Friday, September 08, 2006
Another bunny update
Just went out to hang up some washing, and bounding around the cage was "Spirit" (the three legged rabbit! Obviously not too worried about the absence of it's foot.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Still going
Yep, it's still going, gave him (not that I have sexed it yet) a proper dose of Intracillin this evening. Last night the needle was really hard to push in, so I got a very small needle and syringe, and tried again this evening. It was still very hard, but then all of a sudden it became easy. We've had this a few times when we were injecting Devil Spawn, anyone know why, please post a comment.
But as you can see, whilst I was dealing with the kit, Jag brought in something else for me to play with... Thankfully it still could fly.
But as you can see, whilst I was dealing with the kit, Jag brought in something else for me to play with... Thankfully it still could fly.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Bunny Update
Well as you can see, the little one is still alive. When I got home, I had another look at the leg, and discovered that the foot was very swollen and hot (not a good sign), and the bone was sticking out!.
Options, well euthanasia (I have CO2 which works well) was one option, or the other was to amputate. The kit was very perky and not too disturbed by my manipulating the foot, so I got a clean scalpel and a pair of scissors, and tipped the kit upside down, elongated the back leg, and snipped the foot off. At this stage I was not feeling that great!
I quickly cleaned it up with iodine, and stuck a sticky plaster on it, then put it in a box out of the way so I could keep an eye on it until the bleeding stopped.
After speaking with a vet friend overseas I admistered a few drops of intracillin, it needed about 0.06ml, it was a real bugger to inject (which is probably a good thing!)
Anyway, it survived all that, and then about a few hours later, I caught one of our cats trying to eat the poor thing.... Jag the little sh!? had the lid off and was trying to catch it, but it kept hopping out the way!!!!!Jag got a timely shove off the bench.
Anyway, it's now out with Mom, and when I last looked it was hopping around the nest box and looking out the door. It's certainly got spirit! I have a feeling that if it survives, it won't end up in the freezer.
Options, well euthanasia (I have CO2 which works well) was one option, or the other was to amputate. The kit was very perky and not too disturbed by my manipulating the foot, so I got a clean scalpel and a pair of scissors, and tipped the kit upside down, elongated the back leg, and snipped the foot off. At this stage I was not feeling that great!
I quickly cleaned it up with iodine, and stuck a sticky plaster on it, then put it in a box out of the way so I could keep an eye on it until the bleeding stopped.
After speaking with a vet friend overseas I admistered a few drops of intracillin, it needed about 0.06ml, it was a real bugger to inject (which is probably a good thing!)
Anyway, it survived all that, and then about a few hours later, I caught one of our cats trying to eat the poor thing.... Jag the little sh!? had the lid off and was trying to catch it, but it kept hopping out the way!!!!!Jag got a timely shove off the bench.
Anyway, it's now out with Mom, and when I last looked it was hopping around the nest box and looking out the door. It's certainly got spirit! I have a feeling that if it survives, it won't end up in the freezer.
Bad news
Unfortunatly this morning when I checked the bunnies, I noticed that one of the babies, had put it's foot through the netting on the bottom of the cage, and had damaged it's back leg beyond repair (the tendon had snapped and the bone broken). This evening if it is still alive, I will consider options on how to help the little one. It didn't seem too stressed, whilst I was cleaning the wound it was drinking water off my finger. I'm thinking that maybe a lamb tail ring and iodine might be a good solution.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Tornado
Some of you will know that several years ago, (about 5 or 6), Steph bought me a model tornado (1:32 scale) for christmas, and whilst Steph is overseas this week, I've got it back out and doing a bit more (still only at step 8 of 60 something though).
Here's some photos so far.
Here's some photos so far.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Gee's I'm knackered...
This morning at 5 when I woke up (after not going to bed till 12), I had plans of getting up nice and early, and achieving heaps, alas, here is how the day went..
Once I got out of bed and had breakfast (around 7:30), I dosed the large tank with anti-algae stuff and plant fertilser. Because the algae stuff is removed by carbon, I turned the big filter off. Then I changed the bulbs on the lights and was quite pleased, I would start on the sheep by 8. I got the bike and trailer and went over to Julia's place. Before trying to catch the sheep, we quickly gave "Flo" and the other ophan lamb (who's name I can't remember) their vaccinations, as we know that there are some nasties in the soil around here (Clostridium perfingen we believe).
