Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Bottle jaw is a term for the physical appearance of the animal who is building up fluid under the neck.

The following is an abbreviated version of some stuff I found online.

Basically this is it: "Fluid buildup in the face and jaws is the first sign of Bottle Jaw. IN many cases blood sucking Barber Bole worms create anemia. The body compensates with more fluid production. This builds up in the face and head when the animal keeps its head down while grazing. The swelling is a soft tissue edema cause by anemia that can be characteristic in animals that are carrying a heavy load of blood sucking internal parasites."

Lil Bit never exhibited symptoms until after worming and most of the info I found talked about the edema going away after worming. She is obviously weird, lol. In all my years of raising goats (almost 25 years) she is the first goat I've ever had with these symptoms. Sooo strange!

 

[Denim Deb]

Animals like to keep us guessing.

We have flooding around here as well. Parts of my field are completely under water as are several others parts of the farm. It makes me really appreciate the soil here. It has more sand, so it's very rare to get any flooding.

 

[FarmerJamie]

No flooding here yet (day 3 of rain). This area is on a plateau between the Lake Erie and Ohio River watersheds. Lots of swamp and soft ground. A mess

 

[frustratedearthmother]

No rain for us... no swampiness either...at least not until it finally does rain again!

I butchered a meatie - yep - A meatie - as in ONE, lol. Just 18 to go!

 

[Denim Deb]

But at least you got started.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That one from yesterday makes a grand total of SIX that I've done! Whoop...whoop.... I'll be doing more today but I've decided that while working alone I'm gonna just skin 'em. I love to put a chicken on the smoker/pit/oven WITH skin, but there are plenty of times I can use a skinless chicken. It's just so much easier than getting out the burner, heating the water to just the right temp and plucking when I can skin one so much faster! And, if I skin 'em I go ahead and cut 'em up too. Bonus is that they fit in a much smaller package that way and use up less freezer space for sure. I need to think about canning some too...

So, that's on my "list" of things to do today along with major mulching. I had the sprinkler going in the garden for about 4 hours yesterday, so I hope that holds it for awhile. This dryness looks like it's settin' in. Weather report last night said no sign of rain for a week to 10 days for us. Couple summers ago I burned up my well pump - probably from all the watering....but I had a great garden that year! I'm hoping that will be the case again this year. We're coming off of a pretty cold winter for these parts and that usually means we have a light bug year. And so far.... so far...knock on wood cuz I don't want to jinx myself... none of those foul smelling multi legged creatures that ruined all my tomatoes last year.

I looked at my 'tater plants last night and was not happy! A couple of 'em are looking yellow and wilty...hope it's not some kinda disease. That would be so annoying! Zucchini plants are enormous and I should be able to pick soon. Saw a couple blooms on the yellow squash plants too. (I get excited over the littlest things, lol.)

I'm offff(!) today so I'm going to go plant my butt in the hot tub with another cup of coffee before I get busy.

Hope everybody has a wonderful day!

 

[Denim Deb]

I hope that you mean you want a great garden again, not that you want to burn up your pump again!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Definitely going to skip the burned up pump this year Want a good garden, need a good garden, gotta gotta have a good garden. If not - it won't be from lack of effort...

I gardened like a crazy woman today. I weeded and hoed and mulched allllll day long. It was awesome! (Told ya'll I get excited over the littlest things, lol) AND wonder of wonders - the weathermen around here are just stooooopid. We had drizzly stuff for several hours. Not heavy, not even real rain, but moisture fell from the sky! YAY!

Had to re-plant corn today. Not sure why I had such cruddy germination, but it was sure cruddy. Maybe one out of 20 seeds germinated. Either it's because my seeds are old - or some ants ate the seeds - or cute little bunnies ate the freshly sprouted corn plants. I dunno...but I replanted anyway. Even had to replant okra... What's up with that? I have volunteer okra sprouting all over the stinkin' garden....just not where I want it. I had put in two big ol; rows of okra and ONE... ONE germinated. So, I took some okra pods from last year and dug the seeds out and planted 'em - again. Geeze, what is UP with all this cruddy germination? I'm gonna say it's not really cruddy germination - I'm gonna blame it on bunny rabbits. Stoopid wabbits!

I'm tired... think I'm gonna have a glass of vino and head to the bed pretty soon.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm having trouble getting eggplant, bell peppers and one type of hot pepper to germinate. If they don't, I'll have to buy them.

 

[hqueen13]

Well, where there is no moisture, it all went somewhere else! We just got 5"+ from Monday evening through yesterday morning and then had two more surprise downpours yesterday evening! The farm is pretty well wet... too wet :-(
Hope you get lots done!