Owl in a Pot!

 

We did save him, and are taking him to the conservancy, poor tired thing.

OOps, there's 2!

 

Rooster in the Feed Bucket!

 

Never Underestimate the Tendency to Bolt

I thought that quote was about me, I'd glanced at a book in Costco and inside it saw that quote, and bought the book. So this morning, I'm looking at it closer, and beneath the abovementioned chapter title, was the first sentence, attributing the quote to Pema Shodron, a Buddist Monk/teacher (as I understand it), and darned, if I hadn't met her one time in California years ago, courtesy of my friend Smartypants, quite by accident, when I got invited to lunch and swimming the next day at a farm she where she spends time in the summer! Flash forward 5 miutes, after I'd called my friend Chrisanne and told her of the strange coincidence.

I went outside, the birds were making a ruckus, and the one most distraught was a female pheasant, newly widowed. We'd thought it a bright idea to throw another male in there, evidently too soon, and she was freaked. I opened the door to change her water and talk to her, and she did what. Bolted. Never happened before, and after standing out in the open, sort of dazed, when I went after her, she took off flying, maybe 25 feet in the air, to a tree wayyyyyy in the back. I calmly trekked to the back, keeping my eyes on the general area, soon seeing glimpses of her on the ground, then just weeds moving and I caught her by the back fence, after plowing thru all kinds of burrs and brambles, but I got her. She could have gone thru the holes in the back fence, but thank gosh she gave it up when she did. She's brown in a brown world back there, we'd never of found her. I returned her to the cage, put the unwanted male in his old palace, and am leaving her to mourn in her own way. alone til she gets bored.

So the bolting thing wasn't about me. For now.

A load of new Baybeeeez.

She had so many I had to put them in a giant washtub. I put a light
on them because it was cold there in the guesthouse, (she'd snuck
in a broken door, and put em in a tin bucket) and now they're all
around the light, not under her, but silkies make ferocious moms,
and they'll be ok. Nobody will bother them in there for now, that is
until they decide to climb out, causing me to put them outside.
I think they'll go in a big cage for now, no use tempting the possums
and spotted skunks that cause most carnage around here.

Peahen on the Porch

Mr. Peacock lost his wife of many years, how do you tell a grown peahen that just eating the sunflower seeds out of the food is not good for her? Well, we got babies, hoping one would be a female that could eventually be his wife. We raised them initially in the bathroom of the guesthouse, and what a mess. I brought them out when they could take some cooler air, to the back porch, giving them the attention they deserved, but the day came when I had to let them run free. They were now a match for curious cats, and bigger than the chickens. I did lose the weaker of the two I had, one day I came up to the back door, finding it wide open (damn dogs do the knob) and both peahens on the kitchen counter. My luck and theirs, I had made the perfect chocolate sauce for ice cream, it was on the counter, now all over the counter, and I do think that chocolate and bird do not mix. One got sick and shortly passed, the other one was so devoted to her friend that I had one heck of a time separating the two, I pulled a trash can over to the cage, put the deceased bird on the top of the can, and the other would sit watch next to it. When she got down to eat, I'd put a piece of newspaper on the bird, so she could still see it, and I'd wait. I put more paper on as she got up and down, and eventually I had it covered up and wrapped, and she never knew when I substituted a newpaper wrapped soda bottle. Bink handled the burial, and then in a few days, the paper blew off the bottle and Priscilla, as my friend Chrisanne has named her, didn't notice that I put the bottle and the paper in the recycle bin and life resumed. Thank gosh for short memory spans.

She now lives on top of the dove cage by the back door, she finally followed me, one time, to the big aviary in back where future-husband lives, I don't know whether to let him out or just put her in there eventually after more meetups, but I think she'll be horrified to be in a cage, and he'd be happy to run around outside the aviary, but omg. TWO peacocks on the porch? It'll be up to my ankles trying to get in the back door! Although there is a wood panel on the top of the doves, they've been annointed by just being in the right place at the right time, poor kids. I do put basins of water in there for them to take baths, which they use efficiently, but still. Yuk. Peacocks are BIG birds!

Oh Good Lord, What Chaos Ensues When I Don't Post.

It's been since May, and farm life goes on.
Grisly and stunning at the same time.


We lost Macho, the 33 year old horse, We had the vet come and give him what I call the "Blue Juice" and he was surrounded by the other animals, the goats parked themselvesat an appropriate distance, Precious the mini horse talked to him all the way thru it, and Chalupy the burro stood by him til the end. What a great Paso Fino he was, all casual all the time.



We acquired 2 baby peahens, of which I think one is not. One has aquired color, the other is plain. oops. We wanted two for the male we have. I'll have to go to the auction and correct this on my own. I decided to let them out of their cage, they are about 1/3-1/2 grown, and it seemed cruel to not let them experience the world of bugs they crave, so the first night,we herded them back to where their cage was and put them back up on top of it, they are spooky and don't seem to own a brain between themselves...because the second night, they decided to sleep in the bushes. I figured a cold wet night was in order, so I turned on the sprinklers, and at about 3 am, they were wishing they were back up on the cage, as they did show up the following night. And tonight. I now have to figure out what to do with them when they're huge.

The partridges are finally back in their rebuilt aviary, I couldn't find them today, had a heart attack for a minute trying to find them in there, it's not that big! I crawled around on my hands and knees looking thru the underbrush, and there they were, King had built a nest for his wife, and he was in it, trying it out, and she was sitting quietly outside the nest, probably
hissing "hurry up, it's coming out!" I think they share parental responsibilities with eggs, but I've never had the opportunity to have any mate yet, well, successfully. Wish us luck.



