Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

Will probably do ultrasound on the veins....amazing how much they can see with that process! They did them on mom's leg as she did have a block in a vein. They did have to do a balloon angio but, all went very well and later ultrasound shows that.

Colonoscopy -- well, it will give her something to talk about.

hang in there!

Yep, he did tell me he's scheduled for ultrasounds on both the neck and the legs. That's easy enough. I really hope the pain he has in his legs is from being overweight and under-conditioned instead of needing a bypass or stent or angio...but who knows? He got dizzy getting up from a seated position last night, stumbled and crashed his head into a wall resulting in a nice contusion. I swear between him, my mother, and my stoopid non baby having goats I'm gonna go postal on somebody, lol!

Couple of the does are getting fuller udders, but still nothing on the baby front. Ligaments are still tight so I'm not expecting anything real soon.

Got a lead on some feedstuff that would cut the feed bill down some. There's a fella selling super ton sacks of rice product. It's supposed to be rice, some hulls and some bran in a giant bag that will take a tractor to move. I did the math and it works out to $13.50 for a hundred pounds - that's only 6.75 for 50 lbs and I don't get anything that cheap. Quite a savings on anything else I'm buying. Chickens and hogs could both have some of that put in their feed and do quite well on it. I had a friend that used to raise hogs on practically no commercial feed other than the rice that her brother brought her from the rice mill that he worked at. We ARE in rice raising country right here. Only thing slowing me down on getting it is that I need to score some 55 gallon drums to store it in and then get real creative with the lifting and emptying of a giant bag that weighs a ton.... argh! But, if I can figure out the logistics of it I'm gonna give it a try. I'll be looking for some barrels at lunch today.

Pigsters are growing by leaps and bounds! The two males are always hungry...geeze louise! The female is so chill but her babies are not, lol. I need them to start eating feed so that they'll bury their heads in a feed pan and let me touch them. I do get to rub on them occasionally -especially when they're nursing...mom doesn't care and they're so focused on ninny that it's practically the only time I get to touch em...unless they're sleeping. Piglets sleep pretty soundly!

Hope to get in the garden this weekend - among all the other stuff I need to do. I'm so stressed over everything else in my life that I need to get some dirt under my fingernails! Dirt - it does a body good!

Happy Thursday ya'll.

I'm hoping to get in my garden next week. It's supposed to be warm!

I. WILL. GARDEN. TOMORROW! I did stop by the Depot today and picked up screen material for my tomato plants. No stinkin' stink bugs are gonna destroy my tomato plants this year.

Took Mom to her procedure today. Glad that's over - it all worked out ok. Found ZERO problems! I'm glad of that - but I kept telling her she didn't need it....oh well. At least now her mind is at ease.

Egg production is gradually getting better and better. I'm getting 20+ eggs almost every day now. Finally!

Nothing exciting to report....except that BORING is totally ok with me right now. Boring is good...I love boring!

DH and I met DS and his wife at the local bestest nursery in the area. I bought a lime tree and a kumquat tree that I've been wanting for awhile. DS wanted an orange tree, a lemon tree and a lime tree - so he now has them. He only objected a little when we picked up the tab, lol. I told him it was his happy housewarming gift and they'd better not die! That'll only put a little pressure on him!

Me and the pigs got a little gardening done like I swore I was gonna do. Unfortunately, I kinda got side tracked. I decided to move the pig hut and managed to drag that heavy thing back over my foot and peeled the toenail back on my big toe.... ouch! (And yes, I had a shoe on.) I just knew when I pulled that foot outta my shoe that the toenail was gonna be gone....but it was just slightly askew. Bled like a stuck pig, but I'd rather have the blood outta there than building up under the nail. I debated between soaking it in hot water or applying ice. I opted for the hot water with Epsom salt only because I really wanted it to bleed... wanted all that blood outta there. Now though... I'm about ready for some ice - it's starting to throb a bit. Hope I can get it in a shoe tomorrow - I've got too much to do to be laid up.

Need to worm a buck or two. Checked eye lids and a couple miniature guys are getting a little pale. I'll copper 'em while I'm at it. Dusty, the Nubian is bright pink - he's such a good boy. He's finally starting to look like he'll live again after he dang near starved/ran/drooled/and worried himself half to death during the rut. Coats are starting to slick off too.

I've got chicken nuggets starting to pop! Not supposed to hatch until tomorrow, so I guess I need to turn the oven down just a hair. Come to think of it, I think they hatched a little early last time too.

