Birds Are In

This morning I went out to feed...and one of the birds I was going to show, was dead as a doornail. It was this young fellows Daddy. My one and only Silver Spangled Hamburg bantam breeding rooster. This guy has two brothers, but they have minor defects that prevents them from being show quality, so he is my star man for this breed. I am hoping to find a show quality rooster to replace the one that died, hopefully by Spring and hatching season.




His three sisters here above.



One of the two hens above is his mom...these were the two in with the Daddy rooster that died.







The two barred rock bantam pairs, all under one year old.




These are the boxes I made to keep them in for the show season. This will keep them out of the mud and muck out in the yard. I will change their shavings often and keep them clean.

Today they have been spritzed with Frontline spray. I didnt see any mites, but just making sure. Mites will get you disqualified and it is shameful, to me anyway. I put just a tiny bit under the wing in the wingpit, on the skin. Its like when you put it on your dog or cat, it doesnt do a lot of good if its not applied to the skin and falls onto the fur, or in this case, the feathers.

Tomorrow and Wednesday will be bath and blowdry days. I got to fit in cooking my contributions to the Thanksgiving meal at Mama and Daddys house. Stuffed celery, Potato salad, and two smoked turkey breasts. I am going to bring some tea sweetened with Splenda too, a couple of jugs. One green tea, and one regular tea.

So today is just a waiting day for the birds. They will relax in the living room and enjoy the comfort of indoors. After show they will go out onto the porch with the chicks and Seramas.

I am also showing my two brown red modern bantam hens, but they are in a suitable enclosure on the porch already, so they can stay where they are. I will just take extra care to make sure their house stays very clean so they don't get dirty. After a bath and blowdry I will have to keep a heat lamp on them for a couple of nights, just in case they are a little damp under the wing, or maybe just keep them in a carrier inside. Either one. Its just that their man will be left all alone outside if I keep them inside. I guess I could just bring him in too, so he won't be lonely.

I know I still have to post the llamas from the fair, and I will. I didnt forget. :) Good Monday to all!

Oh and yes, those ARE tree trunks you see in one of the pictures above...yes, we do have a giant TREE in our living room. It is a pygmy date palm we bought a few weeks ago from Burgers Market in Cartersville. It was on sale, and we had been looking at it for a long time, so we got it. It will be our Christmas tree, yes, thats right. I am going to wrap the trunks in lights and hang little silver balls and such off the tops. :) Here is a full picture of it...

and yes, I know I am crazy, and I dont care. I have trees and chickens in my living room, and I like it that way. ;)

Pictures From The Georgia National Fair

Every year we never miss the Georgia National Fair. It is one of the things we always do. Shelby, Ian and I enjoy it so much. Today are some pictures from the fair. Tomorrow I will post all the pictures of the beautiful llamas that were there to be shown. I am going to post all the pictures first, then at the bottom I will have a description of each. Its easier than trying to refigure the font in between every picture, every time. Yes, I guess I am lazy like that. So here we go...












































The first three pictures are of Robinsons Racing Pigs. They never disappoint and we always love the pig races! They had miniature pot bellies and regular size pot bellies racing...and swimming!

Picture 4 was sweet, one was licking the other, grooming I suppose.

Picture 5...well, she just was too tired to care that her head was resting in the food dish...being a show cow is just so exhausting! ;)

Picture 6...someone getting their cow ready for show.

Picture 7...some dairy show cows. There were rows and rows of many different breeds of cows. If you look back a year ago in October you can see I always take picture of the cattle.

Picture 8 is in one of the three buildings they have where you can go in and see what people are peddling, be it the latest cookware, getting some of those dots...you know that icecream, dippin' dots or something like that, the latest in bed sleep technology, to all the FFA and 4H exhibits from local schools. SO much to look at. We always go to this area to buy our honey.

Picture 9...the Christmas tree competition. This year was not as good as last years. They had some really wild stuff last year.

Picture 10..Shelby holding one of the chicks at the Tyson display. They have a see through incubator of eggs hatching, some plastic adult mechanical chickens moving in a display, maps of all the chicken processing plants and farms, cookbooks, videos running of how they process chicken (skipped that taste treat).

Picture 11 is all the chicks. Kids get to come by and hold a chick here.

Picture 12...a junior show of their pigs.

Picture 13-15...a few pictures of the draft horse show with carts. It goes on all day with various shows, from riders, to teams, etc...very neat to watch them come clopping by...very powerful thumps to the ground if you are right there at the ring.

