Another doozie of a day. It started out OK. I was up last evening canning peaches. I lost about half our peaches to being overripe because I did not have time before Fiber Day. But we still got 9 quarts. Last year we had none.

Our aged beagle is interfering with my sleep. He gets up several times per night for quite prolonged potty breaks outside. He is worrying me as it is a struggle to get him to eat now. He just wants to sleep.

The morning started off promising despite being tired. I washed 7 dozen eggs and put them out for sale.

I started the animal chores uneventfully with high hopes of a productive day. I did notice that our up and coming rooster has really dark, almost black eyes.

I then noticed two of our hens have similar eyes. After I took their photos I noticed them have grey legs too. It is funny what one is slow to recognize.Thankfully our picky pigs like soft peaches.

Here is the field I had hoped to mow.

And here is the manure I was planning on spreading.

But then I noticed wounds on Sonja. I am not sure what caused them.  There are a couple on her left neck and another smaller one on the right neck. The flies are already swarming it. Although they look superficial, I know fly strike all too well. So my plans for the morning disappeared as I tried to figured out how to safely get close enough to her to treat this.

I ended up getting her in the alley and spraying her wounds with screw worm aerosol and fly repellent. But it was a long ordeal and took up my whole morning.

When I was wrapping up chores the peacock started viciously attacking the male turkeys. I ended up kicking him in the butt, but his pea sized brain probably will not get that I am upset with him. Anyway the turkeys spent the rest of the day roosting.

I ended up having lunch and then went back to the barn to trim the goat hooves which I had planned to do in the morning. It went well with my fancy adjustable stand. Then I had the bright idea to trim two of the old sheep’s hooves that have been bothering them. I started with Heidi and ended up knicking her hooves as they are fragile. Then I did Hazelnut’s hooves. It went well but when I was done, he wanted to finish the grain I had given him. So I stepped away from the stand to let him eat just for an instant. And something freaked him out he he fell out of the head lock ripping the outer layer of his left horn off. He was bleeding a lot and obviously in pain. I had to catch him again. I sprayed the wounded area with antiseptic and fly repellent, but it kept bleeding. I managed to find the horn covering that come off and put it back on. I ran for some tape and with effort was able to tape it on. Hopefully this will help stanch the bleeding and help keep the flies away. I let him go but after thought I should have given him some pain medicine but did not want to terrorize him by catching him again. He limped to the furthest portion of the field and is looking miserable. I wonder if he twisted his leg when he fell too. Fortunately the stand was at it lowest position when he fell.  I feel absolutely horrible. Hazelnut has always been scared of me, but now he has good reason to be.

I then decided to pick some of our harvest. I started with the blueberries. I was surprised how many our plants are still making. I then picked cucumbers and green beans, respectable amounts. Then I looked at the corn. We have lots of corn this year and I had thought some of the stalks had fallen over and assumed some rodents ate the fallen ears.

But then I started noticing eaten eats on upright stalks.

A lot of upright stalks.

Even two feet off the ground.

Even three feet off the ground.

So there was an emergency picking of all the corn that had not been eaten. I guess we lost half of our corn harvest to whatever ate our corn. What do you think it was?

Anyway I guess I will be shucking corn during the Seahawks game.