Belle's Bath Day

Our Great Pyrenees, Belle, is 5 1/2 years old.  I can remember giving her a bath twice.  Now, that may seem like animal abuse to some.  There is a thriving industry of dog groomers, but Belle will never go to one.  She's a working livestock guardian dog and instinctively does her duty day in and day out.  But the other day, Belle walked by us and Benjamin said, "Belle, you stink!"  He put it on his list to give her a bath.

I agreed to help as I wasn't sure how she was going to react to getting wet.  Normally, if it's raining, she makes a beeline for the garage.  We coerced her into the back yard and Benjamin put soap in the bottom of a livestock molasses lick tub and began filling it with water from the hose.  The goats were grazing in the pasture in the background.  The one who needs a bath more than Belle is Popcorn, the Billy Goat.  He stinks VERY bad!

We picked up Belle and deposited her in the bucket full of water and suds.  Surprisingly, she enjoyed it, like a human enjoys a relaxing bath.  She just sat there in the water, enjoying the process to the fullest.

Benjamin adjusted the jet of water to give Belle a deep cleaning.  We watched as the clear water underneath the suds turned cloudy.

Finally, we attempted to wash her face.  We weren't sure how she would react, but she did remarkably well.  We cleaned up those eye boogers in the corners of her eyes.  At last it was time for the bath to end, so we got her out of the bath tub.  She stood there as Benjamin brushed her.  He uses a brush that pulls out the long, tangled hair from her coat.  Belle LOVES this!  It's the same feeling you have when someone is scratching your back.  You sit there in a daze, hoping it never ends.  Thick clouds of white hair were removed with each brushing.  This hair thinning will make her feel cooler and better in the waning days of summer.

He brushed and brushed all over her body until no more white hair was coming out.  That's when you know that it is time to quit.  By this time Belle had shaken herself and was mostly dry.  I bet she was feeling so much better.

In a perfect world of American Kennel Club dog shows, Belle would have been proud of her clean, white coat.  But alas, Belle is not that kind of dog.  Within ten minutes of the photo above being taken, Belle was spotted digging a big hole in the flower beds and promptly rolled around and around in the soft, moist earth.  Belle's bath did not hold up.  Her cleanliness was short-lived.  By nightfall, you could see that she needed another bath.  She still smells nice, though, for the time being.

The Invisible Fence

There is a saying, "Good fences make good neighbors."  I don't think I agree with that.  We don't have fences or walls keeping our neighbors out and have good relationships with all of them.  But as I think of it more, maybe there is some truth to the saying.  Five or six years ago, we had a Great Pyrenees dog named, "Big Boy."  Big Boy was a good livestock guardian dog.  It is ingrained in these dogs to protect their charge, whether cows, goats, or chickens.  As a result, Great Pyrenees are on patrol, guard duty at all times.  These dogs go out on maneuvers patrolling the boundary.

Big Boy's boundaries didn't exactly match our property line and he would go over to the neighbors' houses.  He even would follow us to church.  One particular day a neighbor came over to visit and politely, but assertively, informed me that Big Boy had marked his territory at his house by peeing all over his chrome Harley Davidson motorcycle.  I was not being a good neighbor, or more specifically, Big Boy was not exactly showering our neighbor with kindness.

When we got Belle, we figured we'd solve this issue and we got her a collar that would keep her within the perimeter.  It worked!  For two years that collar did a great job.  It works by GPS and we set a large perimeter boundary.  When she gets near the boundary, the collar vibrates and beeps.  If she hits the boundary, it will administer a shock.  She quickly learned to stay within our five acre property.  After 2 years, the collar gave up the ghost.  It's imperative that we get another because Belle has a bad habit of getting out on the road when the battery would run low.  It would be horrible if something was to happen to her.  We went to order another one, but it was discontinued.  Fortunately, there was another one that was an upgrade.  We got it in the mail yesterday. 

Tricia charged it and programmed the boundary.  I walked up to Belle as she napped and put the new collar on her.  For the rest of the day, it worked like a charm!

You're not supposed to leave the collar on for more than 12 hours at a time, so at night I took it off, and put Belle in the garage.  Last night I heard coyotes howling in the distance and this ignited Belle to barking in the garage in answer to this threat of her livestock.  The collar has a few things to be aware of: sometimes on cloudy days, it might have trouble gaining connection to GPS and sometimes under the cover of trees, the signal might be sketchy.  Other than that, as we walked around the yard testing it this afternoon, we think this is going to be a good product, for Belle, for us, and for our neighbors.  Thou shalt not pee on Thy neighbor's Harley would have to be one of a dog's ten commandments, I would think.