Then, a couple of weeks ago, Mona the poodle lost her battle with a bum mitral valve. At age 11, he had a heart attack, and died. She ran around, played, was just normal as pie, with a heart that went "squoosh squoosh" rather than a normal heartbeat. We knew this was coming, but as she was happy and running around, we didn't know it would be this soon. I"ve spent this week making a Mona Zone near the front gate where she used to wait for me patiently. I planted her there, with a mango tree on top, and am putting flowers in all around, it seems fitting, as she deserves it. She was underappreciated in that you don't miss your shadow til it's gone, you realize you look where you're walking to step over her and she's not in her usual place, you miss that head in your hand whenever you walk anywhere, you notice that she's not out the door in front of you when you hear a wierd noise at night, she used to do that without me saying a word, because she already knew why we were going out.

I always compared her to my former dog, Pooka, who was a legend. Pooka had more personality, but Mona had more loyalty. Pooka was vindictive. Like running away the minute she saw me pull out a suitcase. Mona just heaved a sigh. How lucky I was to have 2 great dogs. I see so many dogs that never tune in.



Somebody gave us an excellent dog a few months back, and other than jumping on the cats for no reason outside, and bullying the passive peahens, she's wonderful. She's Nico's dog, Squinks the Peruvian Hairless is Bink's. Her name is Pebbles, which i keep trying to change to Pickles, but she really only hears "Pebbles" ... I don't know why she's being inflexible about this. She's a Schnauzer-Poodle like Pooka was, but more Schnauz than Poo.


It all goes by too fast. Thats why no post since May, just eeking out a living in times like this takes so much effort. Effort that is not necessarily directed towards the farm or even my artwork. I'd post what art I did do during this time, but it's not anything done of my own free will, it's stuff I had to do, but I do have stuff coming up I'm excited about doing, and I'm also trying really hard to free up more space here at the farm to do it. Cleaning House, so to speak, and its all good. Onwards and upwards.

They Stayed.

Am I the only one who gets spay and neuter certificates for Christmas? So finally they're all done, YudaKitty, Goofy, Crabby, Pootie and Tummydot. I went to give one away, and my sis says, OH, you can't give THAT one away, that one's the puppy's cat. HUH? She showed me, Pootie sits still, and her two puppies bounce off of it, I saw the only cat on the planet to stay still for that kind of abuse, and the most emotion it showed was to turn its head, while they chewed on its ears, well, that one can't go. SO, Yudakitty was the one who crawled up her pajama legs every morning, so thats my favorite too, so it can't go. Crab is good with the chickens and birds, its ok, Tummy Dot is my husband's other dog, it can't go. Goofy is just that, amusing, and so thats that. Summer is here, they're all out and about, almost invisible cats, as opposed to the winter pic above. Mama Arcadia is neutered, and we got Hello Kitty back from the first litter, he's neutered too, but looks just like his dad, Richard, who we lost July 5th. SO. We had Pike, Brotherinlaw John's cat, she's fine, but we lost Bolie the other day, ancient and decrepit, she just wandered off into the sunset, but not before saying goodbye, meeting me at the gate when I brought Bink back from the school bus. That was like 4:30, I went in to make dinner and she was gone. She was a nice cat.

Wads of Kittens

and I put my etsy stuff on here, its a good thing.

The kittens are asking if they can stay.

Good Lord, its been since August? It flew. So did our oak tree in the back yard, it flew right into my aviary for the partridges. My son took a movie of the collateral damage, and I did one of the cleanup, I doubt I'll be able to maintain this reporterly discipline when it comes to rebuilding the thing, as it'll doubtlessly be done in dribs and drabs, or whenever the partridges get militant about having their house back.

Bink's version:




Mine:

Dog Days of August.

Mona the standard poodle is almost 11. My son wanted a dog of his own, and I saw on Craigslist, somebody had a Peruvian Hairless dog. Now, my husband is Mexican, and he told me stories about an ancient breed called a Xolosquintle, but he just called it a Squinkly. There's yer name, dawg. Actually, dogette, as she's 10 weeks, has a little unbilical hernia and some fuzz on the ears which of course, in dogdom, disqualifies her as Squinkly champ of the planet, but just flawed enough to fit in. She slept all the way home on her back on my son's lap, cept for the romp at the rest area on I-75, and she did well, not straying too far, and coming back to us when we called, she loved running with the Bink, and hopefully, now that we've had her a few days, she'll start listening to the cluephone about the peepees and the poopies outside. What. What. What was I thinking? (i was thinking it'd be neat to have one)

We shall see. I'll be able to put my full attn on it when Bink starts school soon. Til then, she'll be livin the life of Riley, along with Bink. For now.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, April 2009

This is a day trip we took last weekend, with my childhood friend Keith, Bink and his friend Travis to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a few miles from here. Drought has concentrated all the wildlife! From the tiny feeder fish, to the protected wood stork, they are all are in the only areas left with water. It cost $10 each and $4 for the kids, I'd say it was well worth our while, we saw a hawk sail over our heads and take out a rat, in the grass, we didn't have a chance to film that. The amount of wildlife we saw that day was amazing. April is a great month for the parks here, but bad in that there has been little or no rain for months, and this is supposed to be the tropics! Pretty arid here in April, it didn't used to be,... its all changing constantly.