by Pa Rock
Farmer
I haven't provided a farm update since Boone and I returned from our trip out to the Wild West, so here's what's new at the zoo!
Several weeks ago I wrote about three large and beautiful Great Pyrenees that had traipsed across the farm one afternoon and scared the pee out of Junior, my occasional dog. When we pulled in Saturday afternoon, the three big, white behemoths were standing in the backyard, tails a-wagging, ready to greet the road-weary travelers. Well, actually the two females were. There is also a male that won't come near me - yet.
The largest female Pyrenees has a collar and tags that identify her as "Violet." The smaller female also has a collar, but has lost her tags. The male, too, is collared, but I haven't been able to get close enough to see if he had identification or not. Here's how I see it: if one female is Violet, the other couple could be Richard and Hyacinth, or, more likely, Onslow and Daisy. I am choosing to go with the latter until they tell me differently.
My son, Nick, who watched the farm while I was gone, had concerns about something living in the barn. He said that the poultry had been acting strangely the past couple of days, and then he found a wide hole in the dirt floor of the barn that some creature had dug. Nick thought it might be a bobcat scooping out a place to have her kittens. (The barn is technically mine, but if a momma bobcat decides to have kittens there, it is definitely hers until she vacates!)
I went to the barn to investigate that night, flashlight in hand in case I had to fight a bobcat or mountain lion. There was indeed a bowl dug into the earth about three feet in circumference and a foot deep. Instinctively, I knew that it was the work of the Great Pyrenees. The following day, while it was raining, I walked back to the barn where I found my three big friends - Violet, Daisy, and Onslow - napping in the barn and waiting out the storm. Onslow was in a second bowl that he had dug for the occasion.
So far the Great Pyrenees have visited every day since my return. It's probably not because I am feeding them, but it could be!
Sunday I was squatting near the ground in the poultry pen filling a waterer when the largest turkey, probably six or eight pounds at present, decided to jump up and perch on my shoulder. I told him to get off, but her liked his new perch and stayed where he was - even after I stood back up. I didn't have my camera, or I would have taken a "selfie" to show who's really in charge at Rock's Roost!
Today I went to Lowes in Mountain Home, Arkansas - 45 miles from my home - and bought a push lawnmower which I will go outside and break-in when I finish this blog-posting. After that I drove to a farm way out in the woods near Gainesville, Missouri, where I purchased twenty guinea chicks. The place where I got the guineas had pens of different kinds of birds covering several acres of yard, and the house was also full of birds. It was nasty - filthier than any place I have been in since my days as a child protection worker for the state. I came away feeling like I had "rescued" the guinea chicks - and they are at home now in a clean and safe environment. I will probably go back and rescue some peacock chicks when the next batch hatches out.
That's all of there farm news, and as Steve Martin once said, "It's a great day for a mow." I guess that I'd better get at it!
Farmer
I haven't provided a farm update since Boone and I returned from our trip out to the Wild West, so here's what's new at the zoo!
Several weeks ago I wrote about three large and beautiful Great Pyrenees that had traipsed across the farm one afternoon and scared the pee out of Junior, my occasional dog. When we pulled in Saturday afternoon, the three big, white behemoths were standing in the backyard, tails a-wagging, ready to greet the road-weary travelers. Well, actually the two females were. There is also a male that won't come near me - yet.
The largest female Pyrenees has a collar and tags that identify her as "Violet." The smaller female also has a collar, but has lost her tags. The male, too, is collared, but I haven't been able to get close enough to see if he had identification or not. Here's how I see it: if one female is Violet, the other couple could be Richard and Hyacinth, or, more likely, Onslow and Daisy. I am choosing to go with the latter until they tell me differently.
My son, Nick, who watched the farm while I was gone, had concerns about something living in the barn. He said that the poultry had been acting strangely the past couple of days, and then he found a wide hole in the dirt floor of the barn that some creature had dug. Nick thought it might be a bobcat scooping out a place to have her kittens. (The barn is technically mine, but if a momma bobcat decides to have kittens there, it is definitely hers until she vacates!)
I went to the barn to investigate that night, flashlight in hand in case I had to fight a bobcat or mountain lion. There was indeed a bowl dug into the earth about three feet in circumference and a foot deep. Instinctively, I knew that it was the work of the Great Pyrenees. The following day, while it was raining, I walked back to the barn where I found my three big friends - Violet, Daisy, and Onslow - napping in the barn and waiting out the storm. Onslow was in a second bowl that he had dug for the occasion.
So far the Great Pyrenees have visited every day since my return. It's probably not because I am feeding them, but it could be!
Sunday I was squatting near the ground in the poultry pen filling a waterer when the largest turkey, probably six or eight pounds at present, decided to jump up and perch on my shoulder. I told him to get off, but her liked his new perch and stayed where he was - even after I stood back up. I didn't have my camera, or I would have taken a "selfie" to show who's really in charge at Rock's Roost!
Today I went to Lowes in Mountain Home, Arkansas - 45 miles from my home - and bought a push lawnmower which I will go outside and break-in when I finish this blog-posting. After that I drove to a farm way out in the woods near Gainesville, Missouri, where I purchased twenty guinea chicks. The place where I got the guineas had pens of different kinds of birds covering several acres of yard, and the house was also full of birds. It was nasty - filthier than any place I have been in since my days as a child protection worker for the state. I came away feeling like I had "rescued" the guinea chicks - and they are at home now in a clean and safe environment. I will probably go back and rescue some peacock chicks when the next batch hatches out.
That's all of there farm news, and as Steve Martin once said, "It's a great day for a mow." I guess that I'd better get at it!
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