Wednesday, June 11, 2008
We Got Six Inches of Snow This Morning
Please not the date: June 11th. That's right. Mid June. Just wanted to make sure we were all clear on that.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Even in Austrailia
One of my favorite kids stories has always been Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. This week I have found myself appreciating that book even more than normal. Especially the part where Alexander decides the only way to deal with his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, is to move to Australia. I'm right there with him. My bags are packed.
Its actually been a whole bad week, not just one day. I'm coming up on three months running the ranch by myself since Dave had to move back to Chicago for a job. We've only been able to bring him home once in that time. I knew running a remote horse ranch by myself would be challenging - especially given the health problems I've been battling again. But I set myself up to meeting this challenge and I have met it well. I've kept the ranch running, the animals healthy and the business thriving. I like challenges. And I don't mind fighting tooth and nail to hold onto the life I want if I have to.
But its taken a lot of fighting. We are still recovering from the damage done by a storm that hit last fall. We couldn't make any real progress until the snow melted and we could see the extent of the problems. And they are extensive. I've had to replace fencing in almost every pasture, removed trees and debris and get very creative about how to contain 20+ horses while we work to fix the damage.
When spring finally got here, I thought moving out of this record snow year would see things ease up a bit. But instead of relenting, things got harder. Breeding season started and I had five mares show up at once. Normally this isn't a problem, but this year, with so many pastures out of commission, and mud season making other pastures highly unpleasant, its taken a daily juggling act to make sure that all the horses have safe, secure places to stay, and still get a little room to run. Then three of the mares came into heat at once (two for Ryder, once for Chance) and all of them stayed in for 8 days. So for 8 days I have been breeding three mares per day (mostly in the pouring rain) as well as keeping up with repairs, moving the fencing along, careing for the horses and doing everything else I do around here in the spring.
By the time the last of these three mares went out of heat, I was exhausted. I hoped to rest a bit, as my next mares aren't due to come in for at least another week. Another week and Dave comes home for his second visit. He'll stay 12 days. And the day after he gets here, Karen and Aud come out. They are as good at running this ranch as I am and they are staying for 20 days this year. So I have had my eye set on just needing to get through one more week and then I would have reinforcements. But boy, the week this has been. I've got three more days to go before Dave gets here and I am about ready to join Alexander and move to Australia.
First its been raining for two weeks straight. Pouring rain for about 6 days in a row, then raining on and off - mostly on. As usual, spring rain brings mud and that makes it a challenge just to walk into many of these pastures, much less bring feed to everyone and keep everyone healthy and semi-dry. So my week of rest is turning into a challenge, just getting the normal daily chores done.
Then I was checking a mare against the stallion and the stallion reared up and landed on my foot. So, while I don't think anything is broken, it still hurts a great deal to walk, even 5 days later. This has not made things any easier, as most of my job does, in fact, involve some measure of walking.
And, of course, there is the inevitable day when I was exhausted, it was pouring rain and I took some shortcuts while breeding one of my mares (funny how I always remember to follow all the appropriate procedures with other people's mares, but when I am working with horses I know well, it is easy to forget all the steps). For probably the first time in my breeding career I didn't put on my helmet (the mare and stallion were both easy breeders and I just didn't expect any trouble). And as I was walking the stallion to the mare, I forgot the number one rule of breeding - never take the stallion for granted. This particular stallion is young and amiable (this is his first breeding season) and I've raised him from a colt. One of the easiest stallions I've ever bred. So, being tired anyway, I didn't pay attention to him as he followed along behind me. At least, not until I realized that he had gotten so happy to see the mare he had reared up and was coming down on top of me.
Both his hooves hit me in the head and the rest of his body landed on me. I rolled out from under him and I actually knew right away that I wasn't hurt. He clearly didn't mean to hurt me and had pulled his punches when he realized I was there. Came down remarkably gently and stood there looking ashamed with his head hanging. I didn't even have a lump on my head or much of a lasting head ache. But it was a rather alarming experience which only served to point out to me that I was a lot less alert than I normally let myself become around the horses.
