June 28

Just a quick post since it's already past.
Surgery was short today. One dog spay and some puppies to have their dewclaws taken off.
Many breeds get their tails docked (or cut off) and the dewclaws amputated (taken off) when only one or two days old. It doesn't hurt much and they heal incredibly quickly when this young. We look forward to these time because we all love to see brand new puppies. Here are the 11 lab puppies - 9 black and 2 yellow, 3 females and 8 males!

My job was to hold out the leg needed while keeping the head out of the way and the rest of the body still. The doctor snips off the dewclaw and then puts one stitch in. The sutures will dissolve on their own. Each of these puppies had dewclaws on each front foot. No tail docking for this breed!

Busy day at work (of course, it's Thursday) and then home for hay making.... Jacky was still raking when I got there and then he had to bale. By the time he finished baling, it was 9:30 so we left everything until tomorrow. Not much I can do until then for him. I did fill up all the water troughs (which takes a while) and water the vegetable garden. In this heat, water is really appreciated! Oh yes, and fed the wild birds...again.

Looks like putting hay up tomorrow. Oh joy.

Ok, it was quite pretty at dusk. Jacky works hard for all this and I often wish we didn't have to make hay so we could relax more.It does keep us somewhat active though!

June 29 Hay!

I'm going to have to go backwards to catch up. Yesterday I took a half day so I could help Jacky get our bales of hay in the barn in case it decided to rain later. I wanted to leave at 12 but finally got away at 1:30. No one else seems to have this problem! One of our emergency dogs, Shelby, was due to be released at 12 and her owner wanted to know exactly who was going to be talking to them about her care. Holly told her I would so there you go! Shelby had come in Tuesday with a 'pyometra' which is an infected uterus in females who are unspayed. It is life threatening. Shelby is a 12 year old blue merle sheltie who has occaionally boarded with me so I knew her and her owners pretty well. The owner is fairly demanding and that's ok with me. Some of the other techs though have problems with that and no patience with Shelby's owner. I think I did a pretty good job calming their fears although Shelby is not out of the woods yet, We hope she does better at home.

Then there was a lot to tidy up for the weekend - boarders coming in, the charges for the cat I shaved today, just a lot of little things. I also had to call back a client who was interested in my dog training class. I told him my next one would start August 13 and he was fine with that since they were going north for a couple of weeks. He also had a friend who was interested in taking it. That makes 3 when added to the dog that came in to be boarded this morning. The poor woman had no clue how to handle a dog and her ex boyfriend had left her with a hyper hyper lab. I mentioned my class and you should have seen her jump at the chance to get control over 'Bette'. Since I would only like 6 dogs in a class, this is already half and I haven't put up a sign or anything! There is a definite need that I hope I can help fill.

Home and Jacky had already picked up all the hay bales in the field by himself. Anna is up north of St. Cloud at a horse clinic and Emma is working so I asked Sam, my kennel assistant, if she could help. Well, she beat me home and she and Jacky had already started putting the bales in the barn. I quickly changed clothes and ran out (ok, walked) to help put them on the hay elevator. It's hot work and I have the better job on bottom. Jacky has to grab the bale as it reaches the top and walk it back to the hay pile, stack it, and walk back for the next one. and there's not breeze up there! It's hot!

Usually I use the truck to pull the flat bed but Anna has it with her.

We had 109 bales today which is ok but not great. But then it doesn't take as long to put in the barn! :)

Haying is always done when it's hot. Everyone around us is also making hay...you know, "Make hay while the sun shines"!

Samantha is such a hard worker. I'd love to adopt her! She was a great help when our own daughters couldn't be there, Trixie 'helped" too. She loves hay time!

When done, we go inside for lemonade to rehydrate. Still, there's chores to do. Emma came home (delighted the hay was already done) and started getting her lambs ready for a show tomorrow. She had to wash them, then clip them. It took her and Lee, her boyfriend, 4 hours before they were done. And then they were both covered with mosquito bites. Fly spray didn't help the humans! As I went out to check on them at 10, I heard my horse SueBee splashing in her water trough. I'm sure the mosquitoes were getting to her too so she tried to drown them... 

