(Note: Clicking on pictures will bring up a bigger version)
Friday, December 28, 2007
On Guard!
I went outside the other night to check on something. Checking me out was our super-duper watch dog. He wants to know everything that's going on! Most of the time, I take him with me when I'm wandering around at night. He's got a lot of muscles and teeth, so I figure he makes a pretty good body guard. He doesn't ask for much in the way of pay either, just some praise and a pat on the head.
The Farmer was burning some old feed sacks and boxes yesterday. Toby loves it when his fellow firebug makes a fire. He thinks it's great fun to chase and jump for flying bits of ashes.
Every once in a while Toby gets hold of a hot ash, shakes his head for a minute, then goes right back to jumping for more ashes.
I guess everyone has their own idea of what's fun!
This morning this handsome cardinal was sitting on a tree stump in our front yard. This is not a mirror image - look closely! It's two different pictures I put side by side. The cardinal just turned his head in opposite directions in the two pictures.
It was beautiful out there when I went to do chores this morning. The weather has warmed up again, and I wore a light jacket instead of my heavy winter coat. Even at that, I pulled off the jacket before I was half way finished with the chores. Though the sun was shining, it’s pretty dreary. What colored leaves we had have either turned brown, fallen to the ground, or both. Still, there’s a little color peeking through here and there, like this lovely little violet.Toby was in rare form this morning, galloping all over the place, carrying around a big piece of lumber he found somewhere. He’s got to have a piece of wood in his mouth, whether it’s so tiny you can barely see the end of it sticking out of his mouth, or so large it’s twice his size and he’s dragging it along behind him.
He’s the farm jester, always finding ways to make me laugh, no matter how grumpy I might be. He loves to play in the water. In the original game, he jumped up and bit the water, but later it evolved to him wanting sprayed while he ran around with his lumber stogie in his mouth.
The other animals generally ignore his lunacy, unless he gets too close. Then they’ll scoot out of his way while casting a wary eye in his direction.
Eventually, they’ll go back to munching their hay or grass or whatever they were doing.
Snowball, the Dancing Cockatoo, Ambassador for Bird Rescue
This little video was first seen on the web May 9th, on the Bird Lover's Only Rescue website, and has become such a big sensation! My favorite clip is that first one, which can be seen on the Bird Lover's Only Rescue site. I've had the link for weeks, and every time I watch it, this bird makes me laugh. However, there is a longer version they posted on YouTube that I could share:
Snowball has been on the David Letterman show, but that clip isn't nearly as entertaining. I feel sure Snowball was intimidated by the change in environment, and all the noise the band and audience were making.
Now Snowball is going to be featured on Animal Planet's show, "The Year in Animals." The first airing is this Saturday, December 22nd, 8pm Central.
Besides being highly entertaining, this little video of Snowball makes an important contribution in educating people. I imagine a lot of people didn't even know there was such a thing as bird rescue organizations. I imagine a lot don't realize how many birds NEED to be rescued.
They look pretty in the cage, and many people are in love with the idea of having a bird. Once they have one, the reality is sometimes quite different than they imagined. Birds are messy. They need a better diet than just seeds and water. They need good lighting. They need toys. They can be destructive, because they need to chew. It's a natural behavior, and they don't distinguish between their chew toys and your good furniture. Having a parrot is like having a perpetually teething puppy.
They need attention. The parrot family especially, because of their high intelligence, are quite needy. An African Grey, for instance, is reported to have the emotional level of a 2-year old, and the intelligence of a 5-year old. Would you leave a 5-year old in a crib or playpen at all times? Well, guess what, you shouldn't confine a parrot in a small space 24/7 either.
They need change! They need a stimulating environment. And yes, they need love. DON'T get a parrot unless you are willing to live with the mess and give one the time and attention it deserves. You won't be happy with the resulting chaos, and the bird won't be happy confined and ignored.
Snowball's "mom" wrote a very good piece about the difficulties of owning a parrot, and why so many end up in rescue. I think the main difficulty is people don't take the time to learn about the creature they want to own, what kind of behavior to expect, and what it needs to thrive. The first time they get bit, they think they have a BAD BIRD. More likely, the bird was frightened, or it was the result of a BAD OWNER, because they didn't understand how to interact with the bird.
