Critters

So… there’s a goat outside our door

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When I am sitting at my computer, I have an old cell phone we not longer use, near the monitor with a live stream from the security camera on the garage. It’s within my peripheral vision, so I notice when there is unusual movement.

Usually, it’s a car going by, or a cat walking down the driveway. Sometimes, at night, I’ll see deer. Today, I saw my brother’s dog came by for a visit.

Today, I saw some odd movement at the gate.

Several dark shapes.

My first thought was, “dogs.” But why so many? I don’t know anyone in the area with dark coloured dogs, either. Also…

… that’s a really weird shape for dogs.

Those aren’t dogs at all.

Goats.

There’s a herd of goats at the gate!

So, of course, I went to see what was going on.

They saw me coming. Then started following me around like puppies!!

They even seemed to respond to my saying “come on”, and I was able to get them away from the road, where they might get hit by cars.

They were also absolutely fascinated by Creamsicle – and all other cats that made an appearance!

I had no idea who in our area had goats. The person closest to us is my brother, and he doesn’t have goats. All other neighbours are at least a mile away.

So while I was outside, keeping an eye on the goats and making sure they didn’t get into the junk pile, and stopping them from eating the surviving spruce tree my mother planted along the chain like fence, I turned to the wonders of technology!

I posted some pictures on my personal Facebook page, saying that if anyone in our area was missing some goats, they were at our place.

People started sharing it and tagging people. I posted to our renter directly, since they are relatively close and know a lot more people than I do.

When it was time to head into town to get my daughter from work, my other daughter came out to distract them long enough for me to leave, closing the garage and gate behind me. Not that the gate can stop them, since they can just walk through the barbed wire fence, but I didn’t want them following me into the garage or onto the road.

Once in town, I was able to send a text message to one of my neighbour’s down the road that I have a number for. They weren’t hers, and she didn’t know whose they were, but she knew who to ask.

She not only was able to find out who they belonged to, but offered to contact the owner for me to come get them! Meanwhile, I found several comments on my Facebook post, some saying “they’re not mine, mine are all at home!”, but others suggesting they might belong to a person on a certain farm not far from ours. Who turned out to be the same person that was tracked down as the owner!

He was contacted and come over to get them, before my daughter and I even made it home.

Well. Almost all of them.

He only had a car, so he was only able to take them a few at a time. There were only 2 left by the time we got home. He was coming back for the last ones just as we were coming home. In the time it took me to get the van into the garage, he already got one into his car.

The other one had other plans.

We spent probably half an hour trying to catch this goat! Finally, he started talking about coming back with a gun and shooting her.

!!!

I told him it was okay to just leave her. Give her time to calm down, then try again in maybe an hour. We could also come out in a while to try again and hopefully get a rope on her or something. He agreed, and left with the goat that was already in his car. Which is when I noticed he was bleeding from a gash near his ear! One of the goats had got him with a horn. :-(

After leaving the goat alone for a while, I came back out to try and get her used to me being around. My younger daughter joined me.

It… didn’t really work.

She calmed down, all right, but she wouldn’t let us near her. She couldn’t even be tempted with a carrot. :-D

She did, however, really like her own reflection in the window of the front door. She also kept going up the stairs to the door facing the spruce grove.

Unfortunately, it’s been a chilly day, with high winds. We even saw a bit of snow! I ended up getting my parka to stay warm.

One of the things we noticed was the goat’s hooves. They were badly overgrown and in need of a trim.

When the owner came back and we tried again, we failed. He even brought treats he knew she liked, but it was not enough.

As we tried to give her time to calm down, I learned more about her. It turns out, she was one of two goats among the seven that are basically wild. They had been living with someone in the “downtown” of our little hamlet, which turned out to be against bylaws, so this guy took them in. The previous owner had not done anything to get them used to humans. The other goats were expensive meat goats, but these two are milk goats, and because they are so wild, he has not been able to catch them to trim their hooves, or even bring them to a ram. They’re only a year old and have not been bred yet. They have also been the cause of all sorts of problems for him, because of their wildness.

