About this kitten thing......

...........Hi, my name is Meshach, and we need to talk........Did I ever agree to a KITTEN? Did I ever even get asked? No and No.... I wake up one morning, go about my own business, and as Mom is going out the door she says , 'oh by the way, if things check out at the vet's you will be getting a new SISTER today'. Well.....this didn't sound good at all, but then when she came home it got even worse. She had this, this, THING with her, only now she was calling it my new BROTHER. (I mean that was a bad sign right there-- that she thought 'he' was a 'she'---but who wouldn't--the kitten-thing is a kinda pinkish yellow and has a big white heart on its back for crying out loud!) Anyway, she had this big two story cage set up and stuck this little yellow and white thing in there and told me here he was, like I was suppose to turn cartwheels or something. I marched over there and hissed right in its face and growled real mean, just to let it know right off how things were going to be.

Well for a few days things weren't too bad---as the fur ball had to stay in the cage and he was pretty subdued. Then things went sour---Mom started letting him out of the cage for a little longer each day! She says that this Kitten-thing was really sweet before she brought him here---my only satisfaction in this is that she found out real quick that Kitten-thing is only sweet about 5 minutes a day when he is sleepy! Well, I was raised to be polite and so I've tried to let this fur-wad know when he has crossed the line, by hissing and growling at him and pretending like I'm going to swat him. It worked for a few days, but I'm getting a little sick of the disrespect here! I can't even swish my tail anymore without it thinkin' I'm playing some kind of game. (Then I get mad and this makes me swish my tail even harder!)

Now... if someone had asked me, then this is the kind of new-cat I would have voted for! Nice and quiet, doesn't pester anybody and its the right kind of color for a siamese (well kinda).... Mom tries and tells me this new Kitten-thing is a washed out siamese--but I wasn't born yesterday!

I try and not have anything to do with it, but it follows me everywhere. If I try and take a nap under the covers it uses me as a trampoline! Even what should be private potty times are now a public spectacle! It does amuse me, how much destruction it has caused in the house. When I see Mom putting cardboard barricades around the plants and the china shelf, I try not to say I told you so---but I'm certainly thinking I would have told her so if she'd asked first! When will these people ever learn who are the wise ones?

Mom says someday we will be good buddies....I say I think not! She also tells me that Kitten-thing will calm down a little bit as he grows up (I say he will be lucky to grow up, as much as he gets in trouble!). I think she is just trying to convince herself too, on the calming down thing. She thinks I'm gonna soften up and let him around me she is delusional.... And I can explain this picture---there is a curtain between us, I'm sure I didn't even know Kitten-thing was on the other side....or....its one of those doctored up pictures, yeah, thats it---this never even happened!!

They say necessity is the mother of invention.....

Saturday was a beautiful day. We'd had rain, high humidity and storms the day before, but when Saturday dawned the air was clean and crisp. It was a perfect morning to get some outside chores done. Unfortunately I had a sick sheep so that took some time and alot of worry (more on that later), but I was finally able to get to moving some cattle panels around to enclose a new area for the girls to munch on. These next few weeks will be their last 'hurrah' on fresh green grass, before I close down things for the winter. The pastures aren't tall, but there is some nice growth that can take a couple weeks of grazing. I'm not sure who invented cattle panels but I sure would like to thank them! Moving panels is fairly easy---several of the shorter panels can be flipped on their side and dragged along to the new area (although Boone makes this task MUCH harder, by jumping on the moving panel). Some wire to hold them together and you have a pen! After I got that set up, I moved on to do some long over due cleaning of barn pens. Most of it is fluffy used straw, but the bottom 4 inches or so will be wet stuff mixed with the straw. A while back I read about someone who moved straw out of the barn on an old bedsheet. Since I don't have a tractor and bucket, and its really too much hassle to try and manouver the yard tractor and wagon into the barn area, I've expanded on and modified the bedsheet idea to fit my own situation. Since I feed round bales of hay, I use smaller tarps to cover the tops after feeding to keep down on the rain that seeps into the bales. These tarps don't last very long--maybe one season, so I have several of them around. They are the cheapie tarps you can buy at your local 'mart' store . I use a piece of binding twine and tie one end on each corner (where the grommets are) on the shorter side of the tarp. I then lay the tarp out flat, with the twine side pointed in the direction I'm going to drag it. The beauty of it is, you can get it as close as possible to where you are mucking out. Once you have it loaded---and if its fluffy straw you can make a big load before it gets to heavy--or a smaller load for the wet stuff--its time to 'harness up' and pull. I step inside the twine, pull it up and usually let it rest against my belly with my hands between my belly and the twine---then I pull like a workhorse! If you've not over loaded it for your pulling capacity, it should slide along easily to where you want to dump it. Very handy and cheap little contraption. It also works well for light weight brush hauling. I'm 'eventually' going to teach Boone how to pull, once I get a harness, so I'm hoping he might actually prove to be useful. We worked on it a little yesterday with him 'hitched' to the tarp, I was actually doing the pulling, but he was learning to walk in front of it. I usually end up dragging the tarp to the garden area and dumping it there. The only thing you have to be careful of, is to make sure you haven't made the load so wide it won't squeeze thru your gates or doors.

