Annie Get Your Gun!

Well, the rat saga continued!! We thought we only had two rats in the barn. I bought some tasty rat baits and the next day they were all gone!! I bought some more and set them out. They were nibbled on as well! The package said that it would take five days for the poison to work. Sure enough five days later Rat #1 lay dead outside the barn. The next day rat #2 was seen slowly walking in a dazed stupor barely breathing. He was put out of its misery. Yeah!!! We thought we had gotten all the rats. The day after that, one of our little chihuahuas came running up to us with a gift in its mouth!! Yes, another rat!!! Whoo hoo!! The thing was near death as well. This went on for a few days of finding dead rats in and around the barn!! The count was now up to 7!! I can't believe we had this many!! A couple of days later another was found dead. EIGHT RATS!!! ARrrgghh!!! A few more days passed and no more dead rats!! The rat baits were untouched. Finally, we had gotten them all!!! I went to go help my kiddo in the barn feed the horses when one of our other dogs started freaking out over some wrapped up fence wire in the barn. I walked over to where she was and saw something furry inside the wire. Dead rat? Sick rat? We poked at it with some bailing wire and that thing jumped sky high!! Neither sick nor dead!!! It was stuck inside the fencing wire and I wasn't going to wait for it to come out. I called Tom on the phone to see if he wanted me to shoot it with the .22? Haven't had much luck with that thing when I was trying to scare dogs. Almost hit a kid on his bike!! Didn't mean to, but was told never to hold the rifle again! :) I figured this would be close range and could put the gun right into the fence wire. We went and grabbed the rifle. Rayne had the phone as Tom listened in on what we were doing. I turned the safety off, aimed the gun right at the rat and pulled the trigger. The rat didn't do anything!! I poked at it with the baling wire and the thing jumped!! How could I miss, the rat was HUGE!!! It looked like a baby possum!!! I shot again and poked at it, still that sucker jumped!!! I tried it again, this time putting the muzzle of the rifle right at what I thought was its head! Pulled the trigger and the thing ran inside the fence!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! I had some kind of freakin' miracle rat!!! Did it have nine lives!!! Did it think it was a cat!!! My husband is telling me I'm missing the stupid thing, but I know I'm not!!! I have the bloody gun on the body of this goofy animal!!!!!! Now, I'm getting mad!!! This sucker is going down!! I am not going to have it in my barn!!!! I put the tip of that gun right against its fur and pulled the trigger again. Rayne and I are looking at each other thinking this is NUTS!!! I have shot this rat FOUR times!! It has to be dead!!! I poke it one more time with the baling wire. Finally, it does not move!!! But, I am not taking the fencing down to see if it is really dead. When Tom came home that night he pulled the fencing off it and even he said, it was a big rat!!! Finally, someone believes me about how big this guy was!!! He picked it up and sure enough it had three holes in it!! But, you know what my wonderful husband says to me? "Four shots at close range and you still miss one!!!" LOL!! But, I did shoot him twice in the stomach and once in the head!! That rat was a fighter, I'll give him that!!

So, now the rats are gone from our barn, and I'm going to the shooting range and taking lessons!

More Farm Life

It's not that I don't mind living out in the middle of nowhere. It's actually quite peaceful. Where else can you go out at night and literally see a million stars? Or, take a blanket and watch meteor showers without have to drive to a dark and deserted place? You're already there! In the mornings when we go out to feed the animals, we're greeted with Elvis' long bleat. Elvis is our gimp sheep. For those of you who have the little toy of "This is what a sheep sounds like, Baaahhh." You've got the wrong toy! Sheep don't sound that way! Then, there's Max, our Nigerian Dwarf goat who thinks he's a dog. He just wants to be pet and watch out if you leave the door open to the house. Max will be up on the couch watching t.v. with the rest of the dogs! The horses will stand impatiently in the barn kicking at the walls waiting for their food. They are always hungry. You open the tack room door and are greeted by not one, but two RATS!!! We still cannot get rid of these things. Tom grabbed his rifle and went to go shoot them, but they scattered. It's always good to have a gun in the country! One ran under the plywood board on the other side of the tack room. He lifted that up and what did he find? A 3 foot snake!! I was hoping that the snake would eat the rat, but no such luck. At least he shot the snake as he wasn't doing any good. You figure if he was that long he had been there for awhile. He wasn't a good rat catcher! Since that episode, we haven't seen the rats and sticky rat traps are next. I know how to shoot the rifle but I don't have very good aim with it. I'll leave that up to Tom! Ahhhhh, just another day out on the farm. At least the radishes and lettuce are growing very well!

Farm Life!

How many flushes does it take to empty the well? One of the many adventures living out in the country is that we don't have city water! That is a good thing in itself. You don't have to worry about all the junk that the city and state had decided is good for you and what you need or don't need to have! I like having well water! It's fresh, clean, tastes good! I decide whether I want to put flouride in my mouth or not. The only time having a well might prove to be a hindrance is in bad weather when the electricity goes out. Then it's always nice to have jugs of water on hand to brush your teeth, wash your face and flush the toilet!

Or, when something happens to the motor of the well! Such is the case that happened a couple of days ago. Sitting in the living room we hear a horrendous noise coming from outside! It's very loud, whiny, horrific. It's the motor for the well. This happened about 5 years ago and we had to replace the motor! I guess they only have a 5 year lifespan? As I walked past the wellshed there was a horrible stench of burning rubber. We figured that whatever was left in the well tank would be all the water we would have for the next day. In the morning Tom check the motor. The good news is that the motor was still running fine! The bad news is that the pulley was lying in pieces on the ground with the belt shredded beside it. Hence the smell!

We had a good homeschooling lesson in conservation that day! Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth and only to rinse out the toothbrush and your mouth. Wash your hands quickly. Do we really need to wash dishes today? We can wait on that shower too! Tom came home that evening with a new belt and a new pulley. The pulley worked, the belt did not. Another day to conserve water. We ate out that night! Another day to conserve dishes. But a new day a new belt and all is well in our household. We did not run out of water in our welltank. The dishes are done and we all smell good! Oh, and all toilets were flushed as we never had to conserve on that end! All in all, farm life is still good. Now, to take care of those two rats in the barn!!

I always wanted to be in the news!

You know how you always hear about slow downs on the freeway? I never thought I would cause something like that! It's been one of those days! Due to a big gust of wind, I heard those words going through my head! Pick up on aisle 12 as I saw boxes falling off of my truck! Thankfully, no one was hurt, no accidents were caused. But, as I was pulling over to the side of the freeway all I saw was a sea of mitts floating across 5 lanes of traffic!

Well, if people just opened their doors and reached out and grabbed one, they would have gotten a nice treat to take home for their showers!! At least the work guys will have something nice to pamper themselves with tomorrow!

The misunderstanding of blogging!

Everyone tells me I need to start a blog! Why? Do I really need to? Everyone has one, right? Do, I really need to right down my deepest thoughts, my passing fancies? How do you go about writing a blog? Do you start rambling on like a raving lunatic where no one wants to read what you post anyway? And, if you do start to write one, who really is going to read it in the first place. Is it wise to tell all your friends to check out your blog? Or, should you wait till you really have something significant to say? I feel I've been using the computer since there were gopher holes back in the 80's to even get on the internet. Why do I feel so inadequate in writing a blog?
So, this will be my feeble attempt in trying to catch up with the mainstream and write what comes through this scattered brain of mine. Maybe something good will come out of this? We'll see. Can you teach this old dog new tricks?

We'll see!