Ummm...Suprise!

Well, I wasn't really planning on doing the blog change until New Year's day, but I was messing around with the computer and was wondering if I was sure that I wanted this look....So I tried it. :D

And guess what happened then. Silly me, I couldn't figure out how to get back to my old look [rolls eyes].

So what do you think of it?
One reason that this particular look was chosen was because I am now letting my sisters join in. It was really hard choosing the new look because we all have different tastes. I naturally leaned for a feminine look, S#2, who will now be revealed as Megan, wanted a "Chronicles of Narnia" look (she adores reading about Scotland, knights and battles) and S#3, AKA Emily, really liked the blue and brown/pink and brown options.
We searched that website for what seemed like ages. Then....We found it. Yep, we found this look. It was pretty enough for my tastes, "medieval-ish" [smiles] enough for Megan and it had the blue and brown colors that Emily loved.

We're pondering on changing the name to 'King's Daughters' but we haven't set anything in concrete yet. :D Well, I hope I didn't shock you too much with all this. LOL.

Just a note to say....

Just a note to say that I am in the process of changing this blog, so you may not here from me for a couple of days. Hopefully I will be done by January first or second.

Until next time.....

Lions, tigers and bears, OH MY!!

The days just keep on getting better and better.

Today our neighbor stopped by our house to warn us that he had just seen a full grown Cougar prowling around in his pasture!
Aaack!
I guess there must not be enough game up where they usually stay, so now he's eyeing people's livestock....I'm making sure I have have a camera and a shovel with me at all times now! LOL.

Whee! It's a Wii!

This year for Christmas, we were suprised to find, of all possible things, a Wii underneath the Christmas tree!!

Normally I am not really a nintendo playing fan, because I find it a little boring to just sit there. But the Wii is a whole different ball game! You actually have to move around to play! Observe:

Even mom likes it! I will admit that most of us are sore from playing it. :)

The gift of giving

I think every year we say that it's been the best Christmas ever; I guess they just keep getting better. :D

This Christmas has been really fun for us all. We all got really nice gifts from each other as well as from our relatives. Since I could not knit my gifts I had to go to plan #B.

For Jessica, I gave her a dozen homemade paper doll horses, some spurs that I don't use anymore, an old horse magazine that she could cut up and a glass horse figurine.

I gave Jacob a story. Last year my sisters and I each wrote a story about himself for him. He was ecstatic getting to read about himself going on adventures, so we decided to do it again this year. In all he has a story about him being a fire fighter, a hunter, a scuba diver, a sea captain, a skier and a detective. We'll do more stories next Christmas. :)

Emily got a turquoise bracelet that she's been eyeing for a while. It was mine but I never wore it so I gave it to her.

Megan was interesting to do. I knew exactly what she wanted and I had both of the items in my closet....but, I also really liked them myself. Nevertheless, I gave them up willingly and it was so much fun watching her open them on Christmas morning. So what was it? I gave her my second favorite skirt that I had, a beautiful, dark blue, plaid skirt....And, my leather journal that had been handmade in India. I had only written a few entries in the journal before I broke my wrist, so I just tore those pages out.

I couldn't think of anything for Chris or for dad so I just gave them a heartfelt 'Merry Christmas!'

I was soooo excited about mom's gift. I've been working on it since late October.

As kind of a hobby, I enjoy making 'collage cans'. I take those really, really big cans that tomatoes come in, then I glue pictures all over it (which is harder than it sounds). After that comes the most tedious part; I then have to apply five coats of Modge Podge...Do one coat, wait twenty minutes...do another coat, wait another twenty minutes.... You get the idea. ;)

So for mom, I made a chocolate/coffee collage can. In the can I put a cute Ghirardelli coffee mug, a coffee card, three homemade coffee jackets and lots of Ghirardelli chocolates. Mmmmm. :D

Oh yeah, I gave little Carver a pint-sized broom and mop. He's so cute to watch, going around the house sweeping. LOL.

Definitely a white Christmas

Wow.... We were just listening to the weather report on the radio and apparently we are in for a heavy winter storm with snow up to fourteen inches!! The broadcast person said that traveling will become extremely dangerous and warned everyone to stay home; If traveling is imperative, he advised to bring a well-stocked emergency kit, a cell phone and flashlights.

Over here, we are stocking up on water and collecting candles. Some friends up the road from us have already lost their power, so we're just waiting for our turn. Along the lines of lost power, if we do lose it we will have to bring Emily's baby rabbits inside. Fun, fun, fun.

A white Christmas? Most definitely. A Christmas without power? Probably. :D
I guess we'll see what happens....