Picture 16 and 17...Dewey is still doing the stockdog demonstrations. When his star border collie and revered pet champion died he was not into his shows for awhile, but he has a renewed interest in that now he is using Kelpies. He still has a few border collies, but in the show has gone strictly to Kelpies. They are a fast and furious breed compared to the border collie. You can see they take on those longhorn cows like nobodys business.

Picture 18 and 19...Shelby getting her picture taken with a young bobcat. They had a wild cat show there...the last of the pictures are of some of the other cats they had there. They were not ones you could take your picture with though. ;)

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the highlights of the fair we love to go to every year. There was much more to see than this throughout the week the fair was there, but we can't go every day so we missed out on sheep and goat shows, and there are horse shows of various breeds from miniatures to draft horses throughout the week. Just have to pick a day that has what you want to see most and go that day..this year, it was the llamas, and I will have lots of pictures in tomorrows post from that.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Show Fever

Yes....yes yes yes yes...YES! This is what I need! There is going to be a show in Dalton, Georgia on November 28th. This is my FUN thing. This is what I do, and I have the trophies and ribbons to prove I am getting good at it, or at least getting good at having an eye for good birds and owning said birds!

So far, I have fifteen birds on my list to show, if they are showing Seramas, if not, then I have 13. Lucky 13? Yeah...Lucky 13. ;)

4 Barred Rock Bantams...2 cockerals (this is what they are called if under a year old but must be at least six months old to show) and 2 pullets (same rules apply here too)

My trio of Silver Spangled Hamburgs...one cock and two hens.

The above mentioned has fine looking offspring I hatched that is of show age..so three Silver Spangled Hamburg pullets, and I have one good looking Silver Spangled Hamburg cockeral.

My two brown red modern hens. I have a nice rooster, but I refuse to 'dub' him as I think it is cruel and I won't do it. They require this for showing, so he has to stay home. I am sure he will miss his girls terribly that day. He is a good boy. :)

If they are showing Serama...I have a really nice B size solid white cockeral.

I also have Buzzbomb, he is a perfect Serama rooster and I think he would do very well. Here is a picture of him. This picture is old, but he still looks the same pretty much.







I will see about getting some pictures of my show prospects so you can see for yourself how fine looking my selections are. ;)

Until then, here are some pictures I pulled from the internet of the others...

Brown Red Modern Hen here...and then picture number 2 is of a SSH hen, and picture 3 of a SSH rooster.










and...here are examples of bantam barred rock hens and roosters...









I have a secret I haven't shared yet. It all started one day when I saw Seramas for sale on Craigslist. I found out they were about fifteen minutes from me, and reasonably priced. As usual a lot of the roosters were too big. That doesnt seem to matter yet at the shows here as they don't weigh them, so you can show one the size of an elephant...okay, maybe not that big, but you know, they are supposed to be the smallest chickens in the world, and still get away with it.

I bought a little white rooster from her.

But I need to back up. This young lady had about 300 seramas to start with and has slowly sold them off and given them away. She got them from an elderly lady in South Carolina. The elderly lady had failing health (she was in her 80s) and wanted to sell them, but not seperate them, whoever bought them had to buy them all, so Dani did. Dani is a young lady, she is in college and has been breaking and training horses since she was 8 years old. I guess she is pretty good at it because a week from tomorrow they are hosting a Parelli horse class at their home. In light of her busy schedule, she doesnt have time for all her chickens, so she has seen fit to give a lot of them to me, yes GIVE. I feel so fortunate, I feel like I have hit the chicken lottery! :) Some are good show prospects, some are not. Thats just my opinion, I am no expert. I am rehoming about five roosters to Dwain, which is a chickenaholic like me. You may remember he went to two shows with me last year and had a blast.

She also had two pairs of nice barred rock bantams and asked if I wanted them too, so I said yes of course. I also was allowed to relieve her of about a dozen Rhode Island Red chicks and two Buff Orpington chicks. I had neglected my layer population this Spring and Summer because I was concentrating on my Seramas, Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Silver Laced Polish this year for not this show season, but for the next. Have to think ahead...way ahead. There is no telling how many are boys and how many are girls, I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope I have a lot of pullets.

She still has some chickens, but not near as many as before, thanks to me. Because one cannot have too many chickens. You can have too many roosters, but never too many hens.

I heard today that the auction barn I had been frequenting will open back up. Remember the guy that I sold those two white baby goats to..for Joe? I saw him at Tractor Supply today, and he said he had been talking to the owner, and there is promise of it reopening sometime in February. They had to close for financial reasons. I was making a good bit of pocket money before they closed selling off some roosters and chicken related items such as metal feeders. You may think it is hard for me to sell off anyone, but the truth is, too many roosters make the hens very upset...for obvious reasons...ahem. I have several locked away that would gang up on my hens and play three way tag all the while the poor hen was screaming in protest. My girls shouldnt have to endure the barbaric practices of young roosters that have no manners, so they get locked up, until they are sold.

