"As long as I'm living my baby you'll be"
Friday, April 25, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
Okay then, where were we?
I swear, I really try and get these out once a month or so, but........... I really can't remember the order of events so we'll just play catch up as things come to mind:
In preparation for the big event we built her a nice box and put wood shavings and straw in it in the barn. We blocked off a space with access to the pasture so no goats or cows could get in there. We brought her in every day for weeks and sat in the box and gave her cookies so she could get used to it. We had it all under control.
The big day finally came and Sally had her puppies in a brush pile in the pasture like she had planned all along.
It took her the better part of the day to have all nine and we figured it would be best to leave her alone, remembering that we haven't had her that long and not knowing how she really felt about us. The next morning we found that we had lost one of the puppies. It was pretty crowded in that hole and we thought that that might be the cause. That was enough for me. I got a basket, reached in and took out all the puppies. I now know that Sally really loves and trusts me, not a growl. We moved the new mommy and her babies to the barn. All was well. In a little while we saw Sally making her way back to the brush pile and I was afraid she was going to try move the puppies but it turned out that she was going back just to check and make sure we didn't leave anyone behind. I guess she trusts me only so far. 
Sadly we lost another one the next morning for no apparent reason. I talked to the vet and she said it wasn't unusual for a large dog to have some puppy loss Meantime Sophie is depressed. It started when the puppies were born. She laid in the driveway and wouldn't move, we thought she was dead. She finally got up and went and laid down in the pasture across from where the puppies were born. She wouldn't even raise her head up to eat a cookie. She took in of course and ate it without moving anything but her jaws. 
Now even though she's better and up and around she has turned into a klepto. She sneaks out of the yard and steals things from the neighbors. So far we have found in our pasture dog dishes and garbage from the house on the road, a book and hat from Reed and Sherrie's and various types of animal bones from next door on the west side. We are going to have to put up an electric line around the perimeter of the property to keep her and Max in. They apparently get out and wander whenever we are not there. My neighbor call them the Great Whites. So far everybody knows them and they are very friendly, but one day something is going to happen. Another project to add to the top of the list.
So, we had planned to sell the puppies. This is when I discovered that having a farm and animals is great, selling my puppies was not, so I never got around to advertising them. Meantime we decided to buy the tile and wood from a local family run business. Enter Bobby Jo. She's 28, pregnant with her third son in 4 years and is a hoot. When she found out about the puppies (I have a big mouth) she wanted two. One for her and one for a friend who has 8 children. I was confident that she and her friend would love them so two boys went to their new homes. That left 5. Again, no advertising. I brought them to the vet for their first shots. We put them in the back seat of the truck to drive over. The boys lay down and just hid their heads but the girls... they wanted to know what was going on.
I left with 3, the vet took two and one of them was Tank! Now all along I said I was keeping Tank but, Max and Bear are fighting over the girls now so I really don't need another male and after all she is a vet and they will go to live on her farm. I'm trying not to have any regrets but it's hard. So now I have three. Tiny Girl, Beauty and Pete. We plan to keep the two girls and if Pete stays, well, he'll have to make another visit to the vet for some minor surgery. For those of you who are interested is the multitude of puppy pictures I've taken here's the link to the online album
Right after Thanksgiving my friend Karen and her middle son Grant came to visit. Grant was going to do a short internship on the farm for a school project. So we put him to work. He and Rory built hay feeders and feed troughs. He helped feed and water and we got to burn a brush pile. We got a lot done and I think Grant really enjoyed himself, I know I had a great time. not to mention all the puppy breaks we felt compelled to take. Having puppies is just the best thing to brighten your day
We have continued to paint with the real colors and so far I'm liking it.
Somewhere in between Thanksgiving and Christmas we had ice
and snow
And no power for 5 days. That was a treat! We were very fortunate though. Reed and Sherri only lost power for 1 day out at the farm so they invited us to come and stay with them. We lost the contents of the refrigerator and some stuff in the freezer but all in all it wasn't too bad. We spent the days working on the farm and the evenings visiting and playing chicken foot with Reed and Sherri. Chicken foot is a dominoes game. I think it's a country thing, very fun. Just a few miles north of where we live now it was devastating. Trees and power lines down
everywhere. Some people were out for 2 weeks with a lot of damage. Out at the farm we didn't see even one broken limb. It was the single worst event in OG&E history.
Somewhere in here we had the heating system finished. We didn't have to do much for this except build a cement pad for the heat pump to sit on. We did it the day before the installation. We thought we would mix the cement by hand since we were short on time. After one batch we thought about that idea again, went out and rented a little mixer. Even then it nearly killed Rory.
The bags of ready mix weighed over 50 lbs. so I couldn't lift them and I sure wasn't going to try and move the wheel barrow full of cement, so my job was getting the water in the mixer and getting rid of the empty bags. Rory did the rest. We used about 60 bags and needless to say he was beat. We learned a valuable lesson that day and for the next pads, we need three more for various stuff, we will have the cement delivered.
I'm going to go ahead and post this now since I'm so far behind. I'll try and continue right away. So much is happening so fast now it's hard to keep up.
Let's start with some fun stuff. We took a break somewhere in there and went to Lake Eufaula to see Rory's uncle Tom, who moved there recently from Maryland. He lives a block or two from the lake and has a pontoon boat so we spent a couple of days visiting and riding around on the lake. It was fall but the weather was good and we had a really nice time. We continue to monitor our experiments with planting and such. This is the sward, a grazer's term, that we planted or part of it anyway. This patch is along the west fence and is winter wheat and purple top turnips. We were so proud of this. We let it grow untouched for about 6 weeks thinking that it would make good winter forage. 
