December's List for January and a PRINT!

This Print's for sale! It's 6.5 x 9.5, give or take, and it's
a signed, limited edition of 250, of Bueller, the baby steer.
Everybody calls it Bueller, but I call it Cow. It looks like
a cow to me. I am totally uneducated as to the correct terminology,
so I get away with a lot. It's $45. plus $5. ship, cool beans!

Anyone who buys one that is a friend gets
the Schietztreun Discount. Whatever that is.

AND thank you Jenny, (she bought the original)!
----

Ok, this blog has been a poquito sporadic, sometimes things go on that just apall me, sometimes I get busy, and most times, I'm just a TAD scattered, but there are still so many stories going on around me here. I'd like to make a list of stuff that I'd like to talk about and/or draw, for 2009.

Lefty the Parakeet
The Partrige Family in my backyard
Building Aviaries!
Lorraine and her crusty ol husband the Peacock
The Red Golden Pheasants, Max and Joanne
Richard the Volunteer Cat
How to sure-fire give away a Kitten


Wish me luck!

Cow down, cow up.

He's not a cow. He's a steer. I found that out. We had him fixed immediately, rambunctious devil that he is. My sis took this pic with her phone, when he's hungr he's insistent.

Lots going on, someone gave me ANOTHER pot bellied pig, and a friend took him to another friend who had a girl or two for him to try on. ha. Pics of Mr.Smiley when he gets back from Club Med.

Aviaries to be built! We have a huge pool cage of aluminum that someone gave us, and that augmented with PT that we have, and even some of the cypress that fell in hurricane Wilma will ensure a sturdy structure. There has to be the main structure and an anteroom, called a "mancatcher"...so that if one gets out when you open the door, it'll still be inside.

I've already built a large holding pen for husband's Red Golden Pheasants, they're happy altho a tad bored, seems. I have a pair of Coturnix quail in there with them as companions, but they seem invisible to each other. That beats the opposite, some breeds don't get along. I think finches and small flighty birds would be fine with the Partridges, I don't want anyone bigger and mean. I don't even think I'd put the quail in with them, the species is too close, and they'd compete for floor space. I think the partridges perch up at night, so there will be small trees and bushes planted for that. More Later.

Cow got very sick last week, scours. I think we switched him too fast on bad advice and replacement milk....a night spent up with him down was awful. I gave him any fluids i could, electrolytes and about 5 am, his nose was wet again. I went to bed and he was up and running around the next day. He had a bad 24 hrs or so. I even had to shoot him up with antibiotics, he didn't care for that, but was too weak to protest. I had to drag him out of the poo by his front feet to the clean stray, and I was glad he was only a month old. There will be no draggin him anywhere in a month.

Mothers Day was great. The honeydo list was out and I was command central. Oh it was great.

Redefining the Word Cowboy

I can't believe its been so long since I've posted. I am remiss.

We've done a lot here in this time, aviaries, selling and buying,
profits, losses. Christmas came and went along with new years,
the only constant here is change.

Well, isn't that true anyway?

As complex as the quandry is, it sure makes for fun drawing and even
more fun movies. Especially with our new calf, I hesitate to name him,
as DO NOT GET ATTATCHED is not a good name.

He's 2 weeks old today!

I don't know if the procedure that our Dairy Industry uses to get rid
of their male cows born to their milk cows is right or what. We went
to a local auction to sell some excess roosters. There in a cage to
be sold, we saw baby baby cows. HUH? Where's their moms? Still at the
dairy making MILK! I was horrified, and these babies were auctioned off
for next to nothing. BUT. Better the babies are sold rapidly, as
they were, and they were very healthy. (altho hungry) Better that they
are sold than the chance of being immediate dog food. Better that I
give this little dorky thing the chance for a little bit of life, some
joy, for as long as he has, than none at all, thats my rationalization
for all of this.

I am over my head here, as I have no IDEA whether
I can afford to keep him, its ok now, its just milk, but in the future
when he's 800 lbs, I don't know. I will have to see if he's still as
gentle (I doubt he will be) I will have to see if he eats a bale a day
as bales of hay here are costly, we have no good grass for cows, they
need supplement. Plus grain. More Ethanol, pls, mr BUSH DAMMIT. NOT!
The feed prices have gone up like 20% in the last month!


All in all, the future is all unknowns. The art biz is ok, we're scrappin
just like everybody else, but I don't feel particularly bleak. For now
we're fine, alls well at schietztreun acres.