The Plague

Sunrise This Morning

(Those are my calf hutches..or CalfTel's as they are called)

You know what it means when it's already light at 5:45 am?

When you start sweating as soon as you walk out the door?

When the sun is RED as it comes up?

It means it's gonna be hot today.

The heat isn't so bad..it's the jeans-sticking-to-your-butt humidity that gets me.

I get old-man-saggy-tractor-butt.

That's yucky.

I went to the grocery store like that yesterday..and by golly dared anyone to look for more than a second, because by the time I made it to the store I was OVER the day.

Yesterday was fairly 'normal' though...some breeding, some treating, some retained placenta pleasantries..oh and taught my twin heifer to stand and drink a bottle.  Victory!

The thing that put me ova the top was the plague of cicadas, or locusts, or devil bugs as I call them...(they came OUT OF THE GROUND people...helloooooo).

I am about tired of people saying "oh, well I haven't even heard them..are they bad?" or "we don't have them here..what do they look like?"..sigh.

They are big, have red eyes, scream and have a kamikaze flight pattern.

They are EVERYWHERE.

I feed my dairy cows in the afternoons and something about the equipment (tractor, loader) must attract these demonic creatures because they are on me like white on rice.

Pre-plague: 1 hour and 15 minutes feeding time.

Current:  2 hours feeding time.

It takes me an extra 45 minutes to feed.  This 45 minutes is spent strategically driving the loader so that I can dodge the death-bombs as they come at me as well as swatting them OFF OF ME.

I.Can't.Stand.Bugs. (Even the small ones). Ew. Step on it.

I have had them in my hair, on my eye and mouth.  I have got to learn to keep my mouth closed when I concentrate.

I don't know what YOU did to cause the gates of the underworld to open up and turn these loose..but take.it.back.

My dogs can only eat so many.