Then, later that day one of my yearlings was bitten by a tick with some nasty venom in him and we spent most of the evening working to pull him through the effects of that. I worked with him for two days, making sure he was recovering and in a pasture that was safe. And I worried about him a lot. I finally let him out Friday afternoon to join his buddies in the big pasture. He needed to get some exercise if he was to build his damaged muscles back up. But he got himself stuck on the wrong side of a creek and in trying to get back, fell into a small ditch. I spent about 2 hours working on getting him up, but he was trapped against the hillside and couldn't seem to get his balance right enough to do it.
I finally resorted to the one thing I knew would motivate him more than anything else. I went and got his pasture-mates and led them all to him. They came rushing over and Chance nudged him, pulled on his halter and did everything he could to get him up. But that didn't work any better than my ministrations (as I had expected it wouldn't). So then I led his pasture-mates away.
Thats about the biggest motivation you can give a horse. Especially a young one. He watched his buddies leaving him and fought with everything he had. Finally pulled himself up and trotted after us. I turned to go to him, intending to lead him quickly back to his safe little pen, when the rest of the horses caught sight of him. They were so excited to see him up, they all rushed at him, racing around him in a big explosion of stud-colt excitement. Again, not paying nearly the attention I would normally pay in the presence of so many young stallions, I did not process my danger quickly enough to get out of there. I found myself in the midst of the whole rioting herd as a couple of the two-year-old stallions suddenly decided to lunge at each-other. These guys are all great friends, but as stud colts, their play is very physical. And they have moments of sudden anger at each-other which results in one of them them challenging another and can get rather rough. Or at least, it can if you are standing in between them.
One of the young stallions lunged at the other and hit me, hard, in the side of the head. He threw me about 10 feet, through the midst of the whole wild heard as they reared and jumped and basically raced around their newly returned friend. I rolled out from under the crowd and got myself away, then scattered them in order to get them all calmed down.
He hit me pretty hard and I was covered in mud and still in the back pasture. It took me about 30 minutes to get my youngster to his pen and make sure he was safe and sound, then get myself up to the house to assess the damage. Eventually decided I needed to get to a hospital to get checked out. My sister drove up from Missoula and picked me up, since I didn't think I ought to drive.
The side of my head was pretty swollen and painful to the touch, but the doctor was pretty sure it was just surface damage. Nothing serious. Still, I was in the hospital until 1am and then had to be woken up every two hours for the rest of the night to check for signs of a problem. I stayed at my sister's and she drove me home today. I got home about five o'clock.
I was really glad to get back to the ranch and hoped to tuck myself into my bed and get some rest. But I checked on the horses first, and discovered that Echo's milk had turned white. There was a good chance she could birth tonight. This is two weeks early and she usually goes right on time and with everything else going on right now, I had not gotten my birthing supplies ready, didn't have a single stall that was not under water and hadn't even implanted the foal alert monitor in her yet. So I set about doing all that with an aching head in the middle of one of the heavies rain storms I have seen since moving out here.
I picked a stall and dug drainage around it to get the water out. Moved some straw into it and made a nice bed. Did a minor surgical procedure to implant the foal alarm in echo's vulva and then tucked her into the stall. Managed to get soaked to the bone and covered in mud, but I got it done and went inside to bed. Or I had hoped to go to bed. Actually, I laid there for two hours expecting the foal alarm to go off at any moment, until I finally realized that I wasn't going to be able to relax enough to sleep. Then I got up to do some work on my computer. Its 2:30 in the morning and I am thinking about trying to sleep again.
I've got three days before I get some help in here - three more days of running this ranch on my own before Dave comes home and Karen and Aud are here. Then I'll have folks around through most of the summer, so I ought to have plenty of help. All I have to do is get to Thursday. But there have been a number of times this week when I have thought that Thursday is much too far away. Those last three days seem like an awful lot to ask.
In the book about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, he eventually decides that everybody has bad days, no matter where they are, and it wont do any good to run away to Australia. But I don't know. At this point I think I might give it a try.
Its actually been a whole bad week, not just one day. I'm coming up on three months running the ranch by myself since Dave had to move back to Chicago for a job. We've only been able to bring him home once in that time. I knew running a remote horse ranch by myself would be challenging - especially given the health problems I've been battling again. But I set myself up to meeting this challenge and I have met it well. I've kept the ranch running, the animals healthy and the business thriving. I like challenges. And I don't mind fighting tooth and nail to hold onto the life I want if I have to.
