Took this while off sick yesterday. Dad and Bastian sleeping under a tree together.

And a few I’ve taken at my Aunts since coming here:

Red Horizon

Pink Horizon. The sun comes up over this big meadow that my other uncle owns from down the street. My Aunt has a circular stone patio out there that I sit at and meditate as the sun comes up. It’s very invigorating.

Big rainbow we saw this past weekend.

A woman down the street bought a good chunk of our chickens and we gave her our geese since she has a pond.

Unfortunately her dog killed every one of them overnight.

I’m not sure how it happened, I don’t know if he got into the cage or what, but she definitely should have been better prepared. It’s difficult to introduce fowl once a dog has already been established on the property. You either need to bring the dog up with the fowl or you need to work hard to retrain the dog that fowl aren’t toys or food. The latter is even more difficult since certain dogs are very predatory (huskies for one, I’d never own a husky and chickens at the same time).

My pittbull has never killed a bird. He has killed squirrels and chipmunks, which we let him do because we become overrun with them otherwise. And because we allow him to kill chipmunks and squirrels, he does kill any rabbits that get out as well, because they are furry and small, just like the squirrels. But rabbits hardly ever get out, and those that do usually stay out of our fenced in area where the dog’s territory is anyway.

In fact we’d let the chickens out to stretch their legs and eat bugs in the backyard quite frequently, with my dog at the same time, and he’d never even bother to look at them. He just doesn’t care, he expects them to be there.

Ah well, guess she learned her lesson. I hope.

I just checked our T-Max (or formerly known as Sentricon) stations outside for Termite activity. I installed these not long before I left Terminix, and have an ample supply of refills and extra stations as needed. I prefer these to chemical treatments because of the little impact on the environment, despite the need to maintain them and the fact that they aren’t effective unless the termites find them (which they generally do).

The two stations out front by the front door were still full, no activity there. Not surprising since a technician volunteered to do a liquid treatment there a couple years back (we had lots of termite activity back then).

The station by the garage, however, was completely empty as expected. I will refill it tomorrow to see if there is still activity in a couple months. Most likely the cellulose has eliminated the colony, but you can never be too cautious.

On the way to work today I saw a huge snapping turtle crossing the road by this old farm. I’ve never seen a snapping turtle crossing a road before, and it’s the weirdest thing to see. I see box turtles all the time, but snapping turtles are odd and alien looking. This one was almost the size of a tire.

When I came home the peacock was strutting his tail in full glory, and we have a new brood of baby ducks that I held for a while.

My son had a piece of old rusty metal in his paw. This is the second time since I got him in…2002(?) that he’s gotten something in his paw from our backyard. The first time was an old roofing nail, this looked like an old piece of chicken wire. Old chicken houses that used to be up and were torn down and trashed by the previous tenant are no doubt the fault.

I had to have my friend Jake come over again to hold Bastian down while I pulled it out. Jake used to work at the same Vet that I did, and is the only guy I’d trust to help me.

But at least it’s out, and my son is all better, with a big fattening pigs ear as a treat for how brave the little guy was.

[View pictures of my son]

Everyone spoils my dog.

Which is cool with me, he’s a prince, he -should- be spoiled. My neighbors give him a treat at 9am every morning, and he knows it, because he’ll whine until he gets it. Then he does his exercise routine, running around the yard like a damned idiot for a few hours, barking like crazy.

They encourage it, talk to him, make funny noises at him, call him “Streak” because he looks naked when he runs.

This is all very cute and fine with me.

Now my neighbors are my dads cousins, which would make them my second cousins, or whatever. Their son would be my third cousin, he’s about early 30’s (still living at home, but rich as a mother fucker).

He’s a bit more grumpy. Rich people are like that sometimes. When he goes outside, my dog gets excited too, since he loves people, so he barks at him.

Well UNBEKNOWEST to me, he’s been shooting an air rifle at him to get him to shut up when he does his routine. It’s just air, so it’s not hitting him (if he ever shot my dog, I’d beat the living shit out of him), but yesterday apparently my dog growled at him.

And he never growls. We’ve raised Bastian to be a very friendly pittbull, and he’s never snapped at anyone or growled at anyone or anything. The only time he’s growled is late at night when he hears something outside he doesn’t like, which is what we -want- him to do.

But if my neighbor is going to provoke him into doing something mean, and he -can- jump the fence if he wanted to, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to start some shit. My dad is planning on saying something today, but if he doesn’t stop, is there some sort of ASPCA or something that I can call?