Happy Saturday ya'll!

I normally have eggs hatch early when I use my incubator.

What did you hatch out? Are they keepers or sellers?

I got some chicks and a couple trios of "almost" laying adult Black Copper & Blue Copper Marans...for fertile eggs. But also arranged to get fertile eggs from same farm to incubate. I plan to sell those chicks at a chicken swap after hatching, so planning dates, etc. Also got some blue egg layer chicks...eventually will have fertile eggs for this Fall & next yr won't have to buy eggs to incubate, will have own. With 10-14 pullets of each line, should have plenty at one time! LOL The "odd" colors egg layers sell well here for backyard flocks. If I plan it right, will have some layers to sell in Spring.

WOOHOOO! Daylight savings starts soon. Rather have light at end of day than early morn. You got your son working his garden, I saw. Every once in a while they amaze us with mind retention of what we "thought" they didn't notice as children.

Gotta get my plants started, hope last two 28-30 nights are almost the end of it! I'm ready for it to be.

Hang in there!! Hope things are rolling along quietly. Sometimes no news is good news!

@Mini Horses - congrats on the Marans! I love them, and have had a few. I started out with BC and then got some Wheatons. I love, love, love the Wheatens but they don't lay the really dark eggs like the BC's do. Over the years my Marans have dwindled and now I have one BC hen and one Marans roo. I guess I could put them up, collect eggs and see what I get...

I think I hatched close to 30 little chicken nuggets. They are mostly Ameraucana's with a few Barred Hollands, Red Dorkings and some assorted Orpingtons thrown in for good measure. The two chicks that hatched yellow with black spots are a big ol' question mark. Must have gotten some eatin' eggs mixed in with the hatchin' eggs. I'll blame DH for that, lol!

Had some crazy times this weekend... Sunday a couple of my gals finally decided it was time to have babies! Normally I'd say "Woo Hoo!" But, things didn't go as well as they shoulda/coulda and I lost a baby. It was crazy times. I brought the girls up into the front pen after the morning udder/lig check. A little later I was standing at my kitchen window, with it open, and heard a baby cry. Holy heck - I'm looking at the two does and they're both looking at me and I see NO babies. I head out the back door and they're still looking at me, there's no baby on the ground and I still hear crying. I finally get up close to them and Sparkle turns around to walk away and there's a baby's head hanging out of her - and it's HUGE!

I get her pulled up to an area with more room and go in after a leg and dang it if I can barely get my hand in there cuz this baby is taking up ALL the room. After a couple more tries I get two fingers in far enough to slip under the chest and snag one of those legs. Got it through and didn't bother going back for the other. With that position I find that it's pretty easy to get a baby out with one leg up. Getting one leg allows you to get that shoulder through first and eases the burden of trying to get the whole chest area through at the same time. With little babies it's no problem getting both legs up, but with that one I was happy with one!

In the meanwhile Spooky is getting busy herself...unfortunately. She's a pretty good mom after babies are standing, but she's not so good with 'em until then. She's dropped two on the ground, while standing up and making ZERO sounds about 20 yards away from me. One was totally enclosed in the bag and the other one had at least got its head through. DANG! I'm jumping around moving my supplies from Sparkle to Spooky. I got the enclosed baby out, but it ended up dying overnight despite having stood up and having a belly full of colostrum. I'm not real sure why that baby died - she seemed to be fairly strong for a tiny little thing, Before it was all over she ended up having quads - two bucklings, two doelings. Pretty markings, but puny, tiny babies. When the fourth one came it appeared to be the biggest and strongest so I had an idea. Sparkle is standing over there with 1 baby and Spooky is standing here with 4...none of them in great shape. So, I take the last buckling born over to Sparkle... I roll it around in some birthing fluids....douse it with her colostrum and put it in front of her. She takes right to it cleaning it and talking to it and I think we've got a successful adoption!

Got all the babies a good feeding, bring the tiniest little gal inside to warm her up. By this time I'm thinking all is well. I go back out a couple hours later and the other doeling has died. GRRRRRR... I thought that baby was fine, but that's what I get for thinking...

Looks like I've got one bottle baby for sure... and I may need to supplement the others.

Went home for lunch and dang it if the little 'bottle baby' didn't actually nurse her mama! Can't say that Spooky was thrilled, but at least it happened.


And, just for your viewing pleasure here's a picture of the big ol' baby that Sparkle had!