But its taken a lot of fighting. We are still recovering from the damage done by a storm that hit last fall. We couldn't make any real progress until the snow melted and we could see the extent of the problems. And they are extensive. I've had to replace fencing in almost every pasture, removed trees and debris and get very creative about how to contain 20+ horses while we work to fix the damage.
When spring finally got here, I thought moving out of this record snow year would see things ease up a bit. But instead of relenting, things got harder. Breeding season started and I had five mares show up at once. Normally this isn't a problem, but this year, with so many pastures out of commission, and mud season making other pastures highly unpleasant, its taken a daily juggling act to make sure that all the horses have safe, secure places to stay, and still get a little room to run. Then three of the mares came into heat at once (two for Ryder, once for Chance) and all of them stayed in for 8 days. So for 8 days I have been breeding three mares per day (mostly in the pouring rain) as well as keeping up with repairs, moving the fencing along, careing for the horses and doing everything else I do around here in the spring.
By the time the last of these three mares went out of heat, I was exhausted. I hoped to rest a bit, as my next mares aren't due to come in for at least another week. Another week and Dave comes home for his second visit. He'll stay 12 days. And the day after he gets here, Karen and Aud come out. They are as good at running this ranch as I am and they are staying for 20 days this year. So I have had my eye set on just needing to get through one more week and then I would have reinforcements. But boy, the week this has been. I've got three more days to go before Dave gets here and I am about ready to join Alexander and move to Australia.
First its been raining for two weeks straight. Pouring rain for about 6 days in a row, then raining on and off - mostly on. As usual, spring rain brings mud and that makes it a challenge just to walk into many of these pastures, much less bring feed to everyone and keep everyone healthy and semi-dry. So my week of rest is turning into a challenge, just getting the normal daily chores done.
Then I was checking a mare against the stallion and the stallion reared up and landed on my foot. So, while I don't think anything is broken, it still hurts a great deal to walk, even 5 days later. This has not made things any easier, as most of my job does, in fact, involve some measure of walking.
And, of course, there is the inevitable day when I was exhausted, it was pouring rain and I took some shortcuts while breeding one of my mares (funny how I always remember to follow all the appropriate procedures with other people's mares, but when I am working with horses I know well, it is easy to forget all the steps). For probably the first time in my breeding career I didn't put on my helmet (the mare and stallion were both easy breeders and I just didn't expect any trouble). And as I was walking the stallion to the mare, I forgot the number one rule of breeding - never take the stallion for granted. This particular stallion is young and amiable (this is his first breeding season) and I've raised him from a colt. One of the easiest stallions I've ever bred. So, being tired anyway, I didn't pay attention to him as he followed along behind me. At least, not until I realized that he had gotten so happy to see the mare he had reared up and was coming down on top of me.
Both his hooves hit me in the head and the rest of his body landed on me. I rolled out from under him and I actually knew right away that I wasn't hurt. He clearly didn't mean to hurt me and had pulled his punches when he realized I was there. Came down remarkably gently and stood there looking ashamed with his head hanging. I didn't even have a lump on my head or much of a lasting head ache. But it was a rather alarming experience which only served to point out to me that I was a lot less alert than I normally let myself become around the horses.
Then, later that day one of my yearlings was bitten by a tick with some nasty venom in him and we spent most of the evening working to pull him through the effects of that. I worked with him for two days, making sure he was recovering and in a pasture that was safe. And I worried about him a lot. I finally let him out Friday afternoon to join his buddies in the big pasture. He needed to get some exercise if he was to build his damaged muscles back up. But he got himself stuck on the wrong side of a creek and in trying to get back, fell into a small ditch. I spent about 2 hours working on getting him up, but he was trapped against the hillside and couldn't seem to get his balance right enough to do it.
I finally resorted to the one thing I knew would motivate him more than anything else. I went and got his pasture-mates and led them all to him. They came rushing over and Chance nudged him, pulled on his halter and did everything he could to get him up. But that didn't work any better than my ministrations (as I had expected it wouldn't). So then I led his pasture-mates away.
