Gangsta' Ducks

This is big Momma.She is our only white duck.Big Momma is one of our first ducks.


You know how it is fellow farm people.You go in to Tractor Supply,the farm person's Stuff-Mart,in the Spring and they have all the little chicks and ducks.'Nuff said!I came home with 4 black and 2 yellow.Hubby built them a little duck tractor to live in until they got big.Hubby hates to hear my say"Guess what I got!"It usually means he will have to build some kind of pen!'Possum still managed to get one yellow one.Me an The Boy put more wire around the tractor and the rest made it.There turned out to be two boys and 3 girls.Big Momma is the biggest,she is also the head honcho of The Quack Squad.She is like a mafia queen!You had better not mess with Big Momma!

She waddles around protected by her Quack Squad,the black ducks.You may be thinking I've been too long in the sun,but I tell you it is true!When she is ready for a swim she heads over two the pool surrounded by the Quack Squad.When she is almost there they charge ahead and run off all the younger ducks and chickens so Big Momma can swim in peace.A couple of the Quack Squad may join her while the others stand guard.


When Big Momma decides she wants to waddle around the chicken yard,the Quack Squad follow around her.If a chicken gets too close one of the Quack Squad will" pop a cap in it's......"Just kidding!We don't allow our ducks to carry guns just for this reason.They do,however,violently yank out some of it's feathers!

The Boy was the first one to notice this organized crime type of behavior.He has a keen eye for animal behavior.I though he was just being goofy,but after I watched for a while I saw he was right.It was kind of funny because he kept telling me that the white duck was a "pimp duck'!I am sure he didn't grasp the right meaning for what that meant!
So there you go,now you know about our barn yard mafia.Ducks!Who'd a thunk!

The nerve of some people!

While I was permanently closing a gate between our dog neighbors place and ours today,the old man came over and told me he didn't know why we were so mad!His dogs were only playing with our livestock!Can you believe this!When I told him he better keep his dogs off our place he told me he wasn't going to make any effort to keep them up they were roaming loose way before we lived here!So I called my friend who is a justice of the peace,only person I know with legal knowledge, and ask her what my rights were.She told me I could shoot them if they were attacking,but not just for roaming.She said I should file a report with the Sheriff's office and animal control.We have a law in our county against free roaming dogs.They are only misdemeanors though,but they will have to go to court.I guess that is something,not what I was hoping for though.What is a person supposed to do in situations like this????

Whew!!!

We did it!Our day went smooth and without a hitch even though it gently rained the entire time!After regular morning chores and doctoring Sir Loin's leg we got the sheep fence finished.It's a little crooked,but hey,it works!


Our sheep are bucket trained,they will follow us anywhere if we are carrying a feed bucket,so getting them in their pasture was no problem.We will still put them up at night for safety though.
They can easily jump these fences if they want to.They don't,I guess they probably would if they were threatened.They have been perfectly content to stay where ever we have put them.I hope they stay that way!Of course,they are well taken care of so I guess that helps!


They kept giving me the butt!I could only get a picture of their tail ends!I love the sheep,there is something quiet and serene about there nature.


Then we started on the turkey pen.


Boy,that had me worried!I still can not believe how smooth it went.I had to cut some limbs.I don't like using a chainsaw but Hubby has an attachment for our weed eater that is a small chainsaw.I don't mind it at all and luckily all the limbs were small enough for it to handle.Then we had to get some boards under the edges for skids.I lifted the edges with a crowbar and block of wood and The Boy slid the boards under.The valve on the compressor was leaking,so we had to do all the nailing by hand.Then we tied a rope around each corner and I used the Ford to pull it foreword at and angle that would align to the gate and moved the ropes to the back side and just pulled it over to our place.Boy,am I glad Hubby built that thing stout!Then we had to redo the wire around the bottom to 'possun proof it,fingers crossed.

Those 'possums have gotten more of my turkeys than I have but I am determined to have my Bourbon Reds!

The turkeys make the sweetest cooing noise to each other all day long,I am sure soon they will start to gobble-gobble!

