Diesel and Dolly are three years old today! Since we’re on a diet, they didn’t get a birthday cake this year. But they did get a couple of toys they really seemed to like.
Especially the orange one.
It was very popular.
Happy birthday, Diesel and Dolly!
You are both three whole years of total furry awesomeness.
We’ve had a whole lot of healing going on around here. Diesel had some surgery, and we had a turkey hen attacked by a predator. I’m going to warn you that the last couple of pictures of the turkey hen may be a little graphic. I’ll give you another warning before they appear so you can click off this post if you want.
As you may remember, Diesel has had hip and knee issues for a good long while. Actually, probably since he was born. Certainly since he came here at six weeks of age.
We’ve known for a good long while that Diesel has hip dysplasia. And we also knew he had knee issues. What we didn’t know is that he has Medial Pateller Luxation (MPL). Which is a great long word that means his knee cap doesn’t fit inside the grove it’s supposed to sit inside. It would slide out to the inside, and Bernie and I would have to manipulate the knee cap and put it back in place so he could walk on that leg. He has MPL in both knees, but the right knee was especially bothersome.
He’s been having this issue for a while, but a couple of months ago it became very painful for him, especially in his right knee. And he got to the point where he was limping badly, and couldn’t even walk down to the mailbox.
We took him to his vet to see Dr. Vick, at Seven Bends Vet Clinic. Diesel and Dolly love Dr. Vick. She took some x-rays, and quickly informed us that he needed to see a specialist. She recommended the Veterinary Surgical Center. And we met with Dr. Anke Langenbach and were very impressed.
Diesel basically needs to have both knees reconstructed, and the first one was done on November the 7th.
We picked him up on November the 8th.
He had an e-collar on his neck, to keep him from licking the incision. He really hated the e-collar, but he sure seemed happy to be going home.
And he seemed very happy to get on his own bed when he got home.
This is a picture of his incision. Please forgive the spots on his bed. The icepack I put on his leg sprung a leak.
Diesel really dislike that e-collar, so to keep him from licking we had a slumber party in the living room each night for a week.
Some nights Dolly slept in the bed with Bernie, but most nights Diesel, Dolly, and I slept in the living room.
And who doesn’t like a nice slumber party?
Diesel has his stitches out now and he’s really doing quite well.
Dr. Langenbach is quite impressed with is progress. In a couple of months he will get his left knee operated on.
Bernie says he’ll be the Six Million Dollar Dog.
***************Graphic pictures follow********************
When I went to put up the turkeys this evening I noticed that Sarah, the turkey hen, had a horrible injury.
We have about 1.5 acres of our property enclosed in fencing, and the turkeys don’t go outside of it.
Apparently something got inside the fencing today and attacked sweet little Sarah. We have been sick about it. Because we were home. And we heard nothing.
But when I went to tuck the turkeys in, I found Sarah with a lot of skin ripped away from her side.
And feathers missing around a puncture wound on the top of her wing.
There wasn’t enough skin to sew back together, so we cleaned it up and applied some Blue Kote. The wound is too raw and too wet to hold much else.
We are so shocked that this occurred with us both at home. We heard and saw nothing unusual today.
We’ve seen so many predators this fall. It may have been a fox. Or perhaps a dog. Or who knows what?
But the thought that something like that happened while we were here and didn’t notice it is very upsetting.
We hope she’ll make it. She’s in a cage and we’ll doctor her each day.
For all my friends with poultry in this area, be on the look out. The predators are thick this year.
Last week Mom and Dad put us in the truck.
We figured we were going to the vet.
We started out on the same big road we usually drive on.
There’s the old school house we always pass.
But then we turned down a road we’ve never been on.
And before too long we were on a really, really big road.
We weren’t too sure what we thought about that big road. Especially when we saw the truck in this sign.
We were sure hoping that wasn’t a picture of OUR truck.
But after a while the world got a little flatter.
And we relaxed a little.
And then it got hotter.
We knew we were far away from home when we saw these trees.
And this river.
And then when we saw this sign……
We got very, very happy.
And soon we were at my Mamaw’s house!
Our cousin, Oliver, showed us around.
We played for a good, long while.
And then, after such a long day, we rested.
Boy, oh boy, did we ever rest.
And before we knew it, we were back in the truck.
But this time, we had our Mamaw and Oliver with us!
And having Mamaw and Oliver with us made this trip go very fast. Before we knew it, we saw this sign.
