Extractor - the honey dance

I splurged and purchased a hand crank honey extractor. I don't have many hives, and I plan on leaving most of the honey there for them, but I was going to see about taking a little from the sides to see just how good our honey is. =)

We'll see if I can get a chance to extract this weekend.

First day of frost

Mark the calendar, today, October 27th was the first day of frost. The squash was all hit hard, but it looks like the citrus and the guayava are doing just fine. I'll see if I can cover the squash when I get home. We'll see how badly they got it. The tomatoes seem to be doing just fine.

Well... that sucked

Besides being sick this weekend, we had a fabulous time with Sharon/Mari visiting. She helped me finish the pond and so we began to fill it up.... and that killed the well. Luckily, it died on Sunday so we didn't have to go that long w/o water. The well company came in on Monday. Took out our old pump (They're only supposed to work for 7 years, but this one had been in there since 89.... 7 years... vs 21... ) and put in a new one. We now have all the piping in the front yard.. and since they kind of trampled one of my beds I just uprooted all the shallots and brought them in. So now we have a spiffy pump that's working great and that will provide fabulous pressure for the whole house. On the down side... it was an unexpected expense.. on the plus side, we don't have to worry about a pump for years. =)

Corn harvest

We were able to harvest our late corn. I planted the corn really late in the season so I wasn't even sure if we would get any. Well bloody butcher turned out the be a fabulous type and we'll be sure to plant some of these next year. I also just picked up a grain mill so we're drying the corn to grind up for tortillas, cornbread, and anything else we might think of.

Ducks as lawn mowers

Yesterday when I got home I noticed that the front lawn looked horrible and most of it was on its side and that the lengths were not even close to being close. I thought that my scything had just gone to crap and that I needed to get lessons on sharpening my blade again... when I saw some duck heads peak out from under the squashes.... Apparently the ducks have taken it upon themselves to come up to the front and eat down any errant grass, watermelon, lettuce, seedlings, collard greens, cabbage, spinach, and anything else you can think of.... So until I fix the side gate I'll have ducks that come to the front to feast on food. Oh yeah, I also noticed that they leave a sentry in the back to quack bloody murder if it looks like if I'm walking towards the front. It doesn't really helps since I can clearly see 9 sets of webbed feet under the bush they try to hide.

Concrete work ptII

I think the weather gods all focus on any weekend that Steven and I hope to pour concrete. This is the second part of the concrete work, and it rained on us again. Poor Steven had to put up with a distracted Rosie, a sick Lil'Rosie, and it seems like everything else that could have gone somewhat wrong. My 2x4's seem to be a cause of great distress. Apparently, my 2x4's are waivy and upset him to no end. Eh... I got them on clearance, and they match my house. And then after all the sidewalk was poured he let it dry up a little so that he could do all the finish work on it, but Trouble got to it before he could and ended up leaving a story of a chase on the concrete. Steven was pretty much at his wits end by that point so he was able to fix most of the concrete that had the deep paw prints, but he also left some sections with paw marks as they were already dry by the time he got there. In the morning, the turkeys and the ducks decided to add their dirty claws and webbed feet to the design. We'll see how it turns out, but so far, it looks like it belongs around our house. =)

Lil'Rosie on the mend

Lil'Rosie was doing well this morning. She's not back to her normal bossy self, but she's able to function on her own. Yesteday when I went to go see her at lunch she had not eaten so I had to hand feed her until she got a little bit of food in her. After work I went back home and separated her from the herd and took her over to the alfalfa and hay. She ate until she filled in again, which is good, but she was still acting frightened of everything and would get scared if I wasn't around. After eating her fill I took her back with the other goats and she spent the night with them. I think I only heard one cry at all last night, so it's a big improvement. This morning she started eating on her own and was drinking water. She was also moving around and it looks like if Lil'Rosie and Bugger are starting to become close friends. I think they both have that association of humans as bringers of safety and happy thoughts. We'll see how things progress. The herd is keeping its distance and taking care of her. Ramses is not being harsh on her and none of the other goats will take her food. I think they know she's still sick. This has been a learning experience, but one that was most likely needed. I'm very glad we did not give up on her, but I hope that she's able to fully recover, as we cannot keep goats that require special needs.

Day 5: Lil'Rosie

For the last 5 days I've been spending a lot of time with Lil'Rosie as she's not full up to speed on taking care of herself. We gave her the last shot of thiamine today and I put her with the other goats. I think the thiamine really throws her off. To recap, Sat and Sun my brother Steven came out to help pour some more concrete around the house. This was hampered by an altered Lil'Rosie that wanted to follow myself or Jed around everywhere we went. In the end, I just stayed with Lil'Rosie and let everyone else do the work since we couldn't do much with Lil'Rosie following us around and got in the way. She was also trying to eat dirt, which wasn't good, and was trying to step on the wet cement. On Sunday she seemed to get her appetite back and ate to her hearts content. She filled in and was drinking tons of water. She looked almost completely healthy and we decided to put her with the rest of the goats this morning.

