sauna wearing that hot thing. I couldn’t get it off fast enough before I passed out due to heat stroke. I probably lost ten pounds in thirty minutes. Just another adventure on the farm, although I didn’t like getting stung 13 times so far this week. Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 3.

07/14/2025

Hello Farm Friends! This is part Part 1 of 3. Can you say this last week has been a doozy? I can. It started with a simple feeding of Mr. Cedric the Camel. I noticed he was wet from a recent rain, which was odd. Apparently, he did not go inside his shelter during the rain. As such, I decided to go investigate. Sure enough, there was a nest of red devils, those mean red wasps, up in the roof boards. There must have been 50 working on the nest. I skedaddled out of there as fast as I could. I quickly returned with a can of wasp spray. Mr. Cedric followed me just long enough to figure out I was going to do something he wanted no part of, so he turned and quickly trotted off. He looked at me like I was thicker than two short planks to try and pick a fight with those red devils. I aimed the can best I could, and pulled the trigger. Might know I missed the nest by a few inches with the spray. It splattered missing the nest. Before I could zoom back in on the nest, a dozen sentry’s jumped off the nest and took flight straight towards me. In the second or two it took to spray the nest, those red devils were all over me. I think I screamed as they dive bombed onto me. I tossed the can in the air and took off in a dead run, swatting wasps as I went. Don’t know why, but I headed straight across the field where Mr. Cedric was standing at attention watching me. As I neared Cedric, his eyes widened and he took off in a dead run. I remember running toward one end of the field and meeting Mr. Cedric flash past me going the other way. Those red devils never quit chasing me. I was still screaming and swatting as I hit the gate and plowed right through it and kept on running, leaving it open. I didn’t stop until I got to Chicken Village. Just when I thought it was safe I got stung again. This red devil must have landed and hung on until I stopped. I tore my tee shirt off and threw it on the ground and was stomping it like it was on fire. When my breathing started to return to normal, I assessed the damage. I had been stung seven times. I looked back towards Cedric. He was standing behind a pine tree looking both ways for those red devils. He doesn’t like them either. At dark I went back and retrieved my can of spray, thinking I could sneak up on them in the dark. How did that work you ask? Not too good. Those red devils stung me two more times spraying the nest. Apparently, those red rascals can see in the dark better than I can, but luckily they are all gone and Mr. Cedric can continue using his shelter.

07/09/2025

Hello Farm Friends! It has been a happy and sad time around here these last few weeks. Since April, we were literally blessed with ten dogs that were dropped off and abandoned. Eight puppies and two young dogs. I’m happy to say that seven of the puppies have been adopted and sent to new loving homes around the country thanks to us partnering with Ms. Ashley with Precious Paws and Claws of Alabama. Thank you Ms. Tina for coordinating these adoptions. I know that two went to Birmingham, one went to Pennsylvania, one went to Virginia, and one went to Florida. One puppy is leaving today to his forever home, but I don’t know where yet. Two dogs, Mr. Ted and Ms. Treasure, have become family members and found their permanent homes here with us. We just couldn’t let them go because we became so attached. We made an executive decision to keep the last lone puppy. We have changed his name from Sneezy, the last dwarf, to Norman, aka Mr. Norman. Every home needs a Mr. Norman. Norman means man from the north. We assume Mr. Norman came from somewhere north of here. This still leaves us with over twenty some odd dogs but hey, it is what it is, but who’s counting. I wouldn’t trade this life experience for all the craters on the moon.
Every time a puppy left, a piece of my heart went with them, which makes me sad to see them go. However, I am happy they found loving homes. Every time a puppy leaves here there is a condition we put on all our adoptions, that if something happens and you can’t keep him or her, you can always return them to us without any questions asked whatsoever. We love them that much.
Working with all the puppies for months you get really attached and it’s really hard to let them go. Watching them grow up and discovering things like grasshoppers and butterflies is amazing and heartwarming. It was so funny watching a half a dozen puppies running and jumping around the yard chasing after a grasshopper or butterfly fluttering about or all of them chasing after a ball. It’s an experience most people never get the chance to experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
A dog is one of the most amazing and fascinating animals that God put on this earth. I just wish the human race would quit hurting them so much. Their loving demeanor does not compare to anything or anyone else on the planet.
How would I describe our farm dogs? Playful, affectionate, energetic, loyal, gentle, protective, curious, gentle, protective, protective, happy, intelligent, brave, obedient, curious, comical, friendly, cheerful and family. What can be better for your heart than a dog!