Long day, even with a nap on the sofa, I was ready for bed. The night before I kept waking up worrying about Anna up north be herself. When its hot like this, I never sleep real well anyway. Hard to imagine long time ago when the families who lived here slept on the sun porch to cool off. I'm sure there were mosquitoes then too! Give me AC and a fan anyway. Poor Anna....

June 27

Busy day at work. Today's the hottest day of the year so far - 95 degrees. The clinic is air conditioned so I almost don't want to go home!
Lots of surprises when I get tp work. Lola, a black Havenese that just got picked up from boarding Saturday, came in yesterday (my day off) on emergency. It looks like she ate a little rat poison and had to have a blood transfusion. I don't know about yesterday, but one of Pam's labs often serves as blood donor. Lola was doing good today and went home.
There was a pitbull from the Humane Society here too as an emergency. Partway through the morning, I watched as the dog stood up, collapsed, and died. We were all upset, as you can imagine. The owner surrendered the dog to the Humane Society because he came home and found the dog breathing funny and couldn't afford care. He had just gotten out of jail and the dog had been staying at the shelter until he was released. It looks like the dog was hit by a car and had bleeding in the lungs.
Not a good day for anyone- I spent it running around, answering phones, shipping amoxicillin, dealing with a witch of a cat who needed blood drawn....Sometimes I feel I don't get anything done. Oh well.
Fed all the birds when I got home. I really should water the garden again but it's too hot. My little chicks in the basement are growing and adore chopped eggs. Maybe I'll get a picture soon. Anna now leaves tomorrow after we bale hay. She goes north of St. Cloud for 4 days with her horse for training clinic. Wish I could go but I have a dog training class Monday and didn't think about taking off until too late.
Yesterday went to town with Emma, and then went horse back riding with Anna at Waseca County Courthouse Park. Much better than Saturday but SueBee still panics....

Better go , it's late. More another time!

June 23

Saturday at last! But my daughters had plans for me from the get go. Emma had to go to work but requested we bring her lunch which we like to do on Saturdays. As soon as Anna got up, she asked that we go horse back riding at Courthouse County Park in Waseca County. She wants to get horses and riders in shape for our trip to Forrestville State Park the weekend after July 4th. The day was a little dreary, a little drippy, but we were game.

We rode for about an hour and a half through the woods, up and down hills, through water crossings and mud. Not too many people there which was good because my horse was a panic-a-holic. We both may be a little sore tomorrow but we survived (although my horse was sure she would get eaten by something in the woods). This picture is before she found out what she was doing for fun....

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture while riding a nervous horse? This is the only one not totally blurry - but it cut Anna's head off. This was my view of the ride, which was better than looking up from the ground! We took turns leading since that is the scary position for the horse. Piper has a lot more experience but she was a little tense too. Her biggest hurdle was going across a 2 foot wide water crossing....but she conquered her fears and succeeded!.

 I got the brilliant idea to have Anna stand still and face me and I would hold SueBee still and take a clear picture...What a joke!!!! Yes, I got this nice photo, eventually. But SueBee thought Piper was turning around to head back the other way so she needed to turn around. When I wouldn't let her, she got panicky and started backing up...and couldn't stop herself backing up! I know this sounds ridiculous but she kind of loses her mind a little. All's well that ends well. We may try to do it again on Tuesday to get the horses' confidence up.
 While we were gone, Jacky got a lot done in our dining room. He had the carpet out - all by himself! Now we can really get to work. The surprise was the checkerboard linoleum floor underneath...

Jacky and Anna

The girls and I went to see the movie "Brave". It was excellent! All about mother-daughter relationships. I cried, Anna cried, Emma cried...it was wonderful.
Home again and the usual chores. Emma works her sheep and goats, Anna plays with the pony and cart, I fill up bird feeders...Checked the garden and it's doing well. Have been picking cherry tomatoes, the eggplants are flowering, corn and beans growing, potatoes almost flowering, zucchini with baby veggie's...all is going pretty good. I went out after dusk to give Rudy the pony his meds since he is sore on his feet today. The fireflies are out now, just the last few days, and it makes the night magical.

