My blog has gone positively rancid because I haven’t posted in a while. It’s not that nothing has happened lately, it’s just hard sometimes to sit down long enough to write about it. And, I was in the Seattle area for 3 days and just got back. For us to go anywhere, it takes a lot of preparation. Even if Marshall stays home and does the feeding….
Ondra and her friend Melody, who lives on the Other Side (of the Cascade Mountains), have been planning for months for Ondra to go and spend a week with her. Now most people can just pack a bag and go. Not us. We have many places to feed the animals, outside AND inside the house. This chicken gets this feed, that chicken gets the OTHER feed, and Buckeye gets his SPECIAL feed and MUST have water in his bowl at ALL times. So and so needs just this amount and shouldn’t have more than that, you need to feed Rose under the tool shed, away from all the others, to be sure she gets some feed, chase the guineas out of the ravine so the coyotes won’t get them, make sure the pigeons don’t get out, you have to medicate the buff silkie with just the exact amount of meds; too much and it could kill her, make sure the blind chick eats, and so on and so on, you get the picture. And then there is the ELABORATE feeding ritual of the ruminants. See paragraph 3 of Surprise Chickens Fly the Post Office Coop.
Marshall doesn’t usually do the feeding so he has to be TRAINED to feed while we are gone. We try to condense things to make it easier, but it is still time consuming. Ondra writes up an extremely detailed “book” of instructions about EVERYTHING you need to know to feed and take care of our animals. It’s exhausting.
Eric, Ondra, and I left last Friday for Seattle. Ondra had to also bring her school work. Even though she was spending a week with Melody (who is also home schooled), she wasn’t getting out of school! Eric, who just got his learner’s permit 3 weeks ago, drove the whole weekend. I didn’t drive even once. I was so proud of him. He managed the interstates 90 and I-5 just fine, plus the crowded Seattle streets. We dropped off Ondra at Melody’s (who, by the way, are the nicest people). She’s having a blast.
Marshall stayed home and did the feeding, as well as taking care of customer issues with our wireless internet business, which is a 24/7 thing for him. We RARELY can get away, and even rarer, can get away altogether at the same time. To top things off for him, on Sunday (yesterday), there was lightening which took out one or more transformers on the south shore of Lake Chelan. The power went out and a lot of his customers lost internet service (and were not happy). AND THEN…. he was on his way to service a customer on the other side of the lake, and his car BROKE DOWN. It had to be towed into Chelan. Have you ever tried to get a tow truck to help you in a small town on a Sunday? Not easy. Thank goodness a friend was willing to do it. So it’s being looked at as I write. So we are back down to one working vehicle. When we picked up Marshall in Chelan, on our way home from Seattle, he looked EXHAUSTED. I felt sorry for him.
Last week we had an issue of sheep acidosis. Reagan, our 4 year old wether, got out of the pasture (because a board had pulled away from the fence due to a wind storm). He had gotten into the pigeon food on the back porch. I know that because I caught him jumping off the porch. I immediately started the baking soda and water treatment (2tablespoons baking soda to 8 oz of water). and probiotics. The next morning, Reagan didn’t want to eat, and was having yucky diarrhea, so I called my vet. She instructed me to give him SMZ (sulfa) tablets too. He got all these things for 3 days and fully recovered. I lost a ewe 3 years ago from acidosis and did not want a repeat. Anytime I even suspect one of the sheep or goats got into any grain, out comes the baking soda and water. I even keep baking soda, free choice, with their minerals. Eric has since locked up the pigeon food so it won’t happen again. During this time, the kid’s Silkie chicks came down with Coccidia. We started them on some liquid sulfa from our vet. They are recovering too. Marshall had to treat only one while we were gone.
Unfortunately, Eric lost a few guineas while we were gone. Probably coyotes. The guineas like to go into the raving near the house and hang out. There is lots of bush cover for coyotes to hide. Our dogs do a pretty good job of keeping the coyotes away, but once in a while the coyotes win when it comes to the guineas. They like to wander away too much. BUT, they keep the rattle snakes away! That’s it for now.
Until next time…
Glad to hear Reagan recovered. I hoep your car will make a similar comeback!
Thanks, Reagan is back to his old self, I am relieved. Our car has been fixed and we’ll picking it up today.
Jackie
Hello,
I’m surprised to read that the Guinea Fowls are caught easily by the Coyotes, my young ones here
take off as though they are astride booster rockets…
When watching them I feel very old and slow, and am now certain I am, hi…
Bye,
David…
The coyotes are sneaky, and the guineas like to next in the bushes in the ravine. That is where they are usually caught, off guard. Eric just chased off another coyote a few minutes ago. The word is out.
Jackie
To Jackie & Family,
You asked ’bout Dogs against the Quols, Yes, they are most effective, and over on the mainland in the areas where I buy my fertile eggs for incubating, most of the “Chooken” breeders and egg suppliers use that Italian dog, not sure ’bout the spelling, sounds like “Marima”, they bond with the flocks and guard whatever 24×7 hours-days etc…I read near 5 years ago in a farming paper about a Farmer in the Aussy state of Victoria, how a farmer had 2 of those dogs running with his flock of sheep, he was 3 days late taking dog pellet food out to the dogs, when he did there was a smell of death, all the flock were safe, but dragged behind some scrub were 18 I think dead Fox Bodies…He thought first that the dogs may have killed a couple of sheep for food, was no so, they were bonded to the sheep and come what may, lack of food for them, they would not deviate from their bonded duty…
Now I have to ask with a smile, Man’s best
friend, OR, the “sheepies”, hi ?…
Jackie & Co, thank you for a wonderful site..
Bye,
David Ponsonby.