Every year on the farm there is something in abundance. It may be a certain crop, a bug, a disease, etc. This year is no exception. We’ve had a great crop of raspberries, a not so great crop of oats and a bountiful abundance of grease ants and cattle with pink eye.

Practically every morning for the past couple weeks my parents are out treating a cow or a calf with pink eye. If you don’t treat it the animals will go permanently blind and then you end up with bigger problems. So far I’ve only had to treat one of my cows and it ended up being one of my purebred Scottish Highlands. If you can figure out how to work around the horns it’s not a big deal but you still have to watch yourself. One false move and you’ll find yourself with with the end of a horn smashing into your face or your rib cage. I can honestly tell you that it is just as unpleasant as it sounds. Any time you’re working with large animals there is a risk for injury….especially when working with animals that have large, hard pointy things attached to their heads.

Each cow is run down the chute and caught in the head gate for easy (and safe) treatment. The Highlands are roped around the horns and tied to a post as their rack is too big to go down the chute. The oxytet shots we give them for treatment tends to sting and it’s only natural for them to get upset (I would get upset too!) and swing their head around to try to get rid of the stinging.

Even though their eye is cloudy and they are partially blind they still don’t like the fact that you are now putting a sticky dark thing on their bad eye too. Who would? That sticky dark thing is a canvas patch with special glue for animals. Since pink eye is best treated by leaving the cattle in a dark area, the easiest thing is just the cover the eye. The glue dissolves in a about a week or so and the patch falls off.

This is by far the worst pink eye epidemic I’ve ever seen. The vet has been running around like crazy treating masses of cows and calves. We are usually fine on our own but have had to call him twice for cows that have had both eyes affected. These animals get to live in the barn until they are able to see again. For those of you that are unfamiliar with cattle, imagine trying to herd an 800-1000 pound blind animal that’s a little freaked out. (It’s hard enough trying to herd one that’s blind in one eye.) Once it’s in the pen just think about how you’re going to get it in the barn door… The latest blind in both eyes cow had to be haltered (It is a Hereford of course. This would’ve never flown with the Angus) and pulled in. When it got part way in the barn door and still wouldn’t move (They can be very stubborn sometimes) my dad had to go get the skid loader and gently push her in the rest of the way. I didn’t see any of this as I was already at work but I wish I would’ve been there to watch…and help of course.:)

As of right now our barnyard looks like a convention of pirate cows ready to mutiny the captain and sail out for an afternoon of pillaging on the high grasslands. It will be nice when they are all healed and look like regular cows again so I don’t have random thoughts of writing a book about pirate cows.

Outside there are pinkeye and pirate cows…inside there are grease ants. They’re everywhere! Little trails of tiny ants winding their way in the cracker packages and trying desperately to get into my crisco container. I think my parents and I have eaten large quantities of them. There’s nothing like a little extra protein on that cookie….

It started out with the flour and sugar. That had to be thrown. Then my dad discovered them on the cookies. Those went to the cats and the rest stay in the freezer. Then it was crackers, the rest of my flatbread (sad!) and now the peanut butter. Yuck! We’ve had to clean EVERYTHING out of the cupboards. Whatever doesn’t fit in the freezers and the refrigerator gets randomly placed on the wood stove or the table and monitored like a bubble wrap mother monitors her children.

How do we get rid of those unwelcome little nomads? They won’t touch the ant poison. I put basil springs on their caravan trails and that seems to work well but I can’t have fresh basil strewn throughout every cupboard and in the flour and sugar. It smells nice but I will quickly run out of basil!  Will be washing the cupboards with trusty Mr. Clean to get rid of any grease that is still there.

Anyone know of any good ways to get rid of grease ants? Suggestions greatly appreciated!