A stranger, a goat, a critter and a tree

The other day I was outside just enjoying the view when I noticed two of our cats chasing something. A quick run to where the cats were, I see this little guy scurrying and trying to hide from the cats. Another quick run to grab a bucket then back to the scene. After doing the 'kick away' dance to the cats, I finally convinced this little guy to go into the bucket. 
Once inside the bucket I put some shavings in the bottom, placed it inside one of the recycle containers until I could drive him up onto one of the hills behind the house. 
After about an hour or so I opened the lid to see the little guy had jumped out of the bucket. So, caught him again, put him back into the bucket, placed a lid on the bucket and drove him up on the hill and released him. 
Nature will do what nature does when it comes to cats and what they catch, but I don't want to see it or hear it. Yup, I will intervene in situations like this. When I do find dead little critters or birds I drive them on to the hill and feed the wildlife up there. Would much rather do that than let the little bodies decompose close to the house where the smell might attract larger wildlife.

While up on the hill gathering more wood I saw this old gnarled tree. The trunk and branches were all twisted. I thought it was interesting.



Same tree just different side.






The other day my oldest daughter came out to bring some hay and as she pulled into the driveway an older red pickup with a canopy pulled in right behind her. A Mexican who spoke very little English pointed at Oreo goat ( pic above) and said he wanted that goat. She said no. He pointed again and said he wanted that goat. She again said no. The she told him that our goats are out pets and they are old. He said that goats are good to eat until they are 14 years old! She again said, NO! Then she notices that there is a big old goat wandering around in the back of his pickup. The guy finally left without any of my goats.
I have since put chain and locks on all the gates. Not taking any chances with any of my animals.  

  


Sugar Dog thinking she can blend in with the chickens! Watch out Sugar, Stew Pot ( the rooster) isn't looking to thrilled to have you standing there.

Sorry for not posting the last few days. Internet has been running slow.

Now time to catch up with all of you!

Until next time...........................



Betsy goat, Frogs in a bowl, and

A good portion of yesterday was spent at the University my youngest daughter is attending. This will be her second year there, but this time she has decided to move on campus. Sure is going to be strange without her here. Remember several months ago when the neighbors goat, Betsy, decided she wanted to come over here and stay awhile? The above pic shows her when she first came over.

This is how Betsy looks as of this morning! Quite a difference!

While I was watering the pasture troughs this morning I noticed this frog swimming in one of the many containers of water that are placed throughout the property for all the animals ( coons, cats, squirrels, birds, etc.)

Over the weekend it rained pretty good. And this morning there are shades of green beginning to grow in the pastures. Amazing how fast a pasture can go from desert brown to a field of green. You can barely see the green in the pic, but really, it is there.

Bonnie has decided she wants to be broody. Sorry girl but not going to happen. First, the eggs are not fertilized. Secondly, it is too late in the season to be raising babies.

Speaking of chickens. The hen who was injured or sick has made almost a full recovery. I still have no idea what the heck happened, but she appears to be fine now other than a slight limp. I have decided to name her Grace.

One more note on chickens. It seems there is one hen who is stealing and eating the eggs from the hen house! I still have not been able to catch who is doing it, due to by the time I get out there after hearing all the raucous going on, all the hens are trying to grab what's left of the egg. And what gets me is I don't know why it is happening. They get a very good chicken layer feed, cracked corn, hen scratch, grit, leftovers from our meals, cat food, hay to find grains in, freshly picked weeds and grasses and even a large bucket of dug up dirt for bugs. Instead of going on and collecting eggs once a day, I have had to go out there quite a bit and get the eggs right away. Hmmmmm.

Well, time to drive into town for a few things.

Until next time.....................

So that's where it came from!

Yesterday I noticed there is a kind of haze here in the valley. As the day wore on, the haze seemed to get much more noticeable. Pewter has a reddish tint to her. Hmmmm. What in the world is causing this haze. There are no wildfires close by so new it wasn't that. So I started investigating. Didn't take me long to find out..................

that the haze is coming from.....are you ready? It is coming from the over 500 wildfires burning in....Russia!! Seriously. Who would have thought smoke from Russia would ever make it down this way. To the right of the pic you can kind of see the haze, but to the upper left it is normal.

You can see the haze a bit better in this pic. Apparently the smoke caught in the airstream, and made its way to the Pacific Northwest. I thought it was kind of cool, not for those having to go through the wildfires, but the fact that Russia wildfire smoke has come into the Valley here.

