It's Almost That Time Again- Spa Homestead Days

Every year in March, we have spa days. Everybody except for Nnyus, the chickens, and the cats get shorn for approaching warmer weather. Nnyus' hair is too short, chicken don't have fur, and all our cats are the short haired variety.

Mel's and my hair gets cut usually the first or second week in March. All the fall and winter growth, that's kept our ears warm all winter long, gets a well needed cut and styled. It's our timely passage into spring. Plus we don't want a mop of hair come summer.

We'll spend a day scrubbing, shaving, manicuring ourseves. Our legs have hairs long enough for piggy tails. Sounds sick, but our legs felt warmer under our pants during winter. It's one of the benefits of not having men folk around. We'll heavily lotion up rough winter dried skin and may even start apple cider vinegar foot baths again.We ain't girlie gals.

Next comes Herbie. This little dog has a love-hate relationship with spa days. He hates to be touched especially his feet. But he loves the way he feels afterwards. By the end of winter, his hair is 6" long. Mel enjoys doing something cute while shearing him. The year before last was a Yorkie cut with extra poofy ears. Last year was a lion type tail tip.

He is never a pleasant boy to wash. He'll growl and snap the whole time. He rarely bites hard enough to break the skin. Once or twice he'll knock my glasses off my face while shearing. Cutting his nails, fergetaboutit! There aren't muzzles and tie down straps strong enough to do the job without getting bit several times. A Doberman or German Shepherd in full attack mode are infants compared to this dog if you ever touch his nails. He'll eventually break or chew them off.

After we release him from spa torture, He'll scamper and dance around happily. He expect to be called "funny," "cute", or "pretty boy" repeatedly. This will continue for several days until he's bored with it.

Next comes the rabbits. Each will be shorn down to the skin. Their nails are trimmed seasonally. Mel's in total charge of nails and ears. They'll binky around their space happy to be rid of all that hair. Angus has heavy facial furnishings. "I can see!" he'll say. " Thank you, thank you, thank you!"It takes almost the whole month to accomplish them all.

But then, the rooster's spur is clipped to make his breeding attempts easier on the hens. I really hate doing this to him because his spurs help keep the flock safe.

All the hens will be checked also. Hopefully the Buff Orpingtons will go broody this year so I won't have to purchase as many  meat birds this year. But I may purchase half a dozen to a dozen anyhow.

Nnyus and the cats don't escape untouched during March. Their nails are clipped too. They each get a pass with a brush.

Everybody (critter wise) gets their bi-annual dosing of DE. This is done internal ingestion for parasites, and externally for fleas and mites. The dogs have their dose added for 6 days into wet (homemade) dog food and they are dusted. For the cats, we just dust them heavily a couple of times. They'll lick it off grooming themselves. The rabbits have DE sprinkled on their fodder for ingestion. The chickens have it make in a special seed crackers I makes for them a couple times a year for extra ingestion doses. Several pounds of DE and wood ash are added to their coop, run, and dirt bathing areas in lieu of dusting the chickens.

So let the spa days begin.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Jo