Life on the farm - always interesting

[Redbelly98]

No, not a Garter snake (I doubt it anyway) I have never seen one around here longer then about 2".

2" or 2' ?

Hey, did you used to play in the band Spinal Tap?

 

[lisab]

2" or 2' ?

Hey, did you used to play in the band Spinal Tap?

Ahahahaaa...

 

[Integral]

2" or 2' ?

Hey, did you used to play in the band Spinal Tap?

Opps It really should be ' (ft) . I must not have had my contacts in. Typing blind leads to difficult proof reading.

 

[lisab]

Opps It really should be ' (ft) . I must not have had my contacts in. Typing blind leads to difficult proof reading.

Spinal Tap is one of my favorites .

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hah, got em. However, we have even more now. As near as I could tell we have twenty-two including three adults, so I guess the moms hang out together with the kids. You can't see all of them here but a good number are in view. Some are still down in the creek in the foreground. I had a chance of getting much closer until the cats started to help.

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/2934/turkeys.jpg

Er, I guess there must be at least one tom in there?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm laughing here reading Ivan's version of life on the farm, and Georgina's reaction to it.

Hey you, how is Mozambique?

Are you sure Little Tyke doesn't drink water? I used to think Ember really didn't drink water, until discovering she just didn't drink it from the water dish...she prefers the toilet.

It seems that on very rare occasions she will taste some water, but that's about it. Given that she spent most [99.9%] of the last year within ten feet of me, yes, I'm sure.

I'm waiting to see if I get a lot of turkeys in my yard. The neighbor who moved out shortly after I moved in (unrelated) told me that my yard used to be the one that all the turkeys gathered in before the property was finally sold (I'm on the last lot that was developed on the street). The deer started showing up shortly before I left the country (I feel obligated to have some venison this year since I've been helping fatten them up with my garden vegetables), so maybe the turkeys will soon follow.

Of course, our turkey hunting season opens about a month before Thanksgiving I think, so we don't see so many turkeys by that time of year. I saw quite a lot in spring, though. There's a spring hunting season too, I think, and soon after it's over, they all come back out again. There are some fields I pass on the way from the new house to work where the turkeys gather (as opposed to the type of turkeys with offices near mine), and in one of them, I have seen rather large flocks with more than one male strutting his stuff.

I don't even know if people around here hunt turkeys.

And, hmmph, just shows what Ivan knows about cattle behavior. The bull sniffing the cow while peeing isn't foreplay, that's him just finding out if she's interested in foreplay. The bar scene for cattle is pretty rough.

Maybe that explains what I was doing wrong back in my dating days.

 

[GeorginaS]

I'm laughing here reading Ivan's version of life on the farm, and Georgina's reaction to it.

Hey! What? So itinerant bands of turkeys showing up on people's doorsteps demanding the release of a snake is normal day-to-day life for you. Just wait until you see what appears on your front step in Beira. (That will likely make me post one of these too.)

Nifty shot of the turkeys, Ivan. I've seen lots of stuff wandering around wild but never turkeys. I guess I thought they were entirely domesticated, like chickens or cows, and didn't still exist roaming freely going about their own business. Hah! Now picture that. Flocks of wild chickens on the prowl. Then I'd be afraid to go out at night.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I've seen lots of stuff wandering around wild but never turkeys. I guess I thought they were entirely domesticated, like chickens or cows, and didn't still exist roaming freely going about their own business. Hah! Now picture that. Flocks of wild chickens on the prowl. Then I'd be afraid to go out at night.

Did you know that up until probably the 1970s, there were wild camels in California?

 

[GeorginaS]

Did you know that up until probably the 1970s, there were wild camels in California?

No, as a matter of fact, I didn't know that. How is it that you possesses that bit of information? :)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

No, as a matter of fact, I didn't know that. How is it that you possesses that bit of information? :)

Some turkey told me about it.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=123292

Having grown up in S. California, that one took me back a bit. I cannot even imagine the reaction if, during one of the many nights spent under the desert sky, a camel had walked into our camp. If someone had claimed to see a camel they would have never lived it down.

I guess I will have to change the name of this thread to "life on the farm". Somehow we got off track here.

I may have just gotten a couple of good shots of our baby deer. They were watching me as I was slowly approaching them, and they even seemed a little curious, but then, as luck would have it, the turkeys came running over and scared the deer!

 

[Math Is Hard]

http://www.naturesafariindia.com/gifs/liger4.jpg

I see Tsu let her hair grow out. And are you sporting a soul patch, Ivan?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I see Tsu let her hair grow out. And are you sporting a soul patch, Ivan?

