The Old Folks Home

[Arielle]

Quote: That dels are a cross breed is a plus-- lots of potential there. Dorkings- well, I just admire them for their history. Looks like you are finally finding breeds that are working for you. Yeah!

 

[CanuckBock]

Amused me! I was on pins and needles waiting to see what had happened, envisioning just what you were....

Many years back I had a similar middle-of-the-night experience, only one of the girls really had somehow levitated off the roost, gotten a toe stuck in the chicken wire on the arched ceiling of the cattle panel/tarp "hoop coop", and was hanging in mid-air. So, yeah, you hear that stuff, you have to go check it out. Every time.

With my sheep, I've learned that if I wake up in the middle of the night with dreams of babies in plastic bags, I better get out to the barn 'cause someone's having trouble lambing. It's like they psychically insert themselves into my dreams to wake me up, even though I can't hear them from the house. Works well enough I don't even set the alarm for barn checks during lambing any more...I just figure if I wake up, I need to go out.

This one didn't wake me...11 lbs., dry with a full tummy when I went out for chores:

Well we cannot get too mad when the creatures sound the alarm, whatever the time of night or day. I won't say my chooks cried WOLF...hee hee...but this time I never fully knew, but hey, the one time you decide they ARE crying wolf, there will be a WOLF!

I have Jacobs.

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Even though I went to volunteer at a biosecure sheep farm (had none myself, so was clean!) and learned how to actually pull lambs AND got to assist during a vet doing a C-section, I still slept in the barn with the girls their first lambing. Can't say I actually SLEPT though and the first one, dear Haley, she had triplets. I tried so hard NOT to intervene but after an hour of her pushing and nothing, I lubed up and went in to a tangle of legs. Knew enough to find hocks and then the knees with the corresponding chest and pulled out two ewes and a ram lamb. Them lambs are mean though...real mean. Each of the triplets found it great fun to stand on Haley's belly...that's a dozen pointy baby hooves on her distended belly. She never seemed to mind...I am hoping she was zoned out with birthing hormones. She was such a great grand mum...pic above, that is one of her daughters, five horn Lilac factor Nascor on the left.

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I find my Jacobs sitting in their barn in their family groups along with friends. This summer, when Haley got so tired she could not keep up with the rest of the bouncy flock (Jacobs are a primitive breed, so really athletic, and smart, brains are 8% heavier than commercial breeds) I would note that her closest of friends would come back, Looker would wait for her, give her a shoulder to lean upon. Animals...sometimes they make so much more sense that we do...puts us humans and how we can act badly to utter shame.

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Haley passed on this summer...born in 1998. Was my smiley sweety Lilac sheep and ever so patient teaching me to be a good shepherdess. Whomever had her before ear tagged her and somehow it got torn out...nasty 'cause it shredded her ear. She was (we believe) descended from the original Winnipeg zoo imports. I managed to maintain her well enough she kept all her teeth--never any blocks, only had loose salt/mineral and good pastures to graze.

Her last week, she was not in any pain but slowed right down. I picked her her favourite, dandelion greens and sprouted oats. She knew and I knew and well, that is just what us 'oldtimers" can't escape...the grim reaper. I miss her terribly but I see her in her kids. Her patience and her gentle approach to life.

I enjoyed your story thank you so much for sharing.

Glad you found it enjoyable. Giggles, laughter and happiness--all good meds, eh?

' Morning.

I woke up at 5:00 this morning from having a nightmare. I was dreaming that my 16 year old son was getting married. I mean like, getting dressed and ready to go to the wedding. I had known nothing about it previously and was in a panic. He was putting on a sweater under a sports jacket (no prior arrangements for clothing) I kept saying, "You're not really getting married?" He would just say, "Yes, mam." DH was driving him, and didn't seem opposed to it. They had no plans for how they were going to live except that they were going to split up staying over at each other's houses until they got out of high school and could get jobs. They were having the wedding in a funeral home and KFC for the reception.

Now that IS some nightmare...a funeral home AND KFC? Boy getting married...yeh, we all have to get our heads wrapped around our babes growing up and getting lives of their own...I agree tho, sixteen and married...eek! Really?

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My son's wedding was super important, so I harvested my first turkey (heritage of course) and marinaded it...they wanted a small wedding and we had it on the man porch. They both wanted it in October and Rick put in a wood stove in the porch, for obvious reasons! Agh...can be cold that time of year.

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She is from Maine, so we did the Canuck and Yank joint decorations...along with doves and hearts.

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Pretty spiffy if I dunna say so myself!

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I don't have any doves or even pigeons for that matter, so I substituted a pair of white Calls. Other than them gossiping before the wedding was even over, they did purdy good. I loved the red, white and blue theme...both our flags colours!