So you see, I have been busy with all these new chickens..and I promise, I will have pictures of them all, even the ones going to Dwain, so if your reading this Dwain, you can see what you are getting the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Next up, a show in Hartwell, that will be a trek way out east in Georgia, but way out. That is also an all bantam show. Just have to try and keep everyone clean for that one. May have some bath and blowdry time for some again before the December 12th show.

So how is that for some chicken talk? Tomorrow I will post pictures I took at the Georgia National Fair back in October...got to keep things rolling on the catch up this week. Yesterday and today were busy busy busy so I didnt get a chance to get on at all yesterday. Sorry I missed a day!

Everyone have a great weekend!

Insulin Started, and The Corley Family Reunion

A little late posting this morning, had some morning feeding to do outside as I didnt get back in time before dark to feed. Needless to say everyone was more than ready to eat!

I had a doctors appointment to get my insulin started and for them to show me how to do it and some information. I am also going to be scheduled to go to a class to help educate me further on my diabetes. It went well, and I stuck myself in the tummy. I am using the 'pen' method. It is very easy to use and understand. I won't bore you with the details on it all, but I did find it easier to give my next injection on my thigh instead of in the tummy, and I also used a piece of ice to numb the injection site beforehand, and it helped a lot, didnt feel a thing. :) I think things will be okay, just have to do what needs to be done, get my sugars in line and things will be just fine.

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Now onto catching up on things that have happened lately. Ians Dad called us a while back and let us know there was going to be a family reunion in October in his hometown in South Carolina and would we like to go. Well of course we wanted to go! There had never been a Corley reunion before, this was the first. It was a day trip because Ian had to go to work the next day, but it was a nice day and we had a nice drive up and back.

The reunion was really nice and they had a nice set up at the community center building with a good lunch all set up and even pizza for the kids if they didnt like the fried chicken and all the fixings that were with it. A lot of visiting and talking and such went on. I met folks I had never met, and folks I hadnt seen in a long time, but met a couple of times before. Believe it or not, I can be quite talkative at things like this. I get along with folks short term very well. :) Not bad for a person that likes being isolated and somewhat of a recluse. ;)

Being my normal weird self, I brought Phoenix. He wore his diaper all day and didnt complain til we were almost home that evening. He wore his John Deere outfit, it fits the best out of the ones I have made. I tried to fancy up the one I made that was yellow with tiny little bumblebees on it and ended up ruining it, so maybe I will try to stick to the basics. That seems to work better. Soon he can wear his candy cane outfit and his snowman outfit for winter and Christmas. Those fit real well. You know he is going on three years old now? Time flies. Anyway, we brought him with us. He sat on our pile of coats in the backseat with Shelby and rode the whole way without walking all over the place or complaining about the long ride or anything. Good as gold. When we got there I put him down on the ground and got a few strange looks, but everyone soon warmed up to the little rooster and thought he was quite unique the way he loved peoples attention and wore his little diaper. Pretty soon the kids were congregating around him and he really was the life of the party for the kids. We all remember going to family reunions as children and they can be quite boring for children, but that little chicken lit up their day I could tell.

When we sat down to eat Phoenix was napping in Shelbys jacket. I knew he wouldnt want to miss the sweet tea, butterbeans and cornbread. Thats his favorite meal in the whole world, unless you add some corn on the cob. ;) He sat up in her jacket and ate from his little pouch nestled in nice and warm. It was a bit cool that day so he was happy to sit in her jacket and eat. Several folks around us didnt even notice him at first, but when they did they were so surprised!

So many folks don't even think about chickens as pets, but they really can be a lot of fun. Chickenmom over on Youtube has a new video of Phillip and Suzie if you have kept up with her videos. She is the one that taught me how to make the diapers. She has two chickens that are always indoors. She bought some crickets as a protein treat and they ate them up like candy!




Here are some pictures from the reunion...



















It all ended too soon for me. Two hours later everyone was heading back for home, but I had a really good time and I know it was nice for Ian to see some folks he hadnt seen in so long, and meeting some he had never met before. Phoenix kept Shelby from being bored, although, she is such a good teenager, she doesnt complain about much, so I think she was okay with it all too. :)

Oh Paula, about the mister, yes I have one, for the chickens, but from what I have heard, they like baby pools even better! :)

Llamas

Llamas...they used to be something unobtainable by us common folk. They were the thing to have, if you could afford it. Now it is alpacas, and I personally think that fad will fade too.

