I noted on Facebook two days ago that I had inadvertently started a goat fight.
Every night when I go out to water my new blueberry bushes (which ALL have leaves sprouting *high fives*), my neighbor's Friendly goat comes over to say hello. She's so cute...so I started giving her handfuls of nice green grass to much on while we visited. Two days ago, the Grumpy goat (who has previously avoided me like the plague), decided she wanted some grass too. An epic head-butting battle ensued, and I snuck back into the house before my neighbor could come out and laugh at me.
SO, when I went out last night to water the blueberry bushes (because I didn't check the weather report to see that it was going to rain ANYWAY), I grabbed my camera. As you can see, Friendly goat is waiting for me...but this time Grumpy is ready too. This fight isn't as dramatic...it's more of a disagreement.
It's still pretty cute:
The moral of the story is this: Those blueberry bushes have been in the ground for a month and ALL THREE are still alive (*high fives again*)!
It's Christmas card time. I'm behind. WAAAAAY behind. I made my poor mother come over not once, but TWICE to capture a wonderful picture of me and Oozey for the Christmas card.
We started out at the bannister:
Oozey wanted nothing to do with her usual favorite spot...so we brought in Frank as a pinch-hitter. That didn't go very well either. He was trying to get down so he could go pee in his favorite corner...
"You're squishing me. I only want to pee a little. I promise."
After Frank went back out, someone decided to get on the banister:
Hmmm. Maybe some eggnog will encourage her to smile for the camera:
Nope. Just makes me look like a glutton for drinking straight out of the carton.
Which I NEVER do.
You know what? Let's just move on from that.We FINALLY thought we'd gotten the shot:
...only the setting on the camera wasn't right and it's WAY too grainy. Shirley and I gave up. But we didn't cry - even though I think we both wanted to. We're grown ups like that. Oozey pouted for a while:
So I got home from work today and we decided to try again. Here's the test shot:
Then we moved on to an Oozey shot. Mama thought she looked raccoon-ish here, so we abandoned the banister once and for all:
We tried under the Christmas tree. I brought out the bird in an attempt to lure her into the frame:
But she figured me out.
"You are ridiculous. And I am above this. And you really need to vacuum."
This next one worked in my head. Not so much in real life.
(I'm holding a treat behind baby Jesus' head.)
We went back to the chair. Now the treat's in my ear.
I can't believe I just admitted that.
Then Oozey jumped down and got back under the Christmas tree. So Mama took a picture of me. I think it's quite good, considering we were both on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
And that's where I'll leave you. We DID get a Christmas card picture...but you'll have to watch your mailbox for that one.
I've been busy this week. Between doctor's appointments, physical therapy, and Backyard Bible Club, I haven't spent much time with Oozey. And she's not shy about telling me when she's feeling neglected:
I mean, LOOK at that face!
The good news is that I'm officially out of the boot. There's still a lot of swelling, but hopefully that will settle down in a few days.
Rachael is letting me paint faces at the Bible Club finale tonight...so...that should be interesting. I'm still trying to decide what I want painted on my face...it's always a toss-up between a cat nose and whiskers and something Wolfpacky.
We'll see...
**UPDATE** I went with the cat face. I wanted to paint a little more, but I was already humming "Memory"...and my foot isn't well enough to dance yet.
And the best part of all...I had the greatest birthday cake EVER:
I mean, LOOK at this thing:
I MAY have eaten cake for supper last night. Because I am mature like that.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
In other news...I think everyone knows by now...but we lost Max a few weeks ago. He was a special part of our family for a long time. The farm is certainly not the same without him. I still look for him when I pull into the driveway. He will always be missed.
Fred celebrated the birth of his first baby girl by bringing home a new baby girl. Meet Ellie!
Yesterday we were watching football and napping when a neighbor called. HORSES WERE OUT! We jumped up and ran outside to see that 3 of John & Rachael's 4 horses were out (at least it was ours and not the boarders...). Panic ensued. I immediately called Rach and yelled something like "Horses out! Come NOW!" and hung up the phone. My telephone manners just aren't what they used to be...
Scout was still in the run between all of the paddocks (he had managed to get the gate open, but wasn't smart enough to go under the ropes stretched across the doorways in the barn. We made sure he was secure, then flew back across the road where the other 3 were standing in front of the hay barn. When they saw us coming, they took off across the field...only they didn't see all of the electric fence that Fred had recently put up for the cows.
They ran through the fence, popping it out of all of the insulators on the posts and dragging the wire the length of the field. NOW we were REALLY panicking. Not only were 3 crazy horses on the loose, but the fence was out and there are nearly 100 cows out of a fence.
Aari ran back to the barn, and Shirley and I took off after her. I managed to get close enough to her to get her halter on. PRAISE GOD! Aari is usually the hardest to catch. Her chest was cut up and bloody from running through the barb-wire fence, but she was mainly scared.
At that moment, Rachael (and Mr. Donald & Mrs. Jenny) arrived. PRAISE GOD! Lilly and Cole ran to Rachael and she was able to get them into stalls. Cole seemed to be OK, but Lilly had also run through the fence and was terribly bloody. As the cows were still out, Rach didn't have time to check her. We were headed back across the road to contain the cows.
