Like A Lady

Who needs a cat, when you’ve got a Lady!?!

My little Lady is as good and even better than any cat!

I’m convinced that the last two deer ticks I was bitten by came out of my vegetable garden. Most people who have been infected with Lyme Disease and it’s many co-infections stop gardening and dare I say, stop going outside!

YIKES! How can anyone live like that? I can’t. The last tick I had last June, reinfected me with Babesia which caused a severe case of Hemolytic Anemia. And on my 50th birthday in October, I had anything but life. I was ready for a blood transfusion.

Those who are educated in Lyme Disease know that the original host is a white footed mouse NOT a deer. Which is your typical mouse. So the way to control Lyme Disease is by controlling the mouse population on your property. We have seen a huge reduction in the tick population since we cut our field down last year. Whether we pushed them into a neighboring field or not I don’t know. But we encourage mouse predators, which are snakes, field cats, chickens, hawks and of course our little Lady!

Since Boomers death 3 months ago today, I’ve allowed Lady much more freedom. Although she’s not nearly as “intelligent” as Boomer, she is very responsive and obedient. Allowing Lady in the garden has been a positive move. She knows not to walk in my raised beds. She knows not to dig or scratch in the rocks. So, the other day when I heard her digging in the pea gravel, I went to see what she was up to.

She had uncovered a nest of mice! A mama mouse with 5 babies. I can keep rabbits out of my garden but it’s nearly impossible to keep mice out. So, I let Lady hunt them. If you can’t stomach the circle of life….then you might like to skip the remainder of this sentence…..Lady killed the mama mouse but left the babies. I had to do something with them. I took a plastic bag and picked them up and fed them to the chickens. The chickens loved them. Sorry.

Who needs a cat when you have a Lady?

Good job girl!

I still haven’t gotten pea gravel laid in my new area….time and energy oh and $$$.

A couple of helpful tips on limiting your mouse population….remove leaf piles and eliminate rock walls (they love to nest in rocks).  And of course get yourself a Lady!

Watching, Watching….

After I finished my morning routine, the dogs looked at me with great anticipation….can we, can we?? Huh, huh??

I let them out and said, “let’s go see Mama’s girls”. Lady looked back over her shoulder for the ok and off she went!

I gathered a bunch of supplies to hang a light. And 250 ft of extension cord that Honey picked up. I ran the cord and taped them together. When I finally made it to the girls, the dogs acted like it was Christmas morning. I think they wanted to see if they would indeed come out again today.

Sure enough the girls filed out and began pecking for food. Boomer let out a large bark and was scolded by Honey. He hasn’t done it again…Honey is Alpha Dog! I’m Mama Dog who spoils him rotten!

Boomer is quite relaxed….Lady on the other hand is very tense.

