Peanut Caught a Squirel

This Cat is Amazing!!!!

He is the best 

"Mouser", and "Snake Catcher" around!

Now we can add 

"Squirrel Hunter" to the list as well.  

This particular squirrel had been chewing holes in the siding of a cabin and was living in the attic.  

There are lots of trees, and other ares to build a squirrel home, but for some reason this particular little guy decided the lodge was were 

he wanted to be.  

I was shocked to hear from the kids, that Peanut had killed a squirrel!

With  most boys they want to try new things.  

Eating squirrel had apparently been on our son's list!  So Smalls, took the opportunity to skin and grill the little delicacy. 

Lets just say I now have a 

"Mom, can I grill this?" pan,  

saved for any 

future culinary consumptions!

     

Did you know?

It was a popular delicacy served up until the last century when it dropped off Britain’s menu.

But grey squirrel pie is currently enjoying a revival due to attempts to save its less aggressive red cousins from extinction.

Thousands of grey squirrels have been sold to restaurants, butchers and are on sale at farmer’s markets after being legally trapped and shot in woodland and rural areas.  

                                                  To read more click here.

Happy Sheep Make for a Good Night's Sleep

With Great Guard Dogs in place,  

Everyone is sleeping better.

Grain Boxes make wonderful beds for

 little lamb heads........

Did You Know?

A healthy lamb will sleep 8-12 hours a day.

An adult sheep will sleep just under 4 hours a day.

Ever Eaten Rattlesnake Before?

Welcome to the Oklahoma 

Velvet Tailed Rattlesnake.

Velvet Tailed Rattlesnakes do not tend to grow much bigger than about 4 1/2 - 5 feet long.

Called Velvet Tailed due to the black tint along the lower end of the body.  

As with most situations in our home, just about everything becomes an experience.

Rattlesnakes are no different.  

Smalls was home for a couple months in the summer and took every opportunity to enjoy the wonders of the ranch.

After gutting and skinning the snake Smalls decided that he needed to grill the meat.  

When asked what he thought it tasted like....

"Chicken!"

This one was just over 4 feet long.  And it was tanned right at 4 Feet!!!!  

Coyotes Killing Sheep

Problem after Problem 

Dad's Sheep in the Pasture began disappearing at an alarming rate!

We first saw the puncture wounds that I shared in a previous post.  

But then we found carcass that had been stripped clean.  

Often finding the entire skin of the sheep 

as if it had been skinned right off.  

Dad brought in different dogs, thinking that either the dogs were killing the sheep or that they were just not old enough to protect the sheep.  Either way- that set of dogs did not work 

and a change had to happen.  

It took a while to get the guard dog situation worked out and there was a great loss of sheep during the transition time.  

Sometimes there would  be no skin.  Only the bones.  

And for months the guard dogs have been bringing bones up to the gate.  

Daily walks of the perimeter fence were required to find the holes the coyotes had dug.  Once the holes were found, they had to be filled and the fence secured.  

Dad did a lot of teaching, needless to say,   

Master Mess Maker  (M<3) has become quite good at mending fence.  

Snapping turtle's Take Over

After huge rainstorms we will usually see an increase in frogs. 

 However we had about 6.5 inches of rain in under 2 days and there were snapping turtles EVERYWHERE!!!

The roadways were literally covered with snapping turtles!   

Coming home from church on Sunday, 

Smalls yells from the back of the car......

"Pull over, Dad!!!! 

I have to get a picture!!! That turtle is huge!!!"

Smalls was so excited you would have thought it was Christmas!!!

Did You Know?

* THE COMMON SNAPPING TURTLE IS 

NEW YORK'S OFFICIAL STATE REPTILE.

Can Sheep get Mange?

This is Peter.  

He is about 2 weeks old. 

 He started loosing patches of wool/hair. 

 It was only in a small spot 

the first day, but by day 3 

his whole little body 

was covered in patchy skin.  


This being our first experience with mites, it took us a little while to figure out what was happening and how to help him.  

Handling him only with gloves, we applied a thick coating of Lotrimin cream, for athletes foot, about three times a day.

Suprisingly within a week he was healed and the mites were gone.  We closely watched the other sheep and only saw a little spot on the udder of one other ewe, which we treated as well. 

Peter was so sad looking for a couple weeks until his wool grew back.  But there were no lasting scars or loss of wool.  

"Chicken TV"

Chicken Tractor or a Mobile Chicken Coop

Ever heard of "Chicken TV"?  

Chickens can be mesmerizing!  

We love to sit in the evening and watch them. 

 I have no doubt my stress lessens and my blood pressure lowers, when I take a little time to look after the little family of chickens.   

   A Chicken Tractor is a portable chicken coop.  This allows chicks to free-range in a completely protected manner.  

We have some little Bantams that we want to make sure are safe. 

Our little coop makes this possible.   

Bantams are mini versions of regular breeds of chickens.  

Our Chicken Tractor is in the garden.  

We move it every few days.  This provides a great benefit for the garden as well as the chicks.  

First,  the chickens eat the grass and bugs.  This helps keep insect destruction down in the plants and allows 

for very natural food for the chicks.  

Second, the chicken poop, over time will help to fertilize the ground for the next growing season.  

What's hurting the sheep?

Grandpa had some major difficulties with his sheep this past fall.

As the grass begins to dry out and foraging becomes a little more time consuming for the sheep, it is also a time when there are a lot of predators out trying to find their midnight meal. 

Sheep were coming up missing.  Sheep were returning in the evening and early morning with very deep puncture wounds.  

