Our weather wasn't all that bad last night, but the lights went off at feeding time, & didn't come back on until feeding time this morning. Obviously somewhere in our electrical system, something went wrong. We heard from close neighbors & neighbors 12 miles north of us, they were in the same boat. We dragged out the candles, ate peanut butter crackers for supper & read by LED lights attached to the front of baseball caps. The donkeys hate those lights, but they sure work good for reading.
The mouse count is up to 5 now, I caught 2 last night. I was using fruit, but it seems that peanut butter is the "treat of choice", for our little buddies. We know where they are getting in, John covered the hole with duct tape. I'm sure they didn't even slow down to admire his handiwork, as they buzzed thru that barrier..........!!!!! (G)
Tula is going thru a wild spell, wilder than usual, right now. If she comes over from Burroland, she hides until she can sneak into her pen without us seeing her. Yesterday she had gone in her pen, but saw me in Chester's pen & ran out the gate. She slipped back in, before she realized I was just around the corner of her shelter. This morning she wouldn't come over from Burroland, & she had an odd assortment with her. She had Jenny the mammoth, Buster & Lucy. Buster & Lucy are usually the 1st ones here at feeding time, so that was very unusual. When I went over to run them back, everyone had their heads down vaccuming up beans. Lucy has been foundered before, so she might end up in a pen if she starts eating more beans than hay, which means Buster will have to go in to. He always stays right by her side & really gets upset if they are separated. When Tula saw me it was like she knew the game was over, & she headed for her pen.
When John went over to feed the chickens this morning he found that another 1/3 of the old mesquite by the chicken pen had fallen. It's a huge tree, a few years ago 1/3 of it fell & we knew the inside was rotten, although it's still alive.
It was a great woodpecker nursery for a couple of years. Don't know when the fallen part will get cut up. Since John's arm is broken, he can't use the big chain saw, at least he probably shouldn't try. And it's big enough, it would probably spin me around in circles if I tried to use it. Of course the donkeys are thrilled. All mesquite beans they can reach have been eaten. BlackJack is behind Justin with his head buried in the bountiful harvest.
I guess that got boring & too easy for Justin. This afternoon John came in & said he needed some help to catch 2 donkeys that had gone over to the neighbor's who also have a real nice crop of mesquite beans. I asked who it was & he said "who do you think"? Believe me, I have a rather long list of suspects, & actually Justin & Pepsi's names weren't very high on the list. John had the universal halter that we use for the standards. But it doesn't fit the mules, horses, Jenny the mammoth or any of the minis. So I had to go in the feed room & get a couple of teeny weeny halters. By the time I came out here comes Justin & Pepsi walking towards us. John had been over there before trying to entice them home, but they were too busy eating beans. I guess they thought about it & figured he might have something even better than beans.........!!!! I told John to give them a treat, which he wasn't in a mood to do, but he did. The reason..... for over a week, he has known there was a wire down between us & the neighbors & hadn't gotten around to fixing it. In fact that's how he caught the little devils, he went over to fix the wire & saw hoof prints under the wire & headed east. I was quite impressed with them coming home, John wasn't..............!!!! Although he is out there this afternoon fixing the fence.............FINALLY........!! This is how they make us look stupid, I guess.
The mouse count is up to 5 now, I caught 2 last night. I was using fruit, but it seems that peanut butter is the "treat of choice", for our little buddies. We know where they are getting in, John covered the hole with duct tape. I'm sure they didn't even slow down to admire his handiwork, as they buzzed thru that barrier..........!!!!! (G)
Tula is going thru a wild spell, wilder than usual, right now. If she comes over from Burroland, she hides until she can sneak into her pen without us seeing her. Yesterday she had gone in her pen, but saw me in Chester's pen & ran out the gate. She slipped back in, before she realized I was just around the corner of her shelter. This morning she wouldn't come over from Burroland, & she had an odd assortment with her. She had Jenny the mammoth, Buster & Lucy. Buster & Lucy are usually the 1st ones here at feeding time, so that was very unusual. When I went over to run them back, everyone had their heads down vaccuming up beans. Lucy has been foundered before, so she might end up in a pen if she starts eating more beans than hay, which means Buster will have to go in to. He always stays right by her side & really gets upset if they are separated. When Tula saw me it was like she knew the game was over, & she headed for her pen.
When John went over to feed the chickens this morning he found that another 1/3 of the old mesquite by the chicken pen had fallen. It's a huge tree, a few years ago 1/3 of it fell & we knew the inside was rotten, although it's still alive.
It was a great woodpecker nursery for a couple of years. Don't know when the fallen part will get cut up. Since John's arm is broken, he can't use the big chain saw, at least he probably shouldn't try. And it's big enough, it would probably spin me around in circles if I tried to use it. Of course the donkeys are thrilled. All mesquite beans they can reach have been eaten. BlackJack is behind Justin with his head buried in the bountiful harvest.I guess that got boring & too easy for Justin. This afternoon John came in & said he needed some help to catch 2 donkeys that had gone over to the neighbor's who also have a real nice crop of mesquite beans. I asked who it was & he said "who do you think"? Believe me, I have a rather long list of suspects, & actually Justin & Pepsi's names weren't very high on the list. John had the universal halter that we use for the standards. But it doesn't fit the mules, horses, Jenny the mammoth or any of the minis. So I had to go in the feed room & get a couple of teeny weeny halters. By the time I came out here comes Justin & Pepsi walking towards us. John had been over there before trying to entice them home, but they were too busy eating beans. I guess they thought about it & figured he might have something even better than beans.........!!!! I told John to give them a treat, which he wasn't in a mood to do, but he did. The reason..... for over a week, he has known there was a wire down between us & the neighbors & hadn't gotten around to fixing it. In fact that's how he caught the little devils, he went over to fix the wire & saw hoof prints under the wire & headed east. I was quite impressed with them coming home, John wasn't..............!!!! Although he is out there this afternoon fixing the fence.............FINALLY........!! This is how they make us look stupid, I guess.
2 comments:
If you have a tin can that is as big as the hole just cut the lid off and nail it over the mouse hole. It will last a long time.
The area is around the air conditioner unit in the wall. It has plastic pieces that slide to fit any size opening. They just chewed thru that like it was butter. Today John put 1 x 4s all around the opening. I'm betting on the mice, we'll see how long it takes for them to get thru. We built the feed room out of concrete blocks, to avoid this type of problem. But never even thought about the air conditioner opening. If they go thru the 1x4s we might try the can lid. Thanks.
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