Once that was done, we started moving the sheep into the little pen, it looked like it was going really well, they were about 1 metre away from the entrance, so I moved in a bit closer and one sheep decided that it was a bad idea, and sheep being sheep, all of a sudden, they all thought it was a good idea to go somewhere else (OK, in this instance they are right, 'cause in a few days, they'll be in the supermarket!)
But it was bloody typical, the ring leader of the great escape was one of the black faced ewes..Those black faced ewes, are trouble, if a sheep is going to bolt, jump, you name it, anything you don't want them to do, it will be them. I'll be glad when we "rationalise" them into the freezer.
In the end we caught them in another part of the property, in a pen about 25m by 3m. Word of advice, that is too big, I spent more time chasing them than loading etc. After three and almost fainting, I can to that conclusion and we resized the pen down to 3x4, which was much more managable.
As you can see, they've put on a lot of weight.
Once I got out of bed and had breakfast (around 7:30), I dosed the large tank with anti-algae stuff and plant fertilser. Because the algae stuff is removed by carbon, I turned the big filter off. Then I changed the bulbs on the lights and was quite pleased, I would start on the sheep by 8. I got the bike and trailer and went over to Julia's place. Before trying to catch the sheep, we quickly gave "Flo" and the other ophan lamb (who's name I can't remember) their vaccinations, as we know that there are some nasties in the soil around here (Clostridium perfingen we believe).
Once that was done, we started moving the sheep into the little pen, it looked like it was going really well, they were about 1 metre away from the entrance, so I moved in a bit closer and one sheep decided that it was a bad idea, and sheep being sheep, all of a sudden, they all thought it was a good idea to go somewhere else (OK, in this instance they are right, 'cause in a few days, they'll be in the supermarket!)
But it was bloody typical, the ring leader of the great escape was one of the black faced ewes..Those black faced ewes, are trouble, if a sheep is going to bolt, jump, you name it, anything you don't want them to do, it will be them. I'll be glad when we "rationalise" them into the freezer.
In the end we caught them in another part of the property, in a pen about 25m by 3m. Word of advice, that is too big, I spent more time chasing them than loading etc. After three and almost fainting, I can to that conclusion and we resized the pen down to 3x4, which was much more managable.
As you can see, they've put on a lot of weight.
Because they had to go in two trips, in between I came into the house to get the camera, and noticed the floor was wet, about 1cm of the big tank had been leaked onto the floor. When I dosed the tank, I turned the filter off, and whilst it was off the back pressure was enough to seep through the seals!
After that,which took till around midday, I picked up Julia's dead orphan lamb and skinned and buried it. I then did the charming job of cleaning out the bunnies, which was long overdue. I had a quick hold and an attempt at trying to sex some of them, all I could tell is that some of them were either boys or girls, not both!
During lunch I was sitting there (feeling knackered and light headed), and then I noticed that the flying foxes were doing what I bought them for, cleaning algea.
In the afternoon, I gave the lambs a sanding, and they came up really well.
Anyway, I'm cooking tea (lamb chops, ha, we always get the upper hand!), and looking forward to a glass of red wine with dinner, and a few sherry's before bed whilst watching a movie, not sure what yet.
Later.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Not so farmy day
So that's what a day away from the farm feels like. Today Steph was heading off to Canberra for a week, so we drove to Wellington for the day. Not a great deal to report, except Steph has got to Canberra all safe and sound. Tomorrow I'm rounding up last years lambs, and sending them on their way, and I have a lamb to skin and salt (one of our neighbours orphan lambs there were trying to bottle raise). If I'm feeling keen I might try and catch our lambs so I can dock them, but instead I might play in the workshop, or start cleaning the office, we've decided that the office needs redecorating, there are too many holes in the wall!
Anyway, with 1 minute till tomorrow, bugger, it's now tomorrow, I might head off and get some sleep.
Anyway, with 1 minute till tomorrow, bugger, it's now tomorrow, I might head off and get some sleep.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Something....continued
Well, I was supposed to quickly upload the photos, and then after tea come back and edit it to contain the day's blog, but I got distracted trying to get the lamb tanning going (more on that later).
Yesterday as we had the tree protecting fences done (well kind of, they'll stop a lamb, but not a goat) we moved the lambs in to the paddock we resowed at the end of autumn, the grass in there was getting knee deep in parts (which is
really a bit long for the sheep), but it needs to be trimmed, and taking the tractor and mower in there would just destroy all the hard work planting it out, so sheep it is. We were expecting to have to herd the goats back out of the
paddock as normally once we open a gate, there are 4 goats going through it, but amazingly enough, we managed to get the sheep out of their paddock, through the goat paddock and into the next, without the goats moving.
