It can be rough on everyone living on a farm sometimes. It has its benefits, which far out weigh the retractions but it is definitely not for everyone. This week was a prime example of everyone taking their lumps.

Gizmo our little Brussels Griffin dog keeps getting out of the yard. I have yet to find his new hole but it is starting to get annoying. He is usually out in the pasture eating sheep poop, back on the compost pile eating trash or standing by the gate waiting to be let back in. He won’t use his escape hole to get back into the yard. The alpaca do not like dogs. He survived.

Annmarie and I had not seen one of our two back door outdoor cats for a week or better. Luna was missing. We calculated her age and it came out to 14 years which has been spent outside on the farm so her going off and dying is a reasonable assumption. I even went out and looked in the dog igloo that the cats sleep in to make sure there was not a dead cat in it. No cat, so we assumed she was a goner. Early this week Annmarie calls me at work and asks if I knew that Luna was trapped in the root cellar! The answer is of course not but I had been feeding the cats and I dump our compost out for the chickens near the root cellar door. The cat was a victim of my bad hearing! I could not hear her yowling. Annmarie said the cat could hardly meow when she let her out but Annmarie has owl hearing which saved the cat! We figure the cat has been in there over a week. There are two windows that are screened over and it has been raining most of the week so she was able to get to water. She is quite a bit skinnier, she was nice and chunky, not any more. She is also fairly grateful and the first to eat now. She survived.

We have been under a windstorm warning for most of the week. We had to put off delivery of three new cows due to the advisory. Annmarie discovered a hole in our house siding. We got to looking hard and found at least six damaged spots from the wind hurtling things at our house. I will be calling our homeowners insurance company on Monday. The house will survive with some repairs.

I was out feeding the sheep yesterday and the mommas are getting ready to lamb soon. We are now locking them up at night and letting them out in the morning. This makes it a lot easier to find babies. We now have to go feed the ram and his boy friends separately as they are in Alcatraz. I fed them and looked over and spotted one of the young whethers laying on the ground. He was weak and unable to stand. I drug him out of the pasture, went in and got a 22 and ended his misery. Disease is bad for any group of animals, especially if you don’t know why. My solution is always permanent and quick. He did not survive.

I was up getting large hay bales for the cows after dispatching the sheep when I came upon a very large possum running around the bales, it is probably living in them. I of course did not have a weapon because I left it at the house. It survived.

I was feeding the cows in the orchard, had the large square bale set out and then used the forks on the tractor to lift up the feeder guard. It consists of four curved pieces of metal that are pinned together so they are movable at each joint. When laid out correctly they form a circle, but will also form an ovoid like shape that goes around the square bales. The trouble with this is once it is up in the air on the forks it does not just drop down over the bale. So I set it on top of the bale with the tractor near the bale so the back half doesn’t fall until I move the tractor. Then I get off the tractor and went around to the far side and started tugging on the two panels on my side. It can get pinched due to the four articulated joints but usually I can get it with a little elbow grease and swearing. I got it all right, but I usually have time to jump back before it crashes down. I ended up 12 feet away on the ground on my back with my hearing protection somewhere on the ground and aching all over. Damn thing slammed into me and tossed me like a paper doll. The bruises are already starting to show up the next day. I survived.