07/08/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Does it ever or will it ever end, dealing with scammers that is. A few days ago, we received a text message. It said, “Hi”, “I found your dog, Stella”. It was from a 541-area code, which turns out to be in Oregon. I texted back asking the scammer, “how in the blue blazes did Ms. Stella get to Oregon? Did she take an Uber, and if she did, I bet that car ride was expensive from Alabama”. They didn’t respond back, so I waited a bit and called the number. There was no answer and no voice mail where I could leave a sure enough voice mail of what I really thought of them.
If that was not bad enough the farm received a check written on a Morgan Stanley account, the other day. I looked at it and my eyes almost popped out of my head. It almost made my old ticker miss a beat or two. It was for a very, very generous amount. The accompanying letter stated it was from MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos ex-wife and Morgan Stanley was in charge of distributing her funds. The letter stated that she was making donations to non-profit animal organizations, especially 501(c)(3)’s like us, with a nice closing that said thank-you for helping animals. I couldn’t believe it. All I could think of was “wow and wow”.
After staring at it for most of the evening and salivating on what we could do for the animals around here with that kind of money, reality really started to set in. My dad always said if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Even though I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, common sense told me to take it to the bank manager where we bank, to get it checked out. Sure glad I did.
When I showed it to her, she said let me investigate it and I will get back to you, so I left the check with her. I was on pins and needles all morning before she finally called me back. She said the check was a scam and not real. I asked how can they scam me by sending a fake check. She explained “if” it was deposited into your account they could get your bank and account number and could wipe out your account clean. Wow, never thought about it, but there are actually people out there that would steal money earmarked for rescued animals. Sure am glad I didn’t try and deposit that check.

I’m just so grateful I decided to get it checked out instead of becoming another victim. Whew, that was too close for comfort.
Al Pacino said it best, “Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it.

07/03/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Mr. Omar the Ostrich sits down and flaps his wings when he wants to be cooled down with the hose pipe. We spray all our big birds down when it gets hot. They love getting hosed down and sitting in the water puddles. Why? Big birds don't have sweat glands and rely on other methods to regulate their body temperature. Splashing in water, being sprayed with a hose, or wallowing in a mud puddle helps them cool down.

06/25/2025

Hello Farm Friends! This post is for chicken friends. Do you know how to grow super protein treats for your chickens and big birds? For free?

We take an empty feed bag, one of the woven polypropylene bags. Yup, everything today has plastic in it. The paper bags won’t work.

We fill up the empty feed bag up with “animal fertilizer”, an appropriate word for the city folks. For us here in the country, we just say fill the feed bag up with animal manure. You can use anything you have, cow, horse, pig, goat or sheep fertilizer. The fresher the better. Then we sprinkle a little pellet feed on top of the fertilizer, about a cup, and fill it about halfway up with water leaving the top semi-open.

Then, like Julia Childs making homemade bread, we set it off to the side and leave it alone for a week or so. Outside in the sunshine works best. The flies will sniff it out. Then in a couple weeks, Viola, you have a free sack full of chicken protein treats. You can peek in the sack and tell when it’s ready to feed.

When ready, we take the sack to chicken village and scoop a few scoops out for the chickens daily. It takes us a week to use the sack up. The chickens will get down like James Brown over a scoop of “chicken protein”, a/k/a “maggots”. They will do backflips trying to gobble up the fresh wiggling treats.

For those that don’t know what a maggot is, a maggot is the larval stage of a fly, characterized by its worm-like appearance and lack of legs.

Chickens are natural omnivores and insects are a normal and nutritious part of their diet. Chickens will eat any bug or insect they find. We also feed it to our big birds like the Emu’s and Ostriches, who are also omnivores and love insects.

