Trees Life in Too Much Detail

1-11-12

2012-01-11T09:36:00.003-05:00

Lots of stuff has been happening around the homestead.

Both the saplings made honor roll at their respective schools, yay!

Then the Firebird suffered a concussion during basketball practice. He told me when he arrived home he had taken a crack from a team mate's head that bloodied his nose. I was distracted and didn't think it too serious so I told him to grab a bag of frozen veggies to apply to his nose. An hour later he didn't respond to the dinner call, and I went to check on him.

He complained of being exhausted and his head hurting and I quickly grabbed a flashlight to check his pupil response. His right pupil was not contracting in response to the light and spun eerily trying to avoid the light.

Everything stopped and I took him into the ER. We weren't treated with much priority there, but the doc recommended a ct scan to be on the safe side. The scan came back normal, so we went home with instructions to watch for anymore symptoms. (headache, slurred speech, vision trouble, etc)

The Firebird was adamant about attending school the next day, (and wanting to play in a far away game the next evening)so I put him on the bus and called the high school. The athletic director told me the school's sports injury specialist would take a look at him and would have to clear him to play again.

Word came back via the Firebird later that he couldn't play, but he was going to the game on the bench. When he was examined, he had experienced dizziness when tippping his head back, so he was still exhibiting signs of a concussion.

He felt pretty miserable after sitting through the loud game. I kept him quiet for the weekend, and again he insisted on attending school on Monday. No practice or game after school, so he rode the bus home, or to the bus stop.

He sent me a text from the bus asking me to make sure I was at the stop on time. When he got off the bus, he started crying; his head hurt so badly. Everything stopped, and I rushed him into the ER.

I managed to get him into a wheelchair, and when intake saw that he had been in a few days before, they rushed us right through- way down the back of the ER, where all was quiet except for the nearby bleep of monitors. I was getting a little scared.

He was sent off for another CT scan. I was told that sometimes bleeding in the brain can take several days to appear. The CT scan came back normal. He was diagnosed with post concussion syndrome, given a pill for nausea, some Ibuprofen and some Benydryl, and I was told to take him to his PCP for followup.

In the meantime, the Willow had developed a horrible cough. She had been fighting off a bug for awhile and it had obviously settled in her lungs, so I took her to the clinic the next morning for a script of Amoxycillin and kept the Firebird quiet at home. He had an appointment the next day.

His PCP laid down the law and told the Firebird to take the rest of the week off from school and sports, and the following week of vacation, and see how he felt after the New Year. He was pretty cooperative the first week but got pretty restless by the second week, texting back and forth with his coach (he was sorely missed by the team) trying to con me into at least letting him go WATCH the practices, but I held firm and howled about it being doctor's order's and I wasn't the bad guy...while wondering if I really wanted to let him go back to play at all.

Willow didn't get better on the Amoxycillin. She had been given capsules and can't swallow a pill. So we were dumping the powder in chocolate pudding. Her cough got worse. The script was changed to one of the cephalexans in liquid form and she thought that was yummy tasting so that went pretty well. She finished the course and still has a little congestion. Overall, she seems her old self again, yay.

The Firebird was cleared to gradually return to basketball. He had some minutes in the last game. He has fallen out of condition with two weeks off and been tired and trying to catch up on his work, too. He is on the student concil and had to been @ school before 7 this morning, and then attend school; finally a late practice tonight from 7-8:30.

Of course it is now my turn. I was laid low for three days with fever and sore throat and sinus pain. Then my ear filled up and I frantically swallowed Advil and Benydryl one after another until the pain subsided. All day yesterday I had the signs of a ruptured eardrum, so i finally went to the clinic this morning.

The Doc took one look inside the ear in question, quickly recoiled, and pronounced I had returned to my second childhood and had an inner ear infection. He handed me a ten day supply of Amoxycillin.

Welome January. :)

January 6 ,2012

2012-01-06T21:49:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T12:17:00.003-05:00

Still here after all these years! Wishing everyone a safe and Happy and wonderful 2012!

Hallowe'en has been moved to wintertime

2011-10-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

We are forecast to have snow tonight and tomorrow, with thunder. Heavy wet snow. over a foot of snow. I am not ready!

Trick or treat?

Hang on to your Hats

2011-10-25T19:22:00.000-04:00

First the chicadees disappeared. Then it was the snapping turtle in the driveway. The bullfrog so intent on fleeing the marsh it jumped on and over the cat. The colors were ten days late. Bumper Pine Cone crop. One light frost here so far. Paper wasp nests twenty feet up in trees. Toads excavating soft clay like gophers. Red and grey squirrels engaged in a massive turf war. A murder of crows. My neighbor of fifteen years posted their waterfront for the first time.

We are going to get a bunch of snow and major spring floods. My prediction for 2011/2012.

Everbody's business

2011-10-19T07:59:00.003-04:00

October is marching along. Every morning it is a bit darker as the days shorten. Night chores have to be finished earlier and earlier.

The foliage finally took the hint and we had a blaze of color about a week later than normal. Things were looking pretty good and then we had a couple days of wind and rain. The maples have dropped their leaves-the oaks are still mostly green and the beech are changing to bronze.

We have had one frost on our homestead so far.

I made a trip to a southern Maine island with the falafel mastermind to look at a piece of business equipment.

