Lots of updates!

I now have a working computer and a new monitor, so I will try to do a long blog with lots of updates - months worth!

I went out to the back field to visit at the barn, and decided to plop down with my camera for a while. I got some close up pictures of the goats and sheep and will try to share some here. There on the left is Hamilton, aka Ham or Hammie. He is doing his best profile for me and I just love this picture.

He let me get one from the other side, that's him below and you can see that he is a very special goatie boy.


When I went to the field none of the animals were around , but soon the two tom turkeys came to see what was going on. They wanted to see if I had food, no doubt! At the time, the two boys got along very well. Now, we have to separate them and I hate it. They were such buds at first. I have learned to dive into a turkey fight and snatch one of the boys off to the seclusion pen ( solitary confinement) really fast with out getting scratched, bruised or having my eye blacked as a result of a "wing whap". Turkey wings hurt!

After the toms came and went, the rest of the troupe came over to investigate, but they never stay for long. Somehow, I think the toms let them know there is no food to be had. But Nancy, the bourbon red hen always has a few words for me and I need to get a video of her chatting with me. It is one of the cutest things to see and hear, she is always so sweet and ernest when she is feeling chatty!

Pretty soon the goats and sheep come to investigate and then the real fun starts. My little guys never disappoint me and always find a way to make me laugh!

When I first got the shetland boys, Andy and Barney, from Tammy , they were not really tame. Now, they are the first little hooligans to come running, and Andy has climbed into my lap to sleep at times! I love my shetland boys. Here is a very, very close picture that I tried to take when they were running over to see me. I was afraid they wouldn't stop until they were in my lap so I held my hand out to try to get them to slow down. Barney was mostly out of the frame but you can see Andy's look of determination to get to "Mama" first!

Timber was not far behind and when he arrived he settled down one side of my leg, and Barney plopped in my lap. Andy was out of the frame here, but he is never far from his brother.

The goats are along side, alternately grazing and trying to chew my hair off. I try to tell myself that they are not making any kind of personal statement about my hair coloring expertise - but I am sometimes tempted to write the folks at L'oreal to let them know that "Light Ash Blond" looks like "Hay" to some folks!

Last, but hardly least, is Logan, my first bottle baby boy. He is such a calm sweet sheep. His hogget fleece was very chocolate coloured, like Timber's is now. But as you can see, he has lightened up to a pale moorit. Timber will also be morrit, but I don't think he will be as light as his uncle Logan.
That is Timber's fleece over there on the right. It is already much longer and I think he will have some primo spinning fiber at spring shearing.

That's it for now. I'll be back soon.

Clifford The Big Red Dog

Don't Weep for Me

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sun on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

Clifford the Big Red Dog left this earth last evening. He was a grand old guy who deserved better than he got. He is no longer in pain and I am sure he was met at the bridge by his former owner who preceded him in death and who loved him dearly.

I wish I could have done better for him.

I'm BAAAACK!

Computer woes have kept me cyber-silent for weeks. My screen is doing a flashy thing ( like a strobe) that is making it almost impossible to use. Collin, the computer wizard, is coming to have a look at it tomorrow, so, hopefully things will get better soon!

In the meantime I can now log on with Fire Fox and Explorer. So far, it hasn't made much difference except late at night when apparently I can type at least this much with out the strobe effect kicking in.

I have to tell you about Oscar and the great flea invasion. My good friend Lisa was on her way to my house one evening when she saw a dog limping along "the new highway", a big four-lane replacement for the little two-lane state road that we live on. She pulled over and was able to get him in her car. His collar had just "fallen off of him". (It had been unhooked and was caught in his fur for a while then fall off just as Lisa pulled over.) The collar had tags. Lisa scooped up the tired thirsty scared dog and pulled in my driveway.

A little detective work, a few twilight zone-ish phone calls and a really odd home visit resulted in the discovery that Oscar was in a really, really bad home and needed a place to settle. He had been dumped from a truck when Lisa came upon him. So, ( you just know what I am going to say - right?) he came here to be fostered for adoption.