We always seem to have a sack setting around fermenting because it’s so easy to make and doesn’t cost anything to get a good source of food. Bon Appetite my feathered farm friends!

06/24/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Did you get any rain last Saturday night? We did and lots of it. Here is what the farm looked like Sunday morning. Nothing like starting your day to lots of water and flooding. The monsoon of water washed under, in, and all around our fences. It drug every leaf and stick within a quarter mile and sent them to clog our culvers or stop water flowing through a fence. It started a new creek right down in the middle of the farm road. Only one pig is on walk about. Old Mr. Arnold is out and about. He has a black belt in fence escape during rain storms. I’ve quit chasing him for now, it just wasn’t worth the effort since he doesn’t go far. Now every time I see him I just wave and nod my head. He stands off at a distant and gives me the look like I’m shocked you don’t want to chase me.
Sooner or later, he will get hungry enough to walk back into a pen. In the meantime, it’s fixing fences and cleaning out culverts in preparation of the next monsoon.
Some people dance in the rain while others just get wet. With Chilton County getting 12 -14 inches of rain in the last 30 days, we have danced, ran, walked, done a jig, and still gotten soaking wet.
Top that off, Bradley dog desegrated our only umbrella when I left it on the porch to dry off before putting it up. He literally shredded it. His motto is, “If you bite off more than you can chew, just keep on chewing”.

06/23/2025

Hello Farm Friends! Hope everyone had a good weekend. For us it was a disappointing weekend. Some unscrupulous people stole the tarps we had covering up some round rolls of hay this weekend. Very disappointing.
The round rolls of hay were about 30 yards inside the farm gate. Two farm visitors left before the rain hit (around 5 pm) and had to drive around the hay to get to the gate. Both verified the tarps were still on the hay.
Sunday morning, we went to put the hay out and noticed the tarps were missing, gone. Sometime Saturday night after dark someone stole them. We think they were taken during the rainstorm because the round rolls of hay were soaking wet. If they were stolen after the rain the hay would have been dry.
If one of your neighbors has a new tarp show up, please let us know or the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office. They are used, heavy duty, “Billboard” tarps. One side is black, and the other side is printed with an colored advertisement. One was from Jacks Hamburgers, and one was from an Eyecare Optician location. They are easy to spot if they cover something with the advertisement side up. Thank-you

06/20/2025

Hello Farm Friends! We witnessed something unusual yesterday while feeding.

As I reached into a feed bucket to get a scoop of feed, a big rat started running around in the bottom of the bucket. This is the first rat I’ve seen in a long time. Before today, I attributed this to the feral barn cats that hang around the feed barn. I just figured they are keeping them away. However, after today I realized that is not the case.

I picked the bucket up and carried it outside and placed it on top of the rabbit pen. This is where the barn cats were hanging out.

I leaned the bucket over on its side, where the cats could see the rat. Being curious, only one cat out of three turned their attention to the bucket. He stood there staring in at the rat sitting in the bucket. The others just laid where they were and showed no interest in Mr. Rat. I thought one would go in and get the rat, but oh no, they just wanted to watch the rat sitting in the bucket.

So I jiggled the bucket to get the rat to run out. The rat raced out of the bucket onto the top of the rabbit cage. The three barn cats jumped when the rat shot out of the bucket. Instead of pursuing the rat, the cats all ran away. Two ran to the top of the feed barn and one raced up a gum tree close to the cage. The rat scared the bajeepers out of the cats. He was a big rat, but not big enough to scare a cat.

The rat raced to the edge of the rabbit cage and leapt off onto the ground. The pot bellied pig, Mr. Emett, was standing at the gate waiting to be fed. The rat landed next to Mr. Emett. Mr. Emett squealed loudly and tore off in a dead run. The rat had scared the bajeepers out of him too.