Here’s my lovely gate. It works great. Once spring comes I’ll try to fix it up some. But I’m glad I got it done yesterday. We’re having *snow * showers today!

~~~

Last night was in the 20’s here in Central Maryland. I checked my little green houses and they were warm and humid. I put a couple jugs of water in each to absorb the daytime heat from the sun. Hopefully they’ll keep things warm on these very cold nights.

I went to put a Terracotta bee skeep in the shed when to my surprise a nest was inside. Nothing moved until I kicked it. Yep, MICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE MICE!!!

Ok. You have to understand the life cycle of “Deer Ticks”. The first host is a white footed mouse. If you eliminate the mice on your property then you won’t have deer ticks….or perhaps a greatly reduced chance. The tick then finds a ride on the deer and then drops off to find a ride on the most wonderful of hosts…..HUMANS!

I quickly called my little Lady to come to the garden. It took some convincing since she was guarding the chickens. She did come and then it took some more convincing to get her into the garden. I have a gate on to keep the dogs out! So, she was AGAIN receiving mixes messages and was slightly confused.

This dog is a hunter! She has been know to sit ALL day and wait for rabbits to come out from under the shed. So once I got her onto the scent from the nest, off she went…..then I found one. It took me forever to get her away from her spot to come to mine….I had to take her face and point at the mouse….she had it!!!

But it got away. Now she’s siked!

I was fixing my lunch and watching her out the kitchen window in the garden. I saw her running back and forth along one section of the fence…..then back and forth….then I saw on the other side of the fence on a fence rail was a mouse running back and forth….back and forth.

Now that was too funny. I don’t think she got that one either. There were three. I will leave her in the garden and I know she will get them and if not, well it gave her something else to do other than hunt, I mean watch the chickens.

The mice were feasting on tomatoes and tomatilla. Of couse my messy garden left plenty of seeds for them to eat this winter. No wonder I’ve had deer ticks when coming from the garden. In fact this last tick that I had in June I KNOW came from the garden. It’s really sad, that many people give up gardening because of being infected while doing something they love. Not me.

Another reason for the chickens is that they will clean up any ticks. I need to make the garden more secure and then I’m putting the chickens in for a bug hunt. It’s a false belief that ticks die in the winter. They don’t. Lady brings them in alllllll winter long. The only time I don’t find any is when there’s snow on the ground.

I’m also planning to make a portable chicken run so I can move them around to eat ticks. If you can eliminate the mice then you’ve eliminated the Lyme Disease. Yes, a deer may come on your property carrying one from someonr else’s property, but you’ve greatly reduced your chances. I’ve been battling this disease for way too long so I’m sure you can understand my concern. Plus I had a deer tick last summer and one this summer that we believe reinfected me with Babesia. Not all deer ticks carry Lyme Disease, some only carry the co-infections which have proven to be worse than Lyme. I also need to clean up the leaves in the yard since mice like to hide in them. Woods and rock walls are one of the worst places where mice love to live. I think I’ll borrow my neighbors leaf picker-upper for my John Deere. He loves having the leaves anyway to compost.

Don’t be fooled by the CDC’s reports. As far as I’m concerned the CDC is living in the dark ages. Ticks don’t know that they can’t cross state lines. Mice don’t either. Every single state has had at least one victim to Lyme Disease. And every continent except Antarctica has Lyme Disease and it’s many co-infections. Lyme plus co-infections are even in the city…..remember….it’s the MICE!  There are over 200,000 cases diagnosed EVERY YEAR!!!!

Clean up your leaves. Eliminate any place for a mouse to live. MAYBE, just MAYBE even get a barn cat! I really don’t like cats. I’m a dog person. But, they would help to keep down the mice. We have a cat the frequents our field hunting for mice. I’m grateful! Just leave my chickens alone.

Protect Your Turf!

My fall garden is doing great. Lots of mustard greens, spinach, new red skin potatoes, leaf lettuce, beets, carrots and my lima beans are coming. Plus the basil is still putting out nicely. My tomatoes are starting to peter out in the garden, but my compost tomatoes are still lovely!  I put in my order for garlic and it should arrive around my birthday, Oct. 16.  That’s our first frost date.  At least according to my calendar.  It’s easy to remember.  First frost, my b-day, last frost Ben’s b-day.  Who cares if it’s not perfect.  It’s something to go by and I don’t forget!

Aren’t my compost tomatoes beautiful?

My lopes were to die for. Sweeter than honey!

Yesterday after dinner, Honey and I were looking out of the kitchen door as the deer were grazing on our apples! Honey was locking and loading the pellet gun as I watched a doe waltz over to my garden. She stuck her neck out and said, “hey dinner!” One leap and she was over my 4 ft fence. I was fit to be tied!!!!! I ran out on the deck screaming at that doe like a crazy woman! Honey didn’t have time to take a shot. She was so startled that she jumped back over as fast as she went in. The small herd of 6-8 took off into our back 40. Honey went after them like a great hunter that he is. He got a couple in the rear and showed them who pays the tax on this joint!

I’m gonna get me a cross bow so I can pack my freezer! Meat on the hoof is all I see. That and deer ticks!

As you can see there’s NO WAY I’m sharing my garden with a herd of deer.

They were very interested in the new addition that I got up yesterday. It was as if they kept yelling, “hey take a look at this. I think it’s going to be a petting zoo!” They’d walk over and sniff the fence and walk around it to the apple tree.

I know. It looks like I was drunk when I did this. But I’m not a perfectionist, so all that mattered to me was getting it up so I can get my gurls soon! Their home is looking good. I need to put up some nesting boxes and Honey needs to put some new hinges on the door.

Can you believe this was a dog house? It’s big enough so all I have to do is open the door and step inside to gather the eggs. It’s just right for 4 nice lookin’ gurls!

Still needs some roosting poles.

Still needs some hardware cloth over the front door to keep out my least favorite critter!!!! SNAKES.

Funny thing is, I haven’t seen a one the whole summer. Not a one out in the back 40!

I plan to tack the bottom of the fence to these old split rail posts. That will keep out the predators and Lady!

I got these old gates from Gpa too. I’m not sure if I’ll use one. Right now it just seems like too much work. I do want my chickens before 2009! I can just lap the fence over and hook it somehow. OR I can get a ladder and climb over.