Oscar had fleas. Millions of fleas. Fleas on his fleas. He got a flea bath, was neutered, waited a day and then Frontlined. By now, all the dogs in the house have a flea or two, so they all got Frontlined as well.) Then, Oscar got a home! YAY!!! Then, he came back because: HE STILL HAD FLEAS.

Hmmmm. Oscar got Capstar. The fleas died, but eggs were still there. Oscar got Frontlined (again). Every rug in the house got washed. All the bedding, (people and dog) got washed. Diatomaceous Earth was purchased and worked into mattresses, couches, chairs, the one nice unwashable wool rug, any cracks in the wooden floors, under baseboards. Well, you get the picture.

And, finally, Oscar is finally flea free. His adopters won't be taking him back, but that's OK. Oscar is a really easy going guy. He is completely housebroken and gets on well with kids, cats and other dogs. He loves to snuggle and is learning how to play with toys. Oscar loves to play with Moses and the big dogs. Most of the day my big black dogs are running and tumbling all over "the middle field". Thanks for coming along and helping to wear out the big boys, Oscar. You can stay as long as you need to.

There's a Breath of Fall in the Air!

Fall is slowly making its way to Missouri, and it's bringing some odd things in it's pockets! Yesterday when Eddie locked up the barn for the night he didn't look to see who was where, since the chickens and turkeys usually go to their respective houses. The chickens have a bolt hole that we just close for the night, shoving a concrete block in place to keep it shut. the turkeys are in horse stalls with wire tops.

This morning when I opened the big door to the chicken house, I found one very distressed turkey hen! Poor Nancy got locked up on the wrong side for the night. I can't imagine how she got in there, as she won't fit through the bolt hole, and it is hard to imagine not noticing a full grown turkey hen strutting through the big door along side of you. But that is what must've happened.

Then to top it off, over on the Turkey side, I found Henry, the big cinnamon and white roo who has taken over "roo duty" for the two "orphaned" Serama hens . That leaves poor Sirkhan the White Sultan roo with no hens to call his own and a big potential roo fight in the offing. Hopefully we will have peace till spring when I might be able to track down a few extra hens to keep the peace.

Fall chores are pressing now, the big center section of the barn needs to be mucked out one more time before winter deep littering starts and I am still working on getting straw and hay in and put up, and it's really late for hay! It is hard to get someone to deliver just the twenty or so bales that we need for the winter, and the ten or so bales of straw extra don't seem to make much difference to the folks doing the delivery! ( psst! I need a little trailer!)

Another thing that this early fall brought with it was my first ever sinus infection. I didn't know what I had cooking up there in my widdle head, so I think I let it go to long. Sheesh - what a mess. It is clearing up now with antibiotics and the good help of the voodoo doc, but for a day or so there I was ready to tell Eddie to dig my hole!

Woody and the Voodoo Doctor

I wanted to share with everyone that Woody had some very serious "lookers" yesterday. This is a great big deal because he has been with us for about a year, with no serious potential adoptors. I really like this family and hope they decide on Woody, but of course will be happy with what ever dog they pick because they are getting a dog from rescue. Some lucky dog ( maybe Woody!)is getting a great new home. A new home with the "voodoo" Doctor.

I have been looking for that exact sort of Doc for several years now, and even though a visit is probably not in the budget - I am going to make it fit in there because she ( the doc) does muscle testing ( I think the $20 word for it is applied kinesthesiology) and also some other techniques that have gotten me pain relief in the past. I go to sleep every night on a loveseat with a ton of pillows in order to be able to doze off for a while and I am hoping that better rest will make me less sluggish and maybe even get me back on the bike. Maybe improve my memory, to? OK maybe that is expecting to much even for a Voodoo doc!

Keep your fingers crossed for Woody!

