Bad For Sale Pictures

An ad on Craig's List for a bedroom suite.

The first pictures that shows up...

Guess they were serious about being "Pet Friendly". 
 

Thankful Sunday #5

We lost Bumble on Friday.  I am thankful that we had such an extraordinary dog for over 12 years.  I am thankful for the medicine that helped manage her painful arthritis for the last year.  

 And I am thankful that in the end, when she could no longer get up on her own, I was able to quickly and painlessly end her suffering with J holding her at home. 

Before we got Bumble and Bea, J and I had talked about getting a guard dog because we were losing so many goats to the coyotes.  I didn't think it was a good idea.  I just didn't believe a dog would be able to stay with the goats, guard them and not harm them, and not end up just staying in the yard as a pet.  

I was wrong.   Even at 4 months old, they were doing their best to keep up and stay with the goats.  

Bumble and Bea were an astounding team.  Even to the point of splitting up if one needed to stay with a sick or injured goat while the other one went with the rest of the herd. 

Even when she was 3 times Emma's size, she was never aggressive toward her.

And when it was time to start getting some help, she was there ready to train and show the way. 

She was always tolerant of all the baby goat antics, 

and watchful too.  

She loved attention as long as the goats were in sight, and was ready to move on when they moved on.  

I would never have believed a dog could be so gentle, so protective, so selfless, so steadfast,  without seeing it for myself first hand.  I am thankful that I had such an amazing dog show me she could. 
 

Where Is Stevey

 Just saying, I have nothing to do with the office at work.  We have a hospital cat that is visually impaired. He has free access to the entire clinic.  He likes the office because that’s where he gets his Temptations treats. 

You might have to zoom in to find him. 

Just Say No

The other day I had a woman and her boyfriend bring in this 4 pound Chihuahua for vomiting and not acting right.  The poor little thing was just weaving back and forth, running backwards, and circling.  It's pupils were fully dilated.  The woman said it was because it ate a spicy chicken sandwich.  Seeing the owners with their piercings, tattoos, dyed hair and slurred speech, I asked what drugs could the dog have gotten into.  Nothing, I was told.  I asked again, what drugs are in the house.  Well, maybe Zoloft, Seroqel and a nasal decongestant.  I asked again and again.  Finally, the woman sent her boyfriend out of the room and said it was probably his methamphetamine.   Now we are getting somewhere. 

There is no antidote.  We got an over the couther drug testing kit from Walmart (who even knew that was a thing?)  and he did test positive for meth.  I gave him as much sedation as I could throughout the day and by the evening he had stopped circling and weaving in favor or standing on his hind legs and jumping incessantly.  Thankfully, the next morning he was quiet and acting normally.  Now we have to wait to see what is more important on payday, getting the dog back or buying more drugs.  There are a lot of sad situations out there, but at least they did seek medical help. 
 

Searching For Culls

J asked if I could help him sort out some culls so he could sell them.  He already had in his mind which ones he was wanting out in this group of 100.

As we walked around and he would find one he was looking for, he would talk himself out of it.  One that didn't keep her condition last year, looks great this year.  One that was limping all fall, was walking fine now.  

We ended up not culling any this time.  But he did say if there was a calving issue resulting in a lost calf, he wouldn't put too much effort into grafting one.  So if you want to stay in the herd, have a live calf.  
 

Scrap Metal

With the ground still being slick with snow, J has been feeding the cows in the lot below the house.  It is a little more level there and not as risky to drive the tractor across. 

This is the same field the calves were in that are now in the feedlot.  But the feed troughs being used for the calves were still in the field, frozen to the ground. 

Well, some how a cow got stuck in on one her side with her head hanging out the end.  I was not home to witness it.  J said he had to the the tractor, put the spear under the trough to pull it up out of the ground and flip the cow out.  She was fine but the trough is now scrap metal. 
 

Bee House Keeping

The temperature got up to 50 today.  The warmest in a long time.

I noticed the bees were out and about. 

But on closer inspection, there were lots of dead bees too. 

And dead bees all on the ground in front of the hive.  Apparently, it is a house keeping chore.  Bees die every day but when it is cold the bees spend their time keeping the hive warm.  On a warm day they can move around more and do some housekeeping chores, like getting rid of the dead ones. 
 

