My husband has dubbed the puppy a random action generator, especially when she is fighting the sleep monster. These GIFs were taken all within 10 minutes. Must not fall asleep!
She crashed shortly after.
Random action generator
Molting is hard work
I’ve been putting off a full chicken check for awhile. I’ve been spot checking under wings for mites, spot checking feet, and monitoring fluffy bums, but I heard that it hurts when they go through a molt, so didn’t want to pick them up and handle them much. Turns out I haven’t done weights since we lost Navi, Pooh, and Sunrise. Molting is lasting forever.
Well, the weather has been spectacular, with highs in the 80s and we had a morning of 70s when my eldest volunteered to help with chicken checks. We weighed all nine, checked under the wings for mites, checked vent condition, and checked their feet. Most of them needed a nail clip, some had bumbles, but only a few needed to be wrapped. I’ve suspected that they may have scaly leg mites, so put some natural healing ointment with tea tree and other essential oils in their legs. Taco was the only one where I was sure she has leg mites, as the scales on her legs were visibly lifted. We’ll treat her again with the ointment tomorrow. All of the chickens have lost weight. I hope it is just the molting and they will start packing on the ounces when they fully feather.
Jade has the flock beauty award in the bag. Her beard is glorious and her new feathers are crisp and lay beautifully. I think she is the one laying again too. We had a week of no eggs after Sunrise choked on a kernel and of grain and suffocated, but now we are getting an egg about every other day. Good thing I had some in the freezer.
Texas sage
The Texas sage are in full glorious bloom! But not in our yard. We planted a bush shortly after we moved in, and it is growing well now, but it has one bloom. One lonely little bloom. While the neighbors’ and the bushes in town are in dazzling display. Maybe next year our bush will join the exhibition.
101 things to do with a box
I love clicker training! I did a refresher with Karen Pryor’s Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs book. Little Missy has added “down” and the beginnings of “come” to her repertoire (which previously consisted of “sit”). I like the idea of shaping behavior rather than struggling over perfection at the start. I also like short training sessions. There was something in the book called “101 Things to do with a Box” that I hadn’t remembered. We had to try it with little smarty pants. We separated the dogs and had yummy training treats, and clicked and gave a treat every time Missy touched the box. By the end of the first session she was climbing all the way into her box to get her click! And you could practically see her little gears whirling in her head as she tried to figure out how to make me click. We switched dogs, and Griffin is my best dog, but not as keen on the box or the treats. For him, I hid the treat under the box and he got a click for snuffling the box. All in all a fun training game!
Uh, I’ll check back later
That is the biggest praying mantis I’ve ever seen in the wild. Rather than water my plants now and put my hand anywhere near her, maybe I’ll just come back later. Yes. Later. Good hunting.
