The Briars And The Ewe Sheep

Remember our poor old ewe sheep Papaya with the briar on her butt?

As in THE briar, ONE briar, that’s more than enough briars???!!!!

Well, last night I went out to do chores.  I was running a little late (okay, a whole lot late!) and it was almost dark.  My wooly pig, otherwise known as a Shetland ewe sheep, otherwise known around these parts as Coconut, came running up to me looking for food, as usual.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.  No, she didn’t have a briar stuck on her butt.  You know, as in ONE briar???  That’s right, she didn’t have just one briar, she had a whole bunch of briars!

I went back inside and got some leather gloves before I even tried to deal with that mess.  (And yeah, grabbed the camera too so I could get a picture, even though a flash doesn’t go far when it’s dark outside!)

So, have you ever tried to chase a sheep around in the dark while trying to grab hold of prickly briars and pull them loose from wool?  Well, let me tell you, if you’ve never done it, you’re sure missing an adventure.  Or at least a lot of good exercise!

And in case you’re wondering where she got all those briars, well, The Farmer was being industrious and clearing out the undergrowth from a line of evergreens along one side of the pasture this past Saturday.  He threw the trash over the fence for the animals to eat.

Unfortunately, that included the briars.  For Cinnamon the goat, that’s a good thing.  For the wooly ewe sheep, it turned out to be a bad thing.

And I thought picking those little sweet gum balls out of their wool was bad!

Ewe Crazy Sheep!

One morning this week I went out to do chores, and saw this:

If you don’t see it at first, look a little closer.  Papaya has a big briar stuck to her butt.

Valrhona wanted to know just what I was going to do about it.

Can’t you see she’s got a briar on her butt? DO something!”

Our flock matriarch strolled out to have a look-see.

Papaya, you crazy ewe! There’s a briar on your butt!

One of the hens wandered by, totally unconcerned with any problems the ewe sheep were having.

Nice try Papaya, but that looks NOTHING like one of my beautiful tail feathers.

She probably figured it’s just some more shenanigans from those crazy sheep.

Papaya seemed to think there was nothing wrong.

Hey lady! What are EWE lookin’ at!????

She left all in a huff, dragging her briar and her buddy Valrhona along with her.

I had to corner her in the sheep shed and chase her around a while before I could get hold of her.  (Too bad nobody was here to take a video of THAT, ha, ha!)  She’s a wild child, and doesn’t like to be caught. 

Eventually, however, I got hold of her and pulled the briar out of her wool.  No more briar on her butt.

You crazy ewe.

The African Grey Parrot At Play

The other day I was cleaning the kitchen.  I know, hard to believe.  I’ll never win any Good Housekeeping Awards.  Anyway, my pet parrot likes to play in the kitchen.  While I was loading the dishwasher, she worked her way up to the kitchen sink.

First she thought it might be fun to perch on some dirty dishes:

That was fun looking around to see what she might chew on, but she likes to find the highest perch.  So she tried the liquid soap dispenser next.

That was entertaining for a little while, but she wanted to find something higher.  See, the great thing about this little parrot is that she definitely has her own personality. She knows what she likes and what she doesn’t like, and also knows how to achieve things.  In the same way humans like to play sports, socialise, play partypoker and go shopping, this little parrot has her own personality and entertainment preferences. 

So the cold water handle worked only briefly, but ahhhh, the faucet. Now that looked promising!

The only trouble was that it was a wee bit of a streeeeetch to reach up there!

But she streeeeeetchhhhhhed her leg and toes as far as she could, trying to reach the faucet so she could pull herself up.

It was hard work, but she finally made it!

This little pet parrot is nothing, if not PERSISTENT.  She seemed quite proud of her accomplishment, and stayed on the faucet until I carried her back to her cage.

Life if never dull with an African Grey Parrot in the house!

White Rooster And Red Roosters

Every year we have this same dilemma. . . too many roosters.  Now if we were up to turning a live rooster into a dead rooster and all it entails to get one ready to cook, it might not be so bad.

But we aren’t, and that means we always end up with too many roosters come fall.  They start harassing the hens, who have no peace, so it’s time to get catch all these rowdy roosters and pen them up by themselves so we can sell them off.

Now we keep the old rooster, our patriarch.

He’s been around a long time, treats his ladies well, and is well-mannered.  So he gets to stay.

But all these young upstarts have to go . . .

There are 7 red roosters, and 2 white roosters that need to go.  Actually, there are THREE white roosters, but that’s the one that got away.

When we were catching them the other night, he was roosting up in a catalpa tree.  The Farmer used his handy dandy poultry hook to get him down out of the tree, but he didn’t get hold of him tight and away he went.

And he’s STAYED gone.  He hasn’t come in to eat grain with the other chickens and old rooster since he got away.  I guess he’s not taking ANY chances we might catch him and get rid of him!

I think the peafowl sort of wonder why all these noisy creatures have moved in next door.

They’re a handsome bunch of farm roosters, so I hope we can find them a good home.

Anyone need a rooster (or two or three)???

Guinea Fowl At Sunset

Every evening the guinea hens and guinea keets come in to get a little feed.  They’re generally waiting for me about sunset, perched on gates and pallets.

As the light turns golden and night is coming on, there will be a BUNCH of them waiting for me.

When they see me, they start fluttering their wings and getting ready to fly down off their perch.  You can see one in the left front testing its wings (enlarge the picture and you can see it better!).

Pretty soon the guinea keets are taking that short flight down off their perches.  They sometimes do it in stages, from the highest perch to the next lower down, then onto the ground.

More and more of them get into the act, cause they sure don’t want to get left behind!

They’ll get their share of the cracked corn I’ve thrown out.

Then they’ll start another migration, looking for a place to roost for the night.  This bunch is roosting inside the sheep shed.  Most of them ran under the gate, but this one decided to perch on top of the gate for a while.

The sun was getting pretty low by the time they got in the shed to find their places.  They flew up onto their favorite spot.  The sun really glinted off the ones in flight.

It didn’t take them long to get settled in and ready for the night.

As the keets keep getting bigger, the guinea hens may decide to go back to roosting high up in the trees in the back yard.  However, the sheep shed is a pretty good spot because our dogs don’t bother them, but they are smack dab in the middle of the area our Maremma LGD (livestock guardian dog) patrols at night.

Than means they can sleep tight, and no predators bite.