Sick Day

Yep, sick on my day off - bummer. Just a bad head cold (look out Mom!) but today is definitely the worst day. Thank you Dr. Tom. Woke up all stuffed up, couldn't talk...haven't been sick in a while so I don't like it. Gradually things cleared out a little but I really didn't feel like doing too much today.
I did meet Jacky in town for lunch. We went to Pizza Ranch for fried chicken and pizza and it was very good, as always. Then off to the feed store for cat and dog food (lots) and Walmart for other sundry things. The wind was picking up and it was time to head home. On the way home I was pleasantly surprised by a number of different wildlife that made their appearance. First was a hawk in the tree. They've been seen quite often lately, probably hoping spring is on the way...



A little further down the road was a flock of wild turkeys. I've never seen them in this area but it was nice. We do have turkey hunters in the fall so I enjoy seeing the ones that got away... I liked raising turkeys on the farm, but they grew too big to butcher (about 50+ pounds). It's a lot of fun 'talking turkey' with them!



I try to find pictures on google that look similar to the scene I've come across. I do carry my camera but I hesitate to pull over and take a picture. I've tried it with hawks, but the action of pulling over invariably causes the hawks to fly further away. Next to come along were a covy of
 pheasant hens, all on the shoulder of the road. They don't like the snow we've got right now and prefer to stand on dirt if possible.



There were quite a few of them on the side of the road. I believe they may have been a brood from last year
- young ones that will separate come spring.
That is one reason I wish I had fewer dogs and cats - I'd have more wildlife on the farm!
Aren is finishing up his job at the plane place in Duluth. He finishes up end of Feb so he can start a CNA class - 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5 weeks. He's not really looking forward to it but knows it's a means to an end. Starts nursing classes in May. Emma is having fun in Oregon, I hope she comes back!

Lunch and Learn tomorrow at work, appointments is my job. Monday I was front desk :(  and it was chaos. The phone wouldn't stop ringing. As I told Pam, at the end of the day I was mentally exhausted from dealing with constant demands. Don't ever want a full time job as a receptionist!! Also the kennel is gearing up for spring break next week. We are totally booked and there's a lot of paper work involved. I also have to do the March schedule for the kennel.

Tomorrow should be better (I hope!). The homemade turkey soup we had for supper will fix my head cold right up!

One more thing...

Forgot to add this picture from Moorhead, Minnesota where Emma goes to school. Since I'm on the subject of cold weather, this fits the bill.


Isn't this a beautiful Sundog!!!! Ok, that's it. Have to get the dogs and cats in bed...and me too!

Cold, cold, cold

What a day to have off. It is below zero with windchill in the -20 degrees. Jacky was nice enough to take care of the horses and llamas before he left for Illinois this morning, but with the wind so strong, everyone had to stay inside. I'm sure they appreciated not chasing their breakfast all over the county! Finally downloaded all my camera photos so I have a picture from the other day last week when the snow was blowing so hard. Today the snow isn't blowing but the wind is. There's so much ice outside that nothing can really get off the ground! Just think 'Antarctica' , or maybe "Alaska tundra"...



I decided to drive to Albert Lea to fill up my car. There's a snowstorm heading this way Thursday so I wanted a full tank of gas. I have to admit though, with the wind this may not have been the best day to go! First I went to the grocery store and bought lots of green vegetables and fruit (wishing for summer??) and then stood out in the -2 degree weather filling up my tank. BRRRRR!!!! And yes, the windchill really was -20 degrees. You have to be pretty hardy to live in Minnesota. Poor GiGi kept getting pushed around on the way home. But we made it and now I'm ready for Friday, maybe.
Put the horses outside after lunch. It was still blowing but not quite as bad. Cleaned the pony barn but then I had to go inside to warm up! When it was time to bring them in, I bundled up and headed out.



