Many of the animals on Goat Rope Farm have endearing and not so endearing habits. Little Edith Ann the boxer goes mad with squeaky toys most days. Honeysuckle the not-so-baby goat jumps all over us like a puppy. Diego the turkey relentlessly courts his mate with an ever changing display of facial and snood colors (the snood is the thing that hangs down from a male's face when he's trying to get lucky). Cat Seamus expresses his dissatisfaction with the world primarily through excretory functions.
And then there's Arpad, the Great Pyrenees. He mostly abides, like the Dude in the Big Lebowski. His presence has been a pretty good deterrent against predators, with the notable exception of his platonic chicken killing girlfriend up the road. Mostly he just hangs around, but every so often he takes a day off and lights out like Huck Finn for the territory.
Some of these excursions are foraging missions from which he returns carrying bits and pieces of deer carcasses left over from the last hunting season. He returned with one such artifact this week, a vintage November deer hide, periodically shaking it and leaving fur all over the yard.
He's such a pretty good boy that I like to indulge him within reason, but this one required an intervention. This consisted in waiting until he was asleep and bagging it. I don't think he minds too much. As far as I can tell, things just appear, disappear and reappear in his consciousness, such as it is.
The Dude abides.
ONE TO WATCH. Methane monitors have been recovered from the Upper Big Branch mine. They may provide more insight into what happened April 5. And here's uber-blogger Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo post on why people are watching this.
NOT SO GOOD. The latest report on joblessness shows an increase in claims.
UNSTIMULATED. According to the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia ranks next to last in stimulus spending.
BACK TO THE FARM. More people are turning to small farming. What are they thinking?
GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED
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1 comment:
The money in farming is selling things TO the farmer. Not in the farming itself.
When I lived in Nitro our neighbors dog would go out and seek stuff and often eat it whole.
Then he would back up to our hedge and take a dump about 18" above ground.
As kid I always took great interest as the rain and weather caused the organic matter to degrade what was left.
Once there was a turd composed entirely of panty hose.
Another was plastic with about 6 bread ties in it.
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