The Animals of Blue Barn City Farm
When we first moved to this property on Halloween of 2019, we learned that this specific neighborhood, Melody Acres, is still zoned Rural/Agricultural. This means that it is legal to raise livestock like goats and horses and to grow crops like corn. Since we had raised a small flock of chickens in Mar Vista, that’s how we started to grow our new animal family in 2020.
All of the animals here are our pets. They are loved and cared for by us and in return they enrich our lives by showing us how they live and interact with each other, visitors and everything that happens on the farm.
Bruno, the burro, was born wild in 2018 in the California desert. We adopted Bruno in 2023 from a local ranch that specialized in “gentling” wild burros - which means he was minimally trained to allow a halter to be placed on him, to be led by a rope, to allow his hooves to be inspected and to walk into a transport trailer. We have learned much from Bruno; how to be truly patient, to love him unconditionally and to appreciate and respect his unique personality and size. He loves carrots, walks in the neighborhood and to be scratched between his ears. He used to make the braying “donkey sound” every morning at 7am when we first got him but it has almost completely stopped except for when he is either very hungry or very worried, both things that are extremely rare.
Beep and Sheep are our Turkeys. We adopted them as tiny chicks and we used to carry them around in our pockets! They are both boy turkeys, called Toms. They eat fruits, lettuce and grain. They also LOVE to gobble and will answer you if you laugh really loud, even if you are on the other side of the property.
Thunder and Moon-spot are the goats and they are both girls. Thunder seems to like people more than Moon-spot. Moon-spot has been seen standing on Bruno's back in the mornings!
Cirrus and Ember are our giant rabbits - they are a mated pair and have had over 20 babies together. Like the turkeys, we adopted them when they were very young and we think that because we gave them so many cuddles, they are extremely gentle.
We also have 8 egg-laying chickens, 3 cats; Joaquin, Griffyn and Guava and 2 dogs; Lloyd and Maddie.