 Some of the wounds became fatal.

Holes in the fence were being constantly mended.  

As much as we were learning and doing our best to correct the problem we were having a very difficult time getting the upper hand.

Grandpa brought different dogs in to attack the issue, however a couple of the dogs only aided in adding to the problem by eating some of the babies and chasing a few of the ewe's to death.  

This life is not easy.  

We fight the natural instinct of the wild beasts.  

Try as we might to keep them alive. 

Blisters on our hands.

Manure on our boots.

Our bodies ache at the end of the day.

- Laura Carnagie   

Chickens Grew Up

Chickens

Said the first little chicken,  With a strange little squirm,

"I wish I could find A fat little worm.

Said the next little chicken,  With an odd little shrug,

"I wish I could find   A fat little bug."

Said a third little chicken,  With a small sigh of grief,

"I wish I could find   A green little leaf!"

Said the fourth little chicken,  With a faint little moan,

"I wish I could find A wee gravel stone."

"Now, see here!" said the mother, From the green garden patch,

"If you want any breakfast, Just come here and scratch!"

Black Hen and a couple Guinieas. 

It does not take long for Chickens to grow up.  

However it takes ours about 10 months before they will lay their first egg. 

A Little Flock of Sheep

After the  - oh so sad day -  of loosing Peter to the coyote, it is nice to have all sheep and dog settled in for a little afternoon rest.
Everyone is getting along nicely and Minnie is beginning to feel like she
belongs in her new home.

Ba-Ba and Lumie Just checking things out...

Ba-Ba and Lumie in their little night pen.

Ba-Ba, Lumie, Lily and new Minnie chillin' in the afternoon.

Ba-Ba Loves to be in the Middle of things

We are almost finished with the house. 

 Baa-Baa has been involved every step of the way.... 

She is such a curious, friendly little girl!  

Sometimes too friendly.

" Oh, excuse me.  Were you taking a picture 

of the house without me?"

by William Blake

Meet Minnie

Minnie - The Anatolian

Bailey (top) and Minnie

An Anatolian Dog is large, rugged and powerful.  Anatolians are a superior working dog.  They guard  livestock including, but not limited to: sheep, chickens, cattle etc.  

In the fall we began having a lot of Grandpa's sheep come in to their pen at night with severe injuries.  Many of the injuries were so grave that despite medical care they were dying 

and being eaten by coyotes.  

We were concerned and  Master Mess Maker had been keeping a close eye on her own little sheep.  Unfortunately, little Peter was carried off by a coyote and "not returned".  

Master Mess Maker was devastated!  

Grandma sent Minnie over to the 

ranch to help protect MMM's sheep.  

Minnie is only a young puppy but comes from amazing stock.  It will take work, a lot of patience (and sadly a few chickens) to get Minnie to learn her job. 

Our goal is that Minnie will be as good a guard dog as her parents.

Master Mess Maker, Bailey and Minnie

"Lumiere" The Little Lamb

Poor Little Lumiere

Lumiere is Master Mess Maker's  newest little addition.

He came to us only a few days after Baa-Baa.

Little Lumiere was chewed on by some guard puppies who only wanted to play.  The puppies are too young to know that what they did was wrong. 

 Little Lumie got his name because of the candlestick character in Beauty and the Beast who loves Babette.  

Bailey checking on Lumiere

Lumie was in such sad shape, we were not sure he would live through the night.  He did not want to eat and was only a day old.  He shook all the time and was not interested in any sort of human or animal interaction.  

We cleaned his wounds with vetericyn spray.  Then we used a topical protectant called EMT.

We cleaned and treated four times a day. 

 Surprisingly Lumie healed completely.

However his ears and tail always looked a little charred.....   Hence his name was truly appropriate.

Lumiere at 1 year old!

Two more little lambs

Meet Lily and Peter

Twins whose mamma could not feed them.  

Our Master Mess Maker, now has four lambs to care for.  

Chickens, Horses, Grandpa's Sheep and Dogs make for a busy day of chores....

We honestly would not have it any other way!

Lily and Peter are about 3 months old in this picture.

Baby Lamb

Baby Lamb Needs A Bottle

The first 24  hours or so after birth are a 

crucial  time for the ewe and her lambs.

 During this time, bonding occurs and the ewe as well as her lambs learn to identify each other.  They can tell a difference in smell and the sounds each other makes.  

However sometimes and for several possible reasons, A mamma ewe will reject her baby 

and that leaves you with a choice.  

You can either step in and intervene, or not.  

By intervening, 

you run the risk of permanent 

separation of baby and mamma.  

This little ones mamma had a set of twins and chose to care for the strongest one. 

 Leaving the other little girl to fend for herself.  

There was no choice but to 

step in and save the baby this time.  

"Master Mess Maker" (MMM)  had no idea what she was getting into when she said yes to this little bottle lamb.  She soon found out that care consisted of keeping the baby well fed, warm and safe from predators....

At night the baby was kept in a kennel up at the house under several insulating blankets.  There was plenty of clean straw to bed down in and we fed the baby every few hours around the clock. 

Attachment happened, our hearts grew and it was time to give her a name.  

Master Mess Maker (MMM) loves movies.  Beauty and the Beast happens to be one of the favorites.  Since the lamb constantly said "Baa- Baa"  and Babette is the feather duster on the little movie, the name Baa-Baa was a natural fit.  

Over the first few days, we could tell Baa-Baa wanted space to roam.  MMM made a little pen for Baa-Baa. Known as a JUG.  A jug is where you would place the mamma and baby for the first few days,  so they could bond with each other.