My own parrot, an African Grey, is a rescue bird. Her previous owner bought her at some sort of bird show. She had NO idea what she'd gotten into. She just "wanted some company." Reading between the lines after talking to her, I suspect she got bit and was thereafter afraid of the bird. She scooted the bird out of the way with a flyswatter when she needed to put food in the bowls.
The parrot had a bare chest and no tail feathers. She told me the bird was moulting. I didn't contradict her, but I knew better. This one had just been moved to a new environment. African Greys are notorious for feather picking when stressed, and it often becomes a habit, much like biting fingernails is for some people.
Why buy an animal if you don't know how to take care of it, or at least are willing to learn how to do so? Owning an animal brings responsibility for that animal. Who else will care for the animal, and be sure it has what it needs to thrive? It doesn't matter if it's a bird, rabbit, ferret, horse, cow, pig, or whatever.
Bottom Line:If we buy any animal, taking it into our care, it's our responsibility to learn how to care for it properly, then DO IT. If everyone did that, we wouldn't need so many bird, dog, and all kinds of other rescue organizations. There are a lot of cute animals out there, but please be sure you're ready to take care of one properly before you give into that impulse to buy one.
The weather has remained rather frosty every morning. I noticed three little lambs ears peeking through a drift of fallen leaves, 3 erect little soldiers in a row. Our old goat gals must suffer some aches and pains with the cold, but they gamely move out in the morning, checking to see if I’ve thrown out any corn or put out any hay. One way or another, we’ll all survive this frigid-to-us weather.
For our part of the world, it was downright cold this morning. It was 27 degrees F (-3C), which doesn't sound so cold if you're in Maine or Canada perhaps, but it's all relative, and for us.... brrrrrrr....
We had another hard frost, and the sheep were sporting icy wool this morning.
It's easiest to see the frosty fleece on a dark colored sheep like Papaya.
I don't like HOT weather, but I'm not too keen on this really COLD stuff either. The wind is wicked sharp out there today.
The rocks and fallen leaves were covered with ice crystals.
Dare I say it? I wish this frigid weather would *leaf* us alone!
I just got off the phone from talking with our state vet. She’s a wonderful lady, and has been out here once a year for a long time now to check out our sheep flock and goat herd for Scrapie.
But not this year.
I was in the voluntary program, as I felt it made it easier to sell registered stock. However, I disliked all the paperwork. Worse, there wasn’t any way to correct any mistakes you might have made once the paperwork was in. And then there was the problem we had when someone gave The Farmer an OLD goat. She was too old to have kids any more, so NOT breeding stock. Didn’t matter, getting that goat set our years in the program back to Day 1.
Since we’ve downsized and are mostly a retirement home for a few old goats and sheep, there just isn’t much point to keeping up with something that creates a lot of work and no return for your trouble. So I told her I was opting out of the program. I won’t have any lambs or kids this year, and won’t be selling any more goats or sheep, so why keep it up?
Because of some health issues (fibromyalgia for one), I’ve recently been working on my diet. I’m trying to eat more “natural” foods, as close to ‘off the farm’ as possible. It’s made me check food labels even more carefully. Sometimes the ingredients are kind of what I figured, and other times what I read on labels comes as a complete surprise.
Case in point… chicken. I was looking at labels on packages of frozen chicken breasts, figuring it’d say chicken. Period.
WRONG!
I discovered the chicken is injected with broth. I looked at lesser known brands first, then I checked out Tyson. Didn’t matter. Both were injected with up to 15% broth/salt water. And getting fresh chicken instead of frozen doesn’t help. It’s injected with the broth solution also.
When I looked on the web to see if I could find out exactly what is in the broth, I never did get an exact list of ingredients, but I did find out a whole lot of other stuff.
It seems Tyson says their company injects broth in chicken because “customers like it.” It supposedly makes the chicken more tender.
But here’s the thing. Tyson sells chicken to Walmart. Walmart wanted packages of chicken to be even weights, like their 3-pound bags of frozen chicken breasts. Well, guess what? Chickens don’t all produce the exact same weight breasts, so either the chicken company has to put in extra chicken to ensure there is at least 3 pounds, and lose money because there’s some “free” chicken in there… or they inject a lesser amount of chicken with broth until it weighs an even 3 pounds.