Yes, do you like it?

It becomes clear that one approaches a deer in a completely different manner than one does a wild turkey. I have been practicing my approaches for about ten years now and can often get very close. This one was looking really good. The two fawns were curious and one even started to walk towards me. Unfortunately, the turkeys didn't like my deer approach! They came around the chicken coop and freaked when they saw me, which sent the deer runnning.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8065/deer1r.jpg

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5992/deer2i.jpg

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7402/deer3.jpg

It's just one thing after another around here!

 

[GeorginaS]

The turkeys are a menace!



I love that third picture of the turkey stampede with the deer.

 

[MATLABdude]

Did you know that up until probably the 1970s, there were wild camels in California?

Did you know that camels did most of their evolving in North America? Stuff went the other way back across the Bering Bridge, too!
http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/mystery/fg_camel.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel

However, I think the camels you ran into were feral ones that had been imported (the only camelids left in the americas are the alpacas and llamas).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelidae#Evolution

Stuff you learn surfing the web / Wikipedia at 3 in the morning...

EDIT: And two other species, which I'd never heard of, the guanacos and vicunas. Still, I wonder why they went extinct here? Bactrians handle cold pretty well.

 

[Redbelly98]

2" or 2' ?

Hey, did you used to play in the band Spinal Tap?

Ahahahaaa...

Ha ha, I wondered if anyone would remember.

 

[OmCheeto]

I love that third picture of the turkey stampede with the deer.

Reminds me of a Spielberg movie.

http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/jurassic-park-4.jpg

Perhaps you should open up your farm as a theme park.

StatutoryApe could send a mountain of mouse poo for the tourists to dig through and try and determine if the mice are sick.

I'm not sure how to display the cow and goat sex. Perhaps you could put them in windowless metal cages and just let the noises scare everyone to death. And maybe slowly lower a live snake into the cage with a crane and pull out a snake skeleton. I've heard goats will eat anything.

But the turkey and deer stampedes I'm sure would be the main attraction.

hmmmm... Tsuassic Park?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

However, I think the camels you ran into were feral ones that had been imported (the only camelids left in the americas are the alpacas and llamas).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelidae#Evolution

The link that I posted explains that they were camels turned loose by the US Camel Corp; a former entity of the US military. They roamed the deserts of the SW US for many years.

Going waaaaaay back, here in Oregon we also had three- and four-toed horses.

 

[fileen]

We have loads of wild turkeys (and gigantic garter snakes) in my area also. The people across the road from us have a weird ornamental bush that grows berries, and its always good fun in the fall the watch the turkeys jumping up and down to grab the berries. Its possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. they hunch down and then sproing! Be careful handling garter snakes, they do bite and they excrete a stinky oil on their skin when you stress them out that just does not come off!

 

[lisab]

We have loads of wild turkeys (and gigantic garter snakes) in my area also. The people across the road from us have a weird ornamental bush that grows berries, and its always good fun in the fall the watch the turkeys jumping up and down to grab the berries. Its possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. they hunch down and then sproing! Be careful handling garter snakes, they do bite and they excrete a stinky oil on their skin when you stress them out that just does not come off!

fileen, that post just brought back a lot of memories that are actually very pleasant, except for the smell. I know that oily stinky stuff very well...sort of a cross between musk and urine.

After a day of playing with snakes, I'd have to find a sleeping position that kept my hands away from my nose. It was a bad smell but it never stopped me from playing with snakes!

Thanks for that post , haven't remembered that for years.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was doing some checking and it appears that I must have seen an unusually large garter snake. Normally they only get up to about 3 feet long, which is about the biggest snake I'd seen around here until now [less the bull(?) snake up on the road].

 

[fileen]

fileen, that post just brought back a lot of memories that are actually very pleasant, except for the smell. I know that oily stinky stuff very well...sort of a cross between musk and urine.

After a day of playing with snakes, I'd have to find a sleeping position that kept my hands away from my nose. It was a bad smell but it never stopped me from playing with snakes!

Thanks for that post , haven't remembered that for years.

At first I thought you were going to tell me you have fond memories of jumping turkeys!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

At first I thought you were going to tell me you have fond memories of jumping turkeys!

Do they ever roost in the trees around you? They do here in the late summer and make a terrible racket when they fly into the trees.

 

[fileen]

Do they ever roost in the trees around you? They do here in the late summer and make a terrible racket when they fly into the trees.

