This can't be real!

This is what I say to myself on a daily basis. I read some of my blogs and look back at the last few years and think people must not believe the stuff I write, but I assure you it's true. Here's a look at the last few weeks.

• First, the sick/missing pig showed up at the neighbors after being missing for over two weeks. He managed to survive although he did lose a lot of weight,

• K1's horse is allergic to bug bites...who know exactly which bugs but he has broken out in hives twice = vet bills/ medicine.  Now he goes out in full body gear (fly sheet,including neck & face)

• Our dog JD has allergies to something that causes ear infections = a crazy dog who is constantly bothered by ear pain. We've switched to food that is now twice as much & we feed 3 dogs (215 lbs of dogs). We  I clean his ears dailey and put in ear drops twice a day. We are on our 3rd round of ear drops!

• K1 took her horse to his first horse show. She was practicing the night before the show & fell off. She lacerated her liver (normal kids break bones,but our girl is special)= 4 night in the hospital and no riding for 3 months. Guess whose job it now is to exercise the horse. Which is actually fine, because I do love to ride, but boy am I sore after riding yesterday

• Unfortunately, I will no longer be a full time farmer. I have accepted a job as a preschool Para in Pittsford. The bottom line was health insurance for a family of five when we were both self employed was becoming too much. Once school starts we will be open only on the weekends, and we will most likely be open less next year.  

Here's our newest members of Triple K Farm:

Emma & Ella 

Polkahontas - She is a Normande/ Holstein heifer 

Patch - He is a Normande/Jersey bull calf.

Missing Pig!

First, I have to apologize for being MIA for the last month. Summer is so busy! I'm blogging tonight because first cut is finally done, giving us a little breather before second cut. I spent the whole day home :) so my house is respectable, dinner is in the oven -salsa rice chicken casserole (my salsa & triple k chicken), blueberry cobbler (thanks to K3 for going blueberry picking)  & veggies (local & my garden) ready to grill, and I am blogging on the deck with a cold drink. I'm feeling pretty content right now.

So here's another pig story for you. I read my blogs and think people must think we are making this up, but I assure you it's my life and not as funny as it sounds!

Tuesday night Mark feeds the pigs. Two come to eat, but one doesn't. Mark thinks it's because he had drank too much whey that Mark had brought in the afternoon. Mark comes in to shower & then we head out the door to family dinner. We hear a zapping sound followed by a pig squeal...then again & again. Mark investigates & the pigs head is in the page wire fence & it's getting zapped by the electric fence that's around the bottom. Mark gets the pig out and it's shaking. Than the pig turns around  & walks back into the fence & get zapped, again! We put him in the corral & think the poor pig is not thinking straight because he was  just repeatedly zapped. This pig is 3 months old & has always been small - it was the runt.The next morning I get up and go check on the pig - it's dead. We go to the barn do chores & come back. Mark goes to feed the pigs. He comes in and says another one is sick. The pig is shaking, didn't eat, and Mark thinks it's dying. Now I'm stressed. What is going on? I call the vet.

Here's his assessment. The pigs hadn't had whey for a few days, so when Mark fed them they drank too much, it's salty. The salt combined with the hot weather made them drink too much water & caused fluid on the brain. The fluid made them blind & disoriented. He felt the first one died from the shock of being electrocuted. His recommendation was to feed them pig mash, and keep them out to pasture on grass. He would get better. That night Mark fed them and they both ate. Phew! It was going to be OK.....until morning!

Mark fed the animals here & then was going to work. I went to the barn. He called me " the pig is gone, I can't find him anywhere." Me "are you kidding?" He was not. After chores K1 and  I looked all over...the pig was gone! That night we put on pants, long sleeves, and bug spray to  search the woods/swamp for the missing  pig. Nothing, no sign of the pig. Here's our assessment. The pig was worse than we thought,and he couldn't see, went through the fence into the swamp.  A-he died or B- something ate him, or C - we just started a wild boar population (actually he's fixed so this isn't actually a  possibility.)

So long story short- we lost two pigs =  a big financial loss, less bacon come this fall, and the remaining pig is very lonely.

Not in the contract

Chasing animals is not in the contract. That's what Leo says every time as he's chasing our animals. Not only does he help us, he comes OUT of the house to help us. Here's a few examples, last year our ram lambs got out at 9:30 at night. Someone stopped and told Leo & Arlene. They called us and by the time we got to the farm, they were driving up and down the road looking for them them. Then there was the one sheep that we couldn't catch....and where was Leo? Running around trying to catch that sheep with us!

