Hei Hei sneak attacked me today. Dude is living on borrowed time. He is one of 2 roosters we got assuming they were female chicks but turned out the feed store messed up. Our other rooster, Barred Rock, is such a gentleman but he runs Hei Hei around to make sure we all know he’s in charge. I think Hei Hei wants to dominate somebody so he takes it out on us. I tried taming him by pushing his face in the ground but I have only done it a couple times and I guess “training” a rooster takes consistency. Croc pot training is probably best.
Sometimes horses need a spa day too. We recently treated Sassy with a hoof soak for white line disease. This is a bacterial infection in the white line part of the hoof. It is not serious unless the hoof cracks so severely it renders the horse lame. To treat Sassy we used Clean It, a powder that is added to water, put in a bag, then you stick your horse’s hoof in the bag. It has to stay there for 45 minutes. Then you dump the water and do another 45 minutes in the bag for the vapor stage. It releases hypochlorous acid, which is the same substance white blood cells release to fight infections. Sassy is back to “normal”, which I use lightly because our farm is anything but normal! 🤪
It’s almost Spring and love is in the air. OK, maybe not love. But, we hope whatever is in the air, produces some cute kids in 5 months. Goat breeding season is here! Our mini Nubian, Sundae, is in heat so we moved Tod, our buck, into the lady goat pasture. Peter is sitting this one out. However it has turned out to be a lot more complicated than I had predicted. Who knew female goats have preferences and need some time to warm up?! So high maintenance! I’ll have an update soon but Operation Valentine’s Day may need a new mission plan.
There was a manhunt for an attempted murder suspect around the farm last weekend. I was out feeding the chickens, bringing animals in for the night, when I noticed a helicopter hovering above my head and sheriff vehicles driving down the road. At the same time a friend sent me an alert from the Sheriff’s Office saying to stay indoors because they were combing our neighborhood for 2 people in connection with a shooting. The teenage suspect had fled the scene with a friend and ended up two doors down from us. It was a 16-year old who got into some kind of domestic dispute with his mother‘s boyfriend or husband and shot him in the face. That man is in critical condition now and the 16-year old is in jail. Terrible story and a reminder you can move out to the country expecting peace and quiet - but anything can happen, anywhere. Stay safe everyone!
