Unusual Disappearance

To try to rid the barn of our new pest, Joe bought a bucket of rat bait. 

He has been putting out 2-5 packets a day and it keeps disappearing.  He had been setting the bucket on that white chair.  After a couple of days, the bucket disappeared.  We couldn’t find it anywhere.  We were concerned someone stole it which would be a very strange occurrence.  I decided to look one more place,  through that narrow wooded door to the left of the plywood. 

I found the bucket, the lid was off, 

and several feet away.  Joe said the lid was difficult for a human to get off. 

The contents of the bucket were yet again, several feet away.

 This is one strong and aggressive varmit.

More Vermin

A few weeks ago we started feeding the bottle goats their grain in a different spot. 

We started noticing a hole underneath the feed trough. 

I was finally able to see what was living in there. 

It is a very far ground hog. Now we have a new job of trying to get rid of him. 
 

Horse, Bulls, Goats

I have had two more good rides on Hugo.  

I think we are off to a good start with his conditioning.  

On a walk through the bull lot recently, we found a broken fence post around the spring.  Not a tree this time but probably a bull rubbing on it.

Then this evening while feeding the dogs, I was blessed with this scenery.  
 

In Training

I have sort of been thinking about actually trying Hugo on a limited distance endurance ride.

I never really considered him endurance material, but maybe that was just because I have never tried to condition him.

I had two good rides on him Friday and Saturday.  

Saturday we did trotting hill work for about 4 miles.  He did fine, but he is ready to quit after about an hour.  I saw on the endurance calendar there is a ride in South Carolina in two months.  I told Joe that I would crew for him if he wanted to do the ride.  Maybe between the two of us we will be able to get Hugo into shape.  We’ll see…

 

Cuterebra

A client was feeding some stray cats and noticed one had a swollen nose.  It took her a couple of weeks to be able to catch it. 

Yes, I would say the nose was swollen.  The vet that saw it could not hold the kitten and look in its nose at the same time, so she had me look.  I had to video what came out....

 

fair warning            

very graphic image ahead  

proceed at your own risk

 Poor thing has to feel better after that.  And yes, that is the biggest one I have ever seen. 

Here is a link for information on cuterebra in case you are interested after seeing one.  CLICK HERE

Bulls And Fences

Joe came back after checking the cows and said the fence was down near where we had just fixed it last week. 

Two bulls were on the creek side with the cows and one bull was on the uphill side with the heifers.  They were probably fighting through the fence, broke off a post and one of the cow bulls ended up on the other side. 

It was nothing but a rock pile. It took Joe over half an hour to dig the post hole. Needless to say, he wasn’t in the best mood after that. 

But the fence looked better after he was done. 

Then this evening, checking on a different group of heifers, Joe found a gate off the hinges where a bull with the heifers and a bull in the bull lot were fighting. After rehanging the gate we just moved the bull that was with the heifers back into the bull lot.  Maybe tomorrow there won’t be any fences that need fixing. 

 

Weekend Horse Riding

Sadie and Allie came over again after church today.  While Allie was taking a nap, Sadie wanted to ride a Otoelene.

It is a good thing Draper and Otoelene are so gentle.  Sadie does not mind them checking her out at all.

Today we worked on riding by herself again.  Otoelene was back to being sound so it was much easier today to trot. 

It was a short ride because I always stop when Sadie says she is done.  But I think she had fun.

Then not to be outdone, Allie has taken to riding the bouncy horse.  She went from scared to touch it to scaring Mimi with her wild riding in no time. 

 

Dragonfly DIY

I finally got around to getting some purple paint.  Spray paint use to be $1 - $3 a can.  I was shocked when I checked and it was over $6 now.  It took me a little while to wrap my mind around paying that much for a can of spray paint.  But I was really wanting to make my imitation alliums purple, so I finally broke down and bought some. 

I think purple was just the thing they needed. 

I added the purple to some other colors that I already had to make another project.  I had seen an interesting YouTube video on a unique painting technique and I was anxious to try it out.

It involved an old ceiling fan.  I have several from the rental property.

This was fluorescent yellow, green, blue and purple.

After it dried, I sprayed dawn power wash on the blades.  I immediately followed that with gold spray paint then quickly washed the soap off with the water hose.

This was the result.  It turned out just like the video.  

Then it was just a matter of screwing them on to a spindle that I already had.  I added a tennis ball for the head.  I am thinking for replacing that with something else.  I just have to find the right thing. 

These were the inspirations.  I can’t decide if I should do the black lines or not.  Maybe with a thick black sharpie?  After I decided which way to go, I will spray a coat of sealer.  Then I just need to figure out where to hang it.  Plus, I have two more fans! 

 

At Work

This was sitting on the counter.  A client had brought it in.

Just in case you could not tell what it was when you opened it.  I can tell you, dog poop does not look or smell like sour cream.

 They really wanted to be conscientious. 

Happy Anniversary

Joe and I have been married 35 years today. To celebrate, I asked if he would like to go riding with me this morning and he said yes! 

I was shocked when he chose to ride Otoelene instead of Hugo. 

The weather was perfect, it stayed below 75 all morning. 

And there were hardly flys.

It was just an hour and a half around the farm,

but it was a nice change of pace from riding alone. 

Plus it was nice to not have to get all of the gates by myself. 

Happy 35th anniversary. 
 

Hornets

Joe wanted me to help sort some cattle this morning at our farm we call BJ’s. 

I thought the sky, barn and old piece of equipment looked very picturesque. 

But on the way in I spotted something else not so pretty.

A big hornet nest was forming on a low hanging branch right near the gate.  Because it would be easy to get to, it made me think about the possibility of selling it.  So I checked out eBay and found that some have actually sold there.  

I was shocked at the prices.  You can bet if the nest is still there after it freezes, it is going on eBay.

 

Otoelene, Fences and Sadie Saturday

I had a little free time this morning so I decided to check on how Otoelene was doing.  She had been walking better than last weekend and today she was back to her normal.

So I took that as good enough to ride around the farm.  She did fine and I think she was glad to get out to see some new scenery. 

After lunch I helped Joe with a fence issue that has been on his list to fix.  A tree had fallen on the fence and was wedged between the fence and another tree.

At least it was in the shade and next to the river so it wasn’t miserably hot.

There was not a safe way to cut the whole tree off the fence.

We ended up untangling the wire and putting another wire over top of the down tree.  Check that one off the list.

When I got back the the house there was a message from Virginia asking if we were home.  Sadie had asked to come over, YEA!!  The dahlias and marigolds have been holding up well.  We also did a craft, played in the pool and went through my jewelry. 

After supper we had a nice walk to the barn to feed the goats and dogs.

I love how she wants to wear cowboy boots and still holds our hand.

She wanted to pet her mommy’s horse,

And go with PopPop to put the 4 wheeler away.

Then when we took her home she was beyond excited to show off her sunflowers.