After moving the sheep, we had a bit of a wander around, and wewnt over to see Markissa, but we left the bike on the other side of the paddock, big mistake, within seconds there were goats trying to eat various bits, and Monkey was
considering climbing on the bike, she got pretty close! So when we went back, I lifted Monkey on and went a short distance, she wasn't overly keen on that!
Once the sheep were moved, we had to also move the lamb house into their new paddock. I lifted it up so Steph could grab the rope underneath it and a big (about 12 inches long) rat dashed out and into the neighbours paddock. It just so
happened that they were on the way over to say hello etc. After a few minutes yapping, we started stamping around the nettles trying to flush the rat out, and she thankfully ran out of the nettles and back under the house. We decided to
leave her there and get Strider in on the act after the last time. Steph wandered up to the dog run, and brought them both down, and once we had Strider near the house we wound him up something terrible, and then I lifted the house. He
was in underneath it in a flash, and went straight for the rat, snap, but unfortunatly it wasn't quite enough and it started running across the paddock, with Strider chasing it and catching it. I ended up catching it and dispatching it.
Later in the day, we had the charming task of picking up alpaca poo, we're currently grazing them in a neighbours paddock, and consequently we collect the poo weekly. I must admit picking poo is up there on unpleasant tasks.
The rest of the day was actually quite restfull, I was going to spend some more time doing some moulding for the secret project, but, instead, I decided that the workshop was too much of a mess, and spent an hour or so tidying up, not
that it really made much difference.
In the late afternoon, Steph and I wandered around deciding what to do with our place, we've been offered a series of breedings to a very pretty stallion with exceptional bloodlines, for a very good price, so we've been considering that
and what stock needs to be rationalised to make space for a foal. Up till yesterday, we were considering selling the Alpacas, but the other option was to cull some sheep instead, we're currently running 5 permanant ewes, if we dropped
that to 2, that should keep up in lamb, and when we need some, we can always buy a small flock at the sales as grass permits (and it wouldn't be until next september anyway). In theory, we should be able to run 38 stock units, a horse
being 8, a foal about 4, the alpacas are around .8, goats would be about the same, and ewe plus lamb is 1. So if we had Markissa, foal, alpacas and the goats, that leaves us a surplus of about 18, but you would never want to stock that
high. So if we kept about 2 maybe 3 ewes, that still leaves us some margin, and thankfully Markissa is a "good do'er" and doesn't need a great deal of grass to keep condition (obviously that will change if she's up the duff).
One thing we did decided we would need to do was improve some fencing. We currently have a single electric strand as an internal boundry fence "protecting" the trees, that would need to be fenced properly (and if we've got foals around, then 7 wire and batten is best. So we measured up whats needed to do that, it's about 70 something posts, and around 2.5Km of wire, might try and get a post rammer, or a contractor for putting those posts in, 'cause that brings this spring's fencing task to about 110 posts (plus the tree protectors which most are not rammed yet)
In the evening, I tried setting up the next stage of the tanning of the lambs, the instructions stated that it had to have a pH of about 4, and unfortunatly I read the instructions wrong, and got my chemistry wrong, and added bicarb when I was supposed to be adding acid. Eventually I ran out of pH paper, and gave up. The lambs spent the night in the fridge, and then today I realised my mistake, I used water from the outside tap. It has a very high calcium carbonate hardness, which means it can buffer changes in pH very well (hence why it's good for the fish tanks). So I was fighting a losing battle anyway! Once I remade the solution with filtered rain water, it worked much better (and Steph brought home a electronic pH meter, which made it heaps easier).
Thats all folks, next week, the lambs are off to the works, Steph heads off to Canberra for a week (lucky girl), and I'll have to tend the farm by myself (but she gets to do the same later in the year when I head out to London for a few weeks, and the tickets are almost booked!
Yesterday as we had the tree protecting fences done (well kind of, they'll stop a lamb, but not a goat) we moved the lambs in to the paddock we resowed at the end of autumn, the grass in there was getting knee deep in parts (which is
really a bit long for the sheep), but it needs to be trimmed, and taking the tractor and mower in there would just destroy all the hard work planting it out, so sheep it is. We were expecting to have to herd the goats back out of the
paddock as normally once we open a gate, there are 4 goats going through it, but amazingly enough, we managed to get the sheep out of their paddock, through the goat paddock and into the next, without the goats moving.
