Bears, Skunks, porcupine, hawks and coyote OH MY!!

The skunks have been eating me out of house and home when it comes to my eggs.  I have managed to shoot and kill 2 skunks so far.  I know there is at least one more pesky little critter hanging around.  I've gone to the barn to feed the goats and found broken egg shells on the floor.  UPDATE: by the end of this I have shot and killed 4 skunks. 

We've been fortunate in that the dogs have not run into the skunks while outside.

But unbeknownst to us, there is a pack of coyotes in the neighborhood.  I am very sad to say that we have lost one of our dogs, Bogger, Boogie, to this pack.
I let the dogs out to do their nightly duty before bed.  The coyotes were out in the yard and I didn't know it.  Bogger must have run right into them.  He never came home. I know it was coyote because shortly after he was missing I drove up the road and two of them crossed right in front of me coming from our property.  My son searched in the rain and darkness for 7 hours.  Covered every inch of our property and the fields all around us.  There were 5 others of us that also searched and searched for days to follow.  Not a single sign of him.

I have to admit I am nervous about letting the dogs out at night now.  I go out with them with a big bright flashlight and I don't let them leave my sight!

He was an awesome dog and we will miss him greatly!  Bogger was a bear chaser.  He loved to chase bears and tree them.  He would chase any animal and not be scared.  If you mentioned the word "gun" or brought out a gun and he saw it...He was hiding for dear life.  Fireworks, forget it!  He became the biggest wimp, shaking and hiding.  Bogger was a Chug, a chihuahua-pug cross.  Loyal to his dad as all get out. 

The guns are ready and if they come after my animals again...

It's hard to believe that the summer months are almost gone.  My granddaughter will be starting 2nd grade end of the month.  Boy how time flies!  And fair season is in full swing.  I have to admit, I am not a big fair lover.  They are too crowded and expensive but on the other hand the bloomin' onions and steak bombs are awesome!  :-)  We go for the grandkids.
UPDATE: My husband, myself and a friend of ours went to the fair on Saturday.  It's a pretty small fair.  We went because my daughter, husband and son were there.  My son-in-laws' nieces show cows.  They do pretty darn well too usually bringing home championship ribbons.  One of the girls broke her foot when one of the cows stepped on her.  Ouch.
 I had a bloomin' onion!  and an ice cream.  We were there maybe 2 hours.  Was nice to see family and some friends from town we haven't seen in ages.

Well, I had stopped writing for the night, it was getting late.  I went out this morning and unbeknownst to me, there was a skunk in my chicken coop when I locked it up for the night.  It was hiding under the nesting boxes.  It killed 3 of my baby chicks! Two were just completely gone and the 3rd one I brought in the house and hoped he would make it, but did not.  Out of 10 chicks that hatched in the coop only 5 are still alive.  Three killed by the skunk and 2 taken by hawks.  Poor things.

I had one of the guys rip the nesting boxes off the wall they were attached to and we lifted the long box up and sure enough, that skunk was under the there!  We were able to get him shot and out of there!  As I write this, I can still smell skunk when the wind blows just right.

One less skunk on the property!

When I fed the goats the other night I noticed a chicken carcass behind the barn.  I recognized her.  She had passed away in the coop the other  night.  I didn't notice any outward injuries so I figure she just died of natural causes.  I put her in a grain bag to bring to the dumpster, ya that's how we get rid of dead critters.  Well, I forgot to bring the bag down that night and when I came out in the morning something had dragged that dead chicken all the way down to the barn.  I drove down to the barn after dark.  Parked the car where I had a good clear view of where I was sure the animal was living.  Sure enough out came another skunk!  Shot it once and it crawled into the drain pipe before I could get out of the car  and to it.  I had to lay on the ground and aim the flashlight and the gun into the pipe.  I shot 6 more times, just to make sure it was dead.

TWO less skunks on the property!

A customer just stopped by to purchase 2 dozen eggs.  He said, "wow, we can really smell skunk here".  lol  Let him know I just killed 2 in the last couple of nights.  If you didn't know...when skunks are shot they spray.

Hopefully we are done with skunks for a while but I doubt it.  I have only seen the porcupine once.  He was walking across the driveway one night.

Our garden is not doing so well this year.  We have had so much rain lately.  The growing season started out dry and then it was raining almost every day even if it was a heavy shower for a little bit.

 Dug up a few potatoes.  So muddy. We have completely neglected the potatoes this year.  Have not weeded or hilled them.  Hope they are forgiving!   The eggs are not from the garden.  :-)  A few chickens are laying down there.  Less drama I guess.

 Tomatoes aren't doing too badly.  I have 46 tomato plants.  The Amish Paste ones have some type of stem rot and are cracking.  I cut off and use what I can and the rest go to the chickens.  I see a few brown or chocolate colored tomatoes.  I was not aware that I had purchased any of those this year.  Oh well, I've always wanted to try them.

 Look how small these squash are.  :-(  So depressing.  All summer long they have been growing and this is all they have to show for so far.  We have not picked any summer squash.  Zucchini we have picked ONE so far.  The cucumbers are just starting to produce.

All the leaves on all my tomato plants are turning yellow.  I am still getting lots of tomatoes.  I spent some time today picking off dead leaves as I was picking ripe maters.

My greenhouse is coming along nicely though.  It's ready to have the plastic put on.  It's actually a little more finished than this photo.  Unfortunately, those are weeds growing and nothing I planted.  lol  To the left of the greenhouse is the potato garden and right behind where I was taking the photo are the goats.  I am HAPPY to report that goats don't seem to like potato plants!   I look forward to using this next year.  My husband is too busy to work on it right now.

A girl that lives with us bought two ducks this summer and they were added into my group.  I have 5 myself.  Hers are Muscovy ducks.  I have never owned this type before.  I'm not sure if this is typical behavior for Muscovys but these guys like to fly!  The higher up they can get the better.
Every morning they fly to the top of the chicken coop.  I thought that was strange for a duck.  Then I come out one time and the duck is on my van.  Ok, I'll give it that.  Then....

 I come out and they are on the roof of the house!  Never before have I had ducks fly to the roof of my house!  My ducks barely lift their feet off the ground, never mind FLY!

I told the girl that owns them to be prepared, they might fly south for the winter.  Haahaa.

 The goats are getting bigger.  This is Patches one of my bottle baby bucks.  He and Spot are not enjoying being separated from all the girls.  I put my two wethers in there with them though to keep them company.  Might be a bad idea cause Bo and Luke jump the fence all the time.  I'm afraid they are going to teach the younger ones bad habits.  I have 10 goats now.  Two bucks, 2 wethers and 6 does.  I'll be breeding end of October beginning of November hopefully.  I sold 2 doelings this spring and my older 3 bucks this summer.

 Ok, so....I just had to put some pictures of my grandson in just because he's so stinking cute!  :-)  He loves animals and is outside playing most of the days in the dirt.  Happy and healthy he is!

Oh my goodness.  I am shaking.  I was sitting here typing and heard a loud noise outside like maybe the bear was back and it was trying to get on the metal fencing of the coop.  I jumped up and looked out the window.  It was the silly ducks.  I think they tried getting up on the house roof again.  We have a metal roof and my window is open.  Scared the crap out of me!