I met a lady at the Georgia National Fair this past October. She was with Southeast Llama Rescue. Yep, a rescue, and there are other divisions of this rescue out west from me and north of my state. It seems there are a lot of unwanted llamas these days. Luckily, these organizations have made it possible and affordable to own one of these wonderful creatures. Or, you can foster. There are requirements of course. You can't just throw one out in the back pasture and thats it. The requirements are not unreasonable.

Once my health issues are ironed out I think we may foster...with the intent to adopt. A kind of try it before you buy it thing, in case we have issues with our existing llamas taking in new llamas. Once you adopt, its 250 dollars. That gets you one delivered to your door, gelded if a male, shorn, wormed, current shots and ready for his or her new home.

Recently I saw an ad on Craigslist. Due to health issues a local llama farm is selling out of their show stock of llamas. They want thousands of dollars for one llama. A few are just under a thousand, some up in the thousands. They will never get it in this economy. I am sure they are in a circle of llama fanciers for friends, but it seems they must not have the money or interest in buying these llamas.

They can come with some behavioral issues. My llama is an example of that. Hers is mild and we can see past it, but some males, they have been coddled by humans when they are too young, and that creates a gray area as to who is the human and who is the llama. For a male, that may mean he sees you as a rivalry later on in life and attack you, knock you down, hurt you bad. Some say this behavior can be changed with patience and time. I hope they are right.

Okay, so, how did we end up with llamas? It is a little known fact by most that Ian loves llamas. He is one that would have never actually gotten one, but he LOVES them nonetheless.

When an opportunity presented itself, I took it. Joe, my neighbor and friend, the guy I got the emus from and goat advice, and later became good friends with, called me up. I had just sold the goats. I dont remember if I told that story on here or not, but, long story short, they grew up and started stinking and urinating on their faces and bodies constantly. They were chewing up the side of the garage and constantly breaking into the chicken area to gobble up the chickens food, so I just decided to find them a new home where they could be the boys they were.

So Joe called me up, and said, "OH Kelly! I got something I want you to come on over and see! You just got to see it!" Knowing him, I knew it was an animal of some sort.

I said," Joe, you are gonna get me into trouble, I just got rid of my two goats and now you want me to come and look at something that I probably can't resist!"

He assured me I needed to see this, I just must come and see. So I gathered up Ian and Shelby and we came over that afternoon. Turns out he had bought a 10 month old male llama from the auction. He auctioneers for a local livestock barn and bought him for a hundred and thirty five dollars. Said he would sell him to us for a hundred and fifty. We just stared at him. He was beautiful, shy and standoffish, but beautiful. It was not a bad thing for him to be shy. That meant he had not been overhandled earlier in his life. We could work with him. Ian knew I wanted to get him, but not for me. For HIM. He agreed that he wanted him, and the price was right, and so we bought him. Joe brought him over and he was a little bit of a handful getting him off the trailer and whatnot, but he was just scared.

The first thing that happened was Derby came running to investigate what we were putting into HIS pasture. It was a touch and go moment, Derby chased him and they ran all over the back. Then, all of the sudden the new llama turned and faced Derby. Derby stopped, and they both slowly leaned in and touched noses. From that point on things were fine.

At first we couldnt get near him. Joe named him for us, because after two weeks Ian still had not given him a name. His name is Boggan. Joe said he looked like he had one of those hats, a toboggan on his butt, because he was all cream colored, except for his tale, which was brown.

Weeks went by, Ian couldnt get him to come anywhere close. He carried a bucket with a little sweet feed in it out there every day after work. Eventually, after weeks of patience, Boggan decided to look in the bucket, after Ian had put it down on the ground. Now he would eat out of the bucket, on the ground, with Ian standing away. A couple of weeks more, and he could get him to eat out of the bucket while he held it away from his body, stretching out his arm. Now, he will eat without too much stretching, but it took awhile for him to become comfortable enough to not snatch away at any slight move from Ian.

Then came my llama. I had decided Boggan needed a companion. I started searching Craigslist. Weeks went by and I found one not too far from where I live. She was two years old and a protector for a herd of milk goats. They wanted 300, but I had 250 in pocket from selling some roosters and feeders, a few other farm related odds and ends at the auction. They took the offer and Joe, having a livestock trailer, helped me go get her and bring her to the house. Turns out Joe is distantly related to the folks selling the llama. They talked for a short bit and we petted the goats, dogs, and llama.

She was an odd one. In all the encounters with llamas I have had, which were limited to the fair, I have never had one greet me with such enthusiasm. She was right up on me and she would touch her face to mine, like kissing me on the cheek. Strange.

