Granny Cat celebrated a bit too much

A post shared by Katherine Dunn / Apifera Farm (@katherinedunnapiferafarm) on Oct 26, 2017 at 9:52am PDT

Granny Cat's Cooking Show!

If Granny's cooking show inspires you, you can visit this page to show your appreciation.

Pino says good bye to his beloved porta potty

The Puppet has made his final Porta Potty movie. He kept the drama low this year.

We are celebrating our final Pino Pie Day on Sunday June 14 here at Apifera. You can come and enjoy my homemade pie, share hugs and touch with the many animals, feel the land we have worked so hard on and been blessed with, buy my books and art, or just sit by a tree. Please visit the information page before coming for tips and directions.

If you can't come, you can still support our efforts [Pie Day has been our main fundraiser each year to help me maintain the many needs of adopted The Misfits] at various, fun reward levels, like sponsoring a Prayer Flag for the Prayer Flag Tree, or getting a virtual kiss from Stevie. Just pop over to the Pino Pie funding page.

I want to thank the volunteers who are taking time to come this year- I could not, and won't, do it with out you.

We celebrate the birth of the World's Grumpiest Pig! Rosie!

Today's is Rosie the pig's 7th birthday. She grows grumpier each year and we like her that way. You can read all about how I took Martyn fishing one time and came home with a grumpy pig. She came complete with a crippled goat who we all know and love as Stevie- yes, the one who gives kisses.

Pig language is intricate. It took me much longer to learn than goat, donkey or horse. While Earnest is polite, and Eleanor never stops talking, Rosie...well Rosie starts out a grumpolopapous and gets more so.

Her alter ego the Grumpy Pig Puppet is here to honor Rosie and all her Rosiness.

Happy Birthday dear Rosie! Today I woke her up from her morning nap and gave her eggs, which she liked, but then let me know she was disturbed at being awake.

Pino's Porta Potty Movie!!!

The Puppet has a lot to say this year. Give the tired little fellow your attention for three minutes. His Porta Potty is a very important part of our upcoming Pino Pie Day [as many of our past guests will agree, I'm sure.}

Pino decided to try to collect money on his own this year, the brave little fellow. You can see how he did on the movie. If you still want to donate something to Pino, you can do so here at the blog.

Pino's Porta Potty Movie 2013!

IT"S HERE! Pino's Porta Potty Movie 2013! This year, Stella the goat and Olive Oil the sheep help out and - WARNING - the potty talk abounds. For those of you new to Apifera, every year The Puppet gets very excited for the arrival of the porta potty for his Pie Day. He takes to it like a long lost friend, and each year he makes a special movie to honor its arrival.

Pino Pie Day - the annual event that raises money for Apifera's barnyard of Misfits is Saturday June 15 from 11 to 4. Art and lavender are for sale, as are the many aprons donated by Pino's fans. This year we'll again be lucky to have Carolyn Holman here with her "Girl Bands" head wear too - I personally have about 6 of them!

If you can't make it to Pie Day and want to donate to the Misfits that is just wonderful.

Now sit back and enjoy the puppet potty humor!

Great puppet makers unite

Once upon a time there was a little artist named Emma. She found my blog and she shared some of her art with me. She had the soul of a bird and her color was wonderful.

She liked my Puppet, and she like my donkey. We wrote each other sometimes.

And one day, her mom drove from the Midwest to Oregon to see family and it just so happened that trip coincided with that year's Pino Pie Day.

I had remembered they wrote and said they might come, but you know, people write me all sorts of nice things and they never come to be. So when a woman walked up to me at Pie Day and announced who they were, I was confused....

"Emma, my Emma? From way far away?"

Emma spent almost the entire day at Pie Day that year, dragging around a donkey doll she had found for sale in the studio which her mom bought her. That doll was Juliette. I was informed that Juliette has had many surgeries - a true sign a doll is loved. When Emma entered my studio that day - she was the first person to look up high and see the Puppets looking down from her perch, and she gasped! She knew those puppets!

I was told by her mother that when they left that day, Emma told her, "That was the best day of my life."

I have told that story many times to many people. There is power and grace in it for me - for it is one of the most meaningful artistic relationships I've had and it is about a big circle of puppet love.

But it gets better. Just days ago, I received this photo of Emma, with Juliette the donkey. But now there are other dolls to keep Juliette happy. Emma and her mom and sisters spent a day over the holidays making donkey dolls. I was thrilled.

And what she doesn't know is this inspired me too - to act on something I've been thinking about for awhile - to do Sock Puppet/Doll Online Class[es]. I needed a muse to remind me. Thank you, Emma. More about that soon.

Porta Potty Puppet Ponderings

We pay for Pino Pie Day out of Pino's tin can. If you'd like to chip in- feel free. This year, the apron sales at Pino Pie Day will help New Moon Gaot Farm Recue, lavender Dreams Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary One - all of which were once home to our adopted goats, pig and donkey.

Every year there is great excitement over the arrival of Pino Porta Potty for Pino Pie Day. The Puppet considers it like the night before Christmas and talks non stop about the arrival of the porta potty. Each year he makes a movie to share with people to inspire them too about his porta potty. He hopes it inspires you to think about porta potties not as mobile restrooms, but vessels in which to pontificate.

Quick and easy pie...told by a puppet

Pino the puppet gets all the glory, and sometimes Olive Oil needs some air time. She requested help to wish a friend - a pie loving friend- a happy birthday.

But I personally think what I've discovered is she has a hidden talent- a cooking show in her future? Perhaps.

The Puppet goes to the pig's birthday party

Pino's Christmas Pageant

He's just a little donkey and he had such a dream. Alas, he found out how difficult it can be to direct-produce-act-and-sing in a production. So turn off your tweets, disengage from your face or his face or myface or facebook and give the little guy 7 minutes of your time. It's full of song, philosophy and more...right through the credits.

You can watch the video on our movie channel too, it might load faster.

Visit of the Higglebottoms

Grandmere Chat discovers two very small visitors underneath her porch one morning.

Pino's New Year Message 2010

Love song to a puppet

I was experimenting with some still shots of Pino the puppet, and when I put it into a slide show, this is the generic song that was embedded. It was so appropriate, is so appropriate to me and this puppet. I know, I know, he's just a puppet, but we are in a relationship, a friendship, him and I. I can say he believes in me because in fact, he is me, and I am him. And we are all together, cooo coo coo choo.

I am going to continue to create what I feel propelled to create - with or without the blessings of the current commercial markets.

When you live with a puppet

Valentine song from Pino & Stella

Holiday tunes for you from Pino & Co.

Coming soon...

It's been difficult writing on my book with these two practicing for their Sing Fest. Then again, it's charming. They have agreed to honor my one stipulation for daily practice time in studio - no Alvin and the Chipmuck renditions.

Introducing...Olive!

Visit Tails & Tales to meet her....

New movie: Stella sings

Thanks to all the kind emails congratulating Stella on her first movie. Pino's worried his place in Apifera Farm movie making will be usurped. But I've reassured him his talent and compassion can never be outdone.