That made Daddy smile.
And that made us smile.
We’re not sure how Oliver felt about it.
But we *are* sure that now this is Oliver’s most excellent adventure.
The end.
Have I told you lately that I love my outside sink?
It’s so much easier to wash up the goat, chicken, and turkey feeders and waterers now.
I’m sure we’re going to regret training the turkeys to fly up on our arms.
But right now we’re loving it.
They seem to especially like riding piggy back with Bernie.
This is always a welcome sight after doing a few chores.
It makes Diesel smile.
It makes me smile, too.
I want to thank each of you personally for all the kind words. But I can’t. Every time I try my eyes fill with tears and I can no longer see what I’m typing. Thank you – each and every one. And forgive me if it seems impersonal. It truly is not. I just can’t get past the emotion.
I suspect I’ll never get over losing sweet little Hope. Especially since I’ve learned what I could have done to prevent it. And even what I could have done to save her. It would have been hard. But I could have done it. That will haunt me forever I’m sure. But now I know. I won’t lose another to bloat. At least not without saying I did my dead level best to save her. But honestly? I did my best with Hope. I just didn’t know……
Georgia is doing GREAT. She is already running to me when I go into the goat barn. I’m not surprised that she is showing dominance. She is the Queen, and I am respecting that. Mirrie? Not so much. Mirrie couldn’t care less about the Queen. When I enter the goat barn Mirrie runs up to me screaming bloody murder. Georgia is right behind her, and butts Mirrie out of the way. I understand that Georgia is Queen. I reach down and pet her first. If I’m feeding Mirrie a bottle, I make sure I offer some sweet feed to Georgia first, and then feed Mirrie. I’m trying to teach Mirrie, but she is too danged sweet, cute, and stubborn. And before it’s all said and done I am on my knees kissing Mirrie and loving on her. Georgia comes right up, and I’m sure to show her as much attention as she will allow.
It’s going to be ok. I don’t think I’ll ever really get over this experience, but it’s going to be ok. We’re building a milking stand this weekend. It will hold goats while they are milked, and while they are worked on (trimming hooves, etc.) I’m excited to get that finished.
Please allow me to also quickly bring you up to date on the pups….We had to take them to the vet for booster shots this afternoon. Diesel weighs 77 pounds. Dolly weights 70 pounds. The vet wants to see Diesel at 70 pounds, and Dolly at 65 pounds. This will not be easy. These pups exercise daily – a lot. They also enjoy their treats – a lot. The vet asked what they get treats for and Bernie said “Breathing.” And the vet reached down and petted both of them and said “You are wonderful pups – but breathing just isn’t that special”. *sigh* Now the pups are on a diet. The good news is that the surgery Diesel is certain to have due to hip dysplasia may be prolonged if he loses weight. That’s worth is to all of us. At just over one year old, Diesel has a fair amount of issues with his hips and legs…..
Thank all of you. Not only for following my blog, but being such sweet friends. Spring is springing – and soon I’ll be posting about planting in the garden, preserving, canning, baby chicks, pregnant does, and all the wonderful things that this time of year brings. Thank you for sticking with me during the hard times. Because there are always hard times. No matter what you dream about living in the country, you must accept that there will be hard times. It’s not easy, but you can get past it. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes. In the end, that really is why I started this blog in the first place.
XXXOOO
Hey, Mom. I think Diesel has something for you.
Um, well, I’m not sure what you mean. Isn’t Diesel sleeping?
I think he’s waking up, Mommy.
Hey, Diesel – did you want to tell me something?
Awwwwww. You smiling for mommy??? Dolly – look at Diesel smiling! Isn’t that the cutest thing?
Diesel is boring, Mommy. But I’m happy you sat up and started typing on that computer.
Welcome home, Mommy. We missed you.
It’s rainy and cold. I can’t get warm.
Wait! I know where I can go to get warm.
Maybe I can just sneak up there with them.
Uh, oh. I think they see me.
Hey! Where’d everyone go?????
Well, maybe dad will get the fireplace going.
When my hens started going broody back in March, it caught me by surprise. I really did not expect to have broody hens because I intentionally bought what I believed were non-broody breeds. I quickly built a couple of brooders in the coop out of hardware wire. I disliked those brooders immensely. They had sharp wires poking up everywhere and, as a result, I have had scratches and torn clothing all summer. And I always worried that the chickens would get hurt on that wire. I actually suspect that may be where Duke got the foot injury that resulted in the Battle-of-the-Bumblefoot we’ve been going through around here.