I made a few phone calls yesterday about the bat. I was told to just wrap it up without of course touching it and throw it away. Really? Yup, they haven't had any reports of rabid bats so for me not to worry. Well, okay then. Not wanting to take any chances of burying the little bat, I carefully wrapped it up in a soft piece of cloth, inside a bag and set it into the dump trailer.

The little hen that hasn't been feeling well is improving with each passing day.

I am still trying to figure out if Oreo goat really is pregnant. She hasn't had any babies before, she is about 8, maybe 9 now and I really don't know a lot about goats. Thankfully my sister does and she has been guiding me as to what to look for.

Until next time..........................

Chickens, Goats, Yellow Jackets, Oh My!

First I have to say, " I am so done with summer! The high temps are too much. Time to start the snow dance!" One of my little hens hasn't been feeling well the past few days. At first I thought she may be egg bound, but she laid an egg so don't think it is that. The first day she wasn't feeling well she hid in a corner with her head tucked in. Hmmmm, not a good sign. Then she went into one of the cat carriers that is in the hen house for them to lay eggs. Well, she is eating and drinking, but still isn't acting right. She walks kind of like it hurts to stand . Her feet and legs appear to be fine. I suppose time will tell.

And Little Inger's tail feathers are well, just plain gone. None of her other feathers are missing, just the tail ones. I don't know if the two chicks she is raising are picking them off or what the heck is going on.

Oreo goat appears to be pregnant, but I don't know for sure. Old Dick, the buck, is between 12 to possibly 14 years old. I have had the goats for 6 years and not a one baby. Not that Old Dick doesn't try, because bless his heart, he sure gives it his all. And Old Dick is the only buck here. No other bucks close by either. This is the first time Oreo's bag has filled up. I am going to call my sister today and ask her about Oreo. My sister raises the most beautiful Boer goats.

I know, not a very pretty picture.

And look what I found under the eave of the house today! Great. I try not to use any insecticides because of the chickens. I don't want them eating the insects that have been sprayed. However, this time around I may have to use 'the spray'. Maybe a hard spray with the hose might do the trick. Of course that would be done either at night or really early in the morning. Sometimes cohabiting with Mother Nature is a bit tricky.

Oh, last night a mama coon brought her small babies up to eat the cat food. Did I remember to grab the camera? Nope. Maybe tonight I'll get some pics.

Better get more chores done before it is too hot.

Betsy goat is still here with no word from the neighbor.

Until next time................

Maybe permanent?

Well, maybe, just maybe Betsy goat is here permanently! Her 'owners' haven't come over to get her. Well, other than the two small boys who came over the other night to bring her some vegies. Which didn't go so well since as soon as the donkeys realized 'treats' were being handed out, they all came running to the fence pushing the goats out of the way.

I did notice that Betsy is starting to look a little better. She has now gained a bit of weight and her coat seems to have a touch of shine to it.

My goats and Betsy are getting along great. Betsy has a ways to go to get as 'chunky' as the other goats, but if she does get to stay, well, before long she will be as roly poly as the rest. Although with her having horns I do worry about her getting caught in the fence or a gate. And possibly injuring one of the other goats.

The little frogs are more and more visible these days.

Pretty soon they will attach themselves to the side of the house.

Until next time...................

Still here, tattoo, and another rant!

Well, as you can see Betsy goat is still here. Haven't seen or talked with the neighbor since Betsy made her way into my pasture.

My herd and Betsy are getting along great. In fact, Betsy now knows the feeding routine and she waits for me at the gate, then runs alongside the Gator as I drop off piles of hay. Oh, and Betsy has one eye!! As far as I'm concerned she can live here permanently!

Yesterday my Internet connection was in and out for the better part of the day. Thinking that the company I go through was having difficulties yet again I didn't stress about it too much. Well, yesterday early evening it went out completely! That's it!! So, I called and what did I hear? The infamous automated system. Okay, fine.

After answering questions and pushing buttons the system hung up on me. Fine. Called back. This time the voice I heard was all in Spanish. Um, sorry I speak English. Couldn't get to the English part of it so hung up. Called back. Got the Spanish voice again. Hung up. Called back. Finally got the English speaking voice and halfway through the call they hung up. Now I am really getting frustrated. I call back, nothing. Call again, still nothing. Call again. Finally the voice. Answered questions and pushed buttons ( yes I had a real tone in my voice by this time), again halfway through the call they hung up. Call back yet again, same routine answering questions and pushing buttons and yup, you guessed it, they hung up on me again!!!