At night we bring the collar inside and recharge it, although it didn't need a charge tonight as we had installed the collar mid afternoon.

We're hoping that this collar will work as well as the last one did.  We want to make sure that we (and our dog, Belle) are being good neighbors.  Belle's new collar will help her keep her end of the bargain.

Our Baby is 24!

Today Benjamin turned 24.  He's our youngest.  It is hard to imagine.  What a journey.  Considering what happened to him, it is a miracle that he's still with us.  All praise to God!  We had the first part of our celebration tonight.  We made homemade brownies and ice cream, put on party hats, sang and acted goofy.  Even Belle was invited to the party.  She's definitely an "outside" dog.  It is only on very special occasions that she's allowed indoors.

Today would be one of those occasions as she shares a birthday with Benjamin.  Belle turned 5 years old today.  She was liking all of the attention and even wore a party hat to be in the festive birthday spirit.  

While we enjoyed our ice cream served over a warm brownie, we sang "Happy Birthday to You."  That's truly an awkward experience when everyone sings for you, but you know that everyone loves you, so it's a good experience as well.

Me & My Guys

Once the singing was over, everyone absolutely destroyed the dessert.  He's requested a chocolate marble Bundt cake, I think for Round 2 of the birthday celebration coming up on Saturday.

Momma & Her Dudes

Happy, Happy Birthday to Benjamin (and Belle, too!)

The Dog Days of Summer Are Over

Thank the Lord.  The dog days of summer are over.  While it still got to 72 degrees today, there's a coolness in the morning and the leaves of all the pecan trees are falling, blanketing the ground.  We've had a few cool nights, enabling us to burn fires in the fireplace and out in the firepit.  During the summertime, the heat and humidity zaps the energy out of you, but with the influx of fall weather, you get a renewed sense of vitality - a new pep in your step.

That goes for both man AND beast.  Belle is so frisky and playful.  No more laying around (except for tonight as there's a thunderstorm rolling through and she's laying scared underneath my work bench).  The cool weather has prompted her to be so playful, jumping around and chasing you.  Benjamin and Russ were out near the pecan trees giving her a bunch of attention.

Ol' Belle wanted to dance with Benjamin, putting her huge feet up on his shoulder!

Then she jumped up in his arms, the big galoot!

Not only that.  Belle has really stepped up her game as livestock guardian dog.  She watches over all the animals very closely now, barking when any strange dog or person comes around.  Belle's a good ol' girl.  She seems to be very happy on the homestead.  She loves her people.

Belle's not fond of fires, but we are.  I had to take a photo of Tricia and her boys warming up by the fire pit.

We're so pleased that fall is here!

Belle Watching Over Her Charge

 It's Sunday Morning 7AM, just a beautiful morning already.  I step out on the back patio and observe the sights and sounds of the morning. Click on the arrow below and you will see and hear what I did while having a cup of Community Coffee Cafe Blend this morning...

Allow me to give a little background.  Belle is our Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dog.  She's such a good girl.  She loves her people.  I'm going to be honest, though.  She hasn't always been real good at her job.  Belle was supposed to protect her chickens from the bloodthirsty mink that went through our flock like poop through a goose.  While Belle was asleep in our garage, the mink drained the lifeblood from our egg layers.  She likes us so much, she'd rather be around us than keeping watch over her charge.

On another occasion, a dog broke through our fence and killed a few chickens and Belle was nowhere to be seen.  I was real unfortunate.  We were feeding her.  We kept our end of the bargain and Belle was falling woefully short on her end.  And then something lately changed.  It's as if she finally got what she was hired to do.  It all suddenly clicked.  And now, she enjoys being close to the goats and chickens.  She's still a little leery of the cows.  But she'll position herself in their midst and sit at attention, scanning the horizon, searching for anything that's amiss.

Something caught Belle's attention to the west of our homestead.  You can see her standing up in the center of the photo below, observing and then barking.  The goats suddenly took notice.  They raised their ears and ran together in a pile, facing the same direction.

I zoomed in so that you could see her at her post.  When she was just a puppy, we traveled to Colfax, LA to pick her up.  The owners lived near the woods.  They told us that their adult Great Pyrenees would venture out at night and attack and kill coyotes.  They would come back in the morning with their white coats stained with (coyote) blood.  Belle is a gentle giant, but I assume she's got a killer instinct within.

Here are the goats all stacked up together once Belle began barking to warn them.  They are looking in the direction that Belle is barking.  I never could figure out what she was alarmed about.  I was in my robe and didn't want to be too immodest in the event that the neighbors were out and about.

In about 30 minutes I ventured out to show appreciation to our girl for doing her job.

What a good girl!

Observances on a Thursday

I walked outside to a cool (for us) morning.  Temperatures were in the low 60's and it felt GREAT!  Belle, our Great Pyrenees, seconded that motion.  With her long hair, she's ready for cooler weather.  She was alert and frisky and guarding her charge of cows, goats and chickens.  She doesn't guard the honeybees.  She says, "the heck with that."  They stung her before and whenever we work bees, Belles goes into hiding.  I don't blame her.

The Black Turtle Beans are blooming and putting on pods.  I'll let the beans ripen on the plant and I'll pick the dried pods and shell them for cooking.  We really like black beans.   A favorite simple meal of ours is to cook the black beans and refry them into a paste and then spread the refried black beans on a homemade flour tortilla, add some white cheese, fold in half and eat.  The blooms of the black beans are lavender-colored and pretty, attracting pollinators to the garden.  The black beans are more or less a bush bean, but in this case, they reached out and grabbed the cucumber trellis and they are taking off climbing it.

Here's something cool I saw in the garden.  I chased it and the brightly colored insect was moving fast.  It is a red velvet ant, but don't be deceived.  It is not an ant.  It is actually a wasp.  This one is a female since it doesn't have wings.  The males have wings.  I almost made the mistake of picking it up and boy, am I glad I didn't.  It's nickname is "Cow Killer" because of its painful sting, ranking as one of the worst stings on the sting pain index.  Don't pick these up!

One final insect I saw in the garden was this black bee pollinating the louffa gourd flowers.  The brightly-colored yellow flowers are prevalent in the back part of the garden where the louffa vines proliferate.  This is not a honeybee and it is not a bumblebee.  I was researching to see what it was and if I'm looking at it correctly, it is a black bee - a carpenter bee.

Well, well...  We wage war with the carpenter bees out at the barn.  They like to drill holes in the 2x4s that form up the rafters of the roof.  On both sides of the barn, we keep badminton rackets hanging on a nail - not to play badminton, but we've found that the rackets are great for popping carpenter bees.  We swing and pop them mid flight.  They fall to the ground stunned, and we run and stomp on them.  It's great fun.  We're easily entertained, as you can see.

I'm glad this bee is pollinating, but I don't want him drilling holes in our barn.  If he does and we catch him with the racket, this will be the last flower he sees.

What Brings You Joy?

This is Belle.  She's our Great Pyrenees dog.  Right off the top of my head I can think of only one other creature with the adjective "Great" before its name.  That would be the Great White Shark.  If you had the adjective "great" preceding your name, you might be tempted to become prideful, but Belle isn't like that.  She's not pretentious or grandiose in the way she carries herself.  She's just Belle.  She's a people person and enjoys spending time with us.

Take the other morning, for example.  I was trying to study for our Sunday School lesson on the back patio.  Belle wanted in on the study.  She's so big that when she gets near, there's no room for any study materials.  How could you turn that face away, though?  I think she's smiling, but that just may be me assuming things.  She seems happy, anyway.

Our study in on the Book of Acts, and it is talking about the explosive growth of the early church, brought about by the Holy Spirit and the change that came over the apostles due to the Spirit's power, changing them from fearful men who denied Him to bold witnesses of His power and deity.  They became witnesses of who Christ is and what He's done for you and me.  As believers, we're called to be His witnesses as well in a world that is growing ever darker.  It seems hard, and I won't lie, sometimes it is hard, but we're not to do it in our own power.  In fact, we can't do it in our own power.  He will embolden us.

We drove 3 1/2 hours to North Houston the other night to share a meal and fellowship with 3 other couples.  Tricia has a high school group that she's in touch with, so it was the four girls and their husbands in attendance.  We visited and ate a great meal and enjoyed one another's company for several hours just conversing across the table.  One of the girls asked a question as we sat around the table.  She and her husband had once been missionaries in Israel.  She wanted everyone to consider and communicate to the rest of the group something in their lives that brings them great joy.