This one goat is the wilder of two, and we simply could not catch her. The poor guy felt so bad about inconveniencing us so much, and he started once again talking about shooting her for the freezer, but I told him we were okay with her staying. In fact, after he’d left and I told my daughters what he’d said, I added that were an issue, I’d offer to buy her! It didn’t come to that. We will see how she does. She might end up spending the night. He talked of bringing some feed over, and while we don’t have any shelter she can use, other that possibly one side of the garage (since my mother’s car isn’t in there right now, as it’s still sitting at the garage in town, waiting to be checked), but there’s still stuff the goat could get into. Including where our van is parked. However, there is also the straw bale in the old garden she could use as bedding, or even the straw still around the old dog houses. I even left the back door into the garage open, in case she wanted to get out of the wind – even the goat was shivering from the cold!

So, that’s where we are at now. The goat is still here, and we will see if we can reach her somehow.

For now, however, she is simply standing at the front door, occasionally butting it with her head, and staring at her own reflection!

My mother phoned while we were outside. I called her back when I could and told her about the goats. She was so thrilled to hear about them, and wished she could see them. When I told her that one couldn’t be caught, she was telling us we should keep it! If we could talk to the owner about selling it to us or something.

Now, we’ve talked about getting a milk goat, but we are not ready for one now! We have no shelter, no paddocks, no tools to trim hooves, no anything!

And yet, if it comes down to it, we’re all pretty much in agreement. Rather than let her get shot, we’ll make an offer for it. And maybe he’ll be willing to teach us how to care for goats in the process! :-D

What an unusual day this turned out to be!! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens – with company!

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The kittens have been getting noticeably more mobile, of late. I found this one – the only kitten without its eyes open, yet – trying to squirm out of their nest!

For the most part, though, they spend their time in a big, sleepy pile.

For the past few days, I’ve been letting upstairs cats into the basement while I tend to Beep Beep and the babies.

This morning, I decided to just leave the basement door open.

Oh, the excitement that created!

Even DahBoy crept his way down to sniff a bit, though he didn’t stay – and his mom had zero interest in leaving her perch in the living room. :-D

Of course, the things that interested them most were the things they couldn’t get at! Like the old basement, and the unfinished bar/storage area.

Keith was the only cat that showed any curiosity towards the kittens, and sticking his face around the corner was as far as he got.

We didn’t leave them down there, yet. After a while, they were lured out and the basement door closed up. In time – when the kittens are bigger – we’ll move all the food, water and litter boxes down to the basement, and keep the door open all the time. For now, they’ll just get to visit. ;-)

I think Beep Beep liked having some feline company.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties and night time views

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Gotta check out the little ones!

That tiny little nose peeking out from under an orange kitten is just hilarious. Beep Beep’s kittens have clearly had no problem absorbing Butterscotch’s baby into their creche! :-D

With the more pleasant conditions out, I will be starting to do my evening rounds again. Last night was quite beautiful.

There was also a cacophony of noise! Frogs croaking, birds hooting, honking, cooing, chirping and squawking, and the occasional cat meowing. Some nights we have coyotes yipping, but not last night. I did, however, start hearing the strangest screeching noise, coming from the direction of the old garden. When it didn’t stop, I went to see what small animal was being attacked.

It turned out to be skunks.

They make some of the oddest noises, but it was the first time I’d heard them actually scream like this! There were two of them, and one of them was just standing there, screeching and screaming away until it saw me and took off. :-D

Well, it’s coming up on time to head to the city for our big shop. We have our usual list of different stores to go to for different things, and I’ve heard that some have started to limit how many people per household can come in to only one person. Which is such an arbitrary restriction. But then, so much of the shut down has been pretty arbitrary. I was told about the increased restrictions in some places by the woman who was in the waiting room at the hospital with me. She said she had tried to go shopping with her husband, but one of the stores wouldn’t let both of them in. She, however, has a medical condition that affects her balance and, while she walked with a cane, she could fall at any time with no warning. Having her husband with her was a matter of medical safety. They ended up going some place else. That was a couple of weeks ago, though, and just the one store, so we’ll see how it is with the ones we need to go to.

