Why are all our posts about rodents lately!?!

 It was about 2:30am...

The typical "pitter-patter-pounce" noise started, alerting us to the fact that Harvey had caught a mouse.  Teresa flipped on the lights and jumped out of bed to see Harvey holding a baby mouse.  This being our first baby mouse we've caught, we were amazed how much easier it was to catch than the adult mice we've been known to chase around the bedroom for eternity.  The mouse was put into the bathroom garbage can, as normal, and the top covered.  We laid back down and went to sleep.

About 2:50am...

 From the other bedroom we hear, "pitter-patter-pounce-SQUEEK!" Well this is now getting interesting!  The light once again flies on and Teresa goes running to once again find Harvey with yet another baby mouse in his mouth.  This mouse joins the other in the can and they immediately snuggle in together.  We lay back down to sleep and now the adrenaline is pumping.  Teresa gets back up and goes downstairs to get the baby mice a watermelon snack from the fridge (in case they are hungry or thirsty of course).  

3:15am...

Another episode of "pitter-patter-pounce-squeek!" has Teresa once again jolting up in bed.  By this time Eric remains in bed, bored from the monotony of the evening or perhaps just growing more and more sleep deprived. Teresa collects a third baby mouse from Harvey and adds him to the ever growing mouse collection in the bathroom.  Well, now the adrenaline is just pumping fully and so at every little noise, Teresa is acting like a crazed lunatic: she continually jumps in and out of bed, turns the lights on and off, and runs around from room to room. By about 4am, she decides perhaps there are no more mice after all and some sleep will do the body good.  

So this morning 3 baby mice were released into the meadow, hopefully to find some shelter before the night.  Even more hopeful is that Harvey caught all of the baby mice last night and that we don't have to replay the madness again tonight!

Taming of the Shrew

Saturday turned out to be quite the adventure.  

We went over to a friend's to till their garden bed in order to help them prepare to plant their flower seedlings.  They are starting a cut flower business and it was super fun seeing all of their seedlings ready and waiting to get into the ground.  We were standing around chatting (minding our 6 foot COVID distances), when Eric stopped the tiller and picked something up.  He held it for a while and seemed interested enough that it got the three of us guessing what treasure he found...a colorful stone, a coat hanger, a piece of pottery.  He started to walk over to the side of the garden bed, then turned around and looked at us.  He gave a sheepish smile and a goofy wave and I knew something was up, so headed down to where he was.

LITTLE FRIENDS!

A nest of 5 (sadly two were already dead, likely crushed by the tiller on his first pass).  Eric knew I'd need to keep them of course, so was contemplating tossing them off to the side in order to avoid bringing home critters...good thing he knew better.   

I laid the remaining 3 rodents in the garden while everyone started to spread minerals into the soil.  Within a few minutes of the tiller being off, the soil started to move and I reached in to pull a 4th baby out, but nothing was there.  It took a few seconds for all the wires to connect, but I suddenly realized it might be their mom.  When this happened a second time, I stood quietly and watched and sure enough, a little nose popped out of the soil right around the babies.  While the other 3 finished spreading the minerals, I tried so hard to catch the mama, but with no luck.  She seemed to have a network of holes everywhere and the moment I tried to dig her out, she was gone.

Eric did another pass with the tiller and I replaced the babies into the garden, starting to lose hope that I'd be able to bring mom along.  She was more cautious this second time, not coming up to the surface as often.  Right before we were getting ready to leave, I figured it was now or never, so when I saw her nose poke through, I grabbed the soil as fast as possible and threw it into my little box.  To my utter surprise, a rodent jumped out of the box!  THE MAMA!!  I just responded with automatic reflexes and grabbed her with my hands as she ran across the soil.  I somehow miraculously managed to catch her and I threw her back into the box, slamming the lid shut.  I popped the 3 babies into the box and we taped the lid for safe measures.  I was so happy to have succeeded catching the mom to relocate with her babies AND our friends were happy to be rid of the rodent family in their garden.