Four and a wake-up

I'm sure most normal people would say that there are "five days till Christmas", but we prefer to say that it's "four and a wake-up" till Christmas. I'm not sure why we do that, but, that's the way we've always done it. :)

The snow is thick on the ground outside; almost five inches deep! Okay, so perhaps some of you have seen snow waaaay deeper, but for us, five inches is deep. And yes those pipes out in the barn are still frozen solid so we have to use water from our other well, which is not frozen (yet).

With Christmas stealthily creeping closer, I have been "mad-dashing" all around trying to finish everybody's presents. Since I obviously am not able to knit, I am doing the back up plans that I had. Sorry, but I can't let you in on the secret until after Christmas because they might come to my blog and [gasps in horror] might find out what their presents are. :D

The baby rabbits are all doing well. We no longer have a runt though; he caught up with his siblings in both weight and size! All of our rabbits are roly poly and healthy on their all-grain diet, which has been so encouraging for me! I will try and get a picture of the babies really soon for y'all so you can see how cute they are now that they are fully furred; actually maybe I'll wait a couple more days....So you can see them with their eyes open! Entirely too cute. :D

Well, I should probably go and start on Jacob's present now.

Merry Christmas!!

A random post

GLOBAL WARMING.

Velvet Shoes

Come, let us walk in the quiet snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as a white cow's milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence falls like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

--By Elinor Wylie

Snow in the countyside

Girl on a mission

Maybe, just maybe, we will get a white Christmas over here.

As for now, we do have snow!! It looks so pretty outside; everything is covered with a sparkling, pearly white blanket. The snow fairies must have been busy last night! :) LOL.

It started snowing lightly on Saturday night but it didn't stick that much. Sunday brought colder temperatures and fun snow flurries all throughout the day; this time the snow stuck.
This morning I woke up to two inches worth of snow outside of my window. "Hurray!" I thought to myself. Hee, hee, my excitement was short lived.

Megan and Emily came inside after barn chores were done and informed me that the pipes in the barn were frozen.....And Peaches was out of water.

So what did we do? We left Peaches to die of dehydration. I'm just kidding. :D Instead we armed ourselves with buckets filled with water from the bathtub and began the trek outside.

Naturally, Peaches was thirsty and was only too willing to drink the water right out of our buckets rather than letting us dump it in her big water bucket....12 gallons of water later..... Peaches finally slaked her thirst and allowed us to begin filling her very large bucket.

"What's that dad? Oh, you want us to stop getting our water from inside because we're letting cold air in, tracking snow on the floor and because Emily's bucket has a big leak in it? Okay."

Plan #B. Time to thaw out those pipes. I put our well loved and used kettle on to boil and when it began singing merrily I knew it was time to start my mission.

With a look of grim determination I took the kettle and a bucket out with me into the "tundra". The wind had picked up considerably so the snow flurries stung my eyes. At first eveything was going fine until out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something moving, then eveything went downhill from there.

"Oh no! My bucket is flying away! Come back here! Gotcha!
Hey, what am I doing with an oven mitt on my hand? I thought for sure I had put my glove back on.
What's that I hear? Oh great, a car is coming. Well maybe the driver needed a smile anyway.
Youch, that water is hot! This mitt doesn't offer much protection."

You get the idea I'm sure. :D

But, Peaches now has a full water bucket and I am still alive to tell the story. :)

A thrilling morning

Woohoo! I got to take a close-up look at Izzy's babies this morning. Boy did those little things grunt when my icy fingers touched them! Last night I made a guess of how many there were and their colors. I guessed that there were six, broken black babies in there, but guess what! There's actually nine!! :D



Five of them are broken blues, and four are broken blacks. (Thank you Andrea for giving me Domino! He finally threw blue in my litters!)



The babies will be fully furred at three days old, then they'll open their eyes and ears at ten to twelve days old. By the time they are three weeks old they will be wobbling around their nest box. I love it when they're about four weeks old; that's when they are at their cutest!

Yeah, they probably look like little pink rats to you in this picture, but, really they are very cute. :)

There's a little runt in the litter too. He's only two inches long while his siblings range from three inches to a whopping 3 1/2 inches!! He's stolen my heart too. ;) You see, not only is he itty bitty, he's also a broken blue [grins sheepishly]. Blue rabbit have always been a favorite of mine. :)

Cap'n, We've got bunnies!

Hurray! Izzy finally kindled! Sorry if this post is brief, but I literally just found out so I'm too excited to sit still right now (you understand right?).

There's somewhere around six kits (rabbiter's term for "bunny") and as far as I could tell, they are all broken blacks. They look soooo cute, nestled down in their fluffy nest filled with their mama's warm fur. :D

I'll try and get some pics tomorrow for y'all.