Twenty plus years ago I had a room mate that had grown up on one of the islands and I had made several trips to the big one, so I was looking forward to the ride on the ferry.

I was relieved when I instinctively recalled where the ferry terminal was located, and we pulled in line as the ferry was loading. FM rushed in to get tickets. An obvious gap in my island knowledge was quickly revealed.

"We can't take the boat on the ferry," FM said as he exited the building.

"You have to make a special appointment and can only go when the tide is at a certain height."

Well this island was a bit different than my memory of the big one, I supposed.

We had to quickly decide a course of action. The people selling the equipment had yet to return our most recent calls. The last instructions had been to call the wife when we got off the ferry and she would give us directions from there.

The island was only 2 miles long, and I quickly calculated that we could walk from one end to the other and still have an hour to look at the equipment before having to catch the return ferry. So we put the car in the parking garage and bought passenger tickets.

The ferry at our gate was being loaded with some cargo, and I dug in my memory if we could go on the ferry at will or had to wait for the boarding call. We decided to try and board, and were quickly shooed off the loading ramp back on to the dock and a rope was strung across the ramp to discourage us pushy flatlanders.

The fellow had enough time to walk back down the ramp to the boat and the boarding call went out and he turned around and came back and dropped the rope. We could tell this ferry line was a stickler for regulations.

FM handed over our tickets and waited for half a ticket back like you do in the movie line.

"Oh, we don't take tickets on the return trip," he said.

FM and I exchanged amused glances and had some fun making jokes about that once we found our seats.

I led him up to the top deck front row for the trip out Casco Bay. An enormous cruise ship was in port, and the size of it dwarfed the city. We went by the old fort, lighthouses, islands. The ferry was underway and FM could only get a busy signal from the wife. Vague memories of how things worked on the islands started to come back to me.

"Don't worry, she will probably meet us down at the dock when we get there. She is most likely on the island grapevine telling everyone that she has company coming."

A couple minutes later FM's call went through and sure enough, she was going to meet us down at the dock when the ferry arrived.

We stopped at several islands and finally arrived at our destination.

"FM?"

Our hostess was waiting for us and we piled in a battered Ford wagon with Arizona plates.

"Don't mind my island beater," she said.

I smiled recalling my room mates car and how cool it was that island folks don't have to register and inspect the cars they use on the island. Because the island is two miles long and everyone knows your car. Where are you going to go? Remember now, you don't need a return ticket and you have to make an appointment to get a car on the ferry !

FM decided to buy the equipment, and once he handed her the money her attitude blossomed. She got on the phone to hubby who was working on the mainland to have him make arrangements to get the equipment off island. The island grapevine is so fast that she knew before we got there that we had tried to get a car on island.

I chuckled again thinking about how that would give the islanders some good chatter for a few days about the flatlanders trying to get a CAR on their island without first making arrangements! We were spared making (or trying to make)those arrangements; things were soon arranged so that hubby would deal with the ferry guys and get it on the boat and FM would get a call to tell him it would be at the port.

We had business completed in plenty of time for the ferry, and it was just a short walk from her house to the dock.

"I will give you a tour of the island while you are waiting for the ferry, hop in, " she said.

So we climbed back in the beat Ford wagon with Arizona plates and had a lovely guided tour of the island, which first began with a soliloquy by our hostess on pondering why the ferry boat which brought us was not the usual boat-it was the MAIL boat, and that Never came on this ferry run.

Then we drove by some men that had been on the ferry looking at plans. I remembered them because I am a bit of an architecture fan and I had wondered what was on those blueprints they were looking at on the ferry!?! and so I had also looked at the two men closely as I walked by them.

Our hostess quickly volunteered the island scoop.

"If a property on the island changes hand, even inside the family from an inheritance, the septic system has to be brought up to code. They are not 'grandfathered anymore'. ( most shoreline homes were originally built to dump their sewage directly into the water.)

A friend of our hostess had given (sold/traded-we were not privy to the technicalities)a piece of land so that several homes could unite in the septic system-most likely a holding tank and some form of leach field. And they had to hire the men to design it, and it was costing $20,000 just for the design.

Wow that was a fun bit of gossip.

We drove by the island store, now closed for the season, but the one gas pump still working at over $5 a gallon. I had noted no gasoline in any container may be brought on the ferry, so talk about a monopoly!

We learned that the island was once a refueling station for warships, and there were huge storage tanks buried on the interior of the island. So the island interior was not inhabited. We had earlier peeked inside a large abandoned cinder block building that turned out to house two enormous motors. They were the motors for pumping millions of gallon of fuel on and off the island back in WW2.

We learned that the island had a deer and Lyme disease problem. Our hostess estimated that there were over 200 deer on the island. She blamed the enactment of a leash law on the deer problem. Because the deer swim to the island and have no natural predators. The dogs used to chase them right off the island.

The island also had a resident beaver population.

We were shown storm damage aggravated by logging. Once big trees are thinned out the rest of the stand becomes susceptible to high winds, creating piles of blow downs.

Our hostess pulled down to the dock just as the ferry was pulling in. Islanders seem to have an innate instinct about the comings and goings of their link to the mainland.

We settled ourselves on the back of the boat out of the wind for the return trip. A nice woman boarded at the next island and sat down next to us.

