Subbing For Daycare

Daycare is closed this week so I am trying to help Virginia a little by keeping Sadie today and tonight.

She had a ball playing with her new kitchen set today.  But she didn’t wear her new purple helmet like she did yesterday.  I also didn’t remind her about the helmet because I had too much to do to go riding.  But we did go out and pat the horses.

And we walked to the barn when Joe fed the dogs.  Even if she isn’t walking, Sadie still wants to carry a bucket.

Then it was inside for supper, bath, books and bed.

Merry Christmas, Sadie, Allie and Kit Kat Sunday

 

A Few Less Decorations

There were no big parties planned for this year so I said I would cut back on decorating.  

But that is a very difficult thing to do when I like my Christmas decorations so much.

 You might not be able to tell, but I did actually cut back some.   Merry Christmas Eve.

Change Of Weather

The Arctic blast arrived around 3 o’clock this morning.  Our power flickered several times over the next couple of hours but didn’t go out, yet.  

We had a few small trees and branches in the road but I got through ok to go feed the bulls Joe asked me to.  

Joe spent the morning feeding everything else. 

Wind gusts of 50 mph, and now the temperature is minus 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.  At least the mud is gone for now.   Then for lunch we had reservations at the local theater for dinner and a Christmas show.  The meal was great and we were enjoying the show.  Then with three songs left, the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate.  Sort of an abrupt ending.
 

Christmas Wrapping

I may be going overboard.  It began last year when I started embellishing my packages using a glue gun and and old plastic wreath.  Now I have found all sorts of bits and bobs to use. 

Stick on gems and little plastic snowflakes,

Left over upholstery trim and and origami tree,

Foam lights and that plastic wreath,

My favorite, trim from two old bedspreads and a piece of ribbon,

A Christmas card,

A fabric ornament I made but didn’t like well enough to use on the tree,

A very old pick and some yarn, 

And a candy cane with some Santa erasers.  I am seeing a theme here.  And it might be that I keep too much random stuff.
 

Freak Accident (warning graphic images) Long Story

Joe had a freak accident feeding the cows yesterday.  After setting down the round bale on the front spear, he went to back up so he could turn around and get the bale with the hay unroller on the back of the tractor.  But when he started to backup, he felt the tractor bump into something.  That something was a cow that was now straddling one of the arms of the unroller.  Joe said she was struggling and bawling, he was trying to lower the unroller but she had too much pressure on it for it to go down.  He said she then lunged forward and the spike of the unroller split her hide and some muscle from her udder to her last rib. At first, he didn’t want to bother getting her up, but relented and I was able to help him get her out of the field.  We had to get her through two more fields to get to the barn.  Hugo and Otoelene were in the first field and Pep, Draper, and Jessica were in the second.  So you know if the gate was open, instead of the cow going through the horses did.  Now Hugo is running around in a field he hasn’t been in before with two other horses he hasn’t been with before.  Somehow, running up the hill, he fell down.  I didn’t even think he was near the two strand electric fence on the far side of the field, but the next time I looked (I was still working on getting the cow), Hugo was on the wrong side of the fence.  I could see him panic and he dove back through and took back off running around with the other horses.  There was nothing I could do about any of that.  Joe had gone to open the gates at the barn and came back to help get the cow.  We finally got her in the barn lot.  Joe went to repair the fence Hugo dove through, and I went to go get what I needed to suture up a huge wound.

The pictures don’t do it justice.

 The bottom part was just one long flap while the top was split into two flaps.  There were also some torn muscles in all that mess.  I gave her what should have been a just sedation dose of a sedative but she decided it was a recumbency dose,

and lay down in the chute.  And of course, she shifted onto the wound where I couldn’t get to it.  The only thing we could do now was wait for the sedation to wear off and for her to get back up.  That took about 30 -40 minutes.   When she finally got up, I was able to start suturing, starting with the torn muscles.  Then I started on the skin.  The biggest problem was seeing the dark blue suture against the black hair.  I only had one pack of pink suture so I used that when I started getting to the more difficult area closer to the udder. But by that time the cow had had enough and started kicking.  I ended up leaving about 6 inches open.  I figured it would at least provide an area for everything to drain out.

Can you see the blue sutures? 

It should eventually heal.  If the sutures hold it will heal faster, but there is a good chance things will fall apart and we will be back to square one.  But at least we tried.  And Hugo is ok.

Last Garden Treat

I finally gave up on my broccoli.  I told Joe if we were living in a post apocalyptic era, then I probably could have gotten a couple more edible pieces.  But since we aren’t, I didn’t. 

What I did do was pull up the plants and throw them over the fence to the goats.
 

They came running and acted like it was a special treat.