Fireflies in a corn field - not my photo

Long Exposure of fireflies in Japan

TGIF

Whew! Made it through the week. The girls both left to watch "Brave" at the movies - not together of course!! Jacky's outside doing chores I guess. I just got in after getting leg cramps outside. Thought I'd never make it back in! Slow day at work - no doctors so no surgeries and few appointments. Lots of boarders though.
 On the way to the car this morning there was a beautiful rose-breasted grosbeak on the feeder. They make me feel like I'm in the tropics with all the colors on them! Also the goldfinches, and orioles...Never knew birds were so colorful in the US until I was older.I had a lot of grosbeaks in
Soudan and that was one thing I really missed when we moved.


Tonight the downy woodpecker kept looking for suet which the grackles had gobbled up within 24 hours. I put out more after "Antique Roadshow" was over but haven't seen him back yet. He its nearby and calls for more! Very demanding are birds! The orioles do the same thing when they're out of syrup or jelly. Too bad birdseed is so expensive....



Nothing else exciting today. But I'll share yesterday's surgery...Here's my first picture of my animal on the table. Can you guess what it is?

This is a 9 month old alpaca baby that we castrated! It was so small, Mike decided to do it in the surgery room instead of in the barn on the floor. A whole lot easier on his back... We had to set him on the table this way to have room for his long neck...weird, huh? Everything went fine, although it's a lot harder to castrate a camelid than a dog because the testicles are so small and tucked in (they don't hang outside the body). Here's the cutie recovering in the stall:

Even Mike took a picture of him with his cellphone camera! We really don't do these that often so it's a treat to have other species here. Of course, Jen reminded me of the time an older alpaca came in extremely underweight to have his teeth ground down (the teeth continue to grow and must be manually ground down if the animal's 'bite' is off). The animal ended up dying at the clinic without ever really recovering from the anesthetic. Camelids (camels, alpacas, llamas...) are very sensitive to drugs and this boy was not in good enough health to handle it. I had forgotten all about it. We all try to block the sad things from our minds and focus on the successes - like the puppy earlier this week.
Ya-hoo the weekend is here! Anna has a horse show Sunday and we'll probably go out to eat and see a movie (the same one) tomorrow. We don't see each other very much so I have to get together with them whenever they let me! In between we're working on the dining room so maybe some pictures of that soon.

Rain, rain, rain!

As you can tell, today it rained. A lot...but not as much as Duluth! Where they got over 7 inches in 18 hours. Aren has sent incredible photos and videos; http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kare11.com%2Fnews%2Fphoto-gallery.aspx%3Fstoryid%3D980146&h=zAQGwAbFyAQE5fg4OWh1l8QASW2loxOQoOUfgUtfq-sDp3A.
Sorry, that was a REALLY long web address. Maybe I should just copy a picture for you. Also so I can look back and remember...




This is on the Old North Shore road that we took all the time as a scenic drive. I often thought I'd like a place on this road!


Well, lets move on. Today was spent filling out boarding sheets. I'm absolutely full this weekend and  there's lots of prep work to be done. Other than that, I answered phones...etc.... But here's a picture of a really cute 6 week old puppy that was almost dead yesterday. On Monday the puppy came in as an appointment, sick. Mike gave it an antibiotic shot, couldn't really find anything wrong. Yesterday the puppy came in throwing up blood - or bleeding out as they say. I wasn't there but I guess she was almost dead from blood loss. Mike used Pam's dog Nicky as a blood donor (he just happened to be boarding at the time) and Vitamin K for clotting the blood. Mike suspects the puppy got into rat poison even though the owners said no way. But the treatment he used is for rat poison and it worked. As you can tell, the puppy is MUCH better and went home this afternoon. We all spent lots of time cuddling her!

Not the best picture, but she wouldn't stand still! 

Yesterday was busy. Emma and I went to town to do our shopping. She took me to an antique store which was marvelous. Now I need to redo my rooms and put some of their furniture in it! When we got home, Jacky and Anna went to get a load of dirt - which turned out to be all clay - for the south side of the barn. Because of how the barn sits on the hill, there's run off and we have to try to periodically replace the ground. Otherwise the animals can't get in the barn it's so high! The clay was incredibly heavy and the tractor couldn't handle it. Jacky had to pull the flatbed over to the site and the three of us shoveled and literally threw chunks of clay off the trailer. But we got done before the rain came!

