A Mother's Love

This hen is a first time mother this spring.  I don't know what kind she is because she got lumped in with a bunch of other chicks that looked like Rhode Island Reds.  She's a small hen, the smallest of our flock and when she got broody, I didn't want her hatching any eggs.  First of all because of her size, not that many eggs will fit under her.  Secondly, we already had a hen sitting on a nest.  

But, she just wouldn't give up, so I gave her some eggs and she faithfully sat until three hatched.  I moved her into the barn when they started to pip, and there she has remained.  She has so far refused to join the flock and sleep in the coop, whereas, the other experienced mother rejoins the flock ASAP.

She had her own stall for a while, then she shared the goat's stall for a while, huddling in a corner with her chicks.  She accidentally got shut out of the barn one night and lost two chicks.  I felt bad for her.  But, she soldiers on with her solitary little one.

Now, in the evenings she likes to perch up on top of the stall door.  I have no idea how that chick gets up there.  It's about nine feet off the floor.

Trimming the Wisteria

We have the very large wisteria arbor that grows wildly out of control.  Each year, I have to trim it back so that I can mow under and around the arbor.  The wisteria continually puts up new shoots all over the place and if I don't mow under and around it, the vines get bigger and bigger and I'm afraid this would turn into one big wisteria jungle.

But last year, I never got around to it.  The vines had draped down to make a solid wall around the whole thing.  It would be neat to have a little fort under there if kids lived here.  Or, a nice little "room" to host an afternoon tea...if I was an English aristocrat.  Alas, there is nobody here to take advantage of the wisteria fort.

So, I decided to get to work on this mass of vines.  This picture shows the end where I haven't cut anything back yet.  The whole arbor looked like this.

You can see on the ground where the shade has killed the grass, but somehow, the wisteria can sprout and survive in that shade.  Normally, that is solid St. Augustine grass there.

I chose to do it this week, in part, because I have a little helper.  At first, I gave him some shears and showed him how to cut the vines, but that didn't work out too well.  

So, I gave him a job any little guy would like...driving.

He picked up the vines as I clipped them and loaded the golf cart.

When he got a full load, he drove - by himself - down to the burn pile, unloaded the vines into the pile, then drove back for another load.  I made a couple of trips with him until he got confident enough to go by himself.

He was a great help.  I usually hate this part of the job and have been known to just leave the vines where they fall, let them wilt, then mow over them with the mower.  Don't tell hubby!  He thinks I'm too hard on the mower, and he's probably not wrong.

Baaybee Skunk, Nuh-nuh, Nuh-nuh, Nuh Nuh

Hey, long time, no see.  This was too cute not to share.

It's that time of year again in which I walk the goats from the barn to the paddock in the morning and back again to the barn in the evening.  A couple of days ago, on our morning walk, I heard a funny little squawking noise in the tall hay grass off to the side of the path.  It sounded like a baby bird in distress.  I can't resist any baby in distress, so, of course, I stopped to check it out.

I followed the sound and the slight rustling in the grass until I came upon this...

Not a bird.

A baby skunk about the size of an eight week old kitten.  It's mother was nowhere in sight.  As I approached, it stomped it's tiny little front feet and sort of hissed at me.  It tried mightily to spray me, slinging it's little hind end up and over several times.  But, it was hindered by the grass, and I don't think it was old enough to spray anyway.

Adorable.  But, this was an animal that I could not help.  I checked on it again on my way back to the barn that morning and it was still alone.  But, we really don't want skunks hanging around.  They get in our barn and our garage and stink up the place.  So, good luck to the little guy, but he's on his own.