Thats about the biggest motivation you can give a horse. Especially a young one. He watched his buddies leaving him and fought with everything he had. Finally pulled himself up and trotted after us. I turned to go to him, intending to lead him quickly back to his safe little pen, when the rest of the horses caught sight of him. They were so excited to see him up, they all rushed at him, racing around him in a big explosion of stud-colt excitement. Again, not paying nearly the attention I would normally pay in the presence of so many young stallions, I did not process my danger quickly enough to get out of there. I found myself in the midst of the whole rioting herd as a couple of the two-year-old stallions suddenly decided to lunge at each-other. These guys are all great friends, but as stud colts, their play is very physical. And they have moments of sudden anger at each-other which results in one of them them challenging another and can get rather rough. Or at least, it can if you are standing in between them.
One of the young stallions lunged at the other and hit me, hard, in the side of the head. He threw me about 10 feet, through the midst of the whole wild heard as they reared and jumped and basically raced around their newly returned friend. I rolled out from under the crowd and got myself away, then scattered them in order to get them all calmed down.
He hit me pretty hard and I was covered in mud and still in the back pasture. It took me about 30 minutes to get my youngster to his pen and make sure he was safe and sound, then get myself up to the house to assess the damage. Eventually decided I needed to get to a hospital to get checked out. My sister drove up from Missoula and picked me up, since I didn't think I ought to drive.
The side of my head was pretty swollen and painful to the touch, but the doctor was pretty sure it was just surface damage. Nothing serious. Still, I was in the hospital until 1am and then had to be woken up every two hours for the rest of the night to check for signs of a problem. I stayed at my sister's and she drove me home today. I got home about five o'clock.
I was really glad to get back to the ranch and hoped to tuck myself into my bed and get some rest. But I checked on the horses first, and discovered that Echo's milk had turned white. There was a good chance she could birth tonight. This is two weeks early and she usually goes right on time and with everything else going on right now, I had not gotten my birthing supplies ready, didn't have a single stall that was not under water and hadn't even implanted the foal alert monitor in her yet. So I set about doing all that with an aching head in the middle of one of the heavies rain storms I have seen since moving out here.
I picked a stall and dug drainage around it to get the water out. Moved some straw into it and made a nice bed. Did a minor surgical procedure to implant the foal alarm in echo's vulva and then tucked her into the stall. Managed to get soaked to the bone and covered in mud, but I got it done and went inside to bed. Or I had hoped to go to bed. Actually, I laid there for two hours expecting the foal alarm to go off at any moment, until I finally realized that I wasn't going to be able to relax enough to sleep. Then I got up to do some work on my computer. Its 2:30 in the morning and I am thinking about trying to sleep again.
I've got three days before I get some help in here - three more days of running this ranch on my own before Dave comes home and Karen and Aud are here. Then I'll have folks around through most of the summer, so I ought to have plenty of help. All I have to do is get to Thursday. But there have been a number of times this week when I have thought that Thursday is much too far away. Those last three days seem like an awful lot to ask.
In the book about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, he eventually decides that everybody has bad days, no matter where they are, and it wont do any good to run away to Australia. But I don't know. At this point I think I might give it a try.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tick Paralysis
I learned about a horse illness I had never heard of this week - tick paralysis. Strikes horses, cattle and dogs. It can be caused by a single tick getting itself attached to your animal. If the tick happens to have a particularly nasty poison in its system, one tick can poison a horse all by itself - cause paralysis and loss of motor function. If it is not caught and treated in time, the paralysis will stop the breathing or the heart and the animal will die.
I looked out into my pasture one evening this week. One of the yearlings was laying down. Would have thought nothing of it (they lay down all the time), except that I happen to look out as he was struggling to rise. And it was immediately apparent that something was wrong.
He looked like a new-born foal trying to get up. He would get two feet under him, then flop over before he could get the others where he wanted them. I rushed out there, expecting to find a leg injury of some sort, but there was nothing obviously wrong. Except that he was also clearly not right. He looked dazed and nothing I did seemed to allow him to get his legs under him long enough to stand.
I put in a call to the vet and then sent my mom to get some neighbors. I still assumed it was a leg injury and that we would have to find some way to get him out of this pasture and into a vet clinic for ex rays and treatment. Of course, he was in the most remote pasture we've got, in a spot that required crossing at least three creeks to get to. There would be no getting a truck out to him. My only thought was to round up enough of my neighbors that we could carry him out - all 500-600 lbs of him.