Once we got her home the first thing to happen was Boggan gettting spit on. She had to put him in his place. He was several months older now, but didnt quite know what to do with her. He tried to nurse her, but that wasnt working, so then he was going to try and mate her, and thats when the spitting came. Females dont get mated unless they want to be. The mating position is a laying down one, and if she doesnt lay down, that means NO. He got spit on for his troubles.

She has some issues. She comes running, on a daily basis, does the gup gup gup sound, like she is getting that nasty smelling wet grass up from her stomach juices to spit it, sometimes even doing this sneezing kind of sound through her mouth, but you just ignore her and walk on by. Like a kid pitching a fit, walk right by and ignore it, they say HUH, and quit, when there is no reaction to the behavior. She will then settle down and walk around with me and I will give her the attention she deserves at that point. Its like she forgets and then it clicks, and she is like OH, okay.

One thing she has done is get Boggan to loosen up around us. He is still not going to let us touch him, but he is more relaxed, and she is definitely the boss. He follows her everywhere.

Llamas are wonderful. They don't tear down fences, barriers meant to keep the big animals out of the chicken area. They dont chew up things, they are nice to all the other animals. They don't attack my chickens. They are gentle and sweet. A noninvasive animal. They keep my chicken safe too.

I bought llama halters and the short catch leash that attaches under the chin on the halter. If this coming weekend permits we will be putting them on and giving wormer and a little grooming. He came to us barrel cut, but she has a full fiber coat on, and it is just a mess, but we will leave that for the winter and sheer her in the Spring. Boggan is not going to like this, but it is time for him to begin to be handled, groomed and touched on a regular basis. It won't be too hard to catch him, he follows my llama everywhere, so we can get him in a tight spot and restrain him easy enough. We have touched him before, many times, but he is frightened and stands very still for it. This will change with time, it just takes time and a lot of patience.

Oh I didnt tell you her name. My llama had a name already. Dolly. I know. How original, how boring. Dolly Llama. Yay. So, I wanted to name her Cinnamon. So, in order to convert her over, I am calling her Dolly Cinnamon, and will drop the Dolly eventually. I joke to people, that her full name is Dolly Cinnamon Psycho. Hopefully we can drop that last one too, someday. ;)

Here are some older pictures I took of them. It is overcast and supposed to rain so I will try and take some new pictures of them soon.

I have a doctors appointment at three today. I will be learning more about my diabetes and how to give myself insulin shots. Needless to say, I am not excited, but it is necessary, so I will do it. That has been my motto as of late. Its necessary, so I will do it.

Alright, here are some pictures. :)















We didnt have a shelter for them, as you know, we don't have any trees. So Ian went out every day after work and slowly a run in for them went up. A run in is just a sort of barn, but it is open for them to come and go in and out and they please. It was almost finished, rain was coming, so he placed the tin roofing on top of it, nailed down the front, but didnt have the support beams up inside yet. Hoping the weather wouldnt get too windy, he did all he could. It did get windy though, and blew off all but two of the sheets of metal. He will get those beams up this weekend and the roofing on and finished, I know he will! :) He still has to cement the main beams into the ground but that is a formality. It isnt going anywhere, just needs to be secured with the cement.

Well, thats enough jawing for today. Hope everyone has a great day. Thankyou all for still coming to visit my blog. I am going to try to be here more and more over the winter. You will probably be sick of me by Spring and glad for me to get back outside. ;) XOXOXOXOX

Which One?

Oh what the heck, one short fun entry won't hurt. After reading my entry and the previous one, I realize some of it, well, most of it is redundant. I will do better tomorrow.

Now, I was cooking eggs not too long ago. We have some eggs from our free rangers, and then, while I was taking care of the neighbors chickens, some of their eggs. The neighbors chickens were kept up and on layer feed all week. Can you see the difference? Which one is the egg from one of my girls that free range, (they get a feed I mix too, but are allowed to go out and eat all the grass and bugs they want on top of that)and which one is the one from the neighbors cooped up birds?

Calling This Catch Up Week

I feel like blogging, but being away so long, it makes me feel a bit overwhelmed and I dont know where to start, so I will just take it one day at a time and try to start where I left off. I have peeked in on some folks here and there, even though I haven't left a comment. I want to get back to visiting blogs regularly, Facebook is nice when you are pressed for time, but sometimes you need to sit and think and write and read.

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Lets start with my visit with Sherry. Her and her husband Kelly, and their two daughters have moved from Phenix City, where my truck was stolen right out of their driveway. It has been three months since that bad event happened, and I just got my truck back last week after a lot of hassle with the insurance over many things. I won't rehash those last three months, it is over, and I am glad.

They moved about thirty minutes northwest of where they used to live. It is a nice rural quiet area. It is actually a half hour closer to me so it only takes two and a half hours to get there now. I was very excited to go and visit and see Sherry and their new place.

