Buzzing Worries

I have often found
Mem’ries given way to stress
Relief I still there find

Each year when spring starts, I receive a reminder to make sure my dog knows not to eat any bees or to be on the lookout in case he does and needs any medical attention. Even though I live on a farm, I find I haven’t ever needed to worry about Vincent eating any bees. We keep bees and when he was still a pup (though he was almost full grown at that point), he followed my sister when she went to check on the hive once it had become warm enough to safely open it.

My sister had no idea he was with her, or she would have made certain he wasn’t there when she opened the hive.

I was with the chickens and ducks with my nephew and niece because we were clipping their wings when my dog came barreling around the gate trying to get the bees out of his fur. We dropped the birds and immediately helped him. He had a few stings, but was otherwise fine and the baking soda/water mixture I use worked just fine for him. It was a while before he’d walk over by the house on that side.

He does try to eat other bugs, but I’ve never had any problems with him and bees since then.

The same cannot be said for my eldest nephew’s cat, Little Brother…

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Pretty Fly

People say turkeys
Are dumb and cannot fly high
I know that they can

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I am trying a type of poem that I haven’t in a long while, a haiku.

Mostly because I came across a funny cartoon where a turkey is asking why they were made to be dumb and not able to fly. I have turkeys here on my farm and they aren’t dumb at all and they can fly so we had to put netting up all across the top of their enclosure while keeping them in the garage in the meantime. They love to perch way up high in the rafters and I wish that my garage was kinder to my camera so I could show everyone.

It’s true that most turkeys are bred today in such a way that does make them really stupid (the ones you can buy to raise from most stores that sell them will drown themselves in the rain on accident). We lucked out and got a tom and two jennies that were smart enough to keep themselves alive so long as we can keep them in the yard and safe from predators. (Mostly because our tom turkey, Cid, is the biggest coward ever. He’ll make lots of noise. As he runs away. The jennies, Misha and Edea are more willing to protect their chicks than Cid is.)

Harsh Reality

There is no growth in your comfort zone, and no comfort in your growth zone.

Perhaps I did not speak clearly
And lost my meaning in the words
Isn’t it strange how we face life dearly
Not knowing just how much it hurts

I live on a farm. Most of you who are reading this post know that, because it’s something that I’ve talked about often. I knew that it would be hard and that it wouldn’t be something easily done.

You’d think I would have been able to prepare myself a little better and I thought I had. Especially after two and a half years and counting, but I wasn’t ready.

Not by a long shot.

I’m still not ready and I doubt I will ever reach the point where every single loss, no matter which type of animal, doesn’t cut into the strangely still soft heart I possess.

But if I didn’t keep trying, then I don’t think I would be able to keep going at all. Giving up, giving in, has never really been a part of my personality.

Well…

I’m not going to add it to my list of character traits now.

Because all of those that I have lost deserve better from me than just being memories that I run from.

(In other news, I have learned how to perform CPR on small mammals. It should be noted that if they aren’t revived within 10 minutes, it’s too late.

But that doesn’t mean it will always be too late.)

This small poem and accompanying ramble was brought to you by Dungeon Prompt: Defined by a Quote.

Shovel Time

Didn’t I finish?
I thought it was done last year…
Going to be doing this forever.

Someday we will be done, but that day is not this day…

Hard Lifting – Thankful Thursday

You know, there’s an awful lot of work to do on a farm and it often wearies me to the point that I just want to sit and stare at nothing on particularly bad days.

But…

But I also find that living on a farm and working on that farm is very relaxing and it makes it easier to sleep at night. Which is important to me because my sleep cycle is easily inverted if I’m not careful. I also have found that it calms my mind when something happens and I’m having a difficult time processing it.

This happened yesterday. I won’t go into details, but I received some news that was very shocking to me halfway through the day and it kind of took me out for several hours before my sister came home and we went out back to plant some asparagus and strawberry bare root plants in the garden and dig in the pond a bit.

By the end of the two and a half hours of work, I was feeling far more settled and the weighty matter of which I’d received news of earlier was no longer stopping my mind from thinking and doing things.

So I am grateful this week for all of the hard work that living on and running a farm takes.

Make sure to check out the original Thankful Thursday.

Nonsensical Moment

My cat snores.

My dog snores.

All of my family snores.

But you know who doesn’t snore?

Not me, I also snore.

The goats. The goats don’t snore.

But the geese make all this racket in the middle of the night anyway.

Tiny, But Great – Thankful Thursday

Today I’m grateful for this tiny little bunny.

image: from martha0stout’s phone

All his siblings have passed slowly over the last few weeks since they’ve been born and  we honestly didn’t think that he would make it either. (Mostly because all of the babies that have been the only ones in the nest at under  month and a half have always died from lack of body heat.)

But this little guy?

He’s hopping all around the kennel he’s in with a bunch of adult bunnies and he snuggles up with the little chickies (that are actually about the size of two fists put together by now, wow…) who hop out of their little brooder box to snuggle on the outside of the small rabbit kennel that this little guy is in at night.

By all rights, he shouldn’t still be hopping around and getting groomed by all the does that he shares a kennel with, but he is.

And for this great yet tiny miracle, I am grateful.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday.

 

Possessive

Mayhaps you did not understand
I shall try to explain it again
No, you may not take him
Even though he may need you too.

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What I’m pretty certain one of our bucks said to me after I went and picked up Oreo to burp him yesterday when it was cold and he had bloated again. (He’s fine!) Cowboy (the one who would be speaking in the poem) seems to think that Oreo belongs to him and follows me everywhere whenever I pick that little goatling up. Had to walk around the bucks’ pen, trying to avoid being knocked over by Gabriel (our one full grown and very affectionate buck) while burping Oreo with Cowboy trailing us and giving me the evil eye if I went anywhere near the gate while holding little Oreo.

Cowboy only nuzzled me in greeting after I put Oreo down and he could check that the little goatling was okay.

Death of Silence – Silly Snippet

Some of the best moments came when you are at home, alone with the silence.

(In the distance you can hear the ruckus of the geese decrying the new additions to the farm.)

Now if only this was one of those days.

We got pigs and while the goats seem fascinated with them, the geese are wondering, not politely or quietly, if we have lost our minds.

Whatchoo Lookin’ At – Wordless Wednesday

image: Bunnies, from martha0stout’s phone