"I've never seen this boat on this run before," she said.

We nodded our heads in agreement. Our brief stay on the island had found us entwined in the island grapevine.

Friday

2011-10-07T07:46:00.002-04:00

Thanks for your comments Tonia and Dave. :)

My thyroid saga has been reduced to one pill six times a week. I was just a tad hyper my last visit so I get to skip Sunday's pill. Then labs in three months to see how that is working.

At my last visit the doc went through the big list of symptoms I had last December and I answered NO to almost all of them. I told him I was glad I went through the treatment because one pill a day is much better than 5 pills 5 times a day and still feeling like crap. lol.

I still have some real thryroid left, and hopefully that behaves itself and doesn't start overproducing thyroid hormone again. That happens rarely-and usually in severe cases like mine. I think that is one reason I was so aggravated it took so long to get to see the specialist after I was diagnosed- because my thyroid raged on for months. There is some rule that objects in motion want to stay in motion...one of Newton's laws?

****

We had our first frost on the lawn this morning. BRRRRR so cold. We didn't get one yesterday, but other places did. One farm had their front and back field cloaked in frost and I thought that looked like a cold place to live!

Our foliage is a disaster. For the last 14 years the Firebird's birthday has been the absolute peak of foliage here, the height of early color of maples and ash. This year everywhere but the swamps is still green.

We did have periods of wind and rain, and my sugar maples have dropped a lot of leaves before they changed.

I am not the only one to notice, I have seen the foliage story carried on AP the last few days. Many hypothesis abound as to what is going on with the foliage. I don't really have a strong opinion myself-I am puzzled.

The change of fall color is attributed to shorter day length-the leaves stop producing chlorophyll and what remains is the actual color of the leaf. As far as I know the day's length is shortening as it usually does.

As far as weather and temperature, we have not been much different from the norm-we get rain and drought and wind on a regular basis but the the leaves still change every year about the same time.

Fungus is getting blamed-well I hope they find out which one! I heard through the farmer's grapevine that potatoes diseased with late blight have been getting dumped along the shore, and then the moist air coming off the ocean is carrying the blight inland and really destroyed everyone's tomatoe crop here. So perhaps that is what is causing the leaves to drop and not change?

Or maybe those big solar flares triggered the trees to keep growing for a bit longer?

I do know that the Firebird's birthday seemed a little less festive with the autumn colors still in hiding.

Long time no post

2011-10-02T17:00:00.003-04:00

My computer problems progressed to the point that if my modem was connected to the phone line, even with the computer disconnected from a power source, the land line had dead air.

So I gave my internet up for lost, relying on my cell phone for limited browser access. Try typing out an email on your cell phone when you are already exceeding 1000 texts a month!

And after my little power struggle with blogger and google over refusing to hand over a mobile number I wasn't going to log into this account on my cell phone, sorry! :D

Somehow, someway, I have been granted a reprieve from the malicious computer spirits and once again have my computer back online.

I really really want to go to New York this week for the film festival. Just to do something fun and glamourous. But that's not happening.

I am house sitting for a friend for the week, and the Firebird turns the big 14. He is really doing well in high school. His soccer team has been doing absolutely awful, but finally at an away game the Firebird scored one of three goals and was promoted up to the JV team. Now he is playing both Freshman and JV games.

I got lost in Waterville trying to find the last one to no avail. The games are a lot further away than in middle school. :)

I quit the farm. Over horse bedding. Seriously, I can't believe it either. The horses have a big concrete floored three sided shelter with a sand based paddock. The younger of the two has been diagnosed with wobbles, a neurological condition that affects the gait and hind end. The Older mare is grossly overweight and has notorious hoof trouble, mostly aggravated by inexperienced help digging between the sole and hoof wall with a pointed hoof pick.

The mare came down lame in the front end-I found an old wind splint but was fairy sure she was having trouble with a knee. This was duly reported to Boss who just shrugged.

The next day I put down a bit of extra shavings and felt satisfied. But there is more to this story. One of my co-workers, the apprentice, only wants a dusting of bedding on the concrete to make it easier for her to clean. So we tend to have this little silent power struggle over it. Because I know as I know horses that horses on concrete should have 12 inches of shavings plus a rubber mat, espcially if they have any kind of leg trouble.

And it should be banked against the walls so they don't cast themselves. (get stuck)

So years ago I was sort of shocked that at the farm they put 3 inches of shavings in the middle and bare on the edges. So when the horses walk in and turn around they spread it down to an inch.

The day I worked I had about an even five inches, which cushioned my feet but I knew it would still seem hard on the legs of those big Norwegian Fjords.

And I got "a note" from Boss Sunday morning.
"Please don't put so much bedding down in the horse barn."

And I returned the note with an explanation, that 5" inches was really the minimum given the overweight lame mare, and I didn't feel comfortable putting down 1-3 inches.

Oh boy. Well, it turns out even though I said I would do what she wanted, since I didn't feel comfortable maybe I should go...

and I thought and said, "so basically you don't want anyone working for you that does not agree with you?"

and that was a yes.

That hurt but I wasn't getting much job satisfaction except from all my animal friends anyhow.

