Senior Challenge

J's dad and step mom attend a local seniors meeting.  Somehow boxes of food get distributed there.  Last week they gave one of their boxes to J.  The box was labeled "5 day menu"  and contained a variety of single serving food items.  The only directions were what foods for days 1-5.  I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a complete meal, two meals, a meal supplement or what.  After I divided it out I decided I could maybe make a breakfast and lunch out of it.  J said if I did that I would lose weight.  Let the challenge begin. 

Monday's menu was a little sparse.  I think I lasted about 3 hours after lunch before I had to start supplementing. 

Tuesday was much better but I refused to use the powdered milk, I just substituted the same amount in real milk.  But I was working outside pretty hard that day.  I don't think the calorie count took into account seniors that were very active.  

Wednesday looked pretty good, I liked the tuna on the tortilla.  But I was at work and someone brought in bagels from Panera Bread, had to have one.  

Thursday, at work again, I skipped the breakfast essentials for a glass of milk but there were still some bagels at work.  The Panera Bread honey/walnut cream cheese is delish. 

I gave up on Friday.  I usually have dinner leftovers for lunch and they were piling up in the fridge.  And I just wasn't feeling that little can of chicken noodle soup. I don't think I did very well.  If I had stuck to just the 5 day plan I am sure I would have lost weight but I only managed to stay the exact same.  But I enjoyed having a bunch of different things I normally would not purchase.  Maybe they will give us another box and I can try again.

Kid Count - 43

 

Post Op

Molly is about 7 months old now, time to spay before she comes in heat.  I thought it would be a good time while we had all the goats in the kidding lot so there wouldn't be as much roaming around afterwards. 

I had to borrow a crate from the clinic to get her there.  She was pretty sad looking. 

Surgery went fine, she weighed 61 pounds.  I did the surgery Monday thinking I would bring her home Wednesday after work but decided to leave her until Thursday.  I was pretty sure she would be way too active back at home.  

Boy, was she happy to be back.  

Plus, there were lots of new arrivals while she was gone.  

Some twins, a couple of singles and 

two sets of triplets.  11 nannies have kidded so far.  And so far, Molly has been behaving herself.  

Kid count - 22
 

Farmercising With Fertilizer

J came home with 10 - 50# bags of fertilizer the other day.

He wanted to spread some on a section of the farm we can only get to by walking or riding a horse.  

You can just see the 4 wheeler up on the hill.  J had to carry the bags down one at a time, 

to get them across the creek.  

but the creek was deeper than usual so he changed his mind about walking across. 

On to plan B, and toss them across.  Then we crossed further down where we could jump. 

Then we poured the fertilizer into buckets and started spreading by hand. 

We did 250 pounds on this first knoll, then J did the rest by himself the next day on the knoll behind this one (I was on my retreat). We then had a torrential downpour. J estimates 2-3 inches of rain, so now it has probably all washed away.  But maybe some soaked in for some good, too early to tell. 
 

Weekend Retreat

Saturday I headed to Swoop (rhymes with rope) VA for a drug company sponsored women's retreat.  It had been rescheduled several times and it still ended up being sparsely attended with a total of 7 vets and staff from 3 clinics.  But all the better, everyone had a room to themselves in the bunkhouse, and there was plenty to eat and drink.  There was a couple of hours of CE but that was covered at meal time. 

Sunday morning was clear and beautiful after a night of rain. 

We started with some yoga.  Nothing too challenging, mostly stretches.  

And then for the main attraction.  A guided trail ride.  Those are Doc's ears that I am looking through.  

Jenna from my clinic rides Saddlebreds, so this one was a piece of cake.  

Our trail guide Dwight dressed the part. 

Some horses were faster than others so there was a lot of stopping to let them catch up and stay together.  Plus, Dwight stopped every whipstitch to make sure everyone was ok.  

Doc wasn't a big fan of other horses anywhere near.  Dwight said the only thing he liked was himself.  There were lots of ear pinning and kicking episodes.  He wanted a very large personal space bubble.  

We rode through the woods, on gravel roads and paved roads.  The scenery was beautiful.  We even saw a bald eagle.  

Everyone made it back in one piece after a nice 2 1/2 hour ride. 

I checked Doc's teeth when I got off, Dwight caught me and asked how old I thought he was.  I said, "plenty old, 20."  He said he turned 20 this year.  Yes! high five!  

All in all, a nice weekend with a little change of pace (I didn't have to saddle and unsaddle my horse anyway)
 

Who's Ears Are Those

I will take a break from calving adventures to post on something more interesting, to me anyway, horse adventures. 

Draper! that's who's ears they are.  I had pulled her shoes in the winter and the weather was so bad I just didn't ride her but a handful of times.  But she got new shoes Tuesday and the weather was beautiful this morning so we went riding.  We did our warm ups in the barn.  

Then headed to the outdoor arena for some more work.  Then a spin around a couple of the fields.  For not having been ridden much the past few months she did pretty good.  Still some things to work on but that probably never ends with horse training.  

She even worked up a sweat. (she is not that tired, just wanting to check out those buckets)

And she enjoyed a little shower to cool off with.  
 

Adventures in Calving Part 4

This was an easy one as our adventures go. 

First calf heifer making progress but slow.  It was getting dark and we didn't want a repeat of the 3 am deal so went ahead and got her up.  The presentation was normal, J slapped the chains on

and pulled. 

Everything came out fine,

and mom and calf were turned out in the morning. 
 

Adventures in Calving Part 3

We have been having way too many calving adventures this year.  Thursday night J checked the heifers at 11 pm.  One had the water bag out, great.  It was 20 degrees with the wind blowing 20-30 mph.  He waited 1 1/2 hours and checked again.  No progress, great.  To the barn she went (J had already put her and a couple others that were close in the barn lot, he is excellent at planning ahead)  A quick check revealed that one leg and the head were there, but that left one leg back.  I was able to fix that in short order and we pulled it by hand from there.  

The problem was that he had gotten a little hypoxic (decrease oxygen to the brain) during the ordeal.  It also didn't help that it was 20 degrees with the wind blowing 20-30 mph.  Trying to get it to stand just resulted in a limp rear and bracing front.  It was clear he wouldn't be able to nurse that night so back to the house for some colostrum.  After that he still wasn't very lively.  I sort of thought he seemed chilled.  

So back to the house for some warming tools.  I am pretty sure I have used this hair dryer on goats and calves more than I have on myself. 

I also got a blanked and made a make shift tent with a heater blowing into it.  

We got his temperature to 98, normal is around 102.  He seamed a little stronger and at 3 am we quit and went to bed.  

We had to tube feed him a couple of more times, then got him to suck a bottle.  It was  over 14 hours before he could get up on his own.  After that we put the heifer in the chute and helped him nurse.  Hopefully, if all is still good tomorrow, we will turn them out.