Locking Up

We had a visit from Animal Control today. One of our neighbors complained that we have too many animals on the property.

We do.

But we keep everything clean (as clean as a barnyard can be) and every animal has shelter, food, water, and pasture to graze on. The barn, shelters, and feeders are all more than the required distance away from any house and/or fence line, too.

All the animals are friendly (the number one rule on the farm is: "Be nice, or be tasty") so that we can have families. cub scouts, and other visitors come learn about the animals.

But we had too many.

Since we don't know which neighbor complained, we're a little worried that they are angry at us about something else.

Which means the next step they might take is to open the gates and let the animals out.

I went and bought 8 locks today. Unfortunately, they aren't all keyed the same.

So I spray painted (rattle-can is what our s-i-l calls it!) the 4 that have matching keys.

And now all the gates on the property have locks on them.

What a pain in the rear!!!!

I covered parts of the locks and keys that I didn't want to get spray painted.

I used Rust-Oleum high gloss white. I didn't want the locks and keys hot in the summer when we've got to handle them.

And I didn't want to pay extra for key tags, so I used a paper clip and tape instead.

The officer was really nice. She could see that, although we were 'breaking the law' we took good care of the animals and that it must have been someone that was angry about something else.

She asked how much time I needed to get rid of the 4 extra animals. I told her two weeks. She said, "How about I give you to the end of the month."

If you ever have animal control out to your place, I hope you get someone like her.

Sheepy's coming sometime in the next two weeks to pick up the llama, huarizo, and the two sheep. We get to keep all Vet2Be's favorite dairy goats.

And all this on top of having to put the little lamb down this morning. He wasn't going to live. He's never really stood on his own, and started having seizures, grinding his teeth, and forgetting how to suck on the bottle.

I hope your day is better.

We're kinda having some downers right now.