So this past Friday, I took the day off work and Bernie and I rebuilt the brooders. I’m much happier with them.
We also put a much steeper slope on the top of the nest boxes to keep the chickens off of it. And we moved one of the roosts to keep the poop away from the brooder area.
While I had the camera out, I remembered to take a picture of a volunteer flower that came up in the strawberry bed. That area had previously been a wildflower bed and this flower is apparently the result of a seed that was left in there:
I honestly don’t remember seeing a flower like that in the wildflower bed. I’m sure I would have remembered such a beautiful bloom! OK, all you flower-name-knowing people, any idea what kind of flower that is? I plan to keep the seeds. That’s one of the prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen! It’s like a bouquet of flowers in one bloom.
I’m not very good at remembering to take pictures so, since I had my camera handy, I took it along when the pups and I went on the mail run this afternoon.
Diesel is obsessed with tall grass and weeds. He absolutely loves laying in it and playing in it. Can you see him in this picture?
Look right slap, dab in the middle. Here’s a closer view:
He finally poked his head out
Which is just what Dolly was waiting for. She immediately pounced on him
And then she ran around with reckless abandon
Until she spotted a bug on the driveway
Hey good lookin’
Dang, I never even knew the boy could move this fast!
Lordy, I do love these pups. And my flower. And my new brooders.
I am so dad-gum easy to please.
We spent a few hours yesterday scouring the woods on our property for morel mushrooms. We may have been a week late or, depending on what you read on the internet, a week early. Either way, we didn’t see hide nor hair of a moral mushroom. Darnit. We’ll head out again later in the week and see if we have any better luck.
We took the pups out with us while we were searching through the woods. I had hoped to show you pictures of morel mushrooms but, since that’s not going to happen this weekend, I am going to show you pictures of Diesel and Dolly instead.
Dolly managed to find a deer skull pretty quickly, and she toted it around, playing keep-away from Diesel for quite some time.
Yea, I know. You’re probably grossed out that we let her play with a deer skull. But, hey – these are country dogs and it’s cheap entertainment. They’ve got to find fun where they can.
Soon Diesel lost interest in chasing Dolly with the skull, and decided loving on daddy was more his speed.
We walked for several hours, and the pups spent most of it running around ahead of us. As the day wore on, they wore out. Soon they were staying right with us.
And when Diesel started sitting down, we figured it was time to get home.
Even though we got skunked looking for morels, we had a great time watching the pups romp and enjoying our walk through the woods.
It’s been raining here all day. I made some egg noodles for a batch of home made chicken noodle soup I’m making for supper. I also started making some more polymer clay eggs. Here are two I finished this afternoon:
I baked two more, but will leave them to sand another day. Sanding those bad boys takes a little bit of work and time, and I’m ready to just chill for a bit before getting after supper.
The chickens are doing great and we are averaging about a dozen eggs a day. The babies are really getting big, and I’m 99.9% positive I’ve got two roosters out of the five of them. I should get rid of both of them. I don’t have enough hens to keep up with all four roosters. I’m really struggling with the whole thing. I’ll probably end up getting rid of one of the cockerels, and keeping the other for a while to see how keeping three roosters works out. I suspect I’ll end up having to get rid of the other cockerel as well. It makes me sad to even think about it. So I’m not going to – I’ll think about it later.
It wasn’t the most productive weekend we’ve ever had on the homestead, but it was a nice and relaxing one. Sometimes it’s nice to take a day or two and do little more than just enjoy the homestead.
Bee Free,
Penny
For each person that keeps chickens, there is probably just as many variations in chicken coop designs and management techniques. When we built our coop, we based the design on one that would be as predator proof as possible from the many predators in this area and one that would provide adequate protection from the elements that are typical for our area. Our coop sits above the ground, with about a foot or so between the floor of it and the earth underneath. The coop flooring is treated OSB, and I chose the “Deep Litter Method” (DLM from here on out) for coop poop management.
The idea behind the DLM is really quite simple. You start with a clean coop floor, cover it with about four to six inches of litter, and then about once a week or so, sprinkle litter over the top of that to cover the poop as it accumulates. I use pine chips that Bernie chips up for me from fallen pine trees around here. Once a month or so I use a garden rake and stir all that litter around in the coop, just to keep the poop from clumping. On days when we have snow or a lot of rain and the chickens hang out inside the coop, I sprinkle some scratch all through the litter on the coop floor and the chickens stir it for me. If done correctly, there will be virtually no offensive smell in the coop, and the litter only needs to be completely removed once a year. If the coop is kept dry, the litter remains dry, as does the flooring beneath it.
