Sonny's Bath & Baby Barn Swallows.........

Well, I gave Sonny his first bath of the season this morning. It is very hot here today with highs expected in the upper 90's and a heat index of 103!!! Sonny loved his bath, he stood like a statue for it, and I must say, as hot as it was, I enjoyed it too!

 All wet..................

Gettin' his butt sprayed, I think he loved it, LOL.........

For the past few months Sonny has been having watery stools, not diarrhea, or loose, he has the regular formed "meadow muffins", but just a lot of water with his bowel movements. We think it is from the green grass, but anyway, we have started him on a pro-biotic, so hopefully it will help. But, he had a lot of caked manure on his tail....it took me about 30 minutes just to wash and comb, and get all that out of his tail. I conditioned it 2 times and let it soak and viola....no more nasty manure caked tail.....yay!!!!......

He has such a pretty, dark auburn red colored tail...it touches the ground, so I was nervous about working on it without pulling a lot of his hair out....but I didn't have to pull as much of it out as I thought I would have to (thanks to Cowboy Magic....best stuff EVER!!!) So, it feels so good to have all that crap (pardon the pun) out of his tail!........

So, I got that done.....1 down, and 3 more to go, LOL.....I think Gunner will be next, I am gonna try and bathe him tomorrow. We are taking them all to get shod Tuesday, and I want them lookin' spiffy!

While I was working at the barn this morning, I heard the awfulest chirping and carrying on you have ever heard!! So I went around to our big stall around back where John Boy and Billy were at to check it out.  Laying on the ground on the empty side of the stall was this tiny baby barn swallow.......

Turns out, his mama had built her nest on top of the light fixture in the barn stall! I got to looking around, and there are 4 nest total on every light fixture in the barn! I don't know if it is a shock hazard or not with them being up there, but what are ya gonna do....if we tear the nests down, I'm sure they will just build them back......anyway...... I needed to turn John Boy and Billy out, so I went and got my ladder and climbed up and took some pictures of the nest, and I put the baby back in........

John Boy and Billy waiting for me to turn them out......if I hadn't seen the baby, they would have stepped right on it walking out of the barn!......

Even though I know it wouldn't last long, I put the baby back. It is time for them to leave the nest, they have outgrown it, so they are falling out. Mama was torn all to pieces with me being around her nest....she dive bombed me a couple times, so I snapped the pics and hurried down! I did manage to get a few pictures  of two of the mama birds flying around and  sitting on top of the door waiting for me to leave, LOL,.......

See mama, right in the middle, flying? She kept circling and warning me to leave, so I got outta there as soon as I put jr. back in the nest.......

Here is the little guy in my hand.....they have all their feathers in, so they should be flying away soon. The mamas are chirping and calling to them I guess to get them to fly. It's a good thing I found him before my cats did!

Well, I better get off here, Terry will be here in a few hours with a load of hay, and I get the privilege of helping him unload it on a 100 degree day...Yay!! I still have a few things to do outside and around the barn before he gets here, have a great Sunday everyone!!

~DEANNA~