Not much of a post, but here is something I just thought of. Over at Farmer’s Daughter they are talking about naming a horse. How exciting, by the way! Anyway this got me to thinking – I’ve never clarified how to say my name. I was forever being called Jean-a by substitute teachers so some of you may think of me as Jean-a. However, my name is Jen-a. That’s Jen, and then an “uh”. Thank my Mom for the original spelling! 🙂 So what assumptions might we have made about all of you that you could clear up?
Continue readingMonth: February 2009
Euthanasia and Eagles
This was brought to my attention last night at a chapter meeting of the Michigan Vet. Med. Association. Apparently there is a link between the improper disposal of euthanized pets and the death of eagles and other wildlife that may consume the pets later on. At the same time there comes the proposal of Davie’s law. From just skimming the bill it appears that this law would require injectable euthanasia of shelter pets in place of using gas chambers or other means. I don’t disagree with that law for shelter pets only, and if they are being properly disposed of. However, at the vet meeting they suggested a similar law would expand to require injectable euthanasia of all animals. I don’t see that ever happening due to rights of owners to do what they want with their own pets. I can’t find any information on such a proposal so I suspect the vets were overreacting to Davie’s law. Obviously such a requirement would make the incidence of accidental deaths more common and could ridiculously affect the safety of our food supply. In any case – please be aware of this issue. I know it isn’t pleasant to think about but
Continue readingNew Life!! (Updated)
Here’s what I came rushing home to find! I was going to write “he was mostly dry…” and just realized in all my excitement I never even looked to see whether it was a male or a female! I’ll get back to you on that! Anyway, it was mostly dry already. Mama was doing a good job standing over him so he didn’t get injured by the other ewes moving around. Every thing I’ve heard has said to let them lamb with the group, then move them to their own little pen or “lambing jug”. I had a little pen set up for her already so I gently picked up the lamb and carried him, at eye level for the ewe, to the new pen. They can still touch noses with the ewes and with a calf on one side. The goal is to give them a few days to bond on their own. My only concern right now is that I haven’t seen him nurse. I’ve seen him nuzzle around back there but not latch on. He did urinate but I’m not sure if that could be from his time in the uterus or is from nursing earlier. They
Continue readingPrepping for Lambs
Lambing is imminent, I do believe. We’ll see whether it happens tonight, tomorrow, or Tuesday. I do have to work in the morning but only half the day. I hope it happens before my full work day on Tuesday! Bonnie’s due date is officially tomorrow, the 23rd. I’ve borrowed Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep and Raising Sheep the Modern Way from the library. With the knowledge I gained from the books and the recent MSBA Conference I have put together a few supplies: -Clean, dry towels to assist with drying off the lamb, if necessary.-7% tincture of iodine to dip the navel-Dull scissors to snip back the cord. 2″ is the recommended length.-Glass bottle and nipple (we don’t have any pop bottles!)-60 cc syringe and size 8 french red rubber catheter, for tube feeding. I hope we don’t need this one!-Elastrator and bands. I won’t use these until 2-3 days for tail docking and again around 10 days for castrating.-(not pictured)We also have an ear tagger and tags to ID each lamb before they leave the lambing jug. That way we can know for sure who’s who. I’ve been crawling around in the pen like a fool trying to get
Continue readingMe & My Valentine
Okay this is a little late for V-day but I saw it over at Farmer’s Daughter and thought it looked like a lot of fun. Play along if you like! Me and My Valentine What are your middle names?Brian’s is Keith. Mine was Marlene but I changed it to Rose (my maiden last name) when I got married. I figured I was lucky to have a name that could work either way and I wanted to keep it. No one uses your middle name much past 8 years old anyway. How long have you been together?I think we started dating in September of 2006. So let’s see… 2 1/2 years. Married 6 months on Monday! How long did you know each other before you started dating?Almost a year. I thought we were just going out as friends, who knew I was slowly being seduced!? Who asked whom out?Well, actually my cousin asked Brian if he would take me out, but I was standing right there at the time. I wanted to go to the John Deere dealer’s grand opening and you had to be invited. Carrie knew that Brian had an invite, and he was nice enough to take me
Continue readingPillow Thief
Brian went to bed early, he’s still not feeling well. I stayed up until after midnight cleaning and reading. I finally woke up at 9:15 this morning thanks to a barking puppy. I knew the cat had been sleeping on my head and when I turned around this is what I saw. Apparently my head had been on that little spot there between his front and back legs. Thanks buddy, I didn’t really need my pillow anyway! 🙂
Continue readingKnitting Socks
There has been a long running joke, or at least a funny saying, going on between my Mom and I. She tells everyone that her daughter is “growing” sheep, and she is learning to spin yarn and make socks from their wool. Everyone laughs and thinks that is the cutest thing, but it is true. My Mom took one step closer to her goal by attending a spinner’s meeting and learning the basics of that art. Now she really wants a spinning wheel but they are quite expensive. As another step on her path I surprised her with a gift certificate for Christmas. It covered the cost of a class where we are learning to knit socks! My best friend got the same gift and was also very excited to learn with us. The first class was last Saturday and we had a blast! At first we all felt like fools as we tried to piece together the information we had learned from books, the internet, and each other. It is nice to learn all those little tips and jargon you can only get from a real professional. Our teacher, Faith, is just wonderful, and so is the shop where
Continue readingChecking In
I’m still here, I promise! 🙂 I’ve been a little busy this week but will have a more substantial post up soon. Work for me has been very busy this week due to the schools’ mid-winter breaks. Brian isn’t feeling the best, and last weekend was full of things to do as well. I have a few posts up my sleeve: I want to share about the knitting class I’m taking, talk about joining Farm Bureau, and post about how we’re preparing for lambs. Hopefully I’ll have some cute lamb pictures to share before too long! As for mid-winter break, forget that. I think it should be spring-is-on-its-way break, because if we are only midway through this mess I’m moving!
Continue readingTracking Paper Usage
Our second order of Seventh Generation 500 sheets/roll 100% recycled toilet paper came yesterday. We split the first order with a friend so started with only 24 rolls. That was on November 19, 2008. Not bad, eh? I had signed up for the subscribe and save option on Amazon.com and set it at 6 month increments to give myself plenty of time to cancel before the next shipment, in case we didn’t like it. The hubby hasn’t complained too much and it is way cheaper than the recycled TP at the store so we’re sticking with it. Since we were getting low on our supply I requested our next shipment right away. Anyway, I wanted an easy way to track our usage so I designed the following sheet in Excel. This is just a preview so you can either make your own or I would be happy to attach my sheets in an e-mail for you. If you would like copies just e-mail me at OneRoanPony at hotmail. This shows the second sheet I made to track paper towels and tissues but shows the same fields. It is hard to see in that picture but here’s what I wrote: 11/19/08
Continue readingOreos and Rain
Most of the snow is gone now and it has been raining since sometime last night. Once lunchtime came at work all I could think about was coming home and cuddling up with a book, a movie, 3 dogs, and a cat. Brian is working late tonight as he is on lookout for flooding across the roads. After working my way up the wait list I was able to pick up Multiple Blessings from the library on my way home from work. I did chores and got attacked by the mean Leghorn rooster. I am so fed up with him I’d like to make him dinner but that would be a lot of work for 1 rooster. Plus, I just don’t like the idea of the hens being out there without him. Today was the first time he’s managed to get me good with his spurs and my hand was bleeding the prove it. Oh the joys of farm life! About the oreos: I just love oreos. I think they’re great. However, I sacrificed my oreo habit when I started trying to eat mostly local and mostly without HFCS. I found this great homemade version online and use it to
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