When we got home we researched and it turns out I caught me a shrew family!  We learned that shrews eat 3x their body weight a day and eat insects and other rodents.  We realized that we'd never be able to feed the shrew adequately in captivity.  In the hour it took us to decide to release her, she'd already dug new tunnels in the aquarium and moved all 3 babies underground.  We dug a nice hole outside by the stone wall and dumped the mom into the hole and covered her with dirt.  We placed the babies on top and covered them with leaves.  Within 2 hours, one baby was already underground and the other two were crawling about on top of the leaves.  I moved the leaves to find a nice tunnel under them and placed both babies in the opening of the hole.  They began crawling down into the hole and out of site.  

Not sure if that's the last we'll see of the shrew family, but we certainly hope they enjoy living on the farm.

A few of my favorite things...

If ever I get distracted driving, it's not from texting on my phone, but rather transporting chicks home to the farm.  Their constant peeping and poking their heads out of the box is cute enough to make anyone lose focus and veer across the lanes!  Definitely one of my favorite things:)

Two buff orpingtons and a lavender orpington joined us this year along with 25 meat birds.

Izzy's birthday surprise

Tuesday we celebrated Izzy's 11th birthday.  That same day, Lucy was due to kid for the first time.  Before leaving for work, Teresa asked Lucy to wait until Thursday so she could be home for the delivery.  All day, as Eric checked in on Lucy, she was showing no signs of labor.  Teresa was very happy to arrive home and learn this, hopeful that Lucy would indeed hold off until Thursday.  

Around 6:30pm, we both ventured into the barn for a quick check after dinner and Lucy had an amnion hanging out!  (sneaky goat.) After about 45 minutes, she started pushing and out popped baby #1 (boy)!

We continued to wait for her to start pushing again, but she never started.  Typically if they don't start pushing again within 30-45 minutes, something isn't quite right.  After a little over an hour of waiting, the decision was made to reach in and see what was going on.  

Flashback - Deja vu:  Last year when Abby kidded (Lucy's mom), Lucy's brother (Andre the Giant) had to be manually extracted after Abby failed to start pushing.

Turns out, baby #2 was butt first with his legs tucked under him, so after some maneuvering, then panicking and more maneuvering, Teresa manged to get him untangled and pulled him out by his rear legs. He is a perfect mini-me of Oscar, white stripe on his side and all:)

So happy birthday Izzy...

and welcome to the farm, Sherman and Zeek!

Aerial Predator

And now for some COVID-19 reading material...

Today was a busy day of cleaning the goat pens of a whole winter's worth of bedding pack.  It is a smelly and back straining job but we had a beautiful day for this necessary task.  The goats were in the pasture and the chickens were contentedly pecking about in the yard.  Suddenly, from the front of the barn, a proper ruckus could be heard around the corner.  Chickens were squawking and feathers were flapping.  Rounding the corner to investigate, Eric determined that the very large bald eagle that was swooping out of a nearby maple tree was to blame.  The chickens scattered into the barn and the eagle flew over the yard and house, circling and climbing into the sky.  The poor chickens cowered in the barn for the remainder of the day and the eagle was not seen again.  Interestingly, we lost a very old and slow moving chicken last week to an unknown predator.  It now appears that this was not the eagle's first visit to the farm and had returned for another chicken meal.

Caribbean Adventure

We just returned from a Caribbean cruise on Holland America.  

We greatly enjoyed hanging out with the little squirrel monkeys in the Dominican Republic.  As you can see they greatly enjoyed hanging out on Eric!

 We spent time on Saint John and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, snorkeling with green sea turtles, rays, lemon sharks, and colorful fish of all shapes and sizes.  

Teresa managed to read 4 books and we enjoyed a great variety of movies and entertainment.  Eric experienced the surreal glow of the Bioluminescent Bay for the first time in Puerto Rico. 

Fun, fun fun!

Walter and Winnie

Introducing Walter and Winnie!

 Both kids have found their legs and are hop...hop...hopping around the barn:)