Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Thursday, July 4, 2013

July 4th - Don't Be a Loser!

Ah yes. The 4th of July. I just love it - except for all the fireworks. Do you know where your livestock is? What about your dog?  Your cats are probably under the bed.

Completely unrelated to this post - OD giving me the business. 

Some of my pals over on 'the facebook' have posted some reminders that the 4th of July weekend is the busiest for the local animal shelters. In the rush to run right out and be patriotic a bunch of folks forget about their companion animals. No one thinks their dog is going to get scared and run off this weekend - but a lot of them do. Don't be a loser - take precautions so you don't lose your dog.

What about your livestock? Where are they? Can you see them with your own eyes right now? Quick go out and check. Are your gates properly latched and locked? Does your stock have somewhere safe to go? Heck you might just want to keep them inside the barn - especially later today. Don't be the loser that has the craigslist ad tomorrow titled, "Have you seen my cow?"  Around here we see a lot of that. Make sure your livestock is secure and safe today.

Cindy Lou Goose and the little ones.

Our stupidhead neighbors started their dumbass fireworks about 10:05 this morning. You read that right - nothing like breakfast over ka-pows to start the holiday off right. Personally I can't think of anything more stupid than the general public and explosives so I've always been a hater. But with our particularly stupid neighbors the whole thing just makes me mad. I always pray for rain.

We never go anywhere on the 4th. No parades, fireworks, picnics, nothing, nada, no way. I've got all my hoses in place and pretty much later today one of us will take all the dogs downstairs to have a good old time watching the TV really loudly.... and one of us will be standing out there with the hose cursing those stupid neighbors and just waiting for them to burn down our chicken house with their foolishness.

If you live in farm country nothing is worse than a bunch of idiots lighting off bottle rockets....and your totally dry, almost ready to harvest field of wheat. Someone's field always gets burned down  and no one thinks it's funny. There's always one guy standing there saying, "But I didn't know that would happen." Yeah, well. The rest of us could see it coming a long way off.

So be extra careful today and double check all your gates. Makes sure your dog is at your feet. Having people over? Put your dog in a back room so the kids don't accidentally let him outside. Got a Thundershirt? Put it on your dog when he starts to get nervous. And for heavens sakes don't make your dog stay outside tonight! Bring him in and put him somewhere safe.

My Good Shepherd - can hear fireworks in the next county. Thinks they are stupid. 

Remember that just because you don't hear the fireworks it doesn't mean your dog, or your livestock, doesn't. He can hear them a good way off. So when it's just about fireworkin' time turn on the TV - and not to the fireworks coverage - to give your dog something familiar to listen to and to mask some of the noise.

And when those bombs are bursting in air and everyone is doing the "oooooooohhhh"  and "aaaaaaaah-ing" remember me. The lone sentinel out there keeping watch over the chicken house with my hose. So enjoy your 4th everyone.... but don't be a loser. Secure your dogs and livestock!

Now go and check your gates and latches.


9 comments:

Provender Place said...

Not a fireworks fan either. We were in an apartment fire due to a bottle rocket landing on the roof.

Think we'll celebrate today by watering the yard.

On a happier note, I love the photos of the geese!

anton said...

Your prayers have been answered. It's raining, in fact, it has been all day off and on.

Tonya @ My Cozy Little Farmhouse said...

All good reminders. I had hoped it would rain all day today too.

D.Hausmann said...

I hear your message, we had the horses in the pasture today and some in this neighborhood decided to celebrate by doing a lot of shooting, hours of shooting. The horses were freaked. Took a while to settle them down.

Robin said...

Great post OFG! People get totally stupid when it comes to fireworks! I had to run to the store last night....since The Italian decided to use my cream for his pudding. A 7 minute task took me 1 hour! You wouldn't believe what was going on out there! It was just crazy!

Hope you had an enjoyable 4th and your neighbors didn't burn down anything that belonged to you!

David said...

Great post and ya'know. I'm not a big fan of fireworks either. I suppose the display is OK but schlepping to the park with 10k+ of my neighbors, mosquitos, a wet butt from sitting in the grass. Meh, I'd rather be chilling out.

Denise said...

We have the same problem with stupid neighbors and their fireworks. This year as an added bonus they not only were shooting them off after 11 pm but we had privilege to hear their motorcycles and them having conversations in their driveway at 3 am. So nice to live in a subdivision...grr. Glad we're moving. Kept the cats in and the chicks were in their house. The fireworks had a little bit of a problem here though, we had rain yay! Looks like we have the weekend to look forward to.

Unknown said...

I always had to medicate our dog (before thundershirts) and really took extra care of her. We always watered the backyard well because our neighbors do a lot of fireworks. We stayed home too and just relaxed watched the 4th on PBS and went to bed. I'm pretty much fed up with fireworks too, and stupid neighbors :)

Ohiofarmgirl said...

hey PP! great to see you. when i lived in the city the neighborhood lore was that before i owned the house my neighbors burned the roof of my garage. harumph.

Anton, it was a wonderful rain and just in the nick of time!

hi Tonya! did you get rain?

yep - you gotta wonder what they are thinking.... its not like they dont know they live in the country... good to see you DH!

hey Robin, i'm kinda wondering how that pudding turned out? we made it safely thru another 4th.

the wet butt is the worse, Dave....

yeah, Denise, we have the same motorcycle maniacs. and the guys who cant get their dang car started in the morning without all the engine revving.

yep, Nancy, the pbs version is usually better anyway. :-)

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