In March , we hunt down theLuck o ’ the Farmercontest on HobbyFarms.com , and incur an overwhelming reception from you , our readers . You send in so many stories of luck on the farm — whether it was dumb luck , beginner luck , elusive luck or something in between — and we could n’t aid but apportion a few with you here . Some of these stories will make you laugh , while others will have you bet your blessing , but we ’re pretty sure you ’ll be able-bodied to interrelate to at least a few .
Winning Entry : Angela CarriganIrvine , Calif. It waskidding seasonon the farm . try a baby goat shout because he had stray too far from momma was common . On this night , the sound break my heart . I alerted my other one-half to go tally because this one “ sounded little . ” He went to check the goat . He never found the “ fiddling one ” who was making a dissonance ; instead , he smell roll of tobacco . There was an electric ardour just beginning to flare up . That phantom cry and our compassionateness saved the farm . It was a windy Nox , and if he had not smelled the smoking and put out thefire , we might have misplace the farm .
Runner Up : Gilbert FowlerAsh Flat , Ark. I had been encounter a bleak cat in the tractor shed in the early winter . I felt sorry for the cat , which was feral , so I started feeding it . I would put the nutrient on the level in the evening and sure enough , in the morning time it was gone . Just last week , I hold more food to the shed , placed it on the floor and called “ pool , kitty , ” and I find the black CT add up toward the feed . It being drab in the shed , I did n’t notice the white stripe on part of the cat ’s back until it was about 10 feet away . At that clip , I reverse and ran toward the house , turned and get a line the sess eat the food I had put out for the stray black cat-o'-nine-tails . I feel I was favourable that the skunk did not spray me .
Runner Up : Leah FlemingWalkersville , Md. While I ’ve had my share of beginner slip - ups , none have been as put off as realize that you ’ve allow your four heel out repeatedly throughout the Nox and forget to shut down up thechicken coop . My cad , you see , are distinctive target - driven critters when they ’re together . It only takes one wild razz to move too promptly and the dogs take up the pursual . I discover my error betimes in the morning time and hoped that I ’d be lucky and all of the volaille would be spare because they were still roosting .
I was able to get all the dogs back into the house but one . I harbor my breath and went in search . I commence run when I ensure a tail go past the chicken coop door . When I go to the cage , though , my panic turn to laughter . It turn out that I was there to deliver the dog , not the chickens . Abigail was backed into a nook surrounded by 15 raging hen . Since then , my girl have prove to be a brave lot . They ’ve tamed the savage cat settlement living under the garage and teach the dogs that they demand to respect the chicken and our young rooster .
Maya MazulDover , Tenn. I awake up at 4 o’clock one dayspring to check my pocket Christopher Fry ( we raise trout ) . I pull my boots on , stepped out into the 30 - degree - F weather and feed to the orchis sign of the zodiac , which sat about 20 yard from my house . When I reached the door , I twist the door and swept the trough with a lowly flashlight in my hired hand . When my booted feet hand the ground , I saw it : a crayfish the size of my palm tree sitting in the bottom of the trout ’s public treasury . I search through the unnumbered unmatched prick we kept in the sign — turkey baster , scissors , plyer , staple guns — and found the net I needed . I trail the diminutive lobster around the trough four clock time before my net capture him and only him . I placed him in a pail and did an overview of my babies . I managed to quieten myself enough to agnize that most , if not all , of my trout survived the terrific tone-beginning . I managed to save the most raw Pisces the Fishes there is to raise . Definitely a lucky day !
Cathy ChaneyColquitt , Ga. A few years back , we were move to Kentucky from Georgia . We had our trailer load with two goats , two bulldog pup and 65Australorp hensthat had just been given to us . We had traveled about 75 mile , and when we stop at a dealings igniter , my husband notice in his rearview mirror that there were chickens run loose in the trailer . We stopped at a local business and put them back in their batting cage . We wondered how many chickens we had fall behind along the route . We travel straight through without spending the Nox anywhere , and when we arrive , we numerate our Gallus gallus . We still had all 65 of some of the good stratum that we have ever owned .
Kelly Adkins - LeachBumpass , Va. We had left the woodwind stove door cracked to get a nice hell become and bury it was cracked . We go about our morning and I hear a loud roaring sound and come across that a piece of wood had rolled forward getting lodged on the flesh and knock the stove door open . If it had n’t lodged itself on the frame , our house would n’t be here .
Peggy StengleinPittsburghMy lucky story come from when I was only about 12 twelvemonth old on our family farm . It was former outflow , and we had twoJersey cowsfor milk . Dorothy , the ornery one , late had a sura . I was awful at wanting to pet the babies . My mom would tell me to be careful because a momma moo-cow is very protective correctly after her baby is born , and if I got too close , she might see it as a terror , but I could n’t help myself . The calf was just so cunning !
One sunrise aftermilking , we were letting the cows back into the field , and I was standing in the barn driveway so they would n’t get the urge to go down the hill instead of up to the forage . Dorothy let out this atrocious interference , put her head down and load me ! I ran as tight as I could with her right behind me when I tripped on some tall widow’s weeds . I started to run again , but she scooped me up with her head and gave me quite a cosmetic surgery in the air ( reckon Norman Rockwell paintings ) , my feet in front wiggling , but I landed on my pes and somehow run faster . My mamma did whatever it was she did and got the cow into the field of operation and the logic gate closed , all while quell pretty calm ! I had run up to my dad ’s pickup truck that was park behind the top of the barn , leap in the bottom , and would n’t come out until my ma assured me all was well . Needless to say , after that , I was very deliberate about pet baby anythings !
Sandra YarboroughLeeseville , S.C.We had just been yield two fresh peacocks , King Quinn and Antonio . In a few days ’ time , they escaped from their pen and were gone . After two weeks of searching , there was no sign of them until one night a ripe neighbour called and said they regain a peacock at the side of a hinterland route . Our neighbour and his friend were able-bodied to enamor it . We feel very lucky to have one of the birds home and favorable to have such good neighbor uncoerced to catch a peacock ! We had to nurse the Inachis io back to health , as it was injured . Our luck did n’t stop there . Two week later , there was a planetary house at the side of the road that read , “ Peacock find oneself . ” It had found a house with volaille and became friends with them . The valet who experience there state the peacock butterfly would glance in his window and eat what vegetables he had left in his garden . The bird roosted at night in one of his Tree . He was very patient with it , fed it and tried to find its rest home .
J. KullPipersville , Pa. It was a typical summer violent storm , and as is vulgar in the state , the king was out . Lightning on the spur of the moment crash nearby . Our neighbour banged loud on the room access , and Dad suffice it . After some hustle Good Book , they took off running as fast as they could . I rushed out to the private road after them , enquire what was happening . When I reached them , I see to my horror that our barn had been struck by lightning , and there was smoke billowing out from the ceiling ! “ water supply ! Get all the water supply you could find ! ” everybody was call . It was n’t only the barn we were touch about ; it was also our Goat and chickens in the affiliated pens . mummy rushed under the canopy offireand open up the playpen to zip the frightened minor outdoors .
I look up and saw the flames licking through the corner of the barn . That sight was forever glue to my memory like a photo glued to a scrapbook , it was so terrible . Buckets of weewee were snap up from the animal pens , the dog ’s dog house , and anywhere and everywhere we could find it . mommy retrieved the ardor extinguishers . I hooked up the hose , hoping to get H2O , in spite of the lack of power to the well ticker . It seemed insufferable for the water to range for long . I heard Dad praying . I kept praying , over and over , every chance I baffle , sometimes mutely , sometimes in a hoarse whisper . Mom later severalize me that she , too , was beg , but I do n’t believe anybody was beg hard than I was .
To my astonishment , a steady stream of pee maintain hail from the nozzle . Dad , flabbergasted , told me to see if the superpower was back on . I consort inside the planetary house , and quickly come back to report it was still off . What if the wall give way ? What if the water stops ? What if … what if … what if ! A thousand cerebration were running through my head . Again , Dad sent somebody to confirm whether the electrical energy was restored , but the report was the same . There was no power … yet the hose was still running ! The hose ran for a whole half - hour before the fire was out and the smoke subsided . We fleece everything in the b , to check that nothing would rekindle .
Melissa Monty - ProvostPlattsburgh , N.Y.Our farm offers a mobile fondling menagerie . We ordinarily take amini donkey , a dyad ofPygmy goatsand on this occasion , two new acquiredShetland sheep . We were headed to a nursing home in the metropolis . We were stopped at an intersection on a very busy highway when the dawdler room access open up and out jumped one of our very expensive sheep . We had no idea and continued on to our job land site . As we were driving slow through the parking lot , we noticed one of our donkeys was walking around ! Imagine our horror when we realized we were miss a sheep and had to corral the domestic ass . We had no estimate someone who know us fascinate our sheep at the intersection . We forebode all over and travel the roads looking for her for hour . Finally , someone tell us they knew where she was . We were improbably lucky to have had a admirer following us . By iniquity , everyone was home dependable and sound !
