Not Again!?!

We’ll, Toby got sprayed by a skunk again. I have no idea what other people do to detere their dogs from chasing wildlife.. But this is getting expensive to have to keep treating..not a good start to the weekend at all. 😦

Three dead Guineas

Three dead Guineas

~Part 1 of 3~

One day Dh brought home three Guinea chicks.

He placed them on the front porch in a small crate with a lid.

The man that sold them to him said that they will need to stay in a small area for a few days, in order to get use to the area, before letting loose.
DH dropped them off on his lunch break, then went back to work.

I went out to look at them with the kids more closely…I didn’t know too much about them. Other then they are super noisy once they mature in age. They are good working birds though, DH said.

I told the kids that they are somewhat like baby chickens, a bit bigger when full grown, and they will take care of all the bad buggies in the yard. YAY!

After the mini lesson, my youngest asked if she could hold one.

I figured, why not?

I lifted the lid and picked one up.

I decided that the lid could remain off, because they were much too tiny to fly off. After she was done holding it, I thought to give it some exercise…

I felt bad seeing them all in a tiny crate.
So I gently placed it on the front porch. ❤

We watched it for a few minutes, as it just kinda stood in one place.
My son asked me why it wasn’t doing anything fun?
I didn’t know. Maybe it was just taking in the new surroundings….

The kids got bored quickly and headed back inside.

 

I decided that if it was just going to stand in one place, I might as well have a seat on the porch swing.

After about  twenty minutes, I placed it back in the crate, and took another out.

Just as soon as I placed it in the same place as the other one was, it darted off under the van like Speedy Gonzalez!!
I freaked out and called for the kids to come help me!

I guess my voice scared the little guy, or girl… And it darted across the dirt road and into the corn field.

The kids ran off in the corn field in hopes to catch it for me.

I really had faith that they would.

I mean, five kids, verses a tiny itty-bitty chick? Of course they would catch it!

 
That is when DH called to check in on them.

He wanted to make sure they were fine.

I told him, Sure, they are fine….If I could care for five kids, what the heck did he think?! That I couldn’t watch over a few tiny chicks??

 

There was really no need to go into detail over the phone.
Besides, they were FINE….
At least two out of three were.
With any luck, the kids would catch the little guy and bring him back to the crate in a few minutes.

I hung up the phone, and called out for the kids. I didn’t hear them.

They must have been deep into the corn field by now.

I walked over to the field.
As most girls, kinda scared..Recalling the Horror Movie, Children of the corn.
I didn’t really want to go through the field…. :o/

That is when I heard a noise!

I called for the kids again, and heard one of them yell, “Don’t let the cat get him!”

I forgot about the two vicious cats we have. They are AMAZING HUNTERS!

 

Still feeling hopeful, I went back over to the porch swing and had a seat. What was I going to do?

Then in a few minutes, I heard the kids coming.

They returned empty handed…*sigh*

They told me that they were all hot and sweaty, and wanted to go back inside.

 

I remained on the porch swing trying to figure out what I was going to tell DH…

 Just then, I noticed a pretty large size bird swooping down to the corn field… UP! UP! UP! into the air…Seriously?!

What was that thing it had in its feet??

You guessed it! It appeared to be my Guinea.

 

Just as it was making its way back in the sky, my son was looking out the front window yelling for his siblings to come look at the big bird that caught a big mouse!!

 

My oldest saw that it was NOT a mouse, and came outside and said…

“I guess the cats didn’t catch it?”

 

I just looked at her…….

 

 

The positive side was: WE STILL HAD TWO MORE!
Well, we did..until Day two came. :o(

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Why I love my, As Seen On TV Gopher.

 Why I love my Gopher….

 

NO! NO! Not that kind of Gopher, but they are cool too!

I’m talking about my AS SEEN ON TV Gopher.

I have not one, but TWO, Gophers. Also known as: EZ-grabbers, reach and grab,grip & grab,nifty-nabber, pick-up stick, and helping hand…(Who thinks of these names?)

 

BUT I LOVE THEM!

They really do make life a bit easier.

I’m not short, yet still fine myself reaching, Err, grabbing…for my grabber! :o)

 

 One is for outside use only. Mainly to remove trash from the yard, and reach for the hen eggs.

The other is for indoor use.
In fact, I just used it about an hour ago.
I was looking for a container for my daughters extra crayons and went into the, over crammed pantry.And Wayyyy at the top of the shelf, I noticed some old Christmas cookie tins. I thought to myself..Hmm, they are to far to reach.. and all the children are in bed, so I can’t get one of them to climb up on all these bins..Whatever will I do?

 

INSTANTLY!!

 

I envisioned my grabber! And within seconds…I had my cookie tin down.

 

I also use it to pick up kibble that my dog drops out of his food bowl, and toys that the kids leave laying about.

 

And just check out this lady here: 

She’s making use of her Grabber!

 

And how about those shoes left in the doorways??

Do you have one? How do you make good use of it, if so?

The Eensy Weensy Spider……

Mr. & Mrs. Wolf Spiders

 

The Eensy Weensy Spider…crawled up to greet me twice..

I freaked out and screamed…and reached for the bottle of spray..

Squirt… Squirt.. Squirt..Squirt.. They were pretty well drenched..

But they dried themselves off…and began to haunt me again..

Squirt… Squirt.. Squirt..Squirt.. drenched them down once more..

A hour later I checked..and they were no more…..

Puppy Cam

Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

These little pups just made the news again. They are the most popular animal webcam on the net right now. 27 million viewers!

It's a BOY!

Early this morning one of our goats gave birth! She is a first time mama.

Mr. Perfect!

Another male! Our goats always seem to have males. I’m not sure why. We have a friend whos goats always have females, so we just trade off. This new little addition has already been spoken for. We need to keep him for a while though..and then he will go to his new home.

Thankfully, I have an out-doorsy type daughter that woke me up at the crack of dawn, just begging me to let her take a towel out there and clean up. Nora, the mama, was several days past due, and my daughter has been keeping a very close eye on her for us.

My daughter was so exicted! I was excited for her too, as I said..”Well honey, I was really looking forward to getting up EXTRA early this morning while being so sick, BUT–if you really want to take a towel out there and clean up, then I guess I can resist the urge, and let ya?” :oe

And off she went!  DH called to ask if there were any baby goats yet, and I told him the good news.  He reminded me to take a towel out there and clean up all the blood, etc. and  I assured him that our delightful daughter is taking care of it, that I decided todays home-school lesson would be Goat birthing clean-up 101!  Nothing like hands on learning!

Here are the pictures of mama & baby. He really is one of the cutest I’ve ever seen.

1 hour old!

Already Eating!

Very tired mama after giving birth!

Curious Cody who was born 2 years ago.

Along came a Spider…..

It started off  as a silly prank. Dh and I were at our local grocery store and someone apparently thought it would be funny to place an uncanny FAKE black spider on the passengers side door handle of our van. It looked like a  female mouse spider, (for those who know their spiders..which I do! *G*) 

When I went to open the door I touched it and screamed like no tomorrow! Probably some kid my husband says..Some Nerve! Luckily I do have a sense of humor!

I reached down and picked it up, realizing  it was fake. When we got home I decided that it was my obligation to play the trick on one of my unsuspecting kids. Dh would have never fallen for it he says.. *G*

So I went with my oldest daughter…. She was getting ready to shower and I snuck in there and placed it next to her shampoo bottle. I made sure that just the legs were hanging over the edge.

I then went and told her sister, and we camped out  in front of the bathroom door while she was in there…. waiting for the scream. LOL

15 minutes went by and we heard nothing!  My daughter said, maybe she is too smart to fall for it mom. I said, But I fell for it honey…She said, well of course YOU would mom! *G*

As we were in the mist talking, SCREAMMMMM!!! Her sister ran in the bathroom and asked..What’s wrong?  Then my oldest daughter figured it out, and noticed it was fake!

She  threw it in discust! And her sister brought it back out to me while we decided who next to play the prank on. She wanted to place it on her brothers bedroom desk under his book, she said. I told her that he was too smart to fall for it, but she wanted to try anyways..So she went into his room, while he was in there no less, and casually placed it under his book, then asked him what page in the book he was on. He walked over, picked up the book and noticed the spider right off the back while throwing the book up in the air before screaming! I felt horrible, because as his sister was laughing so hard she started crying, I started crying because my son was really freaked out and came running to me saying that there was a HUGE scary spider on his desk. I immediately told him that it was fake, and walked over, picked it up and showed him. He then calmed down..