My neighbors responded immediately and came to help. At one point we had five adults and 4 kids out there in the field with him. He was shaking and his breathing was ragged, so we ran to the house for blankets. Stripped a half dozen blankets off my bed and had all the kids carry them out to him while I mixed up some mare's milk replacer, and vitamins and put it all in a bottle.
I got back out there to find him covered in blankets and surrounded by people who were talking to him and petting him and generally fussing all over him. He had stopped shaking and now he just looked weak. His eyes weren't quite so glazed. I had the kids help me feed him from the bottle I had mixed up and as his strength began to come back, I sent them to the barn for a bucket of straight grain. Soon he was gobbling that up as quickly as we could give it to him. The kids held handfuls of it next to his mouth (he still couldn't sit up normally, so we fed him on his side) and he ate the whole bucket.
We managed to get him up at one point and it was clear he was not at all able to walk. It was as if he couldn't figure out which was was up - he just wobbled and fell over. It was about then that I started to realize it wasn't a leg injury - that it looked a lot more like poison. Something was affecting his brain or his motor skills. But I had no idea what could do this to him. We keep our fields well free of poisonous plants and there is nothing else around that I knew of that could cause this kind of reaction in a horse.
The vet got there right as we were debating the best way to carry a 500 lb animal over three creeks and 20 acres of marshy land to get him somewhere safe. I met her as she walked across the field and told her I was suspecting that this was not a leg injury at all, but some sort of poison. She said that what I described sounded like classic tick paralysis.
I had never heard of that. It only takes one tick, she explained. If the tick has something in its system that is bad enough to poison the horse, it can kill it. The only way to reverse the problem is to remove the tick.
Of course, searching for a tick on an animal that big isn't always easy. But then, that wasn't what she did. She just gave him a shot of Ivermectin - the same thing we use ever few months to worm our horses with, but in a more quick acting form. She said it could take up to 12 hours, but often it worked in 15 minutes. We stood around and waited. 15 minutes later, our little guy shook himself and stood up. A few false starts and he managed it. He was wobbling, but clearly vastly improved. We spent a half hour out there making sure he could walk. And we went around and treated all the other horses with Ivermectin just to be safe. I watched him for most of the evening and, while he clearly didn't stand or walk normally, he did stand and he did walk.
Its been about four days since then and he is still a little shaky. Apparently it takes a while for all the swelling to go down and his spine to return to normal. I have him in a smaller pasture so I can keep a closer eye on him and I spend some time with him every day, just fussing over him and making sure he is still improving. Most likely he will recover completely and be none the worse for wear. And I am reading everything I can about this odd illness which I had never heard of before.
I looked out into my pasture one evening this week. One of the yearlings was laying down. Would have thought nothing of it (they lay down all the time), except that I happen to look out as he was struggling to rise. And it was immediately apparent that something was wrong.
He looked like a new-born foal trying to get up. He would get two feet under him, then flop over before he could get the others where he wanted them. I rushed out there, expecting to find a leg injury of some sort, but there was nothing obviously wrong. Except that he was also clearly not right. He looked dazed and nothing I did seemed to allow him to get his legs under him long enough to stand.
I put in a call to the vet and then sent my mom to get some neighbors. I still assumed it was a leg injury and that we would have to find some way to get him out of this pasture and into a vet clinic for ex rays and treatment. Of course, he was in the most remote pasture we've got, in a spot that required crossing at least three creeks to get to. There would be no getting a truck out to him. My only thought was to round up enough of my neighbors that we could carry him out - all 500-600 lbs of him.
My neighbors responded immediately and came to help. At one point we had five adults and 4 kids out there in the field with him. He was shaking and his breathing was ragged, so we ran to the house for blankets. Stripped a half dozen blankets off my bed and had all the kids carry them out to him while I mixed up some mare's milk replacer, and vitamins and put it all in a bottle.
I got back out there to find him covered in blankets and surrounded by people who were talking to him and petting him and generally fussing all over him. He had stopped shaking and now he just looked weak. His eyes weren't quite so glazed. I had the kids help me feed him from the bottle I had mixed up and as his strength began to come back, I sent them to the barn for a bucket of straight grain. Soon he was gobbling that up as quickly as we could give it to him. The kids held handfuls of it next to his mouth (he still couldn't sit up normally, so we fed him on his side) and he ate the whole bucket.