So here's to the end of the "morning jitters"! [sighs with relief] :)

Rabbit breeders have all the fun

My title bears much truth; only we experience a different sort of "fun" in our hobby.

Whenever you breed your rabbits for a winter litter you can always expect something to happen. For example, today dear mom informed me that the temperature is supposed to drop to around 10 degrees either tonight or tomorrow night and possibly dip lower than 10.

Naturally, being the cool, calm and collected person that I am [grins] I replied: OH MY GOODNESS, IT'S GOING TO DROP TO 10 DEGREES!?! I HAVE A DOE THAT'S GOING TO KINDLE SOON!!! THE BABIES WILL FREEZE!!!

Yes, I am very dependable during emergencies. :D [laughs]

So Emily and I are going to attempt hanging a heat lamp over the nest and giving Izzy (that's the doe's name) some more bedding for the nest.

Then there is always the morning jitters. When you're expecting a litter you always leap out of bed and hurry outside into the arctic tundra [slight exaggeration] to see if your doe has kindled (given birth). By the time you get to her pen, you find yourself trembling, half with excitement of finding a litter of live squirmy newborns, and half with fear that you might find a dead litter.

All rabbit breeders go through this every morning until....HURRAY!! She finally had the babies!!

[poor us] :)

Well,Emily and I are still waiting for those little bunnies. And we're still going through the morning jitters. [groans and rolls eyes]. Oh when will it end??

Rabbit breeders definitely have all the fun.

I will keep you posted on the rabbits. So don't stay away too long. :D

P.S. The picture is of three, 12 day old, Holland Lops from our very first litter, three years ago. I found the pic buried amongst dad's files on the computer and just thought I would add it to my post.

Even the little things

I had a very nice reminder yesterday that God does indeed listen to your tiniest cares. :)

Some of you may or may not know this, but, Emily's rabbit is heavily pregnant and is due any day now. You also probably know how we have moved them onto an all-grain diet.

So the story starts like this:

We were unable to get the oats from our Azure order so the rabbits have been eating just barley until I could get something more. I was really depending on those oats to come because barley alone will not provide enough protein or fiber for them. What's worse, they also needed Alfalfa in their diet, but it's been a bad hay year so there is no such thing as "cheap" hay right now.

I decided that if I could just get a bale of Alfalfa then they would probably be fine until my oats came (if they ever come). I called around comparing prices of hay bales; the cheapest I could find was close to thirteen dollars, which is too much for me to pay. In my frustration I prayed to the Lord and told Him my dilemma.

"Lord, I need help!
I can't afford this hay but my rabbits need it.
What should I do?
I still need 100 more pounds of feed in order to raise this up coming litter if rabbits.
I can afford the grain dear Lord, but not if I have to buy a bale of hay too.
but, you say that you care "for even the sparrows" (Matt. 6:26) so I will trust you to provide for this small need."

A couple of days later, Miss Jennifer (Peaches' owner) came by with some more horse stuff and while she was there she asked if we would by any chance be interested in a bucket of alfalfa cubes that she had but didn't need!! I quickly told her yes, and with that she showed me a huge bucket, packed full of sweet smelling alfalfa cubes. I was so happy and excited! So now the rabbits are all contentedly munching in their cages and S#3 and I are eagerly awaiting the litter of rabbits due soon.

How sweet it is to be able to trust our Saviour for even the little things. :D

A walk through the woods

The weather was beautiful today, crisp and cool with the sun shining brilliantly. So I took full advantage of it by doing my daily herb collecting in the 98 acres. Naturally, since I am one- handed, I had to bring somebody along to carry all of my stuff (okay, so maybe just a little basket). My victim this time was poor, unsuspecting Emily. ;)

She got over it once she remembered her camera though. :rolls eyes:

We took our time while hiking. We stopped once to look for the spot where I fell, and to look at one of the beaver dams, oh, and to smell the wild spearmint.

The blackberries are dying now. But the leaves turn a stunning scarlet color right before they drop off.

This is Teasel. It doesn't have very many medicinal uses but it is great for carding wool and using for arrangements.

Here's me, coming back from collecting a bit of spearmint.

Deer prints in the mud. They were sniffing around our barn early this morning. :)

And, of course, Octavia had to accompany us. Whenever We go up to the 98 acres, one of the cats follow us. What more does one need on a hiking trip? A sister, a camera, a pocket knife, a basket of herbs and a cat! Oh yeah, the chickens started following us up too; but mom and the younger ones herded them back. :D

All-in-all it was an enjoyable trip. And I have some Mullein leaves and some Alder bark drying for later use. :)

Praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever

Hurray!! The Hospital called and confirmed that I DO NOT need surgery on my wrist!!
I cannot begin to describe the relief I feel now that the impending danger is passed. :)
Maybe these verses can help me explain my joy. :D

"Praise the Lord for His mercies endure forever."
2 Chronicles 20:21 b


Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasent, and praise is beautiful.
Psalm 147:1


Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!