So the day finally came and we let all the girls out on it. It lasted two days. It seems we will have to rethink the amount of planting we will have to do if we expect to have winter forage. We ran out of time on the fencing for this year and it just made us crazy that we had so much food out there for the little girls but no fence so we broke down and put up a temporary electric fence to expand the amount of pasture available to them. 
Everything that we have read or heard swears you can't keep a goat in with electric fence but the girls were hungry soooooo....... I'm happy to say that it is now January and we haven't lost a single goat. It took them about 5 weeks to finish off the food but that was 5 more weeks we didn't have to buy hay. In the spring we will put up permanent fence in that pasture and use the electric somewhere else, or so goes the plan right now. Around this time we started to get frosty nights. It made for great working weather and very pretty sights around the farm 
I have never had puppies before, well Bear, but these were pasture puppies and we had 9. Poor Sally was so big at the end you couldn't help but feel bad for her.
In preparation for the big event we built her a nice box and put wood shavings and straw in it in the barn. We blocked off a space with access to the pasture so no goats or cows could get in there. We brought her in every day for weeks and sat in the box and gave her cookies so she could get used to it. We had it all under control.
The big day finally came and Sally had her puppies in a brush pile in the pasture like she had planned all along.
It took her the better part of the day to have all nine and we figured it would be best to leave her alone, remembering that we haven't had her that long and not knowing how she really felt about us. The next morning we found that we had lost one of the puppies. It was pretty crowded in that hole and we thought that that might be the cause. That was enough for me. I got a basket, reached in and took out all the puppies. I now know that Sally really loves and trusts me, not a growl. We moved the new mommy and her babies to the barn. All was well. In a little while we saw Sally making her way back to the brush pile and I was afraid she was going to try move the puppies but it turned out that she was going back just to check and make sure we didn't leave anyone behind. I guess she trusts me only so far. Sadly we lost another one the next morning for no apparent reason. I talked to the vet and she said it wasn't unusual for a large dog to have some puppy loss Meantime Sophie is depressed. It started when the puppies were born. She laid in the driveway and wouldn't move, we thought she was dead. She finally got up and went and laid down in the pasture across from where the puppies were born. She wouldn't even raise her head up to eat a cookie. She took in of course and ate it without moving anything but her jaws. Now even though she's better and up and around she has turned into a klepto. She sneaks out of the yard and steals things from the neighbors. So far we have found in our pasture dog dishes and garbage from the house on the road, a book and hat from Reed and Sherrie's and various types of animal bones from next door on the west side. We are going to have to put up an electric line around the perimeter of the property to keep her and Max in. They apparently get out and wander whenever we are not there. My neighbor call them the Great Whites. So far everybody knows them and they are very friendly, but one day something is going to happen. Another project to add to the top of the list.So, we had planned to sell the puppies. This is when I discovered that having a farm and animals is great, selling my puppies was not, so I never got around to advertising them. Meantime we decided to buy the tile and wood from a local family run business. Enter Bobby Jo. She's 28, pregnant with her third son in 4 years and is a hoot. When she found out about the puppies (I have a big mouth) she wanted two. One for her and one for a friend who has 8 children. I was confident that she and her friend would love them so two boys went to their new homes. That left 5. Again, no advertising. I brought them to the vet for their first shots. We put them in the back seat of the truck to drive over. The boys lay down and just hid their heads but the girls... they wanted to know what was going on.
I left with 3, the vet took two and one of them was Tank! Now all along I said I was keeping Tank but, Max and Bear are fighting over the girls now so I really don't need another male and after all she is a vet and they will go to live on her farm. I'm trying not to have any regrets but it's hard. So now I have three. Tiny Girl, Beauty and Pete. We plan to keep the two girls and if Pete stays, well, he'll have to make another visit to the vet for some minor surgery. For those of you who are interested is the multitude of puppy pictures I've taken here's the link to the online album |
| Puppies |
Right after Thanksgiving my friend Karen and her middle son Grant came to visit. Grant was going to do a short internship on the farm for a school project. So we put him to work. He and Rory built hay feeders and feed troughs. He helped feed and water and we got to burn a brush pile. We got a lot done and I think Grant really enjoyed himself, I know I had a great time. not to mention all the puppy breaks we felt compelled to take. Having puppies is just the best thing to brighten your day
We have continued to paint with the real colors and so far I'm liking it.
Somewhere in between Thanksgiving and Christmas we had ice
and snow
And no power for 5 days. That was a treat! We were very fortunate though. Reed and Sherri only lost power for 1 day out at the farm so they invited us to come and stay with them. We lost the contents of the refrigerator and some stuff in the freezer but all in all it wasn't too bad. We spent the days working on the farm and the evenings visiting and playing chicken foot with Reed and Sherri. Chicken foot is a dominoes game. I think it's a country thing, very fun. Just a few miles north of where we live now it was devastating. Trees and power lines down
everywhere. Some people were out for 2 weeks with a lot of damage. Out at the farm we didn't see even one broken limb. It was the single worst event in OG&E history.Somewhere in here we had the heating system finished. We didn't have to do much for this except build a cement pad for the heat pump to sit on. We did it the day before the installation. We thought we would mix the cement by hand since we were short on time. After one batch we thought about that idea again, went out and rented a little mixer. Even then it nearly killed Rory.
The bags of ready mix weighed over 50 lbs. so I couldn't lift them and I sure wasn't going to try and move the wheel barrow full of cement, so my job was getting the water in the mixer and getting rid of the empty bags. Rory did the rest. We used about 60 bags and needless to say he was beat. We learned a valuable lesson that day and for the next pads, we need three more for various stuff, we will have the cement delivered.
I'm going to go ahead and post this now since I'm so far behind. I'll try and continue right away. So much is happening so fast now it's hard to keep up.