Alrighty then. Time to walk away, calm down, and catch my breath.

After a bit of time had passed I called again. Got the English speaking voice. Answered the questions, pressed the buttons, so far so good. Then silence!! But wait, the voice came back on!!! This time the voice says that they are experiencing an unusually high number of calls and that the Internet would be restored shortly. Hmmmm, okay. I hung up ( yes after giving the dead air time enough for the voice to come back on). Within a few minutes the Internet was up and running!!!

Today's technology is blessing and a curse at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and before I forget I was reading Justina's http://morningbrayfarm.com/ blog yesterday to find out she and Carson over at http://www.the7msnranch.com/ got tattoos! The tattoos they got were of the their BLM donkeys' brands. How very cool is that!!! My youngest daughter has been wanting a tattoo and I have been telling her that when she gets one, to make sure it means something to her that she will always enjoy looking at. Not one that later on life you look at and ask yourself why did I get that! So I told her about Justina's and Carson's tattoos. Her eyes lit up and said that they were awesome tattoos and she is going to get her BLM Mustangs' brand tattooed on her ankle. So thanks for the idea Justina and Carson!! One of these days I'll have to tell you of the tattoo I am going to get and have been wanting to for a long time now. It will be my first and only tattoo I will ever get.

Until next time.................................

Goats, Books and Time

Today is really a beautiful day. The house windows are open. All the critters fed, watered, cleaned and turned out for the day. House chores pretty much done. And it's before noon!

The goats have begun their full fledged shed. Thankfully Goldie lets me pull some of that winter hair off. Well, actually its more of a grab and pull since she doesn't like to be touched much. You know the trick. You stand there, they walk by and you reach down, grab a handful of hair and you end up with a handful of goat hair.

Ol' Dick is always the nastiness of the bunch. Since he is older than dirt, he can't move very fast these days so helping him rid some of that nasty hair is easier. Although, I do not grab his hair with my hands. He stinks and so does his hair! I always make sure to keep a large comb in my pocket to use on him.

Oreo is the easiest of the bunch to help shed. She actually enjoys being brushed. Well, until she has had enough.

Since it is such a pretty day and the chores are pretty much done, I am giving thought to possibly catching up on some reading. Here is the end table with the books I have started but haven't finished. I love reading, but for quite awhile there just hasn't been time to sit, relax and just read. There is always something that needs to be done.

This is a close up of the picture shown in the above pic. It has my two fav boys ( who have sinced passed). Jake wearing his green rain coat when he was just a young pup. It was a very bad, wet winter that year and he didn't want to go outside to do his business so I bought him a rain coat. The dog laying down by Jake was E.Z.. He was a Pit Bull and the best dog that ever graced my life. He was almost sixteen when I lost him to cancer ten years ago. I still tear up thinking about him.

Thank you to everyone who gave me great advice for that awful wound on the hen. I did call both vets ( I have one for the large animals and one for the dogs and cats). Neither had a broad spectrum antibacterial powder. So, I went through all the meds in both the dog/cat and horse/donk medicine cabinets and found some Wound Kote powder and also some spray on antibacterial medicine. Thankfully there are no maggots. By the way thanks to everyone who mentioned the maggots. I never even thought about them being on the wound!

Oh, and real quick. I wormed my horse so I won!!! I am trying the blind folding trick next time!! Thank you.

Real quick, just to let you all know. It's okay to say that the goats are nasty looking. I know they aren't the best looking bunch around!! Especially compared to other goats on other blogs! And my sisters goats!! Her goats are really stunning.

Until next time............................

Coming home to............................

This morning I had to drive my daughter to college which is four towns away so it takes awhile to get there and back. Got home, came in the house, made the chickens their oatmeal, checked my eBay listings while the oatmeal cooled, then out the door to let the chickens out. As I walked to the chicken house I heard one of the goats hollering. I didn't think much of it at first because if one is left behind they holler for the others to wait up. As I opened the door to the chicken coop the hollering was loud and upset. So I stepped by the fence to see Patti Cake ( mini mule) pestering one of the goats. Hmmm, something was not right. The goat was not moving but screaming at this point. Then I realized the situation. She had somehow got her head stuck in the fence! Crap!!!! Ran to the barn, grabbed the cutters and out to the front pasture. The whole time I am yelling at Patti Cake to leave the goat alone. She could easily kick the goat in her head either killing or maiming her badly.