After moving the sheep, we had a bit of a wander around, and wewnt over to see Markissa, but we left the bike on the other side of the paddock, big mistake, within seconds there were goats trying to eat various bits, and Monkey was
considering climbing on the bike, she got pretty close! So when we went back, I lifted Monkey on and went a short distance, she wasn't overly keen on that!
Once the sheep were moved, we had to also move the lamb house into their new paddock. I lifted it up so Steph could grab the rope underneath it and a big (about 12 inches long) rat dashed out and into the neighbours paddock. It just so
happened that they were on the way over to say hello etc. After a few minutes yapping, we started stamping around the nettles trying to flush the rat out, and she thankfully ran out of the nettles and back under the house. We decided to
leave her there and get Strider in on the act after the last time. Steph wandered up to the dog run, and brought them both down, and once we had Strider near the house we wound him up something terrible, and then I lifted the house. He
was in underneath it in a flash, and went straight for the rat, snap, but unfortunatly it wasn't quite enough and it started running across the paddock, with Strider chasing it and catching it. I ended up catching it and dispatching it.
Later in the day, we had the charming task of picking up alpaca poo, we're currently grazing them in a neighbours paddock, and consequently we collect the poo weekly. I must admit picking poo is up there on unpleasant tasks.
The rest of the day was actually quite restfull, I was going to spend some more time doing some moulding for the secret project, but, instead, I decided that the workshop was too much of a mess, and spent an hour or so tidying up, not
that it really made much difference.
In the late afternoon, Steph and I wandered around deciding what to do with our place, we've been offered a series of breedings to a very pretty stallion with exceptional bloodlines, for a very good price, so we've been considering that
and what stock needs to be rationalised to make space for a foal. Up till yesterday, we were considering selling the Alpacas, but the other option was to cull some sheep instead, we're currently running 5 permanant ewes, if we dropped
that to 2, that should keep up in lamb, and when we need some, we can always buy a small flock at the sales as grass permits (and it wouldn't be until next september anyway). In theory, we should be able to run 38 stock units, a horse
being 8, a foal about 4, the alpacas are around .8, goats would be about the same, and ewe plus lamb is 1. So if we had Markissa, foal, alpacas and the goats, that leaves us a surplus of about 18, but you would never want to stock that
high. So if we kept about 2 maybe 3 ewes, that still leaves us some margin, and thankfully Markissa is a "good do'er" and doesn't need a great deal of grass to keep condition (obviously that will change if she's up the duff).
One thing we did decided we would need to do was improve some fencing. We currently have a single electric strand as an internal boundry fence "protecting" the trees, that would need to be fenced properly (and if we've got foals around, then 7 wire and batten is best. So we measured up whats needed to do that, it's about 70 something posts, and around 2.5Km of wire, might try and get a post rammer, or a contractor for putting those posts in, 'cause that brings this spring's fencing task to about 110 posts (plus the tree protectors which most are not rammed yet)
In the evening, I tried setting up the next stage of the tanning of the lambs, the instructions stated that it had to have a pH of about 4, and unfortunatly I read the instructions wrong, and got my chemistry wrong, and added bicarb when I was supposed to be adding acid. Eventually I ran out of pH paper, and gave up. The lambs spent the night in the fridge, and then today I realised my mistake, I used water from the outside tap. It has a very high calcium carbonate hardness, which means it can buffer changes in pH very well (hence why it's good for the fish tanks). So I was fighting a losing battle anyway! Once I remade the solution with filtered rain water, it worked much better (and Steph brought home a electronic pH meter, which made it heaps easier).
Thats all folks, next week, the lambs are off to the works, Steph heads off to Canberra for a week (lucky girl), and I'll have to tend the farm by myself (but she gets to do the same later in the year when I head out to London for a few weeks, and the tickets are almost booked!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Some fish in the tank
Well that's Saturday done....What's happened, well this morning I went into town to pick up the thicknesser, and some medication for our betta (a fish, who currently is suffering from Flexibacter,a fuzz on it's side). Whilst at the pet shop I picked up two paradise fish (see photos). Just after getting home, Keith and June (the breeders of Markissa), arrived, and we showed them around our place, and discussed a few horsey things.