I really like using the DLM for several reasons, the least of which is not the fact that it only takes me about 10 minutes each day to clean the coop and replenish feed and water containers. The daily coop cleaning duty is referred to as the “Coop Poop Boogie” here on the homestead, and consists of scraping all poop off the top of nest boxes, nest porches, and roosts, sprinkling new litter on the coop floor as required, filling feeders and changing out water. By the way, the Coop Poop Boogie is not to be confused with the Poop Scoot Boogie, which is performed after stepping in a fresh little pile of chicken poop in the yard on the homestead. Everyday’s a party around here.
Yep, the Coop Poop Boogie is fast and easy, thanks to the DLM. The coop spring cleaning, however, is not. It’s not fast. And it’s not easy. I spent about 4 1/2 hours yesterday spring cleaning the coop, which, among other things, involved shoveling out about two feet of poop encrusted litter. But, with each shovel load, I reminded myself that this one day of pain is what makes the daily Poop Scoop Boogie so tolerable the other 364 days of the year. And I was quite pleased that once all the litter was out of the coop, the floor beneath it and the nest boxes were perfectly dry.
When it was all said and done, I ended up with a mountain of poop encrusted pine shavings which I mixed with straw and leaves and covered in Chicken Poop Tea I’ve been brewing for the past couple of months. This colossal pile of poop is now soaking in the 3/4 inch of rain we got last night. It’s supposed to rain all day and into tomorrow, and this soaking is just what the poop pile needs. I checked it this morning, and it’s already getting hot. For the next several months I will continue to add straw, grass cuttings, kitchen scraps, chicken poop, and water to this massive pile, and by next spring, I should have a beautiful pile of compost that my garden will enjoy.
That’s the chicken poop pile on the right, and my straw pile on the left.
Composting pine shavings can take quite some time, but by regularly adding chicken poop, straw, and “green” material to it (grass, kitchen scraps, etc.) and keeping the pile damp, you may be amazed at how much more quickly the composting process occurs. I’ve done this on a much smaller scale and it works beautifully and quickly. Every week or so, rather than wetting with water, I pour a bucket or two of Chicken Poop Tea on it to help keep this compost pile hot. I make this tea by filling a couple of buckets half full with water and then adding in the poop I scoop each day until the buckets are full. I also stir them daily, while holding my nose. And I keep the buckets covered with a loosely fitting lid.
By the end of the year, I should have a nice, rich mountain of compost. I’ll stop adding chicken poop to the pile and let it “season” until next spring. Chicken poop is extremely strong and will kill plants if applied directly to them without allowing the poop to age and compost. The rule of thumb is: If you can recognized the shape of the poop, it’s probably too “hot” to apply to plants. Allow it to break down completely and NEVER apply Chicken Poop Tea directly on plants or the ground where they are planted. It’s just too strong – but it works great to speed composting in compost piles.
So that’s the scoop on the Coop Poop Boogie. Come to think of it, this all sums up my life beautifully – enriched with poop. Every dad gum day.
While I was out cleaning the coop, Bernie left the dogs in the house to bring me some tools for reconstructing the little chicken hospital in the coop. When I came in for a break he said “Good news! You get to do some shoe shopping!” I immediately looked at the puppies. Neither would make eye contact with me. “I left my sandals by the door when I changed into my rubber boots, didn’t I? How badly did they chew them up?” I asked. “Well, it wasn’t ‘they’, it was ‘him’ and it wasn’t ‘them’, it was ‘it’.” *sigh* “Well, how bad is IT?” Bernie said “You might be able to salvage it. I’m not sure, but I think Dolly stole it and gave it to Diesel. It was in Diesel’s mouth when I found it, but Dolly was looking kinda guilty.”
That doesn’t look very salvageable to me. I realize it looks like something I dug out of the dump, but I LOVE those sandals. I’ve had them for years. They were broken in beautifully and had become the only sandals I wear in the summer on the homestead. Darnit. But it’s my fault for leaving them on the floor and providing a temptation little Dolly and/or Diesel just could not resist. The joy of puppies…….
Bee Free,
Penny
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