Well thank God, things have turned around in the calving department. We have over twenty calves on the ground now and no new gory stories to relate. Thank God.
I am sitting here trying to type this while "ADELE" is blasting out of the speakers. I have no stereo in the house so the only time I can listen to my tunes is either in the truck, travelling, (pity poor Robert, he has to listen to me screeching along to the music) or when I am on the computer. I would love to own one of those BOSE music systems but I can not justify the cost. I have no children to harvest body parts from, ahahahaha...that comment was in poor taste I know...so sue me....
I have, for the past month now, been having a problem with dizziness. Serious dizziness, light headedness and a feeling of floating... I check my blood pressure during these episodes and it is usually perfect...118/70 but one day, Robert helped me put the cuff on because I was so spacey...and it was 110/56.
My blood sugar was good...at 5.4. So I thought it might have been dehydration, I drank enough water that afternoon to fill a pool and the dizziness slowly went away...but two days ago...I was dizzy when I awoke and it got worse throughout the day...by late afternoon I was whacked...Robrt asked me to watch a heifer calve...and she did, but I don't remember seeing it...I had to concentrate on staying standing...my head wanted to loll to one side and my eyes kept trying to roll back in my head...I felt like I was walking inches off the ground...and had to hold onto the fence to get back to the barn...needless to say I headed to the house because I was only a liability out there in that state...the dizziness and light headedness lasted all night...blood pressure was normal, sugars were good and I had drank lots of fluids that day. so I have no idea what is causing it...yesterday was much less dizzy....but if by next Monday it hasn't gone away, I will have to give in and see a doctor.
I was bending metal today, rebuilding a shield for a heating element in one of our antique water bowls....the element that keeps the water bowl from freezing burnt out and we had to retrofit a slightly different one but in the jimmy rigging of that the rusted/rotten portion of the original shield fell away so I was given the task of coming up with a way to attach a new piece of metal...I did not a bad job, if I do say so myself. Robrt was duly impressed I could tell...hahaha Last week I build from scratch, a calf processing table...when a new calf is born we have to tattoo their ear and give them an ear tag as well as put a rubber band on the male calves testicles to castrate them and Robrt gives them two vitamin shots. For thirty years we both have always just thrown the calf to the ground and sat on them...while the other one did the deed. But due to old age and physical limitations we needed to change our practice...So I drew a few plans and we changed a few things over the period of a year and this winter I put the plan to plywood and built this table...it hooks on to the pipe of a gate in the barn when in use....there are two belts that are attached to the table and have hooks on the other end...the calf is walked up to stand beside the plywood and the belts are lifted under its bell and groin to hook onto the same pipe....the table is lifted and legs drop down to hold the plywood up. the calf's head is tied down with a halter and its feet are secured, more for our safety than its. We can then do the things we have to do with the calf up at waist height. It works pretty slick...I am thinking of patenting it....maybe I'll get rich...
I am working on this jigsaw puzzle, YES it is THAT time of the year....but this one, man is it tough...I knew it would be...but I have been working on this 750 piece puzzle for a week now..some times for hours...when I can't sleep. and I am about half way done...one piece every two hours. Argh !!!!!!
It is of a blue jay (bird) sitting on a snow covered spruce bough, with blurry spruce boughs and snow in the background. Oh boy is it tough...
Other wise my days are spent trying to think of interesting things to eat, I am so tired of the same old stuff...I mean to say, I am trying to find some new things to make for meals....we've had stew, spaghetti, ham dinners, chicken dinners, soup and pizza...and the other day I made the most fabulous Mac n'cheese with Salisbury steak....mmmmmmmmm it was deliscious... our friends happened to show up for that meal...chocolate cream pie for dessert....with graham crust made with splenda, fat free/diabetic pudding and a tiny dollop of fat free cool whip... it was pretty good.
Well I should go and work on that damn puzzle again...
On the dog front, I refuse to pay a thousand dollars for a puppy. So we are limited to what run of the mill dogs are available for a couple hundred bucks... some sort of collie or lab cross I would think....although I am not a big fan of border collie's since they are a high energy dog that need lots to do other wise they will chase cattle or cars...and we live to close to the road for that to not be a problem. I will keep my eye open...
