Birds, Snakes, Armadillos, Storms, Mud, Bugs, Etc.

 Ah spring with all its new life and daily challenges!  We've had over 7 inches of rain in the last two weeks.  It's come in 2-3 inches at a time which results in runoff and mud.  We have pools of water which are breeding the biggest hungry mosquitoes we've seen since before the drought.  Not pleasant to be outside!!!!  With the ground wet, the armadillos and snakes are on the prowl and digging everywhere.  We watched a rat snake try to catch a bird the other day.  The bird survived the hunt!

Speaking of birds, the purple martins returned a week or so ago.  It looks like 4-6 couples moved into the martin house.  I'm surprised as we were unable to make the yearly repairs.  It truly is a slum property!  The hummers are eating me out of house and home and the swallows can't build their nests fast enough.  I had been knocking down 6-8 nests every 2-3 days.  Now I'm knocking down only 2-3 every couple of days.  I'm hoping that they will give up and we can have the back porch for ourselves and not as a nursery for their babies.  Not to be outdone, there's a mockingbird couple that has built a nest in one of the baby live oaks.  To get under my skin, the daddy mockingbird sings all night long.  He also sings all day long!  I have enough trouble sleeping, so the continuous limited repertoire of songs really is aggravating!  

Raquel finally went to the vet to have her feet checked out as her limping was horrible.  She stayed a few days at the vet and now is back.  I can't see much improvement in her gait but hope she will mend in time.  Calfie and Red also went to the vet to have their elf hooves trimmed.  No one is sure what causes this condition.  It would be an interesting investigation to figure out this problem.

The hay fields look great and if the rain continues after the first cutting, we may get that second elusive cutting.  The local water district has lifted the water restrictions so I'll be able to water baby trees if I need to this summer.  I think I've said we've lost about 20% of the trees we planted due to the drought.  

More storms are due in this afternoon and evening.  Knock-on-wood, we are spared any sever weather!!!  We'll take the good stuff.....

 

RIP Maude

Despite our best efforts, Maude didn't survive!!  We miss her and know she is in heaven making all the creatures there smile.  

Finally we've had a little rain.  Two inches of the wet stuff fell earlier this week.  We managed to not be in the hail path so avoided the baseball size hail stones!!!  The hay pastures and the big pasture were fertilized a few days prior to the storms so we may benefit big time.  

Our niece and her husband visited from Baltimore to view the eclipse.  It was pretty cloudy as the moon progressed toward totality.  Then about two or three minutes before totality, the sky opened up and we had a wonderful view of the total eclipse (over two minutes long) with its ring of fire and diamond.  Also during totality, a star was in view.  Come to find out it wasn't a star but a comet!!!  A minute or two after totality the clouds returned.  The "darkness" was interesting tho all we noticed was a flock of birds fly over looking for a roust.  I've seen several partial eclipses but this was my first total eclipse.  The whole experience was very very cool!!!!  

Maude

One of our favorite cows, Maude, has been sick.  She normally is the "happy go lucky" girl who trotted to the feeding troughs, ears flapping, with a big "smile" on her face.  About a month ago our happy girl was slow to walk, not interested in eating, and had some very awful secretions.  The Vet was called and she was sent to the large animal clinic.  Diagnosis, oak tree toxicity probably from eating acorns.  That seemed dubious as no one else was in similar condition.  Cows move around eating together and when one finds something yummy, the rest are quick to be there to enjoy it.  Anyways after a couple weeks at the clinic (where her calf was born and died), she came back to the farm.  The Vet orders were to keep her away from Lance, the bull, and out of the pasture with the oak trees for at least 60 days.  She continued to decline under our care so the Vet was called out again and after a round of probiotics, antibiotics, and steroids, she seemed markedly better this morning.  I saw the trot, flappy ears, and smile when she showed up for breakfast this morning.  We are hopeful that Maude has turned a corner and is on the mend!

Friday, a week from now, we have annual vaccinations.  This is always a tense time for us as all the cows know what we are doing as we try to entice the herd up to the chute area for their shots.  We understand why they don't like being held in the chute as they get stuck a couple times, but its the only way we can accomplish our goal safely.  Also we will separate One-Two and Summer from their mamas so they can be weaned.  I can hear the unhappiness already...  At this time Dawn will rejoin the herd permanently.  She is Big Mama's baby born in November 2022.  She is also the daughter of Valentino.  Dawn is our first replacement heifer from our herd.  In theory, she will live out her life having babies here with us.

