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.......................

Persistence and the cats

I have no idea what got into Persistence this morning. Even though he is not my dog, he is over here all the time. This here is Goat. She is a pretty laid back kitty.

Persistence is trying with all his might to get Miss Kitty to play. He tries and tries to talk her into it.

He even shows her how much fun it will be.

Aw, come on. Play with me. Pleeeeeeze!!!

Play, play play!

Right after I took this pic, Miss Kitty had had enough and chased Persistence right into Goat, who in turn took off after Persistence chasing him straight into Stew Pot the rooster who chased him off back to me. Darn camera wasn't fast enough to catch all that.

Persistence then looks at me as if to say. " Um, all I wanted to do was play. What in the heck just happened there!"

So far I have not seen Persistence near any cat or chicken after what happened this morning.

The more that little dog is here the more I am really taking a liking to him!

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

Two Losses.

Well, 2010 isn't starting off so well. Can you see Cookie Cat inside the giraffe? Sadly we had to put her to sleep last week due to a tumour in her mouth which turned out to be cancer. She was estimated to be about 12. One Christmas morning some years ago I found her on our front porch. She was so skinny and scared and obviously had had kittens recently. I looked for the kittens, but couldn't find them. Someone had dumped her and her babies out like garbage. She sure was a cute little girl.

This is Apollo. It isn't one of the best pictures of him. He started having trouble breathing yesterday so off to the vet to find out he had fluid starting to build around his heart. Probably caused from a tumour. There was no cure so the decision was made to let him leave this world peacefully surrounded by those of us who loved him so much. Last year he was diagnosed with cancer in his eye and had to be removed. We started calling him the Pirate Dog. I know, not original. He was ten.

This is not a sad post. Just a tribute to a Cookie Cat and a Pirate Dog.

See you two on the other side.

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

Stop it! I'll do it!! I mean it!!!

Ah, kittens! Stop touching me! Just stop it!!!!

I mean it! If you touch me again I am going to beat you up!

I am not kidding! Don't even think about touching me! You'll be sorry! I'll do it!!

I told you that you would be sorry! Now I am going to kick you butt!!!

Nothing like having rotten kittens in the house!

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

Had to find out!

Alright, I admit it. Curiosity got the better of me. I had to find out just how many eggs Little Inger is sitting on. Here is Little Inger keeping her eggs nice and warm. She is so happy.

Sorry about the picture being fuzzy. I picked up Little Inger, held her and took this picture of her eggs and immediately set her back onto her eggs. Um, some different colored ones there! Looks like Little Inger has snagged a few eggs that were not hers! There is one Americauna ( green egg), one white egg from one of the Mottled Houdans, one or two larger brown eggs ( either from an Americauna or the Polish Laced hen). The rest of her eggs are, I am guessing from her. Heck who knows, maybe some of them belong to the other White Silky Bantam! I have no idea how such a small girl is keeping all those eggs warm!

Of course Mr. Worm had to come inside the chicken pen to help me.

According to my calculations Little Inger's eggs should hatch out no later than February 6th! I am really looking forward to seeing how many will hatch......and of course how many different breeds she will mother.

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

A Helping Herd

This morning after coming back from feeding I noticed there was garbage scattered about in the back pasture. How wonderful! ( notice the sarcasm there?) It's been pouring which means that the garbage is soaking wet and not going to be fun picking up. Not that picking up garbage is in any way fun! So, off to the barn to get a grain bag and a muck fork. There is no way I am picking up somebody else's garbage even with gloves on. Nope, not going to happen.

It sure didn't take long for the herd to realize I had a familiar item in my hands. Before I knew it they all started making there way towards where I was.

Um, hate to tell ya' there Pewter but you don't want what is in there. I promise you! Turns out the garbage was bathroom garbage! Don't worry, no pictures of that.

Patti has to see what is in my hands before checking out the grain bag.

Hey Patti, bring that back! She started walking off with the bag. And look who is over here again! Yup, Little Dog or as I have been calling him now, Persistence. And guess who is responsible for the garbage mess? If you guessed Persistence, you are correct! I caught him coming over from our other neighbor with a piece of garbage from their place. Thanks DebH ( Dakotagoats) for the suggestion of the name Persistence. It fits!!!!

A.J. and Pattie still checking to make sure that there still isn't any grain in the bag.

It took awhile to get all the garbage, but even with the herds' 'help', the job is done.

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

Digging Ditches!

For once I did not heed the weather forecast. Last night when I checked, it said there was a 90% chance of rain. Yeah, right! Heck yesterday morning it said we were going to get 20-30 mph winds. Did we, not here. We live in what us locals call a 'pocket', which means we don't always get the same weather as everyone else here in the valley. But I do try to be prepared just in case. Well, guess what? Yup, it started pouring in the middle of the night. When I went out to feed, the water was running in mini rivers all over the place and the donkeys that have full run of both pastures were standing in the breezeway to get out of the rain. Out in the stall area it was flooding! Great! Should have been prepared. Darn it!!!

After digging ditches, laying down these pipes to make the water go into them and away from the breezeway, the standing water started to drain. Yay!!!! What a mess!

A quick update of Squirrel and Jovi after surgery yesterday. Here is Jovi getting ready to curl up by the heat vent.

And Squirrel just wanting to be near someone.

The surgeries went well and these two rascally kittens will be back to normal in a few days.

I have already been telling Rodent that next Monday it's his turn!!!

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