But–As I picked it up, I dropped it by accident next to my foot and just then my youngest daughter walked in his room to see what all the screaming was about and then she screamed, while yelling, “MOMMY, DON’T MOVE, THERE IS A SPIDER NEXT TO YOUR FOOT AND IT LOOKS REALLY MEAN!” 

Oh my! It was crazy!! But really funny at the same time!

**That was several days ago.**

Now today-While I was showering..I reached up to grab MY shampoo and saw some long black legs  hanging over.  I rolled my eyes and continued showering while thinking about who had the nerve to play this joke on me again..DH? One of the kids?  I continued on with my shower and when I went to reach for my conditioner the black spider legs were gone!!! I froze then stood up to my tippy toes to get a better look and saw a very scary REAL black furry spider with white dots on it crawling my way!!  YIKES!

I didn’t scream, but was really freaking out because it was much to big to blow down the drain, which was my first thought. I rinsed quickly, said the heck with conditioning my hair and jumped out of the shower before calling DH to the rescue!

My husband came in and asked what the problem was and I asked him if he or one of the kids planted a REAL spider in the shower? He said, No, Why? I pointed to the spider and demanded that he take it back outside or flush it, to get rid of it now!  He did, and I went on to question the kids to see if any of them caught it and placed it in there. Not that I can picture any of my girly-girl daughters actually doing this, but ya never know.

Turns out they all were offended that I would think such a thing of them, and said they would never have done anything like that…So I suppose the old saying is true:

What goes around comes around..Or in this case..crawls around! *shiver*

Moths and Mice take 2

Well, mice take two anyways. This is so discusting I do not even know where to began.

I found mouse droppings on my bed today!! I mean, How? Why?

And no, I am not one who only changes the bedding once a month. I change it every week, sometimes twice a week. I wash all the pillows, blankets, and I am really the cleanest person that I know.  There is no reason for mouse droppings to be on my bed! Yuck!

I am still trying to figure out how this happened. I may have to oil all the sides of the bed to keep them from climbing up. Either that, or  it is possible that one of my kids was playing with a toy or something that had some droppings on it. Still super gross!

 Regardless, I am feeling over whelmed by the thought of having to  be battling these mice, and believe me, it is a battle! In fact, I may even call it WAR!  I have traps everywhere, and don’t know what else to do. Someone told me  the other day to buy rat poison, which I suppose is worth a shot, but from what I have read, they eat the poison, then go and die, and if they die in one of the walls and that will just freak me out even more. They carry so many germs!

…I use to have a black widow spider problem and I thought that was bad, but nothing beats the torture of these mice running rampid though my sparkling clean house!

What else?

MOTHS! Who the heck has moth problems? I have no clue what happen, but all of the sudden, I am swatting at moths 24/7. They are everywhere, and they are so tiny. My daughter had a dress on the other day and she showed me all these tiny holes all over it and asked me if the washing machine did it. I told her that if it is cotton, it is the moths on their feeding rage.

With all the cotton and clothes in my house I suppose they can live happily for the next decade. I wonder what is the life span of a moth? I’ll have to check because we have had them for the past six weeks and unless they are breeding, which I haven’t seen any cocoons anywhere, then they are just  enjoying their time here, and in it for the long haul.

Yes, I have heard of moth balls. Just a few days ago in fact, as I have never heard of them before that. I here they smell really bad so I don’t know, and how exactly do they work anyways..something I need to find out.

So if anyone has any sure fire ways to get rid of mice & moths..I am open to hear it..

Monday

Well, our dogs were found! I had a early morning call from the local animal hospital. Evidently, someone found then and brought them to the animal hospital due to their tags having the animal hospitals name.:o)

Wouldn’t ya know though, we had a fox today! Not at all straggly, like the coyote last week. He, or she, looked real good. It was very scared though and as I ran for the camera, it ran back into the woods. I still called hubby, which of course told me to__________!!

That would read..”Get the .22 and take it out!!”  I am such a wimp! I mean, what if I miss? I really need a laser. That, and I would like a silencer, so it wouldn’t  disturb anyone..but that is not going to happen until they make it legal here! ~Of course youtube has some neat looking homemade ones….:o)~

Kitty snapshots

As I blogged about a couple weeks ago. We got 2 new kittens. They are brothers. The kids named them, Tom & Jerry! The names that I had picked out were Expresso & Smoky! Of course the kids won!

Jerry and Shadow

TOM Sleeping!