Went out this morning to feed our ZOO and Charlotte (one of our pigs) was obviously sick. Tell tale signs: #1 most important symptom is NOT EATING. If a pig refuses food you KNOW something is wrong. She was standing against the side of the barn, leaning on it. She was kind of wobbly, like she was going to pass out. The other two were eating away. #2 sign - droopy head and droopy tail. Overall "I don't feel good look". I came back inside to get 2ccs of penicillin to give her an injection. She wasn't so sick that she didn't struggle with that! The first attempt the syringe and needle came apart, with the needle still in her backside. I had to catch her to get it out, and go back and get another 2ccs. This time I had PD#1 help me. We grabbed her back legs, and she SQUEALED like we were butchering her alive. I managed to give her the injection.
I finally remembered to give all the animals DE (diatomaceous earth) this morning. I haven't noticed any signs of parasitical infection, but I gave some to each, and will leave it out free choice for the goats to "snack on". I need to order a large bag so that I can dose the horses. (If you decide to use DE, please use FOOD GRADE.)
**More later, I have to go into town, unfortunately.
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Okay, I am back. We had to run pick up eggs from a friend. She is selling them for $2 a dozen, which is a good price. I cannot wait until our hens start laying. We only get one every other day from 14 hens. They are just now old enough to lay, so we will have to wait for more daylight hours. At our other house we had a light in the coop in the Winter, but here we don't have electricity at the barn, too expensive to run, so we are without eggs. Then a trip to the feed store to pick up a saddle cover they had ordered for us, then dropping PD#1 off at her friend's for their birthday party. Her friends are twins ;-)
Yesterday was a good day, we spent the afternoon at the barn cleaning it out, the coop too and I put the chicken manure and old hay in a pile in the garden. I'll work on it this weekend getting it ready to plant in a few weeks.
We worked with the horses, and PD#1 cleaned their hooves. She is interested in attending farrier school, so she works with the horses, as much as possible, to get the experience. She may go this summer, if not, then next. It is away from home, so her dad or I will have to attend the 2 week session with her to get her certification to clean and trim hooves as part of her business. We have three horses. One is a rescue and is difficult, the other two we work with, and PD#1 alternates riding. We are working on getting them in shape to be transportation locally. A small general store is about 1 mile away in a town of about 80, and the larger town of 4,000 is about 6 miles away. Our closest MAJOR city is about 50 miles away, so way too far for the horse. (We only go into the major city once a week for church.) I'd love to have a family buggy or wagon to take into town for shopping, but that will have to wait until after the house is finished.
Today we arrived home to find that another doe, Hera, had two little boys. I named them Poseidon and Ares. (I keep the names of the goats in a "family" related so I know who belongs to who. They are all boys so will more than likely be going in the freezer. Here are a few pictures:
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| Poseidon (he was next to the water) |
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| Ares |
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| Hera and her boys |
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| Poseidon | | |
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| My seeds came in, yeah! |
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We'll be starting out seeds in egg cartons, before planting in the garden. We will be planting, hopefully, 75 tomato plants this year. We only planted 30 last year, and just wasn't enough, though I was overflowing with Romas. We will also be planting cucumbers, onions, green beans, jalapenos, Mesculun, Corn, green peppers, watermelon ( 2 kinds), cantelope, cilantro, a few other herbs, pumpkin and squash (later in the year).
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| PD#2 - Waiting for Daddy | |
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| The view down the driveway, you can barely see the top of the house we are building |
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| PS#2 helping daddy fix the coop door |