Praise Him with timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!


Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150

The Curiosity Shop

Emily, got this neat shot from a book by Charles Dickens. 'The Old Curiosity shop'. In this painting the focus is on 'Little Nell' who is walking through London with her aged grandfather.

The beginning

Okay just one more post and then I'll get off this computer.

I just wanted to really quickly mention that our Cuckoo Maran rooster is now crowing!

He was actually supposed to be a hen but, lo and behold, a rooster he turned out to be (not that I mind)

Isn't he pretty? And I absolutely love his little, tiny, adorable baby crow that he does. But, He's getting better, he just needs a bit of time.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his name is Walter. :D We have three Maran chickens, two hens and one rooster. Willamina, Winnifred and Walter are their names. ;)

How the days seem to fly by

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Where did the days go?

Can you relate to this phrase?

The days have been busy, mostly trips into town for doctor appointments, but still there's all those hours left in the day. Where did they go? Lets take a closer look and see what we have been doing all week...

Oh, yeah. First off there is my daily wildcrafting. Meaning my daily collecting of herbs. :)

We moved the rabbits comepletely onto their all-grain diet yesterday so I've been giving them daily doses of specific herbs that I feel they need each day. It's so much fun looking closely at my animals to see what they might be needing and then going out and getting the exact plant that will help them! Today my dear rabbits got a scrumptious selection of Plantain, apple leaves, fruit and bark, dandelions, blackberry, rose leaves, Rosemary, willow, orange, fescue and then a heaping handful of hay. For me, the highlight of all this is watching them devour it all. :D

Then there is always copper to play with (and clean mud off, feed and groom)

Copper is our two year old, male Golden Retreiver. He really isn't the brightest dog, but he makes up for it by being cute. Of course that's pretty much the only thing he has going for him. LOL. :D

These next pictures explain what I mean.

See what I mean? In the top picture, our darling dog is gopher hunting. To Copper's mind there is no need for cunning and stealth when hunting. If ya' just dig deep enough you'll eventually get that pesky critter. In the second picture, he is waiting for "the other dog" to grab his ball and run. Hee, hee. It's hilarious watching him stare at his reflection and wonder why "the other dog" won't play with him. (the poor guy needs a playmate so bad)

And there's always Chess to play when it's raining.

Hmmm...Well I guess the rest of the day kind of just fills up with chores, school, meals, reading and just doing whatever else happens that particular day!

Okay, so maybe I did do this post only so I could put these pictures up. But you enjoyed them, right?

Busy days

Since Sunday the 30th, the days have been very busy and painful. Everything was going "swimmingly" until Sunday when I tripped and fell during church, landing right on my broken wrist. Yikes, did that ever hurt!! The pain was pretty intense until early Tuesday. I knew the pain would come back shortly because I had an appointment at the hospital later and those always hurt. :Scowls:
On Tuesday, the doctor put my permanent cast on which has been pretty nice because it stops at my elbow, rather than covering it like my first cast, so it's easier for me to maneuver now. It was really creepy when the doctor took my first cast off. After just three weeks of being in a cast, my arm has lost almost all its muscle so it looked itty-bitty and just--well--creepy! I thought I was going to throw up when I saw it. :( The doctor said my wrist isn't quite healing up like it should be and that it will probably be permanently crooked. He also said that there is a possibility that I won't be able to properly rotate my wrist and do things with the same dexterity that I used to.

After that, the doctor showed dad and me the latest x-rays (I'm beginning to really hate those x-rays :grrr:) While explaining the x-rays, the doctor noticed something he hadn't before; it looked to him like I had a ruptured ligament right above the broken bone causing some of the other bones to slip. So guess what... He scheduled me for am MRI at 8:30 the next morning.

Before I could have the MRI done, they had to put a dye in my wrist so they could see in the new x-rays whether or not I did have a ruptured ligament and needed surgery. Now, I can give shots to animals just fine, I can do the sub-Q's and IM's, but I cannot stand getting a shot myself. I shudder just thinking about it.

I also had no idea as to what an MRI was, so that was an interesting learning experience. :-/
An MRI is basically a different way to do x-rays only they use a magnetic field rather than radiation. So, I had to lay down on a little bed and then they rolled it underneath this huge dome thingy that took the x-rays. My nose was literally six inches away from the ceiling. The machine is sooo loud that you have to wear headphones while its going. Lucky for me I got to listen to music during the 20 minutes worth of x-raying. My choice? A CD by Loreena Mckennit, She's my favorite singer.

