Lots Going On....

Seems like its been busy around the farm and the world the past few days!
First Ed McMahn dies, then Farrah Fawcett & Micheal Jackson. Okay I must admit I'm really not feeling anything for Micheal, except maybe what comes around goes around. Then I found out about what these purple boxes are hanging from trees along the roads. Kentucky has quarantined 20 counties to contain Emerald Ash Boer's. Read More Here. Then Kentucky has limited cattle imported from Nebraska, Texas due to tuberculosis. Read More Here. Both information on the Emerald Ash Boer and the cattle are on the same blog, COSDA.
We have been busy on the farm as well. Norm has been raking hay this week, and will begin re-planting the parts of the soy bean fields that flooded out the soy beans. The warm humid weather has dried up those low area's quickly!
I've been working on the garden tilling out the weeds that are prospering with all the rain. A real job in this heat. Right about now I'm wishing we had a pool to jump in!!! I worked in the house re-arraigning furniture and got quite fed up with it all cause its just not suiting me one bit! Our office area and the living room are combined a long room and hard to make it all fit just right. usually I can decorate my house and fix all the furniture well and cute...NOT today! So Douglas, Gin and I went to town to Wal-Mart (I HATE THAT STORE!!). I didn't want to go there but Gin needed some yarn to finish a quilt she is making for the fair and I needed to pick up a few groceries. We made it to the mall so Douglas could trade in his games for a new one. I'm really lucky, he doesnt play much at all, but in the winter it keeps him occupied. He would rather be outside than anywhere else. We ate Arby's at the mall, which wasnt that great, but all of us needed something to eat.
Then I went to work in the barn. I actually cleaned cages, the rabbit, the dove (the baby one that cannot fly), and the chicken. I had so much sweat dripping from me I thought I was gonna drip away...it was like a sauna in that barn. I moved the chicken back to the barn and fixed her smaller coop she used in the winter back up and going to put her up there at night while she roost's. I'm going to let her free range during the day. She usually stays in the barn and not venturing too far out into the yard. Last fall and all winter she was housed there with my bottle calves and thought she was one of them! Her temporary coop we fashioned last summer when we got her (if you don't know - I found her in the parking lot of Doug's school. No owner could be found so we took her in). I was planning on a coop and getting chickens this year anyway, so the dog pen was converted for her. But the ice storm we got in January all but demolished it. Still was up but looks terrible. And I need the pen for Levi, my dog, to put in when we are working cattle and at night. He has done fine at night and keeps an eye on everything, but after Norm saw a BIG coyote this morning not far from the house I decided to put him up. It wasnt a normal coyote, it was taller than Levi, and moving through the day in the open. It is probably a Coy Dog. We have several of those around and they arent shy like a wild Coyote is. The are much bolder and pose a bigger risk for animals and humans alike. In case you dont know a Coy Dog is a mix between a coyote and a domesticated dog. They are MUCH bigger.
So I'm putting him there for the night since we often have the coyote's close to the house. A coyote usually dont come up to a house, but we did have several pay a visit last fall and we have seen them in the back yard about 10 feet from the porch. So I'm playing it safe. We probable wont have a problem, but since my dog is not aggressive at all and thinks every canine is a friend, he wouldnt fair well with a pack of them. Well he is like that during the day, but he does guard his territory at night and I wouldnt want to be someone coming into the yard. I've been working on my design plan for my coop though. Amy at Twelve Acres has given me some ideas with the chicken and the coop. And a Duck recipe for the one Douglas got. (I really need to cook it for him). He also has this squirrel he got a few weeks ago. Yeah only one, so a special supper for him alone! So if anyone has a good recipe for squirrel let me know!!! I'm hoping to work more in the barn tomorrow. It needs a lot of cleaning up. I've neglected spending time with the horses lately, so many other things that take precedent over them. I've been working on Buck (our Rocky Mtn.) coming up to me, he is shy with me (though he adores Norm, knowing him all his life) . Feeding time has become a time to try to get him more acquainted with me. I really need to get him out and groom him to improve our "relationship" but I just havent had the time. I hope to start that next week. I was really making progress with him until the two of us found out the hot wire fence was grounded and when his poor little nose touched the metal trough I was putting his food in shocked him he has not come up to eat. Rather when its feeding time he snorts around unhappily telling me "I am not under any circumstance going near that trough!". Poor guy, really set back all I'd done. I think he relates me to the shock! I hate that! I've been putting his food closer each night to the trough for him and he is getting close, about 5" away now, but I think it will take awhile to come any closer. he eyes that trough like its a monster and gonna reach out and grab him any second. (Yes I'm unplugging the hot box so they wont get shocked while they eat). Well as you can imagine I'm pooped and after moving around some concrete blocks into the barn to put the cages on my back is killing me! So I'm gonna head for the night....I'll have to catch up with everyone tomorrow if I get some time. I've got a lot to fit in tomorrow before the weekend, we are going to the lake for the weekend. So good night all! I hope all is going good, sleep well!
~*~ Rae~*~