• Migrating Pelicans October 13 - 12:07 am [3]

The other evening while preparing the feed for the animals, I was lowering the big roll-down door of the shop, when something flew out and perched...upside down...on one of the rafters. It was a fantastic

I was so excited, I called my son. When hubby got home from work, he had to go see it before I'd let him into the house.

We built a bat house several years ago at our old farm, but never got any takers. Now, if we can just find the bat house, we will hang it in one of the trees by the lake. Otherwise, we will simply build a new one. This is so exciting! Bats are such wonderful, beneficial creatures.

If you don't know anything about bats, go to bat conservation international and settle back for some truly enjoyable reading.

Well phooey! The link didn't work. Here it is: www.batcon.org.

Love that pic, clever gal!
Watch your pool or lake at twilight. I bet he circles them to skim drinks from the surface, like ours do. It is so neat to watch the incoming sqeetter eaters. They even do it when we are in the pool - bit unnerving for guests who aren’t as comfortable with it as us ;-)

Here’s another good reason to have them nest in the garden
bat poop article
Between their mosquito and poop duties, I wouldn’t mind having a few hundred of these guys roosting in the garden!
Here’s a handy way to make links happen. Type: \newurl
Then enclose all of the following in { }curly bracts:
Type the url, followed by a comma - then type the title you want displayed and close bracket. It opens the link in a new window, like this

That is the only bat we've seen here. Sure hope it tells its little pals that we are friendly.

Forget the bat box Carolyn, just take the windows out of your round tower.

I don't know where our bats "hang out" during the daytime, but they are out in great numbers at night. In the evenings when in the hay loft I feel like we need a traffic controller up there with all the bats swooping through.

We had one in our house when we moved in. It was awfully hard to catch him with his radar. But we finally moved him out. Once we had one get stuck on a fly strip in the barn. Poor fellows radar must have been on the blink.

Carolyn, did you post a picture of your HUGE cows? I thought they were so neat!

Nothing wrong with his radar MK, he spotted all those stuck flies and thought he would have a banquet.

I so hope we will have more bats around. Lord knows, there are plenty of bugs for them to eat. MK, if you really want me to post a pic of my HUGE cows:



These are Marchigianas, which are Italian beef cattle. They dwarf my 6'1" husband as well as the Black Angus. The interesting thing about them is that beneath the white fur, their hide is jet black. Where the skin shows around their eyes, it looks like eyeliner.

WOW I didn't even recognize Neil cause of the size ratio! They must be loving all that beautiful green stuff. You guys share the neatest with us on this forum !!!

Here's another shot of Neal with the "girls".

I really like the trio at the food. How much do one of these girls weigh? What size do you take the calves to market?

MK, we usually take the calves to market at about 6 to 7 months. They weigh between 650 and 800 lbs. by that time. I have no idea how much the girls weigh. It would be a lot, though. The Black Angus look like calves next to the Marchigianas. This is the only website I could find on them. Marchigiana website

I think they are part elephant!

They are really pretty, especially with that exotic eyeliner effect around the eyes.

Where do you go from there Carolyn?, Bison would look good...

Wouldn't I just love to have some buffalo, Terry? I have always wanted buffalo. However, you must have either 1) hundreds of acres for them to roam, or 2) seriously strong fences. They have very poor eyesight, and spook easily because of that. They will run right through a regular barbed wire fence and not miss a beat.

I have seen some pet buffalo this year from the highway and several fields with longhorns. Was aching to get pics of them. Maybe next time.
Go-on Caro, you have room for some!
at Crownhill

Thanx for posting the link, Mags. I think I'll stick to my original decision of no bison......at least for now. ;-)

Go on Carolyn, you know you want some. Do your bit for America, buffalo as far as the eye can see, now that would be something.....Charge people a dollar and a half just to see em....Is that from a song...???

I'll make a deal with you Terry. You and Chrissy take a holiday over here, and I will take you up to Montana and Wyoming where you can see lots of buffalo.