The people said they would call us when they decided if I needed surgery or not. So every phone call is picked up hurriedly. I have my fingers crossed that I won't need surgery. :sigh:

A day of thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone throughout America. How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was memorable, as they usually are. ;) You'll never guess what our main dish was...give up? Turkey! LOL. :D
At first it didn't really feel like thanksgiving; maybe because there was no family? But things warmed up and by lunch time the air was sparked with excitement. Our thanksgiving tradition is to have thanksgiving "dinner" at about 1 'o' clock. While we wait for everything to cook we watch the annual thanksgiving day dog show on NBC. We don't have TV normally but dad always painstakingly puts up the antenna for us. This year a beautiful female Pointer won Best in show.

Seeing as it was a day of thanks I made a mental list of things that I was thankful for as I continued on through the holiday. Here is a shortened list.

#1 Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour

#2 All of my family and friends

#3 The freedom to home school and be a Christian

#4 My wonderful home out in the beautiful country

#5 My menagerie of animals, which is a flock of around 25 chickens, one horse, nine cats, a dog and four rabbits.

#6 The "country blessings" as I call them. i.e. The eerie wail of the coyotes, the millions of stars in the glorious night sky, deer prints in the mud, a chickadee in a pine tree, a mushroom found unexpectedly, an owl hooting in a tree next to my bedroom window, a new litter of kittens, a gorgeous sunset.... the list goes on and on.

#7 People who read my blog!

#8 My broken wrist. Yes you read that right; having to use just one hand has taught me to be more creative and to never give up. Although I still can't wait till it's mended. :)

#9 The new baby who is due around the beginning of April.

#10 And lastly, but not leastly, I'm thankful that I'm alive! That I can sing and dance and live! :D

New use for cats

Just please don't report us to the ASPCA!

x-rays, x-rays

Today was the day that I had to go back to the hospital for x-rays. It was an interesting experience. First off, we got there at 9:00 am because my x-rays were to be taken at 9:30 and my appointment with the doctor was at ten. For some reason it took us thirty minutes just to check-in, so we figured we would be right on time for my x-rays. Nope. Another thirty minute wait until my name was called. :sigh: The x-rays were very interesting though. I had a different guy this time and when I first saw him I thought for sure it was Tim Conway, the actor. I kid you not, he had the exact same voice and looked similar to Tim Conway; but his name was Gary, not Tim. Apparently Mr. Gary had literally just come from doing an operation and was a little feather-brained right at the moment. He was about to start the x-rays when he realized that there wasn't any film, so he ran off to go find some. He came back shortly after and for the second time was just about to start things up when he remembered another thing that he had forgotten. This happened two more times, until finally he had everything he needed. Story doesn't stop there though. He needed to put my arm in a very uncomfortable position and I didn't quite understand how to put it, so he used himself to show me. I think I said only two words during all of this because I was afraid I was going to burst out laughing; and I knew if I started then I wouldn't stop. So with the corners of my mouth twitching considerably, I did what he said.

He was also really careful that he didn't lower the x-ray table too low, to where it was squishing my legs (that happened the first time) he even got down on all fours while he lowered it!! Needless to say, It was a very trying time for me to keep full control of myself and I was glad that he apparently didn't notice my twitching mouth. :D :D

I'm going in again next Tuesday for more x-rays and the doctor will decide if I need surgery and some pins or just a cast (I don't have my permanent cast yet).

So stay tuned for The adventures of Caitlyn! :)

One by one they leave

The one and only part I don't like about having kittens is when it is time to find them new homes. :( Tabitha and Bomber Grue are spoken for and some other people are thinking about taking the last four that are left.

While I may not be able to keep any of them, I can keep pictures of them. Yes, you guessed it, you're going to have to put up with a plethera of kitten pictures on here. :)

Okay, so Octavia isn't really a kitten. She thinks she still is one though!

This is Rollo, Aren't her markings neat?

About this shot, I just liked it! She tried to use her little paw to grab an un-suspecting hand!

Rollo again. She has the sweetest face. :)

And for a grand finale. Ta, Da! isn't this a great shot? S#4 wasn't looking and just clicked the button. You can see Rollo in the background.

Misty morning

I just wanted to share this neat picture with everybody. Emily got it a few days ago when the mist was thick. I love mornings like that. The mist is almost impenetrable; you can't see anything that is ten feet in front of you and everything around you seems ethereal and spooky... You almost expect to see a raven in the mighty Oak tree.

I have given you every herb...

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:29-30





I love reading this verse in Genesis. I also love all the other verses about herbs in the Bible. :) For some reason, herbs have always fascinated me. For a few months I have been mulling over the thought of raising my rabbits naturally. Meaning no store bought pellets or medicines or anything. When the first idea came to me I laughed at myself. "feed my rabbits something besides pellets? They would starve on grain!" But the idea continued to grow. I'm naturally curious and began to really think about this. "What did they do in the olden days? How long have pellets been around? Would whole grains really work?" I did some research and the answers I found are fantastic!



