For Phelan's Readers

I'm deeply sorry that I didn't get a chance to be on my computer long enough to tell you of our weekend.

I spent most of Saturday cleaning house (inside and out); P&D rolled in just as it was getting dark. We sped off with them to the New Orleans-style restaurant while their kitchen was still open. Dinner was delicious, but since Anthony hadn't napped that afternoon, we had to do a lot of juggling and appeasing.

When we got back, we put them to bed asap, as they'd had only 3 hours of sleep since Kansas. P and I woke up before the men got going, and by the time DH had made breakfast (while Dan installed their trailer lights) , it was an hour away from their departure time.

We had several delays, some due to the animals, others to trip logistics. They left here around 2:30. I will let Phelan tell you all about what they've brought back to KS.

[I'll update this after she's published her story--it's going to be a doozy]

Quick donkey update

Sombrea's all current with her vaccinations (rabies, west nile, flu) and the vet got the blood draw for the Coggins test. Would you believe she was the perfect little angel? Stood still for all the poking, didn't drag me all around the pen, no one got kicked. Yes, she's still holding a grudge against Steve, and he graciously bowed out of sight while I handled her.

There's hope for her yet.

We'll pick up her traveling papers on Friday, and have it all foldered up for Phelan and Dan to take with them.

Oh, and she is carrying "a little someone." The vet was able to nudge her side enough for the jack or jenny to nudge back. So, watch the skies for a really big stork to show up as early as late July.

Looking After a Donkey, by Dorothy Morris

We didn't have much time to prepare for our donkeys; we'd been losing the sheep to predators, and had mentioned needing some sort of guard animal to keep our herd safe. My MIL took this on as a mission (this was one of her more rational ones), and found us not one, but two. DH knew he wouldn't have the time to spend with them (training or standard status checks), and I have little to no equine experience (early readers may remember the one about Hercules the Thumb-Bandit). If we'd had a chance to wait, and to prepare better, I might have chosen another title.

Anyway, I was a good little consumer and dutifully kneeled at the altar (my laptop) to beseech the dieties (at Amazon) for words of salvation (this book). I read this out of necessity (I desperately needed to know how to cope with our donkeys) about a month ago. I found it to be moderately helpful. It was published about 20 years ago, and it is U.K.-centric, so the donkey organization information is only relevant in the sense that I can now go find their website in hope of more detailed health and care information. Some of the advice given assumes that the reader has some (what I would consider advanced-intermediate) knowledge on how to handle equines. Morrison tries to cover everything in 140+ pages, and I'm sure there's so much more that the new owner needs to know. A good third of the book is devoted to breeding and foaling, which to me seems heavy, but I realize that the author is writing from that standpoint and has good advice in those aspects. So, I’ll be searching for another book, and I’ll be begging for handling lessons from my neighbor or one of DH’s college buddies.

I did it

I have 10+ pages of handwritten material for my DayDiary submission. I can't publish any of it until after the book comes out, and then only 500 words worth (assuming that any of it makes the cut). I will check in later to write about the writing, the day, and how I'm getting by with no sleep. That kid had better take a nap today so help me...

I told Steve last night that I might could be book-published next year. He was surpised and happy. I haven't slept since 6:57 yesterday morning. I have to walk away from the writing so I can breathe and figure out how to clean it up for submission. I have a lot of chronicle and only a little depth and humor. Did not get to bake bread last night, so must go fix big salad and coffee for husband, hope it gets him through the day.

These donkeys just won't quit picking on the chickens

We have a chicken (one of the Barred Rocks) who isn't getting along too well--she doesn't seem sick, but she's got a hitch in her get-along, and it's freaking the others out enough that they've pecked away nearly half her comb. So, we put her in the semi-obvious place: the old rabbit hutch GranR had given us. Not 3 hours later, I looked out the sliding glass door into the backyard and found that the hutch had rotated 90 degrees. The theory is that the donkeys shoved it around in order to eat the grain I'd put in there. When DH gets a chance, he will move the hutch into Boudeaux's pen (I'll try to help, but I'm not the buff 19 I used to be).

Yesterday, while my husband was out checking the viability of said hutch move, he discovered a huge stash of eggs under one of our brush piles. Since we've no way of knowing how long they've been there, we can't sell them. And, color me wimpy, but I'm not brave enough to try using them ourselves. We've tried candling before, and we aren't very good at it (we lost 2 chicks that way). So, since we have a chicken that was isolated anyway (and I'll assume she has nothing better to do), I built a nest with shredded newspaper (hay is $8.50 a bale here, and too expensive to use for nesting), and moved the eggs in. There's 26, and I don't think she'll be able to hatch all of them, but we'll give it a try.

The lesson here is that I need to get out more, and scope out chicken-friendly egg-hiding places so this doesn't happen again.