We managed to get him up at one point and it was clear he was not at all able to walk. It was as if he couldn't figure out which was was up - he just wobbled and fell over. It was about then that I started to realize it wasn't a leg injury - that it looked a lot more like poison. Something was affecting his brain or his motor skills. But I had no idea what could do this to him. We keep our fields well free of poisonous plants and there is nothing else around that I knew of that could cause this kind of reaction in a horse.
The vet got there right as we were debating the best way to carry a 500 lb animal over three creeks and 20 acres of marshy land to get him somewhere safe. I met her as she walked across the field and told her I was suspecting that this was not a leg injury at all, but some sort of poison. She said that what I described sounded like classic tick paralysis.
I had never heard of that. It only takes one tick, she explained. If the tick has something in its system that is bad enough to poison the horse, it can kill it. The only way to reverse the problem is to remove the tick.
Of course, searching for a tick on an animal that big isn't always easy. But then, that wasn't what she did. She just gave him a shot of Ivermectin - the same thing we use ever few months to worm our horses with, but in a more quick acting form. She said it could take up to 12 hours, but often it worked in 15 minutes. We stood around and waited. 15 minutes later, our little guy shook himself and stood up. A few false starts and he managed it. He was wobbling, but clearly vastly improved. We spent a half hour out there making sure he could walk. And we went around and treated all the other horses with Ivermectin just to be safe. I watched him for most of the evening and, while he clearly didn't stand or walk normally, he did stand and he did walk.
Its been about four days since then and he is still a little shaky. Apparently it takes a while for all the swelling to go down and his spine to return to normal. I have him in a smaller pasture so I can keep a closer eye on him and I spend some time with him every day, just fussing over him and making sure he is still improving. Most likely he will recover completely and be none the worse for wear. And I am reading everything I can about this odd illness which I had never heard of before.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Ducks
Okay, so I adopted two baby ducks shortly after Easter. Typical of the season, someone bought them for their kids to enjoy on Easter morning but three days later were tired of them. They dumped them at a vet clinic and the vet clinic called me.
They are Peking ducks - my favorite kind, but also a kind that is hard pressed to survive up here. They were bred strictly for meat and they have been striped of any ability to survive int he wild. They are bright white (so much so that they almost glow int he dark), they can't fly and they walk slowly, they grow so easily and quickly that their body often becomes too much for their legs and if they live to their full growth, they are likely to have crippled legs. But I really like these ducks, so I took them in and decided to give them a try at a life.
I raised them in the house in a crate in the living room. Once they got old enough I would draw them a bath every evening and let them swim around in the tub for a while. And three times per day I made them big bowls of salad and fresh vegetables, all soaked in a pot of water (becuase they love to look for food in the water). They never got very people-friendly (smart ducks) but I enjoyed them immensely. When they got too big for the crate, I moved them to the chicken house which has a bit of protection.
They've done great outside and I figured they were happier there -they never did get calm around me (though they learned to call to me if I slept in too late and didn't make their salad at a reasonable hour). But I miss them in the house. I guess I am lonely without Dave here, and I do worry about them outside. So a couple nights ago I walked down towards the barn one evening to check on them. They took one look at me and started squawking desperately and rushing towards me. Followed me right up to the house and in the front door.
Yes, I did let them in the front door. (I mentioned I was lonely, right). I made them their salad and they ate it so quickly I ended up making them two more before bedtime. Then they settled down by the wood stove and slept happily through the night. In the morning I let them out the front door and started cleaning duck poop off of everything (it is amazing how much two ducks can poop...)
The next night they showed up at the front door all on their own. This time I took the precaution of putting down some old sheets and arranging things so that they would be confined to the kitchen so they couldn't do so much damage to my carpets. In the morning, when I let them out again, I just picked up the sheets (COMPLETELY poop soaked) and put them in the washer. And so we've been doing things for about three weeks.
So here's the problem: I have a lot of guests around here during the summer. My mom was here a few days ago and she had her dog with her (who did not take ducks in the house with quite the equanimity my dogs seem to). And my dad and Ruth are coming next week. And after that we have three months straight of guests. Somehow I don't think I can keep letting the ducks in every night - its just too messy and too much work. And not everyone is quite so... fond of pushy, ornery ducks as I am.
