Gunpowder and propane

As I pulled in the driveway this evening I saw my Himalayan cat, Jazz, batting at something under the propane tank. As the truck's headlights swept across the tank, the object of his affection turned out to be a small rattlesnake. I parked the truck, leaving the headlights on, and headed for the house to get my shotgun.

Now I know what you're thinking. I'm about to use a shotgun to kill a snake... under a tank full of propane. Essentially the snake is hiding under a 500 gallon bomb. I wasn't thinking this far ahead at the time though.

I reach in the door just enough to grab the shotgun, when the hanger it rests on breaks, and the gun slips from my grasp, hits the floor, and goes off.

It took a moment to realize why I was deaf. Blinking stupidly I peer up at the ceiling to see a 2 inch diameter hole where the #7 birdshot hit. Oops. I could have sworn the safety was on.


Back outside at the tank it became obvious the snake was not going to leave the protection of the propane tank any time soon so I laid the shotgun down (this time with the safety on) and grabbed a hoe. I am still surprised that he never tried to make a break for it. Instead he held his ground and repeatedly struck the hoe as I tried to pull him out from beneath the tank. Eventually I got him out and went to cut his head off, but the pile of crap hoe wouldn't hack a dandelion in half so it took a few hits.

bacon and ham and sausage oh my

I hauled a pig and two sheep to the processor yesterday. In the past I've had lamb and it's been awful, but there's a Mediterranean place called Fadis that has the most amazing lamb shank to ever melt in your mouth, so I thought I'd give it another try. They have locations in Houston, Dallas, and Frisco, TX so if you're lucky enough to be near one, you really should give it a go. Anyway I told them to make a little sausage and summer sausage with some of the lamb, to see how it turned out. Probably my cooking has more to do with it's past wretchedness than the lamb itself. I meant to take some seasoning mixes for the pork sausage because their mix is pretty blah and I'm wanting more flavor and not just more heat, but of course I forgot.

The remaining 3 pigs seem quite pleased to be rid of the big oaf who had been hogging all the food, mudholes, and the best spot in the shed. One of them is my boyfriend's pig, another goes to a guy who keeps me supplied in bruised fruits and veggies so the pigs have a regular salad bar out there, and the third probably needs to be shot but I keep him out of pity. He had a respiratory infection when he was younger that must have ruined his lungs, because he can't go more than a few steps without sucking wind. He is the Mischa Barton of pigs, all skinny and bony and painful to look at. My sucker gene has kicked in though, so I keep feeding him rather than put him down.

Spring fever has kicked in big time. With a slew of 75F sunny days, broken up on only a few occasions by cold, wind, and wet, I'm getting the gardening itch bad. I've got new beds started all over the place, not a one more than 10% complete but I never was good at finishing what I start. I need to get a bunch of pads off my big thornless optuna, have some dry beds planned and need to get those curing before it's time to plant. I scored some sections of a rat tail cholla and am trying to get it to root but it's not too responsive yet. I need to go ask some rancher friends if I can go cacti raiding on their spreads, looking for some horse cripplers and some yuccas to add to the beds this year. Be damned if I'm gonna pay $10-30 each at the local nursery for them when they're so easy to lift and the ranchers want them gone anyway. The Mexican Feather grass I put in last year did REAL well so I'm planning to install a lot more of that this spring. Also want some Desert Willows but I really don't want to start them from seed so I may have to break down and buy those.

I waited too stinking long to order pine seedlings from the forestry service. They're sold out of the Afghan pines.

Robert and I have plans to take the boat to the lake this weekend and go fishing and throw some steaks on the grill, but the 10 day forecast has gone from 70s and sunny to snow, so we may be ice fishing instead.

Diesel just went to $3.68 a gallon, and the Nissan blew the alternator belt so I'm back in my truck and cringing to watch the gas gauge.

Crappy weather makes everyone go into labor

I woke up to 45 mph winds out of the north, a temp gauge that barely reached 28F, and 5 new babies on the ground. Fawn has a beautiful red one and also a solid white, both by Wapiti. Both of her lambs are big and healthy, no idea the sex yet. One of the Dingo daughters has a nice black ewe lamb on her. Then I find one running around with no mother. She looks like she started out white, but someone poured a bucket of black paint on her, making her front 3/4 solid black and ending in a wavy pattern over her hips and sides to leave the back end white. She was hollering plenty but no one was answering. I started to catch her, but saw Dingoling had been courteous enough to drop HER new lamb out in the open to enjoy the lovely freezing wind, and was now pawing it to bits trying to get it to stand up. I left the unclaimed lamb and headed over to get Dingy's lamb, who was just about knocked out and very cold. I tucked her inside my coat and buttoned it up to keep her warm, only to turn around and see Dingy heading after the black and white lamb.

Dingoling is by Dingo (Black Hawaiian) and out of a dun Corsican ewe. I'd bred her back to a dun Corsican ram, so there wasn't much chance she threw a black and white lamb. "That's not your girl" I informed her, but she didn't pay much attention. It was a baby, and she was going to take it whether it wanted her to or not. And it did not want her to. Not one bit. She didn't smell like mom, sound like mom, and sure didn't look like mom.