My recently repaired Eddie Bauer coat is wonderfully warm -  but I can't wear it to the barns. Oh well. The horses were all ready to come back inside. Little do they know they will spend most of the rest of the week inside! SueBee's breath was all nice and soft and warm, asking me for treats, which she got of course. I'll try to describe how it feels walking from the barn to the goose pen. The wind makes your thighs hurt with the cold, even though you are wearing your long underwear. The freezing temps make your nose run, so you are breathing through your mouth. Of course, the warm air coming from your breath is rising and fogging up your glasses, which then freeze with the condensate on the lenses. Every step you take, you worry you'll hit the ice wrong and go down (and you KNOW how hard that ice is on a 50+ year old body). The moisture on the edges of your nose starts to freeze too so you can feel that as you breath. One hand, in a mitten, is holding the edges of your jacket close around your neck to keep out the wind. The other mittened hand has trouble undoing the gate latches and you have to take that mitten off to let the animals in and out. You put it back on just as fast as you can, but it never seems to get as warm again. After about 15 minutes, even the mittened hands are starting to hurt with the cold and you head back inside to make a cup of nice hot tea (with sugar and cream!). You know you'll have to head back out to finish up, but please, not until you can feel your fingers again!
Can you imagine what it was like in the days before heated water buckets? It may be not so fun some days - doing outside chores - but it could be worse!!
The animals are all taking it easy today. Too cold to stay outside for long. They got marrow bones, haven't had them in forever! So they are quite happy. Here's a cold little chickadee that hung around the house. It's almost too cold for the birds to come eat. The cold and wind keeps those nasty starlings away, but also the songbirds. I did see a hawk in the trees on the way home from town. He was in the trees trying to get a little protection.
Here's my chickadee:

ZuZu

ZuZu's back home after spending the weekend with Heather (her future owner).
Heather was home for the weekend and took ZuZu to try her out. It sounds like she worked out pretty well, except for some accidents in the house (why she needed a new home in the first place) and chasing Heather's mother's cat. In other words, being a dachshund! Heather put this on facebook shortly after she took her home -



It seemed kind of funny without her here. I know, 10 dogs should be enough for anyone, right?
Went to Rally class with Bryn and Teddi. I got quite a bit frustrated with people who hadn't taught their dogs anything - especially the lady with 3 chinese crested rescues. All three dogs bark and growl at everyone there and their owner can't stop talking to them in a baby voice. After walking over to the two that were on the side of the ring and shushing them, I finally had to leave. It's supposed to be an advanced rally class but seems to be a beginner beginner class.

Chinese Crested Dogs

Bryn did really well - learning hand signals at a distance. Teddi wasn't as good. Linda kept stuffing him with chicken while I was in the ring with Bryn so, when it was Teddi's turn, he kept trying to go back to Linda for more chicken!






Jacky took care of all outside animals today - I was just too tired. My leg has been bothering me at night...who knows why. Jacky and I ran into Fleet Farm this morning to pick up more bedding for the horses and llamas and a little feed. We may get up to 24 inches snow end of the week (!) so we needed to be prepared. With that much snow, we would have trouble getting the truck down to the pony barn to unload. It may be 'warmer' right now, but the wind is sure howling.

Lets visit my new happy place instead... this is what I want to go see!

Wednesday

Happy Birthday Maggie! To a wonderful daughter-in-law!

Today was busy busy. But it started out well. On the way too work I saw a herd of deer outlined against the sky. About 20 deer by the turkey trees. I haven't seen this many deer there in quite a few years. Not sure what that means - but I'm glad to see them back. A buck was keeping all those does company too.



My deer don't have all those lovely trees to stand in front of. My deer stand on a wind blown corn field - like this:



A busy day at the clinic. I helped Tom most of the day - with appointments, with a drop off sick dog, with a surgery, with horses.. it seemed to be a never ending day. One appointment ended up staying as a surgery - an eye enucleation (or eye removal). That poor barn cat was in rough shape. Must have gotten into a fight and had his eye punctured. The owner didn't really want to spend $500 on a barn cat, but what do you do?  It was surgery or put the cat down.



This is really what it looked like!! Ick!!! Poor "Fuzz" also had extremely bad ear mites, as well as diarrhea from campylobactor which caused his rectum to partially prolapse (come out). Poor thing. And he was the owners 'favorite' barn cat! What do the other cats look like???

Helped Mike with an appointment for a possible bloated dog. Poor Ginger, a buff cocker spaniel who had had her eye removed years ago. The digital x ray that we took showed a huge abdominal tumor. It was already pressing on her stomach (she didn't want to eat much any more) and her diaphram (had trouble breathing). The owner was understandably upset - was in the middle of selling her house and buying a new house in Montevideo. And now she'll have to put her dog down too...