Also, I have a lot to do around here. And some days I am really struggling to keep up. Its not like I NEED the added work of cleaning up after ducks every morning or the added hassle of blocking off my kitchen and plastering it with old sheets every evening (you would not believe the variety of surfaces ducks can get their poop on). So I think I have to stop letting them in. And maybe they'd be just as happy if I just made them a salad and left it outside every night... (but that's another problem - we are trying to be very money conscious and salad and fresh veggies cost a LOT. For the past month, I haven't eaten any fresh food myself because I have been saving it all for them...)
Two nights ago I didn't let them in. But last night I did - they just make me happy. I like their company. But what am I going to do tonight? And for the rest of their lives? I can't let them in forever. I simply can't. Their poop is really awful. And if anyone ever tells you it is possible to make a diaper for a duck, don't you believe them. I have tried everything and it simply doesn't work. Their tails are too big, too strong... well, just take my word for it. It just doesn't work.
So now I am trying to decide what to do about them. Haven't figured it out yet. Anybody have any good ideas?
They are Peking ducks - my favorite kind, but also a kind that is hard pressed to survive up here. They were bred strictly for meat and they have been striped of any ability to survive int he wild. They are bright white (so much so that they almost glow int he dark), they can't fly and they walk slowly, they grow so easily and quickly that their body often becomes too much for their legs and if they live to their full growth, they are likely to have crippled legs. But I really like these ducks, so I took them in and decided to give them a try at a life.
I raised them in the house in a crate in the living room. Once they got old enough I would draw them a bath every evening and let them swim around in the tub for a while. And three times per day I made them big bowls of salad and fresh vegetables, all soaked in a pot of water (becuase they love to look for food in the water). They never got very people-friendly (smart ducks) but I enjoyed them immensely. When they got too big for the crate, I moved them to the chicken house which has a bit of protection.
They've done great outside and I figured they were happier there -they never did get calm around me (though they learned to call to me if I slept in too late and didn't make their salad at a reasonable hour). But I miss them in the house. I guess I am lonely without Dave here, and I do worry about them outside. So a couple nights ago I walked down towards the barn one evening to check on them. They took one look at me and started squawking desperately and rushing towards me. Followed me right up to the house and in the front door.
Yes, I did let them in the front door. (I mentioned I was lonely, right). I made them their salad and they ate it so quickly I ended up making them two more before bedtime. Then they settled down by the wood stove and slept happily through the night. In the morning I let them out the front door and started cleaning duck poop off of everything (it is amazing how much two ducks can poop...)
The next night they showed up at the front door all on their own. This time I took the precaution of putting down some old sheets and arranging things so that they would be confined to the kitchen so they couldn't do so much damage to my carpets. In the morning, when I let them out again, I just picked up the sheets (COMPLETELY poop soaked) and put them in the washer. And so we've been doing things for about three weeks.
So here's the problem: I have a lot of guests around here during the summer. My mom was here a few days ago and she had her dog with her (who did not take ducks in the house with quite the equanimity my dogs seem to). And my dad and Ruth are coming next week. And after that we have three months straight of guests. Somehow I don't think I can keep letting the ducks in every night - its just too messy and too much work. And not everyone is quite so... fond of pushy, ornery ducks as I am.
Also, I have a lot to do around here. And some days I am really struggling to keep up. Its not like I NEED the added work of cleaning up after ducks every morning or the added hassle of blocking off my kitchen and plastering it with old sheets every evening (you would not believe the variety of surfaces ducks can get their poop on). So I think I have to stop letting them in. And maybe they'd be just as happy if I just made them a salad and left it outside every night... (but that's another problem - we are trying to be very money conscious and salad and fresh veggies cost a LOT. For the past month, I haven't eaten any fresh food myself because I have been saving it all for them...)
Two nights ago I didn't let them in. But last night I did - they just make me happy. I like their company. But what am I going to do tonight? And for the rest of their lives? I can't let them in forever. I simply can't. Their poop is really awful. And if anyone ever tells you it is possible to make a diaper for a duck, don't you believe them. I have tried everything and it simply doesn't work. Their tails are too big, too strong... well, just take my word for it. It just doesn't work.