The llamas managed to pick their way in and out but the horses aren't sure about it yet. It needs to get packed down first, somehow. While Anna and Jacky were doing the majority of the work, I took care of all the other chores. The geese had been setting on infertile eggs which eventually rot and explode (just like in Charlotte's Web!). Earlier I had kicked the geese off their nest and out of their pen (this in itself is fraught with danger as geese do not take kindly to this!). Now I went in to steal the eggs and destroy them before I let the geese back in. Imagine my surprise when I found this little guy snuggled up to the goose eggs:

For those who are biologically challenged, this is NOT a baby goose. I repeat, this is NOT a baby goose! This happens to be a baby barn swallow! Somehow the babies fell out of the nest. One unfortunately didn't survive the fall but the other one made it's way to a warm feathery mother figure and ducked underneath her. He actually wasn't doing that well but I tucked him into another swallow nest in the goat barn and hope it makes it. Those babies were about the same size and I didn't fancy cutting up bugs from now to kingdom come. Pretty cool story, lets pretend it has a happy ending...

Also I was watering everything in preparation for tomorrow since Tuesday's high was 93 and I wanted the plants and bird bath to be full before I went to bed. Another surprise jumped up the wall. We hardly EVER see these little guys so I was thrilled....

His color pattern is so very cool - patchy gray and green to blend in. Lots of toads around but not frogs. Probably the chickens don't help that...and maybe we get too dry at times.

Well, long post tonight and tomorrow is early. We put all the horses and llamas in because they were soaked. I think it felt pretty good but they like to get dry too. Brandy was shaking a little and Rudy needed to get off the wet grass because of his foundering. He's been sore the last few days since the rain started. 

Sometime I hope to write about my dog training class! But not tonight. Good sleeping tonight!

Bats

Just a quick note. Finished the day watching the bats swoop to and fro in the darkening sky. I have never understood why people fear bats so much. Maybe we should name them something prettier sounding! They take care of a great many mosquitoes for us though.! I have a bat house to put up - maybe tomorrow...
Sat and pitted 5 1/2 cups of sour cherries on the front steps tonight. There's still more on the tree but not much. I have a bowl of them in the fridge to pit and freeze unless I make a pie. Haven't finished the Bing cherry pie yet! Too much food in this house. Pitting cherries is such a relaxing activity - surrounded by dogs and cats, listening to the birds....watching the barn swallows on their paths through the air. I would have taken a picture of Lilly, my white and red barn cat , who now has a cherry juice pattern across her white coat. She insisted on laying right next to my bowl as I pitted. And those sour cherries have a LOT of juice!
The garden is needing weeding but, after the 2.8 inches the other night, it's a little muddy. It should make things jump! I got 5 cherry tomatoes before the brief rain shower that chased us all inside. When I went back out, Jacky and I  saw the second planting of beans had come up and I had a 2 inch zucchini! Looking forward to  the upcoming veggies!
Made a delicious artichoke spinach dip tonight for tomorrow's Father's Day. I hope we can take a drive tomorrow and picnic somewhere. Just been too stressful  at work lately and Anna wants me to work too much when I'm home! Started clearing out the dining room today too.
Horses really bothered by flies today - no fly spray works. When it cooled off things were better. I gave Dove the pony a Recover shot yesterday because her allergies are SO bad, she's pushed over the gate and everyone's escaped twice now. She pushed over the gate by scratching on it! She has sores all over her body from rubbing on everything. The shot seems to have helped some. I was nervous doing it - sticking an inch and a half needle in her neck and shooting in 10cc - I had given a horse vaccinations 20 years ago and left a large bump because I did it too high up on her neck. Never had the courage to try again. Hopefully I know more now and did it correctly!
Talked to Ben and Maggie on Skype this pm. They have a very nice duplex they're renting - I'm sure they are enjoying the added space!
 No pictures, too late.

Beautiful Day!