After they headed off, we quickly finished some temporary fencing so that we can put the sheep in the sown paddock and they won't demolish the trees (one which had new leaves on, photos tomorrow, it's too dark now.) but we didn't move the sheep yet as the paddock is still a bit damp.
Then one the way back, we popped across to check on the 'pacas and other sheep. The lambs need to be moved on very soon, I'll probably investigate doing it next weekend, they have but on heaps of weight, so it should be quite good, we need to catch the smallest one for us, as christmas dinner.
After that, I spent the afternoon down in the garage making my "secret project", I've now done the tricky part, and on to the fiddly parts! I worked out yesterday that I need over 4m of mouldings (which I making myself). Over all I think there are over 77 individual pieces, and it's not from a plan, my own design...
Unfortunatly now (actually Sunday morning), the betta died (well I put him down last night, he wasn't improving). We had a look at the fuzz on the microscope (we have a proper scientific binocular microscope), and we could see the presence of large colonies of bacteria, and it looked like Flexibacter (round and motile)
During the evening, I went down to the workshop and made some more mouldings, the router is performing really well, it's a real shame that the router isn't table mountable, that would have been great (oh well I'll "need" a spindle moulder next)
Now to get dressed and do stuff....
After they headed off, we quickly finished some temporary fencing so that we can put the sheep in the sown paddock and they won't demolish the trees (one which had new leaves on, photos tomorrow, it's too dark now.) but we didn't move the sheep yet as the paddock is still a bit damp.
Then one the way back, we popped across to check on the 'pacas and other sheep. The lambs need to be moved on very soon, I'll probably investigate doing it next weekend, they have but on heaps of weight, so it should be quite good, we need to catch the smallest one for us, as christmas dinner.
After that, I spent the afternoon down in the garage making my "secret project", I've now done the tricky part, and on to the fiddly parts! I worked out yesterday that I need over 4m of mouldings (which I making myself). Over all I think there are over 77 individual pieces, and it's not from a plan, my own design...
Unfortunatly now (actually Sunday morning), the betta died (well I put him down last night, he wasn't improving). We had a look at the fuzz on the microscope (we have a proper scientific binocular microscope), and we could see the presence of large colonies of bacteria, and it looked like Flexibacter (round and motile)
During the evening, I went down to the workshop and made some more mouldings, the router is performing really well, it's a real shame that the router isn't table mountable, that would have been great (oh well I'll "need" a spindle moulder next)
Now to get dressed and do stuff....
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Now the blog's back I can fill everyone in on some more news, firstly SnowWhite kindled a good sized litter, a few white ones, a few black and even a few agouti, not sure where the agouti came from but they'll still be edable!
You can see the Littlebush stock calander if you want here. Here you'll see what and when we've done stuff, it's not complete yet, but I'm going to make a big push to finish it this weekend.
Last weekend, Steph and I took Markissa to Tielcy Park (an equestrian center in Palmerston North) for a saddle fitting clinic. We were expecting her to be a bit crazy, as in the paddock she is quite excitable, but once we sussed out how to
get her on the float (a bum rope, we tried a lungeing whip but that did not go down well) on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday when she was very well behaved.
Saturday morning, we got up nice and early (after not really sleeping), and I prepped the car, and Steph got Markissa ready. It took us about 5 minutes to load her onto the float, and then we headed off. We were taking it really slow 'cause it's been a long time since Markissa had last been taken for a trip. By the time we had got to Masterton (20 minutes normally), she had settled down into the ride. 2 hours later we pulled into Tielcy Park, and were expecting snorting, eyes on stalks and possibly some crazy behaviour (going by how she reacted when the Alpacas were brought in). After finding somewhere to park, Steph backed her out of the float, and lead her to the side, where Markissa promptly saw some grass and was nose to the ground....After speaking to Margo, we got a stable to put her in for the day, another new experiance...but she just walked in, and then found the hay! The most excitement from Markissa came from when she saw herself in a few big mirrors in the indoor arena, and then when one of the stallions from the same stud she came from walked past. She has a very deep and loud whiney (esp when it's in your ear!)
Steph and Markissa were the demo horse and rider for the clinic, and from the looks of things, this type of saddle fits reasonably well, a few adjustments, but nothing major, so that looks promising.
The trip home wasn't to eventful (which is a good thing).
In addition to the baby rabbits and the saddle, I've also made a start on the planting the big tank (see photos, a much better way to describe it).
Whilst on the subject of fish, one of my clown loaches died yesterday, and unfortunatly is was one of the older ones, so that sucks...