I got buzzed by my first Hummingbird a couple days ago so have put the feeder out for another year.  I haven't seen the Purple Martins yet this year.  I figure they think our housing situation is so bad, they probably will not show.  The barn swallows are back and trying to rebuild last years nests.  I am trying to remain vigilant knocking down their nests built on the back porch.  We'll see how I fair...

The farmers have seeded the fields with corn and the work has begun on getting the hay fields in shape.  It's the same sequence every year...

Recent Happenings

We had frigid temperatures with lots of sunshine and that was followed by gray skies and over 4 inches of rain as January came to a close!  Hard to complain as we needed both: one to kill the bugs and the other to help relieve the drought. I'm just happy we didn't get both at the same time!!!

This week we had our first two calves sired by Lance O Lot born: a bull, Junior, and a heifer, June Bug.  I wanted to celebrate firsts with the names.  Lance doesn't seem particularly interested in either of his first two progeny which is typical.   

That's about all that's going on.... 

Resolutions

I hate New Years resolutions because when I fail to achieve them, I feel really crummy about myself.  I have one this year.  My goal is to figure out how to get my pictures off my camera and back on to this blog!   It is a mighty task!  The reason I have decided to follow through is we received a four volume print version set of the blog since its beginning, 2010 thru 2023, for Christmas.  What makes the books so interesting is not the poor grammar of my narratives, but the abundance of pictures.  So....

Our holidays can be characterized by lots of food and goodies punctuated by lots of family, grandkids, dogs, and babysitting.  The cows tolerated the barking doodles and the many trips in the buggy, The Beast, and Polaris.  Normally the cows are fed when we are driving around in one of the vehicles.  So having all the motor activity without feedings was very disappointing.  We have a couple cows that do not hold back their vocal disapproval. 

We are still picking up tree limbs from last years ice storm.  We had some help from Ben and Bekah which was much appreciated!!!  Now we need to do some burning!

It's been about six weeks without a calf birth which indicates the end of Valentino's reign and the beginning of Lance-O-Lot's reign.  Lance still is young and acts like a teenager most of the time.  However, I have seen him step up and assume his role as "bull-in-charge."  I'm hopeful that we'll see babies in the next month or so.

End Of Another Year

As we close on 2023, I am reminded of this time last year.  We had a big storm that brought freezing temperatures, ice, etc..  It was so bad we had to relocate Christmas Eve dinner to Jennifer's because our pipes were frozen.  BUT this year is completely different.  The temperatures are in the 50-60s and are expected to remain in this range into the new year.

The leaves have fallen or are falling from the trees.  The sky is gray in anticipation of rain.  We are in great need of a good soaking rain.  We'll see how things shake out in the next couple of days...

We have two new heifers, Brillante and Thanksgiving.  Guess who was born on the holiday?  Guess which holiday?  Both are doing well and are full of calfness.

With the warm temperatures and the dry summer, we have been overrun by scorpions!  Killing 10 in a day is not unusual.  Our pest control guy is doing his best, but unless he sprays something strong enough to kill everything including the humans, we're stuck!!!!  

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! 

Goodbye Allie

Allie passed away this past week.  A very sad set of factors set in motion her passing.  She was known as "The Big Dog" because she acted like any big happy dog whenever "her people" were around.  We will really miss her and her sparkle!  RIP Allie!!!!

The squirrels found all the acorns, including my big bur oak acorns, and robbed me blind.  We went many years without them doing any harvesting of the acorns on the trees by the house.  They are being sighted every day now harvesting.  

A deer was hit by a truck over the weekend and landed fairly close to our front gate but not on our property.  The vultures, for some reason are taking their sweet time eating it.  The stink is awful!!  I have thought about moving it somewhere but couldn't come up with a place far enough away and I'd have to touch it to do it.  Nope, I'm not moving or touching it!!!  I'm hoping the cold weather coming in will help some with the stink.

We have bought a Can Am to assist with our ranch work.  The two golf cart buggies went belly up at the same time and one was not worth fixing.  The other one, we fixed so we'd have a backup and the kids would have something else to drive.  We call this four-six seater "The Beast."  It is huge.  Peg had to have something big enough for the dogs so they can ride around with us.  Now they have the backseat and we had at least $5000 more in cost for their benefit.  

We did not get the second hay cutting...  Have released the cows into the 18 acres to eat what's there.  The rains came too late and the warm weather abated.  Guess we can look forward to next year...

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!