Okay, if they want to inject the chicken with broth, and it’s labeled they have, that’s their choice. The problem is the USDA allows them to label this broth-injected chicken as “100% all natural chicken.” What???
Some chicken companies quit selling to Walmart when it insisted on even weight packages because they wished to keep their “natural” label and couldn’t afford to lose money by putting extra chicken in the package. Naturally, they’re upset that the USDA now allows the natural label to be put on broth-injected chicken.
These companies lose out because a) they lost their market with Walmart, and b) now they lose the uniqueness of their labeled chicken, because other companies can use the label even though their product is not chicken, just chicken.
The consumer loses out on this deal because a) they are paying the same price for the broth in the chicken as they pay for the chicken itself, b) there is an increased amount of sodium in the chicken which most if not all consumers positively do NOT need, and c) where do you find just chicken, plain chicken????
Night before last, I was sitting on the couch in the living room when I heard a lot of scrabbling noises out on the front porch. The light was still on since The Farmer had just got home, so when I peeked out I got a good look at what was out there.
Three Masked Marauders, otherwise known as raccoons, were busily munching up the cat food. I ran for my camera, then opened the door. They drew back for just a moment, but one was bold and headed right back to the cat's bowl.
Hey! Can't you see I'm trying to get some food?
One of the party was a bit shyer, and stayed as far back as he (she?) could, and still stay on the porch.
Geeshhhh... can't a body eat in peace around here?
The three of them made themselves at home, squabbling over the cat food. They didn't seem too concerned about me standing in the open door, or the flashes from the camera as I took pictures.
Hey, give me some!
Look at this, the food's all gone!
Hey Lady! Instead of messing with that camera, why don't you put some more food out here??
Our cat food seems to be a popular menu item in the area. One of the neighbor's dogs eats on it during the day, and I've seen opossums dining there at night. Now not one, not two, but THREE raccoons have added it to their nightly buffet.
At this rate, we're going to go broke buying cat food!
Out in our backyard-turned-pasture where the sheep and the goats roam, there are also some underground dwellers roaming about. Their tunneling leaves behind a raised row of earth. When our livestock guardian dog, Neffie, finds one that's occupied, she starts barking frenetically.
Then she starts digging. It's hard to see in the picture above, but she dug a hole in the middle of one of the tunnels, grabbed the occupant and carried it off.
When you got it carried far enough away to suit her, she dropped it. There it was, the digger itself, one ugly mole. She seems to be wondering, "What should I do with it now?" Generally, her answer is to carry her prize around for a while, drop it and watch it run, then catch it again. (Sometimes Neffie acts a lot like a cat.) I'm not sure she ever kills them.
I just came in from doing evening chores. What a difference a few days make!
Change #1: The weather. We had nice, moderate fall weather earlier, but today it’s COLD, necessitating a winter coat and warmer pants. Phooey. My chronic pain and fibromyalgia don’t like this cold weather.
Change #2: Give it up, the pastures are too brown. It’s time to start feeding hay. That means scattering flakes around so all the animals get a chance to eat their share.
Change #3: It’s getting harder to fill the water buckets. It’s too cold in the morning to use the hoses. They’re full of ice. However, a little solar heat, and by the middle of the afternoon the water is flowing through the hoses once again. That makes it easier to keep the heated water buckets topped off.
Having a lot fewer animals should make it cheaper to feed them this winter, but I’m not sure how much easier it’s going to be. I still have to go out every morning and evening, I still have to put out hay, I still have to carry a feed bucket in the evening, and I still have to worry about keeping water available.
And I’m sure going to miss lambs and kids come spring.
I grew up on a farm in WV, then spent a big part of my adult life moving around to several states. Now here I am, back on a farm again. Living in the country provides some unique experiences. Rural ramblings combines my love of writing and photography to tell tales about life on our little farm, and our adventures rambling around to other places. Make yourself comfortable, and sit a spell. I hope you enjoy your stay!
Most of the time, I take him with me when I'm wandering around at night. He's got a lot of muscles and teeth, so I figure he makes a pretty good body guard. He doesn't ask for much in the way of pay either, just some praise and a pat on the head.