You can see the Littlebush stock calander if you want here. Here you'll see what and when we've done stuff, it's not complete yet, but I'm going to make a big push to finish it this weekend.
Last weekend, Steph and I took Markissa to Tielcy Park (an equestrian center in Palmerston North) for a saddle fitting clinic. We were expecting her to be a bit crazy, as in the paddock she is quite excitable, but once we sussed out how to
get her on the float (a bum rope, we tried a lungeing whip but that did not go down well) on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday when she was very well behaved.
Saturday morning, we got up nice and early (after not really sleeping), and I prepped the car, and Steph got Markissa ready. It took us about 5 minutes to load her onto the float, and then we headed off. We were taking it really slow 'cause it's been a long time since Markissa had last been taken for a trip. By the time we had got to Masterton (20 minutes normally), she had settled down into the ride. 2 hours later we pulled into Tielcy Park, and were expecting snorting, eyes on stalks and possibly some crazy behaviour (going by how she reacted when the Alpacas were brought in). After finding somewhere to park, Steph backed her out of the float, and lead her to the side, where Markissa promptly saw some grass and was nose to the ground....After speaking to Margo, we got a stable to put her in for the day, another new experiance...but she just walked in, and then found the hay! The most excitement from Markissa came from when she saw herself in a few big mirrors in the indoor arena, and then when one of the stallions from the same stud she came from walked past. She has a very deep and loud whiney (esp when it's in your ear!)
Steph and Markissa were the demo horse and rider for the clinic, and from the looks of things, this type of saddle fits reasonably well, a few adjustments, but nothing major, so that looks promising.
The trip home wasn't to eventful (which is a good thing).
In addition to the baby rabbits and the saddle, I've also made a start on the planting the big tank (see photos, a much better way to describe it).
Whilst on the subject of fish, one of my clown loaches died yesterday, and unfortunatly is was one of the older ones, so that sucks...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Blog's back
Sorry about that folks, a bit of technical difficultly with Google...but I fixed it (by chance) and we're back.
The last day of the holiday (and other stuff)
OK, a bit over due, but I had written something, but I forgot to save it, and consequently I lost it! Anyway, what did we do on Tuesday...The morning started with me down in the workshop nice and early on my project, prep-ing some more timber. Being typical holiday weather is was piddling down with rain, and we knew we had on of last years lambs to catch, yuck wet wool! After an hour or so in the workshop I went back up to the house, and Steph was just getting up, so after breakfast etc we waited for a fine spell and went out to catch the lamb. After a few rounds of the paddock, and not wanting to go into the race (where we could pen them) he slipped and at that point I ran in and grabbed him. Not the conventinal way to catch sheep, but it worked. Then I noticed a small problem in our plan, the stock crate was a good 80m away, and he was too big to carry. I ended up sitting on him, legs either side, arm around throat with Steph encouraging him to move forward, a few minutes later he was up and in the crate ready to go on a trip..
After dropping him off to Parkvale, we went into Masterton as there were a few bits I needed. After messing around in town for an hour or two, we headed home.
Once home I spent the afternoon, once more, down in the workshop building my project. It's still only parts, but it's coming along nicely, meanwhile Steph crashed infront of the TV with her horse tack, and spent a movie cleaning it ready for the saddle fitting clinic this weekend.
And in other news today.....Last night, as SnowWhite still had not made a nest, I decided to tweak the nesting box slightly, instead of just having an open topped box, I mounted the two boxes ontop of one another, and this morning there is a big nest made inside, so I expect she will drop today or tomorrow, if she hasn't dropped by this evening, I might set up the video camera, could be interesting.
On the tanning side, the lambs have now been in a pickle for 3 days, their not quite ready yet, but D.S. will need resalting this evening, and then one more salting, then she goes in the pickle (once dried and then rehydrated). We pick up the ram lambs fleece from Parkvale this evening, my tanning freezer is starting to get a bit full, I already have three sheep in there! I guess I need to catch up a bit.
Oh, a few photos for today, the new nursary rabbit hutch, the lambs in the pickle, and D.S. salting.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Another day, and another set of trials
Yikes, this holiday isn't really turning up to be very relaxing, but, saying that today's blog does end on a good note (for a change).
This morning I fed the bunnies, no kit's yet, but she isn't due to tonight anyway, so that wasn't a surprise. After doing a bit of house work, Steph and I trundled into town to pick up a few bits, and the scoria for the flower beds. Whilst we were in town, we also picked up a thicknesser for the workshop so that I can try and do something with the rimu boarding I aquired last year.
