My gal, Wednesday in "No Bebeh Bunnies!"

Ok, for any of you that don't know me, I love critters. I have wonderful relationships with all my beasties, but some are just far closer than others. My dog , Wednesday is one of those critters. She goes just about everywhere with me and her favorite "go to" place is the farm. She runs free, loves the woods and creek, and the way the chickens run when she blasts past them.

Well, just last weekend we were down at the camp doing what work we could in the weather we had. Jerome and the kids were sleeping in the big camper with Hiro (our Akita) and Wednesday and I were sharing the small camper. Big camper has heat, little camper..we're on our own. Temps would be in the mid-30 range that night. Ok for dogs and people, not so great for pampered birds.
It happened that Tpau, our cockatiel was egg bound and the vet had done what he could. Now it was up to her to pass the egg shell. She was still needing me to give her shots, twice a day. So Tpau went on her first camping trip. Remember, pampered birds need to be kept warm, little camper no heat. BUT, being the ingenious woman I am (LOL! Couldn't say that with a straight face!) I heated rocks in the fire pit, loaded them in a pan, screen over the top for safety and placed it next to her cage, covering it all with a blanket. Result, toasty warm tent for Tpau on the kitchen table. Wednesday and I turned out the lights and drifted off.

About 4 am I awoke to a chilly camper, though snuggly in my bed. I check the rocks and they were lukewarm. Time to change them out. Wednesday begrudgingly got up and stretched as I put on my shoes. I grabbed the pot 'o rocks on my way out to the fire pit. Dumped out the old to reheat, grabbed the hot with tongs, and headed back to an unhappy-to-be-woken-in-the-middle-of -the-night bird. But the hot rocks were the ticket to her contentment and she settled down in no time. I called for Wednesday to get back in the camper, she took her time of course. As soon as she crossed the threshold of the camper she looked like she heaved and vomited...no, not vomit. Thank the Creator I had the lights on, if I had stepped in what she she tossed up I would be freaked out the rest of my life.

Wednesday looked at me with a happy face and said, "Wanna share a midnight snack?"" ((SHUDDER))  There lay two, nekkid, blind, writhing bebeh (baby) bunnies!!
Yargh!!
"Wednesday!! How could you?! No bebeh bunnies! No bebeh bunnies, ever!! They can't run! They are defenseless!! Never! NO! No! Bad, dog! No bebeh anythings allowed! No! Tell me you didn't eat one! Did you!? Did you eat one!!?" You better not have..."

BUUUURP!!...she says to me....

Now, I know full well that anyone trudging through the woods in the middle of the night hearing "NO, bebeh bunnies!" echoes bouncing off the sides of the hills would have thought a banshee had gone mad, a harpy had lost it's noodle, or if they ever had a mother they would think "Uh oh! Somebody's in for it..."

 Wednesday's ears went down and she looked so ashamed. I know she was meaning it to be a great gift, a present that we could both share. Her idea of us staying up, giggling, swapping girl secrets, braiding each other's hair and crunching bebeh bunny bones came crashing down around her fuzzy ears. I scooped the bunnies up and saw they were alive, roughed up a bit but nature makes them fairly resilient. Their momma would know what to do better than I, though I figured getting them away from my dog (who was just being a dog) was a good start.

Sleep? What's that?

I put my shoes back on, grabbed a flashlight and opened the door to let Wednesday out. I knew she'd make a B-line for the burrow. She did. It wasn't far. The burrow was lined with tummy fur from their mom, it was kicked out due to my dog's efforts to snap the bunnies up. I pushed some of it back and gently plopped them back in. The burrow was fairly shallow. Not well concealed. Could be a new mom, not use to what predators will do for a meal.
Wednesday watched as I got up and repeated "No bebeh bunnies...no.." She looked at me as if I had stomped on her Mother's Day macaroni picture.
We went back to the camper and I got down on her level and she looked away as if I was going to swat her. I hugged her neck and told her she was a sweet girl to want to share. A brave girl to hunt in the dark. A smart girl to show me where she got them so I could take them back. Her ears perked up, tail wagged, things were ok again. She licked my nose and I silently prayed there were no bunny guts left on my face.

Maybe THIS year?!

Well, last I sat down to write was... last year. Sad, huh? I know... But we were working on getting our 25X30 garage up and we were hit with -22 degrees in Nov. Brrrr! That was essentially the end of our building days for the year. The garage is what we will be living in, before we build a straw bale house. We also lost 23 chickens due to that fast freeze. What a waste. But they decided not to make use of their shelter and if you are too stupid to get to where it's warmer.... out here, well..that's what happens.

This Spring has been very cool and wet compared to years past. Montana had been in a 10 year drought, which I do believe is over. We had records snows, twice as much as normal snowfall for the winter. Add that to rain, a few warmer days and that makes for flooding. Sadly some folks hit worse than others. Two lives lost so far.
We're keeping the kids and dogs away from the creek when it's flowing like this. Better safe than sorry.
It's also caused us to rethink where we will build the main house. The pasture site no longer looks that great. The side of the hill will be more of a task to build. If it floods up there it's ark building time!
On our land we have had very full creek beds and some waters coming over the culvert, washing a bit of the dirt away. So we have decided to err on the side of caution and not use it to cross with our vehicles. The weather continues to not cooperate with rain, blowing winds and chills. Grr!

Each weekend the hubby has had off to work on the land has been met with foul weather. What a slap in the face to a weatherman. ;-) But it seems the clouds are breaking, rain abating and this weekend is looking up. The slab is down since last Nov., the holes in the u-channels of the building are drilled. So, dropping those down and bolting them is an easy task! (Please, gods of irony and smiters of the arrogantly hopeful, do not bash us due to my flippant words of enthusiasm!)
This would mean the u-channels are down, the walls can be bolted in shape and pulled upright, bolted then in place and concrete poured to anchor it all. In a day or two, 80% of the building would be up!
We need to enclose the ends of the garage. The front will have an Arctic room. For those not in the know it's a room used as a barrier for the extreme temps. The door opens to a closed foyer space. Then there is another door that opens to the interior of the house. No opening doors in -45 to have the heat roll out and the cold blast through! The back of the garage will be built out to enclose the well head, the bathroom, solar batteries and freezer. That will be another 2 months of weekend work at least. As long as it's done by Nov.!

We lost a sheep, Donald to what looked like polioencephalomalacia...yeah, that's a mouthful. Basically it a neurological issue causing the brain to swell and go necrotic. From what I was told, his B12 was blocked somehow and this was the result. It was ugly. I'm glad he went to greener pastures. We'll see Donald again some day. The chickens are shooting out eggs faster than we can keep up. Selling them off to buy more feed. The chickens like this arrangement, so do I. Feed costs are up!
Found Morel mushrooms growing on our land and a Mallard hen and her nestful of eggs along the creek too. Life is good here.
The kids are growing like weeds and are loving the woods, though the pull of video games and TV have been pulling them back to "civilization". But once we are down there for good it will be a treat rather than "must have". Hoping we'll have our place in Great Falls rented soon as we are ready to move. Thinking too some family will be coming up to live closer. That will be so very nice! Maybe we can talk them into living next door in the woods. Hmmm?