On my way to work this morning I stopped at a feed store to get some hay. The grass is growing and soon I won't have to feed hay, but given that I'm going to be away this weekend and my sheep will have to stay up in their fenced-in area, I wanted to be sure there was plenty of hay available to them. Since putting one bale of hay in my car was going to make as much mess as four bales, that's what I bought. I can only imagine the mess I'm going to have to vacuum out of the car after I take the hay out. What I do for these animals.
As I mentioned a while back, I bought a Kawasaki Bayou 250 ATV the beginning of the year. I use it to exercise my dogs, search for lost sheep and haul things around in the wagon that attaches to it. It is a very useful vehicle, when it works. I researched the Bayou before I bought it and could not find any posted issues with the ATV. Well, this one seems to have issues. It's been back to the dealership three times now. I just got it back on Saturday and it seems to be running well. On Sunday I was pulling onto my property when I saw a hot air balloon in the sky. I stopped the ATV, turned the engine off and yelled for my landlady (who was down at the cabin) to come and see what was in the sky. We walked out into the field to watch the balloon as it passed by. I left the ATV where I stopped it, the engine was off, but the key was turned on so when I tried to start it last night to take the dogs for a run, the battery was dead.
Thank goodness for good neighbors. I walked up to the neighbor's house knowing he'd likely have a battery charger, which he did. We hooked it up and charged it overnight. Hopefully it will be okay tonight so I can run the dogs. They very much need the exercise.
The time has come to either tie Fern up when I'm tending to the stock or keep her out of their enclosures when I'm in there. She's obsessed with working and I'm tired of having to call her off. I knew eventually this would happen. Oh well, time to drag out the chains and put them in various places around the property to contain her as necessary. Either that or just tie her to me. This morning was a particular pain in the butt. I have the four hens and the rooster in the sheep pen. When I went into the sheep pen to let the chickens out and fill up their water, I left the gate open and of course Fern came in and started messing with the chickens. The rooster and one hen came out of the sheep pen at the same time the sheep came up to look for grain (greedy beasts!). I tried to get Gel to put up just the chickens and ignore the sheep, but that wasn't happening. Meanwhile, Fern is just getting in the way and everytime I called her off, Gel called off too. Gel seems to think his name is Fern. I gave in and let Gel put up the sheep and then sent him back for the rooster and hen. Then I went into the duck pen and filled up their grain feeders. When I came out, I didn't shut the gate all the way and five ducks got out. Luckily, these five were not ones who know about the pond and they stuck around until I got Gel to put them back up. Of course Fern didn't have a collar on this morning so I could tie her out which was a pain in the butt. Finally, I had everyone settled and could go to work.