I went right into freelancing at Common Ground Farm, sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association. (MOFGA)

All week I helped a friend prep his food for CG. I ground hundreds of pounds of chickpeas, and ground garlic and hot peppers and made taziki with yogurts made right out of organic jersey milk, and can I tell you how good a cup of Starbuck's Italian roast tastes with the yellow cream skimmed off a five gallon bucket of Jersey milk ?

I just wanted to take a straw and sip it off the top, lol.

Then it was time to make the dough. Hundreds of pounds of flour. 10 pounds at a time in the mixer and the cutter turns out 30 doughballs. 5 or 6000 of them for the whole weekend.

I was out of retirement.

I 3/8 inch diced a five gallon bucket of cucumbers. I inch cubed 50 gallons of lettuce and spinach. I got to run the stove.

he he

The falafel mastermind's claim to fame are the wood cookstoves that get hauled to every show. The dough balls get run through a roller, formerly the rollers to old wringer washers, which was quite the show and threw flour across everyone working the stand.

once flattened, the dough gets put on the middle flattop of a hot kitchen stove, and once precooked, put over the open flame where they "poof" and char and are called"wood fired flatbread". Very yum.

The fresh bread is then filled with falafel, fried ground chicpeas, or gyro..ground beef , lamb, goat..

Well, they have a lot of stuff they put on there, obviously including lettuce and cucumbers, but I was in the bakery end of things for the weekend.

Phish blasted through the speakers, the owner's son being a fan and he also grew up at the stove and bread end himself- since the family has been doing this for almost 20 years now.

I found my groove with the stove while he put the new electric roller through its paces. Boom boom bread! boom boom bread! hahah

These sorts of jobs are transitional; I am considering going back to cooking now that the saplings are a little older.

Racoon story

2011-08-05T00:15:00.000-04:00

This really isn't a story, it's a true tale.

Tonight dark was just settling in under the trees in the back yard when Willow and I arrived home with groceries. Willow's sharp eyes noted movement in the goose pen. "the raccoons are back, " she said.

"no it's a skunk."
"Skunks don't climb trees."

"Is it a possum?"

"Stay in the car a minute," I said.

"OMG it's a baby raccoon with a peanut butter jar stuck on it's head!"

I ran over to the tree and it was just out of reach as I hesitated a brief moment before reaching out to grab it. I watched as it climbed thirty feet up in the maple tree, wondering how it could manage the climb with a jar stuck on its head.

I knew I had to get it out of that tree. The orphaned baby coons had been eating the residue of grain in the goose feeder; a week or so back we put some grain in the woods on a rock hoping to see the orphans through a tough spot- but not encourage them to go into the goose pen. I went into the house and grabbed a can of goose grain, shook it below the treed baby coon to get its attention, poured it on the ground, and returned to wait in my now dark car.

I didn't have long to wait, the goose at his water bucket honked in alarm at the unlikely sight of a peanut butter jar on the head of a raccoon coming down a tree, and retreated. I waited, straining my eyes in the dim light trying to see if the coon had retreated into the woods or came on for the bait of goose grain.

I saw a wobbly peanut butter jar come around the tree and quietly opened the car door, figuring the jar was probably muffling the hearing and eyesight of the raccoon, and slowly advanced. Either they have exceptional eye-sight, or it had done an excellent job of cleaning the bottom of the jar clear, because it saw me and could climb the tree surprisingly fast with the jar on his head. He was just at arm's length as I reached the tree, and this time I didn't hesitate but went straight for the scruff of the neck and the raccoon was NOT pleased about that!

Raccoons can make a surprising array of sounds. This one was growling sort of like a cat and a dog and a bear all put together, and it was wet from an earlier downpour. Either it had been sprayed by a skunk or they have fear musk glands, because it stank. As I dragged it off the tree, it tried desperately to bite me, but it had the jar on his head.

So I have this wet stinky growling hissing struggling raccoon by the scruff with the jar on his head and I realize I have to get the jar off and maybe I am not holding him high enough and once the jar is off it is going to bite the hell out of me, and it smells skunky so does that mean it has rabies? No, not too likely since it was going for the food.

Then I wonder if it is going to claw me as I try and change my grip a bit higher on its neck so I can get the jar off, and I realize it is tugging at the jar with both paws cause it has realized it can't defend itself with the jar on its head.

and then I am holding it and the jar is off in its paws and it is turning to really get a good look at me and I quickly tossed it away a couple feet and right as it landed it regained its feet and charged me and I ran.

Mission accomplished.

Happy Birthday Willow

2011-07-25T13:12:00.001-04:00

A lapful of kittens

My three blessings

Kitten City

2011-07-18T08:40:00.002-04:00

Ruby had a litter of healthy kittens about a month ago. Here's Willow with her favorite.

I realized that the last litter was probably stillborn because Ruby was letting another cat nurse her when she was pregnant. Not with this litter; she wouldn't let the cat near her.

Then Panther had a litter of kittens a few days ago. Wow. They are cute!

sometime in the middle of summer

2011-07-14T23:32:00.003-04:00

I know the middle of summer is upon me here in Maine when the goldenrod starts to bloom. I mark that as my half point, and I was rather aghast this morning to see the heavy, ripe heads ready to burst into bloom roadside.

Because I have thoroughly blown half the summer away with none of my summer projects even past the concept stage.

