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.