Goats at Sunset

First off...  It isn't my fault I haven't posted recently, blogger has been down. 

The Hole

• Don't know what's in it.
• Don't know what made it.
• Don't even know if it is safe to be near it.
• I just know that my dog is FASCINATED FOR HOURS by it.

She will hunker down and wait endlessly for who knows what?????  It seems she can hear something moving underground.  Maybe she can smell it.  The hole is under the long slab of cement that used to be the corral and it is in the farthest pasture from the house.  Any volunteers to stick YOUR nose down there?

Nothing to do with the story, it was just nearby.

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom Harriet, great-grandmother Emma Hasler and my grandmother Lucille Watkins.  The fat baby is me.

Here's a long distance wish that my mom has a great Mother's Day. 

I Looked Out the Window

and what did I see?     Nope, not popcorn popping on the apricot tree (that's over and done with), but...

turkeys, right out front in the driveway.   I had watched them wander through the fields all morning.  I guess they were waiting for me to go inside and get ready for the funeral, because they came soon after  I went in the house.   Boyd has seen one or so wander past the house close for a few days now.  Laura says he must have been the scout and went back and told his buddies to come on over.
They are the strangest birds.   And not to jinx us, but since the open turkey hunt has started, we haven't had any trespassers.   Go figure.

And just as a totally unrelated and completely disgusting end to this post, Buddy was rolling on a dead rat right on the front lawn.   I am certain that is NOT where it died, but that Jasmin found it and brought it over as another one of her "gifts".    It stunk and now so does my dog.  Of course, I petted him before I smelled him and before Boyd told me what was happening.  How many diseases can a person get from a decomposing rat carcass?  I'm sure Tutu would've been able to tell me.

Explain this...

• How does my dog know when the squirrel is ripe?  She unburied the latest catch and proudly carried it around this evening.  Too bad for her, I took it away and gave it a burial at sea or river to be exact. 
• How is it that the water dishes were frozen over this morning, but this evening I could stay outside until 8:00 without needing so much as a sweatshirt?  Last night I wore insulated coveralls and my hands were frozen!
• How is it that the bugs can hatch so quickly?   No bugs when it is cold and millions of the pesky things when it warms up.
• How is it that my goat (never had kids) is "bagging up" and she isn't pregnant?   She has been getting bigger over the last three weeks or so, but tonight things seem to have doubled.  Of course, I have googled it and it can happen.   I don't know if the picture will be easy to see or not, but she is certainly filling up.  I also read stories of magical pregnancies where goats can become pregnant without explanation.  She has lived with the same three wethered males since she was born (6 years).   Time will tell I guess. 

Jess

More pictures of Jessica and a crop update.  ALL THE CORN IS OFF!!  And hauled to Scoular's.  Now the price needs to go back up where it was a few days before we cut and then we can sell.  And another small bit of good news, this morning was the first day since probably October that there wasn't a layer of ice on the dog and goat water dishes.  Seriously, every morning through April I was still breaking ice in the dishes.  Truly insane.
And now on to Jess...

Sssshhhh!

Don't tell Mother Nature, but the corn field is dry enough to cut!!!!   She must be sleeping on the job because we have actually dried out a little.  The river is even down some.  Even though it snowed today, it didn't stick.

 We rode over Saturday morning to check things out and found plenty of Sandhills eating our crop.

 They don't stick around long when Boyd uses his bird deterring device.

Boyd serviced the disc hoping that someday soon he gets to put it to use.  It has been sitting in the hayfield all winter.

 The ground on the middle field looked like it just might be dry enough to handle a combine.

 So, later Saturday afternoon, they gave it a try.  They cut enough to fill a semi-truck and since that is the only truck available, they stopped.  Monday, they will haul it to Scoular's and if the corn is dry enough, we can go full steam ahead.  Hopefully, hiring more trucks and moving along fast.

 The cranes have stripped ear after ear, but the yield was still good.  Cross your fingers that the yield will stay strong, even though we know there are sections that are stripped to nothing.

 They leave one and eat the next.

 Then Boyd spooked this guy out of the field.

 And he ran.

 And ran.

 The inside of the drain ditch seems to have become a superhighway.

 These birds sing all the time, I love it.

 Found this guy in the hay field at home.