But< I have been putting extra days in at the farm; the bosses having gone to Europe for ten days, and one of my co-workers who was covering nights is taking two weeks on the heels of that. And my other co-worker took time off over the holiday.

So I am enjoying spoiling the crap out of the animals under my care. :)

The day begins at the main barn, with all the does and wethers and kids not weaned or sold. And those does are on a time frame! I walk into the barn and they hustle into their places eyes watching me. Except little Lori, who I have alway obliged and spoiled rotten and fed first since the birth of her first born. The only trouble is, her buckling went away for weaning hot on the heels of her mother having triplets, so her Momma became the priority.

Tuesday Little Lori had enough, and inserted herself between me and her mother's pen, which I was trying to clean around her yelling Momma and three tiny siblings. Lori wanted her grain, across the aisle, first. I scooted her over and locked her up and fed her after her Momma.

Today I had a co-worker, and I was running a bit late. He chuckled later as he confided that Lori ran into her pen as soon as I entered the barn. Goats are too darn smart. She knew I would get to her and she was to wait in her pen. LOL.

ok, that's my cute goat story for tonight.

Guess you had to be there to see little Lori trying to shoulder me away from her mother's pen and look me in the eye and say, "you're late! feed me first!"

***

Summer soccer is really something else. At least we had two refs tonight, but that didn't prevent at least three of our guys getting hurt. Our goalie lunged for a ball and took a knee to the back as an opposing team member somersaulted over him, and our goalie ended up limping off the field clutching his lower back. I later learned he has a history of back trouble.

Our number one player ended up flat on the back after being kicked in the stomach and the other team snickered in their huddle while he recovered and hobbled off the field. The refs called a face off on that one, and our team urged the sub coach to get the hurt player back in so he could get revenge.

Another player took a face plant on the turf and took a moment to recover and no one even looked twice. He should have been pulled and checked for concussion.

Plus many trips, kicks, slams, etc, dirty playing after middle school...

Our regular coach has been on vacation; the sub coaches are recently graduated seniors who are heavily playing the older players. Now I am one of the parents that gets to watch their kid in for 10 minutes the whole game.

The Firebird is learning a lot by observing, however, and considering how balls-to-the-walls rough those teenage American boys get on the soccer field with minimum supervision, that may be a good thing.

Persistence

2011-07-05T23:04:00.004-04:00

How many times can you blue screen a PC trying to connect online and still keep trying? :D

I have my wheels situation taken care of: in three years I ought to be able to afford to address the PC issue. ;)

I am actually the proud owner and insured of two vehicles at the moment. In my true pessimistic fashion, I kept the old beater registered and insured just in case. Good thing, since I lost the only set of keys to the "new" one in the grass plugging in the electric fence and had to dash to the farm, saplings in tow, in the, currently known as, "the Death Trap."

And she was old faithful-plugging down the dirt roads in forward and reverse (doing fence work up a narrow road). Until we pulled in the end of the drive, and she became once again, "Bessie" when she coughed and stalled just as we returned home.

I glanced at the saplings, wondering if the three of us would be able to push it out of the way, before she fired up in a belch of running-too-rich fumes and made it safely back to her spot out back.

Gawd, how can you send that to the crusher?

196,000 and the body has rotted out around the frame, gotta love Maine winters...

****

The Firebird is kicking some serious summer soccer butt. Now an incoming Freshman, summer soccer is a take all comers game with a range of 13-17 year olds. And only the hard cores, of course.

A couple of the incoming Freshman were star players at schools he was playing against last year in middle school. Now they are his teamates, the cream of the crop. The varsity players are something to watch,strong young men that have years of soccer under their belts.

But the Firebird is tall for his age, and fearless, running right up to steal the ball or fall flat on his face trying, and not afraid to head bump or body block. He's getting some valuable experience playing with and against varsity players. And I have to admit, I love hearing other Moms cheering him on for a move well played.

Yeah, we get serious in High School :D

One of the few blue players with white socks, I call him white legs. :D

Online for the moment

2011-07-02T17:35:00.004-04:00

Another call to Dell, another temporary reprieve from internet banishment?

"Homer's Last Hurrah" BLF Lois and two of her three, hours-old triplets out of Homer. Two bucks and a doe. Homer never fully recovered from injuries, and although obviously still able to breed, was unable to re-join the buck herd and recently went to slaughter. Willow showed him to Grand Champion last year, and he was sire to my Badgee.

Update on my own goats: Jenny the goat, several minutes after my last update about her weeks ago, hopped her dividing fence and worked it out with everyone and is back with the herd.

Willow showed Uther for BLF in the yearling buck division @ the Fiber Frolic. He won Grand Champion cashmere goat. He is half brother to my Badgee. Willow won Grand Champion in Showmanship.

The Firebird graduated 8th grade fifth in his class, top ranked boy. He received several prestigious awards, even though his mother can't fashion a tie, lol.

Beautiful weather, not getting anything done with lots of things dividing my attention.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Summer Solstice

2011-06-22T09:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been offline for about three weeks! The dreaded blue screen error which came every time I connected to the internet. Except, of course, after being on the phone twice to tech support! Each time I tried to replicate the error to tell them it didn't happen! Just like your car won't make that weird noise for the mechanic!

