@QMS
Dogs are wonderful! Just wonderful. They are the best solution, I do agree. My dog, Jaska, isn't this breed, she's a Finnish Spitz and she was just great at watching over the goats. She is getting too old now, so I think I'm going to have to get another puppy soon. Breaks my heart in a way, she is the best dog I've ever had.

around here they use the Great Pyrenees to guard livestock. Amazing working animals!

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Spoke with a sheep farmer in Maine who had a pair of them. He somehow trained them to work in shifts - one daytime. and the other after dark. Told of them chasing away bear and wolves.

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We are in that Mississippi sauna mode now 90 degrees with 90% humidity. Not so bad when the sun is hiding in the clouds and there is a bit of wind. Helps to be afloat as well.

Good luck with the coyotes~!

@JtC
Gads. I remember my grandma (who was from Texas) telling me the cooking eggs outside on a sheet of metal story and swearing it was true. I believed her, could cook them that way in southern CA too, where I was born.

And... forecasts now say the PacNW will go into a hot spell next week or so that could top around 110 in some places! We are catching up to Texas, or something!

hen's are laying hard-boiled eggs.

@randtntx
Maybe the weather talk is confirming that :). I think the weather is also very important to farmers and the like, so we talk about it a lot.

Thanks for the great song!

this is an interesting point of view;

I don’t know where I first heard it, nor who said it, but I’ve heard it again and again and I think you have too. The weather is supposed to be one of those inane topics, the sort of thing you turn to when there’s nothing meaningful to say. Old people talk about the weather a lot, whereas everyone else—at least those with big ideas and thirst for life—supposedly have much better things to say.

On second thought:

Speaking of the weather is speaking of emotions and the body. When a neighbor tells me it is warm and sunny, he’s not doing so because he thinks I cannot figure this out on my own. He speaks it because he feels it, and he is asking me to join him in that feeling. My mother-in-law and I speak about the weather all the time, and how she describes it and how I describe it conveys more about our inner lives and our affection for each other than a thousand words ever could. We smiled at each other outside when the rain began today, both sighing in relief together as if embraced and held tight by that rain.

via NC https://rhyd.substack.com/p/lets-just-talk-about-the-weather

Thanks for your OT Sima. So sorry about your goat. Hope you get some sleep soon. We have coyotes here as well, but no livestock (except free-range rabbits).

A Texas weather song/poem...

@enhydra lutris
We've tried them and they didn't work here. As I said above, our best solution has been our dog. But she's getting old

lack of sleep. I have no immediate solutions but do think llamas are the answer.

Got up and out early to trim our ceanothus (which was taking over the front yard) while it was still cool and before a couple of places I have to run off to open. SAid running is about to commence. Nuthin' really on my mind but getting stuff done and eventually making dinner.

be well and have a good one

@dystopian
I do love it. All the dogs around the valley start barking too, it's quite the serenade. The coyotes hunt feral rabbits here, and local rabbits. They are good at keeping down the population (which didn't even exist here 20 years ago). They of course take anything that offers up easy pickings, like feral cats, and any older animal they can nab.

Our worst predators are cougars. Nothing, not a dog, a llama, a burro, not a human without a gun, can take them on. Horses and cattle seem to do ok, I've not seen them get hunted. We have bears here, but they don't seem to hunt farm animals. They do love the berries though!

I've got a story about a chicken and a coyote, and Jaska-dog. I think I'll save that for an OT though. Story turned out well, even for the coyote, in a way .

Hat tip to all with the Donkey and Llama recommendations. In my area both are very commonly used to keep coyotes away from sheep or goats. Usually just one per flock/herd. Donkey are also used for folks with small dogs and cats, have a donkey around, no coyote problems. Certainly where I am Coyotes are the one thing that is predating baby feral pigs and slowing down their explosive growth. Yet they are often shot on sight by the ranchers. We have a few coyote packs around and very often we hear them, especially when they make a kill the whole troop goes off bonkers, it is awesome. Mostly they eat piglets here.

melting in Texas, hope all are cooler!