Water, Porcupines and Skunks

Well a lot has happened since I posted last time.

I will just jump right into it.

We got the fencing done and turned the cows out, and that lasted for only a couple of hours as when we went to check on everybody after supper we discovered a couple of calves had climbed into main yard. Funny how the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. In this case it was!

We had to kick them all back out and wait until the following weekend when we added two more strands of wire and then turned them out again. This time they stayed where they were supposed to and they got quite a bit of it chewed down. They were only here for a few nights and then it was time to move them again. We turned the horses out there the following weekend after we had a chance to go through and make sure that nothing could harm them. Talk about happy horses. Now we should have enough pasture for them all winter with supplementing with hay.

They are all getting along really well now and even Mystery is back in with the group. For a few days every time I would look out there she would be by herself, the others were being fairly mean to her. I felt like crying when I saw her she looked so sad. A few days later they seemed to have worked it out and is with the group most of the time. She has now gone into heat which makes Link her bestest of friend in the whole world. Sometimes I feel sorry for him and then other times I think he is proud of his girls.

I haven't had a chance to take any more pictures of them it has been really hectic around here.

Last Monday hubby had to go out of town and of course guess what happens.
What else, more well problems.

I was just sitting down watching TV really late that night when I heard the pressure switch cutting on and then off, so I jumped up and went to check and it was going nuts. After checking to make sure nothing was running I shut off the pump to the well and started looking for a leak somewhere. By this time it was after 11 pm and too dark to see too much outside so I left it off and went to bed.

The next morning I looked all over and soon discovered that the ground was really, really wet outside so knew we had a leak underground. Hubby never got home until late Thursday night so I had to use water really sparingly and turn it on for really short periods of time as every time I did the ground would get wetter and wetter so the leak was getting worse.

On Friday (long weekend of course) we called every plumber and Well person we could think of but they were all busy and some said they couldn't even get back to us for at least a week. On Saturday we went into town to see what was available to rent and ended up getting a track backhoe that we had delivered late in the early afternoon. Hubby and our neighbor Brian worked on it until after 7 that night had finally located the pipe and fixed it, I checked that the water was working and they covered the hole back in.

Now let me interrupt this story with the news that the pipe was buried underneath the main power coming to the house so it was a real pain to dig it up. Anyway back to the story.

They covered it all over and they were standing around chatting when I went into the house for something and noticed that there was no pressure in the tank and no water!. I checked everything I could before I went back out to break the news.

So it had to be dug back up again and now the ground was truly saturated. What had happened I guess was when they put the dirt (wet clay) back on the pipes it must have broken in a spot that had been repaired before and the wet clay landing on it was too much. By midnight they had it all dug up the pipe repaired and water running. By this time we decided to leave the hole open for a couple of days to try and dry out the clay before putting it back in. Late Monday afternoon we covered it over and now we have a huge mess in the back yard again but at least we have water. (Touching wood while typing this)

On Tuesday morning my friend called me to say that her dog had been sprayed by a skunk the previous night and she wondered if I had any remedies to rid him of the smell. At that time the only thing I knew of was tomato juice so as I was going to town I was going to pick her up some.

I left to take the dogs for their usual walk and Mixer and Mojo disappeared into the trees, not an unusual occurrence at all. I was hurrying cause I was supposed to be in town by ten thirty to start a new job. (More about that later) Anyway I yelled and yelled for Mixer and Mojo and finally Mojo came running past me at top speed like she usually does. Still no sign of Mixer, finally after about five minutes had passed, I spotted him way back running towards me so I kept on going. Well when he finally caught up to me I noticed that he had a face full of quills so then the race was on to get him home so that we could remove them. By now Mojo showed up and her face was full of them as well.

When I got them home I started on Mixer as he seemed the most aggravated by them and pulled. Four or five of the stupid things broke off and think he might have already broken the tips off them. In the past few days four of them have migrated out thankfully and we were able to get them but I know there is probably at least one cruising around in there somewhere. I got all of Mojo's out. Now I am worried sick cause you never know where or when it is going to go and I know of at least three dogs that have lost an eye cause of quills migrating up through the eye socket.

Anyway anyone reading this please say a little Prayer for my big guy, I will feel so responsible if something happens to him. I talked to the vet and she said that if they had broken off all a person could do is wait and watch for them to surface, other then putting them right out and doing exploratory surgery to try and find it. They were really small quills as well so they might not have been able to find them anyway.

Then the night before last another friend called and said her dog had just been sprayed by a skunk. She lives just down the road from us and she was going to bath him using a solution of peroxide, baking soda and liquid soap. She called the next morning to say that it worked and that he didn't smell as bad and that it had faded quite a bit. Then last night she called and I guess the skunk not only sprayed her dog but had killed two of her chickens as well. I never knew that skunks would go after chickens. Anyway she went and got a trap as she thinks it has taken up residence under the chicken house. I am just waiting for an update as to whether or not she got it.

Yesterday late afternoon the neighbor behind me called to say her dog had just had a run in with a porcupine as well and that she was going to wait til her hubby got home to pull them out. Don't know what is going on, never had trouble with quill pigs and skunks before this. Maybe it is a sign of a bad winter or something.

I got a job as an assistant literacy coordinator so have been busy trying to learn the ropes. It is a part time job and most of it from home so am looking forward to keeping my brain busy.

I should sign off for now and get out there and give the chickens some fresh water and check to see if anyone has produced an egg yet!. So far nothing. I just talked to the friend that I got them from and she said she got them in May so they should be starting to lay by now. We keep threatening them with the stew pot but so far they don't seem concerned. Guess they are onto us by now and know what big sucks we really are. I can pat some of them when I go in there now so they are getting to be pretty tame.

That's it for now, have a great day all.