Monday, Monday

Short weekend.spent last Friday working at the State Fair. Every year for the past 4 years I've helped my vets do the testing of the Grand and Reserve market animals for 4H. We test the urine and hair of the market gilts and barrows (boy and girl pigs), Grand and Reserve for both.Then we go to the Grand and Reserve Market Dairy Cow and Beef Cow, and finally to Grand and Reserve Market lamb. It's an all day thing where you hurry up and wait. Once the Grand and Reserve has been decided by the judge, a team of two vet/helpers follow their assigned animal and have to stay with that animal at all times until they can collect the urine and hair. Sometimes it takes no time at all and other times you have to take the animal to the wash rack to try to stimulate them to urinate. I had to do that with my pig, my cow was awesome, and the lamb didn't take too long. The only problem animal was the Grand market lamb which Tom the vet and Jacky were following. The show ended about 9:30, I was done at 10, Tom had told Jacky to leave at 10:30. This morning Tom told me he finally got the lamb to urinate at 12:30am!

Some of the parents were good to work with and some were not. And the pig barn is about the hottest place on the fairgrounds except for the eating places,behind the grills. I can take charge of an animal myself now since I've done it so much. Still, it is exciting especially for the winners. Some of them get to use a livestock trailer for a year. It's a really big deal and these animals can bring hundreds, even thousand of dollars. These are the best out of their type in Minnesota. And I am part of it!

Saturday we picked up two crates of Colorado peaches which were ripe and needed to be used and preserved right away. Saturday night we picked up Anna from her three week trip to New Zealand. Sunday I spent canning peaches, drying peaches, canning tomatoes. Anna made a fantastic peach blueberry pie.

Oh yes, and now Monday. Not too busy a day. But I helped Mike in an appointment and I thought I'd tell you about it. The clients come in quite often, usually to get mess for their many animals. They brought one of their dogs, 'Daisy', in because she was limping. When we saw Daisy, she was just one big mat of a dog. Her reputation is that of a biter. Mike thought one of her toenails had gotten so long, it had grown around into her pad and causing her to limp. But we couldn't really see her foot that well. I suggested that they leave her and sedate her and I would shave her down. Fortunately they agreed.

 

The dog was lucky, there were no toenails growing not her feet. But her hair was so matted her feet never even touched the ground! Here is what her face looked like before. You can only tell it is her face by the tongue sticking out!

 

And no, I didn't doctor this picture at all, just placed my hand under her chin to tilt up her head. This is really what she looked like when she was brought in for limping...

This is what she looked like when I was done. I hope they bring her more often so she doesn't get so bad. She is the third Shih Tzu that I have to shave because they are too aggressive for a groomer - especially around the face...

It really makes me feel good when I can take a matted mess and clean it up so the dog doesn't live in pain anymore. I know these dogs can be grumpy, but being matted I'm sure only makes them more grumpy. She will feel like a whole new dog now and I hope the owners decide they like her this way better! And she won't limp anymore because her toenails are trimmed way back. Whoo Hoo!

 

 

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Weekend!

Hey, a lovely too fast weekend with Emma home. Saturday afternoon was a baby shower for Emma's friend Ashley and baby Wyatt. He was born on the Fourth of July. Emma is Wyatt's godmother so she had to come down to see him. She doesn't have any experience holding babies so it was fun watching her learn. I got to hold him too, yeah, you don't forget how. He slept through the whole thing. I guess his days and nights are mixed up. Glad I get to sleep through the night!

 

 

Emma will have to find some goat themed clothes for Wyatt. Ashley is Emma's friend as into goats as she is! Emma got to visit some of her goats she had sold to Ashley. I wish I could have seen them too, and the kids they had this year. But I don't want them back! Too much work.

I'm going to try to post a short video I did this morning. Sometimes this doesn't work. I was cleaning the yard and observed this wasp going about her business. She was excavating a hole, probably to lay an egg in with a paralyzed spider or some such insect to feed her offspring when it hatched, for lack of a better word. I guess you have to be in the right place at the right time. Only thing I needed was a tripod!

