Here is Osa, our German shepherd watching me garden. She looks after me and the chickens. If a storm comes up she tries to block me from walking away from the house. She also herds the chickens around the farm. So far she has kept the fox away from anymore free meals. No more chickens have been lost. The two chickens the the above shot are our first farm born chickens and not store bought.
Our colt had become" stallion-y" and we needed him gelded ASAP to prevent any unwanted babies in our herd. Even as young as 8 months he can cover a mare and get her pregnant. The only day open for our vet was today, my husbands 37th birthday. This time of the year vets are on call for calving season and it is hard to get an appointment. So this afternoon we got to watch our vet geld our colt in the field. The colt had 2 shots and he went down gently in the grass. Our vet covered our colts eyes to prevent them from drying out during the procedure. Our colts leg was tied to expose his testes. Our vet was quick and both testes were fully removed. No more stallion in our new gelding Mr. Bean. The wound was left open to heal on its own. Bean woke up after about 30 minutes as if nothing happened. He rejoined our herd to munch on some hay happy as can be.
A friend of mine bought this old tractor for restoration. It has a long way to go paint wise, but it runs. Old tractors are always around, used and borrowed here in the Ozarks.
I was unpacking my car when this guy came by me. I guess he wanted a treat or light snack.He was about 5 feet long, as thick as my arm and a pewter color. Quite a nice looking snake except for peck marks on his back from our chickens. While he hung around I got a few shots of him close up. He was stalking some lizard in the bushes next to my car. He had enough of my camera work and slithered off into the orchard.
Since it is spring time the weather is cool and the bugs are low. Good time to pull up trees in our field before mowing. My husband is chaining the small trees and using the tractor to pull the roots out. Our shepherd, Osa stands by to look for moles. Our field has gone wild and we need to tame it to plant pecan trees.
My husband and I were driving down the country road when we almost ran over a fat snake. I love snakes so he backed up the car for me to investigate. The snake raised up and enlarged like a cobra then high tailed it away from me. It looked like a cobra to me. But we took the photo and showed it around church and the locals call it a "spread head". But it is really and eastern hog nose. It is a good snake in that it eats toads. That what where it was headed, a large pond down the hill filled with toads. The snakes are out in full force this time of the year. Good to be educated about them out here in the woods.
Here is my husband working on his laptop while watching Rose the bunny. She was in our garden getting some sun while he worked remotely. He had the company of Poppy and our chickens while he worked. We can't leave the bunny alone or she might get eaten by wildlife.
This is me putting in the potatoes in our newly fenced garden. I have the company of Daisy the cat and Igor the rabbit. Igor is an indoor bunny and gets to go outside when the time permits. Since we fenced off our garden from the chickens we have now a bunny play yard. The chickens dug up many of last years seedlings and pecked all my tomatoes. This year they will be kept out.
This morning my neighbor who raises cattle came to our door needing help ASAP. He had a cow down and her calf was stuck. My husband was in the middle of a phone meeting and could not leave to help. So I jumped in his vehicle and we zoomed off to his place. There was a huge cow on the ground with a dead calf stuck halfway out of her. The large calf could not breathe and got stuck sometime during the night. We both took turns looking for the front legs of the calf inside the cow. After several 2 arm attempts, I was able to find a shoulder to the leg stuck inside the cow. I pulled a slipknot under the calf pit using bailing twine. With that we were able to pull out the 2nd leg. Next, we tied the calf legs to the owners ATV and pulled slowly. The dead calf came out whole but the cow did not rise. The calf was too big and her uterus was prolapsed with the placenta. We left the cow to put the calf in the dead pile away from the herd, buzzards were attracted to the scent of death. We came back to get the cow up but she was in pain and needed a vet. If a cow does not move for several hours, gas builds up in their gut and they can die. Also some deliveries can paralyse their back legs. The vet came and stitched up the cow. Now we are hoping she will stand up soon and walk. She will be put in the barn overnight. She can no longer be bred if she survives. This was a day of learning for me.
One of the skills I learned from a talented friend in Texas was rosary making. She is a member of a rosary makers group and she taught me how to make sturdy rosaries. Many rosaries today have jump rings holding them together like a cheap necklace. I make them by hand using a twisted wire loop. These will never pull apart. Made to last and hold together for years of handling. I have also been fixing broken ones I fine here and there. A little bit of time and effort will help these last a lifetime.
