Wildairo builds his herd.

I've been putting off turning any more cattle out with Wildairo. Dandylyons doesn't run because she's too old but the younger cows love to run so I was worried he would chase them and their little calves.

We round up Sparkle, Mini Cow and her calf with our cow chasing sticks.

You can see my stick in the bottom of the picture. I was herding and snapping away at the same time. Mini Cow bolted back to the feeder wanting her dinner not herding. I yelled at Sparkle and got her to go through the gate, where Wildairo was waiting to do a meet and greet. Unlike Echo he's never has been bothered by gateways and was trying to get in the corral. I was yelling at him to keep out so he wouldn't mess things up.

Soon as Sparkle was through the gate she did a huge leap and buck, followed by very athletic double barrel kick and almost turned Wildairo into the headless horse. He was like, "All right, take it easy there little Missy". It's been many years since I've seen Dandylyons pull that move off.

Wildairo showed Mini his snake face and she knew what that was all about. Cows that hadn't been raised with a horse probably would have run off right about now.

Someone's missing.

Dandylyons is taking a break from him and sleeping out in the deep sagebrush where he's too scared to go.

He's looking in the direction of where his comfort cow is.

Wildairo has no intention of chasing the girls or young Mini Me. He was raised as a wild horses and wild horses respect the women folk and their little 'uns. He fondly remembers the 'band dads' and he had always wanted to be one himself.

Wildairo finally gets his herd and is very proud.

He's mine..all mine.

Echo Taffy is no longer a GI mustang, but a civilian mustang.

His title came yesterday. I rigged it a bit to proudly display his name.

He's a horse...not a number! lol. They are insisting on calling his body colour 'black' even though he's obviously a Aubergine (maybe now a mahogany) bay. lol.

These pictures are from last summer.

Notice his 'lucky pinto' sock.

I took a walk.

Today I took a walk to see Echo but first I went to see the birds. I think the ducklings are male and female...oh dear, we'll be over run with ducks soon.

I think if their darker breast plumage is in dots, it's a hen and if the dark looks more like stripes, it a drake. So, according to that, the big one in the back is a girl.

Jet Lag our rooster wanted to take me on. I took some photos of him and it kind of threw him off his game.

One day he rushed up to me to do this war dance and I kicked in his general direction to warn him off and my slipper flew off, so I picked it up and bonked him on the head with it. He didn't seem to notice and I think it's because he has that funny little red helmet on his head.

He's very good looking and he knows it.

Jet Lag rounded up his girls and with a big 'cockle doodle doo' took them off for a peck and scratch about.

I gave Echo some apples.

We have had a major break through thanks to a swarm flies. A few days ago we had a plague of those nasty biting flies that bite cattle, horses and even people. I put Echo in a very small pen so I could spray him, but the spray wasn't all that good and he still had some fly's biting him. He still didn't trust me, so every time he had to itch himself he'd back away so I didn't take the opportunity, while he was distracted, to rush him. I noticed he kept trying to scratch behind his elbow, so I did it for him.

Wow, that an eureka moment for him. In the past no matter what good rubs and scratchings I've given him, he's been too tense and scared to enjoy them. He'd stand with his head high, jaw tightly clenched watching me like a hawk. Well this time was different. I felt the bug bite on his skin and did my thing. His head stretched forward and he just loved it! I found lots of other bites on his body and went to town scratching them for him.

While he was on cloud nine, I took the opportunity to go were no girl has gone before. I gave him leg massages, belly rubs and even found some places in need of itching between his back legs. I even managed to semi-clean his boy parts. (Something that geldings need doing every now and again). He's got no kick to him at all! What a sweetie, he didn't even warn me off or get mad when I poked him with my too long finger nails. I tried to lift his front foot up but he backed up. I didn't have him on a rope because he's got that rope phobia thing going on that we have to deal with.

Today he showed me the mustang way off keeping flies off.

A thick layer of mud.

I gave him a belly rub which he enjoyed but he still kept his eye on me.

On the way home I met Max eating some grass.

Good old Max.

Ducklings and dog tails.

I got my ducklings out of my office and into their duck house. I'm really pleased that they walk up and down the little ramp and don't try to hide under the duck house.


I made them feel at home by making them their favorite treat, a chopped lettuce drink.


They are quick learners and go into the duck house at night where I lock them in. When they are bigger they will be allowed out to go where they please.


We have a hen that was beaten up last year by the other hens. Poor thing was a bloody mess and her eye was damaged. She will not sleep with the other hens now and has been using the duck house to sleep in. Her mere presence scared the duckings and I was worried they would panic and get caught in the wire or hide, so I'm trying to train her to sleep in a dog kennel next to the duck run. Because this hen hasn't been locked up at night she is out and about from dawn till dusk. She waits at the back door every morning and follows me around when I garden. I've never told her this but she's a nuisance, she's raked my flower beds up and made a huge mess of things. I've called her Henrietta and she's a darling.

Henrietta looks at me with her good eye.


She walks in circles around little Blondie who acts nonchalant.


Muffin has more pride than to let herself be stalked by a bird and gets to high ground when Henrietta comes near her.


Blondie has something that has caught Henrietta's eye.



Here's a closer view of Blondie's face as she keeps an eye on Henrietta.


It turns out that Henrietta thought Blondie's tail looked like the worm every chicken dreams about.


No tails were lost or injured in the making of this blog....Blondie can run fast.

The big clean up.

Clean up on aisle 7!


This was just the tip of the iceberg. Echo's corrals haven't been cleaned out since last year and he's been piling up a mountain of poop in the corner of both corrals. Brad brought in the big guns to do a clean up. The equipment was too big to get into the other corral so he took some boards and a post down. To my surprise, Echo left his pile of hay and walked through the gap into the other corral. I put him in a small pen so he wouldn't step on the boards with nails in them.

Brad had to open the green gate into the pasture so he could drag Mount Poop out. Despite all the heavy equipment action, Wildairo ran in dodging around the tractor. I locked him up next to Echo.


It didn't take Wildairo long to realize he was missing his comfort cow.




Wildairo started whinnying in his ridiculous little filly whinny and of course Dandylyons ran the gauntlet to obey him, only stopping for a mouth full of Echo's abandoned hay pile.



The gangs all here.


Sparkle pulls on my coat through the fence. She wants to be a comfort cow as well.


The whole time Bobby has got herself trapped between the boards and some irrigation pipe. She gets herself into these pickles on a regular basis, almost daily, and has to be 'rescued'.


Suddenly it occurred to Dandylyons that the young thug who's been bossing her around is in jail.


We go off and have ourselves a good time with various hair brushes. Dandylyons had dirt embedded thick on her back where she's been pawing up dirt with her front hooves all winter. She loves a good brushing in the Spring. She hasn't had a calf since 1996 and won't ever again. She is a terrible mother and besides she fights with the bulls when they try something. Dandylyons is a good sized cow and the bulls we get every year are very young and she can easily beat them up. Dandylyons is not a normal cow and it's my fault for over-bonding with her as a baby.


Meanwhile the boys in pens have a bit of jailhouse fun. You can see Wildairo is almost a hand taller than Echo. They are standing on level ground.




Wildairo couldn't believe Echo was still wearing his halter, he'd pulled his off months ago so he grabbed on to Echo's halter and tried to pull it off.