I did some stuff myself after troubleshooting online with the Firebird's laptop. Then the laptop had to be returned to the school for the summer. Here in Maine we have a school laptop program, "a laptop in the hands of every eight grader." (during the school year)

And of course I have been busy busy busy running circles and never a three hour time slot to devote to Dell tech support. Well, bright and early this morning seemed a good time, for me anyhow. I can't say for sure what time the tech had over there in Bombay, since he had to ask me am or pm when he asked the local time. He did seem to know Maine was located around New Hampshire and Vermont, which impressed me since I am sure I could't tell you the states or whatever divisions there are outside of his location.

I was repeatedly called, "Sir", despite my declarations of "I am a girl, " and "I am not a Sir" and "I am a woman with a deep voice, common mistake on the phone."

I finally decided that perhaps everyone over there is addressed as "Sir" despite their gender. Or perhaps it is so uncommon to address a strange (pun intended) woman that no formal title exists to address a woman. LOL

"We" ( the tech and I) uninstalled and reinstalled the modem (much to my delight I did have the CD for the driver), and then I had to disconnect with the tech to try to connect- with the advice that if it reoccurred to call my ISP provider. Which it did, and I did, and the ISP tech support told me they don't do anything about blue screen issues, to call Dell back, which I did.

And I actually spoke with another tech that I could actually understand, who sounded like he absolutely knew what he was talking about. Then he wanted the error number on the blue screen, and of course my paper with my notes had vanished, so I had to disconnect from him and attempt to connect so I would get the crash again.

Then the crash didn't happen. Furious, I disconnected and reconnected three or four times since I actually had someone that knew how to fix it and he was calling back in less than a minute. Nope, no crash, I am online after three weeks...for the moment, at least. Once or twice I have been able to get online, and the last time I immediately went to update MS and it crashed updating. So we'll see how long the old Dell desktop can keep going...

Solstice Blessings,
Tree

Long weekend in Paradise

2011-05-30T00:11:00.003-04:00

I am finally getting around to posting the rest of the pics from a couple weeks ago.
But first a quick update on my own goats:

I thought it was time to put Jenny's Mom in with Jenny. They immediately got into a knock down, drag-out head-banger. Daphne is half Jenny's size, but she has been herd queen for years and she kept taking the high ground. Jenny wouldn't give up even though she fell down. I broke them up and took Daph out where she stood breathing hard for some minutes.

That means I probably will have to put one of the lesser does in with Jenny, but there is only one house and I don't think Jenny ever bunks with either one of the lesser does. And any of the wethers will most likely be able to beat Jenny up.

My other option is to start taking them on walks and letting her mix with everyone and see how that goes. She is not 100 percent yet as I could see in her bout with Daphne, but I don't like having to keep a goat separate.

Here are some more pics of Willow at the farm:

Willow and little Lori, her momma Lois behind, Maya mare in back.

Willow with Lori's "big Legs"

Willow and Jackson, the biggest goat at the farm.

Goodbye Thyroid

2011-05-27T17:01:00.003-04:00

I had my blood drawn this week for follow up on Radioactive I131 treatment for Grave's Disease(hyperactive thyroid). I am 10 weeks after treatment.

My free T4 levels have dropped below normal. I went from 2.58 at treatment to 1.91 six weeks later to .79 this week. Normal range, according to my doc, is 0.91-1.71. I was immediately put on 75 mg Levoxyl once a day with more blood work in another four weeks.

Yeah, I've been feeling pretty lousy the last week. I think there were about 10 days in the last month I thought, "hey, I'm feeling good!" and my muscle tone started to recover a little.

Then I started freezing all the time (all this cold and damp, I thought) and the blues like no tomorrow (ditto weather) and tired tired tired (who isn't this time of year?)

Now I get to look forward to medication daily for the rest of my life. But I do get to phase off the propanolol, oops are you still on that? three days of a gradually reducing dose and that will be ended...three times a day was a nightmare, especially the afternoon one and sometimes the night one too! So yay to that, right?

well, considering I had free T4 of 5.7+ from October through January, I guess I deserve a little crash. I sort of wish the crash was in the winter, but sometimes things are outside of our control...

Friday

2011-05-27T07:02:00.000-04:00

Blogger appears to be having comment issues.

Jenny the goat is much improved and the wayward hen has been staying put.

The ten days of gray wet weather caused a good slug crop, and they in turn have decimated many of my tender seedlings, including two rows of lettuce mix.

We had two glorious days of sun which was a cue for the mosquitoes hordes to come forth.

Now we're back to slug weather, fogged in since sundown last night.

Ah paradise!

gotta love May Showers

2011-05-22T20:53:00.003-04:00

But heating all month, too? We have had a very cool wet grey month of May! The slugs are loving it. The sun came out for about 5 minutes yesterday and the temps skyrocketed and the moisture filled the air from the saturated ground. I felt like a mole coming out of hibernation. Then the clouds returned.

The sun did come out for about 10 seconds this morning.

One of my goats ran into some trouble this weekend. She was a bit stiff in the rear on Thursday evening, but I had visitors at feeding time and didn't pay much attention. I was rushed Friday morning and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Friday night I had an unexpected guest right at grain time and Jenny was hiding in a house sitting on her rear like a dog. Her hind end buckled under her when I pulled her out of the house. I finally realized there was a problem.