We had runaway Radar (donkey,) he bolted out of the barn as I was leading him. When he decides to take off, there's no holding him back.  He ran all around and both Leo & Arlene came out to help me. Leo reminded me, chasing animals was not in his contract.

Last week while K1 was getting out of her horse out of the pasture my mini horse Nancy slipped out of the gate. She ran all over the lawn, including Leo & Arlene's garden. Before I got a chance to tell them. Leo told me he broke something of ours and I replied..."that's good, cause Nancy ran through your garden, so now were even!" He just chuckled.

We have the Best Landlords!

Milking Goats

Last year I got 2 Nigerian dwarf goats. I chose this breed for a few reasons. First of all they are small. They only come up to my knees & weigh  about 50 pounds.  They come in a variety of colors & markings, and they are a dairy goat. I had googled soap making, and attended a workshop. I had it all planned out. I would milk goats & make soap to sell. 

I was so excited to make soap that I bought a gallon of milk from a local farmer & experimented with soap making. It's harder than it looks. Mark & I have been using  the soap I made, but it's not selling quality... yet! My bars are uneven and have air bubbles. Soap takes several ingredients, and actually very little goats milk Than it  has to cure at least 6 weeks. Maybe, this winter I will have time to perfect it, but for right now I just make enough for us.

 At first, I thought when my does freshened I was going to take away the kids immediately.  Than I would bottle feed them and  milk the does.  As the time got closer, I was running to the barn day & night on maternity duty (checking pregnant sheep & goats). I realized I really didn't want to bottle feed, especially because  the goats were the last ones to have their babies & I could actually get some sleep and not run to the barn in the middle of the night. So I researched & talked to others who kept the kids with the does. This is how it works:  kids stay with does for 2 weeks, than you separate them at night, milk does in the morning, put the kids back in and they nurse all day. At 8 weeks ,  I will wean the kids & milk does morning & night. Sounds easy, right?

It's only two little goats, I figured I can hand milk them. Nala freshened first & only had one kid. I decided I could take a little milk morning & night. I had a little plastic dish to squirt the milk in. Her teats are like an inch long & the width of my finger. Oh, and and she kicked! Both feet in the air. She was locked in the milking stand & I swear her feet went straight up over her head.  Here's the scenario: I am trying to get milk out of these miniature teats and squirt it into the bowl. Than once I got a few ounces of milk she would kick & spill it all (reminded me of my pumping experience when I was breast feeding). Work so hard to get the milk then spill it all ....you know the saying don't cry over spilled milk. OMG...I'm going to have to milk two of them....What was I thinking? Any milk that I did manage to save was full of dirt & hair. This obviously wasn't working, so than I ordered a hand pump milker. When that finally came, we were milking both goats. S'more has slightly larger teats & doesn't kick...ever! At least she was easier, but the hand milker was a disaster. It took two people. One to pump the hand pump  to keep the right pressure,& one to hold the milkers (plastic syringes) on. Finally, we decided to customize our cow milker (which is complete with motor & vacuum). This works like a charm, and best of all it only takes one person. Nala doesn't mind it, maybe because it is fast, so she rarely kicks. The only downfall is it's a lot to clean. Several feet of hose and a 5 gallon milk pail for one quart of milk. A little overkill but  it's worth it.

As for the milk, we actually aren't getting enough. In a few weeks we will wean the kids and hopefully production increases, because we will be milking them at night also. We started by using the milk  in our coffee and to cook with. Then, Mark started drinking it. Than me, and then the girls used it in their cereal. Sometimes I buy cow's milk, but sometimes I don't.  And...there's CAJETA! A seriously delicious caramel made from goats milk. My recipe calls for a gallon, so if I make Cajeta  I have to buy milk & save the goats milk for 4 days. Mark is totally addicted to it, and I do have it for sale at our store. 

I should have been a vet!

Here at Triple K, we have 3 different vets. First, we have our small animal vet, that takes care of our dogs & cats. Then we have our large animal vet, that cares for all the farm animals except  horses. Which means I have a horse vet.  