Ole Mr. Rat was headed wide open across the pig pen. Ms. Angel dog saw him jump off the rabbit cage. She quickly jumped the gate and landed into Emett’s pen and was on that rat in a split second. She grabbed it and flipped it into the air. The rat squealed as he was tossed into the air. When he landed, he kicked it into high gear and sped out of there back towards me. He made it to the gate where I was standing before Angel could catch up. I quickly moved out of the way as he was headed back my way. I didn’t want no part of that rat either. He blew through the gate and across the feed barn area.

That rat ran through the feed barn fence and went through the fence at the other end. A pile of dogs ran into the fenced feed barn area after him. When he ran through the fence at the other end, all the dogs were all stuck in the fenced area. They had to turn and run back to the open gate and run around to the other side to find the rat. By now Mr. Rat had disappeared into the wooded area next to the feed barn. Dogs were running and barking everywhere trying to find the missing rat. Ms. Angel had jumped back over the pig gate and was helping in the search. I figured by now that ole rat had found a hole and was safe and secure.

I looked for the barn cats and they had all disappeared. With a dozen dogs all running around barking hunting a rat they were not staying around to find out what happens next.

The poor dogs hunted and hunted the rat but never did find him and believe you me they sure enough looked for him. Rat one, cats and dogs zero.

I just couldn’t believe that the feral cats were afraid of a rat. A rat. That’s what they are supposed to do. It’s their job to catch rats. So much for their animal instincts kicking in.

The lesson of the day and note to self, quit feeding the barn cats so much and try and find out how a big rat got into the feed barn. Where there is one, there are sure to be more.

Concerning cats, Mark Twain said it best, “If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man, but worsen the cat.”

06/19/2025

Hello Farm Friends! After a long day of working around the farm I headed to the house. As I opened the front screen door a blur of small dogs shot through the door past me going inside. I remember thinking they wanted inside the air conditioning as bad as I did.

As I stood at the sink washing my hands the dogs were chasing each other all over the house. They usually do it when one grabs up a dog toy and they all want it.

Ms. Angel was the ringleader. She had something in her mouth and the other dogs all wanted it. She raced this way, and that way, up on the couch, and off the couch with the posse of dogs hot on her heels.

As I stood there drying my hands with a dish rag, I watched as Ms. Angel tear down the hallway with everyone chasing her. They were all barking and whooping it up.

I started cooking supper and just ignored them. After a little while I checked on them and everyone was either on the couch or on the floor chewing on something. They had finally settled down, so I went back to working on supper.

After supper, we were still sitting at the table, and the dogs slowly drifted back into the kitchen. I remember Pea-cake asking me, “what that smell was”. I told her it kinda smelled like someone stepped in something. I scanned the room but didn’t see anything. I got up and checked the hallway and peeped into the other room but didn’t see anything. All the dogs are house trained, but as you know, anything can happen at anytime. The dogs were lying about the living room chewing on something which I figured was pieces of rawhide since pieces are scattered all around the house.

I went to go outside and noticed some crumbles all over the couch as I walked past. I stopped to sweep them into my hand and immediately knew what it was. My nose quickly told me what it was. It was remnants of “fresh donkey nuggets”.

Apparently, Ms. Angel had snapped one of the donkey dung balls up off the ground and carted it into the house. With the mud hounds in hot pursuit, it didn’t take long before they scattered the fresh “donkey nugget” everywhere. Crumbles were on the couch, on the floor, in the living room, and down the hallway.

Needless to say, it took us longer to clean up than it did for the dogs to scatter it all around the house. I was glad Mr. Dyson the broom was close by so I could sweep up the crumbles.

They did have fun wrestling over it and scattering crumbs all over the house.

Like I’ve said before, every day around here is an adventure, some just smell better than others……

Be nice, be kind, and don’t forget to rewind.

06/18/2025

Hello Farm Friends! I wanted to thank everyone that sent us a tip on a dog in Elmore County that looked like our missing Ms. Stella.

After some communication and facial pictures, it was quickly determined that it was not our Ms. Stella. Again, high hopes were quickly dashed.

We will continue to follow up on any and all leads and never stop looking and praying for her safe return.

Please continue to help us find our Ms. Stella by sharing any pictures or posts you come across. Again, thank-you.

Serenity Animal Farm

07/15/2025

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