Deb Ward, GWS, OWS, PWS, WSI - WATERCOLOR/WATER MEDIA - My passion is teaching adult “beginners”. Weekly classes in my home; workshops; classes for Cincinnati Recreation Commission. My work is nationally recognized and published - see “Featured” on my sidebar. I’m a Signature Member of Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana state Watercolor Societies, Cincinnati Art Club, past-President of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society. Contact info below under “Class Information”

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

WINTER COWS - and mouse update . . . .

Just had to take a few cow pictures again. The calves are so wooly and fuzzy with their winter coats – and don’t they look stylish with their big purple earrings!

My husband “invented” something to hook onto the back of the tractor to unroll the big round hay bales. I got to see it work for the first time – and it really did! He cuts off the strings that hold the bale together and then drives – either forward or backward, whichever way the bale begins to unwind. (Apparently it’s hard to figure out which way the hay was rolled up, but it doesn’t seem to matter since he can either go forward or backward and the bale will unwind either way). It lays that big bale out into a flat swath of hay – and the cows go for it immediately!

I nearly froze my fingers off driving the Gator up to the field. By the time I got back to the house it was time for a cup of hot chocolate, bundle under the blanket and warm up – and it WAS above 20 degrees (I checked before I went out!!!)

* * * * * *
And now for the mouse update . . . . .
You may recall that there are (were?) mice in my car. 
When I cleaned it out I discovered that those little suckers . . .
      "And now class, for our vocabulary word for the day, change one letter in the word 'suckers' to make a  
       new word" . . . .
. . . had chewed a hole in the top of my left rear seat and chewed most of the way through the seat belt.  OMG!  There was no way for me to open that panel without tearing the car apart, so I placed a glue mousetrap around that area and hoped for the best.
Guess when I take it in for service next time I'll ask them to see what they can find down in that hole - wonder how many times they have been asked to become exterminators - and then get a new seat belt.
It's amazing to me how much damage such tiny little creatures can cause!

5 comments:

Lisa Walsh said...

...'make a new word." I laughed out loud at that one. I've been at war with mice (and a SHREW!) in our garage for years. One year they chewed their way through a box of gardening gloves and made a comfy winter nest in there. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box in the spring. Thankfully they haven't discovered that auto upholstery is a delicacy. Those little 'suckers' can really wreck havoc.

And thanks for the education on 'hayrolls'...I always wondered how they got used.

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

Fun invention your husband came up with.

I think the car dealers are pretty use to that problem. A friend of mine had mice in her brand new car (about 10 years ago) , she took it back many time to have them exterminate the mice.

debwardart said...

Lisa - living in the country, we deal with mice in the house periodically, but they are usually catch-able. So far none have ended up in the glue trap which surrounds the partially eaten seat belt - but it sure makes the car look classy (that and the fact it really, really needs a car wash!) And my husband will be glad to know he has educated someone about hay!!!
Nancy - ditto the husband comment above - and I won't feel bad taking it to the service department after reading about your friend's problems!

Gary Keimig said...

Hi Deb. A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours. Hope that is a not too late a greeting.
Just getting back into the swing of things after spending the last week+ doing some remodeling in my frame room-shop. Studio is next. lol
Tell your husband he should have gotten together with me back in the 50's with that hay feeding invention. Oh Yeh. We didn't have round bales then. I spent many mornings piling bales onto the back bucket of the tractor trying to balance the load then off to the adjoining pasture to feed hoping not to loose any as I bounced over a rocky cow trail. The good old days.

debwardart said...

Gary - I'll pass that along to him! Good luck with that remodeling - but SAVE THE FOOT this time!!!