I got to spend a little time with some of my favorite wild and winged animals last weekend. We caught this tiny small footed bat (Myotis leibii) in our nets. He's one of the tiniest kinds of bats we have here in Kentucky. He weighs a little more than a dime, but less than a nickle! Small footed bats have black ears and muzzle, so they look like teeny bandits. I'm a little worried about this bat survey season. I was only sleep deprived for two nights, and it took me days to recover. I think my early to rise homestead life is going to make being a late night bat biologist even harder.
Bats aren't the only tiny mammals in my life right now. Voles dig tunnels in my greenhouse. Moles excavate my yard. Mice occupy my barn, like this friendly little guy in the picture, and sometimes they invade my house! We keep traps set in the pantry and under the sink and sometimes late at night, when it's quite, I hear SNAP! and I rejoice. Poor mice.
My littlest farm mammal, the baby goat, is a sweet little goat. She likes to have her shoulders scratched, and she's learned from the River brothers to jump up and put her dirty feet on me so I can give her a good massage.
Look at all those tomato seedlings! I wasn't sure my old see was still viable, but it looks like this kind was just fine. I planted several salad boxes with different types seed that I have collected over the years and some of them came up thin and scraggly but other are strong little plants. Some of the seed was saved by squirting the pulp from a tomato onto a paper towel. I just placed the paper towel on top of the soil, sprinkled some dirt on top, and watered it. They sprouted just fine!
Even though the voles occasionally dig up my seedlings, I've managed to keep several different plants alive. Lots of tomatoes and dill, some herbs and brussel sprouts. I even planted a handful of bean seeds, and they all germinated. The weather has been abnormally cold, so things are growing slowly.
The cold weather hasn't slowed down the lettuce or radishes. Even the kale and the peas are doing their thing. I'm doing my best to keep up with the weeds, and pull them when they are tiny plants. I've been making daily lettuce harvests, and waiting for the slugs to arrive. Yesterday I found the first two. Let the battle begin!
Have you even eaten radish greens? They're not bad. And, they grow so fast and so early, it's an easy green crop to grow. We aren't huge radish fans, despite my poetry, but the plants just keep making more leaves!
Pretty lettuce. I almost hate to pick it. Almost.
The vet did a farm visit on a rainy day. I was nervous to have someone who knows about animals see my set up, but the animals and I had a few days to prepare. We practiced wearing our halters and walking on a lead rope. Hattie was to have her watery eyes looked at, Little Buck needed a wormer injection, and the baby goat, Noobi, need her last vaccine. I asked everyone to be on their best behavior, and no one listened.
I tied Hattie to a post before the vet arrived, and she proceeded to dig a mud hole and splash muddy water all over herself and Rufus. The goats practically attacked the vet and mauled his box of supplies hoping it was treats. He had muddy goat prints all over his clothes. I was holding Noobi for her injection and Peaches pushed me over and the needle popped out and squirted the vaccine into the air. Wendigo grabbed a little box with a vial of donkey tranquilizer and tried to run with it. I grabbed her by the hair and she yelped and rolled on her back. Ack!
In the end, the goats got their injections, and we found that Hatti doesn't seem to have any tear ducts. This explains why tears run down her face, which attracts flies, and then she looses her hair when she scratches the fly bites. I'm to apply Vaseline every day so her skin doesn't stay soggy and hopefully that will allow the hair to grow back. I had hoped her problem was fixable, but at least now I know. She just has leaky eyes.
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