Ok... maybe not general but at least a lieutenant worthy of salute.
Its been slow going here at the homestead. While spring is marching in fast trying to catch up from a month of lost time, I, on the other hand, am as hindered as I was this fall fresh from childbirth. Last Sunday night I went to bed fine and when I woke up, I couldn't walk. Its been up and down from there- my left hip just being out of whack. Been to see the chiropractor yesterday where she chastised me for coming so late. Live and learn. I'm young... sorta... I expect to just heal. And I don't think that's a bad expectation to have.
Anyway, sprouts are outside and enjoying it. Got 6 zucchini plants transplanted and only 1 looks worse for the wear. I'll need to re-seed some watermelon, cantaloupe and cucumber seeds. I had tried to seed them in egg cartons- and egg hole per seed. Got very poor results. Again, live and learn. I'm going to direct seed once we hit the waxing moon and pray for the best.
Button is doing well. While she's still not letting me close to touching her. She comes just close enough to allow her room to bolt. That's a huge improvement. One huge lesson learned is to not buy any more animals from large herds. In our arrangement we need animals who are at least moderately comfortable with human interaction. Button also has learned that Angel, the dog, just wants to play. Button continues to sit and calmly stare into the distance when Angel comes bounding up wanting to herd.
Angel is right now at the humane society getting spayed. I have no idea how I'm going to keep this hyper BIG puppy calm while she's healing. Poor girl will go out of her gourd kept in the kennel, but I certainly can't run fast enough to give her exercise... even with 2 good hips.
Our post-molt birds are really producing! This is GREAT! Out of 4 birds we're getting 3-4 eggs each day. One sad bit of news is that I noticed a bird acting strange a couple weeks ago. Others were pecking her so I pulled her from the pen where she continued to sit and not run from me. I could tell she was sick. I jumped online and guessed it may be botulism. I administered Epsom salt water to her and as I was doing so, I noticed a huge bulge near her rectum. Then I remembered egg binding. Again, the internet to the rescue. Sure enough, her symptoms were exactly what they were describing. I did as I was told. I greased up her rectum and tried to massage out the egg. It seemed to have turned sideways but I was able to work out the egg. When it was over I took my hands off her... and she didn't move. I nudged her. Nothing. I set her in the sun and started trying to find out if birds will pass out from pain. No one knew. Evening was coming fast and I didn't want to feed a coon, but I also didn't want to bag a live bird. But by the time we really needed to know, she was stiff as a board. Too bad. I'm 0 for 2 on my midwifery skills.
We got our redneck pallet wood garden fence down and partially replaced it with standard 28" fencing. We're still being cheep though. We're discovering all the uses for electrical conduit. We have standard posts in the corner and we'll use 1 piece of conduit (about $2) to make 3 posts. Should work well and save a bundle even with spacing them closer than we would space normal posts. Wouldn't recommend it for animals but for unruly squash vines and hungry gopher tortoises, I think it will hold up fine.
Looking forward to next week when the moon will be phasing right and the weather should be good. Just praying my back will be back in action as well. If not, farmer girl's going to have a lot of work to do!
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