Chandra had a birthday late last month, I got to see her and Tracy for a few minutes before I headed off to work. Mr. Activity (Tracy) is getting big, and walking now. Way cool! (Too bad Jared is missing out!) :(
Jared has been moved from one area to another.....and hopefully he'll be home in a couple of months. A lot of "wait and see" is going on right now I think. Sigh.
The garden is weedy, but producing! It's taken quite a bit of water to keep it going in the dry period we've just had. Rains pass us by, but last night we did get 1/2"--the pastures are sorely needing the moisture as they are turning brown. :'(
Patrick and I have been busy.....Pat hasn't been feeling so great most of the summer, the heat really affects him (hence why we didn't stay in Texas!). Even with it being "cooler", the higher humidity doesn't help matters any.
Anyhow, we've gotten quite a bit canned, and Pat did some pressure canning (corn) while I was at work. Awesome is all I can say! The peaches have been ripening for a month or so....slowly a few at a time are ready (totally weird--they usually don't ripen until late August/early September). So depending on how many we get, we either eat them or can them. Thanks to Daisy, Peaches and Cream is very do-able! :-)
Daisy had an accident not quite two weeks ago. Keep in mind we've had the same hay trailer for 5 years, and it's never been an "issue" with the cow or calves. Daisy somehow got her head stuck IN the tongue of the hay feeder (1 foot wide at the tallest part!) and then struggled enough that she slipped onto her right side. All her weight was on her neck and stuck head, good thing I found her when I did, I don't think she literally had another 10 minutes left in that position.
It maybe only took us 10 minutes to "free" her, but I could see her bloating and knew things were going from bad to a very, very critical worse. With the help of the neighbor, we tilted the trailer and Pat shoved her head out (it was very swollen). When she breathed it sounded like someone snoring, oh boy, not good at all! Doc Tyler (vet) was here within 10 minutes of calling him--poor Daisy was weak, wobbly and couldn't stand very well.
Doc gave her an IV for fluids and also gave her some anti-swelling meds (Dex and Banamine) and they also help with pain. It took her about 4 days before she'd actually lay down for more than a few minutes and was still sore and walked stiffly. Her neck, head and leg are peeling where she was stuck, it all acted like a rope burn.
I am grateful to pay $102 for the emergency call versus losing my sweet Daisy! I do know had she been left with a halter on, it would of strangled her, so am extra thankful that I didn't have one on her for whatever reason.
Her milk production went down for a few days, so I supplemented with soaked alfalfa cubes and she's almost back up to her 2 gallons a day. Peewee still nurses twice a day, but Bratman (Jersey foster calf that lost his mama) is on only morning nursing now since he's older, and a rougher/more aggressive nurser, I didn't need him making Daisy more miserable!
This is only about 1/4 swollen compared to the night before (I was too busy taking care of her to snap photos!) The funny black mark on her neck is actually damage (like a rope burn):
This was 4 days later (see even by her ear it's "raw"):
And I just took these today to show the "peeling" of where she was stuck:
Yes, even between her eye and ear, it was titled to the top and rubbing on the tongue.
Even this was rubbed/stuck under her jaw:
And the nasty neck wound:
I didn't get a photo of her leg, it's peeling on the inside, too. She'd flung her left front leg up over the jack trying to free herself and rubbed it raw as well. Every "rub" mark you see was all swollen.
And her is literally where she had it stuck, thank God we didn't have a full bale in it like in the photos, we'd of never got it titled sideways without crushing her or one of us:
That gap is only 1 ft wide and 20 inches long to the jack, and it narrows (in a "V" shape).
How she got her head IN there in the first place (or WHY) is beyond me. I'd expect it from a calf, not a laid-back mature cow!
On another note, I am down to TWO hens in a matter of a few days. A feral cat or fox or possum or 'coon or bird (hawk/owl), well, *something* has decided to take hens in broad daylight, or even from the coop roost at night. So the two left are in "jail"--the smaller chicken tractor.
My 15 chicks are in the larger chicken tractor for the time being. I know there are at least 5 roosters in the batch....time will tell if I'm not realizing if there are more or not. So it might be awhile before the pullets start laying.
Feast or Famine.....that is the norm with livestock/produce/fruit!
Janene, sounds like life on the farm is .... well .... normal. My memories of life on the farm were never about routine and boredom. Every day new challenges would present themselves. I'm just glad that Daisy made it and appears to be on the way to recovery.
ReplyDeleteMy gardens were a bust here this year. The very late frost froze out the best plants. After replanting every thing the big hail storm with flash flooding and high winds destroyed every thing again. By the middle of June planting season was pretty much over. I did try to plant some tomatoes and peppers in my back yard garden but then the neighbor's yard service sprayed weed spray and I think my garden got a whiff of the spray. The leaves turned yellow and all the blossoms fell off. The green tomatoes continued to grow to maturity and I am harvesting them but really 10 or 12 tomatoes total from four plants. The plants still look scraggly and sick. Same with the green peppers. Terra Nova Gardens has a few tomatoes with blooms but I don't think there's enough time for them to mature. There's also some eggplants and the potatoes look like they might do really well this year again.
I bought another vacant city lot to use for gardening so now I consider myself an official urban farmer. I probably won't do much with it for a couple years as Terra Nova Gardens still needs a lot of development. I couldn't pass up the new lot as it only cost $100.
Have a great day on the farm.