a dead dog - no, wait, that's just Storm not living up to her name
the horses were being incredibly playful and the goats were fascinated . . .
Oreo and Gingersnap hanging out in their cool clubhouse (the ash pit under the bread oven!)
Nip and Tuck
Okay, here are the animals that we now are responsible for taking care of:
- 3 horses
- 2 goats
- 1 dog
- 2 cats
- 18 chickens
- 1 uromastyx (some kind of desert reptile)
- 2 comet goldfish
- 1 Betta fish
- 2 orphaned Canada Geese goslings
This is getting to be a lot. It's a lot of classes of animals and a lot of personalities. However, this is definitely something we have always wanted to do and so the various animal chores are generally done with a remarkable lack of complaint on anyone's part. It is so much fun to observe various kinds of "normal" behaviour. For instance, goats always look like they are moving in stop motion photography. They have this habit of freezing into utter stillness, then exploding into an ecstasy of jerky but strangely coordinated motion, then freezing again to check out if they are missing anything fun. They always remind me of four year old children - constantly alert to the possibility of snacks or outings to really great playgrounds. The little goslings are still in our house and they have this incredibly melodic little whistling peep that seems to descend about a five note scale when they are content. I've never heard it before but it is really relaxing to write to. They are starting to smell, though, so I think the days in our woodbox are numbered.
Our cats are brother and sister. I actually got the girl, Nightfall, spayed. We have had lots of kittens in the Attic here and my original plan of letting nature take its course in terms of natural selection by coyote, was really not working. I couldn't believe how safe our yard was! Anyway, Cougar is not neutered and therefore is likely responsible for lots of overpopulation but I'm afraid I'm irresponsible enough to think that that is someone else's problem. I cannot quite get over spending the $140 for a female barn cat. Only about a month after which she was so badly shaken by a neighbour's dog that I thought she was a goner and all I could think of was all that money down the drain. Hard and cold, but I gotta say we've been through quite a few cats and the affection has worn down in my soul for them. They do not leave the barn as clean as they found it.
Anyway, what is funny about the cats is that they are constantly coming and going on extended hunting trips and every single time they come and go our dog, Storm, gets all excited about their travels and tries to run them down to kill them. Except she knows, and they know, that that is not at all allowed. So she tears across the lawn after them, and they hiss and arch and/or climb up the nearest fence pole and/or lie flat and when she reaches them you can see her going "Darn! I can't kill you and I would so like to!" So she noses them just to make sure they didn't morph into a wolverine or something allowable to kill. And then everyone continues on. This has been going on for about 4 years and I don't think anyone has softened in their various roles. It's so funny because it seems so pointless. I don't know why they don't claw her nose off, but they don't seem to get all that upset.
The horses are horses to the core. They are all about the grass. We let them out for about 4 hours a day most days now to graze down our lawn. We have never even owned a lawnmower. I think what is funny about them is when you see them lying down on the grass like enormous dogs, grazing. Like standing would be too much work. I guess it's just like us flopped all over a couch eating chips and watching TV. You just don't think of horses as being that lazy.
Well, it's raining again now. We have a week of thunderstorms planned (thanks to the weather network) and today certainly delivered. I was able to watch an absolutely enormous thunderstorm boil up slowly and majestically starting over the burnt forest and eventually turning the sky completely black before the impressive sound effects began followed by a pretty unnecessary rain (as far as our sloughs are concerned).I was talking to my sister in law in Texas at the time and it was really amazingly hard to believe she couldn't see what was happening. But no, where she was it was sunny and hot. Which I guess it is a lot down there. Anyway, when the storm finally sailed away the air was so clean and fresh, and now the next one appears to be whipping itself up.
I feel at the moment that I have completed enough adventures for a while and that sitting and watching thunderstorms brew up is about my speed, so I'm not upset about the forecast. I did want to ride between my friend's place and mine on Friday again, but as every single muscle seems to scream in protest when I get up in the morning, a rain check might be okay for that, too. Being over 40 is so exactly as billed. I remember learning in some therapy class about the aging process and physiology and how absolutely every system in our body just starts this inevitable deterioration somewhere between 35 and the age I am currently at. I gotta say, I'm feeling it. I can still do lots of things and I'm in probably better shape than I've been in in a while, but it costs me so much more! I'm constantly aware of plantar fascitis, vulnerable knees (both medial and lateral collateral ligaments), both rotator cuffs in entirety but biceps tendons in particular, and now this darn SI thing (which thankfully appears to be resolving itself). Not to mention memory loss and slower reflexes and a greatly honed tendency to store fat at the slightest opportunity. Falling off a horse at 25 it was not the same experience as it is now. Oh well. The one advantage is all the wisdom gained, right? Ha, ha.
This blog post is not about anything in particular - I just felt like avoiding putting away the supper dishes. However, the kids are getting ready for bed and I should probably re-enter their lives before they complete that process, so I guess I'll leave my random musings at that.
"just another ordinary miracle today . . ."
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