Skunk b gone

 I caught 2 babies yesterday and reset the trap last night and caught more tonight, but not sure how many till I empty the trap.   I kinda smelled yesterday after emptying the trap even though I touched nothing.  That smell just attaches itself to you.  I'm reluctant to go empty the trap because of that, but I covered up their holes and I will wait and see if something digs them out again. If so then I need to reset the trap.  It's scary picking up a trap of skunks and taking it some place. My heart is going a mile a minute until I throw it in the water(sorry Debby) but they carry rabies and they are too close for comfort and would never leave because of the food they can get here.  That's all I need to is to let the dogs out in my own yard and get them sprayed or worse.

3 more tonight so total of 6 and I think that was the whole family but I am still being very careful as I walk into the barn. I will continue to check their holes to make sure I got everybody and the good thing is I still smell like a rose!!

skunk

The skunk sprayed near the house again last night. This is getting tiring and smelly.   good idea bout using some cat fod for bait instead of the egg.  I only own dry so will pick up a can next time i'm out or see what's in the pantry. There might be something smelly in there.

I feel badly about a lady who showed up today for last weekends clinic. I gave her the wrong date. She wanted to show her dog to Roger and Kathy.  I gave her a lesson for free.  She came from northern VT so it was the least I could do.  damn I hate it when I make mistakes like that.  Happened one other time and that guy was pissed big time.  Anyway I videoed the dog and will try and figure out how to send it.. I have already spent a few hours on it and no success.

Skunk Skunk... Skunk?

  I was woken up last night by a strong skunk smell and it was coming in all the windows so I had to get up and close everything up.  It was not coming from the road but probably the back yard. 

I just went down to get the hav-a-hart out of the water and empty the skunk out of it. It was not as difficult or as smelly as I expected.  I used a rake to grab the towel on top of it and then the rake to grab the trap.  The trap opened easily and I dumped out the body and tossed it  across the street.  Out of smell range.

Then I went back to the barn to reset it and I walked in with the dogs and looked in at the small stall where I caught the first one  and there was another one there. I backed up quick and called the dogs out.  Ok no more dogs in the barn for a while.  So I waited for 30 minutes and went back out and it was gone back down the hole it apparently lives in.  I reset the trap and joy oh joy I can't wait to catch another one.  I'm playing with fire here, but  skunks cannot live under my barn.

The new Boer cross Buck

 He is about 4 mos old and will be breeding the does this year.  cute babies he will make

Pretty

LIve Tree and new trees

This is just an update on the growth of the trees I planted.  I know you could not see them very well in the first pics I posted, but hopefully these are better. These are hybrid poplars planted last year.

 This is a Honey Locust tree that has been in for about 5 yrs, but it had a rough start.

Wildlife

I've been checking on a rather large hole in the barn lately.  I did not know what it was but it was something. Over the weekend we tried to hose it out but nothing came out.  The dogs have been going nuts in the tackroom over something under the floorboards.  I thought it was either a weasel or a rat.  So I put a lot of rat poison out and I tried a rat trap but that got tripped and nothing was caught. Still something under there.   I went out back and got the smaller hav- a- hart trap assuming it was something fairly small.  I put an egg in it because whatever was in the barn was eating the occasional egg the ducks left. The trap was there for about a week and today I went out to check it and the bucket of death we had set up too.  I had all the dogs with me but fortunately there was a piece of lattice in front of the stall door and that was enough to stop Dually.  I looked in and backed up quickly and called the dogs out and just breathed.  It was a SKUNK.    Great , now I have a smallish maybe , skunk and a really small trap.  ok what to do what to do. Well I learned from last years encounter that  you need to cover the trap slowly and carefully with a towel or sheet and take it someplace slowly and equally as carefully .  I took a big towel and I went in the stall on the other side and I slowly and carefully draped the towel over the cage.  Then I leaned over and fumbled for the handle on the cage.  I got it and slowly and carefully picked it up and carried it out of the barn and tried to decide where to drown it.   Yes I could have rereleased it but I was not putting it in my closed in car and I do not know how to open the cage easily soooo I walked it "slowly and carefully\" down to the pond at the bottom of the driveway and got as close as I could and I threw the whole  damn thing in and went to get my mail.  There was a little smell but I smell pristine and so does the barn and the dogs!!!!!!

Not sure how big it was but it was not that light while I was carrying it. I'll see tomorrow.

Roger Stevens clinic is done and gone

  WE had a great 3 day clinic,  12 dogs and 1 day of rain but it was warm out.  We put 2 shade tents together and put a huge tarp over them and we were dry all day.   Lots of exercises with panels and chutes and free standing pens.    I need to go buy some more hog panels to put up a permanent chute.  This building stuff all the time is a PIA.   But of course the stock trailer is full of hay so I can't use that to transport them.  I think I can use the utility trailer and bend them over.  But of course it is not regisgtered so will have to either to it illegally or transfer some plates which is also illegal. tough nougies.

I worked with Cindy and Newt this am before she left and I sent her with my singe duckling.  Wendy took all the baby goats yesterday and suddenly I have so much less to do.  Roger and Kathy had breakfast and I drove them to the airport around 9:30.  I came back and stopped at Walmart for some bleach to get rid of the stuff growing in the stock tanks.   I was pouring it in and it jumped and splashed all over me..  I hate bleach almost as much as snakes.  Tried to wash it off my hands but it doesn't really wash off.   Then the guy with the back hoe shows up and takes out my cement landing and scrapes down the soil some more so now we  are ready for some gravel .. Making slow progress on the front walkway.  

Then I went upstairs and fell in bed for  a long nap.