Good News, a Big Mess and New Resolutions

That is just part of the big mess over there in the corner. There are fleeces ( unwashed in the bag - eeeek!), stash, stash, more fleeces and, oh yeah, more stash. I have a whole room upstairs that looks like this, and a bathroom closet as well. My stash runneth over. So, the resolution is to make a list, clearly visible on the dry erase boards in the kitchen of several things to accomplish each week. It was going to be things to accomplish everyday - but hey, I am taking this whole productivity surge slowly at first - I don't want to sprain something! The next thing getting posted is: Wash Fleeces. Then: Stash Management! If an organised person is reading this wants to help me get organised, I can pay you in - you guessed it - stash!

The good news is that some stuff seems to be a little more settled down here. The barn is getting back to "normal" after the series of terror attacks. The hens are once again laying eggs. The Turkey hens are probably finished with egg laying for the fall and winter and I for one think they deserve a rest. Timber is settling in and crying for his mama a little less. The new black boys, Barney and Andy, are getting more and more friendly. In fact, they are asking for head scratches and nuzzling for feed - so that is some big time progress. The boys are the softest fleeces ever and I really want to shear them now - but I don't trust the weather, darn it!

I had some time to enjoy my little farmlett this weekend and found this little guy lost in the garage.

I was happy to relocate him to a friendlier environment, but he was so cute, I had to get a picture of him first. While I was on the front porch scouting a safe place for Mr. Snail, I saw this pretty thing.

Yep - that is a moth. On my screen door to the living room wherein we have: The Big Mess pictured up there at the top of the page. The Big Mess contains unwashed wool and other tasty forms of wool that moths love to eat. See? I really need help with my stash, and right quick, before that moth and all of her pretty friends come in and have a winters feast! I wish the color came through a little better, the dots on her wings are a really pretty bright blue.

I also got to see a Norwegian Fjord Horse just yesterday. My daughter is riding him in her therapuetic horsemanship and boy howdy is he a cutie patootie! I hope she likes him and continues to ride him this session so I can see him again. When the job situation picks up around here - riding lessons will be back on my "to do" list!

For now, I am off to a good nights sleep.

Misery Makes a Decision

This has been a crazy time and I couldn't write about it as happening fast, and making me too sad to write about it.

Petie Pie was the start of it all. The little stinker got into the barn by body slamming the door hard enough to bend the inside lock while I was in the barn. I caught him, but not before a few unsuccessful and very painful dirt dives and also not before he killed a beautiful Cochin Rooster.

After that I wanted him to be placed in another foster home - but no one had room so we changed the locks on the barn door and figured the barn pets were safe. But they were not. Several days later, Petie and another dog dug under the barnyard fence and killed four chickens and a turkey.

Petie went to another home. The other dog with him was placed in an adoptive home and I hoped things would settle down at Dogrush. And, for a few days, things did settle. I had time to decide/realise that I have way to much on my plate here. Fostering is wearing me out and making me bitter, where it once made me happy and seemed to give purpose to my life. SO: (big announcement here) Dogrush Ranch is closing it's doors to foster dogs. Returns, of course will always be welcome back and we will still have the dogs that we dog sit for, so I imagine that it will take a while for the dog population to decline here. But decline it will.

Then Cammie died. I can't tell you how headspinningly blindsided I was. I had an idea that he was feeling poorly, but he went out to the field with his buddies for three days in a row, then just didn't seem hungry at night. Well, he wasn't hungry because he was bloated and full of fluid. He had bladder stones and couldn't pee. This went on until he died.

Here is the worst part. It is a HORRIBLE way to die, and he never made a peep. The vet told me that usually sheep cry and scream and kick at their stomachs and are just miserable when this happens. In fact, after the necropsy ( I HAD to know what happened,) the vet seemed really upset with me b/c ( I think) he thought I let my beautiful sheepie boy suffer until he died. But, I didn't know and Cam didn't let on.

So, life goes on here at Dogrush, with (hopefully soon) fewer dogs and no more death for a while. I am not afraid of death, but I really have a hard time with causing it - even if only through ignorance or lack of experience or just plain making a mistake.

There is a lot of happy stuff to write about but I will save it for tomorrow - PROMISE!