So now I am trying to decide what to do about them. Haven't figured it out yet. Anybody have any good ideas?
Friday May 9, 2008
Had two neighbors work with me for 6 hours today getting all the fallen trees out of the goat barn pasture. We cleared about 40 trees that were knocked down at the beginning of the winter and that took out all our fencing in that pasture. All exhausted but the amount of work we did was great. I very much hope that on Monday we can move on to clearing the old fencing and getting a new fence up. I just finished with one outside mare and have three more coming this week. We need the extra space!
Friday, May 2, 2008
May 2, 2008
Beautiful, sunny day and the ground is drying fast, snow is melting fast. If this keeps up we will have almost no mud season to speak of!
Tried to breed Ryder and the visiting mare this morning but Ryder couldn't get his timing right. Kept belling before he could get in. Finally put them both in stalls alone and gave them a few hours to think about it. Came back and had no problem at all. Went smoothly. I've bred this mare each day she has been in heat and expect her to go out soon. Pleased with how her breeding is proceeding. Pleased that I am getting this job done so well with only me here to do it.
Moved a few horses around. Got a few fences worked on. Got the electric up and going. All is well at the ranch!
Tried to breed Ryder and the visiting mare this morning but Ryder couldn't get his timing right. Kept belling before he could get in. Finally put them both in stalls alone and gave them a few hours to think about it. Came back and had no problem at all. Went smoothly. I've bred this mare each day she has been in heat and expect her to go out soon. Pleased with how her breeding is proceeding. Pleased that I am getting this job done so well with only me here to do it.
Moved a few horses around. Got a few fences worked on. Got the electric up and going. All is well at the ranch!
May 1, 2008
Seems like spring has finally shown up. As of the past three days, the snow is melting. Creek has jumped its banks and there is lots and lots of mud, but not as bad as most years so far. Temperatures are in the 30's getting up higher every few days.
Started my first breeding client of the year. Did the breeding by myself yesterday and it went well. No one here to help this year, so I am glad I have the routine down well enough to handle on my own.
Fences down in the back 20 today - Jared is here fixing that. Had hoped to get him going on a different project, but seems like there is always upkeep needed that takes precedence!
Echo and Cowboy got themselves over a deep part of the creek (Echo so she could be near Ryder, Cowboy because he is in love with Echo...). They couldn't get themselves back the way they had come - I left them on this little island of dry for two days, hoping they would get up the motivation to jump the creek back the other way. Finally went out and forced Cowboy across, getting myself dunked up to my waste in the process. Didn't want to force Echo the same way, as it was pretty deep and she is pretty pregnant. So I coxed her closer to Ryder's pasture and took her through a gate into there (couldn't do that with Cowboy unless I moved Ryder out, as they would have fought). All was well until Cowboy got so panicked that Echo was going in with Ryder that he JUMPED THE CREEK AGAIN and got himself suck on the little island of dry AGAIN. I finally just fed him there.
Am breeding today and moving some horses. Fixing fence. All pretty normal spring around here.
Started my first breeding client of the year. Did the breeding by myself yesterday and it went well. No one here to help this year, so I am glad I have the routine down well enough to handle on my own.
Fences down in the back 20 today - Jared is here fixing that. Had hoped to get him going on a different project, but seems like there is always upkeep needed that takes precedence!
Echo and Cowboy got themselves over a deep part of the creek (Echo so she could be near Ryder, Cowboy because he is in love with Echo...). They couldn't get themselves back the way they had come - I left them on this little island of dry for two days, hoping they would get up the motivation to jump the creek back the other way. Finally went out and forced Cowboy across, getting myself dunked up to my waste in the process. Didn't want to force Echo the same way, as it was pretty deep and she is pretty pregnant. So I coxed her closer to Ryder's pasture and took her through a gate into there (couldn't do that with Cowboy unless I moved Ryder out, as they would have fought). All was well until Cowboy got so panicked that Echo was going in with Ryder that he JUMPED THE CREEK AGAIN and got himself suck on the little island of dry AGAIN. I finally just fed him there.
Am breeding today and moving some horses. Fixing fence. All pretty normal spring around here.
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