Another sad appointment was the one where two family dogs were euthanized at the same time. None of us are quite sure why but I believe both dogs grew up together - were about 13 years old, and both had health problems. The family did not want one to go without the other since they were always together. The family left the room and Tom and I put them both down, then called the family back in to say their good byes. It sure isn't easy to help with these. Later in the day there was a 'put to sleep' - a 17 year old dachshund. I asked Megan to help with that one because it was a dachshund. I was helping with another doctor at the time too. Yes, we cry sometimes too.

On to a happier note - tonight for the first time in months and months, I heard an owl when I called the dogs in at 6. He was in the bottom pasture - too dark of course to see and I don't know my owls that well to know which one it was. Maybe a barred owl? I love owls!

Snow and Ice!

Yesterday was not a fun day to be driving. We had freezing rain, sleet and then snow Sunday into Monday. When I left for work a little after 7:30, the plows had not been out and there was no sand down. Also there was blowing snow across the road. At one point it was white-out conditions, which always makes life interesting...



When you can't see where the white sides of the road end and the ditch begins, life gets a little hairy. The wind was blowing, pushing 'GiGi' sideways but she was getting in the icy grooves made by cars the night before. I admit, I was 6 minutes late for work yesterday. I'm always early! Lunch was in the lunchroom - I had no desire to get out on the road again. Going home was better but still a little tricky. I think people who live in areas like this are sort of proud they don't let a little thing like weather keep them home. I know I'm proud when I make it anywhere! People who live in cities have NO idea...



Oh yes, work. It stayed fairly busy. Mike had a family emergency, Dennis was out with his knee, Jen off, so we had Tom. Mainly we were trying to schedule and reschedule to try to keep things smooth for Tom. When an emergency came up in the country ( a horse choking), we had to call all the appointments to reschedule since we had no doctor in the clinic. Lots of boarding dogs going home. Also Holly and I took pictures of 'Max' outside in the snow to email to his daddy who's taking a group of travelers to Australia and New Zealand. It's summer there so Larry will enjoy seeing his dog rolling in the snow!
Emma's been getting loads of snow in Moorhead. Concordia actually closed school down for the day - which is almost unheard of! Emma and friends took the opportunity to study with maybe a quick break to enjoy that white stuff. The Interstate was closed down too (from blowing snow also). I must admit I would prefer snow outside than the ice we have now.



Emma sent we some great pics but I can't pull them off my phone. If she emails them, I'll post them.
No fun today - Kerry came for the horses but only trimmed Rudy - everyone else was ok for now, which is good since they have cabin fever and I'm not sure Piper would have behaved!

Monday

Monday morning and back to work. By 8:30 I had started getting bags of iron ready to ship, started a mastitis (for a milk bulk tank) culture, checked in the one boarder coming in, helped draw blood from a surgery dog, settled things with my kennel assistant....All in the first hour.
Things got slower from there of course, but it was a hectic start to the week. Mostly worked on shipping in the morning - the iron as well as vaccines (did not have to mix, thank goodness), And a box that included  a gallon of antibiotic (for baby pigs, to be added to drinking water) and more vaccines.
For lunch was the chicken and ham gumbo I made yesterday in honor of the Superbowl in Louisiana last night. It turned out very well!



Do you notice the okra in this picture? Gumbo isn't gumbo without okra!! Of course I had okra in mine too!


 The afternoon was spent checking out the boarders, and filing papers mostly. I get 2 days off this week since I worked on Saturday. Jacky and I got home at the same time. While he went out in the snow to feed the horses and llamas, I went inside and fed the dogs. Traeh, Gertie, Casey and Magic now get a raw food patty that is made of ground up meat as well as bones. I really like this Natures Variety but it is too expensive to feed to all the dogs. We've tried Lamb, Duck, Bison, and Venison. To say it disappears down their throats quickly is an understatement.



 The others get a grain free dry food (Canidae this time) with raw ground turkey. They do eat quite well in this house. Little ZuZu's coat is starting to get soft and shiny. She still needs to put on a little weight but we don't want her to go too far the other way!






The kittens got to be outside for the afternoon but they were waiting when we got home. Right now they're hiding under a blanket on the floor, moving it all around. After a long nap, they are wide awake but soon will have to go in the cat cage for the night. We need to get a little sleep at night! The poor horses and ponies haven't been out for days because it's too slippery. At the clinic we've had a couple of people call with horses down from the ice. At least one of them had to be put down. Since the barns are on the top of hills, the horses and ponies have to be on slippery slopes to go in and out. Too dangerous right now.

I'll try to get a little house work done tomorrow. See you then!