I’ll just be happy if I can get everything on our list, and not have to go from store to store to store to find toilet paper. That, at least, has started to consistently show up on the shelves locally.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Sad news

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It is already turning out to be a very warm day today. We’re supposed to hit a high of 15C/59F this afternoon!

While doing my rounds this morning, I had a Potato demanding cuddles the whole time. :-)

It was warm enough that I went to try and move the saw horses by the storage shed. The ground was thawed enough that I got one of them loose, but the other turned out to be in worse condition than I expected. Instead of breaking loose from the ground, it just broke. !!

Of course, I checked on the babies before heading out this morning.

Beep Beep and her brood are easier to check. They are even right in a sun spot, in the morning. :-)

Butterscotch’s babies are harder to check on, since she tends to block the opening with her own head. I’ve been using the camera on my phone to try and see the babies.

Which is the only reason I was able to see a problem this morning.

In the photo, I could see one of her babies was pushed off to the side. I’d noticed this same kitten had been pushed off to the side yesterday, and had brought it closer to mom, but when I saw it this morning, I knew it was gone. Judging from the state of its hind end, something had gone wrong with it. My guess is, Butterscotch sensed it was not doing well and had been pushing it away from her healthy babies. It may well have been weak from the start.

My daughter and I have been talking about how we can set Butterscotch and her remaining babies up in a new nest, and block the inside of the old radio off completely. It’s just too difficult to see them in there. It’s unlikely it would have made a difference, to be honest, but at least we’d be able to check on them more easily.

A sad way to start the morning. :-(

The Re-Farmer

Morning

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One of the things I’m appreciating about doing my morning rounds earlier, is our longer days. Along with the increased light is the increased critter activity.

Along with my feline followers, I was hearing all kinds of cranes and Canada geese calling. Sometimes, I can see the geese out in the pasture behind the barn, or watch the geese and cranes flying overhead. Every now and then, I hear the thrumming of prairie chicken wings as they drum up their presence, and the staccato knocking of a wood pecker getting at some grub. :-D It’s fantastic!

The temperatures fluctuating above and below freezing so much (more below than not, lately) had an unexpected result this morning.

One of the icicles from the cracked bird bath created a hat of ice on the gnome! :-D

This morning, my daughter and I took my mother’s car to bring Two Face for her appointment with the vet. Since they are just blocks away, I dropped my daughter off at the vet and continued on to the garage to get a status on our van. Parts have been ordered and are on their way from the city. It will be ready by the time we return to pick up Two Face.

I am so looking forward to having our van back!!!

I just don’t like driving my mother’s car. I don’t like how it feels. I don’t like the noises it makes (and I don’t mean the noise from the differential that I will be getting checked; just it’s normal car noises). I don’t like the small size. There is so little leg room for the back seats, it may as well be a 2 seater.

It actually is a good little car. It does have a decent amount of space under the hatch, and the spare tire is easily accessible. Also, the front seats have butt warmers. :-D I’ve just been absolutely spoiled by minivans. Living here, having two vehicles is more necessity than luxury, but if I had any choice in the matter, our second vehicle would be one of those big, ostentatious, jacked up trucks.

With a plow attachment and a trailer hitch.

Funny how priorities change when you’re living in the sticks. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Some furry visitors, and getting a call

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I happened to look out the window, and saw this.

Looks like the deer found something to snack on, as the top of our compost pile thaws out! There would be all sorts of vegetable and fruit peels there right now.

If there were deer at the compost, I figured there might be some at the feeding station…

There certainly were! Along with Pump Shack cat and Two Face. :-D

As I was watching, the two in the back of this photo wandered behind the house. Then they suddenly came running back into view, clearly startled by something.