DestructoDonkey

A few weeks back, the donkeys busted through one side of the chicken yard. Steve hasn't been able to make the time to nail a new board up, so we've lived with the chickens being able to let themselves out in the morning. What we didn't realize was that Serenity is able to crawl under the wire and help herself to the corn and oats that I throw out for scratch. After a few incidences of chasing her out of the yard, we've decided that we'll just have to confine all chicken feed to the inside of their coop until we can design and build the new setup (one with real roosts, storage for food, nests, and a hover for chicks). We're getting some good ideas from How to Build Animal Housing by Carol Ekarius. If we go with a full-fledged coop, we will probably make it part of the barn/complex that is part of the Grand Plan.

We wanted chicks last spring, but I wasn't able to get my act together enough to buy an incubator and make space for the chicks. Our last attempt to expand our flock was sheer accident--I won't repeat the story here. In short, it didn't do much to improve our operation (we were hoping to have fryers by now). Once I get my raised beds going, I think I'll get that incubator, clean out the old camping bin, and raise us some more babies.

Dances With Sheep

[no, not the ones at Things Celtic this afternoon]

S has been shearing the 2-years-past-due Karakuls while he's been off this week. None of them have been cooperative, but this last "gelding" was an extra-special piece of work. S originally attempted to shear him on Thursday after the flock had been penned (the good farmer lets his sheep fast overnight so there's minimal gastric stress when put in the proper sitting position), but the sheep wiggled loose from the hog-tie and took off. This put him in the front yard, away from his flock; in the meantime, S sheared the "newer" ewe, and wound up with a horrible sunburn--I've been on aloe duty for the past few days. S tried again to catch the rogue, but Bucky managed to clear the fence, but not without injuring his nose (S thinks it may be broken). Reuniting with the flock was probably the best, as it's easier to corral all than to cull one on 9-something acres full of cedar.

On Friday, as I was doling out pellets, husband yelled across the yard "I'd appreciate it if you'd step on that lead rope." Well, I did, thinking it couldn't be that difficult. Alas, the sheep was too quick for me, and he pulled my foot out from under me. The only thing that kept me from falling over completely was the fact that he had a horn to grab--not that it was the most stable thing to hang onto. I, of course, panicked and screamed like an ax murderee (we were both surprised that we didn't get a visit from the neighbors, or the sheriff). S quickly ran from the house to the pen (wish I could have seen that), and rescued me from Bucky.

Later on this afternoon, S eventually wrestled the sheep onto its side and hogtied it again. In his words:
"My [shearing] technique did improve, though what this psychotic gelding lacked in nicks he made up for in self-injury [prior to being tied up], insisting on ramming into the side of the garage side of the pen, the 2x6 boards on the back side of the pen, and the metal gate, culminating in leaping into the air and landing on his head, twice."

Apparently, this one is not hooked up to the sheep matrix, as its "anti-wiggle reflex" (their will to fight is supposed to switch off when all their feet are off the ground/immobilized) doesn't seem to be operational. DH said that he took a few hits to...sensitive parts. *wince* I hope everyone's OK. I'm fixing to ovulate soonish.

After years of collecting,

I need to make another stab at organizing everything I’ve clipped and photocopied. I’ve filled the two photo albums I started out with, and now I’m filling page protectors and filing those into binders. I have temporary tabs for each section (chicken, pasta, beef, etc.), and will put “permanent” ones on once I’ve made certain of the paging (that is, I might want to rearrange the order of sections so that those I use most are in front.

I also need to do a table of contents for each, and a master one (perhaps after I get the Open Office software in a month or two) so my recipes are easier to track. The last time I spent cutting and pasting, I found that I’ve saved similar recipes, which don’t need to take up twice the space.

See more progress on: organize my recipes

I actually have two quilts started

One is a top that my great-grandmother started, and I finished the re-piecing last year. Now I need to bring it back out of the closet and figure out what I want to use for “batting” (it might be a layer or two of plain old blanket), and I need to find the right backing. I’m going to tie this one, just to keep it simple.

The other quilt is a sampler I’d started in college. All the squares are cut and organized; the next step is to get all the patterns sewn together, then I’ll work on layout.

See more progress on: finish my quilt

Many, many piles

Time is the biggest factor in terms of getting my papers under control. I have the materials (folders, cabinets, crates, etc.), but I just need several uninterrupted hours to make a first pass at archiving, sorting, prioritizing, and tossing everything that has piled up over the past 4 years.

I want to find my notes from “File, Don’t Pile” which I read 7 or 8 years ago; if I can’t, then I may try to get a copy through an interlibrary loan (which may actually take a month or two). In the meantime, I can get some ideas from:

Unclutter Your Home
Family Manager Takes Charge
Creative Home Organizer
How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself

I’ll get in touch with R (the sitter), see if she’s available tomorrow, and see how much I can get done.

See more progress on: organize my paperwork