A few months ago I had J.D fixed and completed all his puppy shots. While he was there they noticed he had an ear infection. That met that 2 x a day I had to put drops in his ears.  J.D. was not a fan of this. I got to wrestle with the 65 lb puppy (who knew that the cute little 4 lb pup that I rescued last fall was going to be such a big boy) twice a day. Then it was time for Carter & Miley to have their spring shots and  Ryder our cat also need shots. An office visit is $35 per animal, even if you bring them together. Plus shots, plus flea/tick meds, and  then of course the dogs need heartworm meds.  J.D still had ear problems so he had to go back in. This time I had to clean his ears once a day, wait an hour after cleaning,  than apply different ear drops 2 x a day. Now, we get to wrestle 3 times a day for ten days! Let's just say I have spent a small fortune on these pets this spring. Good thing I love them.

Now, let's talk about my large animal vet. They have a call charge of $40 plus they charge by the minute. For example I will get charged 20 minutes of professional time, plus a call charge, plus supplies. S'more my goat has a skin condition that my vet has looked at several times. Our best guess is it's a vitamin deficiency that was brought on by pregnancy, because she is getting better now that she had the kids. If he is here for any reason he checks  on S'more. I've  had a lamb with a sore leg. She has an abscess that I was cleaning twice a day. It's been a month, it's all healed, and we don't know what else to do or why she is limping.  Kent (vet) joked that he never knows what he's going to find to challenge him at Triple K (he researched skin conditions in goats trying to come up with a diagnose). I told him, he should be paying me for the education. These guys are great. I can call & they will give me advice over the phone with no charge. I've had them swing in to drop off something, quickly look at my animal on their way home, or on a Saturday. As I said, they don't do horses. Glen (vet) was here a few weeks ago (dehorning goat kids) & I begged him to check my pony (more on that next paragraph). I promised she wouldn't kick or bite, and he did. They really are nice guys!

Keely is my horse vet. I've had her as long as I've had horses. She treated our old horse Dee when she had Potomac horse fever. Dee should have went to the animal hospital but I couldn't afford it, so Keely helped me treat her at home, and she survived.  I love Keely. Now, here's my pony story. The ponies  had been out to pasture for 3 days. I saw them every day, everyone looked good. When I brought them in I noticed Nancy had something on her leg (6 pm on a Friday! Think emergency call charge). When I bent down to look, I noticed she had a huge nasty cut. It was on her belly right where her leg connects (think armpit). It looked awful, infected, and a few days old, but she wasn't even limping. I called Keely and she told me to send her a picture (gotta love technology). Then she called me back & told me how to clean/care for it and to put her on penicillin for a few days. Then we made an appointment for her to come a week later & do spring shots. All the horses needed spring shots, but we definitely wanted to give Nancy  an updated tetanus. Her cut was 6 inches long with a huge chunk of hanging skin, and at least an inch deep. I have pics, but will spare you! Happy to report Nancy is all healed & doing great.

Let's just re-cap what my days looked like, because yes, this was all at once! Go to barn and catch lamb to flush her leg with an iodine solution. They catch Nancy who is 33 inches tall. Get on all fours & crawl under her to flush her wound,  spray with a antibacterial spray, and lastly a special fly spray for wounds. Go home to clean J.D.'s ears...wait an hour than put in his drops. Repeat again at night.

Once again, we are Livin' the Dream here @ Triple K ...and several hundred dollars poorer! 

It's a Dirty Job

This is just too cute not to share. I had a first grade class come to the petting barn on a field trip. One little boy came up to me and we started talking about my goats. I told him that I milked them. He got excited and told me that I could make soap from goats milk , but "it's a dirty job." I told him that I DO make soap with my goat milk. He went on to explain that you need lots of other ingredients to mix with the goat milk...but "it's a dirty job." I told yes, I do put in different oils & scents to make soap, and I asked him why was it a dirty job?  He replied "do you know Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs?  I watched a show about making goat milk soap....it's a dirty job!" I just busted out laughing.  Now I know why making soap is a Dirty Job!

Life is good.

Life is good, here at Triple K. Mark & I have been putting animals out to pasture, buying a few new ones, and opening the petting barn. The warmer, longer days are busy and seem to go by fast....

We got all the cows & heifers fly tagged and put out to pasture. They are enjoying the green grass & big area to explore. We are excited for our Herford, Bailey to calve in July. We raised her from a calf & she is one of our favorites.

 Our mama sheep & their lambs have all gone outside, in the pasture  across the road. We put up a shelter, so they can have shade & a place out of  the rain. It's fun to see the lambs running around. There's a lot of noise outside. The mama's are constantly calling to their babies, checking up on them.

K1 brought her horse, Ranger here. We set up a round pen for her to ride in. Ranger has been sharing a small paddock with his new friends, the ponies.