I like "ice breaker" types of questions like that.  We have a list of them that we keep on our kitchen table.  Instead of small talk, it is interesting to get deeper and probe to really get to know people and what makes them tick, what's important to them, what they value.  When the question was asked, my mind immediately went the something that had occurred the night before.  I'll show you the photo first:

The sun was going down.  The field directly across the street from our house is a big hay field.  The owners of the field had cut the hay the day before and fluffed it.  A baler was brought in and they made round bales.  You could smell the cut hay as the aroma wafted across the landscape.  On an otherwise hot day, the cool of the evening was settling in and the sun sunk low in the western sky.  The very hand of God was painting a masterpiece on a big canvas.  Tricia and I were walking down the road taking in the spectacular view.  I happened to have my phone and snapped a photo as we stopped to admire it.  

Back to the answer of the question.  What brings you joy?  Tricia's turn was first and she described what I described in the preceding paragraph.  She took my answer!  It is uncanny how we are so alike in our thoughts sometimes (and then how different we can be at other times, ha ha!)  I often talk about simple pleasures in life.  Looking at a pastoral landscape like this just brings me joy and peace and happiness.

You know what I missed, though?  I missed an opportunity to point to the Creator.  To give credit and glory to the Master Painter who painted that masterpiece in the sky.  Lord, forgive me for that.  I don't ever want to seem "preachy," but I don't want to ever miss that opportunity again.  In everything, we should point to God and give Him the glory.  That remarkable sunset didn't just happen.  God put us in that exact location to view a beautiful moment.  We didn't need to travel anywhere or spend any money.  We have a benevolent God who gave us exactly what we need.  We have a wonderful Savior in Jesus, a great family, people who love us.  We have air in our lungs and another day to enjoy His blessings. 

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

 

Hotel Belle

Our Great Pyrenees, Belle, likes to roam.  It's in her nature.  It's who she is.  She is a livestock guardian dog and thus, she has a territory to protect.  Our dilemma is that we live close to the busy road where the speed limit is 55, but that's just a suggestion.  Belle has been known to get out on the road and we don't want to lose her.  I fairly routinely see white fur from Great Pyrenees dogs wedged in the torn front bumper covers of vehicles I inspect and write repair estimates on in my job.  The last thing I want to happen is for Belle to end up like that.  That would be a tragedy for our girl.

During the day we let her roam and she stays within sight.  She likes to crawl under the cattle trailer and nap in the cool dirt.  But at night, we put her on a tie out cable as that's when she likes to go on maneuvers.  She has become real adept at pulling off her collar and escaping.  To our dismay, in the morning we find the cable attached to a red collar, but there's no dog in the collar.  Tricia purchased a fancy harness that goes over her whole torso.  That will do the trick!  Nope.  She got out the first night.  We tightened it down to the tightest adjustment there was.  Here's what we found in the morning:

We don't want to lose her and there's no way we can think of to keep her in and safe from the road at night.  She jumps over the pasture fence like she's an Olympic hurdler.  So we sat down and did some research and ordered a kennel for her.  It's 8 foot long, 4 foot wide and 6 foot tall.  It came in the mail.  I'm a little disappointed in it.  Its fabrication is a Made in China deal and it's just more lightweight than I was counting on, but you get what you pay for, I reckon.  It took a little time to put it together, but we got it done.  We rested it on the slab that we had laid years ago for a dog pen.

Evening came and we coaxed Belle into her hotel.  I don't think she's fond of the lodging.  She'd rather have her freedom at night, but her roaming and barking is aggravating the neighbors, no doubt.

We let her get acclimated to her new lodging and then moved in her water dish.  We were concerned due to her "Houdini-like" ability to escape all forms of restraint, but the kennel is too heavy for her to lift.  She can't dig under it.  The tarp is fastened tightly to the top so we don't think she can go over it.  Let's see what happens.

The next morning she was still in the kennel!  I worked on putting the old doghouse together and put new shingles on the roof.  Then we put the doghouse in the kennel in the event it would rain overnight, well, she'd be high and dry.  Tonight I walked outside and heard a loud noise.  I walked over to the kennel and Belle was on TOP of the doghouse.  Just like Ol' Snoopy.  I think she was surveying the surroundings and plotting a way of escape like "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Papillon." 

Hopefully, the Belle Hotel will work.  During the day she's as free as a bird, but at night, we'd sleep better if our 'bird' is in her cage.

