Snake Alert! Retraining The Dogs

Farm dogs have certain jobs.  Sometimes those jobs are sad but necessary for the continuance of life on a farm.  Can't have 'possums, skunks or 'coons in the chicken house and can't have armadillos digging holes for stock to break their legs in. We can't have poison snakes close to the house to bite unaware children and busy adults.  It is what it is.

The trained farm team choose snakes by smell.  Poison snakes, or pit vipers, have a very distinct smell.  The dogs eradicated the dangerous and left the harmless snakes alone.  Last year the dogs cornered a huge non-poisonous snake consuming all life available in my water garden.  This snake made the mistake when cornered of striking out and biting one of the dogs.  It was over in seconds. They didn't care about my rules one smidgen.  Their rules in that moment...if it bites my friend, it's gone.  I was not happy but you can't reassemble a snake.

Yesterday I found a harmless young snake about three feet long.  It was terrified.

Lizzy inspected as I told her no.

Poor snake was horrified and frozen in fear...good thing for it.

The hardest one to convince was Lil, our matriarch of snake watch.  Oh, she wanted to do her job so badly!  I kept saying, No, Lil.  It's a good snake.  Lil didn't like it but the dogs got a good smell and left it.  I'm hoping this will redirect them to eliminating only the poison snakes once again.

Where Are My Log Tongs?

Visit a demonstration of their use

Ours were not yellow but they worked well for what we needed.  The color only matters when you've lost them. And, yes, tongs are plural for one set.  No one could use a tong thus it is tongs...because I said so.

For weeks Hubby has been edging fields and looking up in trees for his lost tongs.  He asked me, Have you seen my tongs?  Nope but I bet they're right where you left them.  "Right where you left them/it" is a fighting phrase around here.  Neither one of us wants to be reminded that we lose things...a lot.

I think they were used in an early spring clean up hauling things to the "bone yard".   (Here it's not junk at all but a parts store).  Old equipment that might be broken but there still could be a use for parts or can be fixed when we need it.  They all go here to die like the elephant's graveyard featured in the 1932 Tarzan movie with Johnny Weissmuller.

That's where he found them.  Right Where He Left Them.  In the bone yard where he had taken the broken basket ball post and goal (we had two, one broke in a strong storm).

Due to tornado, ice, drought, disease and life in general trees fall.  It's a fact, no matter how beautiful they are, they die.  During our floods of spring many fallen trees were in the creek.  Not good, that causes the water to back up and do more damage.  Almost like when trees were floated down river to the sawmills, there are log jams.  We don't have dynamite nor would we use it for this if we had some.  These dams do wreck havoc on fences, land, and things in general.

Thus our search for the log tongs which, by the way, WERE right where he left them.  He has worried and looked for these so long he had a solution so this will not happen again.

 Please note the color and he made sure I saw where he put them this time.  Now when he forgets he can say, I told you where I put them.

Now we can begin.  When I get brave enough to wade into the summer's growth to clip these tongs onto a log where the tractor can't go.  When I get brave enough to wade into the edges of the creek where the Cotton Mouths and Copperheads stay.  I will drag these heavy tongs into the deep unknown.  I will close them until they get a 'bite" on the log and motion for Tractor Man to lift it out.

We will make a pile here and there for the wild life to nest or hide or play where the high waters can't reach.  We will wait for the logs to feed the land.  

Just a hundred and forty-nine acres to go.

What I Got On Mother's Day or Down And Dirty

I got some land leveled.  That is a good gift and Hubby was grinning.  He did it because he knew it made me happy.

Or was it because I was on my hands and knees?

I was looking for arrow heads.

The spring pond is close by so I decided I would pull some moss to use for mulch in the garden.  These trees are still here from the tornado and ice.  There were more trees, Hubby has removed one now and then and finally we are down to the last two big ones.

Here's comes Hubby to mess up my play house.

He has cut the spillway so we can drain the pond lower,

remove some trees and some silt,

and generally make a mess.

Wonderful moss will make wonderful mulch

and enrich the ground.

My feet got mucked and I fell down!

Got just a tad muddy.

I did get a bucket of snails for Four Two.

Jake, my middle grandchild,

named Marcy's koi 

 when he was learning to count, thus...

Four Two.

I found a deep hole and then fell forward.

Thanks goodness there was an island.

We had stick boat races as the pond was draining.

It was hard for anyone to win with Maggie's eye on the sticks.

We did some snake hunting.

Bev found one baby and the guys saw it's granddaddy.

Can't you tell Jake in wanting in there?

Luke looking tough

Very little work was done in the garden

Everyone was too busy supervising.

The perfect Mother's Day,

surrounded by family,

every one laughing,

and I got to get dirty,

One of my most favorite things to do.

Hubby made a big pot of Gelbvieh chili,

the perfect meal for a perfect day.