Splendor
January 26, 2012
January 16, 2012
Oh No, Oh No
Well, just like that winter is here with a vengeance. Up until two days ago we enjoyed quite mild temperatures for January and were in heaven. Now, the wind is blowing the temp has dropped from 0* to a bone chilling -25 with wind chill on top... we got a foot of snow when the cold front blew in from the north and that has made things even more treacherous than they were before because now we can't see where the ice is.
Like last year the two weeks before calving officially starts is a living nightmare... two cows suddenly started bulling ( a term used for cows in heat and ready for a bull, they will jump on other cows and want to be jumped on ) not a good past time for cows in there 8 th and 9 th month of pregnancy to be dancing on their hind legs across the ice while piggy bagging the cow in heat. So those two young cows had to be removed to a different pen, more work for Robt. to keep them fed and bedded separately. Then two cows aborted their fetus's....too early, whether it was due to slipping on the ice, jumping on those cows in heat or some other medical reason, god only knows...but then a cow started showing signs of calving...the restlessness, twitching and arching of her tail...stamping her feet and general uncomfortableness. after a couple of hours Robert could see a foot...he decided to investigate and one leg was back and not presenting itself in the right position of both front feet first along with the head further back but between the front legs. so he pulled the calf...and one leg fell off...once the calf was out...we examined it only to find that it had been dead for a couple of days and had begun to decay in the cow. We suspect that slipping on the ice was her reason for the dead calf...she has exceptionally bad feet...like sled runners on the bottom so she has no traction on the ice and her feet slide every which way...we have seen her since go splay legged several times...but then just two nights ago...another cow, young and healthy started fussing like she might calf. Robt reached in after a while to find the calf dead but coming the right way...he put the chains on the calves feet to help her by hand, he pulled and the body of the calf tore apart (this is just pulling by hand) and it was rotten...he came in at 3 am to shower and ask me to come out to the barn with him....we worked until 5 am trying to remove the remaining half of the calf...finally I made a slip loop with some rope, Robt hooked it around the spine of the lower half of the calf body and I pulled on the rope while he guided it into the cows pelvis and thank god it finally came, but it took many, many tries..and the smell was horrendous...poor Robt got the worst of it being so up close and personal to the dead calf....we had to treat the cow with antibiotics of course, but are still worried about her going septic....with the calf body fluids still inside...it might have been better if we had just shot her but we neither have the nerve or the appropriate firearm to do such a thing, and were too horrified and embarrassed to have a neighbour do it for us. Two days in and she is still alive and eating..seemingly no worse for wear...
Robt and I, of course are traumatized for life...we have, in 35 years of calving cows have never, ever had such a thing happen...we are in denial that there is something the matter with our herd...some disease or something that is causing these bizarre problems...and we have both agreed that if there is one more incident like that we will be involving a vet to come and examine a few of our cows, maybe do some blood work.
It certainly has us both wondering if it isn't a good time to get out of the cattle industry...while the prices are super high...we would still farm just not livestock...sell hay and grain instead..we wouldn't make as much money ( when cattle prices are high, anyway) but there would be a bit less stress and certainly make winters more bearable with out the 6 hours of chores and calving cows. we will be thinking more about this during the winter...but what ever we decide...it will take time to implement.
I am feeling pretty good most days...I like being more active..outside everyday to nail boards or build something for Robt. I was up in the air a few days ago, when he lifted me in the bucket of the tractor, about 20 some feet in the air to enable me to fix the rain gutter on the barn...with a tin roof the snow crusts on and then on a warmer day it slides off in a big whoosh and usually tries to take the rain gutter with it...we have band-aided it back on several times in the past but this time I wanted to do it right...since pieces of the gutter have broke away now with being loose and the wind rattling it around so much...so I had to devise some metal straps that I could attach by taking one of the tin roof screws out and replacing it through one end of the strap, then bend the strap down to the outside face of the gutter and using a sheet metal screw attach the other end of the strap to the top bent edge of the gutter, acting like a suspender..I attached 18 of them on the worst side, it was freezing and I had to have my gloves off so I could hold the screws...we will wait for a warmer day to do the ones on the other side of the barn.
