That's No Bull!

                                   Otis at eighteen months
I was just outside to let the chickens out to freerange, when I noticed our large (appr. 1000 lbs) 18 month old brangus steer, Otis, hurrying around the barn towards the trough. He didn't act at all interested in what may be in there but stood, head up and alert, looking around with an air of agitation. He then bellered loudly several times with an expectant expression on his bovine face, turned quickly and exited as quickly as he had entered.
I couldn't help but stop and observe all this with a bit of amusement and curiousity as number one, Otis never moves this fast and number two, Otis never seems to get excited about anything except food.
While standing there I realized his little sidekick, Peanut, wasn't with him.
Peanut is our "mistake" calf.
Last May, I asked Tim to buy me a beef calf to bottle feed and raise hoping one of the kids would someday show it.


                                                                     Peanut at two weeks
Peanut let us know real fast that he had other plans.
Peanut, short for Peanut Brain, is our juvenile delinquent calf. Barbed wire means absolutely nothing to the little lame brain, he goes through it.


                                                        Peanut currently
We've caught him time and time again in the barn trashing the place. He goes through dog food and chicken feed like he's poppin' a peppermint in his snout!



Any tool left on the barn floor is a target and Peanut doesn't miss.
So as I stood there watching Otis's odd behavior, I realized he was looking fervently for Peanut.


                                                         Peanut and his surrogate mother, Otis.
We had laughed that it seemed Peanut was attracted to Otis early on and stayed at his side like a calf does with his mother.
But to see that Otis needed Peanut, too, was rather comical.
So turning back towards the house and shaking my head, I thought, "Wow, I've seen it all."
I was met by one of the dogs carrying what looked like the hind leg of a deer.
Hmmm, farm livin', it's definitely never boring.
 

Hmmm, Where Were We?

Oh yes, our beloved Nick had been shot/hit-by-a-car/kicked-by-a-horse.
Let me explain.
Upon first seeing Nick, I had thought he had been shot. Wrong!
Turns out the x-rays showed blunt force trauma to the back left leg and no bullet or bullet path. So the observing veterinarian diagnosed, "Probably hit by a car."
But later Tim and I talked more about the horrible open wound (I thought it was where he had been shot) that was on the outside of his back left leg and after also discussing that the x-rays showed no damage to his lower back or pelvis, we've concluded he may have been kicked by a horse.
Anyway, all that to say, his back left femur was broken in six places.
Tim's friend put pins in the leg last Friday and we're hoping the bones will start to fuse back. Tim brought him home last night and it was such a sweet homecoming. He limped to each one of us, licked our hands with much tail wagging and whining while we lavished praise and lots of petting on our sweet Nickaroni.

Now, regarding Facebook rejecting me/deactivating my account. I guess there must have been a glitch in the system somewhere because I was back on that evening. Still, the whole situation has caused me to be a bit disgruntled and I've deleted all my photo albums there as well as any personal information. Janes comment left me a little paranoid.
The 4-H County Demonstration Speech Contest is tomorrow. So you know what that means. Mama has been busy writing speeches and encouraging (that's a nice way to put it) children to work on said speeches for the last week.
The oldest will be giving her speech over making homemade suet for the birds. The middle child will be demonstrating with her Bantam pullet the different parts of a chicken as well as what you feed it. And last is the youngest childs speech on how to plant a bean plant. It should all be very interesting, tense, and a bit suspenseful as the kids have never attempted public speaking while holding a live animal. This may be the one we talk about for years, who knows.
And so, how am I? Well, I've told the kids that after lunch tomorrow, I'm heading to bed. It's just not right that there are those around here that are afforded the opportunity to nap and lounge.
"Who?!" you may ask.
Well, just look here...

And here...

I'd say that's proof positive that I'm due for a little R&R!
Blessings and nighty night, Julie  

Definitely A Country Living Con

The dogs were gone all day yesterday.
This is really quite normal, even though we don't approve.
But living in the country and I mean way out in the country, we need them loose. They're a part of Ranch Security and yes, I'm borrowing the term from the "Hank the Cowdog" series.
But seriously, along with the guns that we possess, the dogs are a valuable part of keeping the place secure.
And not to mention, they keep the predators (coyotes, bobcats, racoons, and foxes)  from killing our free-range chickens.
Last night only two dogs made it home. The oldest and the youngest.
Our highly athletic Nick was still gone.
This morning, not-so-bright and early, Tim and I went outside to see if he was back. He was not.
We went about our morning chores taking a break every now and then to call and whistle.
Quite honestly, I made myself hoarse.
A couple of hours later, Tim left for work and Nick still was not home.
I know I've said derogatory things about Nick and even posted an entry at the other blog that didn't quite play up his best features.
But, I love that pup. He's my tried and true hiking companion. Always behind me on the trail and occasionally sticking his sharp Collie nose into the back of my leg. We connect in an odd master/dog sort of way.



Around  9:30 AM, as I was making my way into our schoolroom, I looked up and out the front window that faces the driveway and saw Nick limping up the drive. He had his back left leg pulled up and wasn't putting any weight on it.
Not being one to be subtle, I exclaimed, "Oh my!" and ran out the front door...of course the kids were following close behind.
He laid down in the side yard. I told the kids to put the other two dogs in the kennel so we could get a closer look at Nick. But I already had a pretty good idea of what we were going to find....a gunshot wound.
The children were able to get the dogs in the kennel and came over to where Nick was lying on his side in the grass. Upon closer inspection, yes there was what looked to be a gunshot wound in his upper left thigh. There was fresh blood and dried blood on his thigh, leg, and foot.
I called Tim at work and he told me to give him 1000mg of moxicillian. I crushed it and an aspirin up into some catfood (we were out of dogfood), warm milk, and diced bologna. Nick ate it.
Now we wait until Tim the veterinarian gets home and gives our Nickaroni a more thorough examination.