I got rid of the visitor, secured and fed the rest of the herd, and made Jenny as comfortable as I could, and then ran an emergency divider between the house she was in and the rest of the paddock. My three children helped. One sat with Jenny's head in her lap, one ran insulators under my direction, and one stood ready to chase the other goats off when they came back from their hay.

Jenny seemed very disoriented and weak, and we ran watches on her falling down and getting stuck for two days. A goat friend was sure it was trouble with the hind leg. I thought perhaps a bigger goat had cornered her in the house and beat her up. Or rabies. Or brainworm. Or selenium deficiency. Or CAE.

She seemed slightly improved the second day, and finally I located some nutridrench for goats this morning and gave her 30cc orally. This afternoon she seemed much more aware of her surroundings and even managed to squat to urinate without falling down. She picked at her grain tonight and also her hay, and then I drenched her again. I also bought enough wormer for the whole herd and two selenium mineral blocks.

I'll check on her a few more times before bed tonight to make sure she hasn't fallen and hung up awkwardly against some of the big rocks in the pen. That was a real concern the first night as once I found her laying head downhill and unable to rise on her own.

She was obviously in pain the first 24 hours, so a goat may have been beating on her if she wasn't feeling well. Or just the stress of perhaps getting a leg hung up and then someone beating on her. Not really sure, and I don't feel out of the woods with her yet.

Her mother, Daphne, has seemed a bit upset and Jenny has seemed down. They usually bed down together and I had some thoughts tonight about putting her mom in with her. Jenny is still with the herd, just sectioned off alone. I think I will wait until Jenny is getting around pretty well and then put her mom in with her.

All this talking has made me want to go out and check on her. Prayers welcomed!

Gardening etc

2011-05-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

Been busy doing outside stuff. A lot of the black gold compost was moved the last couple of weeks, at least 10 wheelbarrows onto the lawn, along with a bag of lime, and a dozen or so in the garden beds and mulching roses and grapes and perennials.

Lettuce is planted, peas are coming up. Squash and beans were daringly planted yesterday. Trying broccoli from seed, and collards, and beets for greens. Planted some flower seeds at the end of the road and in the bucket for the mailbox (which got a load of black gold compost and a small ring of hand picked-rock around the base.)

Started a war against the blackberries that took over the big perennial bed and then I was sidetracked. (translated: scratched bloody and retreated in semi-defeat for the time being)

I picked up all the leftover bits of wood and put them in a neat stack. Now for the bags and bags of bottles for the redemption center!

I spent the week outsmarted by a chicken. A white leghorn hen became an escape artist. You can see, with all that planting going on, that could be very disastrous to have a wayward hen in one's tediously planted vegetable garden!

Well, she kept escaping. I kept sewing possible escape routes shut with baling twine. The outdoor chicken run has become almost festive-looking. Each time I fixed it, I would chase her back in. That sounds simple. First one has to lock all the other chickens out, and then chase a chicken in that has no intention of going in. Chickens can run fast.

Last night I clipped her wings. I thought that would slow her down. She acted like I was killing her, sulked in the house for ten minutes, and then escaped again. Finally the Firebird saw where she was getting out. I fixed it today and it took three of us ten minutes slowly slowly acting like well-trained border collies to get her in.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-07T19:39:00.003-04:00

me with Lori's "Big Legs"

me with Sugreca's boy

Willow and Maya

Willow with Carmela's boy

Willow and Jackson

Spring is finally here!

2011-04-26T17:31:00.000-04:00

All our snow is finally gone. The last little bit of ice just vanished without fanfare. The pond was melted by the full moon, because I walked a friend over to the pond that evening and the water was still as glass.

Eleven baby goats at the farm, all sooo sweet! Silver babies: Little Lori had a single big buck, Sugreca a buck and a doe, Dancer two does. Five brown babies: a big single doe out of Buffy, twin bucks out of Carmela, and twin does out of Bonnie. One black doe out of Coretta.

Sugreca's little buck has one wattle and loves to chew on hair. Bonnie's girls from Prince are so beautiful, and Bonnie is starting to accept me catching them every morning so she can have her grain.

Actually, most of the mothers are relieved when I go after their kids since the does stand in the stalls calling their babies, who are having too much fun playing big goat on the rock wall to be interested in grain.

Combing cashmere is almost over.

Had a bunch of blood drawn last week, called the doc and found out I am still hyperthyroid, although the levels dropped since before treatment. So I have more bloodwork in a month and have to watch for signs of hypothyroid in the meantime. Certainly the swelling at the base of my throat has gone down. I have put on a few pounds, I'm up to 118 now, but still battling the forgetting-to-eat and running typically on 5 hours of sleep.

I get nightowlish this time of year, but having to be to the farm at the crack of dawn is putting a crimp in my sleeping! lol.

Tuesday

2011-04-12T17:45:00.000-04:00

The Phoebes are back.
"phoebe, phoebe" greeted me at yesterday morning when I awoke.

I had a Mercury retrograde day today. I am still convinced it is Monday, lol. first, I overslept. Somehow I shut my alarm off instead of hitting snooze. I am a chronic snooze button user, so I can immediately go back to sleep. Luckily I awoke 5 minutes before I had to leave for work. I was starting coffee and Willow, who was staying home, down with a bug, said, "the goats are out. "

Ok, I won't bore you with the details of how much fun that was (not), but I am afraid of what the neighbors think of me shouting like a wild woman at errant goats at the crack of dawn. Oh yeah, the neighbors must have heard me.