Our Dog, Belle

Belle is our Great Pyrenees.  She's a good girl.  A BIG girl, but a good girl.  Lately we've had some fierce storms that blew through our area.  As big as she is, she's a big baby when it comes to bad weather.  She hides under my workbench in the garage.  She will also beg and Tricia caves in and lets her come into the house.  She parks her big rear end in the half bathroom by the back door.  The next morning the half bathroom smells like "wet dog."  Not good.

She's been barking a lot at night.  We know that there are stray cats in the area and that may be what she's carrying on about.  Or we know that the neighbors have dogs.  If there are any other dogs in the proximity of Belle, she lets them know that this is her territory and it's off limits to her.  Regardless, she barks loud and we worry that it is bothering the neighbors.  We've apologized to them on her behalf.  They say it doesn't bother them, but we think they're just being kind.

Belle's job is to be a livestock guardian dog, but fulfilling that job description started off in less than stellar fashion.  When we first got her and put her with the animals, she promptly chased the chickens and ate a few of them.  She also ate the valve stems and mud flaps off the pickup truck.  She also had a penchant for chewing through the brake lines on my car.  I drove to work with no brakes one day.  "My dog is trying to kill me," I thought.  Those shenanigans cost us some money.  I'm glad to say that as she's grown older, she's grown out of most of those bad behaviors.  Except for digging holes.  That dog excels at hole-digging.  Not your garden variety hole, but 'fall in the hole and sprain your ankle' holes.

Fact of the matter is, we love that girl.  She likes to sit out by the barn in a dog house that I built many years ago for a puppy we had named Cutie Pie.  Cutie Pie was stolen!  What type of individual steals a child's puppy?  It is heart-breaking to lose a dog.  By the way, have you ever seen the movie, "My Dog, Skip?"  Wonderful movie.  I highly recommend it.

Stoic Belle

I think she'd like it if we stenciled her name on the dog house.  To be honest, I didn't think she'd fit in it.  She's way bigger than Cutie Pie was!

Smiling Belle

Belle just likes being around people.  She likes her people.  If we're outside, she's gonna come find us and get some attention.  Sometimes her desire to be the center of attention is overwhelming.  A few Saturday mornings ago I was on the back patio reading over my Sunday School lesson.  Trying to read over my Sunday School lesson...

Our dog, Belle, made it very difficult to get any Bible Study done on that particular morning.  Who could deny attention to that face?  Not me!

The Surveillance State

To say I don't like modernity is an understatement.  Oh, for sure I like the ease and efficiency that certain technological advancements have afforded us, but I wonder if it's all worth it for what you lose.  I don't think it is worth it at all.  I don't like the fact that information about us is being gathered and sold.  If you google search a product or ask a question, pop up ads appear on your computer and phone.  If you talk about something, your phone is listening and you will receive ads for the topic of your conversation.  It is really just too much!  The genie, it appears, is out of the bottle, and I don't see any way of getting her back in.

But now I am going to contradict myself.  With the predation we've seen on our chicken flock, it is high time to get Belle, our Great Pyrenees guardian dog out protecting her charge.  Our problem is that Great Pyrenees LOVE to roam.  They don't stay where you want them to stay.  Highway 26 is just east of us and it is a very busy road.  Belle has gone across the road, and I don't think she understands the danger.

For that reason, we have a collar on her with a long tie-out cable to keep her from roaming.  We allow her to roam supervised each day and take her on walks with a lead rope.  But like us, she desires FREEDOM!  We looked into some GPS collars, but they are doggone (pardon the pun) expensive.  Finally we settled on one that allows you to set a radius.  It is not the Cadillac of dog collars.  It is more the Nissan Sentra.  This one costs $99.  We worked on setting it up, playing with the dimensions of the zone and calibrating the center.  This took some trial and error and walking around, holding the collar, listening for the buzzing.

The way it works is that you charge up this collar.  It will hold a charge for 12 hours.  Belle roams free, but when she gets to the edge of the boundary, the collar beeps, vibrates, and administers a shock.  Now, I know that may sound cruel, but if it works it is less cruel than being on a tie-out or running the risk of getting hit by a car.  The beeping, vibrating, shocking is designed to keep Belle within a big range of acceptable roaming.  At least that is the idea.  It has a 90 day money-back guarantee return policy.

We have been trying it out as time allows.  We put the collar on:

It takes a minute or two for the collar to link up and find the GPS coordinates.

