Farm stuffsss

Farm life for us.

Hannah and I did fence and field inspections via the 4 wheeler on Saturday morning before the smoke moved in. 

She has adapted well to being a 'farm' dog. 

Since she is part terrier she believes she is a super dog. She is fearless. She tags along when I lead Little Richard from one place to another. She will bark at and chase any animal that may stray into her vision. She thankfully is smart enough to return after a chase.

I went back to putting 'clothes' on her and wrapping her incision area with ace bandages again. She has developed a spot to the side of the incision that looks like a little bubble. Trying to keep a 'Terrier-Terror' calm without jumping, running, and chasing is a tall order. 

For most of the week I've been stuck inside during the worst of the smoke and the other night both dogs had so much pent up energy that they had the most crazy Major Zoomies/FRAPping I've ever seen or heard. Charlie chased Hannah, Hannah chased Charlie around the house.

Both surprised me by leaping onto the couch and using it as a springboard to leap to the area rug and take off again. 

I thought it was hilarious and let them do it. Afterwards, they fell sound asleep on the couch together. In fact I posted the photo of that peaceful moment in my last blog.

While doing belly rubs the next day, I noted that Hannah had a little 'seroma' which is a pocket of fluid that is generally a reaction to the inner stitches of her incision. It is usually caused by activity after being spayed. You know, like what pups normally do. Jump, run, play. 

That means we are back to limiting activity. The advice to keep her calm from internet searches are: Crate Time, only leash walks, keeping the dog from jumping and so forth. 

Hannah Hannah. 

I will call the vet today to see if she would like to check Hannah's Seroma out. This morning it is back down but I rewrapped her. Otherwise she tends to lick that area and I imagine that irritates it also.

She tolerates the clothes and the Ace Bandage very well. 

This dog really loves her food bowl. She will lay next to it in the late afternoon and sleep on it so she won't miss her supper. This after a busy morning of being a porch dog [anchored to the porch by tie out!].

Below, 10 seconds of Hannah's eyes from ground view while she is watching me. It is just pretty funny. This was late afternoon when she was sure that it was feeding time.

How's Mr. Charlie? He is fine but most of the time he doesn't engage much with Hannah if he doesn't have to. They will lay on the porch bench together and watch the world go by.

Charlie. Carlos, Chuck, he always looks so serious and dignified doesn't he?

I did get out to see Sunshine on Sunday. We went for a short ride because the smoke was moving back in. It felt really nice to ride again after all the hot and smoky days. 

No pics. Sunshine was really bothered by the huge herd of sheep that rotate through sections of Kristi's farm [they rent the pastures and forest to an Amish who raises sheep]. Sunshine was not impressed by their bleating and the guard dogs barking. My guess is that the sheep were just moved to that section and had been herded in by the sheep dogs.

I figure once the sheep get pastured next to her and Cash's pasture, she will have the opportunity to get used to their noises. She has already accepted the pygmy goats and mini donkeys that live on the farm.

We turned away from the sheep's temporary pasture [we'd ridden that area last week] and headed towards another field. Sunshine spotted movement not far off in a cow pasture. A white cow was making noise and others were moving around. She has seen them before but this wired her up a bit more. 

Meanwhile Cash just gave Sunshine the 'whatever' look and walked past her. 

By the time we rounded another field, and headed back to the indoor, Sunshine was back to her old self. While Kristi unsaddled Cash and rinsed him off, I had Sunshine practice 'heeling' to my shoulder. It gave her some ground work to think about. She did great and we ended up on a very positive note.

[I've taught my mules to 'heel' to my shoulder for ease of leading them. Hands free heeling is fun to do. They stop when I stop, walk when I walk, and back up with verbal commands. It took a lot of time and effort, but it is fun teaching it to them.]

I rinsed her off afterwards and when I turned her out with Cash she acted very ho-hum. But by then the nasty noisy sheep had all quietened down.

I wonder if she thought all the bleating sheep were a sign of distress and in her head it meant danger. Once they quietened down, she absolutely chilled out.

If we could only get into animal's heads!

No pictures during the ride, we were concentrating more on the vicious biting flies and our mounts, and the monster creatures. It was still quite relaxing.

As I left for home, the smoke move in with a vengeance. On the ridges it looked like this, but on the highway the road disappeared at 1/2 mile intervals.

I'm glad we got our ride in before the smoke descended on us again.

In sanity?

 I'm not going to blame MN or Canada for the fires. The dry remote areas are on fire and firefighters are trying to hard to contain the fires. 

The winds changed and sent the smoke into the Midwest and other parts of the US.