There turned out to be a big pick up truck coming up the road. It was slowing right down as it neared the intersection – far more than usual – then continued to drive slowly after it turned, until well after it passed our driveway. By then, all the deer had been startled away. Going back to the window I first saw them at, I could still see them in the trees, with a couple already crossing the road. Not long after, I saw the truck returning and driving just as slowly. At that point, I figured the driver was watching out for any deer that might come running onto the road, rather than trying to watch them in our yard. :-)

It makes me so happy to see our furry visitors. :-)

On a completely different subject, we got the call I was wondering about this morning. The heart clinic phoned my husband.

There was a rather long and detailed interview, checking on his status. As far as his heart condition goes, he’s been doing awesome, but he did have to qualify some of his answers by explaining that he was dealing with the pain of his disability.

By the end of the call, after making sure he wasn’t in an urgent situation, his two appointments next week were cancelled. He was told they were looking to reschedule in June. He was also told they’re cancelling all their appointments, due to the Wuhan flu, to reschedule in June. They have no idea how they’ll re-book everyone for June, so it’ll more likely be July or August.

I can’t say I was expecting this, but I wasn’t not expecting it, either.

So that’s off the calendar.

My mother’s medical appointment is still on, though it’s already been rescheduled once. We shall see how that goes.

I did call my mother to check on her yesterday. I woke her from a nap! Oops! :-D

She assured me she had been able to get to the grocery store. It’s just a couple of blocks away, and she does the distance well enough with her walker. She’s been told to try and get exercise, so this is one of the ways she does it. The only downside is that the main doors of the building are now kept locked, so outsiders can’t get in without a resident letting them in, which makes is harder for her to get in and out with the walker. Those doors are the ones with the button to push to open automatically. She manages okay, though. As for her supplies, the grocery store delivers to her building regularly, so she has no problem buying as much as she needs and getting it home. Apparently, the only things they were out of stock on (that she noticed, anyhow) were bananas and garlic! :-D

She had also gotten a call from my sister the day before, and even the social worker had called to check if she needed anything. With all the social events now cancelled and people told to stay at home and not have visitors unless they absolutely have to, I think my mom is getting a bit bored! She does still go to the lobby just to sit for a while, for some “fresh air” and sit in at sunny window. The walk down the hall counts as her exercise, too. :-)

The main thing is that she’s doing okay and is not running out of any necessities.

As for her appointment, I’m not expecting a cancellation call, but again, it wouldn’t exactly be unexpected, either.

The Re-Farmer

Evening and morning critters, and going off the rails a bit

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We continue to have frequent visits from deer in our yard. I got this photo out my window yesterday evening.

Of the 5 deer in the photo, 4 of them are a family group. One of them was part of a group of 3, two of which I could see through the trees near the old garden area, but they never came any closer to the house.

I don’t imagine there was much left at the feeding station, this late in the day, but they’re still coming by to snack on what they can find!

They are so pretty.

Speaking of pretty, check out this beautiful Potato.

Potato Beetle has gotten into the habit of dashing in front of our feet as we walk, slowing down, forcing us to step around him, dashing in front again, slowing down… then flinging himself onto the ground and rolling.

In other words, he’s trying to kill us by tripping over him. :-D

I was very late in doing my rounds this morning, and Potato Beetle was the only one around at first. That meant I got to pick him up and carry him – it was either that or constantly trying not to trip over him! – and he was very content to stay in my arms. Unlike Butterscotch, Beep Beep or Two-Face, who are in constant motion while being carried.

He so wants to come inside!!

There has been zero interest in our attempts to adopt the rest of the babies out, which is really frustrating. Two-Face is booked to be spayed later in April, which means we’re going to have to bring her inside, if only to make sure she doesn’t get pregnant, first.

But we already have 7 cats inside. It’s getting to be a problem. Part of the reason I did my rounds so late this morning is because of being kept up most of the night by cats.