 

I forgot the iPad won't let me put a video on. I may try Facebook.

Emma took a few zucchini and lots of cherry tomatoes home with her... Gimli helped.

Anna's done a couple of posts from New Zealand - whoo hooo! Glad she's having such a good time. If they could just cool it on the earthquakes while she's there...

Had to run to the clinic once yesterday and three times today. Midday is eye ointment for "Eyes" the dog (yes, really ). Morning and night is insulin injections for a miniature schnauzer named "Sayge". Just don't trust anyone else to 1) remember and 2) do the right dosage. This dog has never boarded before so it's not like I have to do it every weekend. It just seems that way....

 

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Preserving Time

Today, my one and only day off, was spent putting food up. The zucchini plants have started producing, and have taken off! I pick about 6 every other day and I don't like them to go to waste, but , well, it's zucchini and there's always more coming along. So today I dehydrated zucchini chips. Very simple, slice them using your Kitchen -Aid attachment, toss with olive oil and sea salt, and dehydrate for 5-10 hours. They are turning out pretty good but they absorb moisture in the air very quickly so they don't stay crisp.

I also cut up a Sirloin Tip roast and marinated the strips in the seasonings overnight. I hope to start dehydrating the jerky tomorrow. Then there was Inside Out Ravioli for lunch.

Picked my first Roma tomatoes today, although the Roma plants don't look that good. I know I have grasshoppers bult not sure why those tomatoes aren't looking good. I hope my coworkers have extra tomatoes so I can make tomato sauce and can it. Also, got an email telling me my next and last batch of peaches will arrive August 22. Those are destined to be made into pie filling and canned since there's no room in my freezer!

Fed the wild birds, including all those nasty starlings and sparrows. My trap is set up but I haven't caught anything sine the Brown Thrasher. I'm only putting out millet right now since it's supposed to be non attractive to native birds. I may have to move the trap though, the sparrows don't go on the west side of the house much.. Also trying a new seed mix for woodpeckers, jays, grosbeaks,nuthatches...and I hung the old bird bath in the tree and filled it instead with this seed. I hope the broad flat base will attract more cardinals and grosbeaks. We'll see. The mix also has dried fruit. I'm excited for what birds might like it.

Tomorrow I must get the rest of the August schedule done for work. Now that John quit, I'm afraid I may end up doing a few weekend shifts. No fun, especially when you work during the week as well. No surgeries set for Thursday either since we only have one doctor. Dennis is having fun in Montana and I don't know which doctor is working. I myself can't wait until our Florida trip!

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Busy Monday

Can't say this is my favorite day of the week. 18 dogs in the kennel and about 13 went home today. Also busy getting shipments ready and sent out on UPS. Today I had to box up 2500 cc of vaccine as well as dexamethasone, oxytocin, and bags of iron into which I had to inject 75 cc of gentocin and 75 cc of vitamin B into before relabeling and putting in Tom's truck so he could take it to his hog visit today. Is that a run on sentence or what? It's kind of how it feels getting everything ready before Tom leaves.

Also had to euthanize an 8 week old alpaca. It had been born with a broken neck it seems and the owners had bottle fed it but the baby was paralyzed. They finally decided to put him down. He was beautiful though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helped Tom fill up 11 gallons of formaldehyde. Pig producers use it to fumigate their hog barns. They mix potassium bromide with the formaldehyde and it sets off a chemical reaction that fumigates the area. It is very dangerous to breath so the producers have to time it just right. They fumigate barns between batches of pigs so they don't spread disease. We have to fill the gallons in the barn right at the doorway so the fumes from the formaldehyde don't fill up the barn (or us). The specimens in college for dissection were preserved with formaldehyde. The clinic also uses a diluted form to preserve tumors that are sent to the labs for identification.

