Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305140163
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LURA ASTOR SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
That was, of course, until they saw the puppy.
Delbert Jones grew up on a Pennsylvania dairy farm. He and Johanna were curious about Scotch Highland cows. They did some research and found breeders in Wytheville.
Enter Annie, the cow.
Spring comes and a lot of mooing goes on at Sunken Acre Farm. The Joneses live on an acre, and the back yard is sunken.
Annie, the cow, digs under fences, eats a rosebush on the way, and another household addition appears: Theodosia the calf, produced by Annie in collaboration with the neighbors' bull.
In the bathroom, an incubator warms Cochin chicken eggs; fish swim above them. A white African zebra finch makes music in the kitchen while a descendant of the Galapagos Islands, Kabuki the iguana, hides among leaves in a bedroom terrarium warmed by a special lamp.
A bronze turkey fluffs for a visitor - and holds its breath to turn its face blue, Johanna Jones explains. The blueness can mean attraction or threat. The turkey is always busy in the spring, fluffing, strutting and mating.
During the March blizzard, Delbert Jones helped his wife find the missing guinea pigs, all warm under a doghouse in a tunnel of snow, but hungry.
The mottled Java chickens are a rare breed and didn't quite know what to make of the snow. Johanna Jones saw their little heads and wingtips in the drifts and dug 'em out.
The Vietnamese potbellied pig gets its daily exercise running behind its owner to fetch its food. Then back they run to the yard.
An African pygmy goat butts and jumps and jumps and butts, reminding onlookers of the joys of this season.
Members of the American Minor Breeds Conservancy, the Joneses are interested in animals that are no longer raised commercially and may be dying out. "No," said Johanna Jones, "I didn't always want a lot of animals."
Holding a baby bunny in her hand did it.
"I'd been used to fighting crowds in New York City subways, living in whatever parts of town I could afford; and, all of a sudden, there was something about holding this little baby bunny in my hand. I thought, `I'm going to move down here.'"
A graduate of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with a degree in English, Johanna Jones remembers interviewing at Virginia Tech's poultry science department in 1984.
"You afraid of chickens?" asked Delbert Jones, the man she was to assist.
"Afraid of chickens? This is a ridiculous question!" she responded.
Later, they got married.
Now information and publications director for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, she admits that with their "extended family" it is a bit tricky to go out of town.
Then, of course, there's the cost of hay, horse and chicken feed, chicken scratch, birdseed, dog food and a special dog food for the Vietnamese potbelly pig, plus the costs of shots and vitamins.
"I've learned a lot," Johanna Jones said. "One time a mobile veterinary unit came out and gave Annie the cow the biggest antacid I'd ever seen . . . and they fed her a magnet."
It's common for grazing animals to eat bits of wire fencing and nails. A magnet the shape of a small cigar is placed in the stomach with a tube. Metals are attracted to the smooth magnet, reducing the possibility of puncturing the stomach.
It's a time-consuming and costly hobby with a lot of responsibilities, said Johanna Jones, 34. "I get eggs and enjoyment."
Does Delbert Jones see more animals in their future?
"I think we've reached critical mass," he said with a laugh. "The incubating chicks replace chickens that die . . . and that's enough for now."
by CNB