Oh yes, they scare my silly dalmation dog right back into the house. She is not very brave! They are really noisy and clumsy fliers, and rarely go more than a few feet up to a tree branch. We usually throw stale bread and such into the front yard (off limits to the dogs) and then we can watch them scratch around bobbing their heads. Occasionally we get a large tom with his big tail on display. My cats are all indoor and line up in the window to watch. We have often laughed about the mayhem that would ensue if one of them ever encountered one of the birds. Two of our cats were bottle fed by hand and have never been outdoors. They think they are pretty fierce when they manage to kill flies and lady bugs. I

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, they scare my silly dalmation dog right back into the house. She is not very brave! They are really noisy and clumsy fliers, and rarely go more than a few feet up to a tree branch.

They have caused me a jump a few times as well!

Something else that we get around here are guineas. They are even worse than turkeys and will scare the bejeezuz out of you if they catch you off guard. I knew a guy who had guineas roosting in his trees. One morning he was walking out of the house with a cup of coffee and on his way to work, when apparently he startled some guineas. They all took off while making a terrible racket that caused him to react in an unfavorable manner: He spilled his coffee all over his shirt and burned himself, fell down porch, and finished with a nose dive onto the driveway. Needless to say, he didn't care for guineas much after that.

 

[fileen]

They have caused me a jump a few times as well!

Something else that we get around here are guineas. They are even worse than turkeys and will scare the bejeezuz out of you if they catch you off guard. I knew a guy who had guineas roosting in his trees. One morning he was walking out of the house with a cup of coffee and on his way to work, when apparently he startled some guineas. They all took off while making a terrible racket that caused him to react in an unfavorable manner: He spilled his coffee all over his shirt and burned himself, fell down porch, and finished with a nose dive onto the driveway. Needless to say, he didn't care for guineas much after that.

That is one hillarious image. I don't think we get wild guineas here naturally, but I've seen them wandering around presumably from other peoples farms. They are popular here at the moment with the organic farming trend for their abilities to manage large populations of insects without damage to plants. We do however get partridge, and they behave in a similar manner. They wait on the ground as you approach apparently terrified, until they decide youve come too close and then they take off with a racket. This is ok if youre on foot, but my poor horse just about melts when they go crashing out on trail rides, especially because they wait for you to get so close before they take flight. We were once wading through the creek when a duck made a similar escape and scared her right out of her wits. We were almost on top of it, and horses tend to be nervous walking through moving water anyways. Now as we approach that creek on trail rides I can feel her pulse quicken and she looks around for ducks all snorty and twitchy.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That is one hillarious image. I don't think we get wild guineas here naturally, but I've seen them wandering around presumably from other peoples farms. They are popular here at the moment with the organic farming trend for their abilities to manage large populations of insects without damage to plants. We do however get partridge, and they behave in a similar manner. They wait on the ground as you approach apparently terrified, until they decide youve come too close and then they take off with a racket. This is ok if youre on foot, but my poor horse just about melts when they go crashing out on trail rides, especially because they wait for you to get so close before they take flight. We were once wading through the creek when a duck made a similar escape and scared her right out of her wits. We were almost on top of it, and horses tend to be nervous walking through moving water anyways. Now as we approach that creek on trail rides I can feel her pulse quicken and she looks around for ducks all snorty and twitchy.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if the guineas are actually native or not. I know a lot of people around here have them, but they do seem to hang around one house as if domesticated.

Where [about] do you live?

 

[fileen]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if the guineas are actually native or not. I know a lot of people around here have them, but they do seem to hang one house around as if domesticated.

Where [about] do you live?

I live in southern Ontario just off the lake... or at least that's where my family lives. I am a full time student at the University of Guelph, and since I've been taking some summer lab courses I've been stuck in Guelph over the summer. I am not sure about the wildlife in Guelph but it seems to be similar.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Did you grow up on a farm?

 

[fileen]

Did you grow up on a farm?

Sort of... We live out in the country but didnt have any farm animals. We are surrounded by farms but our property is not big enough to keep our horses on it. I spent every day with a friend on her farm riding horses, painting fences and catching frogs in the pond (home- schooled). I took riding lessons, went cow tipping, four wheeling and taught the chickens tricks. It was a nice way to grow up. My dad and I bought my mom a horse when she had her midlife crisis. Now my sisters are old enough to ride with me, so we have too many horses to be boarding them. It costs way too much. My mom and I are waiting for me to get out of school so we can buy our farms together.