Rural Life

Who all here lives in a rural area and farms or raises farm animals?
We have hens and dogs only now but we did have horse,donkey, all kinds of ducks, chickens.
Now thinking of getting goats to help me with vines and brush.
But then we'd have to have some kind of temporary fence to keep them in area we want cleared,

 

We just have our 3 cats. They’re enough for us. Even though we live in a community, plenty of wildlife. Deer, foxes, snakes, birds (resident owls and hawks) squirrels, chipmunks, varieties of snakes and loads of insects and spiders.

 

So cute and I know you miss those animals. I miss our Donkey and horse too, the horse would never lay down with Jake like he did me, jake broke his back and had all that metal put in 'fusion' and then our horse Tobacco laid down with Jake.
When I was a child I'd go lay down at night with my head on Katys neck and look at the moon, well Rosie and Tobacco let me do the same with them.
My goat Nita would chase the car if I was in it. She followed me everywhere. She rode home in the back window of the car [that's when autos had back window shelf. She was wild so I went to her every morning till she let me touch her.

 

I understand they can be too much at times and as we age it gets tougher.
We don't have nearly the wildlife we had 10 years ago, haven't seen a fox, coyote in years. Still see a snake now and then ,we use our snake grabber and take it to the woods.

 

We have a cripple hen who thinks Jake is her rooster, she stays with him when they free range because other hens want to peck her since she has a limp for past 3 months. She will run up to Jake if they come near her. She likes to be petted and held. We are teaching the dogs not to bother them, If Molly wasn't so old she could put a quick stop to the chasing, but like Molly and all other dogs they will learn. Our Alice taught them well, she would give any dog who even looked at them a beat down. She lived to be 19 best dog I ever had and I've had some good ones, part greyhound and yellow lab. She came from greyhound kennel yellow lab jumped fence and got with her mother.

She is from the last Ideal order of 10 biddies, they have just started to lay couple weeks ago.

 

We had goats, and sled dogs from the time we moved to this location. We have also had ducks, geese, turkeys, and a variety of chicken breeds--both meat and layers. We got out of the goat business after I broke my back and could no longer do the heavy work, especially in the winter when we had to haul water. House dogs and barn cats as well until recently. We have large gardens and several greenhouses, as well as two small orchards. We had sheep and rabbits for a while too, but they went when the children left home.
We have never had horses or cattle, as I thought they were too expensive as we can only graze about 3 months a year.

 

That is a lot of plants ,we only using one raised bed now and a few plants inside to put out later,mostly my flowers.
I sure miss my donkey she was so smart and fun. I miss the horse too. But I want to get some goats ,Jake not so sure yet. I see a goat several times a week running down the dirt road with two huge white long haired dogs, Pyrenees I think?

 

Forgot about the dog sleds, I bet that was great, I can imagine driving them thru the snow, bet it was lots of enjoyment.

 

We just moved to a rural like area. Right now we will have our hands full taking care of this huge yard. Hubby is talking about getting another dog.Howevert donkeys, chickens, horses, are here around us,and we already know the coyotes visit during the night in our yard.

 

I talk about how unruly the dogs are but they bring us lots happiness too. Jake thinks Leo is the prettiest dog alive and I think Foxy is.We both love both of them.

 

That is nice you know the coyotes, I really miss the wildlife, people moved in and cut out alot of forest, maybe lost 70% in past 6 or 8 years. We have kept as much as we could wild. We saw 5 deer today run across the dirt road.

 

Working with sled dogs showed me how exceptional some dogs can be. I saw some lead dogs react to a musher's thoughts with no signals whatsoever. The leaders were 30 feet away facing away from the driver, but when the musher wanted to go to the right or left, the leader would take the team that way. People say dogs just react to your tone of voice or your expression, but in these cases, the dog was not close and was not looking at the human. There is some kind of telepathic connection between the human and the dog. Not all dogs have it, in fact very few do, but I believe it probably developed as some kind of evolutionary survival skill. The leaders also have to outsmart the dogs behind them, as they are not usually the biggest dogs, but if the musher falls off the sled, some leaders will bring the team around in a big circle to pick up the musher with no commands at all. They usually can't stop the team, so they direct it around.

The dogs we had began as belonging to our daughters. When the girls left home, the dog team was inherited by their younger brothers.

 

I can see you miss the dogs , nice story Don. Jake and I just watched the movie ' Iron Will' a few days ago, now you brought it up and we're discussing it. Kind of ironic. We'd seen it before but wanted to see it again.
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