Um……Whoops! When I was on a rant about the Frontline, I meant to be ranting about Revolution. See I thought I was using Frontline but when I got it out to take to the Vet’s office today along with the much recovered Tan Dog of Happiness (T-DoH, as we call him) I thought, “Oh ha ha. Heh. Oh good. Nothing like having a Public Display of Anger and having all your facts be fiction. Hee hee.” Only I wasn’t actually laughing. Anywaaaaaaaaay…..
The scoop (at least for our area) is that Revolution is semi-useless. They’ve found it works pretty well for cats and for puppies with sarcoptic mange and actually seems to kill earmites. But that particular Vet’s office has had at least one very nasty instance of it not actually doing the thing where it prevents heartworms and then there were some other issues I’m not at liberty to divulge but suffice it to say now that I know how the company handles their guarantees and such I will NOT be buying any more Revolution, even for the cat. Next we were talking about putting the dog on Advantix, but apparently they’ve found that it’s a very bad idea for cats. And before you point out that well, it IS called “CANINE Advantix”, they’ve decided that it is not safe to have cats in the same household with Advantix wearing dogs. So basically that left us with the following treatments: continue Revolution on the cat until I run out (about a year) and then detonate a nuclear bomb behind the barn to kill the fleas and ticks. Dog goes on Frontline (Hi, Frontline! Love you! Always have!) and Heartguard. And he got a Lyme disease shot. And tested for heartworms which, since he was on Revolution shouldn’t have been a question but um, yeah anyway we tested and he was negative.
We interrupt this correction–
–Ok, so I just went to take Wyatt out to the NEWLY FENCED goat pasture so I could take pictures of him happily recovered and at play in the tall, ticky grass but we got sidetracked. I know that when I relate my horror stories of my culture clash with the country life you all must think I’m as big a dumbass that ever walked. I mean, I did choose this life, but sometimes I’m just so ill-prepared for it that frankly I just don’t find Green Acres all that funny anymore. Aside from Wilbur, of course. Anyway see here I’m about to tell you another one of those stories. It doesn’t end well, so skip down to the pasture pictures if you don’t want to know.
Like I was typing, we went out to take pictures of Wyatt in the (newly! fenced!) goat yard but when we stepped out the front door, look who was sitting in the front yard:
That is a woodchuck for you city types. Otherwise known as a groundhog. The kind that predicts weather. Only he was sitting in my front yard for two reasons, neither of which had to do with the weather (which is mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms, btw.)
1. He was mere feet from my newly plowed vegetable garden and was trying to ascertain if there was anything he could raid.
2. He had just run into my garden after being chased out of the neighbor’s garden, where he had eaten nearly a whole row of green beans.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GRAPHIC>>>>I haven’t actually gotten around to planting my garden yet so I’m all like “CUTE! A big brown ugly rodent! Look, Wyatt, it’s a groundhog!” And Wyatt’s all like “WOW I BET THAT WOULD BE FUN TO CHASE. WHIMPER! WHIMPER! BARK!” And then I took a picture, having the camera handy on account of going out to photograph the dog. And so Chuck ran away, because groundhogs are afraid of cameras and shadows and things and then my neighbor (see #2 above) came screeching up to my yard in his truck, jumped out, climbed my fence, chased Chuck through my yard, through the (new!) goat fencing and finally grabbed a big stick and beat Chuck to death. Then he went on a rant about how Chuck had nearly ruined his garden and then he showed the still quivering bloody mass of woodchuck to Wyatt (presumably so Wyatt could learn to kill them.) and threw him in the back of his truck, grinning about how he was going to throw him behind the other neighbor’s barn for a joke. Chuck, not Wyatt. Now let me just say that this has NOT been a good week for me, what with the tick paralysis on Saturday, some ugly family BS rearing its head over Mom’s cancer on Sunday, and the fact that I got up at 3:30 am today to drive to Atlanta and drop my husband at the airport, not to see him for four whole months (he’s only been home for three weeks), I spent $250 trying to get enough poisonous “medicine” to keep my dog parasite-free today and tomorrow I go back to Atlanta with mom to consult with oncologists. So let’s say I might be feeling a little too fragile for woodchuck hate crimes today. Let’s say I might have cried over a woodchuck just now. I may be a wimp when it comes to country living, but a big part of the appeal of raising Alpacas and goats is that it’s a no-kill farming scenario. (Except ticks, death to all ticks!) Seeing an animal beaten to death for doing what it does was never part of my plan. On the other hand maybe I should be happy they chose a non-chemical method of pest control. And if you think this story is ugly, remind me to tell you about the skunks someday. <<<< END OF GRAPHIC STORY
So anyway, wanna see my new goat yard? Say yes!
Have you ever seen anyone so excited to have some goat wire installed? I’m thrilled! Apparently another of my neighbors has some pygmy goats she got to clear the weeds and crap off her hill so I might try to get a couple of those and I’m trying to figure out how to have some Angoras shipped here. Apparently the fiber goat business in GA is just practically non-existent so I’ve had no luck finding any locally. I still need to build a goat shed and get waterers and hay mangers, but having the fence done means I’m so close I can start to look around for some livestock. Pretty soon this is going to be a REAL fiber farm. With Angora goats and Pygmy goats and you know what that means, right? Eventually some Pygoras, too. Next adventure? Alpaca fencing.
Oh and I got this from Inter Library Loan:
I might just get my knitting mojo back soon!
