Weekend Excitement

Recently, Becky (Hubbs' sister and our vet) sent us a video of one of the "new barn cats" she had acquired.    Here is a frame from that video...

Meet Opie - Opie the Opossum.

Amazingly, Opie took up residence in the loft of Becky's barn, sharing the heat-lamp heated quarters and its 24/7 food supply with Becky's family of barn cats (all strays that ended up moving in (and being subsequently neutered or spayed).  It was not unusual for her to find Opie and one or two of the cats on their way up or down the ladder to the loft... the cats seemingly oblivious to this unusual creature.

The trouble is... opossums carry a neurologic disease that can affect horses - Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM).  Saturday, they gently ushered Opie out of the barn, and Opie went running out onto the farm.  End of story?  Of course not.

Fast forward to Saturday night.  Hubbs and I were tucking everyone in for the evening - feeding and watering, picking up manure, and attending to Moonie's eye.  I mentioned to Hubbs that I had heard an awful lot of squawking coming from the hen houses.  We got into the gator and headed up to see what had the girls so riled up - only to find all of the hens cramped into our lower, smaller henhouse.  

I walked up to our larger upper house to find that there were two rather distraught hens on top of the nesting boxes and one rather large Opie in the corner on the floor.

(Sadly, I did not have my camera with me... so no photos of Opie in the henhouse. These two photos are from Sunday morning, when we opened back up again.)

From past experience, we have learned that it is never good to have an opossum in the henhouse.  Not only are they consummate egg thieves, but they will also eat a chicken (alive) if hungry enough.  Over the years we have become quite adept at relocating unwanted opossums from our henhouses.  We lay a plastic trash can on its side and gently nudge the opossum into the can (this time with a tennis racket).  The opossums always oblige and slowly walk into the can - at which time we set it upright and carry the opossum away.  Research showed us that opossums will return to the scene of the crime unless they are re-located miles away.  I always feel bad for the little critter being uprooted from his surroundings, but I have vowed to never again witness the carnage that one of these adorable marsupials can unleash upon a henhouse.

And that was the excitement of our weekend.  It's quite a scintillating life we live!

Yesterday brought a stellar sunrise.  After days of gray skies it was wonderful to witness and seemed fitting for "Freedom Day."  

It's now been four weeks since we moved our "baby" runner ducks into the duck yard with our other ten adult runner ducks.  Over the month, they made a great transition and seem to be completely assimilated into the group.  We had set yesterday as the targeted release date for all of the ducks to return to free-ranging around the farm. Rather than open the gate first thing in the morning and run the risk of our youngsters forgetting where they live, we decided that we would open the gate in the afternoon, giving them just a few precious hours of freedom for this very first day of emancipation.

As always seems to happen with animals... what one plans is rarely how things happen.  

Freedom Day was wildly anti-climactic, as none of the ducks had the courage to head through that open door.  They just stood there looking at the open door, quacking their "now what?"s.  

This morning, the door will open again... earlier this time.  We shall see if anyone has the courage to venture back out onto the farm.  With time, I am sure they will be off adventuring as always.  I am eager to see which half of the older ducks the younger ones will follow.  Or, perhaps, all of the ducks will now stay together in one cohesive group - united by the desire to guide the youngsters.  ( I may have a tendency to anthropomorphize). 

Moonie is doing fine.  We are putting antibiotic ointment in his eye three times daily.  This week we will most likely start his chemotherapy ointment.  He's a gentle soul and just puts up with whatever we dish out.  Luckily, that is always followed by a peppermint treat.

Hubbs caught this photo yesterday morning... Griz doing a balancing act on the side of the horses' water trough.  

This has always been the cats' favorite place for drinking, and so far, no one has ever fallen in.

Aside from the usual animal shenanigans, we spent a peaceful, relaxing weekend at home - it seems I say this every Monday.  

We did, however, take delivery on our last load of hay for the winter.  This load came from the fellow that was going to deliver in October but was sick with Covid.   We decided the delivery could wait a couple months.  This is life in the middle of a pandemic.  Every day I count my blessings that we have so much diversion here on the farm.  I did a little sewing and a whole lot of knitting by the fire.  It's become my favorite thing now that cold weather is upon us!