Oh Peanut Butter

 Oh Peanut Butter. You may drive me literally crazy. When we got home on Saturday night, he was not there. He was not there on Sunday morning when we got up. I tried not to think about it since he does this often. I know he ends up coming home. I think I’m more worried about the what if he doesn’t. I know there is always that chance. He was here this morning bouncing around like he normally does when I go in the shop. He is fine. He just runs off doing whatever cats do but it sure drives me crazy. The other 2 stay close to home and I don’t worry much about them. Oh Peanut Butter. 

Mom??

 This will sound a bit out there, but I swear it’s true. This morning when I was getting up, Bubba was on the other side of the door. I swear his meowing sounded like mom over and over. I had to laugh at Bubba as I came out of the bedroom. He wanted so badly for me to sit down and pet on him. He sure is cute. I swear he was saying mom. I should have taken a video. 

Donkeys and Cats

 Well, our barn cats roam all over the place. That’s a given. That’s what they do. Now, on one side of the pasture, Cracker Jack loves the cats and just wants to play with them. On the other side of the pasture, Ned and Pete will chase them and try to stomp on them. I’m sure the cats get confused as to which donkeys are okay and which are not. They really don’t like any of them and try to stay away from them which is a good thing. I have watched them on both sides of the pasture. Good thing the cats are fast that’s for sure. 

Not the Chickens

 Ronnie and I were talking with my sister, brother in law and nephew about the chickens. It was mostly facts and stuff we have seen with the chickens here. Chickens are brutal to each other. I have never seen anything like it. As we talked for awhile about the chickens and then moved on to the other animals. As the conversation was winding down, I asked my nephew which animal he would like to see first when he makes it out to the farm. His response was priceless. He said, not the chickens. We all thought that was hilarious. I don’t blame him for saying that though. I just hope he doesn’t end of scared of them. They haven’t hurt us, just each other. 

Adventures of Ronnie and Shanna

 I’m telling you, us going anywhere is like a funny comic strip. We didn’t leave when we needed to since we were preparing the animals for us to leave making sure they had all they needed. Then we get about 2 hours down the road and I realized I forgot my makeup. Luckily there was a Walmart close by fixing to close but I was able to get what I needed. We get a few more hours up the road and it’s 1am and we are tired. We rented a room in a not so great place where the walls were so thin you could hear the parties going on next door. We got a few hours of sleep and back on the road. We had a good time but I started hearing donkeys braying that weren’t really there and seeing dogs that weren’t there. Hahahaha!! Apparently I was missing the animals. I was ready to get back to life on the farm. They were all excited to see us even though we got home at 11pm. Traveling with us is something else but so is daily life. I guess it is all part of the adventure together. 

Hard to Leave

 We left the house for Thanksgiving to go see our families. It’s always hard for us to leave without at least one of us staying home to make sure the animals are taken care of. We have only left one other time and they were taken care of. It still is hard for us. We had a girl that came by several times to watch us feed and water and trusted her with the animals. She did a great job and literally lives right beside us. I am so grateful for the help. I know next time I will still text and call whoever is caring for them just to check in. All went well. They were taken care of and were happy to see us. 

Coyote Scare

 Ronnie came home the other day and gave me a scary story. He said he was fixing to leave for work and he looked out toward the pig pen and saw a coyote lurking around the pen. That in itself scares me. I do know there is barbed wire buried at the bottom of the fence and it is a tall fence. I have lights out there for them just for this reason and they have shelters. Ronnie did shoot at the animal, he didn’t hit him but wanted to scare him off. Luckily there has been no more signs of the coyote. He also said the donkeys weren’t near there but they took off to where he was shooting and not away from it, so that’s a good sign. It still terrifies me. 

Funny Sight

 I went out to the barn to look for eggs. The egg situation is dwindling down due to the weather change. I look though a spot in the barn and see a funny sight. I saw Hercules standing beside the chicken roosting fence with chickens standing on his back. It looked like Hercules was trying to help the chickens get up on their roosting post. It really was a funny sight. You never know what you will see around here. 

Sick Jeb

 Jeb, the horse was the first to get sick. I went out one evening and noticed his eyes and nose were running. He had that look that said he didn’t feel good. Luckily we had some meds and Ronnie was able to give him some rounds of antibiotics to make him feel better. He wasn’t really active and just looked like he felt bad. Ronnie told me a story about how bad Jeb must have felt. He said one afternoon he was looking out the window and saw Jeb laying on his side and Chief was standing overtop of him like he was protecting him. Ronnie said he got nervous and went out there. Jeb was just sunning but he didn’t look good. He had already had a shot of antibiotics, but he made sure to give him the recommended doses to make sure he started feeling better. After about a week, Jeb did start to act like he felt better, thank goodness. Bless his little heart. I felt bad for him, but he is back to normal now. I am glad we have Chief. I’m really glad Jeb and Chief get along so well. 

Weather Changes

 The weather around here has been nuts lately. It’s that time of year. It’s hot in the daytime and cold at night. This wrecks havoc on the animals sometimes so I take an extra long time checking them out. I hate when any of them get sick but I keep meds on hand and the vets number handy this time of year. This is part of caring for these animals. They do get sick sometimes and you have to be prepared to treat them. This time of year and in the spring is usually when it happens. We do our best around here to ensure all of the animals are happy and healthy at all times. Pray for them and us this winter. 

Impatient Spam

 It was starting to get cold out. I decided to put more straw in the pig houses. The only problem was, it was already dark. I didn’t think anything about it since I have lights out there. I started dividing it up to get it in the houses. One of those houses, I have to crawl in the house to put straw in the back. As I was crawling in, Spam couldn’t get past me, but I didn’t know that at the time. As I was crawling out, backward, I feel Spam bite me on the back of the calf. Now, I know she just wanted me out of the way and she didn’t go through my scrub pants, so I know she didn’t do it hard. Those pants are thin. There was no mark on me. As soon as I got out of her way, she ran in and started moving straw around. It’s a good thing I love that girl. 