On the back burner, I had been having some trouble with abdominal pain. If I ate certain foods, which then was a trial and error mystery, I had two days of pain and it put me to bed, along with a third day of extreme weakness and recovery. At this time I had lost a total of thirty pounds in about six weeks. I thought I was just doing a REALLY great job with my diet. Really, in the back of my mind I knew it was too much too fast, but when you have been overweight as long as I have, you can hardly frown at what was happening to me. The pounds were melting off, who cares why.

I felt good that Friday morning and made the trip. I got there around noonish and we went wandering throughout the house as she showed me everything. I have to say, I am so happy for her. This place is so much better than where they were. Such a big step up. A lot more room and with two girls they needed it. Her oldest son still stops in and stays a few days here and there, so its good to have that extra room. We wandered outside and walked about the yard. She told be about all the cleaning up she had been doing. We walked back to the neighbors that own all the property and I met them. They were a bit strange, but nice enough. They live in a two story 'building' they built themselves. The bathroom is seperate from this building. There are only two rooms to this building. A bedroom downstairs and a one upstairs. They only seem to really cook on the grill. The fridge and a counter are under the steps that go to the upstairs bedroom. It overlooks a little tiny pond and has a deck attached to it. Very basic necessities. To each his own I reckon. After we visited a bit Sherry took us up the road to the neatest place to eat. It overlooks water and is actually a river not a lake, even though it looks like a lake. We ate lunch there, and thats when I got into trouble. I knew better, but I ordered chili cheese fries. I only ate like three or four bites. I had a hamburger and ate half of that. After we ate we went for a walk down on the walkway and dock area. The guy that runs the little store there has a boat that he transports folks up and down the river with. Its mostly just a tour/fun type thing I think. We asked him to take a picture of us on the boat. He was very nice and took our picture. After lunch and a little walk and talk we went on back to the house. It was a couple of hours later I started to feel it. The pain was coming. It always starts small, but there is no stopping it once it starts, but I ignored it because I didnt want it to happen, I didnt want it to ruin our visit. But it did, eventually.

That evening we sat around talking and I guess it was around ten o'clock everyone was winding down and we were pretty tired so everyone went on to bed. I was not feeling very good, but thought maybe if I could just sleep it off. That was not to be though.

It got worse and worse, to the point the pain was causing me to cry and moan and groan. I would fall asleep for a little while and wake back up with the pain worse. This continued all night.

I can't drive in the dark. I guess I could if it was an emergency, but I just dont like to do it if I dont have to. It had become quite foggy overnight also. Time ticked by so slowly. Now I had decided soon as it was light out I was going to drive myself home. Waiting for daylight was horrible. Around 6 am Sherry woke up and came in and I told her how bad off I was and my plans to get home. We talked and I cried and she hugged me and I told her I was really worried, that something was wrong with me. She comforted me like a best friend does.

Finally daylight...and fog were arriving. I didnt care. I had been slowly packing my bag up for the past hour and was ready. I drove the whole way home moaning and groaning and calling for my mama. Oh yes I did. Mamas, even when you are grown can help you feel better. I called her so many times, I wondered if she could pick up on it that morning. Just calling out Mama, helped me get through and get me home.
Of course there was the occasional prayer to God to get me home in there too, pleading for me to make it home.

Finally I made it home. I spent the whole day in pain. That night at 10:30 I told Ian I couldnt take it anymore. Something was wrong with me, and to take me to the ER. It didnt take too long and I was back in an ER room and they had an IV in and pain meds going in. Instant relief. There is nothing like it. I was so relieved. After some bloodwork and that morning an ultrasound I was released.

I was told I had Type 2 diabetes. I was scheduled for a catscan several days later. That was done. Results, the same as the ultrasound, cysts on the liver.

I know I am repeating myself on some of this, but I want to just go in order of events, so I apologize for that.

Skipping forward some, to catch up on my condition now.

I have been taking my blood glucose every day. I cant get it down and I am scheduled to go in for 'insulin training' I guess you could call it, tomorrow. I will go to my regular doctor, which just happens to be a diabetes specialist, and learn how to give myself shots and when and just all the information that goes with having it. I had a hard time accepting this reality at first, but I am up for it now. Its what has to be done, so I will do it.

I went to an upper GI doctor last week to see what is going on with the abdominal pain. He is not so sure it is my liver causing the pain. Yes, there are three lesions on my liver, but with the food triggering it so soon after eating, he wants to check my stomach first, and schedule a mammogram. He wants to make sure there are no lesions or cysts, whatever you call it, in these areas. Meaning he wants to make sure what is on the liver did not spread (BIG C WORD IMPLIED) from somewhere else.