Our second batch of meat bird are now two weeks old. We moved them out of the barn & into the mobile coop. The last few nights have been really windy & last night it rained hard. I wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about them, but so far they are all doing great.

Today, Mark is working on getting the piglets outside. Remodeling a shed we have to make it mobile and then checking the fence. It's a constant shuffle of moving animals, building fencing, and making sure everyone has shelter.

We made a day trip to Bradford, VT to pick up our new buck- N'ver E'nuf Cash. Here he is, enjoying the new area we set up behind the barn for the goats. He's sunning himself after eating his fill of grass.

  We went to Hinesburg to pick up a boar piglet, and Starksboro to pick up our female piglets. With any luck, next year we will have our own piglets to sell.

Petting barn is open on the weekends until June, than we will be open Wednesday - Sunday. We spent quite a few days cleaning & doing a little paint touch up to get the barn ready. We had our Spring Fling, which was a great success. We had 125 people, plus our family & friends that helped us. 

Where have I been.....

I know I haven't blogged in weeks, but Spring is a busy time. It started with sugaring, which was an odd season this year. It lasted a few weeks longer than we typically have, but it wasn't as intense. We would have several days in between runs. We never had a BIG run even though we had about 40 more taps. In all we made about 55 gallons which is a lot less than last years 85 gallons. Then when it finally ended we had to clean up. Wash all the buckets, wash the arch, wash the tanks, and rinse the line. All time consuming & not much fun.

What is fun about Spring is lambing & kidding season. The babies are absolutely adorable & so much fun to watch. It's fun but tons of work. I am very attentive during this season. I check them every 4 hours during the day. My amazing landlord Arlene checks them before she goes to bed, and I go once during the night. Then at 6 am Mark & I grab our coffee to go & check again. It is exhausting!

Here's our stats:
11 sheep lambed & a total of 13 babies
2 sets of twins & one set of triplets (but sadly one didn't make it)
5- ram lambs
8 - ewes  ( April, Breeze, Daisy, Hope, Ridley, Eclipse, Sterling, Diva)
8 black & 5 white
Phew! we are done lambing for the year

Last Friday, I was in the barn watching Payton who was having difficulties lambing (her baby also died) when I heard one of the goats screaming, and I thought either someone was in labor or terribly hurt. I ran to the pen just in time to see our Nala have a little white buckling that we named Rafiki. He is the most precious little thing Ever! Our other goat S'more is due today, then we are done having babies.

I leave you with visions of cuteness that I am lucky enough to see everyday :)

Spring Pictures

JD had a great day, playing in the mud!

Poor Myra is so big she "sits" on her way up & down.
 Last year she had quads, so we'll see how many this year.
She's due in 2 weeks!

Tiny A  had the first lamb. It was a ram, and we
don't keep them, so we won't name him.

Heart had a ewe on April first, so her name is
April!

Bliss had our first set of twins. The white one is a
ram. The little black ewe I named Breeze. 

Way too much cuteness!

Peony lambed today. We are voting on Calla Lily and calling
her Calla, or Shasta Daisy.

Here April & Heart moved from the lambing pen
back into the flock. I hate moving them, they
look so tiny & I worry they will get hurt. But, they don't!

April found a safe spot in the hay feeder!

Meat birds are growing.  I can't wait to move them outside.

JD wants to help with chicken chores.

Finally boiling! Last year we were done on March 29
and made 85 gallons. Today we are up to only 35 gallons.

The dogs love to go gather & play in the woods.

I am so happy it's finally Spring!

24/7

Farming is the only job that I can think of that is close to parenting. It is every day, No Holidays or Sick Days. Just like children our animals lives depend on us to take care of them. We've been criticized by some, because of how much time our "job" requires and events we've missed. Our animals need feeding at the same time every day, we can't change that fact. Not to mention how much depends on the weather. If the sap runs we have to gather & boil. If it's summer & we have 3 sunny days in a row, were going to be making hay. We have to, it's how we make money.

We were told it was our choice, and it is. Thankfully many people "choose" this job or we would all be hungry. Everyone knows No Farms No Food. The food in the grocery store comes from a farm somewhere. Most are more like factories than farms, but thankfully not ours. Our animals live a great life, not in a filthy feed lot or tiny cage. I know EXACTLY what is in my meat. Mark once said "you don't farm if you don't like animals, of course we care about them."

