I am planning a dastardly, motherly, not-too subtle attack on my daughter's plans to go to college anywhere other than here by starting early, and showing her all the neat things on campus (excluding the establishments that feature malt beverages, of course) so we lept at the opportunity to visit the vet school and do cool animal things...
Here the kids are attending a seminar on Communicating With Your Dog. (One might surmise by the fact that the dog is facing away from the kids that they failed this course, but the Schnauzer was so damn fast he followed the chosen command and got back to his mistress for the reward snack faster than I could snap the camera...)This was followed by Rescue Dogs, and Canine Agility, and Travelling with Your Dog, and more stuff I've forgotten...
All in all, a very nice start to my plan. She had a ball.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, every animal that had a cage escaped it, every animal that has a fence found a way around it, and every animal that has any propensity whatsoever to bite, did so to some tender part of my husband. Needless to say, he was not thrilled with farm life when we returned.
Chief chomper:
The bantam rooster, Speedy. (A Mille Fleur/Splash Cochin cross, for anyone who's interested...)
He is 1 and 1/2 pounds, (thinks he's 40 pounds), and latches on to the leg of anyone else but me like a crazed terrier. I'm not sure what he's defending, but he sure acts like its something good.
For me, he lives in with the Pygoras, and comes on walks with us twice a day. Ambling along as nice as you please, grazing just like they do. Chirping the whole time. And the goats seem to accept him as part of the herd. He was an incubating "experiment", when (without much thought as to the outcome), we let our daughter incubate a fertilized egg.
We are trying to be a little more thoughtful this time...
Our Red Cochin hen, Sandy, went broody on us and was actually stealing eggs to sit on. So we got a hold of two Ameracauna eggs (we have an Ameracauna rooster) and gave her those. Along with two Buff Brahma Bantam eggs, which we are only guessing are fertile...
I had to give her a maternity ward of sorts, away from other pestering hens, and here she sits on Day 17. Or 18, we're a little unsure...
Now the "ward" is complete with private room, a view, fresh food and water via daily room service, and must be pretty good digs in the chicken world, 'cause when I went out this morning, two other hens are holed up in the laying boxes, refusing to move, and squawking something about, "Just what does a hen have to do to get some service in here?"
Next post: We have plants!
4 comments:
Your poor husband! Sounds like the animals all conspired together against him -- kinda like automobiles to do women when the men aren't around (and then the men don't believe the women when they complain of car gremlins....).
Hey Melanie, I just responded to your question in the comments of my blog!
You've been tagged (and no, not in that way; I can't do that over the internet). Play if you want; fuggetaboutit if you don't. Come over to my site for the rules.
Your poor husband, Melanie! Our bantam Ameraucana, Slick, has been attacking Ralph's leg anytime he's out at the barn. They've had a few "discussions" about Slick's behavior - I hope he's gotten the message. It's a guy thing, isn't it?
What great photos of Upstate! My DH has never been to Upstate and someday I do hope we get to see it again. I miss the lakes and the trees. (When I was a kid I thought the Erie Canal was the neatest thing)
How's Max doing?
Post a Comment