Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A day off

I have today off since it is the third Tuesday of the month and I have a La Leche League meeting today.  I am tired and am trying to take advantage of the day off by doing things that have been neglected around here.  We just bought a dishwasher at Menard's for $199 and it needs to be installed.  It was (obviously) on sale and it looks like it will do a good job.  Although I have been fighting myself about getting a dishwasher (water usage vs electricity usage) time and clutter have won out.  Although (theoretically) we will use less water, I am sure we will use more electricity doing dishes this way than doing them by hand.  The dishwasher also has a sanitizer setting so mason jars can be sanitized easier when it comes time to can.  Such as when I go to do the green beans today or tomorrow.

I have poison ivy on my arm thanks to Flora.  She had gotten on the other side of the fence and reaching through to grab her collar and walk her back to the hole (her on one side with me on the other) had my arm going over some poison ivy.  Stupid goat.  

Our herd is up to 16 now.  We have five milking (two of which are weaning their kids) and four other adults that we just got yesterday (all of which need hoof trimming but are otherwise healthy) and a total of seven kids.  We are nuts.  Just say it.  I am in total agreement.

We also have two donkeys.  The jack is named Henry and the jenny is named Snowball.  They are in bad shape.  Yesterday went very quickly from going to buy a couple of donkeys to a rescue operation.  Normally if animals don't load easily or are seeming spooked, we will offer to come back later or the next day and try XYZ since ABC didn't seem to be working with loading.  The last thing we want when we bring animals home is for them to be terrified.  But we both knew the minute we saw these animals that we had to get them out of there and we were not going to leave without them.  I just about cried when I saw them.  I'll post pictures later, but there appears to be an eye infection going on in both eyes of the jack and in at least one eye of the jenny, the hooves are horrid.  (Snowball's is the worse.)  And, according to the people we bought them from, Snowball is pregnant.  She is losing her hair.  I don't know if she has lice, mites, or just really horrible skin.  The flies are attacking the eyes thanks to the infection and the underneath of Henry's eyes are oozing some blood.  I tried to get them in to a vet yesterday, but no one had an opening and no one had an opening today either.  They do have an appointment tomorrow late afternoon, which we will keep if we don't find someone to see them sooner.  We are still calling around to find someone to see them ASAP.

This is not the first time a livestock buy has become a rescue operation, but this is by far the worse one we have seen yet.  When and how we became a rescue, I don't know, but that is what we appear to be turning into.  While it is not a bad thing, the fact that it is needed is still heart breaking.

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