We are thinking of getting a new dog...(puppy). We tried the shelter route once and had the dog home on a trial run, it was so badly behaved, with terrible manners that we had to take it back...when you have other animals here we decided it was best to get a pup that would become trained to be around the animals...town dogs just aren't the answer.
We haven't thought about what kind...I of course still yearn for a small house dog but it isn't practical...because we also need one for outside...so we will go with the outside type dog first...we want to get one this spring while our other dogs are still alive, so the new dog will learn their good habits..like staying home when we are gone and not chasing the cattle or cats.
I would like a shepherd cross, something with a bit of hair that can be outside in the winter for longer periods of time...and this time we will train it from day one to stay in a dog house...with a heated floor...so that it would not have to be in the house or the barn...there just isn't enough room..
well I am getting ahead of myself talking about a dog...they are sooooooo much work...
Like last year the two weeks before calving officially starts is a living nightmare... two cows suddenly started bulling ( a term used for cows in heat and ready for a bull, they will jump on other cows and want to be jumped on ) not a good past time for cows in there 8 th and 9 th month of pregnancy to be dancing on their hind legs across the ice while piggy bagging the cow in heat. So those two young cows had to be removed to a different pen, more work for Robt. to keep them fed and bedded separately. Then two cows aborted their fetus's....too early, whether it was due to slipping on the ice, jumping on those cows in heat or some other medical reason, god only knows...but then a cow started showing signs of calving...the restlessness, twitching and arching of her tail...stamping her feet and general uncomfortableness. after a couple of hours Robert could see a foot...he decided to investigate and one leg was back and not presenting itself in the right position of both front feet first along with the head further back but between the front legs. so he pulled the calf...and one leg fell off...once the calf was out...we examined it only to find that it had been dead for a couple of days and had begun to decay in the cow. We suspect that slipping on the ice was her reason for the dead calf...she has exceptionally bad feet...like sled runners on the bottom so she has no traction on the ice and her feet slide every which way...we have seen her since go splay legged several times...but then just two nights ago...another cow, young and healthy started fussing like she might calf. Robt reached in after a while to find the calf dead but coming the right way...he put the chains on the calves feet to help her by hand, he pulled and the body of the calf tore apart (this is just pulling by hand) and it was rotten...he came in at 3 am to shower and ask me to come out to the barn with him....we worked until 5 am trying to remove the remaining half of the calf...finally I made a slip loop with some rope, Robt hooked it around the spine of the lower half of the calf body and I pulled on the rope while he guided it into the cows pelvis and thank god it finally came, but it took many, many tries..and the smell was horrendous...poor Robt got the worst of it being so up close and personal to the dead calf....we had to treat the cow with antibiotics of course, but are still worried about her going septic....with the calf body fluids still inside...it might have been better if we had just shot her but we neither have the nerve or the appropriate firearm to do such a thing, and were too horrified and embarrassed to have a neighbour do it for us. Two days in and she is still alive and eating..seemingly no worse for wear...
Robt and I, of course are traumatized for life...we have, in 35 years of calving cows have never, ever had such a thing happen...we are in denial that there is something the matter with our herd...some disease or something that is causing these bizarre problems...and we have both agreed that if there is one more incident like that we will be involving a vet to come and examine a few of our cows, maybe do some blood work.
It certainly has us both wondering if it isn't a good time to get out of the cattle industry...while the prices are super high...we would still farm just not livestock...sell hay and grain instead..we wouldn't make as much money ( when cattle prices are high, anyway) but there would be a bit less stress and certainly make winters more bearable with out the 6 hours of chores and calving cows. we will be thinking more about this during the winter...but what ever we decide...it will take time to implement.
I am feeling pretty good most days...I like being more active..outside everyday to nail boards or build something for Robt. I was up in the air a few days ago, when he lifted me in the bucket of the tractor, about 20 some feet in the air to enable me to fix the rain gutter on the barn...with a tin roof the snow crusts on and then on a warmer day it slides off in a big whoosh and usually tries to take the rain gutter with it...we have band-aided it back on several times in the past but this time I wanted to do it right...since pieces of the gutter have broke away now with being loose and the wind rattling it around so much...so I had to devise some metal straps that I could attach by taking one of the tin roof screws out and replacing it through one end of the strap, then bend the strap down to the outside face of the gutter and using a sheet metal screw attach the other end of the strap to the top bent edge of the gutter, acting like a suspender..I attached 18 of them on the worst side, it was freezing and I had to have my gloves off so I could hold the screws...we will wait for a warmer day to do the ones on the other side of the barn.
