I'm still making a half-hearted swipe at cleaning the house. It took me all day yesterday to clean the bathrooms; I used to do them in an hour. I'm definitely going to hire a housekeeper... someday.
I think I'll take a break and go walk through Aldi. I need some cucumbers and salad stuff and I like to see what's new in there.
I Get what you are saying about Cleaning. It just doesn’t happen anymore half is good as it used to or anywhere near as fast. I tried three times unsuccessfully to have someone come and clean for me. It didn’t work out because I live far out and people don’t like the drive. Second of all people don’t like my dogs.
2. I got to the barn at 12:20 PM to feed lunch to my horses. The 30 Ish fella is rail thin so he needs fed three times a day. The 15-year-old Arab is overweight, but I give him Timothy pellets so he thinks he has something.
I have been pulling their new Hay from a horse stall that I’m not using. The stall has mats & shavings in it, with clear heavy plastic on top of the mats for the Hay.
I have been going in and out of there for a week now, so it isn’t like it’s been sitting idle. When I turned around with an arm load of hay to put in the buggy in the aisleway, I noticed the edge of my clear plastic looked funny. It looked rolled with markings on it. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t see really good. I just kept working and got the horses fed and hayed, with the intent of getting my glasses out of the car to see if what I thought I was seeing was really what I was seeing.
Just then, my neighbor was leaving from finishing up Bushhogging so I waved him into the Barn. I pointed and said tell me I’m not seeing what I think I see. He said I think you are give, me your cane.
By golly, there was a 3 foot to 4 foot long, snake skin that had just recently been shed, because when he picked it off of the cane, it was still sticky. Oh happy day.
It explains why my Barn swallows have been sounding the alarm so feverishly the last several days. I’m hoping it is a rat snake skin or black snake. It is too long to be a cottonmouth or a copperhead, but being a rattlesnake is not out of the question.
I have a picture of it, but I can’t even upload it from my photo album onto the horse forum, much less go through the rigmarole of putting it on Imgur to load it here. Maybe later or maybe tomorrow I’ll come back and try again.
I have lived here 23 years and this is the first time I’ve seen signs of snakes inside my barn. Another neighbor said her husband saw a skin shed by their pond. They have ducks so that answers that one. I figure this snake must’ve been after my Barn swallow babies. Hopefully now that all my property has been Bushhogged the mice will make an appearance and the snakes will go back out in the field, where they’ve always been. I am not afraid of snakes, but it is still unnerving because I have to go in a fairly dark stall, and I’m reaching for Hay all the time.
What I am really doing is keeping him active as a patient with this particular group because if he gets really sick after hours, or on a weekend, there will be someone on call available to care for him. There is not a Vet around that will help with a sick or injured pet if they are not a regular patient with them. My regular Vet has recently retired and sold out to a big corporate group. When I called for an appointment, I got AI trying to make the appointment for me. AI called me by my name asking me questions. It knew a lot about me and my cat. I talked to AI for a bit and then I just hung up! About an hour later, one of the Vets called me back; a human. He scheduled the visit for me.
I am very good at keeping my kitty clean and brushed, but whatever. Anyway, Vet asked me if I would I like some ear drops for that. I said,Ok. Give me the drops. $300.00 later we were on our way home.
was purple like we see in the spring when the birds chow down on ripe mulberries, but in mid July, that color of bird guano is a mystery. Perhaps the bird was constipated and it took this traumatic blow to loosen its bowel. In any case, the purple that runs into white at the bottom, wasn't quite a Picasso, so it will be removed. The bird was slightly dazed and flew off, so no funeral today for my feathered friend.