Here's a few examples of how much we care. I once saw Mark give mouth to mouth to a newborn lamb. This poor ewe had two enormous rams. We tried unsuccessfully to deliver them. K1 had just ran up to call the vet when one was finally born. It was alive, but stopped breathing. We cleared his nose, and hung him upside down which usually works, but he still wasn't breathing. Out of desperation Mark blew in his nose. It didn't work. I said " I can't believe you did that" he said "me either." We often joke about SheepPR. Anyone that knows me, knows that during lambing season it is nothing for me to set my alarm a few times a night to do a lamb check. A few weeks ago we were giving pre lambing shots to the ewes. Mark said "are you going to sleep in the barn during lambing?" I replied " I'm not ruling that out", again he laughed and said "me either!"

Is it worth it? We think so. We're happy. Most days, we Love what we do.

 Now, I'm going to go do my nightly chores, check on sheep (were going to have lambs any day!), then I'm going to gather sap (in the rain!) and hopefully boil late into the night! With any luck by the end of the weekend we'll have gallons of sweet maple syrup & a few adorable lambs.

P.S. We have meat & poultry CSA shares available, also healthy & delicious eggs.

Go Away Winter

I know that lot's of people are sick of winter. We had a little spring preview last Tuesday. It was beautiful, everything was melting. We tapped trees and I didn't even wear a jacket! Then on Wednesday we got TWO FEET OF SNOW! To make it even worse, we've had several below zero nights. UGH!

This just makes my life so much harder. For starters the ponies haven't been able to go out. The snow is up to their bellies. I tried but they could hardly move, so I brought them in. Not only do I feel bad for them, but that's extra cleaning for me. The cold is even worse. The chicken water freezes, so I have to bring out water twice a day. I always have one in the house defrosting, just what I want in my kitchen. We have to keep the 100 chicks warm. I can just see my electric bill this month. The chicks have 3 heat lights going around the clock. Not to mention the heater for the cows water. Oh...and we can't forget the sugar arch that can't freeze, so there's a heater running in there. Let's talk about heating the house, we've gone through all our wood, so we had to cut & split more. It's just so exhausting and discouraging.

On a positive note we've made about 10 gallons of maple syrup on the very few warm days we've had. Which, this time last year, we had made close to 50 gallons.Not sure if this means a short sugar season or just a late one. Which is worse? Make less syrup or a late spring. A late spring brings it's own headaches & problems. We have so much to do... Starting with getting 100 chicks in their mobile coop. I have no idea what we are going to do if the snow doesn't melt soon. We need to build fence, get the animals out to pasture, and  make our new garden. The petting barn opens May 3rd & our Spring Fling is the 10th...really hoping kid's won't have to wear their snowsuits (just kiddin').

That's enough complaining. It's time for me to go back to the barn. Think Spring!

P.S. Time to sign up for Summer Meat & Poultry Shares.

Mystery in the barn

A few weeks ago Mark noticed that one of the calves was missing the end of his tail. We had bought this calf a few weeks prior. We thought maybe it had gotten frostbite from the other barn or possibly another calf stepped on it. Than a few days later a different calf was missing part of his tail. This one looked awful with blood on his legs, it was gross. I was convinced that something was biting their tails. Mark didn't think so.

We borrowed a game camera. This camera takes a picture once a minute when it detects movement. You can imagine how fun it was to was to flip through 1000 picture of calves, because apparently they move all the time! We did get a good laugh from my 5 year old nephew. He didn't know we had a a camera set up. We got a full frontal picture of him going pee. He was so close, i'm surprised he didn't hit the camera!

After a few nights we got a picture of something. It was a dark rounded animal. It had it's head in a bucket, and we couldn't see it's tail. (I wish I hadn't erased the picture). I thought it could be a opossum, but Mark thought it had too dark of fur. We were telling Leo about it. He says someone told him they saw a wolverine near by. We had no idea what a wolverine was, so of course we googled it! It is the most vicious form of weasel.  Now, we really wanted to catch that on camera! We keep watching, morning & night.

Then we came into the barn & the calf that had the bloody tail a few days earlier, was bleeding again! It was back, and we couldn't get done chores quick enough. We were sure we were going to solve the mystery of the tail eating animal. You'll never guess, what it was....the other calves. They were sucking on each others tails until they were bleeding. Mark said he had told me nothing was eating their tails. I guess he was right, but we still had something getting into our barn.

We finally figured it out the next night.
First we saw this:

Can you see the dark creature in front of the calves?

