Wordless Wednesday

Female or a chick?

I have been trying to convince Brook that she is a female not a chick.  She got it into her head that she could be a chick.  No, not a supermodel type chick, this type of chick:

When the "girls" arrived, I also brought in a 50 pound of chick starter feed which I left on the back step to transfer into buckets.  Dogs won't eat chick feed.  Right?  Wrong!  Sorry, no pictures but Brook dragged the bag down the steps, ripped a hole in it and started eating.  Why?  Who knows.

So, I've been telling Brook that she is a female not a chick!  it really isn't working.  There is something in the feed that all the dogs like the taste of.  The spilled food on the grass attracted all of them until it was finally gone.  

Now the food is safely in buckets, the chicks are in their brooder in the barn and the barn cats only glance at them.  A few months from now we'll be having fresh eggs.

Getting warm

Summer is just around the corner, at least according to the calendar. The weather here hasn't been too bad, a few warm days and then a few cool ones.  But, at least it has been warm enough for it to be an ice cube day!

Hiker

On another note, we are keeping our fingers and paws crossed for our girl Molly because she has a family interested in her.  

Molly

As I have said previously, it isn't that we don't want Molly, she isn't what we want.  She is healthy, can see and can hear.  She is highly adoptable.  There hasn't been any big adoption push, just if the right home comes along.  We'll keep you posted.

Wordless Wednesday

Monday Mischief

It is apple season here and local pick your own orchards have apples available for only 50 cents a pound. Yum!  So, with fresh apples coming in, I decided to look over the old apples and check for spots, bruises,etc and share with the tenant's horse, sheep and chickens.  

As always, when there are six dogs, there is never a shortage of "help", especially when there is potential food.

Brook

Brook initially tried to get an apple out of the box when the flaps were folded in. It was funny watching the always determined little blind and partly deaf dog desperately trying to get into the cardboard box of apples. Once I opened the box and began sorting, she was very excited. The apples beside the box were ones that I was going to pass out to the other animals.

Molly watched the whole apple sorting process with great interest and when the opportunity presented itself, she grabbed one and went outside. Then didn't seem to know what to do with it.

"Now what?"

Brook, of course, settled in to eat hers right away.

Wordless Wednesday

Broken and Cracked Teeth

Bill was at the vet yesterday to have his broken canine tooth removed and I was told that I could check in with them around 3:00 pm to see how he was.  Before I had a chance to call the clinic, they called me. When they were cleaning Bill's teeth they discovered that he also had two cracked teeth, one with the pulp showing.  

I had wondered if his bug catching was a possible cause of the broken canine tooth since his teeth come together with such force as he chases and catches bugs.  Now with the addition of two other teeth being damaged, I suspected there was another cause.  In speaking with the veterinarian, we determined that it is likely from chewing on antlers.  Since the antlers are so hard they could damage teeth. Like humans, some dogs have softer teeth.  

We will now be trying softer chew items, so a trip to town and the big store is planned soon.

Meanwhile, Bill is home, being kept quiet and recovering. (just another excuse to lay outside in the sunshine)

Tasty Tuesday

Did you know that a red plum and a blue chuck-it ball look very similar?

Well, at least to a chuck-it ball obsessed dog named Trail they look very similar.

"Are you eating my ball?!"

Not to worry, we "found" his ball and all was okay. Although for a few minutes, he was quite concerned.

New garden

A few days before travelling to Maine to bring Trail home, I had purchased some vegetable plants. While away, there was a frost that severely damaged the plants, so no veggies in the garden.

I was able to find some more plants and decided to dig a bigger garden - with help of course. 

Trail was very interested in this digging process while the others had more of a "been there, seen that" attitude and weren't too interested.

Even though Trail had only been with us for a couple of days, he was being a "velcro" dog (typical Australian Cattle Dog) and kept bringing his blue chuck-it ball over for me to throw.

It became obvious that he wasn't too pleased with the lack of ball throwing and the digging when he lay on the shovel.

It was a process that took longer than it should have, but the end result was worth it.  Yes, it would have been quicker and easier to do it without "help" but as I have said before, there isn't any fun in that!

How we spent our spring

Since summer is officially only a few days away, I thought I would give you a brief (happy) update on how we spent our spring.

As the snow melted, we ventured out back into the fields and forest on our land.

We expanded the fenced area

and as always, enjoyed the sunshine as the grass got greener.

Inside, the snuggling continues.