My dishes that were bought in Rome finally were delivered today - two months to the day since we bought them. They came through fine and and just beautiful. I hope my children also like them, I made sure to get 4 pieces so they can each get one when I'm gone. I can't wait to use them when everyone comes home. Of course, Anna now has our long table so I'm not sure where I'm going to place these beautiful pieces....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thursday

Just a quick blog. Today started out nice and cool. On my way to work I noticed one thing standing in the road. I thought it might be a large dog, but when I got closer I found out it was a fawn. Her mother was standing on the side and I hadn't seen her. They raced alongside the car, but in in the ditch, not on the road. Very shortly they found a gap in the corn growing alongside the road and headed into the middle.

That was a nice beginning, but it was to get better. A little further down the road, I saw a large bird perched on top of a telephone wire. I'm used to seeing hawks on the way to work but this looked different. Imagine my amazement when I discovered it was an owl! It was about 6:45am and the owl was facing east while the sun was coming up. He was looking around and blinking his great gold eyes. I so wished I could stop and look at him for a while but, of course, it's Thursday and I had to be at work by 7. I'm also pretty sure he would have flown away as soon as I slowed down or stopped.

Surgery day but it was also filled with boarders coming in as well as helping with appointments. Busy day - 2 dentals and one surgery to remove a cancerous growth next to the eye on a German Shepherd. 7 dogs came in to board and I had to get the check in's ready for the 9 dogs coming in tomorrow. Also had a last minute Guinea pig boarder. Yes, really. "Squeaky" has boarded one other time. She's really no trouble and not every body has a neighbor or friend they can ask. That's why I do it. Of course all my coworkers think I'm crazy, but I've been there looking for a place for my pets before.

Home late as usual. Jacky will probably cut hay tomorrow. I'm worn out from making jerky, zucchini bread, and freezing peaches. It's that time of the year, and I must say, one of my favorite things to do is put food away for winter. Can't say I'm completely happy with 2 or 3 zucchini's ready every day. What to do, what to do. How many ways can you fix zucchini?

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Morehead and Fargo

Long morning driving. We hate to leave the Northshore but, gotta do it. I'll drool over a estate for a few days before I get it out of my system. Not much to see on the way over, trees which I love, but nothing else. Slept for a bit, read for a bit.

Finally to Fargo and there's construction everywhere. After stopping at the hotel - the one with logs and bears - off to Emma's rental house. A rabbit greeted us as we stepped out of the car. I don't know why she says she doesn't have any pets...Actually there were more than one hopping around the neighborhood. Must not have any loose dogs around!

Here's her house, all cleaned up for a parent visit. Very nice Emma!

 

 

 

and Emma...

 

After some shopping, for pants for Jacky's interview, raincoat for Anna's trip to New Zealand, and a bed for Emma to be delivered Saturday...we stopped to eat at this Diner. I love the outside and Emma told us it has great milkshakes. Yes, they do!

 

 

 

 

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Tall Ships Festival

Full day in Duluth. First we went down to Canal Park to see the Tall Ships in town. We were lucky to get there just in time for some of them to go under the lift bridge. Last night the ships were all in dock. Much better out on the water, and with their sails up! There were lots of small boats everywhere around the ships, kind of annoying when you're trying to get good pictures.

 

 

They put their sails up after they got out of the harbor. These ships were taking tourists out for a two hour ride. Tickets for these ship rides were sold out months ago. Unfortunately it's been raining for the first two days of the festival. Hope people didn't get too wet!

 

Anna and Aren!

After looking at the ships, we went north up the shore. Becky had to work at Teavana so we stopped there first to sample teas. They were all wonderful and I don't know how anyone makes a decision as to what to drink.

Stopped at Russ Kendall's for smoked fish (of course!) and then on to Gooseberry Falls State Park. It's been years since I've been there and the weather was great. Still, there were lots of people there too but I got quite a few pictures until my battery ran out. Of course, then I just switched to Jacky's...

 

 

 

 

Back to Duluth and a side trip to Hawk's Ridge. Stunning view of the North Shore!

On to Fargo tomorrow.

 

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