Creepy and Gorey Story

Does Wendigo relishing the taste of a deer spinal cord put you in the Halloween spirit?  Mmm... vertebra, right?  If you like a little gore for your ghoulish holiday, you might appreciate the sight she made while disemboweling a dead rabbit.  I saw her excitedly tearing into something brown, and arrived to investigate just in time to see her slurp up the feces filled colon straight from the rabbits torn underside.  Yuck!  Would a responsible dog owner take the dead rabbit away for burial, or do like me, and pretend I didn't see what she was up to and retreat to the house?    

That night, the overcast sky blocked all light from the stars and moon, and the glow from the heat lamp in the chick brooder illuminated the greenhouse plastic with a devilish red glow.  What's that noise?!  Wendigo, is that you?  

I shouldn't think about murdered rabbits and devilish glows this close to all hallows eve.  Despite the eerie glow, I entered the dome of plastic to tend the chicks.  I also roamed to the barn and to the boy goat fence to count the glowing green eyes of the goats, who kept to their shelter, and didn't come forward for petting, like usual.  A rustle in the trees startled me.  What is that?!  Wendigo?  

I looked back to the house to reassure myself that the windows were still shining bright.  Coyotes called from the neighbors field as I went to fetch Wendigo's dinner dish and fill it from the bin in the barn.  Where is that dog?  She never misses dinner... Wendy, where are you?  

I called and got no answer.  I walked through the dark to the scene of the rabbit gut feast, and saw no sign of the rabbit or Wendy.  There wasn't even a piece of fur left as evidence.  Did she eat it all?  

I hear the new gravel on the driveway crunch, and the motion sensing lights come on.  Who's there?!  In the light I see her, sitting still and tall and casting a long dark shadow.  Come on girl, it's dinner time!  She didn't move, and sat still and staring.   

I went to her and could tell by her pitiful expression that something was wrong.  She didn't want to eat dinner and had a sorry look on her face.  Eating a deer spine and an entire rabbit - fur, guts, and all - on the same day, might be too much yuck for one pitiful doggy.  Poor puppy had a belly ache, like a kid after trick-or-treat.  For a couple of days she suffered from diarrhea, and I fed her rice water and canned pumpkin.  We tried to feed her pepto bismol, but she wouldn't have it.  She's back to her same old self today, just in time for Halloween.  No treats for her!  

Happy Halloween!

Hammock and Goat Dates

Sunday, October 21st.  I'm making a note about that date right now, so five months from now I'm not taken by surprise if Peaches delivers a baby goat.  I could tell by Peaches crazy behavior that she might like a date with Little Buck.  Brandon and I were so busy all weekend that there wasn't time for a goat date until Sunday evening.  I think the timing was good though, because they started "dating" before Peaches was through the gate and before I could remove her leash.  We only allowed them to be together for a brief hour before Peaches was returned to the girl goat pasture.  I'm not sure how many dates it takes to make a baby goat, for sure, but if she doesn't start acting nutty in twenty-one days, I think I can assume the job has been taken care of.  

Noobi, the baby that was born last March, is a pretty big animal now.  Not as tall as her mother yet, but very robust and healthy looking.  While our good neighbor was visiting yesterday (to share a deer spine from his most recent kill with Wendigo, lucky dog) I asked him if he thought a goat Noobi's size would be ready to butcher.  Not that I want to eat Noobi, but if Peaches does make more babies, and I don't want to feed them through next winter, would this be the right time to butcher.  He agreed that she would have lots of good meat and be totally worth butchering.  Similar to a young tender deer.  Maybe next October we will have home grown goat meat!  

In my chick brooder right now, I have fourteen red ranger chicks, which are big-bodied meat birds, plus thirteen leghorn chicks, which are small white birds that make lots of eggs.  In four or five months I should have home grown chicken meat and more eggs that we can eat.  I know I'm not supposed to count my chickens before they hatch, so I probably shouldn't count my chicken dinners before they mature, either.  

I also have a bonus chick, who is a pretty black and white chick that seems very vocal and bossy, like he might be a rooster.  

Check out my birthday present!  Finally, my little volunteer maple trees are big enough to support my long awaited hammock.  It's a hammock built for two, but it takes some skill for two people to use it without ending up on the ground.  

The hammock is in the side yard, with a nice view of the house on one side and the young forest on the other, and far from all hungry goats and braying donkeys.  It's for relaxing, and it's perfect.  It's also the perfect height for Wendigo to lick my face when I'm napping!

With chicks in the brooder, plus all my normal feeding and watering chores, I stay occupied every morning and evening, just making sure all my charges have food, water, and a dry place to sleep.  It's usually my favorite time a day.  Because Brandon and I are making more of an effort to car pool to work every day, saving ourselves the expense of driving his truck to town, I have to be up very early, even earlier than the chickens.  I do my chores by headlamp in the early morning hours, and admire the stars as I toss hay to drowsy donkeys and spread pellets for sleeping hens.  

We've had a fire in the woodstove in the early mornings for a few days now.  The frost killed the last of the green been vines.  The donkeys get a pear every day from the old pear tree in the front yard, which always makes more than we can eat.  It feels like fall now, and I'm already thinking about heated water buckets for the animals, and making plans for Thanksgiving.  It's all happening so fast.  

Big Ass and Small Asses

Look who was blocking the road when Brandon and I were on our way to work on Monday morning.  At first it was the two smaller horses, who seemed huge to this mini donkey owner, and then this monster sized horse joined them.  Whoa.

The smaller horses ran up the road, but the giant one turned it's backside to us and refused to budge.  It's ass was huge!  And it's feet were platter sized, and had metal shoes.  I was glad it didn't kick my little car off the road! 

After seeing that gigantic horse, Hattie looks even smaller!  She's a tiny ass.  Ha!

For the first time, Brandon and I took the donkeys on our evening walk.  We've made it a habit to take Wendigo on a walk around our property each evening as the sun is setting.  It's good exercise for her and us, but I also like to let the local predators know there are humans and a giant dog patrolling our boundaries regularly.  Wendi follows interesting scents into the brush while we chat and examine our ten acre playground. 

Rufus is so good on a lead rope.  He follows along like a well trained dog until he finds something so delicious that he pulls his head down for a bite.  Hattie still doesn't understand how to take a walk.  She wants to follow Rufus so close her nose is touching, or run ahead, or jerk the rope when there's a noise or a strange object.  Brandon got a work out holding on to her rope.  It was fun, and the donkeys were glad for an adventure and a chance to each some fresh greens.  Maybe we will make it a regular thing.