We’re having a heat wave here, 76 degrees F this afternoon. That brought out the bugs, which made the chickens happy.
I disturbed this Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) today while planting irises. It’s small, maybe a half inch long, but the metallic green stands out against the bare dirt. It scurried away quickly, [...]
Last week’s armadillo adventure ended when it dived into this hole. It’s located in a thicket of locust saplings. Between the orchard and the strawberry bed. Now we have holes everywhere. Big holes. Little holes. Something’s going to break a leg stepping into a hole where there wasn’t a hole the day before. So how [...]
At first I thought this hole under the stanchions in the old barn might be another armadillo bolt hole. The steady level of skunk odor indicates it’s probably the striped one’s hangout.
Another skirmish today, and the armadillo lived to dig another day. The dogs spotted our resident armadillo early this evening when we headed out to escort the cow back to her stall in the barn. As usual, it leaped, bounced, zigged, zagged, then dived down the nearest burrow. Blue, the old Aussie, dug as fast [...]
A tree root was in the way, so Blue tried to gnaw through it. Then he tried to jerk it out of the ground.
Bebe, the 5-month-old farmcollie, checks out the burrow.
Bebe, diving into the brush after the armadillo.
The burrow. I could hear a ‘whump, whump’ sound from the armadillo when I leaned close, but it was too far down the hole to see it. For more about armadillos, click here and here. Or here for some intriguing pictures and roadkill humor.
The neighborhood pest visited the barn last night. Black body, white stripe, you know the type. It missed me and three of the four dogs. Poor Blue guarded our retreat and took a blast to the muzzle.
Hence the doggie bath scene. Poor Blue.
Blue didn’t like the soapy hair horns or the doggie mohawk either.
Deskunking formula
1 pint hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 big squirt Dawn dishsoap
Sponge on. Scrub well. Leave the mixture on the dog for at least 10 minutes. We used a double batch for Blue, a 35-pound Australian Shepherd. His collar is soaking in a single [...]