After checking for injuries ( which there are a few bloody spots on the goats neck), the cutting of the fence began. There are actually two fences. One is a regular livestock fence and the other is a chain link I attached to the livestock wire to prevent little heads from getting stuck! Well, the two fences has worked for almost seven years with no problems until now! This is the hole that I cut out. It took a little wrangling on my part to get Gabby to back up. She is the one goat I have never been able to touch in all the years I have had her! So here it is, she is being touched by a human, which makes her backing up all that much more difficult. But after a bit, one arm around her chest, the other pushing down on her head she finally backed up. She was shaken up pretty bad so will check on her quite a bit today. Thankfully she had only been stuck for less than two hours, if even that. I know she wasn't stuck at 7 a.m. this morning.

Just a few of the pieces that were cut.

Baling twine is a must have when you need a quick repair. Gotta love the stuff.

Sorry about the quality of the pic. Danni, this is for you. We do too have mud!! :)

This was taken yesterday just before evening feeding. I was a little late do to picking my daughter up from college so the horses and donkeys had to wait a bit to get fed. By the sounds of everyone screaming you would think they hadn't been fed in months! Ha Ha Pearl was letting me know her unhappiness!

Until next time..................

The ears have it or Silent Saturday.

Until next time.........................

It's Only January!!!

It's only January and there are signs of lice on two of the donkeys here. Yes, lice!!! This is the first time I have had to de-louse the donkeys so early in the year. Geez, it is winter here isn't it?! Well, the so called winter we have had here in the valley hasn't been much of one at all. Temps have been on the warm side. A bit of rain here and there. No snow to speak of. But, the combination of what rain we have had and the warm temps is the perfect breeding grounds for lice! Usually it doesn't have to be done until March. Out to the barn to the medicine cabinet to get the lice powder.

See the bald patch between Arnold's nostril and upper lip? Yup, tell tale sign of lice.

Another obvious sign is the raggedy-ness of the coat. She is always the first to get lice. In fact, there has never been a problem with lice here until she came. So, this morning was dusting all the donkeys. Let me tell you, it is not easy sprinkling lice powder on them. It is so funny how they know when I have a treat or the dreaded powder or wormer! Sorry, no pics of the actual dusting. A lot of it is run by powdering! You know, I walk non chalantley around, wait for them to come to me and then start sprinkling. After the sprinkling, then it has to be rubbed in for the powder to do its job. By that time it really does become a challenge. It took awhile, but it got done! I win!!!!!

And since the donkeys had to get dusted, guess which bunch was next? Look at those sweet, unsuspecting faces!! Hee Hee

And in 10-14 days the process needs to be done again!!

Until next time.......................

Fainting Goats

Today I thought would be a day to talk about my goats since I haven't mentioned them before. Our goats are all rescues.

We have Fainting Goats. Yes, Fainting Goats. You ask if they really faint? Well, sort of. They are a breed all their own and have a genetic condition called Myotonia Congenita.

Their condition causes their muscle cells to experience prolonged contraction which causes stiffness, stop moving and even fainting. The paralysis only last a minute or so.

The breed has been around since the late 1880's. And they had a purpose! Ranchers would place these goats in with their prized sheep or goats. When a predator came down, the goats would faint giving the rest of the herd to get away.

Yes, they were used as a sacrifice to save the more spendy herd.
This is Dick. He is between 12 and 14 years old now. Yup, he is an old man. In this pic he looks awful. His winter coat was coming off. Old Dick is still intact, but is unable to make babies. Although the old guy sure does try! When he gets scared, his back end stiffens up and he tries to hop away. Okay, I laugh when he 'faints'. Sorry.

This is Oreo. I know, a real original name! She is the sweetest of the bunch. Her age is about 8 or 9. Yes, she does the real faint. We have only seen it twice in the years we have had her, but I can tell you it was the funniest thing to see. She actually stops, drops and rolls straight onto her back with her four legs sticking straight up.

This is Baby. She does not like to be touched. Baby is about 7 years old. No, she isn't pregnant. Her mama is Gabby who is not pictured because she does not like people at all!

This is Goldie Goat. Isn't she pretty? In the winter time she grows a long curly blond coat. When she 'faints' she stiffens up where all four legs splay out and she just stands there. There have more than one occasion where she ''fainted' under a horse! Thankfully our horses stop what they are doing and wait until she moves out from under them.

If you haven't seen a Fainting Goat 'faint', go to You Tube and type in Fainting Goat. Be prepared to laugh really hard.

Until next time.........................