Day off. I know it's been a few days but you know...busy, busy, busy! Still eating those cherries - and the first pie with them was good but I can do better. Didn't have time today but soon, very soon. Also started picking my sour cherries today since I noticed the birds in the tree eating them! I hurried to get a bowl, and when I got back to the tree to start picking, a robin began scolding me. He sat up in the top of the tree gobbling them down faster than I could pick them!!! It was actually quite amusing and since I can't reach the cherries at the top, that robin is free to stuff as many as he can in his beak. HOWEVER, he must save the ones at the bottom for me!
The weather was absolutely beautiful today! High in the upper 60's maybe? I spent almost the whole day outside in the garden. Planted watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, marigolds....The I watered everything..The garden is looking good,and the weeds are beginning to appear. Now I really must start hoeing after work every night.

I know it doesn't look like much now but this is the before picture in the before and after pictures! When the garden is knee deep in weeds, I can look back on this pictures and .....*sigh*.
I had to "water" the animals which, in the summer, can be several times a day. The horses trough was empty so I cleaned and filled it. As you can see from the pictures, the horses aren't the only ones who enjoy the water...

After I filled the trough, the horses came over to see who was messing up their water. Bryn got out and started stalking/herding the horses. They mostly ignore her but the potential for her getting kicked is there, as well as a horse getting hurt so I discourage this behavior. However, I did happen to have my camera so here's a picture of a border collie crouch (somewhat, she kept moving)

I called her off and treated her to her favorite thing - water! Bryn and Trixie love the hose - Bryn to the point of biting my hand holding the hose! It does cool them off....

Can't forget the cats who helped me too. Here's Leia keeping cool in the asparagus-

We went out to eat at Wedgewood Cove tonight for Jacky's 60th birthday which is tomorrow. Emma's not with us - still in the cities visiting a friend. The pasta was delicious as always. Had to go tonight since it's pasta night on Tuesdays. Don't know what we'll do tomorrow!

Finally a last picture of my dogs heading to the house with me. It's something I see all the time but probably not many people do! Happy dogs, happy Lori !

Cherries!

Ok, we won't start with cherries, although I am sitting here eating fresh, organic Bing Cherries...yum....excuse me for a moment...
That's better. Today started with training Annika again. Things are going well there, I think she'll do all right. More training with her on Sunday morning and then maybe she can be on her own. Little bit of everything today. Treating Odie, the horse, who tore open his shoulder on a gate latch. Jen doesn't think the sutures will hold but it takes a week to 10 days to know for sure. In the meantime, he's staying with us and needs treatment twice a day. Today I didn't help but got a picture after things were all done.

He's a really good horse too. Hope it all comes out ok. One of our many pig producers call;ed needing vaccine made up ASAP. He was already on his way and we have to mix some vaccine together and bottle and label it. Beth who usually does it has Friday's off and Pam (the second person who does pig vaccine) was doing a dental. I'm number 3 on the list so off I go. The client showed up in about 20 minutes and I was still in the middle of making it. These guys must think we're sitting around waiting for them to call to have something to do! In between the call and the appearance I had to help bring a dog in, and help euthanize it, had to also try to figure out what I was doing with this vaccine since I had never made it. The math can get quite complicated and you sure don't want to mess up as it could possibly mean the death of lots and lots of baby pigs. Here was my problem for the day - He needed 600 doses of Circo/Myco 1st dose 2cc dose. That means I had to mix 600cc of Circovent with 600cc of Mycogard Silencer ONCE using a sterile graduated cylinder and a sterile funnel and sterile bottles. With an actual dose of 2cc per pig, the total cc is 1200cc but I have actually 600 doses for him. And you have to figure out how to charge him for it (about $320). You charge for each vaccine separately then put in a Misc. charge for the actual combo, but don't charge him for it, just the separate vaccines. Phew! Makes my brain hurt! And to top it all off, I hand it to the client who looks at me (since I'm not Beth) with a look that says "Can I trust this yo-yo? Does she know what she's doing? Is this stuff the right stuff?" He does well to wonder since Pam made up the wrong stuff one time for him...Here's the lab after I finished. The vaccine is already with the client.

I really enjoy doing it, just wish I did it more often so I was sure of what I was doing!

Enough about work,Came home to water the garden - it was 89 degrees and the next two days are supposed to be 90. Very excited - the Zucchini are flowering and I only transplanted them last week, my first cherry tomato is almost ripe, the potatoes are looking good.....and one of my Aronia bushes has leaves!!!!