I was about 15 minutes late to the farm, and was paused outside the gate trying to huff down a cigarette before I went through, (no smoking inside the gates) and my ex-boyfriend's co-worker drove by, honking. Now I knew I had to drive by the two of them working at the rock lot on my way home.

I walked over to the upper gate, still nursing the smoke, and there was a small pile of shavings and some blood and a few white feathers, and I thought, "something tragic happened here."

Boss was coming down from the house and I queried her as to the evidence, and she said, "we had the old gander put down."

I imagined a gun to the back of the head, and felt sad for the "oldman", at least 15 years old as just as a guess. I saw the barn cat circling licking his/her lips (there are two gray and white long-haired, both neutered, male and female, and I can't tell them apart- nor would their teeth and claws allow me to attempt to do so)

I thought I , or someone, should clean up the evidence, and followed Boss into the barn for some tools, as she said, "a lot has been going on..." and gestured, and P said, "Bonnie and Dancer had their babies!"

Which was so exciting I forgot all about the loss of the gander. Bonnie has had boys for the last four years. She is a super-attentive mother. In fact, she sort of was adopted by one of Lillemore's kids last year, who would sneak-nurse her while she was raising twin bucklings of her own.

One year she wasn't bred; she fought with one of the mothers so badly because she didn't have her own babies. Bonnie had her ear split so severely it still dangles in two pieces.

Every year at the three-month mark, Bonnie's boys have been taken from her across the hill for weaning, since bucklings can breed a doe when they are three months old. Well, I have always felt pretty sorry for her and have wished to find her with a girl for the last couple of years now.

Bonnie had twins does this year! They are out of Prince, a tall brown and tan, blue- eyed, side-horned buck. And I am sure at least one of the brown doelings will have his blue eyes.

I have joked that this is the year of the blue eye. Last year was the year of the wattle.

The other surprise was beautiful black Dancer with the long fringes had a pair of gray does out of Grand Champion, currently on the injured list, Homer, who Willow showed when she was 8 and who is also the sire of my Badger.

Oh no, I'm off on goat bloodlines now, boorrrinnng, lol

anyhow, Dancer and Homer's girls are adorable! As are Bonnie and Prince's. Bonnie looked so stunned, lol. i know had she feels-I remember learning I was going to have a daughter after two sons and I believe I had that look on my face as well.

Long week

2011-04-09T23:30:00.000-04:00

I combed a lot of goats this week. Bags and bags of cashmere. Some goats are nearly completely shed out: others are loaded and just getting started.

The filly at the farm went for training today. And none too soon. She and the older mare have taken an extreme dislike to Lori's little grey Buckling.

Wednesday I saw Maya lunge at him with her ears back and grab him by the back. "MAYA!!!" I screamed and she dropped him and he went sprawling and I escorted her out of the barn with a shovel threatening her big behind.

Then the filly was caught three days in a row charging through the main herd in the big pasture, singling out the little grey buckling with her head down and teeth bared and feet flying.

Don't know what got into those mares, but I suspect a long standing hatred of Lori and her Mom, Lois, because there are seven babies and 30 adults yet they are picking on him. And there is another grey buckling about the same size, but they can tell them apart, apparently.

****

Beautiful weather today, but we still have a bunch of snow on the lawn. The goat pasture has a steadily receding line of snow that I keep chasing back with the twice daily hay feeding. Nice to have clean snow twice a day to put the hay on.

****

Radiation fallout from Fukushima is being picked up in the US, and in milk in Vermont. I have a feeling that in order to protect oneself only food harvested before the Fukushima accident should be consumed. Good luck with that.

Birthday with my Firstborn

2011-04-03T01:12:00.000-04:00

After we were yanked free of the culvert this morning, and spent the morning tending hungry goats and playing with newborn goat kids, we joined forces with the Eldest celebrating his 22nd today.

We went to Augusta and went to lunch in Hallowell at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Lucky Garden. The restaurant sits on posts along the banks of the Kennebec (wide water) River, an open post and beam high-ceiled room, with windows along three sides with expansive views of the River.

The posts are covered in hanging planters and trained vines of Golden Pothos, and the buffet is humble but was immediately refreshed with our favorites within minutes of our arrival.

The host greeted me by name, the waiter was a little incoherent so I had to translate for the kids. I was very pleased to be out on the town with my three beautiful children!

We also hit the Starbuck's counter at Barnes & Noble and the eldest had a chance to spend some of his birthday cash replacing some books he lost in a fire a few years ago.

An aspiring writer...two books by Bukowski and a nice hardcover Dictionary.

Cake at home afterwards-a lame store bought one, since our power was out and I couldn't bake him a scratch one in my electric oven. But I did have plenty of candles (and all the numbers but 2, of course) so 22 candles went on his cake, and I was worried the thing would melt before we could finish a refrain of "Happy Birthday, " so we sung it double-time.

We stayed up late the night before philosophizing by candlelite, he saying it was the type of light like sitting around a bonfire.

Cherish the moments.

"my memories are like smoke drifting around the room,
and when they dissipate as I try and grab them,
I think...
"it doesn't matter." "