So we worked all day in the rain,The Boy and me.It was good,honest,satisfying work.The kind of work where you are tired and know you will sleep good that night and you would willingly do it again in the morning.Surely we are blessed!


I know this picture is blurry,but it is sooo funny.It is Butter Bean sliding down or jumping off his slide!

Another Day

Yesterday was a hard day,but it wasn't a sad one and that is a blessing! Sir Loin has a gash/bite mark on one leg,but he should be fine.My post was angry but I decided not to remove it.This is about our life on this farm and like it or not these are things most homesteaders have to deal with.Most of us can't afford a thousand acres to put our house right in the middle of,so we have to deal with neighbors.Often these people have no respect for other people or their property.They don't care about the blood,sweat and tears you have put into your place and stock.Small homesteaders feel this even more because our flocks are usually small and we know each individual animal.Our animal are also part of our lively hood,income and food for our families.People who let there dogs roam claim they care for them but these animals get hit by cars,shot and disease ridden.I say these people are just too lazy and careless to actually have concern about these animal,so how can you expect them to care about your property and animals.It is not my job to police others dogs and I am sure not going to let them destroy and maim my animals!Enough about that!


The boy and me got the sheep moved last night into a holding pen and started a fence,we'll have to finish it this morning.This is Charger and Angry Eyes.Sea Salt's head looks like it is attached to Charger's behind!

It will be temporary until Hubby gets home.Me an The Boy just aim to hold things together with spit an bailing wire 'til Hubby makes it home!Our expertise are more in the demolition department than the fixin' department!You can see Weed Wacker in this one,she is the farthest one.

The turkeys will be hard to move.Well not the turkeys but their pen.We will do it!Me and The Boy are experts at dealing with disasters!It seems like every time Hubby leaves we will soon have one!The Good Lord must be testing us for endurance or something!I remember the first time he went to work overseas after he was out of the Navy.He was not even gone one day and the toilette flooded the whole end of our house.I have learned may skills over the phone.Seriously,he taught me how to change breakers and drain and reset the well over the phone and many, many other things.There is almost nothing I haven't been able to do with him coaching me from some other part of the world!We make a good team.Me and The Boy even rode out Ike alone in this old house.As soon as the power went off the deranged heelers,Pork and Beans, escaped.This is a picture of pork when he was still a pup.I don't seem to have any recent pictures of these two,possibly because I think their soul purpose in being is to drive me nuts!

Me and The Boy went out in the middle of a raging hurricane to find these dogs!That is responsible pet ownership,or possible insanity!I don't care too much for these dogs but Hubby loves them so I am not going to let anything bad happen to them.This is them as babies,when we first brought them home.I know, deceptively cute!


So some happy thoughts.The Boy says Doodah is officially a goatie goat!

She has adjusted to her new family and is happy,so now she is not just any 'ole goat,she is one of the goatie goats!I think this is the reason goats have horns,to scratch themselves!They are genetically itchy,or so The Boy says!

I think that boy is going to bust waiting for her to have a baby!He doesn't even get this excited about Christmas!I love true country kids!He is not excited about a new cell phone or trendy clothes,he is in love with all things simple and country.Makes a Hillbilly Momma proud,yes it does!

