FAQ Friday, episode 5

Who besides me is doing a happy dance because it's Friday? Did I just feel the earth shake? Welcome to FAQ Friday, where I'll try to answer the questions you've posed during the week. But before we get to that, if you haven't counted the hay bales and submitted your guess in hopes of winning an $80 gift certificate to csn|stores, there's still time. The contest is open until 7 pm Mountain time tonight.

So this week, there were questions about burros:

From Tina:
Q. How old are George and Alan?
A. They will both be 4 years old this fall. I adopted them from the BLM and brought them to the 7MSN when they were 1 – here they are before they stepped out of the trailer and into their new life.
Q. Do you like one better than the other or is it like with kids, you can't really say?
A. I love them both so much it hurts.

From cdncowgirl:
Q. Besides noodles, chairs and of course cones what other toys do the boys like?
A. They LOVE their jolly balls and also have a fondness for 5-gallon plastic pails - handles removed, of course. Basically, they'll pick up and play with anything they can get their mouths on. Unless it has claws and is named Deets.

And questions about tarantulas (Gaina and other arachnophobes, you might want to skip this part:

From Mrs. Cravitz:
Q. PLEASE TELL..........What DID YOU DO?
A. Can you see me hanging my head in shame? I must admit I threw a big rock at the tarantula. And the rock stayed atop the tarantula for the entire summer, and I had to walk around or trip over it several times a day. But I wanted to make sure he was really dead. In my defense, that was my first tarantula and I later learned I need not fear them.

From Peppermint Ph.D.:
Q. What do you do to make sure they don't get inside your house?
A. Smooch does a most excellent job of warning me when a tarantula has breached the perimeter. Don't believe me? Check this out. (Gaina and other arachnophobes, if you've gotten this far, don't click that link.) But seriously, it's not like the ranch is swarming with them. In my 4-1/2 years of living here, I've only seen two near the house. And I've learned not to wear my glasses when I'm out and about so I can continue to pretend there are none in the pastures.

And questions about fences:

From A New England Life:
Q. What's with all the dead trees around the fence? Do they have a purpose?
A. The dead trees that line my garden are called "coyote fence." I've put them up to hide the boring wire behind them, but this type of fencing really is used in the west to keep coyotes out of where they don't belong.

And questions about a certain porcine princess:

From Gaina:
Q. Does she need sunblock in the summer or is she OK because her skin is dark?
A. I'm not sure it's because her skin is dark or because it's as tough as a tire, but Wynonna's skin handles the sun just fine. She's "blowing her coat" right now in preparation for the hot weather to come - instead of shedding gradually over several weeks, a pot-bellied pig loses her coat almost all at once. Not a pretty sight. Think bald. And when I pet her now, my hand leaves bare spots in its wake. But her lightweight summer coat will be growing in shortly and she'll be ready for her closeups once again.

From Farmgirl_dk:
Q. Did you ever tell the story of how Wynonna came to be on 7MSN? Was she a rescue? Do you have to trim her feet often?
A. I moved out of Albuquerque to a small ranch in 1996 so that I could have a few animals besides dogs. I got it in my head that I needed a pig and purchased Wynonna from a breeder when she was 8 weeks old. I knew nothing about raising animals back then, but she turned out ok despite my ignorance. She's never gotten into serious trouble, never been in jail, and except for that one accidental drug overdose (a story for another time) has led a drama-free life. I trim her hooves about every three months, and this post goes into all those details. Spoiler alert: it involves a lot of popcorn...but it used to involve a lot of beer.