The flashing light lets you know it is linked up and ready.  Time to test out the fence without a fence.  A virtual fence, you might say.

And then...  You let her go.  Belle immediately ran around like she always does.  We watched her as she went way out into the pasture and noticed that when she got near the set boundary, she acted funny, no doubt noticing the buzzing.  She changed directions and walked back into the safe zone.  For the rest of the day she wandered around... FREE!

At one point I went looking for her as I couldn't find her in the pasture, but I soon found her.  Can you see her hiding place?

She has a nice hole that she has dug under a log.  We call her the "log dog."  It's a good spot.  If I was a dog, I think I'd hang out there as well.

No sir, I am not breaking any laws that I know of, but I don't like being tracked, surveilled, spied on, controlled, or watched.  But if this thing works, it will be a win-win for Belle.  I will admit that a part of me thought this collar would have been great to put on the kids when they were teenagers.  Just joking, of course.  Or am I?

We sing an old hymn at church called "Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing."  It was written before the Revolutionary War.  I thought of the words to the third verse, as I was watching Belle with her new GPS collar:

O to grace how great a debtor

daily I’m constrained to be!

Let that grace now, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love;

here’s my heart; O take and seal it;

seal it for thy courts above.

We are all prone to wander, aren't we?  We're different than the animal kingdom, though.  We have a soul and we have free will.  While we have a sinful nature that we constantly battle with, if we are believers, the Holy Spirit prompts us and convicts us, (much like Belle's collar) to remind us to stay within a boundary that would bring glory to God.  Because we have free will, we can ignore the conviction and do things our own way.  In so doing, like Belle, we put ourselves in danger.  

We will continue to test out the collar on Belle.  She did great the first full day.  Like me, she's prone to wander.  May the Good Lord take care of us both!  If it works, Belle can take care of our flock.

The Headless Hen

 

"That's it. I've had it with this dump! We've got no food, we got no jobs,... our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!!!"  Quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber

Why am I thinking about a quote from Dumb and Dumber?  Well, I walked out to the barn this morning to do as we always do - morning chores.  It's always a pretty sight in the morning.  The sun is just coming up in the east and the sun's rays are filtering through the live oak and pecan trees, casting long shadows westward across the pasture.  I stopped to just soak in the view and stillness of the morning.  The roosters suddenly break the silence with loud crows that echo across the property.  Sometimes I feel like screaming in the morning, too, but not today.  It is a nice day.

But then, I notice that something isn't right.   Just to the west of the barn and south of the garden, I spot a Barred Rock hen.  She's laying down like chickens do when they are taking a dust bath.  Except, she's not taking a dust bath.  She's got no head.

Overnight, some critter killed her, leaving her body intact, but taking her head.  From past experience, I'm guessing that the predator is either a raccoon or an owl.  They are both notorious for this.  This was a big, fat hen.  You can see that dark yellow fat lining her breast on the just-killed carcass.  She was healthy and would have laid many more eggs for us.  But her egg-laying days are done.

Driving to church today, there was a huge raccoon dead on Louisiana Highway 26, not far, as the crow flies, from the pasture where the headless hen lays.  I hope the bandit that killed our hen is the one that's in the middle of the road.  An eye for an eye, as the Good Book says.  But if an owl is the culprit, and you'll remember that I posted a photo of a big barn owl in our front yard last month, then we've got big problems.  It is illegal to kill an owl.  What to do?  I did catch yet ANOTHER possum in my cage trap last night, but I don't think its possums that are doing the killing this time.

Well, that's where Belle, our livestock guardian dog, a Great Pyrenees, comes in. 

We've tried several times to let her free in the pasture to guard the cows, chickens and goats.  At first, she didn't quite understand her job description and would kill the chickens.  This wasn't working.  Then, when we think she had that worked out of her system, she'd jump over the perimeter fence and would roam all over the place.  There's several problems with that.  The neighbors aren't keen with the idea of a big dog roaming through their property.  Then, she doesn't understand the busy road.  She crosses it with reckless abandon.  We don't want her to get hit like the raccoon we talked about earlier.

I am going to start researching one of those collars that allows you to roam so many feet before a light shock is administered to hopefully keep her at home.  I'll report back with what I learn.  One way or another, we've got to solve our predation dilemma.  

