Sunday Reading - The Race is On

 

It doesn't seem to matter the year but each Fall is the same it seems. More stuff to get done before the cold hits and more added every day. And not enough time to do it!!!

The newly repaired water tanks now sport a fresh coating of Flex Seal over the repair welds and the smaller one is already in use while I let the tank I was using dry so I can clean it. I will switch it out again and place it under a down spout from the barn for Winter freeze testing while the larger tank will go under the new down spout from the garden shed. I need to figure out how I can make the larger one a bit safer though as I don't want a chicken, bird or small animal getting in there and drowning. I am actually contemplating a small rock stair kinda thing rather than some kind of cover for the Winter anyway. 

Most of the Fall brush and field mowing is finished. I had to go over the front hay field as the Johnson Grass has grown almost 6 foot tall since it was cut and baled in August already. I have a patch of Blue Stem that I need to knock down on the East side yet. Blue Stem is a thick prairie grass that the highway department and county like to seed on the roadsides. It makes pretty good hay honestly but I have not met a Ruminant large or small that will touch it until it has been cut and baled. They just don't like it.   

While I was picking bean pods with my dog the silly over sized oaf was running around in the garden with me. I take him out there whenever I go for some exercise now that there is nothing left he can destroy out there. Oh he still destroys something but nothing of any importance is left I guess is the real reason I bring him. The goats and the sheep delight in antagonizing him through the fence. As I was picking away I heard the most awful scream to where I thought the dog had gotten out and was run over by a car or shot or something. Just a death scream of a dog in incredible pain.  I could not imagine what was going on and I could not see the dog through all the dead vegetation.

When I finally found the dog, his name is Winston, he was laying on his side with his muzzle against the fence on the ground yelping in pain. I walked up and the idiot had managed to latch his mouth around a small tree branch I had cut for the goats to nibble the leaves off of. The part Winston had got a hold of was a larger piece that had three smaller branches coming off it and the larger piece where they all joined was stuck in the dogs mouth behind his canine teeth. When he would try and pull the three smaller branches through the fence they would catch on the fence and then begin to pull his canines out but the joint was too big and stuck in his mouth. The dog was truly trapped as he could not remove the branch and could not pull it through. When he tried the Patented "Winston brute force method" he was about to break off his own teeth.

I finally got the dog to lie still and squeezed the smaller branches together enough that I could pull them through the fence without damaging his teeth and once the whole thing was through I could then remove the larger joint piece from his mouth entirely. 

I then had to lay on the ground as the poor thing was still convinced he had lived through a near death experience and only by becoming a 120 pound lap dog could he recover from his traumatic and painful near death experience. 

I guess he got tired of all the toys I had given him and saw that nibbled on branch was within range. 

The entire place was gawking at the poor dog like a bunch of people at a car accident on a freeway. All the critters were lined up at the fence to see if the dog was dead, the chickens strolled by pretending they weren't looking and the cats were sitting on the porch squaring up the betting pool on the side action bets they took.

Actually the cats did look a bit worried cause truth is the cats love that dog more than they love the humans who control the food bowl with the opposable thumbs. Every evening Winston has at least two cats laying on him and he takes it on himself to personally console any new abandoned kitten that shows up so he has basically raised a couple of these strays himself. The cats also think he is their protector whenever anything scares them. They are mistaken though cause I have never met a bigger wimp than that dog. 

Well at least it is a quiet evening now though.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!