While I watered the plants, Anna played with some of the horses. Here's SueBee with her - however, SueBee thinks I have treats and Anna has lost her attention!

Ok, now to the cherries. The Youth For Christ fundraiser every year is fruit, and I order peaches (wonderful peaches) and pears from them every year. Usually these arrive in August and September. This year however, they added Bing Cherries to their list. I ordered a 10# box which came today! They are organic and come from Colorado. I have never bought cherries just to eat - but these are fantastic! Probably there's a fresh cherry pie in the future as well as cherry chocolate cupcakes. I hope there will be enough cherries!

And yes, this is my own picture of these cherries....

Rainbow

Leaving for work today, I watched the clouds that seemed to promise needed rain for my garden. Alas, it was not to be - but I didn't know that at the time. Just as I was turning onto the road, I saw a half rainbow. What a nice start to my day! Other people saw a double rainbow this morning but I was happy with my sliver. Rainbows are such amazing things!

Today was my busy surgery day. Only two surgeries (very unusual for a Thursday!) but I still kept very busy. The first one was a neuter/declaw cat called "Eskimo". He was very scared - had been a wild kitten all winter and was still quite distrustful. But things went fine and he will stay until tomorrow when he will get his bandages off.
The other surgery was a spay dog - a cuteie patootie named "Birdie". She is a brindle pug/Boston Terrier mix that I wanted to take home! Here's a picture of Jen spaying her:

I tried to get the whole set up in the picture, but then you can't see Birdie. She's covered with a sterile drape and hooked up to the anesthesia. Yes, I do do things - I help get the dog under (get the sedative in, the endotrachael tube down her throat, shave the area, scrub the area, and watch her breathing during surgery).

Horses in the barn today. More Percheron's in for ultrasounds to see if they are pregnant. Here's a picture of a mare ( the mother in the stocks) and her baby. Often these mares have foals at their side and the owners are trying to get the mares pregnant again - thus the term 'brood mare". That is their total job in life, to raise babies. Horses carry their young for 11 months so basically it takes a year of pregnancy to get that foal. In this particular photo, the baby is all over the barn and into everything! He took Mike's papers off the table, stuck his nose everywhere, got tangled up in Mom's lead rope....

Busy again getting boarding sheets ready for the dogs coming in tomorrow. Another fairly busy weekend in the kennel. Tomorrow I'm training my new assistant. She was here Wednesday also but I was sooooo busy, Annika was basically on her own. I hope tomorrow will be better. Also getting ready for my first dog training class that starts Monday. Yep, I will be teaching it this time - "Dog Manners 101". My first public class so there's lots to plan and think about.

Strawberry Moon

Lovely Day. Nice weather, lots to do. Had to run to the kennel to speak with my kennel assistant but after that got lots done in the garden.
Anna was playing with Ladybug and teaching her how to pull a cart. She's made great strides and is pretty calm. I got my first ride while Anna walked alongside with the reins. It was awesome!

I know, Lady needs to lose a few pounds....So do most of us!

Filled all the bird feeders again. I must say, that Balimore Oriole is becoming one of my favorites, The other day I actually had two catbirds eating the grape jelly too! I had to look them up because I'm not familiar with them up close. They have a very subtle rust color under their tails. Not easy to see in the trees, but you can when they're on the feeder!
 
Bet you didn't know they were so pretty either!
Garden time!I am behind on planting but we're getting there. Finished my third raised bed and put the transplants in - tomatoes, hot pepper, petunias. Planted sweet corn, pole beans, more purple potatoes, yellow squash.Jacky tilled up the other half (he had to kill the weeds first). so I will have more garden to plant in about a week.

The fence is up to keep dogs, geese, and horses out! (yes, it's been a problem in the past - I had to get rid of a goose egg laid here last week).Oh yes, the animal angle...the dogs played in the hay field while I planted.
Picked the first strawberries today. Some were already kind of mushy but there's lots more to  come. The snow fence is surrounding the bed - it doesn't look pretty but it saves the strawberries from the geese. As Jacky and I were sitting on the front steps enjoying the evening, Jacky told me it was a full moon tonight and they called it on the tv the "strawberry moon". Very appropriate I'd say!


It's a little dark, but here's our Strawberry Moon: