Oh, The Joys Of Food!

The cats have dry food available at all times, but the dogs only get fed once each morning. There are plenty of food and water dishes, so there is no fighting, and the cats often move right in and share the food bowls with the dogs:

 Rocky seems to love dry dog food - or maybe he just thinks he's getting away with something:

 Daphne looks forlorn in this photo as Bugsy hogs the food dish, but she can and does stick her head right in there with him at times. Also, there are plenty of other dishes:

 Seamus, because he had become so obese, is fed separately (in the laundry room). He gets a measured amount of dry dog food, mixed with low salt beef or chicken broth, tomato juice and green beans or peas:

 Seamus loves to eat but doesn't do it slowly. He'd keep eating until it was all gone, no matter how much food there is. So I have to limit it. He's dropped from a high of 147 pounds to his current low of 94 pounds and no longer has seizures - or at least he hasn't had one in a long time:

 When the morning feeding is over, I begin picking up all the food dishes. But it's become a tradition to toss a bit of dry food on the boot trays for Fergus and Clover to scarf down before they go outside. On this day, Bramble was considering grabbing a bit of dog food for himself before it all disappeared:


 The cows and horses mostly live on hay. Every second day I move the bale feeder to a new spot before putting out another bale. This makes the last remnants of the previous bale more easily available and gives them a soft, dry bed on which to sleep:

 Each morning I ring the bell for the cows and horses to come into the barn for a bit of grain. They too have gotten fat, so I keep the amount small, but lately they haven't much wanted to walk to the barn to get their grain. On this day, Jasmine didn't want to be bothered. But I'd sprinkled minerals on her grain and wanted her to have it, so I carried it outside and plunked it down by her face. She considered that fine service but I didn't get a tip:

 While we're on the subject of food, let's not forget that the cows also spend much of each day chewing their cud. Everything they eat gets chewed twice:

 Meghan and Ruby have gotten so incredibly tame that they do not hide when the dogs and I enter the room. Instead, they often put their little feet up on the bars of the cage and whistle loudly for more lettuce:

 Each morning I give them a half head of Romaine lettuce and one carrot. The lettuce is gone in ten minutes and they want more, but I figure they need the balanced nutrition of their pelleted feed:

Along the side of the house, the bird feeders are the center of activity. The wild birds eat there constantly, and on days when the chickens get out, they spend most of their time cleaning up what the wild birds have scattered. Sadly, it's also become a magnet for rats and squirrels. Everything wants to eat the abundant birdseed, but the bird seed season is almost over: