Armadillos Have Shrek Ears.

This baby was 6" long, Nico found it at work!

Our Impenetrable Fence

Our yard is totally fenced, and this is about the 5th one so
far. This one, tho, was huge. Did he know there was a lake
3 fences and a brushpile away? We turned the hose on for
him and he drank, then Dad and Bink took him to the lake,
in a chickn bucket.

An armadillo visited again last night, made so much noise
I KNEW he'd never hear the back door squeak, so I snuck
out and sat on a stone wall and waited for him. They don't
bite, right? He came within 3 feet of me, and stood up like
a bunny, decided something was just not right, and he
scooted off, not really in a hurry, but kind of nervous.
I could hear him across the yard scrapin' around for bugs.

There's more chicken babies, one so far has disappeared
and another almost disappeared yesterday. We had a
wind storm, it knocked over things in the yard, notably 2
sheets of plywood resting on the fence. What would be the
chance that at that very moment, a chicken baby would be
walking by? This ends good. Don't panic. Yes.
The plywood fell over on the grass, and the chicken baby
was under it, BUT. What saved the chickn baby was
the fact that there had been a rake against the plywood,
which landed tines up under the plywood, and guess who
was found up against the tines? Yes, a perfectly healthy
but frustrated baby chikn that had been sitting in one place
for at least 4 hrs. Her legs were a bit stiff, but she found
her mother in 2 seconds and was out eating immediately.
We were amazed.

King of the Hill

Dogs I Have Known

Top, there's my
sister's little poodle,
then a pic I painted
before we ever got
the dog called Cecil,
and the chromosomically
challenged Irish Setter.
I painted these for
notecards years ago,
and was amused when
I found a couple of them
in a box recently.

New Mural

Pool Bath, Men's Room, Mansions La Palma in Bay Colony, Pelican Bay, Naples FL. whoo. Long name. Took about a week, as I kept going back, the place is absolutely a beautiful place to be. The manager had seen another mural I had done, and he contacted me. Ralph Sanchez, thank you. I have another one to do for them, for the women's, a florida beach one, and I can do that at home. Oh, and that bottom right square is a mirror.


It's about 4 x 8' and so is the other. I forgot to paint the flag before I took the pic!

It's the 18th hole at the Bay Colony Golf Course. Hurricane Wilma took all the trees and shoved them to lean to the left. A lot of my trees at the house lean now too. I made the title of this post a link to the big version. I like the water and the retaining wall.

A Squeak in the Woods

Man, we thought Wheezy the goat was pregnant, but my sis called me to tell me that she'd had a miscarriage. I asked if she was sure, and yes, she was. She bury'd it, and had an appt. she had to go to, but I was on my way home, and she asked that I check on the goat when I got home. Of course, when I got home, I forgot, as there was someone in my driveway who wanted to talk to me about a job, and I sat on the back porch with him discussing it.

We were in the middle of that chat, when I heard that call, WAY OUT BACK....all the goats were lined up at the front of the fence, this had nothing to do with them, this was a sound I'd heard before, and at that moment talking to the guy, I must have gone white. Eyes wide, I stood up without explanation, and took off like a rocket for the back. He's yellin' "WHAT WHAT!" All I could do was hold up a finger, I was worried I'd jinx what it was that I heard. Hope against hope I'm fumbling with the gate chain, I loop it back around the gate, hope the goats don't escape and go to haul ass, but I hear nothing. I stop. I wait. I hear it again, and take 5 steps. I stop. I wait, I walk, I hear it again, quickstepping towards the sound, and I see the tree where we put my dad's ashes,(his name was Earl) I walk behind that tree, and there she is. Half covered with the sack she was born in, her one eye is plastered, dry, and one ear, Wheezy must have licked her for just a moment and then totally freaked out. The baby goatie is essentially dry under the sticky spoo that covered her rear half, and i scooped her up and it came off on me, i threw it as far as i could, and it slid off her eye and ear, and the baby was soooo happy to see me. She was rooting around, a great sign, she was healthy and I was so relieved. I thought seeing she was behind the Earl tree, the name was Earline. Tacky 'nuff?



I came walking up to the fence, as the guy who I ran off on was walking back to the fence. OMG! He yells, Who's is that!!?? I told him Wheezys! She had come by us to see the baby, but when I set the baby down, she took off, like , don't get that thing near me! It HURT!

Bill, the guy's name, totally flips out. He says, That goat is goanna starve! What do i get it? Where do i get it? I told him Colostrum, baby goat food and a baby bottle, and he was gone.
My husband came home, and after having gotten the miscarriage message on the phone, he was crazy happy. I called my sis, who was at a concert. I held the phone out, let it ring, and when she picked up, the baby goatie made a baby goatie wail that made my sister run out of the concert hall to the lobby. It was truly a very happy moment. There is nothin' like a baby goat. Sweet, immediately headstrong, warm, fuzzy, docile. CUTE!

We took her into the house after several rebuffs by the mom, and I'm thinkin, o GAWD i don't want a house goat, it has taken me forever to get a chicken we raised in the house to understand (partially) that she is not entitled, but thats all I need, all my mango leaves gone, all my flowers eaten, cause we raised a goat to be up by the house. I don't think so.

We decided on a plan of action, we had to tackle the wild mom goat. Got'er. I had to milk a goat for the first time in my life while Nico held her, and was underwhelmed by the quantity, but that colostrum within the first few hours is really essential for the baby. The baby, upon arriving at the house, was totally cleaned by Mona the Poodle, who assumed that it was now HERS and I am surprised that this fixed dog didn't lactate. She cornered the baby goat on her bed an slept with her. She's never done that, she won't even touch the black lab when she sleeps.

While this happened around 4 pm, the birthing part had happened maybe an hour earlier, and now it was getting to be 11 at night, and she'd not eaten yet. When my sis came home from the concert, she picked up the bottle i'd made (Bill was back from the store in a flash, with baby goat food, a huge tub of goat milk substitute, and a baby bottle from Kmart.) the baby ate like a pig. We were all hugely proud of ourselves, and decided that the mother goat might be receptive to somebody to empty her huge milk bag which must have hurt like hell... if we locked em up together. The baby naturally has a rooting instinct, and if they were together, the baby can smell where the milk is, if Wheezy would let her near her. We trapped her in the barn, and as there is no door, we boarded em up, with a little pan of water and food for the mom and straw down for a clean place to sleep. (You can't put a deep pan of water down near any new baby anything) Sure as hell, the baby nursed, Wheezy acquiesced from pain, and for a week we kept them together. Wheezy is still not sure what the heck happened to her.



She still looks at the baby like, WHY? She gets concerned if she can't see the baby, makes noises, but nothing like an experienced mom would... moms that are used to it continuously talk to their babies, and their licking stimulates the babies to nurse. Wheez still has never licked the baby, I think that the Poodle spit was too much of an insult to take. Next time.

Clik on the title of this post to see my Nico and Earline Movie, its a Quicktime 10M, so it loads slow, but I think worth it. ha.

The Flowers Want Equal Billing

There's only like 2 days a year here that I have to worry about the flowers freezing. This is a Phalaenopsis, and they're probably the most common besides those corsage ones, altho I'd like more of those.

I actually shot this with my phone, as the sun was setting, it was too nice to let it slip away.

#@!!*)))%!!! Raccoon(s)!!!!!

I tried and tried to hate you Raccoons. I tried.
I now need to go get more ducks, the ducks that lived
in the trees, who used the duck bucket daily,
my beloved ducks.

I bought the LiveTrap, I had my husband put your
favorite eggs in it. You were in the trap within minutes, you
p-i-g pig.

You snarled at me, snapped at me when I tried to give you
bread, then you decided I was ok, and took the marshmallow
that I put in your cage and use it for a pillow.

You made me laugh, and I hate you for that.

Please enjoy your new life over down by the dump, as
there are many new delights to dig into there, just don't
come back, as we put the trap back out, and all your
brothers and sisters are coming to visit you soon, as soon
as they find the trap with the eggs.

I hate that you're so damn cute.

Yours as long as it takes, Audrey

Marshmallow Pillow:





!

The Duck Bucket

I had a friend give me a pondliner. I have a friend with a bulldozer, what is wrong with me??? But before that....

I found one day that 11 ducklings were in the yard. Then 6 then 5 then 3, then 2, so on that day, I decided to do something, something that would make them not want to leave the yard and meet their maker off-premises. I decided to buy a bucket, so that they could swim. They weren't tall enough to see that the horse trough had water in it, so I buried a bucket. It's a rubber bucket, maybe 25 gallons or so, but big enough that they both could get in. Now that they're grown, they can't do but one at a time, but they love it. I keep it refreshed, and Bink pulls the leaves out, and we keep it high enough so that the resident toad can swing a leg over to get out.... we found that if its cold, and the toad goes in, he is there til we fish him out.

Ducks are GREAT. If we'd known this, we'd of had them before. These just wandered in and have stayed, corn is a great bribe. They do slappy feet all over the horse pen, eating and keeping the flies down, they snap so fast! They are a bit too large for our diminuitive hawks, and they sleep either up in the oaks (where they spent the hurricane, hunkered) or they fly to meet friends at a lake behind our property. They aren't loud, they don't get toooo friendly and poop on the porch, like the chikns, and they wag their tails when they're happy to see us. One has laid eggs in a hollow cypress in the yard, but thats another story.