#1 Pellets were introduced right after World War II. Before that Just grains were used.

"Oh, so pellets really haven't been around that long." :knits brow and nods slowly:



#2 Rabbits only need 18% fiber, 16% protein, 3% fat and a low percentage of energy. Whole barley and whole oats together with 3rd cutting Alfalfa provides this perfectly.

"Hmmm.. This is looking good!" :begins to grin:



#3 Rabbits will not only just live on grain, hay and added herbs, they will flourish! Rabbits have proved to be healthier, have better litters, do better at shows and live longer on an all natural diet!

"Wow!"



I've been skulking around some rabbit websites that talk about doing this and have been reading everything I can get my hands on, trying to learn more. I have one very well loved and used book called "Herbal handbook for farm and stable" that has a permanent home next to my bed (I'm constantly reading it) It's by 'Juliette de Bairacli Levy' who is of Turkish descent but grew up in England. She is an herbalist who has treated animals all over the world. Juliette writes very detailed and gives directions to treat animal such as dogs, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses and bees with only herbs. I cannot say enough about this book and highly encourage any animal owner to buy it (look on Amazon.com).




To get back to the subject, She provided a lot of extremely useful info that has helped me make up my mind to switch to natural stuff for my rabbits. Another thing that helped was feed prices. Nowadays it costs $16.00 for 50 lbs. of medicated pellets, while it only costs $17.00 for 100 lbs. of organic whole grains!

So I now have 50 pounds of whole, organic barley in the barn and my oats are coming in a few days. Hurray!

I'm back....Sort of

Hello all! Already this typing is proving to be harder than I thought it would be. :) My wrist still really hurts but I am up and around now. I even got dressed this morning! :D For those of you who might not have seen the last post, I broke my left wrist while riding our horse.

So how did it all really happen? Well, I'll give you an inside story....

It was so nice out that my sisters and I decided to go riding. Emily got to ride with me this time as her turn. Megan rode double on Peaches with me last time and dear Peaches was as good as gold so we figured we were up for another nice ride. So, bareback and double, Emily and I headed out. At first it was a really nice ride but then, when we were roughly half way to our destination, Peaches suddenly spooked at something, wheeled around and leaped into a frantic gallop. At her leap Emily and I were thrown off, I stuck my left hand out to take the impact (smart move) and heard a loud "pop!" when my hand connected with the ground. I couldn't stop my screams that filled the damp air after I felt that terrible pop. Emily was alright and quickly jumped up to see if I was okay. I told I thought my wrist was popped out of joint and to not worry about me but go and catch Peaches. I watched her run off and then took a closer look at my wrist. It was grossly disfigured and I couldn't move it. I stumbled back home, praying the whole time, asking God to please give me strength to get home. When I finally got home mom had Chris, who is training to be a paramedic, take a look at my wrist. He advised mom to call 911 but mom thought we could probably make it to the hospital without an ambulance. Out on highway 18 the pain reached its peak and I began to cramp up. You how it feels when your feet fall asleep? now imagine that all over your body. My feet and hands curled tightly, my tongue cramped to the bottom of my mouth, my eyes were cramped closed and with each passing minute it was becoming harder to breath. Mom called 911 and stayed on the phone with them so they would know our location. With a last burst of strength I made myself open my eyes and could see in the distance flashing lights and could hear the sound of sirens. The medics had arrived. Since I was having difficulty breathing they sent two medics (ambulances) and a brush rig. They put my arm in a quick cast and sling, then helped me into the stretcher waiting outside the van. On our way to the ER they gave me some instant pain medication and an IV.

At the hospital I had x-rays taken, by a really nice guy who was a horse owner himself, and was then taken to have the bone set. :gulp: The doctor who was going to set the bone was also really nice and did a very good job. It actually didn't hurt when they set the bone because they numbed it. It was the numbing part that hurt! He used a needle that looked like it should have been used for cattle...or a rhino. It was huge!

But it's over now. :) I do have to go back in a few days for more x-rays though. The doctor said that it will take 4 to 8 weeks before my wrist is healed. There goes all the Christmas presents I was planning on knitting. :( Well, I guess I will end here and let my hand have a break.

Bye for now. :D

Out of Service

Hello friends and family, Mom here for Caitlyn to let you know that she will be out of service for a bit due to a broken wrist which she got falling off the horse while riding double with her sister. She is doing as well as can be expected but still in a lot of pain. Your prayers for her would be greatly appreciated.

