It's always tough to make time for myself when there is so much to do. But by last night I was getting in a right foul mood from the pain and the heat of the day. So I will go today and ask that I get stim on those muscles until they are right and nicely fatigued. Tomorrow is hoof trimming day for all eight sheep, and I need to work with Winston to get him better at foot handling, so I need my back in weekend work shape!!
I moved Miss D and the keets to the duck brooder yesterday afternoon. It did not go smoothly. Most of them escaped en route, and at one point while they all screeched for mom and she screeched for them I was chasing them, catching them, tossing them into the brooder like potatoes, while simultaneously trying to stop the ones with her from jumping out of the big aviary and escaping into nooks and crannies of the garage. She was right to be mad at me...I had to catch her twice as well, and she is not a tame bird nor ever will be. I'm pretty lucky that she's not mean though, because that beak could do some serious damage to my hands and arms.
I'm concerned for one of the keets. He's a little weak, and has always been a little slow and unsteady on his legs. I was able to catch him too easily this morning, but then realized I didn't have a brooder with a heat lamp set up so I'd have to go and put him back until after morning duties, then reassess. Also, the stress for him to be alone would be pretty awful, so unless he's really really depressed and needs immediate nursing care, my options are leave him with mom and hope he improves, or move him to a brooder with one or two of his siblings. I really hope he's not impacted with shavings like the one that died yesterday...I'll never raise guineas on shavings again. We see this sometimes with chicks as well, but not to this extent.
We've decided that Captain Jack and Tulip will have to give up their lovely cruiser so the guineas can have an outdoor brooder with more room. Miss D is not happy in the tiny duck brooder. We don't want her inside in the big brooder in the basement. She likes having the baby daddies around. (Chaos and Trouble). We'll move it this afternoon into the electronetted enclosure, and move them after dark so I can avoid the crazy escaping keets routine.
We brought the horses in for their nap and fly reprieve before we went to town. When we came back an hour ago our yarn, roving and Premier supplies had arrived!! More supplies for the giant medical and husbandry supplies cupboard downstairs. I really should take a photo of it--it's taken a while to accumulate all the gear and supplies we need to deal with the most common ailments and injuries we see on such a variety of species. It's very comforting when something comes up to know we can deal with it.
Very excited about our yarn...although it doesn't look like a lot (volume wise) compared to the giant fleeces I skirted and sent off to the mill a few months ago. I have four giant bags of roving...Mama Ewe had some breakage in the brittle ends so it was recommended that we get hers back in roving (hand spinning can accommodate things that would cause machines to make an inferior product). It's a gorgeous chocolate brown colour with little streaks of grey. Axle's roving is fluffy soft grey lamb roving, very much like the Cormo roving I got to spin at my class back in the winter.
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| Cormo sheep--an Australian breed developed my crossing Corriedales and Merinos. |
Big day today (Saturday). Lots from the last few days--mostly good, some not so good. All is well on our farm, but what I saw on the neighbour's farm may keep me up for a few hours. More on that soon.
We decided that it was too hot to do the hoof trimming and wrangling of the flock (80 degrees by 8am)--so we just did Prince and Henry in their stall this morning. Good thing we did. Prince had very long toes and the beginnings of thrush on his right hind medial toe. Kept it as positive as we could, and they didn't seem stressed afterwards. Henry punched me with his newly trimmed hooves while I worked on Prince. Not sure if he was concerned for his brother, or just frustrated that I wasn't paying him any attention.
The wind has picked up tonight and is so wonderful after a long hot day--Prince was bouncing and leaping around, and I felt compelled to jump around a bit too, which he found very exciting--the older ewes, not so much. Act out your glee when you have it, that's what I say....
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