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Did the family fruit cake (yeh, we are all real fruit cakes up here in the Great White North...not nuts, fruity!) covered in white icing with a pair of doves figurine...no idea where I stowed pics of that...was back in 2009, so some place I guess. It is on the table but too hard to see it...no matter. Cake is cake...get sweet revenge, serve fruit cake I say!

You had my attention til the last word!!

Yup I wear street clothes to bed- usually sweat pants-- just for this reason . . .

Hee hee hee...only thing missing is the fireman's pole...


"Whee hee hee...SPLAT!"


Hmm...maybe we don't need to be outside THAT quickly!

The best late night/early morning inappropriately dressed award (like such a thing exists!) goes to my Hub. About ten years back, he heard a noise, so out he goes...cowboy boots and housecoat over his B-suit...hmmm, what a HUNK! I hear him go out, so I get up and what do I find out in the bird yard, but him and a leaf rake, trying to gingerly escort a lost baby porcupine out of the yard and back to the forest.

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Poor thing was making the most sad crying noises...had made a zig when it shoulda zagged and wanted out so BAD but there are only two ways in, the one entrance to the East and the hole we left under the fence into the "human yard" where the pond and waterfall are (sometimes the ducks breach the hole and end up in his fish pond, then I am the one in trouble..."GET THOSE ROTTEN, OILED UP GOO DUCKS OUTTA MY POND!").

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BTW, Rick liked the hole under the fence so much, he had me make up a sign (pond photo, top far right and below with lounging yard birds) so the yard birds that crossed over knew the way back home...could be KFC related too...or not...

The rest of the bird yard is all hardware clothed! That porky was going no place fast and I didn't think Rick still had moves like that...so he can still do the two step...AH HA!

So I laughed. I was no help at all...all I could see was him in that stupid light housecoat, full of prickles...prickles everywhere...even yer pink parts! NOT GOOD! Not good at all....

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[kingfrodo]

Canuck, you write the best stories. I just love reading stories from you and Wisher.

 

[RedneckGurl]

Tara, I have you beat on the inappropriately dressed award.

Back in 2001 we were renting a two story house with a winding, narrow staircase that had three landings - so basically a corkscrew. It was in the heart of the winter and below freezing outside. My husband worked a job over in Mississippi that required him to make an hour+ drive to and from work so he was always up around 4:30am to get ready. Well, one morning he was in the bathroom getting ready to take his shower when he heard the dogs in the backyard start barking like they were going to eat something alive if they could get at it, then heard a loud bang in the front of the house. He runs into the bedroom, grabs his .45 out of the bedside table and runs/slips down those corkscrew stairs and out the front door - BUCK NEKKED.

I'm still trying to get myself awake, figure out what the ruckus is, and get downstairs when I hear him yelling something unintelligible up to me from downstairs. When I finally get down there, he's standing halfway in and halfway out of the front door, holding his pistol, and looking out across the front yard. Poor man was turning blue and was yelling for me to bring him his robe and slippers. Turns out what he and the dogs heard was someone breaking into my car which was parked in the driveway. He had seen the person running away as he opened the front door and had chased them to the end of the driveway - again BUCK NEKKED and barefoot.

(I simply can't say that enough.)

My car was a late 90's model Eclipse and they had broken out the little rear triangle window but didn't realize that they still could not reach the door handle (typical genius criminal) so all they managed to steal was the MagLite flashlight I kept in the backseat while leaving behind their cheapie that they used to break the window.

Over the years since, we've had other instances that required a quick dash to the door in the middle of the night but he has never again left the bedroom without at least his underwear on.

 

[chickadoodles]

I have a grandson to be born in 8 days and I was thinking about this quilt and pillow case for him. What do you all think of it? I have to finish the quilt and it is wrinkled from me washing it. But what do you think?

 

[ronott1]

I have a grandson to be born in 8 days and I was thinking about this quilt and pillow case for him. What do you all think of it? I have to finish the quilt and it is wrinkled from me washing it. But what do you think?

That is a great present!

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks Ron. I just was not sure if people have out grown winnie the poo and tigger... lol

 

[Wisher1000]

I think that something that his "Gamma" made will be cherished! Has it been decided what the little fellow will call you? My grands call me "Sugar" and I love it!

 

[chickadoodles]

I think that something that his "Gamma" made will be cherished! Has it been decided what the little fellow will call you? My grands call me "Sugar" and I love it!

Thanks Wisher, I hope so! Sugar is a cute name!
I wanted some of my grands to call me memaw I just thought it was so cute when I hear it for the first time.
I asked Bama8 if the kids could call me memaw? But they call me grandma. lol That's ok, I have 11 more that all call me grandma too. lol

 

[Bunnylady]

Thanks Ron. I just was not sure if people have out grown winnie the poo and tigger... lol

If they have, I'm not sure the Disney folks know it yet. They released a Winnie the Pooh movie in 2011. Since it apparently only grossed $26,000,000 to an estimated $30,000,000 spent making it, it might be considered a box office flop, but it has won a few animation awards.