Friday, September 02, 2016

THE SNAKES ARE MOVING AROUND



Most little girl's dream, I know it was mine......!!

 Fall is always an interesting time.  The snakes we never see move around and we see them, or their tracks across the driveway in the morning.  We also see great big Praying Mantis hanging around the fly traps.  Not sure they make much of a dent in the fly population, but we do appreciate their help.  

Must not forget the little green bugs.  We've never figured out what they are but, about this time of year they show up.  They are so small they go right thru the screens and are very drawn to the lights.  So wherever lights are on they congregate by the 100's.  The little devils bite, I'm not sure how since they are so small, but they do and it hurts.  So we sit around in the dark, watching TV, or don't open the windows until bedtime.  

The Colorado River toads try to keep the wet season going by using the water pans John puts out for the birds and whatever else wants a drink.  They sit around in the pans, soaking up the water.  They'll do that for a few days of non-rain, eventually if there isn't any rain, they disappear back underground.  

Penny is really tired of being in "solitary confinement".  She is starting to challenge us when we go into her pen in half the hay barn.  Even if she does get out as long as we put the chain on the gate into the hay barn, she isn't going to get very far.  

Everyone else seems to be doing good, well they are getting rather cranky about only getting out of their pens for a couple of hours a day.  John keeps saying there aren't many beans left on the 10 acres, but I keep seeing quite a few beans in their poo.  We aren't even thinking about Burroland yet, that's for the future.........LOL  We'll start out with the 10 acres at first and see how that goes.  We'll probably just let them out in the afternoon to start with, and work up to letting them out when they get thru eating breakfast.  But they will probably stay in the pens overnight for awhile.  

Still doctoring legs, even had to put socks on Penny's front legs, although she has a fan running in her stall.  But the other day when we put her outside for a couple of hours, the flies started on her legs.  We didn't know how putting socks on would work with her in a different area than usual, but she stood like a trooper and let me put them on without a lead or anything.  Sometimes she is a real surprise.  

She decided she likes to be groomed, never has before.  If you tried to brush her, she'd stand for about 10 seconds and then take off.  The last few days I've brushed on her a little bit, mostly to get her winter hair off, finally.  Since she doesn't like to be groomed we haven't pushed the issue.  This morning I decided to try the Furminator.  Talk about a "hit".....!!!  I thought I was finished and was going to start picking up poo, which is why I was up there.  It's not easy to do housekeeping when there is a donkey standing in your space, and if you move, she moves with you.  John finally showed up and brushed while I picked up poo.  I think her 10 second brushing and then taking off days are over, she acts like she'd stand there as long as you would brush.  That's OK, I wonder if she's ever been brushed before?  I have a feeling she's been a throw away her whole life, no matter where she was. 

4 comments:

ellie k said...

We have one black snake that has been here for years and that is enough for me. My daughter has killed a number of coral snakes and water moccasins in her yard. She has become quite good at killing them with a shovel or shooting there hear off.

Tish said...

We don't kill snakes or spiders, even the ones with bad reputations. I have a black widow in the feed room, that built a web for her babies when they hatched and I bet there was 100 of them. They are so tiny you can't hardly see them. I would imagine their survival rate is really small. We have tiny newly hatched lizards running around that probably could enjoy a little snack.

ellie k said...

When you have poison snakes and young kids in the same area one has to go.

Tish said...

The only time I ever remember my family making a big deal about snakes was one time my Daddy sent some workers one their way. They had killed a rattlesnake and left it where it lay. I stepped on it with flip flops and one of the fangs came up the outside of the fang, the other one was underneath. He said if they didn't know how to dispose of a dead snake, they didn't need to be working for him. Well that is except for my Mother. She went ballistic is she saw a snake, it could be 1/4 miles away, but she had very excellent eyesight when it came to snakes. She wouldn't take care care of, she just yelled and pointed and it was up to someone to "fix" it. Of course given the chance we made sure if there was a snake around, Mother knew it.......LOL