Did You Miss Me?

Did You Miss Me???

I shall not make a bunch of excuses for my (long) absence, I will only say that life has chosen to be a bucking bronk, and we shall say no more of it!

 So, I shall try and fill you in on the (many, many) goings on, and events of the past that have happened.

• First of all, I culled my feathered dinosaurs down to a manageable number, I shall try and do a post on them separately soon. But let's just suffice to say that instead of a 5 gallon bucket of feed, we are down to 1 gallon of feed, and instead of several hours a day doing chores, I spend maybe 5 minutes doing chores in the mornings and evenings. I am enjoying a smaller feed bill, and less work. I spend more time with my animals than I did before, their pens are much tidier, and it's just much better all 'round.
• Radar, if you remember was an elderly horse that we adopted and put out to pasture on our ranch for the remainder of his days. Sadly, we had to put him down last week. It was during a rainy spell we had, he had come up to get his evening grain. Dad gave him his feed, and no sooner had he turned around to leave when he heard a big *thud*. He turned and saw that dear, sweet Radar had fallen down, and was unable to get back up. He was in a lot of pain, so they had to put him down. He is greatly missed. Rest in peace, sweet one!
• The predators have been terrible lately. We have seen coon droppings in the hay shed, coon prints all around the house, coyotes and hogs have been coming up real near the house, and I've seen an owl lurking around. And that's just what we've seen! Who knows what else is sneaking around out there that we don't know about! All the animals have been locked up tight, but the least secure pen was my chicken pen (i.e. a dog cage in a chainlink run). One Wednesday night, we got back late from church and hit the hay. In the wee hours of the morning, Gypsy (my dog, who sleeps with me), wakes me up. She is shaking like a leaf on a tree with the wind blowing 100 mph! I've never seen her so scared before! No sooner do I cuddle her up in the covers with me, when I hear a gunshot outside. This was one of those nights were there wasn't a single noise, everything was still and calm. When the gun went off, it sounded like a cannon getting fired outside my bedroom window! My first reaction was, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!!" Then I regained my senses...ok..maybe I'm still searching for them, but whatever....and thought, "Well, the guys are probably out shooting a coyote or something." So I stay in bed, because that's the only logical thing to do. In a few minutes I hear voices in the back of the house, people come in and out of doors, slamming them behind then. I vaguely hear something said about, "Coons..", but still lay in bed, too lazy to actually get out of my warm bed and see what's up. Thankfully, I didn't have to, because soon after, Stockton, came bursting into my room, "ASPEN!! You awake?!?!?!!!" Me, "I am know. What's going on? Who's getting shot at? Are there mountain lions outside? Are my birds OK? TELL MEE!!" < That's basically the dialogue we had. ;) He told me, he and Laredo had heard a chicken screaming bloody murder outside their window (the chicken pen is right outside their window....) and they'd quickly jumped up and ran outside to see what all the humbug was about. They ran around to the side of the house where all my feathered dinosaurs are housed, and found that inside the chicken pen, a big 30 lb coon had his hand reached inside the chicken's cage, trying to grab himself a chicken. They fired a shot, but missed, and the coon dove through a small hole in the chainlink and high tailed it into the brush. They fired another time, and thought, perhaps, they'd shot him in the bum, but the next morning we went searching for blood (or a body), but didn't find anything, except a few tracks. Sadly, I found one of my sweet Black Aussies girls had been mortally wounded. The coon had ripped open her leg, crippling her. I separated her and tried to save her, but she passed away soon after.
• Last weekend, Laredo and I took a spontaneously random road trip to town, to visit our Granny. We had all sorts of fun, and got in some good visiting, but boy howdy is it good to be home again! I honest to goodness don't know how all you folks survive in the big cities! I would loose my sanity within the first week and would be taken to a mental house. So either all of you folks are crazy, or this redneck country girl is a hermit. The latter statement is probably true. Perhaps both. ;) TeeHee! 

That was a extremely, un-detailed, abridged version of what's been going on 'round the ranch, but it will have to suffice for now.

 Cold weather has moved in, and we spent the day cleaning house, as we knew we'd probably all be staying indoors tomorrow, except for the wild dashes out to the barn to care for the animals. I mucked out the waterfowl/turkey house and put fresh shavings down. Mom helped me move a hutch into the chicken pen. I put a heat lamp on the peachick and her two Guinea keets that she is mothering currently, and now; I'm back in my room, freezing my socks off, literally..and coincidentally, I don't have any socks on, so the above statement is true. And I'm feeling quite exhausted, so I shall bid you ado, for the time being. I shall attempt to catch you up on some posts over the next few days, so keep out a sharp eye for them.

Blessings - 

~ Aspen