Mom

Strummin' the ole banjo

I think that if I could purr like a cat, I would right now. But unfortunately I can't purr so I'll just blog instead. :) I finally got the whole chord-thing figured out on my banjo and I can now play two songs! I have no idea as to what the songs are called but, I can play them. At first I had thought that my fingers were to short (I have very small hands) but dad said it wasn't my hands that was the problem, it was my finger nails, or "claws" as he called them. Personally I didn't think they were that long but for the banjo you have to use the very tippy tip of your fingers in order to do the chords. So, off went the finger nails! :sniff: That's another good thing about the mountain dulcimer, you use the flat of your fingers so you can keep those nails on. :) But, as you know, I don't have a dulcimer yet. Still, the banjo has proved to be very fun and I am really enjoying it.
Emily got a picture of me playing on it with her new camera and then changed it to a neat sepia color.




See?

What does a country girl do all day?

Are you tired of reading about scary horse posts that give you nightmares yet? Good, so am I. :)





I was once asked what I do all day way out in the country without having those time sappers like Video games, cell phones, mp3 players and whatever else most teenage kids have these days. I smiled and with a laugh I told the person (I can't remember who it was) the truth: When you live in the country its hard to stay bored. First off, I have animals that need care, and a horse that needs to be exercised for an hour and a half a day. Then, there's chores. Breakfast chores, lunch chores, dinner chores and whatever else needs to be done. After that comes school. School time fluctuates from day to day. Once that is finished I have the rest of the day to myself.


So what do I do? Well...I read a lot, and knit. :) I knitted for 3 1/2 hours straight the other day. I also write, I am working on a juvenile fiction book right now. And then I spend a good amount of time on my instrument. It was driving me crazy watching everybody practice on their instruments and not having one of my own. So I got one. :) And it was just collecting dust in mom and dad's closet. Before I go further I just want to tell you that this really isn't my type of instrument but.. desperate times call for desperate measures. :D



I'm probably driving you nuts with suspense, right? You're probably dying to know what on earth the instrument could be, right? Good, that was what I wanted. :D :D



Ta, da! The Banjo.



Okay, have you had your fill of laughing yet? Can't you see me in one of my nice skirts, sitting on my hope chest playing a banjo? Hee, hee, heee. Now I'm laughing too! Sorry about the crummy picture though. The lighting was pretty bad at the time.

It is definitely challenging. I'm still getting the hang of doing the rolls on it; it's fun when you get going really fast. :) But I think my fingers are two short to do the chords! No matter how hard I try I just can't get my fingers to reach all the strings that they need to reach. :Grrr:



I'm saving for a mountain dulcimer, but the one that I want is really expensive so I'll have to stick with the banjo until then. :Sigh: :)

Animal owners beware

I was warned a few days ago that our neighbors horses had all come down with Pigeon fever and was warned to keep a good eye on Peaches as well. I hadn't a clue as to what "Pigeon fever" was so I looked it up online. This is what I found.


Pigeon Fever
Cases of pigeon fever have once again been reported throughout Oregon, particularly in the Central and Eastern part of the state. Caused by the bacteria Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, pigeon fever is highly contagious, but rarely fatal. The disease is seasonal, with peak incidence in the fall months, and the incidence fluctuates from year to year within a site.

It is characterized by intramuscular abscesses, primarily in the pectoral area and ventral part of the abdomen, which gives the horse a puffed-out appearance similar to that of a pigeon. The infection is confirmed with a bacterial culture and by symptoms. Horse should be checked daily; look closely at the underside and check for swelling. In some cases, the infection can spread to the horse’s legs, causing a syndrome called ulcerative lymphangitis, which is difficult to treat.

The bacteria lives and multiplies in dry soil and manure. Hot, dry weather facilitates this bacterial growth. Horses contract the disease through an open wound or fly bite, with bacteria entering through these abrasions or wounds and, sometimes, mucous membranes. Fly control (sprays, sheets and repellents) can help to limit disease risk.

Humans can also be carriers of the bacteria on their boots, hands, and tools. Proper disinfection protocols should be utilized to limit the spread of the bacteria. Bedding, water buckets, and any other material that might come in contact with pus should be disinfected or disposed of and not shared with other horses.

Treatment involves lancing and draining the absecesses and, in some cases, antibiotics. An ultrasound can help to locate deep internal abscesses and find the best place to drain them.
Ruminants, such as sheep, goats and cattle can also become infected by this bacteria. Vaccines are available for sheep and goats, but there is no vaccine for horses. Pigeon fever is difficult to manage, as it is transmitted so easily and can linger in the horse's system, undetected, for months.

Yikes! What is really worrying me is that dear Peaches has a nasty cut on her face. It's healing but the process is slow.