We all know what a mammogram is. Now I have been scheduled for an endoscopy on December 2. The doctor is not going to do a liver biopsy unless its really necessary. Right now, he doesnt think it is. One thing at a time he says. Okay. So, they are going to knock me out completely for this, because I told him the truth. I am scared of anything invasive. I dont want to know it, feel it, see it hear it. I dont want to know it happened. This procedure involves running a light and camera down my throat into my stomach my means of a tube like structure. Maybe I just have an ulcer, that would be nice to know it was just an ulcer. So now I have to program myself to accept that this IS going to happen on December 2, and I must accept that it is for the best. They have to find out what is causing the pain, because I cannot live like this forever, wondering what I can and can't eat.

I have discovered that spaghetti sauce, and chili are off limits. You might say oh, thats easy, its the tomato base that is causing it, from acid in the tomato. Nope. I can eat a tomato without any trouble. Slice it up and eat it and I am fine. You might also think I cant eat spicy foods. Wrong again. I can eat my favorite food in the whole world, with no pain. That would be hot wings. I have made them at home and eaten them out at a restaurant, and I am fine afterwards. Makes no sense I know.

So you may be asking, what do I do when I get pain? I have a prescription for pain killers right now that works great. It helps me function while I get through those two days of pain, dulling it considerably, and helping me sleep too. If I dont want to sleep I can fight it off with this pain killer, and I like that. I am not addicted, don't worry. But I can see how people would get addicted, I sure can see why. I only take them when I end up with a bout of two day stretch abdominal pain. I try to watch what I eat to avoid it all together. It is very hard to take care of my family, the house and the animals if I go down for two days. So the best thing to do is try not to do it at all.

I have now lost a total of 52 pounds, so the picture I show you of Sherry and I is not current. I have lost 22 more pounds since then, but on a good diet, not because of the diabetes. I limit my sugar intake and so the weight loss has slowed to a more normal pace.

So today you are caught up on my visit with Sherry, which ended a day early. I didnt get to take many pictures at all, but I know there will be a next time, when I am well again and can visit, hopefully in Spring. Who knows, maybe sooner?














Each day this week I will catch up on something. There are PLENTY of chicken related things to talk about, and I will, after I have caught up on everything else. Tomorrow...Lllamas.

Developments

Well, my weight loss was due to the onset of Type 2 Diabetes. I am still losing the weight, but at a snails pace now.

The first weekend in October I went down to visit Sherry, to see her new place since they moved.

For the past seven weeks prior I had to really watch what I ate, or I would get severe abdominal pain. No greasy fatty foods, nothing spicy. I didn't know why, but I didn't want to end up down and out in the bed with pain, so I avoided the foods, and the situation.

Sherry and I went to a really cool restaurant on a lake nearby her house for lunch that Friday. I had one or two bites of chili cheese fries and half a hamburger. Bad move. A couple of hours later I started to feel the pain coming on, knowing what was going to happen by that night. I guess I should have gone on home then, but I ignored it, hoping it wouldnt get any worse, but it always does.

By ten o'clock that night I was feeling pretty bad. Everyone went to bed soon after and I was up and down all night. The night seemed to last forever with very little sleep. As morning came closer I began to pack up my things. I knew I had to get home, beyond that, I didnt know what I was going to do, but I knew the way this goes. Once I get the pain, it lasts for two days and then the third day I am weak but recovering. Sherry heard me up and sat with me until it was almost daylight. I don't drive well in the dark, and it was foggy that morning too.

I took off for home, having about two and a half hours ahead of me. I have also been very thirsty for the past seven weeks, so I stopped at a store and got a huge cup of ice and water. I probably shouldnt have driven, but I had to get home, that was all I could think about.

As I drove I talked to myself, soothing myself, moaning from the pain, crying, mumbling. Yes, it was that bad. I called out 'Mama' and 'God' many many times over. Everyone knows that calling for your mother is soothing, and God, well, that speaks for itself.

I made it home in record time, with little traffic to deal with and got settled down for the day, still in pain, and working on sleeping as an escape, especially since I had had no sleep the night before.

Skip to Saturday night. At about 10:30 that night, I couldn't take it anymore. We headed for the ER and being located where I am, the hospital was not overcrowded with sick people, gunshot wounds and overdoses. There were only two people ahead of me. After checking in I guess I had to wait only about twenty minutes before I was escorted to a room, where I had to wait just a short time and I was given an IV, they took blood, then hooked me up with pain meds. Blessed pain killers, yes, I felt the pain melt away and I began to relax and of course Ian was right there by my side the whole time. He was so tired, he had already put in a full days work, and now he was going to be up half the night with me at the hospital. After I got the pain meds in me, I relaxed and told him to go on home and get some sleep, that I would be fine. I got some good sleep myself. The pain meds only last about three hours, then I had to ask for more as my pain was creeping back in.