Once we got home, we spread the scoria out on the flower beds (in the rain), and then I went down to the workshop to play with the thicknesser, whoops, I mean work with the thicknesser...
It's so cool, crappy timber goes in, you let go and it spits out really nice boards...it has taken place as my second favorite tool (compound cross cut saw still being #1).
Anyway, I started on a project (no details till it finished).
Then as it started getting colder (and after Markissa had had her hooves trimmed by the farrier, I came inside, and Steph finished of a few things outside, including the bunnies, this is were the day went pear shaped, Snowwhite (the one due tonight) was missing!!!!! I mustn't of closed the door properly this morning, after a quick hunt around and a few naughty words, I found her in the wood shed, cold and wet. She had tried escaping from the wood shed, but thankfully it has a gravel base course that she couldn't dig through.
So now, we're sitting down to a nice cuppa and a blazing fire..
Till tomorrow (last day of our holiday).
Oh, here's the photo of the manager
This morning I fed the bunnies, no kit's yet, but she isn't due to tonight anyway, so that wasn't a surprise. After doing a bit of house work, Steph and I trundled into town to pick up a few bits, and the scoria for the flower beds. Whilst we were in town, we also picked up a thicknesser for the workshop so that I can try and do something with the rimu boarding I aquired last year.
Once we got home, we spread the scoria out on the flower beds (in the rain), and then I went down to the workshop to play with the thicknesser, whoops, I mean work with the thicknesser...
It's so cool, crappy timber goes in, you let go and it spits out really nice boards...it has taken place as my second favorite tool (compound cross cut saw still being #1).
Anyway, I started on a project (no details till it finished).
Then as it started getting colder (and after Markissa had had her hooves trimmed by the farrier, I came inside, and Steph finished of a few things outside, including the bunnies, this is were the day went pear shaped, Snowwhite (the one due tonight) was missing!!!!! I mustn't of closed the door properly this morning, after a quick hunt around and a few naughty words, I found her in the wood shed, cold and wet. She had tried escaping from the wood shed, but thankfully it has a gravel base course that she couldn't dig through.
So now, we're sitting down to a nice cuppa and a blazing fire..
Till tomorrow (last day of our holiday).
Oh, here's the photo of the manager
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Bad News
Unfortunalty yesterday, Devil Spawn had got worse, she was unable to reposition her self, and was not showing any signs of improving, so I phoned John (one of our neighbours), and he came over and shot her for us. After which I promptly skinned her, and did a very rough autopsy and she had intensive rotting about a hand lengths in, not pleasant....Oh well in the end we did the right thing, oh the other thing I noticed was her pelvis was very very tiny, In retrospect and with the knowledge of her pelvis size, maybe breeding her was a mistake.
After skinning, fleshing the hide (which is probably the best fleshing I've done), and digging the hole (and putting her head somewhere separate so we can get the horns!) we had lunch, and then I started on the job I was intending to do, which was set up the fish tank. After cleaning 240kg of river pebbles, and heaving a massive bit of driftwood in and about a dozen big boulders, the tank is looking really murky (I was intending typing "cool", but it's not yet, give it a day or to with the filter for that, and then I'll start heating it and thinking about planting it out.
Today I will hopefully get down into the workshop and cleanup after making the manger (photos are now on the camera, so they are getting closer), and I'm going to start pickling the lambs hides (first you dry them out with salt, rehydrate them in brine solution, pickle them in acid, and then tan them in another really salty solution with something else added), Devil Spawn will probably go in the pickle in about a week's time.
Anyway, time for a nice cup of tea.
After skinning, fleshing the hide (which is probably the best fleshing I've done), and digging the hole (and putting her head somewhere separate so we can get the horns!) we had lunch, and then I started on the job I was intending to do, which was set up the fish tank. After cleaning 240kg of river pebbles, and heaving a massive bit of driftwood in and about a dozen big boulders, the tank is looking really murky (I was intending typing "cool", but it's not yet, give it a day or to with the filter for that, and then I'll start heating it and thinking about planting it out.
Today I will hopefully get down into the workshop and cleanup after making the manger (photos are now on the camera, so they are getting closer), and I'm going to start pickling the lambs hides (first you dry them out with salt, rehydrate them in brine solution, pickle them in acid, and then tan them in another really salty solution with something else added), Devil Spawn will probably go in the pickle in about a week's time.
