A New Year

We made it through December! My DH loves to sing that song all through December, then on January 1st announce that we have made it. I tell him that December isn't the hardest month for us. He gets really down in February, because by then he is tired of feeding hay and our hay supply is getting low. It is either really cold or really muddy in February and he gets very anxious for Spring.

The old year went out on a bad note for me. I was sick all day yesterday. I ran a fever and was so weak that I couldn't even set up to read a book. My dear, dear, wonderful Husband had to hold a glass of sprite with a straw for me because my arms were so weak that I couldn't even hold the glass. I don't have any idea what the problem was but I couldn't eat anything until late afternoon and then I could only eat chicken soup.

I chilled and kept covered up all day until about 11:30 last night when all of the sudden my fever broke and I started sweating. As soon as my fever broke, I felt so much better but even after sleeping all day yesterday, I still slept well last night.

Things are looking better for 2009, we got 8 eggs each of the last two days. It got down to 17 degrees last night, so I don't know how egg production will be today.

Problem Persists

My two yearling does are continuing to escape their electric fenced pen. I had hoped that they were bred to kid this fall but I am now pretty sure that at least one of them is currently in heat. Since I stake Cooter out during the day, this could be a problem because she might try to go to him. There is a hot wire around the lot that I stake him out in but hot wires have lost their effect on these two girls.

I certainly don't want them bred now because that would give me February babies. I would like to breed them around the first of December, so that they would kid in warm weather.

I have done everything I know to do to fix the fence so that they can't get out but nothing has worked. They are both going under it now, Paris has stopped jumping it. The bottom strand is two inches off of the ground and it is hot. Angel has started getting out again as well, they all just put their noses under the bottom wire and push through.

I think that their hair is preventing them from being shocked. Shaving a bald patch on the top of their necks or shoulders might work but I hate to make them look so ridiculous. I have even considered making the bottom strand barbed wire. I can't afford to put up woven wire. I hate not being able to control them.

Spring Fever

I can't wait until Saturday, not wishing my life away but Saturday will be March 1st and February will officially be over! February is always the hardest month on us, it is usually in February that we get tired of feeding and our hay supply starts getting short and we think that we will never see green grass again. March gives us hope. The new babies start arriving in March, the weather starts warming up and the winds start drying up the mud.

We have a logistics problem this year. Two mares and two goats are due in March and we have an injured horse stuck in our foaling/kidding stall. We didn't breed back many of our mares last year because of the horse crisis that is going on in this country. Fortunately, the one that is injured is the first one due to foal, so she gets priority in the stall, we can't turn her out anyway. She does present a problem for our two does that are due to kid in March.

Our first kids should be due around March 19th. We have decided to move our dog kennel inside the barn for one of the does and the other one will probably have to kid in the horse trailer.

Our other mare is not due until the end of March, so hopefully the injured mare will be well enough to be turned out with her new baby by then.

Today is the last day that we have to give Morning a penicillin shot, she has had one everyday since she was injured, she hates them. She still has to be twitched to wrap her leg. We give her an opportunity to go without the twitch each time we start, but she refuses to let us take the wrapping off untwitched. Twitches are sometimes necessary things, ours is just a soft rope and not a chain, but she is totally submissive with it on.

On another subject, just to wrap up loose ends. Maude did pass away last week, she had stopped eating and I knew that it was just a matter of time. It is true that broiler or cornish chickens rarely live to see their 1st birthday. I guess that is where the term "not a spring chicken anymore" comes from, because in the fall of your spring chicken's life they start going down hill rapidly.

Monday

I don't know when this day went bad, just a typical Monday I suppose. Those first little minor annoyances weren't that noticeable. Like when my husband was throwing a load of dirty clothes into the washer and tried to throw my holey long underwear away. I protested loudly that they were still serviceable enough to keep me warm and I couldn't afford new ones anyway.

Then my husband set down at the table to pay bills, we were scampering around trying to shuffle money from place to place in order to write checks. His bank account is empty because of hay, feed, horse training and gas and mine is empty because of hay, feed, horse training and gas. We are hoping to be able to sell the three geldings that we have had trained this Winter in the Spring. They have all turned out very well, we also took two fillies to the trainer this Winter, one is not for sale and the other isn't ready to be sold yet. We just hope that this training isn't another losing proposition.

I had planned to give myself a home perm today. I went to Walmart last night and bought everything that I needed. I told my daughter-in-law not to bring the kids over today because I was going to have the house all stinky, my husband wasn't working, so I thought it would be a good time since he could help me out if I got in trouble.

Then my other daughter-in-law called and said that she was sick and wanted to know if we would pick up our Grandson from school and keep him for a few days. Oh well, no big deal, I could wait on the perm.

We ran out of spiced tea, which makes my husband real testy when he has a cough, so I was in the process of making more, when I realized that the frozen orange juice that I had just gotten out of the freezer wasn't frozen. We have been noticing soft ice cream for a few weeks but this was a pretty drastic change. Did I mention that we are broke? I don't think a new refrigerator is in the budget.

While I pondered these things, my husband went to the school to pick up the Grandson. When they returned, they continued to pick up speed instead of slowing down while applying the brakes coming down our long, steep, ice covered driveway. So the truck with the brand new battery that we had to buy for it last night at Walmart, plowed into the back of our other vehicle causing quite a bit of damage to both. I picked up as much of the broken plastic and paint chips as I could, so the chickens wouldn't eat them.

We just laughed this evening when the rain started and we noticed the puddle in the living room getting bigger and bigger. We both continued to laugh as we folded our holey towels and holey wash cloths and wondered if we would ever be able to throw them away, along with my holey long underwear. Tomorrow is Tuesday, I hope.

Life's Not Fair

When I taught school the kids all loved to say, "That's not fair!", to which I would reply, "Life's not fair, so get over it!". Life certainly is proving me right at the moment. Our old bachelor neighbor was here this afternoon and he told me that he was getting really tired of this cold weather for some reason and I told him that usually happens in February. He asked me if he would get over it in March and I told him that he would, especially towards the end of March.

He also told my husband that he sounded just like his calves that he is doctoring for pneumonia. This is true, my husband seems to get pneumonia if he catches a cold. I am not complaining, well, maybe I am a little bit but I feel so bad when he is so sick and he still has to go out in the below 20º weather to feed and water. I try to help as much as I can but I am not much help.

Add to this that we have a psycho horse that has to have her back leg re-bandaged everyday and I am feeling like life isn't fair. For one thing she is without question the hardest horse that we have to handle and the injury is on a hind foot and it is difficult to wrap. She also has to have a shot everyday. She has to be kept up in a stall, so that means a stall that needs cleaning everyday. I can shovel a little manure but my back prevents me from doing much of it and there is no way that I can wrap her leg, for one thing she wouldn't let me and for another I couldn't stand in that position. So, with my husband being so sick, this is something that we didn't need right now.

The weather is another thing that we don't need right now. It is 6º at the moment and the wind chills are awful. We are suppose to get sleet and snow for the next few days and that may stop me from being able to help out at all. I hurt myself the last time that we had ice. I just feel guilty when I can't do my share of the work.

Enough whining around, Spring will be here before we know it, this cold weather can't last forever. The March winds will dry up all of the mud, the grass will start growing and the horses won't have to be fed as much. Morning's leg will start healing, the dressing won't have to be changed as often and the shots won't have to be given after Feb. 28th.

I just ran out and watched the Lunar Eclipse, I almost missed it because I didn't know it was happening tonight and since this is tomorrow's blog that I am writing now, if you didn't hear about it, you missed it too.

Think Spring!!