Please Make the Fleas Flee

Poor Belle has been scratching.  The hot, dry days of summer has been almost unbearable, but an infestation of fleas that has been worse than we've ever seen, has made Belle's summer miserable.  Time to do something about it.  Step 1 was giving her a bath to get them off.  Tricia did some research and mixed up a solution of vinegar and Dawn dishwashing liquid.

This was only the second bath that Belle has had.  We didn't know exactly how she was going to deal with it.  We wet her down and then slowly poured the solution on her.  She didn't object too badly.

We scrubbed and scrubbed.  The sudsy action cleaned her up, but we noticed the fleas fleeing.  Soon, they were dying.  Then, they were dead.  

The dawn and vinegar supposedly kills and/or repels fleas.  We saw quite a few fleas in Belle's long hair, but they were no longer moving after the bath.  We used a brush to brush them all out.

We also got some flea treatment that we put on her back in four spots - from her shoulder to the head of her tail.  We blew out the garage with the leaf blower and then I sprayed a flea killing pesticide around the garage.  We do NOT want them coming in the house.  After watching Belle for a while, she's no longer scratching near as much as she was doing before.

If at First You Don't Succeed...

This is Billy Boy.  He's the Devon bull we've borrowed from a friend to breed two of our three cows.  Well, actually, to breed one cow and one heifer.  One of our Jersey heifers was bred (we think) by a registered Jersey bull that we borrowed from another friend.  She hasn't come back in cycle and if our calendar is right, she should be calving in August.

We watched Billy Boy romance both Rosie and Elsie.  We marked the calendar and began watching intently 18-21 days later.  Elsie did NOT come back in heat.  She's bred.  Rosie on the other hand did.  She was not bred.  She's 14 years old.  That's pretty old for Jersey cows we've owned.  I did read, however, that the record longevity for a Jersey cow was 37 years!!

Billy Boy, the Stud

So 21 days later, we're watching and see that Rosie came back in heat.  Billy Boy was on the scene and took care of business.  You can see by Rosie's crooked tail and the long string of mucous coming from her back side.  We've marked our calendar and will see what happens in 21 days.  Hopefully, she's bred this time.  If not, we'll have to send Billy Boy back home.  Our pasture doesn't have enough grass to support him and our cows, goats, and chickens.

Will the third time be a charm, Rosie?

Speaking of Jersey cows, they are a lot smaller than beef cattle and smaller than a Holstein.  We learned this during the livestock shows back when the kids showed.  In comparison to other animals, our Jerseys were small.  We also learned that after buying a head gate.  When trimming hooves, giving antibiotics, wormer or even for grooming and milking, it is important sometimes to have a head gate.

We purchased one and bolted it to a makeshift chute on the side of the barn.  We installed a gate on a hinge that we push to isolate the cows for treatment.  We learned quickly that the head gate was made for bigger cattle.  As soon as we closed the head gate, all three of the cows were able to wiggle and pull their heads back through!  This won't do.

I had a plan.  Time to invoke redneck engineering.  I ripped a 36" long 2 x 4 and made it a 2 x 2.  Then I purchased 6 carriage head bolts, nuts and washers.  I used my impact to drill holes in the galvanized vertical pipe that makes up the stationary side of the head gate and did the same to the 2 x 2.  Then I bolted it up.  When finished, it looked like this:

As you can see, I don't think they'll be able to wiggle out of the head gate now.  I was going to test it out on Elsie or LuLu (one of the two heifers) Sunday afternoon, but time got away from me. I think it will work.  The gap is much smaller now.

There's a walkway between the garage and the garden and pasture that we call the 'grove.'  A pecan tree and live oak trees create an area of perpetual shade.  The breeze blows in this area on even the stillest of days and I like to think it is a little cooler here than anywhere else on the homestead.

Tricia hung her hammock between the pecan tree and the Bradford pear.  That tree was a free tree I got from the Arbor day foundation.  I planted it temporarily in the yard, intending to move it to a better location one day.  By the time I tried to dig it up, its tap root was well established and I couldn't dig it up.  I let it stay where it was.  At least it serves a newfound purpose as an anchor for a hammock!  Tricia was relaxing...  On the ladder in the background, you can see a swarm trap I have set.  We are trying to catch swarm #3.  No success yet.

The next day when Tricia wasn't in the hammock, I figured I would see how relaxing it was.  I climbed in and was enjoying the comfort when...  Belle, our Great Pyrenees decided she wanted to jump in the hammock too.  The big galoot!

Perhaps tomorrow I can sneak back into the hammock without having 'company' join me.