The pond liner will have to wait awhile, right now this is just enough.

Recycle this!

I heard cans falling and shuffling under the kitchen window, and I went outside and stood very very still. Sure enough, the recycle bin was teeming with life. I waited, and a head popped out. I knew him, he was a spotted skunk. They call them civet cats here, but they are skunks. Mona the poodle had recently been doused several times by him, and the good thing about these tiny boogers is that the smell doesnt last as long as a regular skunk. Maybe 2-3 hrs. Its hell when it happens at 11 pm when you're just about to go to bed, but ok if its during the early evening hours. These things are totally nocturnal.

I left after observing it trying to make a nest or something in there. THE NEXT NIGHT (oh, I should have known) while we were outside at night doing things in the workshop, the thing went in the cat door. Bink, my 8 yr old, was already in bed, he has a sort of bunk bed, he sleeps in the top... thank goodness..............when we came in to go to bed, Mona the poodle was at point in his room, fascinated with something under his huge toy chest. Nico looked under the toy chest with a flashlight and indeed confirmed that the skunk was there. Nico had a prior relationship with the skunk, as it part-times in his woodshop, and they have had regular conversations for a few months. The skunk in essence told him to, no, no essence of skunk. The skunk yawned, rolled over and indicated that he was there for the long haul. They have a working friendship, there would be no fumes that night. He tried to cajole it out of there, it was up against the wall behind it, we didnt want to move the chest, as it would probably spook or smoosh him. We had a mess to figure out. So, Nico went to bed. He had thrown cat food at it, and it ate the cat food and curled up and went back to sleep, so there was nothing else he figured he could do. NOOoooOoo. Not me. I continued thru the night to stand vigil, it got really boring. So, I made a line of cat food out the back door, took my dogs and locked them in the studio with me, and waited. I checked once an hour or so, and at 4 am, he decided to leave. I now keep the back door shut. Thank god that Bink didn't wake up, there would have been a child too wired to sleep, and that night was long enough!

Batten Down the Hatchlings!!!

No, theres no babies at this point, but one is sitting on nest, right outside my kitchen window in one of the aforementioned buckets. 15 more days. But there's a hurricane swingin round, and pretty soon we'll have to move her bucket and all, to a safer place... hmmmm ... probably in my art studio.

One hurricane we put all the animals except the horses in my studio and boarded it up. Goats, and turkeys on sawhorses facing each other over a tarp. Plenty of food and water for the 24 hours they were in there. NEVER AGAIN. We had goatie footprints 8 foot up on the walls inside, and the turkeys that sat facing each other on the sawhorses, they had no idea that they could get down, all they saw was each other. When I went to take the big tom down, his legs had fallen asleep. He was up and around in about 10 minutes, but I felt a little guilty that they were that um, dumb. Then there was the issue of all those little "smart pills" that the goaties left. They dry and roll under things, and we found them for years. Under file cabinets and anything low.

You know what smart pills are. My dad used to point to frozen rabbit poop in the winter, and tell me if I ate those, i'd get smarter next time. I never did take him up on it.

Why I haven't written.

I didn't want to bum anyone out. BUT this is a farm. Things happen. Life swings in and swings out. Hawks swoop in and take food. Any food. Chickns are their favorites. Also, things get old. Horses. We had to put one of the horses to sleep a few weeks ago. I do know why people live in condominiums. I really do. Its sterile, and life and death ugliness never is allowed past the security gate. I know many people who are more sensitive to these type of events than I am, and many who are not sensitive atall. I like them both the same, its what you were raised with, and what you just plain got used to. I suppose that what i'm doing is living life for today,and documenting that day. We can't expect things to be the same forever, and we really need to talk ourselves out of that expectation. We've got our own hawks, and they chase us, but we get really good at hiding, and come out anyway, to face it. So thats what I'm doing, and altho I would like to portray everything as sunny and bright and all what I call "duckies bunnies and chickies," well, its not. But still, we plod on.

We had an elm tree, rare around here, and it went thru the hurricane well. Then, it lost its leaves, and we saw that it was all twisted up, all those long Y shaped arms were weakened. Then, when the leaves grew back, the weight of the new leaves dragged the arms of the tree down lower, and from the looks of it, the next hurricane was going to take the branches right off, and throw em. Cutting it back is the only thing we could do, andmy husband is a monkey. Has the tree climbing belts and spikes, and went right up, took a long string which he had tied to a chainsaw on the ground, and when he walked out on the now-horizontal limbs, pulled the chainsaw up, started it and went to work. It gives me a heart attack to see him on the end of branches, but he's the one in the family with all the grace.