05/20/2025
Well well well, it has been a hot minute since I gave yall an very overdue update. This will be our first summer of being full on homesteaders! With that being said I am learning something new about this way of life every single day. Now, let me take you back to the very beginning of us moving out to the "boonies".
I knew we had a problem the first week,....... mice. Have you watched those shows where people have an infestation of something? Spiders, roaches, snakes, well we have mice, rats, chihuahua sized field mice! The first week we lived here you could walk outside at night and hear them all squeaking in the field so loud, I couldnt believe the amount of them. Since then we have cultivated the land back a bit and have kept some at bay but where you have mice they say you will have snakes. Oh boy do we have snakes! I really can not begin to tell you the number of snakes we have already captured since the temps have warmed up bc it really has been that many for me to loose track! Luckily only 2 of those snakes were venomous and with my research and knowledge that I now have we were able to relocate the rest of the friendly snakes to the edge of our property where they should be able to create new homes and find plenty of mice. I used to be terrified of snakes, well i still am! But, just having these experiences i can now identify most snakes, i can also teach my children which ones are very dangerous and to watch out for. I have been able to use this knowledge in also training my lgd pups around snakes. Speaking of the babies, our pups sleep under our house, its very cold under there on hot days and a perfect place for them to cool off. Well we started having issues a couple months back with our dogs fighting. It would always start when they would go to lay down for bed at night. Milo would bark and growl at our other pup Macy sometimes even lunging at her to attack when Macy would try to go under our house. I started researching as I do everything, lots and lots of researching. I knew it! I thought for sure Milo had littermate syndrome and she was resource guarding where she sleeps, I was heartbroken. I had so many restless nights from the random and continuous growling and i could never figure out what was going on. Now we are going to fast forward to easter, this story is getting a bit long here. Stay with me! We were leaving town from my Aunts house when i opened our car door a baby bull snake was curled up and ran under into the carpet of our car ( he is still in there) just living his best life i suppose anyways another story for another time! I knew we must have more baby snakes around if one was in our car. Once we got home it became operation tear everyhting apart until we make sure there are no more babies! Well I just had a thought, like i said before the coolest place is up under our house where our pups sleep! Now we are going to go back in time again bc i had another thought and you really just have to know all the info to get the full pic. A month prior to this i unfortunately had to shoot a 4 1/2 ft rattlesnake in our barn that was trying to eat our bunny, the bunny is fine and also the coolest animal on our homestead i could write a full on book about that boy so you will all be meeting him soon! I decided it would be the perfect time to use the rattlesnakes body to start training our girls how to alert and react around rattlesnakes. Milo did very well during this training, almost too well. This is important to keep in mind. Now time to search under the house! We found 4 more baby bullsnakes, they had been under a mat right where Macy would sleep. Now it all makes sense! Milo was never trying to hurt her sister she was trying to protect her the whole time! And just like that our girls are back to sleeping together in the same shared space and even cuddling sometimes with no issues and peace has been restored on the homestead! This is not the first time this pup has taught me something and not the other way around. I really meant I am learning something new everyday. I now know the exact time of year they start moving and i can be more prepared for next year. I now know where to look for them, how to indentify them, how to catch them and how to relocate them. I now have the knowledge to keep myself safe and my children and all the animals here on the homestead and that is a very powerful thing!
So thats my update, more chaos to come i can promise you that!
Also my sister informed me it is the Chinese New Year of the snake! The wood snake to be specific. The sense it starting to make alot of sensing! 🤣
And if my spelling is off and this is all over the place well i am sorry but you will just have to get use to it! You think i have time to be typing out this post right now?! I currently have baby chickens out of where they are supposed to be, goats trying to run down the road, plants dying bc i keep forgetting to water my herb garden (even though its the only thing im in charge of watering my husband keeps everything else in the garden alive) bless him! , chicks hatching, water tanks to be refilled, more building to be done bc that is never ending! OH! and did i forget to mention that i am the mother to 4 sweet beautiful kind wild tasmanian tornado children, 4!! The job is never done! Gtg!