Which reminds me. When topping up the outside cats’ food and water last night, we had an extra visitor in the sun room. Stinky is back! He stayed around, hidden behind the makeshift cat cave, while I was in there. Later, I could see him through the bathroom window, eating the cat kibble. When I looked again at about 2 am, he was still there and eating again! This might explain while, some mornings, all the food bowls have been completely empty, with barely a crumb left behind.

I was talking with one of my daughters this morning about the outside cats, and how we’re slowly getting them fixed as my other daughter has been able to afford it. We were talking about how the outside cats want in, but we just can’t do it.

Unless…

There is a possibility.

If we can clear and clean up the new part basement, then find a way to make a door over the entry to the old part basement, we could do it. We could move the litter boxes downstairs, and they would have a huge amount of extra space if we keep that basement door open. The old part basement has the pumps, including the sump pump reservoir, so we don’t want to let them in there.

I guess that’s incentive to get the basements done faster!

We shall see.

Meanwhile…

Today, being Sunday, is our day of rest. Normally, I’d be in town right now, while my younger daughter is at work for her short shift. The pharmacy she works at is closed on Sunday now, due to the Wuhan Flu, so we are all home today. For a moment I thought that, hey! I could go to church! But the churches are all closed to services right now, too.

Which leads me to another topic entirely. Normally, I try to stay away from stuff like this, but this blog is about our new life here at my old family farm, and this is one of those things that is affecting us. Even as relatively isolated as we are.

I am just so frustrated about all the panic over the Wuhan Flu. People are being so stupid about it. This morning, my husband caught an article about a couple in BC that walked into a grocery store and bought their entire inventory of meat.

I have two immediate thoughts about that. The first is, who has the money to buy that much meat? The second is, why did the store allow it? Retailers have the discretion to limit purchases. Why didn’t they?

Meanwhile, I just read the updated protocols for the hospital my husband has appointments with in the city at the end of the month. His appointments have not been cancelled, but the hospital is now allowing access at only 2 entrances. The main entrance and one to the cardiac clinic, which is also the emergency entrance and the one we will be using. Everyone who comes in will be checked for symptoms and asked about their travel history.

The thing that bothers me so much about all this is the panic – largely induced by the media. I’m certainly not against precautions, but so much bad information is out there right now and, as mentioned earlier, people are being stupid about it, and their behavior is affecting everyone else, in a negative way.

Another part of my frustration is this.

We’re nearing the tail end of the annual flu season right now. While there is non-stop hyperventilating about the Wu Flu around the world, in the US alone, between October 1, 2019 and March 14, 2020, there have been an estimated 38 – 54 MILLION flu illnesses. There have been an estimated 17 – 25 MILLION flu medical visits. There have been an estimated 390,000 – 710,000 flu hospitalizations, and between 23,000 – 59,000 deaths.

(source)

And the annual flu season isn’t over yet.

This is just in the US.

I’ve found the Canadian numbers. The Government of Canada website has weekly reports. The latest report, as of this writing, is March 8 – 14, or Week 11. From that last link:

Severe Outcomes Influenza Surveillance

Provincial/Territorial Influenza Hospitalizations and Deaths

To date this season, 2,232 influenza-associated hospitalizations were reported by participating provinces and territories Footnote 1.

68% of the cases were associated with influenza A.

Of the 978 cases for which subtype was reported, 55% were associated with influenza A(H3N2).

The highest cumulative hospitalization rates up to week 11 were among adults 65 years of age and older (71/100,000 population) and children under 5 years of age (69/100,000 population).

273 ICU admissions and 97 deaths have been reported.

68% of the ICU admissions and 71% of the deaths were associated with influenza A.

With so many people coming in to be checked for the Wuhan flu, more cases are being diagnosed for the annual flu. Many cases don’t get recorded, because people just don’t go to the doctor or hospital and get diagnosed. (Side note, the annual flu strains are listed as Influenza A and Influenza B, with A having several sub categories.)

