good morning!

It's 68 and a little more empty at my house. It's going to take me awhile to get back to normal. Since my wife and I never had children, our cats, to us, are the children we never had.

Terry

66 and sunny at my house. Still haven't tackled my backyard jungle.

Terry

Good morning! 73 here this morning on its way to 97. Cooler WX is predicted for the end of this week, I hope to stay.

Yesterday I decided I was tired of hauling 1/2 bales of hay to the goats in a wheelbarrow and distributing it to their mangers in 3 sheds. I bought a big round bale of hay and brought it home on my trailer. The fun part was getting it off the trailer and into the goat pen. There are 3 pens; one for the buck, one for the two active (breeding/milking) does, and one for the retired doe. In order to get the hay to all the goats, I decided to put it in the girls' pen up against the buck pen fence so he could eat hay through the fence. That meant moving the retired doe into the girls' pen so she could join the party. No big deal there.

The fun part began when I realized that roll of hay could weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. I put my homegrown four-tine brush fork on the tractor bucket and mounted the bush hog on the rear as a counterbalance. The design of my brush fork is such that it's not really conducive to stabbing into the bale to lift it, so I moved the tractor to the rear of the trailer and set the fork at trailer bed height. Then I rolled the hay off the trailer (with a LOT of grunting and sweat) onto the fork and bucket. Oops. The bale is so large it's going to be a delicate balancing act to keep it and the tractor upright while maneuvering through the obstacle course in the back yard, and working on a slope part of the way.

I can tell you for certain it's not fun snipping buttonholes in a plastic tractor seat. The pucker factor was at 11 on a scale of 10. With my wife guiding me through the maze of chicken houses and utility pole in the back yard, I finally arrived at the goat pens. I lifted the bale a few inches at a time until it cleared the top of the fence, then inched forward and dumped the bale into the pen. It rolled to a stop against the buck pen fence right where I wanted it! The pucker factor relaxed to a normal level, and I let the goats back into the pen to meet their smorgasbord. Happy goats!

70 and sunny at my house.

Terry

We took Houdini to the vet yesterday. She’s been a bit listless and not eating like she should and has lost 2 pounds over the last couple of months. They took blood and will let us know what they find and we go from there.
Not taking any chances! I couldn’t bear to lose another one this soon. Flash was my Little Buddy and Houdini is my Guardian Angel! She follows me everywhere to make sure I’m safe from the monsters. She waits by the bedroom door for me to come out in the morning. She’s a purring machine!



Vet thinks it might be parasites. I’ll update when we know more.

Terry

The parasite idea makes sense as, iirc, Flash had similar symptoms. If that's the case, I hope you're able to find the source and eliminate it.
Good luck.

The blood work shows she has some liver enzyme abnormalities and she's dehydrated. We're taking her back in an hour to get her sub-cutaneous fluids and de-wormer..

Flash had a condition called chylothorax which is a build-up of fluid from the body's lymph system in the chest around the lungs and heart.

Terry

She got the IV fluids and we take her back for more in 3 weeks. I'll keep y'all posted.

Terry

It's 81 and sunny at my house. Not gonna get any yard work done today. For some reason the lower left side of my back is hurting and I'm getting twinges of pain in my right hip/leg joint when I walk.

Terry

72 and cloudy here with a 30% chance of breaking our dry spell. High around 94 with near 100% humidity. Whee!