Things have been busy here on the farm.
Everyone appears to be shedding. The air is full of dog hair, horse hair and chicken feathers. I honestly never knew how much a shepherd could shed. Our rug upstairs looks like a stuffed animal exploded.
Ed has been busy taking down the old shed in getting ready for the new, bigger one. When I saw this going down I had to run out and take a video. The guys were disappointed that it didn't fall apart. I was shocked to see that it had a floor. I thought it was dirt. But that shed had been there for decades so was pretty sturdy.
Riding is going really well. Every one seems to consolidate things a little more. Even those that don't start all that good.
The chickens are moulting so egg laying is pretty scant and they are a bit grumpy. I found them today hovering under Irish's stall leaping on his feed.
Seems only fair, because it seems that Carmen has developed a taste for chicken feed. There have been a couple times when I have found Carmen out in the barn when I come in to do night feed. I always figured that I left her door unlatched. I'm pretty careful at night but a couple mornings ago I came in to find her loose in the barn. She looked at me and then went over to the container I have the chicken feed in (I have it in the barn until we rebuild the shed). Using her nose she flipped it up and grabbed a little. I was worried but I saw that she had just a little. I put her in and fed her breakfast. I then made sure that I put the feed in a different, inaccessible place.
Last night Ed and I were going out to dinner which makes it later when I do the night feed. So I gave them extra hay, checked her latch 3 times and then left. When I came home later I could hear hoofbeats in the barn.
oh oh.
Yup, she was loose in the barn. Clearly someone has figured out to open her stall.
Carmen: You were LATE. And I was STARVING. Sometimes a girl has to help herself.
The chicken feed was secure but there was a mess in the hay. It looked like she sampled each bale and emptied the wheelbarrow of hay. It wasn't a huge mess so I decided that cleaning was a tomorrow problem.
I fed the horses and then used some rope to tie her stall closed until I could fix it the next day.
 |
| This should work |
It's nice that everyone is working to keep me busy and entertained.
Ooh that sneaky carmen! Too smart for her own good! 😁
ReplyDeleteI think she's too smart for my own good!
DeleteI am taking the shedding blade to the boys (who always seem far hairier than the girls!) for a few minutes every morning during breakfast and every day there's the equivalent of an entire dachshund's worth of hair on the floor lol.
ReplyDeleteCarmen is a smart cookie with that latch, I'm glad you caught it before she got into too much trouble!
It's amazing how much hair comes off.
Deleteha that's hilarious! we had a horse who was brilliant at opening that style of latch --- i actually have it on video, it took him basically zero seconds to do....
ReplyDeleteI wish I could see how she does it.
DeleteThat Carmen-she is so clever!
ReplyDeleteShe is. Sometimes that works against me. :)
DeleteOhhhh Carmen!!! Such a smart cookie! Eros knows how to open those slide latches too. Fortunately at my house I have bars so they can't get to them. Glad she stayed in the barn though and didn't go wandering the neighborhood!
ReplyDeleteBars are useful. But I fear there would be massive protests as they like to hang their heads out.
DeleteCarmen! Naughty!
ReplyDeleteRight?
DeleteSmart girl Carmen! Shedding season is in full swing here too, I'm envious of anyone with short haired pets (or horses that don't grow much of a coat!)
ReplyDeleteI think even horses with thin coats still lose all of it. I honestly thought that a GSD wouldn't shed as much as my aussies or BCs!
DeleteWhat a character!
ReplyDeleteShe is! As she comes out of her shell this is what was revealed. Good luck with Sophie. lol
DeleteGSDs are famous for their shedding, I remember clearly. Today I couldn't do much outside but I did work on getting the dog hair cleaned up in the house. 3 dogs lose a lot of hair - this is after the housesitter said she swept and mopped! My roomba fills up with hair over and over, nasty! She used some sort of pet-oder neutralizer so it doesn't stink in here, but these floors are gonna take several iterations of cleaning. Also, there is a hole in the flowerbed where the dogs apparently tried to kill the flowers and dig up the walnut tree and chewed up a Rhododendron. And patches of brown grass where they peed every day.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, it's 8pm and the sun is still shining!
Dog hair is so hard on a vacuum.
Delete