Than we saw this:

See the little face in the bottom right corner.

I was right it was a opossum., I was right about something! Farming is so unpredictable. Seriously, you just can't make this stuff up!

Kick A** Weekend

Here's a run down of our kick a** weekend.

I made 2 batches of goat milk soap.

I am anxiously awaiting my goats to kid, so that I can have my own milk. I was super excited to find milk for sale on craigslist so I could start practicing, Here's Nala, she's due on Easter.

For the first time we made maple candy.

We cut two dump trailer loads of fire wood. I loaded most of the wood myself, while Mark cut. I even drove the loader tractor. I am women...hear me ROAR!

Mark, K3, and I  trimmed 13 ewes feet, gave them their pre lambing shots & worming, and built the lambing jugs. K3 even tried to trim her ewe. Our first ewe is due April first. We want to be ready because we are hoping to be busy sugaring soon. 

We made a trip to home depot so Mark could get supplies for a job and we decided to sneak in a dinner date. Mark was trying to get me to use salad dressing and I told him I didn't need the extra calories, since I have always eaten it without, that's how I like it. He told me that he thought I burned enough calories in a day that I didn't have to worry about it. 

Of course we also did chores morning & night, and our weekend routine. On Saturdays or Sundays we clean out the sheep & goat pens, sweep the whole barn, and spread the manure. This adds about an hour to our regular chores.

It was a good weekend, we even saw a little sunshine:)

Sensitive Boys

 Here is my favorite picture of Radar (& K3). When we first got him he was scared of Everything! Walking him to the pasture was a challenge. He is much stronger than he looks. The first time we led him, he dragged Mark. Now we can lead him easily. If there's something new like a tractor or puddle in his path, he will hesitate but go- no problem. On Sunday, K1 and Jakob went to get in Radar & Griz (the pony). They couldn't catch them. Typically, they come right up to Mark & I. K1 came back in the barn & Travis went out to help them. He caught Radar, but he took off and dragged Travis in the mud. So, I go out there. I try treats, talking to him, catch the pony, but nothing works. He's afraid. He will very hesitantly take the treat from my hand,but when I reach for his halter he runs away. We go back in the barn. Wait a few minutes & finish chores than Mark & I go out. Mark catches him. This is the normal routine (Mark takes him & I lead Griz) and what he is comfortable with. Note to self - no one else tries to catch Radar. This whole ordeal took about 1/2 hour extra time.

Then we gather sap & boil. We ended up making a gallon of Golden Delicate aka Fancy! We know it's going to be cold, so Mark wants to drain the pan in the morning. We go in the house & Mark tries his little water pump to see if it works. I open the door to let in the dogs, just as he tries the pump. Carter hears the noise & runs. Here's the deal with Carter.Several years ago we replaced our roof. The sound of the air compressor & the banging on the roof terrified him. Now,whenever the air compressor runs he hides, typically in a closet, under the desk, or in the barn if he is outside. Apparently, this sounded like the compressor. We take a shower & I try to call in Carter. Thinking it's been 1/2 an hour he should be ready. Nope! I ask K1 to go get him, since she is dressed. After 10 minutes I get dressed & go out. He is hiding under the sap tank at the sugar house. We try treats, if we grab his collar he frantically pulls away. I don't want to traumatize him, plus he's 90 pounds & that's a long way to drag him to the house. We use the other dogs as bait  "Miley your a good girl! " and feed her treats. Any other time we give the other dogs attention he run right over to steel some for himself. He always comes when called, except when he is scared. I finally start running around the wood pile, shaking the treats, and calling to Miley & Carter. This is 10 at night, I'm in my pj's, running around like an idiot.He follows us to the house. Miley & I run up the stairs & he runs back to the sugar shack. UGH! We give up & go to bed. Miley keeps pacing, she doesn't like Carter outside.  I wake up at midnight & go out to get him. He comes, when I call him, but hides under the steps. Well, at least were closer! I get a leftover piece of pizza. I feed him little pieces & lure him up the steps, than he turns around & hides underneath. I try several times. Finally, I wake up Mark. He grumbles, swears, and grumpily gets up and dressed. We go outside and he squats down & sweetly talks to Cater. Oh, I love this man and his big heart! I lure Carter up the stairs with the pizza, and when he gets to the top, I grab his collar. Mark is behind him and pushes him. We get him in the DOOR! He's fine,  lays down & doesn't go outside until noon on Monday. We will never run a pump in the house again!