Couponing #65

I'm sure you all have been wondering what my coupon scenario was the day I missed the goat being stuck in the fence.  Well, it was for paper products. Good deals on paper products are usually few and far between.  So I took full advantage of this one. 

There was a $4 instant savings when you spend $20 on Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle.  And on Saturday there was also the $5 off $25.  And there were $1 off paper and digital coupons for the products.  Plus, I had several overage item coupons.

$1.10 wasn't too bad. 

This one was a tad more because the Palmolive coupon I thought was working didn't. 

But I'm not complaining about $2.60.  Then to top it all off, there was a $5 reward on Fetch (another money back app, you just scan in your receipt and you get points toward a gift card for about anywhere) for when you spend $25.  Apparently, it didn't matter about the spending part just the original price part.  That made all the above FREE!

I went back this weekend to use up some expiring coupons.  There was no longer a Fetch reward but it was still too good of a deal to pass up. 

I can handle $3.14 including tax.

Then J wanted some grape juice and cereal.  

$3.44 covered one box of Cap'n Crunch.  But the scary part is at the bottom of the receipt, a $5 off $30 instead of $5 off $25.  No one knows if this is permanent or not.  But there is still $5 off $25 on the digital coupons, which is what I use anyway.  We will have to wait and see what happens next week. 
 

Thankful Sunday #4 and Kit Kat Sunday #177

So thankful that I got to keep this precious little thing all weekend while V and M moved.

They now are in town just 15 minutes away!

Not too sure Kit will share my excitement. 
 

Feeding Challenges

When you add snow and ice to our steep hillside, you end up with very limited areas that you can get to safely to feed.

The goats usually rotate around the farm and pick on hay that J feeds the cattle.  But lately, they have been hanging out with the horses eating hay with them.  J has taken to unrolling hay in the road, 

then coming back with a pitchfork to throw it down the hill. 

This is very difficult with horses, goats and dogs all in the way.

But every day J says, "at least the calves made it to the feedlot." 

And at it is nice to not be kidding or calving right now. 

Maggie was caught enjoying the hay.  Some animals just know how to relax. 
 

Pimple Popped

J has been monitoring a swelling on his new bull's leg. 

J noticed it just starting to swell a couple of weeks ago.  It has been getting bigger and bigger over the last few days. 

So J called the in house vet to come take a look.  Quite a bit bigger than the cat abscesses that I normally deal with. 

I tapped it with a needle first to make sure it was an abscess and it was so then I lanced it. 
 

I would estimate 1/2 a gallon of very smelly pus came out.  I flushed it with lots of dilute betadine then squirted in some surgical scrub.  Hopefully, it will heal up from here. 

Quality Varies

I have a wide range of quality in my birding picture taking. 

A lot of times I just get a blurry hint of a bird, but enough to tell what it is like this kestrel.

Then sometimes I get a nice focused picture but some other stuff in the way like this tufted titmouse with a branch in the way. 

And sometimes I just get a silhouette with no idea what the bird is.  

Then every now and then I get lucky and have one that doesn't mind posing for the perfect picture. 
 

Bad For Sale Pictures

I am trying to sell my billy goat on Craig's list.  So, I was perusing some goat for sale ads to see what the competition is and came upon these gems.  

Ok, this one is cute. 
 

New Project

With it being cold and snowy outside, what better time to start a new project inside.

We got some wonderful news from V and M a month ago.  Looks like I need to go through my pink fabrics again.  I have until sometime in May to finish this one. 

I'm not sure I ever posted my completed quilt for baby S that I started HERE.  I like the random feel of the blocks.  The quilting is just simple hand quilting outlining the triangles. 

The big floral print ended up being the back of the quilt.

But I have noticed I don't really have that big of a fabric stash.  

And there could end up being several repeats.  I'm ok with that as long as bunnies are involved. 

I have resorted to cutting up some old clothes.  

I have done a few practice blocks.  I think this will be a cull.  I was hopeful on the duck-horse fabric, but it just doesn't work.  I am planning of a trip to goodwill to see if I can find something there that I can cut up. Otherwise, I might actually have to buy some fabric at the store, gasp!