An ultrasound had been ordered to find out what the problem was. That morning the doctor came in and asked me if I knew I had Type 2 Diabetes, and I said no, but not totally surprised because of the rapid weight loss and the excessive thirst. I was given insulin in my IV, and that helped with the whole thirst thing. I had an ultrasound and cysts were found in my liver. When I eat bad foods, it aggravates the cysts, thus the pain.

I was released after requesting a last minute pain med in my IV before leaving and the IV coming out. I wanted to make it to the pharmacy and get the prescription filled for the pain before it came back. Ian filled my prescription for Norco and off we went home. I had only to take three pills before the pain was gone on its on. I still keep the extras close by for fear of another bout of abdominal pain.

A catscan was scheduled as out patient last week. I went in and got the blue dye shot into my veins (if you have never had it done, it is weird feeling. The IV site got a bit hot for about thirty seconds, that was uncomfortable. Then you feel like someone has thrown warm water on your insides...thats the only way I can describe it. Then that goes away. I also had to drink some unpleasant stuff, it was not too bad really, just the fact of what it was, the barium sulfate I think it is. I tried to imagine it as some kind of vanilla smoothy, but my imagination failed me.

Now I have to sign a release, which I didnt know, wasnt told, so my regular doctor can get the results. The results have been in, but I wasnt hearing anything back from the doctor that ordered it, so I called to ask what was going on and found this out. So, a release form was faxed to me and I will fill it out, and it will be faxed to the doctors office, and then the doctors office will fax it back to the hospital showing I gave permission for my doctor to have the information. Lot of paperwork being shuffled about if you ask me, but I guess thats just policy.

I am doing okay, it took a few days to really get my strength back, but I am puttering about as always around here, trying to get the house clean, and taking care of the animals. My first few days I was so tired and slow. My family had to step up and help me. Ian fed the animals every day. Shelby took care of all the babies on the porch and did the laundry. As I was getting my strength back, I was getting Shelby to help me cook supper and do dishes.

No one person can or should have to do it all. This is what I had always been scared of. That my family would not be able to do the things that needed doing in order to keep things orderly. I had four chickens die, I had a problem in the sultan pen and they were dying off quickly. I was too sick to do anything, and as quick as they were going down, I dont think I could have saved them anyway.

I think I am having another episode around in the yard like I did when the ground stayed so wet before and I had to dust the ground with lime. Over the summer, it stayed wet, hot and humid. Fall is here, and it is still wet on the ground. It is always wet. This is not good as chickens like to peck at the ground and drink out of small puddles. There is no way to stop them, but you know the bacteria is breeding, and the lime has to be put down to kill it off. That pen was wet too. On top of those, I had two others die in the yard.

Since I have been back on my feet and out there tending things as they should be tended I haven't had anymore problems. There is so much rain, I will be having to lime again and again.

I have an appointment to see about the diabetes. I have been told by the doctor from the ER that it is not so severe that I will need insulin shots. He told me with the right diet and maybe one or two medications I should be able to control it.

I still haven't gotten my truck back. It has been almost two months. This is a long story, but to make it short, we have ended up getting the state insurance office involved to rain down on the head of the insurance adjuster that we have been dealing with that won't cooperate with us to get it fixed properly.

Friday is the Ga Natl Fair, and we will be going to enjoy that. What I will be eating there I have no idea. It won't be calzones or pizza. No gyros or polish sausage. I think I can have the grilled chicken and the roasted corn. I will have to be careful not to eat anything fatty or greasy, which is the very essence of fair food...sigh. The food is not worth the pain I go through though, so I will stay away from grease and fat.

I can't remember if I have said it here, but we have a second llama. I hope to tell more about them in future blog entries. I just thought I should come and kind of update what has been going on.

Ian and I, well, mostly Ian, is digging post holes for posts, to make a run in for the llamas this winter. We went to Lowes and got all the supplies for building one. I imagine the pigs will end up using it this winter as well, can't really blame them, I would use a run in shelter over a hoop house anyday on a cold windy day. There will be plenty of room in there if they do.

With all the rain, I imagine I will be blogging more soon. It is going to be getting cold here soon too. We have a weather prediction for some chilly nights here next week, into the upper thirties. Time to cover the pens and get the little chickens in for the winter so they don't freeze.

Always something that needs doing. With that said, I need to clean out the babies shavings and put fresh shavings in.