Are we living our dreams?

[rhoda_bruce]

She is doing fine and DS told me he likes her more than the other 2 does. She was raised as a bottle baby and used on a tetter, rather than having limited human contact.
Well, its Mardi Gras and its raining....Lol. I haven't gone to a parade in about 17 years, but I don't even like it happening because of the mess, trouble and danger. Imagine if you have a street that is your only route through your community and if its cut off you are trapped. Now imagine all the local inhabitants parking along that route and having the biggest party of the year....dancing in the streets and such and eventually a parade, lasting at least 3 hours, slowly passes through, throwing things that the locals go nuts for, surrounding the floats and dancing and acting up. Now, imagine your child is in band and you have to worry about rival school adults being drunk and possibly throwing things at your child, while they play music, walking through the parade route (fortunately that is rare)....so you have to walk with a bunch of other band parents to protect the children. Cajuns are not crazy, but you just never know when I drunk will act stupid. Now add to that mix the fights (not often) and imagine being a nurse and possibly the only thing that will stand between death and life, knowing that chances are very slim that the ambulance will arrive in time (about 20 years ago there was a knife fight and the man that died had an arterial spray, witnessed by several). Thats why I hate Mardi Gras and why I'm glad its cold and raining. YeeHaa!!! Keep it up!!
Anyway, tomorrow will be a complete about face. It will be Ash Wednesday and Amen, amen, amen!!! No more freaking out.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'd stay away from that as well!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm not a lover of crowds - so I second your emotion! Too many people and lots of alcohol is a recipe for disaster!

 

[hqueen13]

Not my idea of fun either. Watching from inside a building where I'm safe with people who wouldn't get stupid would be ok... otherwise not so much...

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well, we are well into Lent and would you believe the evidence of Mardi Gras is still on the roadsides in some areas. Broken beads and trash.....oh well, I missed the whole shabang.
Well, I am not using an alias, so maybe I shouldn't vent on here, but I'm borrowing a black copper maran to mate with my Cockoo Maran hen. I normally vaccinate my flock, esp if I have lots of newbies, because I well remember walking thru my yard with a wheelbarrow, picking up dead chickens....like 80 of them, before I knew what all I know today about poultry and disease processes. So back to it.....well, here is this roo and he has been here a while and suddenly he comes down with a chill and isn't acting right, so I realize I have a visiting roo that is sick, that I might be blamed, that I don't want to return a dead bird, that I haven't gotten what all I want from him, etc....So it was in my best interest to make sure this rooster survived. Everything off the record and all, so no such thing as getting written consent...well, I dug through Momma's vet meds and found some pennicillin, so I drew it up in an insulin syringe.....only 0.2cc's because I had no idea how much to give this bird, but I knew he was smaller than most newborn babies...but then again, he might die anyway, so what did I have to lose? Also gave him water with 2 aspirins, one Keflex and one mucinex disolved in it. I got DD 18 to drop some vigamox into both of his weeping eyes. I wish I had thought of putting some St. John's Wort into the mix because it is benificial to people who need to avoid certain viral infections......not sure if a virus is already present though, but still, I would have been no worse off. Also noticed he was tormented by some kind of bug that was itching him, so I shampooed him.......poor fella must have been terrified. Well, he is now out of the woods and except for some black marks on his comb, seems mostly fine.
Thing is that when he was very sick and I didn't know one way or the other weather he would make it, I told the owner most of the things I had done to him and that it was important to not mix him with birds who have not been vaccinated, which her's haven't. I told her to light a candle or do whatever she does and the rest is up to God.
So she asks me for updates, which I gave her a few. Then as faith allowed, I ran into her at the Chinese restraunt and she asked me how he was doing, and when I gave her the latest, positive update, she told me her DH fussed her for letting me take the bird and it was all her fault and to get him back ASAP. Okay, she tells me this and what am I supposed to do? I tell her that wouldn't be wise because he may be contageous and if she didn't know how to handle an outbreak, that she could loose her entire flock in a day or two and he wasn't even with other birds.
I came home brooding over the very idea that the man and possibly his wife think I'm responsible for the illness. Did they even feel grateful for all I did to insure he survived? IDK. So they want him back and I"m not really ready to let him go.
Well, it was cold last night and I got DS to bring the crate inside because I didn't worry myself about saving a bird, only to have him fight the cold in a weakened condition. He seemed almost like a normal roo today, so I put him in a tractor that hasn't had a bird in for months. It was full of grass and weeds and he went nuts for it. I left him alone there for a while, then gave him the hen and he went nuts for that too, Lol.
He isn't mine and I promise, very soon, he will go home, but I'm getting some fertile eggs and I'm not dealing with those people again.....if I do, it won't be for anything related to this.
I don't get it. I'm a nurse and I'm a seasoned poultry farmer. Both of which make that bird safer with me.
Well, I do like freaking people out, so those eggs are gold to me right now, cuz I want some VERY DARK eggs outta this deal, even if I have to wait 6 months to see the outcome.
Soon, I won't be so offended, but that day isn't now.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like a real mess. Hope you get the eggs you want out of this.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