Interesting days

We are now once more down to one horse. For about three weeks we've had two: Peaches, our Quarter horse and Jazzy our Thoroughbred. But Jazzy's owner could no longer afford to keep such a big horse and was forced to sell her. :( To tell the truth though,I won't miss Jazzy. She was a pain. Pretty but a pain. As you might already know, she would crib, spook, was barn sour and herd bound and just not the brightest horse. But, she was a thoroughbred and thoroughbreds usually aren't the sanest breed of horse. They were bred for speed not brains. :) A few days ago Jazzy taught me something new in the horse world: What to do if your horse colics. Tuesday morning I went out to take care of the animals. Jazzy seemed fine at first so I fed her. Right after she was done eating she began cribbing, which is what she always did (sooo annoying). After a few sucks she suddenly dropped to the ground and began to roll violently. I knew enough about colic to recognize the signs and this wasn't just rolling to get a scratch, it was a Ouch-my-belly-hurts-really-bad kind of roll. When she started kicking her stomach I took action, put her halter on and began walking her in the pasture.

Now some of you may may not have the foggiest as to what colic is so I will fill you in.

Colic. A five letter word that strikes terror into every horse owner. Colic is when your horse gets an impaction or some sort of blockage in its gastro-intestinal tract. To relieve the pain, the horse will roll but the horse rolls so violently that it ends up twisting it intestines and then dies (or has to be put down). Signs of colic are:

getting up and lying down repeatedly

Standing stretched out

turning the head towards the flank

pawing the ground

kicking the stomach

and rolling.

When you first suspect colic you should immediately begin walking your horse. Walking your horse helps to restore normal activity in the intestine and allows the horse to defecate and/or relieve the build-up of pressure in the intestines. If 30 minutes pass and your horse is still in pain then you need to call the vet immediately. Often times the vet will give the horse 1 gallon of mineral oil through a tube to lubricate the tract. If the oil doesn't help then the vet will try surgery.

Now back to the story. I walked her for 30 minutes and she seemed to be doing a lot better but still had not been able to pass the blockage. So I walked her some more. Ten minutes later she was all better. She had passed the blockage and was looking around for her hay. :Whew!:

Our poor brother

Wow aren't you lucky, you get two posts in one day!



Which brother am I talking about you ask? In this case I'm talking about Carver. Now before I go on please just remember that he asked for it.



Really.



He did.





Okay now you probably want an explanation about the picture. You see, I was doing my hair this morning when I heard a pitter, patter of little adorable baby feet. I love baby feet..and hands...oh, don't forget those little ears.. and the nose... Oh for goodness sake! I love babies!

To continue. I was doing my hair when I heard the pitter patter of little baby feet. No I will not completely repeat myself. :) Then A fuzzy little head pokes through the doorway. Pookie (That's his nickname) took one look at the open drawer where all our hair stuff is kept, and grinned at me with that mischievous look that only little boys can do. He toddled over, then, while watching to see what I would do, stuck his pudgy wee hand in and pulled out some rubber bands and a comb. For a one year old he is surprisingly smart; he tried brushing his hair with the comb but looked curiously at the rubber bands. The light bulb suddenly went :Bling!: in my head. Now I was the one grinning. With lightining quick speed I grabbed another rubber band and did a beautiful hair-do in my baby brother's hair. None of us could help laughing at him; the poor boy didn't even know what I had done. Finally big brother S#1 picked him up and rescued him from further indignities. :D

Three little kittens....

Well, actually it's a few more than three kittens; it's more like six kittens, two cats who think they are still kittens and one cat. Anyway, our kittens are now five weeks old and getting into everything. Apparently they never heard the saying: Curiosity killed the cat. :) So my sisters and I took them outside to explore their new world.

We like to name our animals so that its easier to talk about them. So for our kittens we have: Tabitha,

Rollo,

Piknim,

Evelyn,

Jewel

and Bomber Grue.

Wondering about that last weird name?

Enter Bomber Grue.

Notice his eyes? One green, one blue=Grue. :D

We call him "the chosen one" because of his eyes. We enjoy reading some fictional books that a couple of friends introduced us to and in those books there were special people said to be "chosen" by the Unseen One (God) and they always had one blue eye and one green eye. While Bomber may never be some famous cat that everybody knows, we hope that maybe he can stay.

Tabitha, the only tabby in the litter. She's adorable. :)

Welcome one and all

Well, after a lot of help from mom and dad and a few headaches I finally have my blog up and running. :) The first post is always so hard to do because, well, it's the first! I will try to blog daily but sometimes life gets in the way so don't get your hopes too high.
Please feel free to leave lots of comments on the posts; I looove comments on my blogs.

For once I have actually managed to do a short post; amazing. :D