Ruminations: Keep calm and guinea on

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Keep calm and guinea on

Glenn left for Vancouver Island yesterday. He's in Parksville meeting with some of the consultants he hired to do some test work. Very convenient timing...I've never seen him this homesick, and missing family. He'll drive down to Victoria to spend a few days with them before coming home on Saturday.

I was supposed to go out on rounds with our sheep vet and his crew today, but a vet student got my spot. Jerk. There weren't sheep procedures booked, which would have been my preference anyway, but it still would have been cool to see the team work on a herd of cattle, for vaccinations and pregnancy checks. Hopefully something will come up soon and I'll get to go with them. It's great seeing how much they seem to love their jobs-and the Doc has an amazing way with animals. When he came to see Lace when she was sick I didn't think he was going to get past Oakley--they seemed pretty smitten with each other. It's great to see a full grown man crooning and speaking softly to a giant beast. Nice to know that in an emergency if I can't get Dr. Ed to come and see Oakley or Winny that Dr. Bruce would care for them well.

The barn hydrant is frozen again. Glenn was able to stop the leaking, but in the process the floor got a bit flooded again and then it dropped to about -18C overnight...So I'm on my way to the farm store to pick up some heat tape, another radiator, and a sled. The sled is the type that snowmobilers haul gear on behind their machines. I find that the most efficient way to haul feed and supplies from the house out to the barn. Also if we get a lot of snow I think I might use it to haul manure from the stalls, since it gets a little tough just using the wheel barrow. Also, I think it might make an excellent chariot for when I teach Oakley to drive!! Yee haw!!!

I pulled another guinea in from the coop for treatment. Since she is dark (with dark spotted feet) it's been harder to tell who is suffering from frostbite. I might have to euthanize one of the three I've been treating. It's just not obvious at the beginning who has the most damage. It's showing up now that it's ~10 days after the initial damage.

One of the hens I've been treating.

Poor guineas...I'll put up a few photos of the progression soon. They might be disturbing to some people.

Mr. Flan had gotten frostbite on his comb when it was -21C one night, and his coop wasn't fully insulated. He's been in a large cage in the garage ever since, under an IR lamp. His appetite has gotten very poor, and he didn't even seem too thrilled when I gave him boiled egg and pumpkin mash yesterday. His comb isn't fully healed, but I'm happy that he didn't actually lose any points of the comb--there is just one more that is still a little dark. So my experiment today (since it's actually only -4C out!!) was to put him back with his flock and see how his attitude changed. Well!!! There was a whole lot of wattle shaking going on, and he instantly just started calling his hens and cooing and digging like mad, trying to find food for them. It was pretty sweet. I might still pull him into the garage tonight, but for today it should be good for him to get some exercise, get the blood flow going to those damaged spots, and hopefully eat well, since apparently he feels that his only reason for living is to be adored by his ladies.

I wanted to finish my job application for a tech job that just opened at The Raptor Center, but it will have to wait until I do my errands. There is a system moving in with snow and high winds, so I don't want to be out driving in whiteout conditions. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about the job anyway, since there will likely be other qualified applicants out there, and it's not looking hopeful that I will be able to get a US work visa anyway. I spoke to G's company lawyer yesterday. She said it's worth a shot, but it's certainly not a slam dunk. What will be will be, as always.

But I CERTAINLY won't DARE feel like I'm unlucky. I'm VERY LUCKY.