First thing, I want to thank everyone who wished me well from last week's post.
I continue to be very tired... I got my chores done this morning and then laid down "for a minute" and slept three hours! I have managed to clean the house and go outside several times to check on everyone, but other than that, I am taking it easy today.
Can you see the sheep under the little red hen house?
They know where to keep cool during the day, though we are at our high for the day, 84. It's a huge change from two weeks ago, when we hit 100 numerous times.
The little red hen house is slowly crumbling, but Cleo, one of the barn cats, uses that as her home base.
This is a baby meadowlark I rescued from Bully this morning, and the weird thing was,
I had just rescued one from Coco out in the yard. I set it on the platform feeder, and after a moment, it took off and flew over the house. Then I went up on the deck and found one in Bully's mouth. I got it out and set it in a planter while I took Bullseye in.
I then went back out, took it to the old henhouse which is dark and quiet (there are lights, but it is an old building) and put it in the open brooder pen. I am happy to tell you when I went back out, it was gone. I am of the James Herriot theory that dark and quiet does wonders for an animal. I made sure, looking around carefully... that it was not trapped somewhere in the buiding.
I did find this under the brooder pen in the dark:
This is Brownie, one of the two Ameracauna hens that live in this henhouse with Singleton, the white rooster. I believe Brownie is not long of this world. I have found her hiding in the dark house numerous times in the last week... I just think her time is coming.
This is the other one I am thinking will be leaving us soon... Susie, the Speckled Sussex. She is six years old... yes, the roosters have ridden her terribly, because she can't get away from them quickly. She is spending her days in the big hen house. She does still go outside, but never ventures far. Susie talks to me all the time in the most charming little chirps and clicks.
During the first part of the heat this month, I carried buckets of water around to water all my hanging plants... it was a pain. Finally I took the plants down and set them on the patio. A sunflower is growing out of one of them!
I am going to bring them up on the porch in a bit and trim all the dead plants out of them, and see if I can keep them going another month or so. I do not have room in the house to bring in so many geraniums.
Sam came over the other night to look at a sheep that has been limping badly. I held the flashlight for him while he felt and looked at her leg carefully... we could not see any injury, any animal bite, anything that was embedded. She is hobbling around on three legs, but I watched her graze by kneeling down this morning. They will be going home soon and she can be put in a stall and checked over well.
My pasture has just about given up the ghost for the summer, though we did get a bit of rain on Friday.
I sure enjoy watching the sheep grazing, they are so comforting to me.
Mama has taken over the chair where Jack used to sleep. I often find her out there in the morning.
There is a dog house just to her left, full of straw.
I am going to get another and put it on the other side of my porch cabinet, just out of sight to the left... so that she and Coco have places to sleep in the winter.
Teenie and Wanda are at the big hen house... I will either let them sleep inside, OR, run the heat lamp in the shop again, and let them sleep in there, where they kept warm last winter. I ran a heater, too.
There is a dog house in the old garage on the south end of the property, by the shop, and Wanda used to sleep in it.
It is up on cement blocks and full of straw.
My theory is that they are hesitant to use the dog houses because there is no "escape hatch" where they can run from raccoons.
I thought this was kind of a neat picture... can you see the eyes in the middle of the fenceline? I think a raccoon had climbed up onto the fence in the middle of the vines.
I was going to take those vines down, but Ben reminded me they are keeping the dust from our road rolling into the yard, and he is right.
I checked the card from the camera a bit ago, and there were no pictures from last night.
I noticed when I went out this morning that there was still seed from the bird feed yesterday, so I wonder what was going on?
This is a baby raccoon who comes up on the porch for a treat every night, and YES, I know I should not do this. I bring in all the feed from everywhere, but pour out just a bit. This little one is not afraid, I can sit there and watch it eat and talk to it. It's sibling IS afraid and won't approach if I am out there.
It was almost dark and the camera picked up so much ambient light it was incredible. The sibling is right behind it, behind the pots, and in fact, I think there was a third one back there, too.
Blurry picture of the two. They don't look little in this picture, but they are.
Definitely this year's babies.
Here is my little doll, Zoey, surveying her domain. She came to me last year on November 4, after ten years with her first parents.
I am so glad to have her. She is not a cuddler, but she is a wonderful little girl. How she loves to sit on the deck and watch the chickens.
She loves to do chores with me in the evening, too, as the pugs did many years ago. It's nice to have a little dog to talk to.