Anyway, time for a nice cup of tea.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Devil Spawn
Devil Spawn is still alive, this morning her temperature had dropped from 40.9 to 39.9, which is heading in the right direction. There is still a really nasty discharge from her bits, tomorrow I think we'll flush it with warm water and maybe explore a bit. We're keeping her dosed up on Calpro, and we've got more intracillin for Sunday (if she is still alive).
I managed to build the nursary rabbit run, unfortunatly I had one minor design flaw, it was 5mm too long to fit in the shed, so a quick mod and made it 2" shorter. Now SnowWhite has residence and hopefully she'll start nesting in the next few days. Hollywood finally realised she needed to build a nest and this morning was frantically building a nest in her feed bowl! Hopefully next time she'll get the birthing and nest building the other way around.
This afternoon whilst out (we went to the sales to see what was around, nothing of note), we picked up 530Kg of red scoria, and 320Kg of 6mm river pebbles, the scoria is for the flower beds, it looks REALLY good, photos tomorrow, and the pebbles are for the fish tank, I've decided not to do the whole sculpting thing, I just don't have the time, instead I'll just do a aquascaped tank, but still with many plants and the CO2 injector.
Anyway, this evening Steph and I are off to a french restuarant for dinner.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some good news about DevilSpawn.
I managed to build the nursary rabbit run, unfortunatly I had one minor design flaw, it was 5mm too long to fit in the shed, so a quick mod and made it 2" shorter. Now SnowWhite has residence and hopefully she'll start nesting in the next few days. Hollywood finally realised she needed to build a nest and this morning was frantically building a nest in her feed bowl! Hopefully next time she'll get the birthing and nest building the other way around.
This afternoon whilst out (we went to the sales to see what was around, nothing of note), we picked up 530Kg of red scoria, and 320Kg of 6mm river pebbles, the scoria is for the flower beds, it looks REALLY good, photos tomorrow, and the pebbles are for the fish tank, I've decided not to do the whole sculpting thing, I just don't have the time, instead I'll just do a aquascaped tank, but still with many plants and the CO2 injector.
Anyway, this evening Steph and I are off to a french restuarant for dinner.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some good news about DevilSpawn.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Not a good start to our holiday
Well, Steph and I were intending taking a week off, and having a very restfull week, but this morning things didn't go according to plan, Hollywood gave birth over night to 10 kits, but she never bothered building a nest, so they all died!, and then when I went to check DS, she was not in a good state. We've brought her up to a compound near the house so we can keep a closer eye on her, and we've put 6ml of Intracillin and 200ml (over 6 hours) of Calpro (vitamins and glucose etc). Her temperature is pretty high, but it did drop over the last 2 hours (down to 40.6 from 40.9). I guess we now just see what happens tomorrow and if she is still around, we'll get another dose of antibiotics for her.
In an attempt to be a bit more successfull with the rabbits, I'm building a big nursing cage, 2m long, hopefully I'll have it ready for the weekend when Snowwhite is to drop.
On a plus note, we did manage to round up the sheep (which escaped yesterday!), and the other lambs are still doing fine.
In an attempt to be a bit more successfull with the rabbits, I'm building a big nursing cage, 2m long, hopefully I'll have it ready for the weekend when Snowwhite is to drop.
On a plus note, we did manage to round up the sheep (which escaped yesterday!), and the other lambs are still doing fine.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Still going
I caught DevilSpawn this morning, and her back end was still quite swollen, but Steph had a look this afternoon and she thinks it looks just like a big hemotoma. One thing I didn't mention yesterday, was that one of the lambs when I skinned it had a massive hemmorage around the throat internally, which makes me think it was first out, and was presented incorrectly, and was killed during birth, and then the one behind suffocated whilst she was struggling with the first. Oh well, anyway today we moved the alpacas across to Julia's (our new neighbour) paddock, we have absolutly no grass left except for the lambing paddock and the lamb raising paddock (which has trees that need fencing off). So as to make the management of the alpacas easier, I made a manger, photos on Thursday (I forgot).
This morning whilst I was feeding the bunnies, Ruben bit me, I had handled the girls (Hollywood is due on Tuesday), and then him, I think he thought my hand was a girl and sunk his teeth in!
This morning whilst I was feeding the bunnies, Ruben bit me, I had handled the girls (Hollywood is due on Tuesday), and then him, I think he thought my hand was a girl and sunk his teeth in!
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