It Was A Good Day

Enjoyed all the comments on yesterdays post. :) I always enjoy comments. Todays post is just a rambling of what my day was like yesterday. I hope its not too boring. Some days I feel boring, other days I feel a bit more interesting. ;)

Yesterday started out great. I was up very early and went outside at around 7:30 in the morning. The sun was shining and there was promise in the air of a great day ahead. I started out the morning getting everyone fed to the gills so they would be a very satisfied bunch. All water pails, buckets, and waterers were scrubbed clean and filled with fresh cool water with a touch of apple cider vinegar for good digestion and it also keeps the algae from growing in the containers.

Afterwards I started taking the tarps off of the Sultan pen and the Silver Laced Polish pen. To my pleasant surprise Coco, Laverne, and Shirley had been working overtime and I had five nice hatching eggs to pluck from their pen to be put in the incubator. I hope they are all fertile and all make it to hatch. After I pulled all the tarp off I replaced the sunny sides with the shade material I had bought way back when at Lowes. Walmart has rolls of this same shade material. Normally it is 25 dollars a roll. Its just that material they use on sun shades, where it lets the breeze through but not the sun. I got rolls of it on clearance at Lowes for five dollars a roll. I wish I had bought more. Anyway, I got the pens covered on the sections that would have sun during the hottest part of the day. The sultans have had no sun up until today, so the girls were really soaking it up yesterday, splaying out their legs and wings, laying on their sides, really enjoying the warm sun.

After finishing those two pens I chunked the tarps over the NOW emus fence, yes, they are penned, and I am very pleased with the peace that has happened due to this action. The chickens are already feeling safer. I looked out the door this morning and there were many more than usual out free ranging and enjoying a stroll out back without being fearful. I took those two tarps and fashioned a shade in the corner fence area. Not beautiful looking, but functional. We are wide open out here and have a severe lack of shade, no trees really to speak of since our land was farm land before this house was here. We have fields all around us too.

I fed the emus layer pellet, more than usual, since they were penned now. I unfolded one of my folding metal chairs in their pen and put the feed pan on the chair. Hoping to fool the goats for a little while from seeing the food. Even though they wouldn't be able to reach it, they would try. They would stick their heads through the fence and get stuck, and that is just a maddening experience. If they are really stuck, if you push, they push against you. If you pull, they pull against you. Frustrating to say the least. I would cut the horns off, but I like their horns, so I won't do that.

Quite a while passed, but eventually Troy spotted the food, and stuck his head through, of course. Rather than do the push and pull act, I got the hose. Remember, I said goats don't like to get wet. So I started to hose him down, hoping this would encourage him to pull his fool head out and move on. This is not a real stressful occurance for me on around here. They become more distraught over their predicament than I do. You see, I am able to walk away...they cannot. I am hosing Troy down, hosing, hosing, and he pulls for a few minutes, trying to free himself. Then he gives up and decides to push forward and he is STILL trying to get to that pan of food! Darn him. I hosed him down from head to toe. I debated on going in and getting the horses shampoo since he was caught anyway. Lucky for him he decided to get free of the fence just as I had decided that would be a good opportunity for him to have a bath...lol. Silly goats.

I also let Tequila out into the flock yesterday. I was going to put him in with my black giant cochin girls, but I just decided nah...I have enough hatching projects going on and so there was no need to keep him penned anymore, let him out to be free.

There is a pecking order he had to endure first though. I knew he had to make his place in the flock. I wasnt too worried. I don't have any roosters that want to fight to the death. Most will spar off for a minute or two and then the winner is declared by the other running away.

Tequila is a regular size cochin. He is not small, nor is he big, like Pete. When Hank passed on Pete took over the right to head honcho in the flock. He does a good job too. Not being overbearing, but keeping order. Tequila sparred off with a young silkie rooster, the silkie rooster backing down. Big yellow rooster sat on the sidelines, he has no place in the flock. He is big, but he is low man on the totem pole around here. Speckles tried to work his way in line to spar, but was cut off by Pete. When Pete caught sight of Tequila it was on. I supervised, making sure things didnt get too rough. Pete is a big ole Golden laced Wyandotte rooster. Neither one of these boys were going to last long. They would get tired in a matter of minutes. They are just not made to fight long. There was much puffing up, pecking of the ground. Some kicking and some comb pulling. Pete surprised me though. He was the first to run, and Tequila followed. The both of them dragging around, trying to still fight, but too tired to do much, it turned into a girly hair pulling contest. One would grab the feathers on the other ones neck and pull, while the other pulled to try and get away. Finally it was over and they both retreated to shaded corners to rest. It was fast becoming too hot for all that. No blood was shed at all. I am not sure who is the victor in this round. There might be a few more rounds before it is decided who will be the king of the yard. The rest of the day was peaceful. Maybe they will decide to coexist together without fussing. At dusk last night Tequila was not sure where he fit in to roost for the night so I just picked him up and put him back in his pen where he is comfortable for the night. He will eventually acclimate and find his place, but for now I will rescue him for the nights.

As I worked steadily outside, I was noticing it seemed quite hot out. The sun was out, but it was humid, and I was taking that into consideration, that it might feel hotter than it actually was. I went in for some ice water and a break into the air conditioned house and glanced at the weather station to find that it was indeed quite warm out. It was 86...in the shade. It bumped up to almost 89 before the day was out, with high humidity. I decided to call it a day around four o'clock. I had been up since 3:40 am, and I was kind of tired. You know how you are hot and then you come in and cool down and it makes you sleepy, well I took me a nap for an hour. It sure was nice too. I didnt even feel guilty about it, I had worked plenty and deserved it.

I woke up and got the house picked up, some dishes done and vacuumed. Patrick and Laury would be around soon. Laury is a vet tech and I don't have the stomach for what had to done with Everetts foot. I may or may not have mentioned that Everett has a knack for getting into things regularly. He finds string with his feet, a lot. Seems like we were always cutting string off his feet. Well, one time it took its toll and cut into his foot. He has had an infection that I have been trying to treat for some time now. His foot is swollen and fevered. I have tried penicillin shots, even injected one straight into his foot. Not a lot seems to have helped. I tried draining it through a scab on the back of the foot, but not a lot of puss came out. So now it was time to lance it.

laury came with her gloves and box cutter knife. I had gauze and antibiotic oinment. I held him over the sink and she cut a small incision. Again, not a lot of drainage. So, we soaked his foot in epsom salt, she loosened the scab again. You could see down in the hole, but we were not sure what we were seeing. Could be dying tissue, could be anything. She said best thing to do is keep soaking it, about twice a day if not more. If it is infection, the epsom salt will draw it out. We applied the antibiotic and wrapped his foot up.

Ian got home from work while we were doctoring and Patrick and him talked a bit while Laury and I were working on Everett. I also got Laury to look at Einsteins leg and give me her opinion on it. She said if its broken, it is below the knee, which is good, it may heal and he will be able to walk again. I know I won't put him down, I am way to attached to him already. The fact that he is not done growing may help the healing process too.

We ate supper a bit late, around nine. I fixed some subs. It was fast, easy and we were hungry.

That was pretty much my day yesterday. Not too bad a day at all. Today it is overcast and the threat of rain is out there. It is staying mostly south of us for now. I am off to shower and do a few things outside if the weather permits. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. :)




Big Yellow Rooster

He was supposed to go to a new home, but the friend of a friend that was supposed to take him never did.