Piggie and Chickens and ... Purple Beans? Oh, my.

As you may have deduced, what with the "Tragi-Comedy of Shannon Schinagl" I haven't been able to explore the area much so far.  However, I did find a fantastic place: Tendercrop Farms.  It is so stinkin' fun there!  Allow me to demonstrate:

They have live animals.  Not for slaughtering, but for admiring.

The llama:

The goat:

 The silliest, fluffiest chicken I have ever seen.  This is not a baby chick!  This is how the chicken actually looks!  Those of you who have chickens probably know all about this breed of chicken, but I hadn't seen one.  She makes me laugh every time I see her!

The turkeys are in the next pen, and apparently this chicken and turkey have serious issues to discuss.

These are not good pictures, as this chicken would acknowledge my request to move closer, but this chicken has feather bloomers!  If you look closely at her legs, you can see the dark puffballs that go down her legs and puff biggest at her feet.

I'm sorry for the obsession with chickens, but these chickens are too wild!  Here, a chicken with a white afro!  As you can see, no one was listening to me today, so this is the best shot I got.

Oh, my heavens to betsy: piglets!

The runt.  I tried to get a picture of it next to one of his/her brothers or sisters to show how small he/she is, but he wouldn't comply.  (Perhaps he/she'd been talking to that uncooperative chicken?)  If it helps, but Mom thought he was the same size as her seven-pound Chihuahua (though we weren't sure this piglet weighed even seven pounds).

Mama has had enough, so up she goes.

Poor little runt.

Just so you know, we asked, and nothing bad will happen to the runt.

Now, as promised, purple beans!  I have never seen such a thing.

Here is a view of one small corner of the store.

I am a tomato-lover, so this area made my mouth water.

As you may have noticed in the picture two up, Tenderfoot Farms has tons of dried flowers and herbs hanging from every rafter.  Not only does it make the store beautiful, but it smells heavenly as well.

Outside in the nursery there were tons of flowers, plants and trees for sale.  My Mom and I were particularly taken with these massive hibiscus.  Hopefully you can tell, but in case you can't, these flowers are the size of a salad plate.  I don't normally pay much attention to flowers, but my Mom said they are the biggest blooms she has ever seen.  Gorgeous.

As I start exploring, there will be more to come!