Now, please understand that I’m not trying to say that the annual flu is somehow worse than the Wuhan Flu, or anything like that. There are significant differences. The fact that the Wuhan Flu is spreading at the same time as when the annual flu was in full swing is taxing health care systems to the max. Proper care should be taken.

Wash your hands with soap and water frequently.

Stay home if your sick, if you can. My husband used to work in IT, with government contracts, so he spent much of that stage of his career in various provincial government offices. Government employees are paid by salary, not by the hour, and tend to have generous sick leave and insurance policies. Yet so many people would show up at work, sick, hacking and coughing all over the place, acting like they were some sort of hero for being soooo dedicated to their jobs, that they came in even while sick. The next thing you knew, dozens of people are having to call in sick because of that one plague person spreading their colds. If you can stay home, do it! Not just from work, but going out in general.

Also, wash your hands with soap and water, frequently.

If you can’t stay home, take precautions. That’s where those masks come in handy. Masks aren’t there to prevent you from catching a virus. They’re there to keep you from spreading it to others if you’ve got it yourself.

Wash your hands with soap and water. Frequently.

Keep your distance from other people – stay out of each other’s “personal bubble”.

Wash your hands with soap and water. Frequently.

Sneeze into tissues. Cough into a tissue or your elbow.

Wash your hands with soap and water. Frequently.

Don’t lick your fingers before handling money, paper, etc. That is a MAJOR problem in retail. An astonishing number of customers slobber all over their fingers to better grip their cash or cards, then hand their germ riddled item to some poor part time cashier, who doesn’t have sick leave or insurance, and can’t afford to lose any hours due to illness. Keep your spit to yourself.

Oh, and…

Wash your hands with soap and water. Frequently.

Seriously. It doesn’t take much care to reduce the spread of germs. It’s not like they can get around on their own.

(Do visit this post, Why yes, I am an Infectious Disease Specialist, by Insanity Bytes for an excellent read.)

The frustrating thing is not that people are taking the Wuhan Flu seriously (panic behaviour being another issue entirely). It’s that we DON’T take the annual flu just as seriously.

Every year, before flu season, people are given the exact same information for precautions to prevent the spread of the flu.

Every public washroom in places like grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and department stores have posts with instruction on hour to wash your hands properly. Seriously. People need to be told how to wash their hands.

And people don’t do it.

So many just use the bathroom and leave, without going near a sink.

It’s disgusting.

It gets people sick.

How many people would be protected, every year, if we kept up these basic hygiene practices, all the time? Especially at risk people, such as those with preexisting health conditions or the elderly.

How many productive hours would not be lost?

How many lives would be saved, every year?

Right now, we’ve got people panicking over the Wuhan Flu, with the media whipping it up to a frenzy. Emergencies are being declared. Economies are being shut down. Yet, we have the equivalent of the Wuhan Flu, if not worse, every year, around the world.

Again, this is not to make light of what’s going on right now. It’s just so frustrating that it took something like this for people do engage in simple behaviors we should be using all the time.

Of course you just know that, once this is over, many of the same people who went into a frenzy of toilet paper and hand sanitizer panic buying (all those survivalist and prepper sites are certainly being vindicated right now!), or doing things like buying up the entire inventory of meat in a grocery store, leaving nothing for those who actually need the food, will probably go back to business as usual; going to work sick, coughing all over their co-workers, and not washing their hands with soap and water throughout the day.

Sometimes, humans really suck.

The Re-Farmer

Colder temps and signs of furry visitors

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It was a bit perplexing, looking at the weather forecasts over the past few days. We’d have these lovely temperatures, hovering just a bit below freezing, while the app was saying it was cold.

A few days ago, I could at least blame the wind chill…

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Spot the Bald Patch, and Creeper is creeping

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As usual, I had furry company while I did my rounds this morning. Including Two-Face.

She found a patch of ground some critter had been digging in, against a tree root, leaving a softer pile of dirt. She hunkered down on the warmer patch it created and wouldn’t move! :-D

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