Hermit on the Homestead

After months of working on getting hay from a local person, I finally found someone right here in my town. Just in the last few months, hay bales at the ranch store went up five dollars each. So a three string bale (80 pounds) costs $21.99. A two string bale which is half the weight costs $17.99. We are talking about cut grass here. This is why I was motivated.  I got a number for a guy here in town and called it. An old lady with a classic grandma voice answered, I asked if they had hay I could buy, and she answered, "I'll have to check with my husband, call back in three weeks. How did you hear about us?" I said my neighbor told me. So I called back in three weeks, she answered, "How much hay do you need?" I said, "I need 80 bales, or about 3,000 pounds." "Oh that's not much. I'll have to check with my husband how much hay he got this crop, but I'm pretty sure we'll have some for you." The husband called me back a few days l...

I'm looking forward to making a decent photo of these yaks. But I'm still nervous, will they freak out if I bring my camera and get down low, crouching like a predator? I doubt it...but am I willing to bet on it? This is the best I can do so far. Am I ridiculous for wanting to get them fun ear tags ? How would I even put them on even if I got them.  Meanwhile, my yaks sure have a lot of flies around them. Why? Apparently this is a complex issue. There are Horn flies, Face flies, Leg flies, Horse flies, and more. I realize they don't have very many compared to the problematic images on the internet, but they still have more than I would prefer and it must bother them. Cattle and horses are plagued by nasty flies, I have learned. Face flies like to sit—you'll never guess. They like to eat all the secretions from their faces like snot and spit and eye boogers. It bothers them and transfers bacteria and they can get pink eye and things of that nature. Leg flies also are apt...

Yay! After much sleepless nights, hand wringing, and brow furrowing, we changed the yaks halters! They were getting so tight they were digging into their noses, and making furless indentations on the back of their necks. I knew they must have been very uncomfortable, but The halters I bought were too big. We had to drill more holes in the strap and even then I wasn't sure if they would fit. We brainstormed how we should do it. Should we tie the yaks up some how? Should we build a make-shift squeeze chute? We had no idea, but we knew we couldn't traumatize poor Rocky again.  I had an idea. Clip them up with the leads to their existing halters like we always do every morning. I thought, let's put the sweet grain they love in a bucket. Then make the nose hole on the halter really big and place it around the sides of the bucket. When they reach in the bucket for the goodies, lift up the halter and then it would be around the nose, all is left is buck the back strap. Then switch...

Things are very slowly settling in for these yaks. And by slowly I mean almost in discernible progress. But upon careful analysis, it is progress none the less. I am not not afraid to go into the field and call them to bring them into the coral. No funny business has been attempted and they understand the routine. With the baby, it's nearly impossible for me to be a part of the daily brushing ritual which is sad for me but I'm glad that dad is able to do it. He reports that he is able to hook them up on their leads easily and brush them without much trouble. He can walk directly up to dusty and brush her without being hooked on a lead at all. This is real measurable progress. Amazing.  We had quite the setback with Rocky. His halter is getting tight again so I bought a new one for an adult cow. But in order to try it on, how does one do this? We lassoed him around the horns and tried to put the new one on. But he struggled so much it was terrifying and the lasso tightened so ti...

A couple weeks ago we ran out of hay for the yaks, But we didn't have to panic just yet because I think we might just have enough space for them to graze. But, when I put them in the coral at night, it's nice to give them a little something to tide them over until morning. And they are lazy yaks indeed because they sit around laying in the sun all day, then wait until the night time hay pile when they don't have to forage. At least that's how it seems.  So I started the long process of acquiring a vendor for some wholesale hay. Inflation is going nuts because just a few months ago when we bought hay it was $12.39 for a "two string bale" which is about 45 pounds, that same bale is $19.95 now. They have "three string bales" which are close to 80 pounds each and are only 4 dollars more. The two string bales are conveniently wrapped in plastic, and the three string bales are not. So they make a total mess of any car they are transported in and most peop...

My confidence goes up and down all the time with these yaks. I feel like I gain confidence, but then Dusty charges me a few times and I’m back to square one. They are mostly friendly, but they are also youthful and do crazy sporadic things. One time they ran past me from behind and its horn hit my elbow, which left a bruise for several days. From that point on I started carrying a stick. It looks like it’s a broken shovel handle or something, I hold it in one hand and the treat bucket in the other hand, this way they give me a bit of a perimeter. I gently sway the stick side to side behind me so they don’t get too close. But sometimes in the morning when I brush them, Dusty is just so mean to me. I was feeling particularly nervous one day, and Ganesh was holding Georgie and I asked him to put the yaks in the coral. I thought Ganesh would hand the baby to me, but to my surprise he didn’t. He just walked right on in the field, baby in arm, called the yaks, told them to go in the coral, t...

It's been a while since we moved the not-so-baby chickens to the coop inside their own cage to protect them from the older chickens. We thought everything was going well. Until Aji went out to check on the chickens and a very large blow snake was wrapped around the biggest baby chicken and constricting it. Aji was quite startled by this since she had reached her hand inside the box. She ran back to the house and yelled that there was a snake in the chicken coop. Ganesh killed the snake, but it was too late to save the chicken, it was dead. Once again, we just never thought a snake would get in the chicken coop and kill a chicken much too large for the snake to eat. It was so pointless...pointless killing. We are so angry that the snake had to do that to our little chicken, but at least we got a tiny bit of justice. If we had just checked the chickens a little earlier, we probably would have saved it. Will any of these chickens survive to adulthood? A sad feeling lingered the rest o...