We are thinking of getting a new dog...(puppy). We tried the shelter route once and had the dog home on a trial run, it was so badly behaved, with terrible manners that we had to take it back...when you have other animals here we decided it was best to get a pup that would become trained to be around the animals...town dogs just aren't the answer.
We haven't thought about what kind...I of course still yearn for a small house dog but it isn't practical...because we also need one for outside...so we will go with the outside type dog first...we want to get one this spring while our other dogs are still alive, so the new dog will learn their good habits..like staying home when we are gone and not chasing the cattle or cats.
I would like a shepherd cross, something with a bit of hair that can be outside in the winter for longer periods of time...and this time we will train it from day one to stay in a dog house...with a heated floor...so that it would not have to be in the house or the barn...there just isn't enough room..
well I am getting ahead of myself talking about a dog...they are sooooooo much work...
January 6, 2012
Caught in lifes crosshairs
This cold doesn't want to leave...I can't sleep, as soon as my head hits the pillow my sinuses back up and I start coughing. I need to sleep...being outside helps a lot but eventually the blockage is back... R is over his cold already...lucky me, mine is sticking around for a while...
This freezing rain we get every other night is something else...I am thinking of doning my old figure skates and getting around the yard that way...with our whole yard on a slope though it could be dangerous...as it is with winter boots...once you start sliding you don't stop until you hit a dry patch of ground or a fence....
This freezing rain we get every other night is something else...I am thinking of doning my old figure skates and getting around the yard that way...with our whole yard on a slope though it could be dangerous...as it is with winter boots...once you start sliding you don't stop until you hit a dry patch of ground or a fence....
January 2, 2012
What an Anti climactic Start to the New Year
I had it all planned (which should have been my first red flag, I never learn)
R and I were going to have an awesome spaghetti dinner complete with homemade garlic butter bread sticks and freshly cut cabbage coleslaw with my special dressing....cheesecake for dessert, then an invigorating competition on Wii, starting with 10 pin bowling, then R's favorite table tennis (only his favorite because he can beat me at that game) then my favorite, Archery and I like to end the competition with adrenaline pumping through my veins by sea-doo racing....I kick his ass every time...because I take risks....and he's all DRIVING MISS DAISY.....hahahahaha
Then we would watch some of the hockey games on TV and the count down to midnight and all the fireworks...Australia always has some of my favorite ones, while munching on .......... drum roll please..... POTATO CHIPS and DIP. My once a year cave in ....Chips are like my heroine.... I can't ever eat enough of them....then I hate myself.....hahahaha classic...just classic.
Alas, my plans were all for naught....there was no Wii tournament, and no snacking on junk food... because...like a pair of wieners....on Christmas day, the day I had planned for three months...just me and R, a turkey and dressing...and the afternoon spent together outside working....was all thrown out the window when my old close friend and neighbour called to say they were all by themselves and bored silly, did we want to come for a simple ham supper and save them.....we have a hard time saying no to this couple mostly cause they are like a family to me... so we only nibble on my lovely turkey dinner when it was ready at 1 pm and were starving by 6 pm when we ate at her house...she said to us when we got there that Clarence had the sniffles and they think it was something he was allergic too at their granddaughters house the day before....but it wasn't, because three days after that both R and I had scratchy throats and clogged sinuses....god damn it, he gave us a head cold.....so there we were on New Years Eve....both barely able to breath through our noses, hacking and coughing away...my supreme spaghetti dinner might as well have been straw for all the taste it seemed to have....and we spent the night watching three hockey games in a row on TV...R watched by choice, me, not so much...but it was that or spent the night in a different room trying to block out the hockey commentator...R's ears were plugged due to the cold and he had the TV blaring load....my ears, unfortunately were not not plugged...well not by the cold anyway..they were later plugged by the tissue paper I stuffed in them as a noise barrier...He was is bed by 10 pm...and snoring at 10:02....I read for a while but as soon as I laid down my sinuses plugged up and my head started pounding..so I got up at 11 pm and played lonely Wii bowling ....then archery then golf....I played a game of 18 holes and ended the game with a score of par...not bad...on the virtual golf course. Move over Tiger Woods. I headed to bed around 1:15... and it still took a while to drop off.