Anger

I apologize ahead of time,this is not a light hearted post.I don't even know how to get started ,but I need to vent.We are responsible animal owners.We have gone to great lengths to keep our dogs in fences and our livestock too.We respect our neighbors by not letting our dogs roam all over the place.Roaming dogs spread disease,tear up property and kill animals.We became friendly with our neighbors.We usually don't do this.Don't get me wrong we are always nice and polite,we wave when we drive by,most of all we are respectful of whom ever we live by.We never become close to them.This time however we did.They offered us a little fenced in pasture next to ours to keep our sheep or cow in.Very nice.We visited and had coffee,even went out to eat.These people have the attitude that it is OK for there dogs to roam the country side and it is there neighbors responsibility to keep them of their property if they don't like it.Awhile back we had dogs attack our sheep.I know it was theirs,the only way in the pasture was through their open gate.This man is old,and has the attitude he is never wrong and not in a million years will admit he is.Even though he left the gate open he would not admit it was his dogs that most likely did it.I couldn't prove it because I didn't see it.I can't stand a person who doesn't have the integrity to say they were wrong and they are sorry!
Anyway,The Boy and I were getting ready to walk out the door to go into town to his fiddle lesson.Thank God we had already put up the goats,we never leave without out putting them in the barn for safety.The cows started bellowing in distress and carrying on,we run out and their dogs are attacking our cows and horse!Thank God again they ran up here and not out in the field!The Boy and I manage after much effort to get them called off.If we had left 1 minute earlier they would have killed our calves!I called and told the man what was going on.He had the audacity to tell me that he told my husband when he was home that his dogs could get through our fence!NO sh***!It is barbed wire!The same stuff from Mexico To Canada that people fence in their cows with and put a bullet in any dog that crosses it!How would he like it if we let out our mean as hell red heelers to roam over to his place and attack his dogs,the heelers would win I promise,and kill his cats and I just said well,hey, you don't have a fence!
My relationship with these people is over,I have to get my sheep and turkeys out of their pasture,it will take me a few days,then if those dogs come over here,well ........

Guineas,God's Joke to Poultry

Yes,we have guineas.Most folks don't like them because they are noisy.They are,but we like the crazy sounds they make.Plus,they are good bug eaters and hawk alerts for the chicken flock.
If you know anything about these birds,you know they ain't quiet right in the head.Of course when you look at them and their tiny little heads,you have to realize their brain couldn't be bigger than a pea.And freaky looking,if you have never seen one you are missing out for sure!
Everyone told us we had better clip their wings.I did when they were small but it didn't stick.So I decided a while back that after I put them up in their coop I would go in and catch them up and clip them again.

Remember those prizes people used to win where they stood in a plastic wind tube and money flew around and they tried to grab it.Yeah,it was like that only with a loud screeching like demons from hell with beaks and talons!
Sooooo....no, they didn't get their wings clipped.
Lately I noticed they have been plotting an escape.I know what you are thinking,how could pea brains plot anything?

Well it may be a mystery,but is true none the less.I've been watching them.They started off sitting on the chicken run,then after a day or two they graduated to the roof of the coop.I told them they weren't fooling me and I had my eyed on them.They ignored me.

Then a few days ago,while they were up to no good on the coop roof,one of the white ones decided to take a flying leap over to the roof of Hubby's barn.The roof was very steep and the pea brain just slowly slid down,making a fingernails on chalkboard sound as his toenail scraped the tin.When he got far enough down his butt met my hoe handle as I helped him back to the chicken yard.
Yesterday they made their grand escape attempt.They all took off flying and screeching like the devil himself was after them with his guinea rotisserie.They landed on the roof of my shed,except for two ,they landed in Weenie's yard.Big mistake on their part,that little dogs purpose in life is to kill every living thing in that yard.She immediately went on attack.The roof guineas saw what was happening and not realizing Weenie can't fly on to the shed,took off screeching back to the chicken yard.The two in the death yard were fast and escaped minus a few tail feathers,
Then who do I see run around the house ready to add to this commotion,Hubby's mentally deranged female heeler,Beans,minus a shock collar.She sees me and runs under the house because she knows she is not supposed to be out.This dog is smart.The only reason she stays in her nice big yard full of room,food and water,is because we have an invisible shock fence around the yard also.This dog makes it her goal to somehow break off this collar then get out of the yard and eat and tear up everything she can while no one is watching,mainly my plants and flowers.I have no love for this dog.So, she had once again tore off her collar.We have horse wire bent in half and nail gunned all around the bottom of the house to keep these dogs in.After she got her collar off she could get to the edge of the house with out getting shocked.She then ripped off a huge section of the wire so she could escape.The boy dog,Pork, never does this,you have to drag him out of the yard,he says nooo..my food is in here!!!!!!Yes,their names are Pork and Beans.The Boy named them.I have a whole lot of other colorful names for that girl dog,but since this is a family blog I won't tell you,I bet you can guess though.
The pea brains failed this time.It won't be long until they try again,I see them plotting......

Wordless Wednesday

Meeting of the Quack Squad .Hmmm....what do you think they're talking about?