We almost had a real frost last week. The deck rail had frost in the morning, and the calendulas were soaked later in the morning, but I don't think it was too bad out there. We covered the peppers and tomatoes the night before anyway. We only had a few frost blankets, so used old bed sheets to complete the task.
Calendulas with dew:
Some of our previous calendula harvests went moldy, so I'm extra motivated to collect every last blossom on the sunny days we are forecasted to receive this next few weeks.
We made good head way on some winterizing projects. The duck house, formerly an a frame that was built from plans in Harvey Ursury's book "small scale poultry raising" needed some height to it. No more crawling in to collect eggs, and worrying about the ducks bashing their heads or wings on it. It's a perfect mobile chicken tractor design, but too hot here in the summer due to the sheet metal, and hard to insulate in the winter. G, Albert and I got the a frame on top of the walls that G built, the next weekend G and his friend from Vancouver got the insulation done. Now I just have to paint it, and convince those crazy ducks that it's not a terrifying place where they will be most certainly eaten. Ducks really don't like change....
Also, the walls of Mr. Flan's coop are now insulated and painted. G and I did that together last weekend. Now for the roof and egg box, and ordering a proper heater for them. Even with two heat lamps they still experienced -17 C in that coop, and we are expecting another brutally cold winter.
This past week or so in animal news: Oakley had a horrible heaves episode for some reason--I suspect the ragweed, or our farm sitter gave him dry hay (doubtful), so he just finished a course of dex.
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| Oakley watching the sandhill cranes that landed in the riding ring |
One of our gold laced wyandottes that seems to have constant diarrhea needed a spa day, and when I cleaned her up I found a wound likely caused by the burning of the urates. Poor girl. She looked happy to be preening her clean feathers and ranging with the crew over in the sunflowers. I will have to grab her again today for another spa day. I used diaper cream to protect the healing tissue from further insult. Only risk with that is of course chickens are attracted to white things, so she was at risk of being picked. But I was confident that she would lay the smack down should any hen even attempt to go there.
I think the sheep need deworming. I checked a few of their eyes the other day and they looked paler than last check, and since that was a fairly hot day I thought my conclusion might be wrong, so I checked again in cooler weather. Still pale. I will likely bring in a fecal sample to check what they've got going on, We are moving them through our remnant gardens on rotation (squash patch, corn patch, turnip/millet patch) then they will finally be next to the hard paddock with our catch pen in about two weeks. Then we can deworm them then, and then the rest of their rotations will have only single grazing periods. We won't put them back on pasture that they might have dropped parasite loads on, then they will be back in their winter padddock,which we will mow first (parasite climb grass blades!).
Winston threw a shoe AGAIN. He's already sore. I can't keep him booted all winter, but I will order some proper boots for when this sort of thing happens, because my luck with farriers stinks. As long as we keep the horses in the long deep pastures (loamy soil and long grasses) then his egg bar shoes are at risk of coming off. That part isn't the farrier's fault.
One of our guinea boys has been getting contracted feet, and this week it progressed very quickly. He will lay down while out ranging with the others. By last night he was teetering around without much balance (try going about your entire day on the balls of your feet). I will have to catch him today and bring him into on the of the cages in the garage, try some metacam for a few days and see if euthanasia is our only course. I heard back from my vet friend that if you catch it early enough you can attach splint type boots to keep their feet flat, but I think it's far too late. Poor little dude--he's go the brightest little face and beautiful purple feathers. Our luck with guineas just stinks. That being said, I do enjoy them and their antics so much, I think I will always want them as part of our crazy farm zoo.
We got our beautiful yarn and roving back from the mill!! Pics to follow soon, plus more on my trip to BC that feels very far in the past already...
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| The palace crew ranging |
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