I just went to go check on her during my lunch, which I've been doing since last Thurs, and she was staring off in a different direction not moving and not eating. She didn't seem to have eaten anything since that morning so I fed her some alfalfa by hand until she zoned out. She then sat down with some food hanging out of her mouth and stared off into space. Ramses led her over to the water where she drank. As I was leaving she realized I wasn't around and ended up trying to run to see where she could see me and to call out. I think this whole process is going to make Lil'Rosie that much more clingly and weary of when she's not feeling well. Although goats aren't swamp dragons, taking care of a sick goat can get tiring especially when you have to go and sleep with them out in the porch if they start freaking out. It has been an educational process and I look forward to learning more about goats, but at a calmer pace rather than a steep learning curve.

Tale from an eternal optimist

Lil'Rosie is still with us. Last night we fed her some oil and forced her to walk around with us. We also gave her some baking soda and water, as well as just plain water. We kept massaging her tummy and forcing her to walk. The physical stimulation helped and she would revive for a little, but we would have to keep forcing her to walk. Around 10 last night she was walking around on her own and stumbling around... but on her own. Through the night we would check on her and go massage her. She was still walking around. This morning we massaged and walked with her.. I gave her a little water. She had passed stool throughout the night... which didn't seem like a blocked bowel, but I'm new so I don't really know. I called the vet and let him know that she was walking around blind and somewhat drunk, but that she was passing stool. He said she was probably just passing what was on the other side of the obstruction. He also said the since we gave her oil she would probably get some in her lungs and die of pneumonia if she lived through this. He said the blindness sounded like thiamine deficiency and that if I really wanted to that he could prescribe some to me to see what happened. I said I would like that and at lunch I picked it up and brought it home. I gave her the first doze of 3ccs of thiamine, massaged her, walked her, gave her a little water, and then went back to work. She was already responding to my calls and was looking like if she was waking up a little more... I just got home to a goat that wants to go back with her brother, who is running around, and who is chewing cud. She's able to pass water and solids fine... although she is still a little bit disoriented she's doing a lot better. She's laying right next to me while I type this out in the front yard. The vet said she should improve by tomorrow afternoon. I can only hope that she won't catch pneumonia, and that she gets all better... I like Lil'Rosie... she's one tough little goat.

Thank you, Lil' Rosie

Today was a very stressful day. I went to go feed the animals only to find Rosie non-responsive and twitching. I left for work and called all the vets and researched what could be wrong with her. I was able to get a vet appointment and came home to pick her up. I was going to unload the van but when I got home she was screaming in pain and I just ran back, picked her up, and loaded her into the van. I drove like a mad woman to the vet only to have him be an hour late... The sad news is that she has a twist in her gut and will most likely not last through the night. The vet said that she was going toxic and that neither we nor the piggies should probably eat her. =( So we're seeing if she'll last through the night. We've tried a bunch of different remedies... but we're not sure how much that can help. We've been outside with her most of the day and we cannot determine how much better or worse she is getting. We can only hope she makes it... but we're also afraid to hope. Thank you for keeping up with your part of your contract Lil'Rosie. We love you and we'll miss you very much if you go. =(

Putting in the sidewalk

Adding the walkway around the house is one of the most actually important improvements we have to do on the house. The foundation is a bit... crappy and so we have to make sure that all the water actually moves away from the house rather than just pool around it. We started this project last year, but as neither of us know how to work concrete and since my hours had been cut down to the point that I couldn't afford to buy concrete... it was put on hold. But this weekend my brother, Steve, drove down from Modesto to help with the beginning of this project. Today we were able to complete the most necessary part of this project. It was also a blast because it was Steven's birthday and Juan, Dante, Lucy, and Marc were able to visit him. Steven drove down with Kristina, My mom, Francisco, Maggie, and Ceaser. I also completed a ton of digging around the house before they arrived, which was actually welcome since it made me feel as if I was out fighting in one of our SCA wars. I was soaked with sweat, stabbing with the hoe or shoveling dirt. I only had one bad point today when I forgot to eat and got a little light headed, but the rest of the weekend went smoothly. We'll see about attempting to either finish part of the back by ourselves, or what will most likely happen will be that we'll just wait for Steven to come back so that he can direct us again. I loves you Steven!

Ironically, as soon as Steven drove off, a few sprinkles fell from the clouds... I think the weather gods wanted to let me know I should get a move on. =)