Fall Colors

Enjoying the colors around the farm on the trees and on the ground. The trees are so rich in colors this fall. I guess the drought helped bring this out in the foliage. The trees are ready for winter.

Zilla in Fall

Close up of my young 6 month old German Shepherd. She is just back from the vet for a spaying.

Zilla poses and waits for me by the round bales. She wonders why I keep stopping and making her sit each time. She looks full grown here but she is only 78 lbs. She will grow to about 200 lbs, that is a big shepherd. Her parents where both huge. She is already bigger than my older shepherd. She might need a saddle and be ridden soon.

Baby Ducks in the Fall

My 2 month olds and my 3 month old ducklings in one big flock. These are Cayuga Swedish mixed ducklings. I incubated one group and mama duck hatched the others. She abandoned the ducklings' so I raised them. Now they are all independent and going to the big pond. A few will be going to a new home this week. 

My veterinarian wanted to raise some ducks for his pond. So I am giving him 4-5 from this flock.

This year I stopped incubating eggs by August. It is just too hard for me to raise baby poultry in the winter. So much easier when the weather is warmer. Some of my hens do go broody in the winter, and I have to watch them on hatching days. I isolate the mama's and babies in a separate coop when this happens. That way mama can do her job and keep her weight in the winter.

Goating Around

My neighbors herd of Boer goats coming out to greet me in the pasture.

A billy needing some attention

Opal the guard donkey getting some petting. She prefers the company of men

but will tolerate me.

The billy wanting more petting as well. Very happy herd of goats to be around.

Horse and Buggy

Here is my friends 1980's reproduction of a doctor's buggy, harness and horse 

for sale. I listed it on-line for her. The horse is a 5 + year old Fox Trotter gelding. Since she does not have the time to ride/drive all her horses, she is selling this horse and doctor's buggy.

The gelding is Amish trained to pull a heavy buggy. He is a big boy and can pull about anything.

I have never seen such a large Fox Trotter before. The horse, harness and buggy are a package deal.

They are listed on Craigslist and located in Southern Missouri area of Summersville.

Happy Pumpkins

I saw this in front of our local nursing home. Quite the effort was made to decorate the front of this place. It was neat to see. The nice thing is that the same care is given inside to the residents.

Hauntings

We have been busy running the haunted mill fundraiser in our town. We had a busy weekend with lots of people coming into the mill to be scared. Next weekend is our last run for the season.

Volunteer teacher and scarecrow

Mill victims and spooks in our mill maze.

Haunted Mill

This is one of the props I created for our haunted house inside our towns old grain mill. Our theme is a  Wild West ghost town. We have all spooks in cowboy western gear in 1900's style of dress. The local high school is providing the free talent to haunt all visitors for the next two weekends. My husband and I have been working non- stop for weeks setting up this haunting. It will be so nice to take a break from building sets to now haunting them all up. I will post more photos as I get time.

Second Son

Here is our trainer riding Bean, our other 2 year old horse from our farm.

Bean took to the saddle well. He will always have a bosal bridle since his wolf tooth refuses to descend.

It is inhumane to put a bit in his mouth when his tooth would clank on it.

Bean looking for the next part of the lesson. He knows he gets grained after his lessons.

Bean stands calmly as the trainer dismounts. Bean has a long way to go before he is safe, but he is doing well for the first time. And he has a nice Fox Trotter gait just like his half sister.

Travelers

Can you guess where my round bales came from? Oklahoma!

Ah, look how cute little prickly pear cactus growing on top of my round bales.

I will have to transplant these guys to a high and dry place. Cactus can grow in Missouri, but they prefer the heat of the southern zones. I do like prickly pears so this will be a nice treat growing these.

Turtle Wars

This is not the way turtles make baby turtles. The plain green turtle is trapped by the fancy shell turtle.

The light green turtle's foot is inside the mouth of the painted turtle.

You can see he is trapped. I saw these guys in the morning and decided to rescue the trapped one that afternoon. Otherwise both turtles would become a snack for my dogs.

I flipped the bad turtle over hoping it would release its victim, no luck. I had to use the base of my knife safely separate both turtles.The victim lost a toe in the battle but escaped. 

You can see the blood from the victim's foot in the upper right of the shell.

I moved the aggressive turtle to the other side of the farm. This was the first time I have seen different type of turtles fighting like this. They usually keep away from each other. All this rain has the turtles on the move getting ready for winter.

Cow Control

So if you have a sick cow what do you do to control it for treatment? In the old days you rope it, throw it down and treat it in the field. Farmers use a head gate or whole body squeeze chute. Being new to cow ranching we learned the hard way to move a 1,000 lb sick cow with ropes. Number 96 was led into the stall with grain and then the fun began. She was non compliant to the thermometer in her rear, so restrains were applied, the lariats.

The vet is in the stall and the lariats were pulled to keep her head and legs immobile during the exam. A free cow is a danger to the vet and the stall. Stress being away from the heard for a sick cow can also harm them. She was eventually was pulled straight, medicines were given along with some grain. She was released into the herd after all this drama.

"Look Ma, no upper teeth". This cow is about 6-7 years old as the vet shows us her teeth. The end result from this is the cow survived. She was on a dry lot then moved to a rich green lot and she got fog fever. The high fever can kill a cow quickly if not detected. Her owner caught it in time. 

A used head chute was also purchased to make cow control much easier on the farm from now on. Life on the farm with livestock is always an adventure.

Peace and quiet

Lately, I have heard several people grumbling about politics and the garbage on TV. So many people are fed up with what is being spewed at them via the TV. We do not have TV and I no longer miss it. I read what I can and pay attention to the facts when available. I love that my local newspaper does not waste space printing political propaganda. People can read the important stuff that matters living off the land out here in the Ozarks. I think TV is a black hole for time and what is important in life. People use TV as a way to fill  a void in their lives, background noise. I know this because I used to, even had 3 TV's in my old house. Just like a drug it takes a while to be weaned off of it. But once you are over it you are clear headed and have time. You can think your own thoughts and become aware of what is really going on in the world. So I am going outside to watch deer TV. They can tell me all about their day while eating my apples from my tree. And I am all the better for it.