discovery. Now I have chipmunks as well as squirrels and rats to make a
mess of everything. Luckily chipmunks aren't very active in the winter-
being "almost hibernators". And winter is almost here- even though you
would never know it from the beautiful weather we have been having.
The stupid squirrels are in the attic again. And from there they like to
come down inside the back porch to get into the sunflower seed for the birds
and to destroy my plants out there. They chewed off the tops of a geranium
of all things and dug up my tuberous begonia to hide nuts.
I wish I could leave the door open all the time so the dogs could get in
there and possibly kill them. But we have a lot of stuff stored out there
and the dogs could be just as much trouble with that as the squirrels.
Barack would probably carry all the tools outside and Ginger would be
climbing all over my plants to look out the window. It's a toss up.
I put rat poison in the barn again and now I get to deal with dead and dying
rats. But at least we may save on the feed bill. We are also having
trouble with sparrows coming in to eat the chicken feed. That just started
this summer. We never had this much trouble with the birds before. I think
it's because there are no cats left except the one wild one and Vicky the
visitor cat. The birds come through the chicken door and through the barn
door because we leave it open for the turkeys. When I walk in the barn they
fly all over, batting themselves into the plastic covered windows. If I had
a badminton racquet I could really hit the birdies.
Lily my horse became the victim of my kindness. I had to lock her in the
east pasture after she foundered a bit on the grass in the west pasture. I
firmly believe, as does the vet, that the walnuts are the culprit over
there. She doesn't eat them but I think they lay on the grass and leach
their toxin on it or she eats leaves from the trees when they fall.
Anyway she was recovering nicely from that but the grass was mostly gone
from the east side. So I bought hay - 1st cutting alfalfa mix first, but
then I bought a bale of 4th cutting and after a day or two she foundered on
that. (Foundering makes the horses hooves swell with blood and it's very
painful for them to walk. It can become so bad they have to be put down.
It's caused by too much sugar and carbs in the diet).
I bought some 2nd cutting mix but the vet said that was still way too rich
and said I had to find 1st cutting grass hay, which isn't as easy as it
sounds. I was lucky and got some from a big dairy farm on the East side of
Marlette- right on our road.
Lily is now doing much better and walking well. No grain and only a little
bit of carrot or apple for her now. Vet says she needs to lose 50 pounds-
but that sounds a little extreme for her size. She is on bute, a pain
killer, that I don't like and hopefully can soon be weaned off of it. She
was locked up in the small pasture right behind the barn, which is
essentially without any grass but last night she pushed open the gate to the
east pasture just before I went out to feed her. Luckily that grass is dry
and she wasn't out there long. And it proves she feels better.
The vet said she needs a companion and I do agree. I am going to find
another mini, pony or goat for her. She is bored and has nothing to do but
eat. Steve wants a goat I think. I do like goats but they are hard to keep
inside a fence and get in a lot of trouble. And I wonder if the cross
species company is really that satisfying for them.
The turkeys are laying eggs- very odd for the fall. Maybe it means we will
have no winter- spring is already here. Wouldn't that be great?
No comments:
Post a Comment