You want me to pull what??


Later in the afternoon, I did some yard and garden work---mostly pulling weeds and some of the garden plants that are done producing. The yard needs mowed but I'm at war with my push mower and we've come to an impasse it seems.... it won't start--no matter how many fits I throw.

I also had to go into town to pick up syringes and a new mineral tub for the sheep. This is the first tub I've gotten them, so am curious to see how they will like it. So far they have turned their noses up at it. The blocks I normally feed don't last very long as the sheepies act like it is candy. This tub has a heavier molasses base and is more gooey, for want of a better word. It has minerals and protein additives in it. I'm hoping it works out well. I did notice that there were hoofprints were one of them STOOD in it this morning! The tub weighs about 50 lbs and cost $23, which if it works out will be cheaper in the long run than the blocks. Only time will tell...

A Walk in the Country.....

I used to love getting out and taking a walk, but in the last few years had gotten away from taking the time to do it.
Then along came Boone, and it quickly became apparent that at least one long walk per day was going to be needed to just keep his energy levels half way under control. Of course I've benefited from it as well, and even though its often not convenient I try not to miss many days to get out there and enjoy the beauty in nature--and decompress the dogue at the same time! Ariel the elderly collie insists on going on these walks as well and I've seen her overall mobility improve from them. Seeing a collie sulk isn't a pretty sight, so I do include her as much as I can. Boone will be out front as far as his leash extends, and Ariel will be behind as far as her leash goes, illustrating Boone's high energy and Ariel's slower 'not so young' anymore pace. I'm anchored somewhere in the middle with leashes tangled about my hands and arms.

As you can see, this picture illustrates my perfectly matched team of dogs..... We tend to start out well, but soon and often become a tangled mess. Boone has always been mild mannered around the Collie girls, but he is also very rude and pushes and shoves his way to where he wants to be. Ariel looks at him down her nose, and then looks at me, like, where are his manners? Was he raised in a barn? As you can also see from the picture, size and style of leashes differ a great deal--Boone's has to be much heavier 'just in case' as he is so strong. He has now almost outgrown a 26 inch chain collar! The dogs get alot of looks-- often people will do a double take and I fear they will run off the road.

Every night there will be new sights to see... or smell. I know its best to walk briskly and keep your heart rate up to maximize the benefits, but walking in the country can challange that practice. The dogs don't help of course, but they aren't the only obstacle. Friendly folks...that is what the problem is! There is the neighbor down the road who used to raise sheep but now works off the farm--its mandatory that she stop her vehicle so we can catch up on the latest happenings, or maybe its our friendly Mennonite neighbor who likes to keep up on what is going on in his neighbors lives and doesn't mind stopping his big truck in the middle of the road to accomplish that. Then again it could be someone from Church or the Fire Department just stopping to say 'hey' and see how things are going. Once in a while its a total stranger who is lost or curious about something. Taking a walk is often an adventure, usually interesting and once in a while just down right exhausting! :-) But I enjoy the walks, I enjoy my neighbors and I'm happy to live in a community that does care about each other. Besides....its easier to keep up on the local grapevine this way!

Booster SHOTS???

Mom told me I was going back to the vet for "booster shots" and I was real brave about it. But she didn't tell me anything about EARMITES and having my ears CLEANED! It was awful and I wasn't very quiet about it either. I sat like a trooper for the shots, but when they started putting stuff in my ears and digging around in them, well I let them know how I felt about THAT! At least I'm not suppose to have to go back now for awhile.....except for some sort of 'surgery' in a few months........


Today was booster shots for the kitten... It went well, except earmites were discovered! I have to work on his ears some more later and put in some earmite medicine, since he was becoming so worked up at the vets we decided to let me finish at home. Doc showed me the ear mites on the slides--something I had never seen before: earmites eating, earmites breeding, earmites laying eggs, earmites just hanging out. It was horrible---trust me if you've never seen them in action, you don't want them on your cat! It looked like something out of a Stephen King movie. The vet tried to convince me that humans get them too, but I was PRETTY sure we don't.......or as I asked do WE?...as my ears began to itch.... People do not get earmites from cats for the record! It was interesting and sobering to see how something so tiny and invisible to the eye could be so active and, well, savage looking! No wonder cats scratch so hard at their ears when they have earmites.

Its a beautiful weekend here, with sunny skies and a strong breeze. The skies feel 'high' which is something that I think of as fall skies in my mind. I can't really explain it, but the feeling is there. I've got to get out and clean out a stall in the barn, and maybe clean out my really, really dirty truck. I need to get it inspected and it needs all the help it can get to look presentable, so they don't think that its merely held together by dirt and rust! Have a great weekend!