The place the tractor is in,is a mess, with vegetation, so I think I'll give him his redstar hens as well, tomorrow. I don't know what the babies will look like, but if I can get a basically red roo, hopefully that will qualify as a red roo, as it relates to sex linking rules because I could possibly darken future eggs, if I keep the pullets for myself. I don't know if a black copper maran is a red roo and certainly a red star is a combo of a red roo, with a silver hen, so assuming a bcm is basically red (although very dark in some areas), then the resulting babies would be 3/4's red.......idk. I don't mind dealing with mutts, so long as I have a game plan and its for my own personal use. Maybe I should just buy some hatching eggs or order live chicks.
Well, I do have some ducklings hatching now. By tomorrow, I'll probably see some goslings peeping. I need to decide where to brood them.

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't mind mutts either. I'm hoping to add some to my flock this year in an effort to get bigger eggs and bigger birds. Plus, if I can eventually get to where my roosters all have yellow legs and my hens have darker legs, it will make it easier for me when I do hatch out chicks if I'm not wanting to raise a bunch of roosters.

 

[hqueen13]

Good luck. Sometimes people get in their own way. That is the hard part about carrying for someone else's animal, it is easy to blame the caretaker when you aren't there.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

My hens are still fertile with the roos eggs a few more days, but he is gone and I'm about to incubate for the last time. I'm not going to incubate for others unless I'm asked and have a deposit. Just fill my freezer and get some new layers for next year. Thats it.
Well that buck I borrowed last year is back and he is MUCH bigger. He is 1/2 alpine, 1/4 Toggenburg and 1/4 Neubian. I already own his twin sister. Supposedly she is pregnant for him. Yesterday morning, I received a text from his owner, asking if I can give an estimate on when I can get him, so I texted her,"Now" and went get him. Put him straight to work, on a chain, on weed control, in the garden/hive area and put his twin several yards from him, so they can keep company and feel safer, etc.... Well, they did an awesome job in 9 hours and I put them with the does before sunset and first thing he does is mate. I really thought my big girl had probably already kidded before coming to me because of her teets, but not so sure now because after mating, there was a bloody show. Is that normal?
So drinking my 2nd cup of ambition and dressed except the shoes and I'm about to head out, with the hopes that he hasn't busted a fence. He is my new lawnmower. I told his owner that I'm more thinking of buying him. She has gone down on his price, probably out of desparation to get rid of him. He is a bit harder to handle than he used to be. But really looking forward to the milk again. Im thinking I can probably use part of the milking equipment and adapt it to my medella breast pump, so its actually pumping, rather than vaccuming.
I have offered my godchild's boyfriend 2 weeks of fulltime employment and hoping he takes me up on it. So many things to tend to. One thing for sure....I need someone every other weekend to tend my animals, which is just maybe an hour a day, when DS and I are both gone. DS seems to think he can still tend to it, but idk.
Well, here I go....really hope for no busted fences.