Snakes, Mama’s scare, teaching tomorrow

Over the past few days Mama and I have come across several snakes. All have been non-poisonous. Common Rat snakes. Even though they are beautiful snakes, I have dispatched each of them in turn. Once the snakes have discovered a potential food source – eggs, chicks, rats and mice – they do not abandon that area easily. All the snakes were rather large. One was more than six feet long while the others were about five feet long. Mama is not necessarily scared of the snakes, but she almost always screams in shock at discovering them. This has been a banner year for snakes I suppose because we rarely see them in the coops until later in the Summer. But the influx of snakes could be because this was a good year for the rats and mice that we have as continual residents in the coops. I sighted a very large rat in the duck’s grow out pen a couple evenings ago. Fortunately, Mama did not see it, or I would have been deafened by her scream. Rats and mice still illicit a feral scream from Mama.

On a separate note, Mama had quite a scare while looking for eggs in the duck area. We recently opened up the pig yard to the ducks and they have taken full advantage of the extra space. In that area, I had left a small dig Igloo that had been used for the baby goats that had been weaned using the pig building and yard to separate them from their mamas. I did not give it any thought, but it seems the ducks took notice of the privacy the Igloo offered for them to lay eggs. We had not made the association of lower totals for eggs in the duck pen and the possibility of the ducks using the Igloo as a preferred laying area. However, when Mama did look into the Igloo in her egg hunt something inside hissed at her. She immediately backed away and hollered for me to get a gun and find out what was hiding in the Igloo. When I got to the Igloo, I raised it up placing the entry upright from the ground and letting enough light into the Igloo to see what had taken up residence. It was one of our Khaki Campbell ducks protecting the dozen or so eggs that had been laid inside the Igloo. We both got a good laugh out of it. To keep it from happening again we removed the Igloo from the duck yard. Sadly, the overall egg production is still lower than in the past few weeks. If the hens are laying at another location, we have not found it yet.

Our twenty-four quail hatchlings are doing very well. As tiny as they are, we will be able to keep them in the crate for several weeks but at some point, we will have to move them somewhere more permanent. I need them to be eight to twelve weeks old before I can process them. We could certainly sell some of the tiny ones, but Mama and I have never been successful selling animals or other items, so I expect to process all twenty four for our table. Mama and Victoria are enjoying the chicks. I have to admit, they are fun to watch, and they make the most curious sound. Not a peep, but a warble. It is a big sound coming out a such a small chick – each no larger than the top knuckle of my thumb.

Yesterday, my team from Energy Worldnet met at a restaurant for lunch, spent an hour at a tea shop and then regrouped at the Tandy Leather Company for a team building project. The project, a small, embossed leather tray took a couple hours to complete for the twelve in our party, but I thoroughly enjoyed the project. We used stamps to decorate the leather after cutting the two pieces that would be assembled for the finished project. Once stained and assembled, I was very pleased with the outcome in spite of a couple small mistakes in the cutting and assembly. The project renewed a desire to investigate leather working as a hobby. I have considered it in the past but have not pursued it. Maybe now, as I plan to retire, it would be good to explore the option once again.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. Hopefully the internet at the HQ house will be in service tomorrow. It was not working properly this morning as we met there for a special project but as our IT team investigated the issue it turned out that the entire area was without internet service. That means that I will have to travel to the HQ house to see if the class can be taught from there or if I will have to resort to the office to present the class.

Not a big deal, but at least I know that there is a possibility of the issue being present.