It rained again last night here, and is very humid out right now.
This morning, this old boy went to see Dr.Tom:
Yes, he was a little stressed out... he never leaves home except to go to Dr. Tom's. He had his front nails clipped and his hips checked. Dr. Tom said we have maybe a year left with our boy... his hips and hind legs are in bad shape. He is overweight, yes... but has not gained any weight since November, thank heavens.
He's on Tramadol and now Meloxicam, daily, has fish oil on his food, and PhiCox, a joint supplement daily.
His coat is blowing out, too, and not even the Furminator can keep up with it.
These are GORGEOUS BLACKBERRIES that our neighbor Kathy brought us two nights ago, and are now in a blackberry cobbler in our refrigerator!
She is getting tomatoes from me tonight.
That's sugar on them, don't worry... they were beautiful!
Here's my "make-around" for getting bags of grain from the back of the car to the henhouses.
I load them into my cart, drive them to the door, and then bucket them into the cans until I can lift the sack and carry the rest in. Takes a little longer, but works fine. You have to adjust your chores as you age, and my days of lifting a sack and carrying it over my shoulder are long gone. These are 50 lb. sacks.
I'm in trouble for the next few days, as our John Deer 320 has gone off to Heritage Tractor to be serviced.
Okay, NOW I KNOW WHY I'M NOT FINDING EGGS IN THE RABBIT HUTCH.
If you look closely, you will see there are TWO snakes in there... a juvenile is just inside the towel hanging to the left where the nest box door used to be.
It must have been the day for snakes, because here goes another one through the henyard and into the pophole. Notice the ducks and chickens totally ignore it.
It was good to see that the guys were in the pasture this morning, browsing.
Actually, they were watching me leave with Ranger here.
Three Muleteers and Kris, this one's for you. This amazingly blanketed Appy mule was in a pasture I passed this morning, along with a big bay mule. I could not get a clear shot of this guy, but his coat... wow.
And here's an old farmhouse on a hill, down the road from the mule pasture. I love these old two-up, two-down farmhouses. There were no closets in them, just two rooms up and two down originally.
Closets were taxed as rooms, extra. This one had been built onto over the years, but is still lived in.
And now I'm off to do chores for the afternoon!
I know the snakes eat rodents, but, but . . . . :-O
ReplyDeleteYou know what ms. mary ann our house doesn't have ANY closets in it either, but we have 10 doors JUST downstairs and two of them are glass and 2 upstairs...do you think a man built our house back in the old days....geeze louise....we sure hopes ranger gets to feeling better, we think he is just the most beautiful dog cos mom grew up with german shepards all her little life, also we are still waitin on the blackberry invite for coffee....we hopes one of these days you come up to Ames Iowa and plan on stoppin by our house, mom says she will make the coffee but you have to bring the dessert.
ReplyDeletestella rose
yikes...that's a lot of snakes! my house has tiny tiny closets for the same reason as that farmhouse. i have armoires in most of my rooms.
ReplyDeleteThat closet business is why "wardrobes" used to be such poplar pieces of furniture.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I guess that is why the old farm house that we lived in while we built our house didn't have any closets! lol I never knew that people were taxed for closets! Only one bedroom had a closet and for some reason what we figured would have been a dining room had a closet beside the fireplace. It had 4 fireplaces but you couldn't use them.
ReplyDeleteYikes! I just don't know if I could take seeing one snake much less 3 snakes in one day!
These darned dogs just don't live long enough, it is their only fault. I took Tanner to see a homeopathic vet last week who does acupuncture. I think it could help him, but I am not sure he will ever let her do it. I wonder if it would help Ranger? Unfortunately, time is not his friend, but i hope it stay kind to him for a while yet.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mule pictures, that fellow certainly is colorful.
And those snakes, they just crack me up for some reason.:)
Do you know what? That old farm house kinda looks like my old farm house too!
ReplyDeleteI came to visit you. I am sitting on your front portch,, can we have a little bite of your berrys and just sit with you for awhile?
love
tweedles
the snakies are scary
Yumm wish I could just wander over for a visit and some of that yummy cobbler ... but the snakes ARE a bit daunting!
ReplyDeleteThe other night in the barn the Redneck hollered "where are you". I told him which stall I was in. He said before you go into the feed room be warned there is a 6 ft chicken snake in here.
ReplyDeleteTold him I would not be going into the feed room at all until winter.
I'm on tramadol too- I hope it helps your old guy! :) Poor guy, at least the Vet visit is done for now, no one ever likes that. I hope the meds help him be comfortable. Our blackberries are just starting, and I cannot wait for a crisp or pie or whatever I'll be able to make first. :) Your berries look so delicious!
ReplyDelete