Mom calls me a "Bad Weed"......

....But I don't think she means it...most of the time!

Yes there is a new kitten in the house.... not exactly a siamese, but I think he will do just fine. Its been about nine years since there has been a kitten in the house, so I've forgotten how 'energetic' they can be. (My house looks like a tornado hit). For now the little guy remains nameless until I know 'who' he is, then he'll get likely get stuck with some name no one can pronounce!

He was a tiny little feller (or fell-a, we thought) when he first appeared at my folk's house. No ideas about where he came from. He is growing so fast and has so much orneriness, er, energy, hence the 'growing like a bad weed' title! Meshach, my nine year old Siamese mix, who doesn't have an ornery bone in his body, is pretty horrified by it all. He looks at me like 'what have you DONE"! But they are slowly getting used to each other and I hope one day will be buddies.

In this picture, Meshach seems to be saying not one inch closer--kid! And Bad Weed seems to be trying to entice Mesh to a game of 'kill the teddy bear'..... it also shows how big the 'little' guy is in respect to a 12 lb 9 year old cat! ......What shall I do NEXT??

Oh Boy, Oh Boy.....It's the Weekend!!

.............that means more time for ME! is what Boone seems to be saying! Boone is a great big French Mastiff who lives every moment with gusto, slobbers and big sighs. He loves the weekends because then I get to spend more time out and about with him 'helping' me (and I use that term quite loosely--think 'hinder' instead!). I've threatened to get a harness for him to literally harness some of his energy to help me pull around loaded tarps of mulch and old barn straw. This would be much more helpful than jumping ON the tarp as I'm pulling it.
I can't believe how the daylight hours are fading away. Its dark later in morning and earlier in the evening. That makes it difficult to get moving in the morning, and difficult to get everything done in the evening before dark! Its just another period of adjustment. The weather has been wonderful with cool nights and warm days. The cooler nights make me think about getting the wood stove cleaned out and ready, wood ordered and cleaning up the woodstack from last year. Oh, and Boone hopes your weekend is as wonderful as he plans his to be!

It's a Beautiful Thing.......

.....when its been a hot, dry summer and you look out and see these stacked along the driveway....











.....and this in the barn......
















Its a good feeling to have the winters hay in, and by August even! As the summer progressed and it got hotter and drier, my concerns for the availablitiy of hay kept growing. I have a long standing agreement with a local person to buy 100 Lespedeza mix square bales every year, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Like last year for instance, when the late summer lespedeza just burnt up in the field. Fortunately the same guy had a whole barn full of the last years crop of hay and it was still very good. In order for the lespedeza to make, this fellow lets his cattle graze down the fescue in the early summer months, then turns them off it and lets the lespedeza take off. Its crucial that we get some summer rains for it to make. Its a great leafy hay and the sheep go crazy for it. I use it primarily for the ewes just before and after lambing, but everyone gets a treat of it from time to time. This year I was searching for some smaller round bales that would be easier to manage, and again fortunately a neighbors name came up and I was able to get 17 (and probably a few more a little later) rounds of riverbottom fescue mix. The best part of all that was the neighbors volunteered to haul it over for me --at no extra cost--on their large bale wagon. I have a small pickup and a bale buggy--and while it works, it is time consuming, hard on the truck and would have taken 17 trips! This is the hay I will use to feed the girls and rams thru the early winter months as their nutritional needs won't be so great. Its good hay, but doesn't have the higher protein count of the lespedeza. I am so blessed to have good neighbors--and when they also become your hay suppliers its really nice to have people you can depend on, trust and know that they will provide the best they can....and often go above and beyond what you would expect. Thanks for making my life easier!

Finally

I've been dreaming of having a website for a long time, and this year things finally started falling into place. Someone wanted a few shetland ewes for a starter flock and I wanted a webpage, a deal was made, and after alot of hard work on their part, and some on mine, a website was born! Now comes the final additions of info and fine tuning, and of course my first blog. I'm very happy with the feel of the website as I wanted it to be peaceful and a 'virtual' tour of the farm as well. Thanks Allena and Beau! I hope you enjoy the girls as much as I do my website! Its always hard to start the first 'blog' post, especially when you are having trouble uploading photos...and then you (think) your camera is expiring (further investiagtions seem to point to the battery charger--much easier to deal with!) Late summer is a slower time on the farm, as the ewes start to wean the lambs, and most of the lambs go off to new homes. Its been a dry year, so I started feeding hay Friday. Two large round bales rolled out to two groups of sheep. The girls go out to pasture (what is left of it) during the day and munch on the round bale at night. Soon things will become busy again, as breeding season approaches in October. Worming, hoof trimming and sorting out the groups will begin. But for now, I will enjoy the quiet of the summer days. I hope you enjoy this site and visit often! If you haven't viewed the website here is the link: FairlightFarm.com