Today Jan 2, we still have our colds....symptoms are slightly better, less congestion and no sore throat...but my chest is tight and it hurts to cough...my colds always last twice as long as R's. I'm so lucky....
For those of you interested, I may be caving in to HIGH SPEED INTERNET after all.....wireless, no less... the cost is the same as what I pay Telus now for dial up from hell....so it can't get any worse than it is now...where I go out of my way to avoid having to do anything on the Internet... I'll keep you apprised of my status....it may mean changing my email address and phone number...so keep your eyes peeled for updates....
Gotta start getting ready for calving, starts Jan 20 officially..... order tags, get the tattoo ink bought and tag ink.....
R and I were going to have an awesome spaghetti dinner complete with homemade garlic butter bread sticks and freshly cut cabbage coleslaw with my special dressing....cheesecake for dessert, then an invigorating competition on Wii, starting with 10 pin bowling, then R's favorite table tennis (only his favorite because he can beat me at that game) then my favorite, Archery and I like to end the competition with adrenaline pumping through my veins by sea-doo racing....I kick his ass every time...because I take risks....and he's all DRIVING MISS DAISY.....hahahahaha
Then we would watch some of the hockey games on TV and the count down to midnight and all the fireworks...Australia always has some of my favorite ones, while munching on .......... drum roll please..... POTATO CHIPS and DIP. My once a year cave in ....Chips are like my heroine.... I can't ever eat enough of them....then I hate myself.....hahahaha classic...just classic.
Alas, my plans were all for naught....there was no Wii tournament, and no snacking on junk food... because...like a pair of wieners....on Christmas day, the day I had planned for three months...just me and R, a turkey and dressing...and the afternoon spent together outside working....was all thrown out the window when my old close friend and neighbour called to say they were all by themselves and bored silly, did we want to come for a simple ham supper and save them.....we have a hard time saying no to this couple mostly cause they are like a family to me... so we only nibble on my lovely turkey dinner when it was ready at 1 pm and were starving by 6 pm when we ate at her house...she said to us when we got there that Clarence had the sniffles and they think it was something he was allergic too at their granddaughters house the day before....but it wasn't, because three days after that both R and I had scratchy throats and clogged sinuses....god damn it, he gave us a head cold.....so there we were on New Years Eve....both barely able to breath through our noses, hacking and coughing away...my supreme spaghetti dinner might as well have been straw for all the taste it seemed to have....and we spent the night watching three hockey games in a row on TV...R watched by choice, me, not so much...but it was that or spent the night in a different room trying to block out the hockey commentator...R's ears were plugged due to the cold and he had the TV blaring load....my ears, unfortunately were not not plugged...well not by the cold anyway..they were later plugged by the tissue paper I stuffed in them as a noise barrier...He was is bed by 10 pm...and snoring at 10:02....I read for a while but as soon as I laid down my sinuses plugged up and my head started pounding..so I got up at 11 pm and played lonely Wii bowling ....then archery then golf....I played a game of 18 holes and ended the game with a score of par...not bad...on the virtual golf course. Move over Tiger Woods. I headed to bed around 1:15... and it still took a while to drop off.
Today Jan 2, we still have our colds....symptoms are slightly better, less congestion and no sore throat...but my chest is tight and it hurts to cough...my colds always last twice as long as R's. I'm so lucky....
For those of you interested, I may be caving in to HIGH SPEED INTERNET after all.....wireless, no less... the cost is the same as what I pay Telus now for dial up from hell....so it can't get any worse than it is now...where I go out of my way to avoid having to do anything on the Internet... I'll keep you apprised of my status....it may mean changing my email address and phone number...so keep your eyes peeled for updates....
Gotta start getting ready for calving, starts Jan 20 officially..... order tags, get the tattoo ink bought and tag ink.....
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