Chicks

 I have been out of town the last several days. It got cold out. I called my husband everyday to check on the animals. He told me it had gotten cold out and Suzie Q had lost her 2 of her chicks. When I got home I was looking for her and sure enough, she only has one chick with her now. I’m not sure what happened to the other 2 but my guess is they got too cold. Poor things. This is the part of the farm life I’m not good at. 

Skunk

 This morning I went out to feed the animals and I had this overwhelming smell of a skunk. Yuck. I went looking for chickens to make sure they were all still here and okay. I know I’m overprotective but hey, that’s me. I had to find all of the teenage like chickens. I’m not sure why I obsess over them. Those guys are probably more protected than any of them. They roost in with 4 donkeys. The rest of them are in a pen with the cows (the cows are not penned up all the time, mostly at night), so I guess they are protected also. I think a skunk may have got skippy so I do worry about it. I haven’t smelled a skunk since Skippy disappeared. However, this time they were all fine. I counted all 12 of them. 

Seen it all

 I think I might have seen it all now. Probably not, but this isn’t something you see everyday. Or at least, I don’t. I had seen Peanut Butter in the shop and then he was gone. I walked to the back of the hay pile where Edith has been laying eggs since she has decided to live in the shop again and there sits Peanut Butter… on an egg. I kid you not. That cat has been sitting on eggs. Whether he knows what he is doing or not, he was sitting on that egg. Normally there are more of them, but I have been gathering the eggs in several places everyday so we don’t have more babies running around. I love seeing the babies but I think 30 chickens is enough. If I’m being exact I would say there are 32 chickens here now. That’s a lot of chickens if you think about it. Anyway. Peanut Butter was laying on the egg, but I was able to get it from him Mimi he easier than I could a hen. Never a dull moment. 

Photos

 If you know me well, you know I take thousands of pictures. I take even more now that I am using the photos in books and my blog. As I was going through pictures the other day, I noticed a photo. I couldn’t remember when it was or what happened. It was a photo of Hercules out of the fence in our new home. I couldn’t remember what happened, so I asked Ronnie if he remembered. He laughed. Of course he remembered. After he told me what happened, I remembered it, too. Hercules had watched us intently on opening and closing the gate. We left the chain where he could reach it and he was able to open the gate on his own and get out. He just walked right out, while we were standing there. Now, he made Ronnie chase him a bit but then went right back into his pasture, with treats of course.  If I am remembering correctly, that only happened one time. They have a lot of land they roam so I understand not needing to escape now. Never a dull moment here. I can’t believe I had forgotten this. I blame Covid. 

Another Peanut Butter Post

 This cat drives me so crazy some days. I knew the first time I saw his picture that I would love him so much. And I do. He has been flighty lately. He comes and goes. The last time he left, I didn’t see him for a week and a half. I just knew he was gone for good. That night, he was back home. He really hasn’t left since then. We had a talk and I think he listened. Obviously I’m kidding but in all seriousness, he has been staying home more. I have been sitting in the shop with him and petting on him more now that he is home more. He is the sweetest little thing. He isn’t as comfortable following Ronnie and I around as the other two but I sure do love to see him prancing around in the shop when the doors open. I’m grateful I adopted him and Jelly. I’m even more grateful he is staying close to home. 

Animal Guru

 I have this friend that just now I have named the animal guru. This girl can get close to any animal I have, even Noma. That’s amazing to me. My friend came by this weekend and Noma came out of her shelter and went right up to her. I couldn’t believe it. Except I can believe it because she did it the last time she came over. It amazes me every time I see it. My animals are relaxed with her for sure. Jeb and Chief were in a contest to see who could stay closer to her the longest. It does warm my heart to see these animals with her. Thanks, Heather for coming by and loving on all of these animals. 

Happiness

 So, I know I’m a little passionate about my animals. Peanut Butter and Jelly were adopted after Rona no longer came around. Peanut Butter is spreading his wings, or whatever cats do now. He is gone more than he is home. Let me tell you, we may have his schedule down. I noticed not long ago all the cat food was gone from the bowls when I knew the other 2 cats had not eaten all of it. We have been catching peanut Butter home now that it’s getting dark earlier. There is nothing but pure happiness on his face when I open the shop and yell his name in a dramatic long drawn out way. If he is there, he runs out of his hiding spot and right over to me. I hope now that isn’t getting colder he will stay home more. He is a one of a kind cat. The other 2 are amazing as well. They followed Ronnie and I all over the farm tonight while we were getting hay to all of the animals. I’m not a fan of the cold, so I make sure each animal has a comfortable and dry spot before I go in at night. It might not be the warmest spot, but it will keep them all out of the wind and the weather elements. Yesterday to today there was a 20 degree drop. The horses have runny eyes and noses from the change, but they have the barn to stay dry in. I keep a very close eye on these animals during this time of year. I’m getting off topic. I am going to try to take a video of Peanut Butter next time I catch him in the shop just to show you how happy he is. 

Not Smart

 All of these baby chickens who aren’t babies anymore. For some reason these guys like to hang out in the backyard with the dogs. I’m glad they are still breathing. The dogs aren’t big on the chickens. However, they are tolerating them much better than I thought they would. These chickens aren’t scared of the dogs at all. They even go hang out under the deck with them. I just feel like these chickens aren’t too smart. We have been training the dogs to leave the chickens alone and I guess they have learned to leave them alone. It amazes me to see all of them in the backyard together.