After 10 minutes of hoping mom would make an appearance, I gave up and put Dingy and her adopted daughter into one of the stalls in the trailer.

I was out of dextrose and I needed to get the twins and my Chihuahua from the vet where they've spent the weekend (I went out of town) so I took the cold lamb along. Everyone oohed and ahhed over how tiny she was (2.98 pounds), and she got dosed with some dextrose until her eyes started to brighten up and she became more alert.

Back at home I found the orphaned lamb (Wave) had decided strange mom is ok since she had a working milk bar. I put her lamb in with her for a bit, and was happy to see she immediately accepted her and let her nurse, though I'm keeping her in the house in between feedings until she gets a good bit stronger.

So far the girls are outnumbering the boys at around 8 to 1, not counting Fawn's two that I haven't checked yet.

Caprock Canyon visit

I went with my boyfriend over to Caprock Canyon to hike around a bit, but the wind caught us by surprise and we wound up leaving after a few hours.

The fact that I consider a walk to the mailbox to be strenuous had nothing to do with our premature departure.

I wish I'd taken my tripod. I'm not the steadiest of people on a good day, and with a 30 mph wind knocking me about, I had a hard time keeping the camera still. We have plans to return later in the spring to do a little hiking/camping weekend, will bring the tripod then. I still got a lot of neat shots, nothing fancy but it does show off the interesting geology of the area. There was a rock of some sort that I did not recognize. It appeared to run in a solid sheet beneath the red dirt, almost looking like white marble on top, but along the edge it had a glitter to it, and would splinter off.

In other news, Dirty Harriet died over the weekend. She was the first Boer goat ever born here, and while she was not the most productive of girls (4 kids in 6 years hrm), she was always my favorite and she knew it. When I sold all the goats, I kept her, her son Earless Joe, and one other old girl who was the first Boer goat I ever bought. She was spoilt rotten. I'm not too happy about her passing.

The Twins Go Outside Yay

Last night I put the bottle babies KC & Sunshine out in the trailer for the first time. They were born during an ice storm so they'd been in a box in my hall and they were really stinking up the place. I ran to SquallMart and got a heat lamp for them, and resurrected some of the baby goat coats that I thought I'd never use again, and now they're hooked up. My trailer doubles as portable stalls, and it's parked beside the house where there's an outlet for the light.

KC is on the left, Sunshine is on the right. If you're over 40 you'll get the reference. The group was before my time but my brothers are all at least 10 years older than I am so I grew up on a lot of 60s and 70s music.

When I had the goats, I was always using these blankets. I can't count the times I heard some goat breeder brag about how the babies were so strong and tough and how they could handle the weather. Pffft. Every one of them had heat lamps in a stall somewhere for winter kidding. I must have 30 of these blankets, because otherwise the babies would get cold and that was that. On the other hand, I've seen lambs born into a snow bank who were up and running like antelope within a half hour. These two wouldn't need the blankets or heat light except I had them in the house for a few days and I figured it'd make the transition from 70F inside to 20F outside a bit easier on them, heh.

Eh it's bottle time again.

Who's Yer Mama?

I brought some ewes home late last night and one of them dropped some lambs tonight, and proceeded to knock them ass over teakettle every time they tried to get near her. Guess the stress of the haul right at the time she was due was too much for her, because she absolutely hates them.

Guess that makes me mom. Ugh. Not to mention, we're in the middle of an ice storm now so in the house they go.

Bottle feeding is a pain in the butt. Every four hours for the first couple of days, then you can slowly draw them down to 3 or so bottles a day. I learned with the goats to always put a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in every bottle. It works like an antacid and I never lost one to overeating. That doesn't make it any less of a PITA but at least I can let them chug down two huge bottles a day instead of 4 small ones without worrying that they'll bloat up and die on me.

Of course this means they'll wind up with names. 500+ goats and now nearly 200 sheep later, I'm really scraping bottom of the name bucket. I used to name them after things I'd like to have, like Miata, Carerra, Mercedes, Ocean, Lottery, then slowly dropped down to things I needed, like Washer, Dryer, Insulator, Charger, Radiator, Clutch. Now it's just whatever comes to mind when I look at 'em.

I got Bucked

You know that feeling you get when you think you got a steal of a deal on something, only to realize you took it up the spine and didn't even get a kiss for it?

Meet Bucked. As in, Bucked Knees. I can't believe I did not see those wonky legs. I was too busy congratulating myself on getting a weanling with enough horn to make a 10 month old proud to notice his ground dragging front pasterns and bucked knees. When his head is up, it's even worse looking. There are grills all over town callin this dude's name. He's so gimpy he can't even keep up with the other boys, so he mostly hangs out near the pens hoping for a handout.

Just when I get to thinking I'm too clever for words, I bring something like this home.