This morning I checked the Air Quality site and was rather surprised that the particulates were this bad. My eyes stung yesterday. I could smell what seemed like a garbage fire and camp fire mixed in.

Now. I don't want to criticize some folks, but when I posted this on social crap-media and commented that I'd not go to work out at the gym, I got some comments from others that said it 'would not be a big deal'.

Now our gym is simply an old garage for repairing vehicles. The bay doors are always open in the summer and there is no A/C. I don't mind working out in the heat, but breathing in heavily polluted air seems counterintuitive to exercising for better health.

Especially if you are working out and increasing your rate of breathing.

Yes, by noon, the Air Quality should be much better if the smoke moves off like it did yesterday afternoon. But I'm an aged athlete and I don't feel like working out and smoking a pack of cigarettes at the same time.

According to the DNR website along with medical websites, they caution against breathing in particulates --> smoke. It is not a gas, it is pieces of burnt plant matter among whatever else burned up. Think of breathing in miniature pieces of burnt matter and it changes they way one would think of the smoke.

That is my opinion and decision. Meh.

Here are two photos of this morning when I did chores. Little Richard looked as if he was in fog. Don't worry, I move him a few times a day in this heat so he can get into the shade. He also spent most of the heat days in a tree shaded paddock.

I grabbed this shot of Charlie when I was watering some flowers on the porch. 

At least by noon there will be a breeze to move the nasty smoke out of our area and move it towards Madison which will be horrible too.

I did get some plants watered so the won't wilt in the sun and heat.

Brown atmosphere...yuck!

Thankfully I was able to see the workout that we were to do and did the home version. It was nice to do it with the dogs watching to monitor me. 

Hannah is on towels because some pup thought 
it would be awesome to dig in the garden

while I was sprinkling in it.
She had mud up to her

eyeballs.

Gotta love a pup! 
She harmed no flowers in her morning 

adventure.

😁😂👇

But THAT look when I asked her:

What did you do?

I think I'll work on the stick house today. It is coming along nicely.

The beginning of August

Welcome August.
We saw our first buck in velvet close to home while having coffee in the morning. He was walking amongst several does who just stared at him as he walked through the neighbor's field and woods.

Something alarmed the gals and they took off to the west while the buck took off to the east. They look hazy because of the smoke and some fog.

I have 4 o'clocks blooming all over the place. Each year, I collect the seeds and then randomly drop them into different areas.

Some of them have grown to nearly 5 feet tall and others are being entwined with morning glories.

It's a mess in this spot, but I am enjoying the mess. I may chop it all down after a frost and see what comes up again next year.

Thankfully, Little Richard has been busy helping with the yard work. I put him in some spots that seemed to be growing faster than the rest of the yard and he did a nice job overnight.

Mornings are still the best to go look at things in the garden. The past few mornings are cool with fog and smoke.

The bees are really busy in the pumpkin plants I planted ... ahem, sort of ... by accident in front of the house.

Actually, having them so close is nice. I can see how the bees work the flowers and I can watch the funky pumpkins grow!

These pumpkins are a cross between some gnarly bumpy pumpkins I had last year and the original whitish-yellow pumpkins I had. So it will be interesting to see how large they get. 

I have several other pumpkins in another spot in the pasture that I fenced off. 

I have tossed pumpkins in for the mules to eat the past few years and it seems that they eat them and then stomp the seeds into the ground.

Here are some more flowers to enjoy. All of them taken early in the morning with dew drops on them.

I sure do love the morning glories!

 

What about the mules?

When I whistle or holler out their names, they appear out of the woods. These shots were taken on some of the more smokey days.

Mica is the grey mule and she knows if I holler her name, it is time to come for her Senior Feed.

Quickly, though, the red headed sisters decide that they will race to me. Do I bring hay, treats, or is it that they just want someone to rub their ears and tell them how beautiful they are?

These girls will take a  touch and a kind word just as eagerly as they would a treat.

The one in the rear is our gaited mule. She is a Peruvian Paso mule. She rarely breaks into a gallop and prefers to gait out. She is also usually the last one to come when I call. She loves attention and is a fantastic ride.

She hates leaving home. Once past the mailbox, she realizes that she needs to pay attention.

They all walk along their well beaten trail through the woods to come out on the old winter pasture. 

I rotate them from one large area to another every few days.

I am hoping for the weather and smoke to break up a bit so I can ride again in the evenings.

Poor Mica suffers the most with this heat, smoke, and dust. She has Equine COPD or Heaves. The rest of my girls are still looking rather fat and sassy.

Happy July everyone. 

PS~ Send rain.