To The Hospital We Go

After two and a half years of farm life I had to take my first trip to the hospital.

Anyone who has spent time with me knows how clumsy I am. I am always covered in cuts and scrapes and bruises. So what could possibly send me to the emergency room??

Was it a chainsaw accident? No…

A fall off a ladder? No…

Did I get hit with a falling branch? No…

Tractor accident? No…

Was I protecting my barn from a bear? Closer…..

Protecting my chickens from a coyote? Closer….

Alright I will tell you.

I was trying to examine my 8 year old cat Charlie’s eye which is recovering from an ulcer when he had enough and bit me!

Yep, that’s it. I was sent to the hospital with a very fast moving bacterial infection caused by my overweight, slow, old, mostly indoor cat. 

Now anyone want to guess how dumb I feel!? I totally wish it could be a cooler story with more heroics, but no. A domestic cat bite got the best of me.

I now have to sit (the worst punishment of all), allow others to do things for me (a close second in the worse punishments of all time) and let the antibiotics work. Apparently, by using my hand, the bacteria is pushed faster and further through my system.

Ugh…sounds like a Netflix and chips afternoon. 

Busy, Busy, Busy…

I have made decent progress on my to do list this week. 

I finally finished putting the garden fence back up, reinforced the walls and weeded the perennial fruits, asparagus and garlic.

We put up a small outdoor  run for the bunnies so they can now frolick in the grass! And they are loving it!! It is so fun to watch them chase each other around the tree.

I have spent too much time sorting poop lol!! What is this world coming too?? Apparently rabbit fertilizer is amazing. Does not need to be composted, has a perfect mix of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and can be sold for $15 a pound. So I cleaned over 20 pounds and now we wait and see if they really are golden nuggets!

If you recall we successfully hatched one duck. But only one. Zoe and I found a person selling more call ducks so we went and picked up more friends for LD (our nickname for our duck born on the province wide Lock Down, or for Lonely Duck, or for Little Duck). The new babies are still in quarantine, but we are very happy that LD will have friends soon.

Warning…this last paragraph/photo may be upsetting to some people.

Our young barn cat and old indoor cat worked together to make their first kill! Finally!!

Shutdown…Again

I want to start today’s blog with a hello to Aunt Lucy and Carol who reached out last week. It was great to reconnect and catch up with you both!

We have been very COVID lucky here in Nova Scotia. We had the three month lockdown last year and since that, have been able to return to work and life (with the addition of masks and social distancing)…until April 28th. 

Zoe was laid off of work at that time but I have been able to stay working (with reduced hours) until now. I will be laid off again now though until we get our COVID numbers back under control. 

Since I always look for the positive side of things…I am going to appreciate the time off to get many neglected tasks done as well as do basic spring chores. 

To begin with:

If you recall, the ends of my garden fence blew out in a wind storm. Our first task was to rebuild that. The chickens have been very helpful!

We have been able to spend more time with the animals. We put up a very quick (and inadequate) run so our bunnies can come outside. They loved it and it has inspired us to build a better area so they can come out more, unsupervised.

We introduced our two hatches of chicks to the big hens and it went way better than I anticipated! There is very little bullying or pecking. Today they started to bond over shared sunflower seeds.

I was getting very nervous about the potential of wasted eggs. Our hens lay over a dozen a day right now and they were starting to pile up with only a few customers. We have a great sign that our neighbour gave us that we put out at the road late last week and …voila…we have customers!

I wrote out my list tonight and it looks like I will have a busy week (although I also am reading a great book right now so there will be lots of time for that Gayle Redmond!)

 I am very excited to have this time to accomplish lots and hopefully that means…back to weekly posts!

The Pig Pen

Ellie and Winnie finally have their outdoor home!

I realize that if I am unsure about something, I procrastinate badly. That was the case with this outdoor pig pen and the electric fencing. I have never worked with electric fencing and was really insecure about it. So something that should have taken two weeks took two months. Finally last week, Zoe and Navy stepped in and forced me to figure it out! While I asked questions and got comfortable they started clearing the land.

After that things moved very quickly. We got the shelter built, the posts in, the wire run, the charger connected, the gate mounted and voila!

The last step was to test the fence. I bought a very inexpensive tester and we struggled to see it light up. We were very nervous that the fence was not working. Then our darling cat Phoenix decided it would be fun to jump through the wires. Who needs a tester when you have a cat yowling and jumping 5 feet in the air! Electric fence works!

The final step was to move the pigs in. We had such high hopes for this. We figured it would be no problem to lead them from the barn to the pen with food as the incentive. Ya...no. They are apparently a lot smarter than that!

It was time to prove how strong I am. After hearing them scream like we were murdering them (it shows how far away our neighbours are that they didn’t send the police!) I first hugged and then picked up Ellie and carried her to the pen. Then I went back for Winnie and carried him over (with some help because he is a solid young man!) Then we sat and watched them wonder why they were so afraid of coming to this fantastic paradise that their loving humans built for them❤️

Happy Easter

 Another holiday has come and gone in relative COVID quiet. By now we have found ways to adjust. My son gets his card and chocolate via mail, my parents call us, and my household enjoys a dinner. While it is not ideal, it is sadly becoming normal. 

That aside, I was laughed at by my adult household for insisting on having an easter egg hunt but we followed it with a lovely dinner. 