Fred jumped on the tractor and got a huge round bale of hay on the front in an attempt to lure the cows back into the permanent fence. They followed the tractor, and we all walked behind them to ensure that no stragglers escaped. At this point, I had settled down enough to take a few pictures with my phone (since I KNEW this would be blogworthy). Here, Rachael drives the last cow into the fence:
Once the cows were back in a fence, we took a few minutes to catch our breaths and rejoice. I also took a moment to whine that I'd just tromped through mud and poop in my good tennis shoes. Oh well.
We all rode back to the house and began to repair the fence. We had to walk across the field and FIND the wire, then untangle it (keep in mind that this is BARBED WIRE), then walk it back to where it belonged. Here's Shirley standing in the middle of the line and Rach pulling the end of it:
At that moment, John called. Rach explained what had happened, and I think this was the first time he was actually glad to be in Iraq rather than at home! Rachael talked to him as she stretched the wire back towards the pond:
After we got the wire back in place, we had to replace the broken insulators and straighten and tighten most of the posts.:
I've never seen such a beautiful fence in all of my life:
Nearly 3 hours later, the fence was back in place and electrified again. PRAISE GOD! Rachael was so relieved that she just laid down in the field. I was eventually able to revive her with chocolate covered cherries and a taco.
And what of our perps? Well...
After opening the gate, but not making it out of the barn, Scout (aka Idjit Horse) was deemed not competent to stand trial. He has been sentenced to hard labor in the training ring and is currently being housed in a maximum security facility.
Aari (aka There and Back Again) turned herself in and agreed to testify against the others in return for a reduced sentence. She is on probation until John returns (because Rach and I have no desire to deal with her) and is being investigated for suspected ties to terrorists.
Lilly (aka Image of Battlecry) is presumed to be the ringleader. She is currently nursing her wounds and ego. She has been charged with inciting a riot, destruction of property, and disturbing the peace. She has been sentenced to hard labor in the training ring.
Cole (aka Drums in the Deep) is still not sure what happened, as he was following Lilly. He has been charged as an accessory to property damage and with 100 counts of attempting to rustle cattle. He has been sentenced to hard labor in the show ring and has been ordered to stay away from peach ring candy for the next 60 days.
This time, we stole her dinosaur. Oozey was anxious to meet him:
The dinosaur resurfaced this morning encased in jello. It turns out that this is a bit more complicated than just preparing a package of jello. I don't really want my stuff put in jello...so I won't be revealing the secret here...
And he said to them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a ditch on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?"
Luke 14:5 (ESV)
Well...our ox was in the ditch, so to speak.
We don't usually work on the Lord's day, but Fred had hay on the ground, and stormclouds were rolling in. (For you city folks, hay needs to be completely dry when it gets baled and put away or it will mold.)
So we headed out to the hayfield.
I got to ride on the back of the trailer and stack the bales that were thrown on. I just couldn't do the top layer since it's taller than me. It's a good thing that coastal hay is lighter than alfalfa..
Here's farmer Fred, complete with WoundVac drainage tube and suction pump...
Speaking of the wound, I found an ox that I'd like to throw in a ditch...
The first shower of rain barely misses us. We finally get it all loaded and head towards the barn as the thunder rolls overhead:
Woo hoo! The hay is safe in the shelter. Let it rain!
And it did.
I did not get away from the hayfield unscathed. As we were getting close to the end, I was standing near the back of the trailer. Shirley (who was driving the tractor) accelerated and hit a bump in the field at the same time. I bounced right off the trailer and hit my shin on the metal edge on my way to the ground. I have a terrific lump and it hurts like crazy.
Well...I knew that if I ever uploaded a video it would have to be a good one. This one definitely takes the cake. I wanted to ride around and take some pictures of the farm, and you know Rachael is always up for an adventure. She even brought Angie along.
We were riding through the low grounds, when...well...here's what happened:
We'll call it CSI:Pasture. I just wish that at the end of the video, I'd made a witty remark, put on my sunglasses, and looked off into the distance.
So Saturday was cow day. It's days like that that we miss Lt. John the most.
Rachael, Mike, Martha, and Jimmy showed up to help with the round up. The cows got by us once...then they decided to cooperate and head towards the cow palace. Soon, everyone had been fed and the guys were ready to get to work.
The men started sorting out the cows, sending the mamas out of the fence, and keeping the babies inside. Martha was convinced that this cow had it in for her:
It was a cold morning...don't we all look fetching in our perfectly matching winter attire and runny noses?
So we get to work. I was in charge of loading the ear tags, and Rachael was in charge of loading the bander.
They march a cow through the chute, and Dwight catches it in the head gate.
Fred holds the bull, while Mike "installs" the heavy duty rubber band (it goes EXACTLY where you think it does...)
Dwight adds the earring (yellow tags for heifers, silver tags for the bulls - well - steers), then opens the gate and releases the calf back to its mother.
Shirley hangs around for moral support:
At last we're finished. We had 36 calves. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that banding was WAY easier than clamping. After all that work, there was nothing left to do but go get warm...so that's just what we did:
A huge THANK YOU to all of you...especially to Mike, who had the hardest job. Here's hoping that the bands hold...
