Finally October

Yesterday was our six year wedding anniversary.  How did the time go by so quickly?? The day was warm just like on our actual wedding day.  We spent several hours of it sanding and staining our deck. Not too exciting, but at least we were together.  Hopefully soon we can do our annual trip to Elk River to our driving coach's farm to do some horse logging, or some team driving.  

What should I write about? I'm sure people get tired of hearing all there is to do, what we haven't done yet, what the weather is doing.  But that's pretty much my life.  

Last week I was letting the sheep out into their pasture and Starburst ewe was hanging around me looking quiet.  Her neck wool was deep red, and her right ear was split down the middle.  Poor Starburst....she'd ripped her ear tag out, probably the day before.  She actually let me put some corona ointment on it, which I was hoping would be a barrier to flies and mosquitoes.  I also managed to get her a dose of Miss Oats meloxicam.  A few days later things appeared to be healing ok.  Then a few days after the torn edges were turning purple and swollen, Starburst had a grumpy facial expression and acted irritated.  She wouldn't come near me and was agitated when the other sheep approached her especially from the side of her injured ear.  I guessed that since the mosquitoes had been so bad overnight she'd been shaking and shaking her head and the wound had opened up and bled again.  

Unhappy face

The vet was coming the next day to check Oakley's breathing, and we caught up the flock for him to check them out.  I've felt like they have all lost a bit of weight this summer, but he was happy with their condition and their eyelid colour (to check for anemia due to parasites).  

The ear had gotten much better overnight, and I felt a little silly for telling him it had looked so bad.  But it was good news.  She had to be tagged again for legal reasons, so I had the vet do it.  Not a fun experience overall.  He tagged her low down in the tattered ear, and we thought we were golden.

After Oakley's driving lesson where we dragged the compost piles through the most challenging section of pasture we have, I was cleaning Oakley's harness and having a lovely time watching the palace chooks and guineas run around the paddock.  At the end of a long Friday it was just what I needed. Feeling successful and at ease...But then I saw Starburst shaking her head, looking VERY mad.

Her neck was red with fresh blood. She ripped out her brand new tag! I was so frustrated that I called the vet at one minute to closing time to tell him.  He couldn't believe it either.  I will likely look into microchipping her for her scrapie ID since she doesn't tolerate tags apparently. 

I didn't want her to shake her head all night and attract more mosquitoes and potentially give herself cauliflower ear, so I asked G to help me catch the flock up once more so I could try something to give her some relief.  I couldn't give her meloxicam since she'd already had her dose the day before, and it's only given every two days.  What I ended up doing was trying to hold the bleeding edges with several steri-strips (they are like sutures but in bandage form).  They didn't hold super well as I'd suspected since the ear was still wet, but they held.  They I wrapped the ear in several pieces of tegaderm almost like a sling, since that lower half was flopping around like a broken arm.  I didn't think anyone would want to see horrible photos of her ear, so I didn't take any.  My hands were too covered in blood to use my phone anyway. Rotten rotten luck for our little ewe.

She appeared to be in better spirits the next day, and I haven't seen her shaking much.  Hopefully the colder temperatures overnights are giving her some relief.  But our days are still hitting 20 C, and the flies are back again. 

***

We got 150 bales of nice clean hay put up last week. It's not all that we'll need for the winter, but it's a start at least. We'll have to find some clean alfalfa for the sheep and for Winston just like in past years. 

Today I'm just trying to recover from a horrible interrupted sleep, and pick hops and herbs and muck the paddock before we get heavy rain tonight. 

I can't believe they are calling for frost on Friday night! I guess I shouldn't be so surprised.  Things always change quickly here.  All of the birds I normally associate with spring are here again as they travel south for the winter.  It's nice to hear bluebirds and blackbirds again.  The turkey vultures were kettling overhead yesterday probably waiting for the right winds to send them on their way to South America.

I have many more updates but for now I'd better get back out there.  While I pick the hops the sheep just stand there chewing cud and staring at me.  For some reason it all makes me very sleepy...