Just plain creepy

   You would think after the snake I would have a few days of peace, but noooo.  This is not a big deal maybe but I find it creepy to the max.   I looked down at the floor in the hallway going into the bathroom and there is something there.  I though dead mouse,  but on closer inspection(I am not afraid of mice) it is a mushroom or toadstool growing out of  from under the threshold to the bathroom.   This is the 2nd one I have found and it just creeps me out.

   I worked Kip today and we worked on driving.  I talked to Alfred and told him he did well driving and he was surprised I was doing that already.  Might as well since fetching seems to be really easy for him and I hate fetching anyway.   Kip also walked up on a goat facing him in the corner and fairly confidently bit him in the nose and kept nudging his way around the goats.  I was quite pleased with that too. 

Dually worked the light light sheep in the duck arena. He was quiet and thoughtful and was totally obviously keeping them on the back fence without commands from me.  He's a good boy.

Had some people over for a herding party today and I think everybody had fun.  Then we went out to a local icecream shop for lunch and ice cream and talk.   I enjoyed myself.  Thanks guys.

Why me?

  Had a scare today.  I went downstairs to pull a load of laundry out and put it in the dryer.  I got everything out except there was maybe another sock or something. I reached down and Holy Shit it was a snake and It looked alive although I did not see if for long because I jumped back so quickly.  I HATE SNAKES!!     I have no one to call to get rid of a snake for me. In retrospect I wonder if the cops would come and help me out.  Probably not.  shit shit shit It can't stay there.
 I will not pick up a snake in my hands and it looked a little too big to use a towel and besides that it too up close and personal for me.   Sooooo I figured I needed something long to grap it with and  aha, a set of kitchen tongs which are not as long as I would have liked but didn't stop to try and think of anything else.
 I marched up stairs , got my tongs, and marched bravely back downstairs.  do it now before you lose your nerve.  My heart is racing and my mouth is dry.  I reach down and grab him about an inch behind his slimy gross mouth.  I clamped down hard because it started to move and his mouth opened up and he would have bitten me if he could have.
 Out of the washing machine he comes and then the tail starts to swing and curl and  IT TOUCHED ME@@@@@@    Any other location and I would have dropped him and ran but  if I dropped him then I had a loose live snake somewhere waiting to scare me in my basement.  So I chanted don't let go don't let go don't let go and walked carefully but quickly as I could to the bulkhead which I had smartly opened before I got the snake on the tongs.
 I got him up to the top and he touched me again and I just had to let him go right outside the bulkhead opening.   I looked around for something to kill hiim with but there was nothing handy so he slithered away to scare me at a later date and place.  My heart was racing for a long time afterwards.   And now ,  HOW did he get in the washing machine. Some of the options are unthinkable. Most of them are so I just am not going to think about it.

Gave up

Although I  admit I am very talented, the landscaping project is maybe too much for me or maybe I am getting lazy.  I called Tim and he has the time to come over and do the job now.   So he said he would start this week and he had a good idea about the stairs and tying in the natural stone at the bottom. We butted heads  when I said I did not want the natural stone level with the ground but he may be right.  I dont' think so though.  He talked me into not using the landscape timbers so I have to take them back to Home Depot, but I hadn't yet unloaded them from the car. If I had they would be staying here.  That's ok because I can get some more wood for the other set of shutters that I need to make.  whooo whoo.    So he "said" he was going to bring the backhoe over this week and start this for me.  I really caught him at the right time or he feels guilty about putting me off for a year. Either way I win.

This morning when I woke up before I got dressed, I started to sand my counter where tin cans have left rings on it.  They were really bothering me. Now I have to go get some cheesecloth and refinish the spots.  Of course there was a ring on every section so I can't try the beeswax finish anywhere until it dries for another month.  I might have Bill do a poly finish on the island he built for me.  I am waiting to hear from him and we can discuss when he comes over. Here is the island in it's unfinished state.  I still need to find some stools to go with it.

Today's Project

 Yesterday I bought some landscape timbers and some wood for shutters.  I cut and screwed the set of shutters this am and painted them and this afternoon I hung them.  That was tricky all by myself.

New Project

The goat got sick, I thought it was dead goat walking.  I dragged it into barn for the night and the dumb thing was fine in the am. Good thing too because it's not my goatie.

Worked Edge today and he needs some work on flanks.  Worked the walk up and I think it is a little better.  Not giving an inch on him.  When I say walk up you damn well better be walking up, at least moving.  Dually was a good  boy on sorting today. He did not give me a hard time at all.  I've been catching myself calling him Dare.   Miss baby Dare bear. A lot

 Ok now on to the new project.   I am going to do the front yard landscaping because it's such a cute house and I can't stand looking at it anymore.  I spent about 4 hrs today on the tractor and here are the results so far.

Here is the before picture.

Here is what it might look like when I am done.

cold and rainy today

mid 40's I think. I had to start the pellet stove back up or I would have been very chilly today. 
  I was feeling bad for the sheep that had to be out in the arena today so I dragged a big white tarp out there and hung it over the free standing pen  to give then someplace to go when it started to pour.  Not sure if they used it because I didn' t hang around. 

The baby goats who get cold fast were allowed in the barn today and I left the gates open so they could go out and graze at their leisure.  Tonight I put them in the barn and I dragged up a bale of hay from the stock trailer and gave them some hay to chew on.  After I locked them in , it started to pour but I was determined to get some more shelter up for the sheep for when I brought them into the barn yard for the night.  They have one calf hut but I think the 2 goats hog it.  So I pulled a 4by 8 sheet of heavy heavy plastic off the control pen and hung it from the barn to the calf hut to give them someplace else to go besides under the ladders hung on the side of the barn.  Hope they are smart enough to use it tonight because it is not nice out there.  I got soaked and so did the dogs. So we all came in and they are all in crates and I took a hot shower and now I am off to bed.  I got my pillow out of the trailer finally so maybe I can sleep better.