There are lots of changes happening and hopefully smoothly. We have been working on a new blog for you folks. Fond as we are of this one it is a bit finicky when it comes to posting pics, as you may have noticed.

     We have been working behind the scenes for some weeks in the confusing world of Wordpress.

http://picsbylis.com/blog/

Please let us know if you like the new setup better than this one. Hope it works for you and that you enjoy it just as much or better.

Thanks,

Lis and the Critters

 http://horsefamilymagazine.com/just-a-colt-at-heart

And proceeds to make a nest in her coat and be a bonafide pest!

Somehow, we still managed to get some photos of our Spring Heralds, nonetheless.

My “peeps” are the hens and I am head chick with Claire is my second in command. As any Rooster might, Festus, isn’t exactly pleased with this concept. His ego has a real problem that the Peep Clan is a Matriarchal society, especially when Claire or Tess, my best nesters, remind him of such…usually after he’s overstepped his bounds. Luckily for me they tolerate no Rooster ‘Tude. If he even thinks about giving me a dirty look he receives Hen Pecking. Now before any of you guys out there start feeling too bad for the little guy, he has 12 Hens.

I hope you noted that the Peeps are mine…the Rooster is my dad’s. I have no fondness for Roosters, not since one tried to kill me when I was real little. We had a lot of chickens then, at the main farm, and I was helping Dad in the Upper Barn. He was all the way across the barn but when my dad turned that ornery cuss charged me and flew at me spurs and beak and all. My dad caught him millimeters from my face and he tore at my dad to get to me; digging both spurs and beak into my dad’s arms…Needless to say he chose his own demise.

My last Rooster was kind of nice. Alex was from our second batch of chicks. He was kinda nice, not overly friendly, but he’d let you pet him if he was sitting with the hens. Sadly, during a really bad lightning storm last year in late Spring, both Alex and three of our hens got struck by lightning and didn’t make it. (Unfortunately the horse, dog and myself also got hit, but thankfully all indirectly, though. )

Anyway, Festus is not the “pet me” type, but not quite the “killer” type either, gratefully. He’s more of the buzzard type, meaning if you come near him while he is roosting he  will perk up his wing just at the elbows and kinda glare at you…like a buzzard. Yeah…he’s um that special.

However a few days ago “Buzzard Festus” went feral with Spring fever….

http://horsefamilymagazine.com/a-new-baby-in-the-barn

If you're on Facebook, please be sure to like Horse Family Magazine and Lis (CritterTales) too, so you get the latest updates and pics, and leave comments.

For the Bagpipes Fan Club, Mister Bagpipes isn't feeling too well and he's just had a stay in the Vet Hospital. He is now a diabetic and has to have insulin. His sugar was way over 600 and finally is done to where they want it. Now to get the poor guy to eat. No food at all since Sunday and no regular meals since last week is a long time for a "puppy" to not eat.

He is also on an antibiotic just in case and something to bring elevated liver counts down; raised by the sugar. We all have to adjust to new medicine and it's requirements.

Bagpipes made a bunch of friends. Of course all the girls at the hospital think he just so cute. His two vets spoiled him plenty; even visiting after hours to walk him for worry about him. He received excellent care. He even had a couple nice cushy blankies to kinda make having iv fluids go easier. They even hung his "Outside Bell" in his pen for him to ring. When we visited him and were leaving he was quite the noisy guy with that bell.

He is quite happy to be home now and appreciates any and all sympathy and well wishes. Ahem...one could construe he is rather milking his  illness for all it is worth, but as long as he starts eating good and keeps taking his shots good we shall go along with it...for now.

   A tale of two of the brattiest boys in the Barnyard, Mister Cecil, a Quarter Horse, and Mister Hornpipes, a Pygmy Goat and the pranks they play on this poor farmer one sunny winter day.

 Read more at http://horsefamilymagazine.com/critter-sense-of-humor

and for the Twitter-pated http://twitter.com/picsbylis

Here are the Blogs in Order:
Thistle and Nettle
Bagpipes Adopts a Kid
Bagpipes and Hornpipes
Hornpipes and Mussette