We celebrated on Friday because Zoe and Navy welcomed a friend from Ontario on Sunday so they had to head into isolation. They have rented an amazing cottage on a lake to pass the time.

 I truly enjoy having them here and the house feels very quiet with them gone, but I am sure I will find ways to pass the time until they return! Today I enjoyed turning on SiriusXM and listening (uninterrupted) to a Blue Jays game and I will enjoy the mushroom salad that I get to eat tonight (mushrooms are banned from our house while Zoe and Navy are here).

Our animals are keeping me on my toes this week. Our little girl Phoenix-our adorable, full of life, barn kitten - turned out to be a boy lol! Good mom I am that I couldn't figure that one out until I happened to watch him walk away from me one day and saw a healthy set of testicles....

The chick that I helped hatch has been having some difficulty. She had curly toe, so we bandaged her foot and a day later that seemed to be corrected. She also had splay leg, so we put our hobble contraption on her, however she seems to have developed a secondary issue. Her legs are still splayed apart, but her one leg has also started to turn so the foot is pointing to the side instead of to the front. I am still not sure how to handle this one and am researching how to help her.

One of our chicks from the first hatch cut her toe so badly we thought she cut off the tip. Luckily she had not. But she came inside as we are now out of hospital space in the barn and she spent the night in the cat carrier to allow time for it to scab.

Our amazing momma bunny Willow had a litter of babies on Monday night. She had a whopping 10 kits! One did not make it through the first day. Nothing traumatic, she was not injured, just died. One of the remaining kits was not getting fed. We decided to leave her in the barn with her mom and brothers and sisters but we bottle fed her three times a day for 3 days. Today, for the first time, she looked like she had been fed by Willow and when I gave her the bottle, she was able to latch on and suck! She is half the size of the other bunnies, but getting stronger!

Then, because Zoe decided all this was not enough for us to handle, she brought home 10 duck eggs which are now in the incubator. 

Once I finish the outdoor pig pen and build them a hut, I get to look up plans for a duck dock that will float in our pond and have nesting boxes for the ducks!

Some days I just shake my head at what I have gotten myself into! As tired as I am, I absolutely love every moment of every animal I have the pleasure of knowing!

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you were able to find some joy and enjoy some company whether it was in real life or virtual. 

Animals

 It was hatch weekend again. Not as successful this time around. We incubated 24 eggs and only got 9 chicks. Our first batch we got 50% hatch rate so this 38% was very disappointing. But nevertheless we have 9 cutie little babies and I learned more about being a chicken mom. 

First: we have a chick with splay legs. It took some YouTube videos but I found a super easy, successful trick. Take one hair elastic, thread it through a cut piece of drinking straw to create one loop at either end, slip one foot in each loop with the straw bit between her legs. Leave it on for 1-2 days until her tendons develop properly. Looks good so far!!

Second: the last chick to hatch was taking forever to hatch, so while I had read to never interfere with a

hatch...I interfered! The sac the chick was in had hardened and it could not break out. We wet it down, and slowly began to peel off the membrane. She seems very weak now but hopefully she will be recovered by morning. 

While I am loving on the babies, let’s not forget our now 1 month old first hatches! They have moved to the barn and were all lined up on their perch for the first time tonight.

And of course our growing piglets. They are getting much more used to us and tolerant with my loving  and scratching everyday. 

After all this good news the piece of stressful news...we lost the ends of our garden fence in a wind storm this weekend. I spent today disconnecting the ends and securing the sides so I don’t lose anymore before I can go back out on a warmer day and rebuild it.

50

Wow! I used to think 50 was so old. Today, as the clock strikes midnight and I’m still awake (take that teenage self) I realize 50 is just the next chapter.

My decade years have been very memorable and I am really looking forward to this one as well. 

I honestly cannot remember my 10th birthday so I will start the reminiscing at 20. 

I spent my 20th birthday in Toronto in an 8 hour interview hoping for a spot with Canada World Youth travelling to Africa. Whether true or not, I felt my family would not support my desire to go to Africa and “save the babies” so I told no one that I applied, and I told no one I got an interview. It wasn’t until that birthday interview proved successful and I received an acceptance letter that I told my family. That birthday set in motion a series of life events that would help shape the next ten years of my life.

30 saw me celebrating with friends, a husband and my first born. I had always wanted a life with children. For years as a child, I asked Santa for a real baby. While this sadly never happened, having my own children has been the greatest joy in my life. 

My 40th birthday was amazing. It was a turning point for me. I was starting to find my independence, my strength, and to figure out who I was. I was fortunate enough to spend this birthday with my children, my parents, my brother and his family in Myrtle Beach. I surprised everyone with a limo that took us to a lovely dinner. My brother followed this up by surprising me with fireworks on the beach! Absolutely the best most memorable birthday to date! 

But now as I look at 50 I see myself coming to life. I feel passion and joy and peace that have eluded me for years. I know I am in the right place doing the right thing for this decade of my life. I am definitely slower and sorer then my 20, 30 and 40 year old self (and that annoys me to no end). But I can deal with it so long as I have the promise of "The Farm" to inspire me. Perhaps I am being selfish, but my 20's were for helping others, my 30's were for my children, my 40's were for "the job", I am so looking forward to my 50's being for me!!

Happy Birthday to Me!