ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[Squirrelgirl88]

Sounds like your son could be your creative director for your next book......

A momma cow and a daddy goat that adopt some orphan piglets...........

I think we have a winner.

 

[elevan]

Sounds like your son could be your creative director for your next book......

A momma cow and a daddy goat that adopt some orphan piglets...........

I think we have a winner.

Thanks

My boys and my nephews are always a source of inspiration to me. My nephews are Z1 and Z2 (their mom had a thing for Z names). Z2 has a CRAZY imagination, I think B is catching up to him though. Let's see...Z1 is 8, K is 7, Z2 is 6, B is 5 and there's also C who is 1. So, they should keep the stories flowing for a while

 

[redtailgal]

OK, wow.

Thats alot of boys under 10 years old!

I miss when my boys were that young and I heard "mom, come look at this bug!" "cool, mom, look what I made" and "mom, My head hurts, I need a hug" (ok, the last one was rare but this is my memory I can twist it a little)

I'm jealous! That many boys........oh the troubles we could get into!

LUCKY YOU!!!!

 

[elevan]

Just called animal control on Rufus, the dog across the road. Normally I give him a free pass since all I have to do is yell "Rufus go home!" and he does. He also usually doesn't bother anything. But today he was harassing Snickers and Lilly through the fence. And since the guineas have been spending some time in the front yard (not fully fenced in) and Rufus is a breed known for birding (lab) it's best that the neighbors (who have been told to keep him home anyway) get a formal warning from AC. Our AC officer knows me and knows that I won't hesitate to protect my critters if I have to (I'd rather not have to and so far have been lucky to catch or warn and it be enough).

I should have suspected that things would get out of hand when the lady directly across from me (Rufus' next door neighbor) ran her electric fence the entire property line on that side. She keeps ducks, turkeys and chickens and they are all allowed free range time in an unenclosed front yard.

DOGS! GAH! Stupid owners - double GAH!

For those of you who read this journal and don't already have your animals in place, let me give you a piece of advice. Talk to your neighbors before hand and let them know what you expect - that their dogs be contained on their own property and not be allowed to run loose. Let them know what the consequences are for not keeping their dogs contained - check your local laws to know your rights....here I may shoot if my stock is threatened as long as I shoot to kill. Each of my neighbors know my expectations and know what my rights are. I sometimes ask AC to give a formal warning or I'll simply catch the dog and have AC pick it up and make the owners retrieve it along with getting their formal warning. I made a mistake in giving Rufus a free pass and in not having AC give his owners a formal warning before now.

 

[redtailgal]

Elevan, you are more patient than some (including me)

I agree. Dogs need to be contained. Why have an animal if you will not be responsible for it?

 

[77Herford]

For your smart comment on my journal....

 

[Queen Mum]

RTG - HATE Coffee, LOVE Tea

Golly, as I'm typing this B is looking through my Valley Vet catalog. And is campaigning for his own cow and billy goat. His plan is to have the cow have babies and the billy goat will be the dad and they will have pigs as babies. The imagination of a 5 year old!

Oh, that makes me smile. He hasn't quite figured out barnyard politics yet has he?

 

[elevan]

Had to use my gun today

But not against a dog as you might have suspected from recent posts - against crows. 2 crows attacked one of my Polish hens and had her down pecking her to death! I yelled and they flew up allowing her the opportunity to get up and run to the barn (I thought she was dead, thank goodness she wasn't). Then I went for my gun and went after them. I'll now be shooting any crow that show an interest in my field I think :/ Frieda (the Polish) had her ear area and neck ripped open. I applied Blu Kote to it all and she's resting comfortably in the barn.

I've never heard of crow attacking chickens :/

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

hope your chickens o.k !!!

 

[elevan]

hope your chickens o.k !!!

I think she'll be fine. She's upset. Understandably. Resting in the barn and being watched over by my goat wether, Rocky who has decided he needs to guard her.

I just don't understand why they attacked her. I posted about it on BYC to see if I could get some feedback but everyone says that they love having crows around because they keep the hawks away. And no one has had a crow attack a chicken. I've never heard of it before. I just don't understand it...there are plenty of bugs, weeds and grass still out there...lots of worms even. :/