Operation Healthy Balance

What to do when your baby chicks that live in your flower garden can get out but can't get back in.  Check out my construction expertise. Sometimes I wonder about myself....

There has been a hen sitting on eggs in my flower bed for quite a while.  Whenever we walk by her we always peek in and see if there is any hatching going on. We had just come back from visiting a neighbour and Chase checked in on our hen.  He screamed for me to come quick.  I grabbed my phone and caught this scene.  Not sure how the video will look but it shows a tiny, wet chick just hatching out of an egg. It is times like this that make me appreciate the life that I have.  Not too many people get to experience moments such as this one.  Times like these give me an extra breath of fresh air and allow me to overlook the fact that my kitchen smells like manure and that there are thousands of flies in my house on any given day. This farm has always been my safe haven and little piece of my personal country perfection.  I can still remember the feeling I had when my parents introduced me to my childhood horse.  How I could ride all over the f...

As I mentioned before, our pair of ducks, Bill and Sandra, had three ducklings.  They are super cute and growing like weeds. Bill and Sandra I think we have two boys and one girl.  There is one that is noticeably smaller than the other two so I have dubbed her the female.  We won't know for sure until they get bigger and their markings come in. Carl, Gerald, and Petunia Having ducks and chickens in the backyard has been a real educational experience for the boys.  Just the other day Arlen came out of the bathroom and proclaimed, "Mommy, I know why you don't pee standing up.  It's because you lay babies." I told him that idea was "close" and I'd explain later.  Oh boy!

I've decided to take the time and write another quick summary of what's happening in my world.  Last time it was 22 days in between blog postings and it's now only been 14 days so I'm way ahead! I was successful with my job interview and now have a permanent full time position at the health unit.  I am now a public health nurse on the communicable disease/infection control team in the department of clinical services.  Had my first day today and it went awesome.  I have a great feeling about this position because it combines both my science and nursing degrees. We went on an amazing "family vacay" (Arlen's words) to the Toronto Zoo, Blue Mountains Resort, Thursthill Farms and then Peterborough to visit more friends.  We had an awesome time and both Larrin and I felt totally relaxed.  Pictures to follow soon. Ducklings and chicks are growing strong; we haven't lost any to mysterious attacks.  While away, my awesome father caught the creature that was...

It's been a while since I've checked in and lots of exciting things have been happening.  We have had some amazingly hot weather so lots of time has been spent swimming in "Grandma's" pool or at on of the local beaches.  The boys are pretty self sufficient swimmers so it makes for some pretty relaxing times. I took a quick trip to see my best friends who had just brought home their twins.  That's their life and business so I won't write too much about that.  Just wanted to say it was great seeing them become parents and their babies are adorable. Our extracurricular activities are somewhat winding down; one more baseball game, three more soccer games and four mornings of swimming left.  Chase has started riding lessons once a week which he loves. The little backyard hobby farm has expanded with 20 new chicks.  I had assumed one hen had been a victim of a raccoon but was very excited when she suddenly showed up one morning with eleven babies.  Ano...

I have had a very busy week so far.  Two days of regular, normal work at the health unit, a day to prepare a letter to disagree with a GST/HST audit for the farm, teaching a night prenatal class, and facilitating a two-day in-service for my colleagues on Promoting Maternal Mental Health.  To go along with this, a night of coaching my sons' baseball team and a weekend ahead of working nights. This morning when I was trying to rush out the door I was very mean to my boys.  It was not their fault I was late but I blamed them anyways.  I knew I was wrong as soon as I said the words and am sorry for the burden that I placed on them.  When they get home from school I will explain my actions and apologize.  At times like this, I tell myself it is time to regroup and do better. I have an extremely bad track record for piling my plate too full.  As part of my strive for healthy balance, I vow to never do this again.  I have learned that I can't do it a...

I have to admit that I am usually the person around here that advocates for setting caught animal pests free but my cage has been rattled one too many times.  Something has killed my female duck and her eight ducklings, a hen and her chick, two other hens and one rooster.  My neighbour has now lost 9 laying hens; six were killed in last night.  That being said....no more Mr. Nice Guy....IT'S ON! Larrin has successfully caught and disposed of 3 raccoons in the barn but I'm not convinced they were the culprits of my raids.  They were definitely not responsible for the neighbours losses because the remains that were left resemble the work of a weasel of fischer; seemingly untouched dead chickens.  My culprit takes the kills somewhere else because there is no trace of anything.  Not even feathers or blood. Today I plotted and prepared.  Chicken coop reinforced so there are no small crevices for predators to get in.  A night camera was borrowed and...

As follow up to yesterday's blog post. 1) Umbrah the cow is better.  She is up and her left abomasum is no longer displaced thanks to two vet calls.  We had her recuperating outside for a bit but moved her back into the barn where the temperature is more tolerable for her.  She is eating and drinking so those are great signs. 2) Two day health promotion training is complete.  During mingling at lunch I learned that there is a permanent full-time position in Communicable Disease coming up.  A permanent job where I can accrue pension....wow.  Cross your fingers on that one;)  Turns out the job with the school team is not available just yet but that's okay. 3) Antibiotics were retrieved from pharmacy at 8pm last night.  Starting to feel better. 4) Boys baseball game was awesome.  All players hit the ball and we even had outs at first and second base.  Chase pitched and the team got 3 outs in 4 batters.  Karson learned to not sw...

It's definitely going to be "one of those days" where I am pulled in all different directions and many story lines are developing.  Here's a snapshot of what I have to look forward to for my Thursday. #1 Home-"Down Cow" Umbrah (Very Good 85 by the way) has hypocalcemia and a left displaced abomasum (Larrin and I's diagnosis).  Intravenous calcium and dextrose was given this morning at 530 am but she has yet to get up.  Her front leg muscles are twitching which makes me think she needs more calcium.  Intradermal calcium was given for slower absorption and hopefully she will get up but a message was left for our herd veterinarian because even if she does get up we will need him to fix the 'twisted stomach'.  This will be done at some point today. (note to self, call home and check on cow and Larrin) #2 Work-Skills for Health Promotion Workshop This 2-day workshop starts today at work and it would be very valuable to my public health career.  ...

The last few weeks have been hard to swallow on the home front.  Our precious baby duckling passed away and Karina our 'prize' cow's fate was determined with a negative pregnancy check.  And of course,  too many consecutive days of rain halted the progress of crop planting.  I do realize that things could be a lot worse and believe me Larrin and I tell each other that on a regular basis; it reminds us that 'such is life' and our problems are quite small in comparison to other peoples' in this world. Over the years Larrin and I have tried to anticipate the good when things are not quite going our way.  When we are on the down swing of our life rollercoaster I always try to look to the future weeks and imagine how good they will be.  And well, my dreams have come true and a good week is upon us. Yesterday on my morning trek to feed my 'hobby' animals, I found this. Eight beautiful, healthy ducklings.  Their proud 'mama' was keeping close watc...

Haven't took the time to write anything lately.  Usually means, I've gone into hiding.  This phenomenon always happens when I am feeling the walls closing in; when life is a bit overwhelming and I have too much on my mind.  Sitting down with my thoughts is therapeutic but I "fight" it for some reason. So what's going on?  Rain, rain, rain and I leave for a one week Alaskan vacation with my mother in 14 days.  Before my departure I wanted life here to be somewhat organized for those that I am leaving behind.  The biggest obstacle to organization is crop planting.  It was my dream that the crop planting would be well on its way to completion and well....not even close. To put it into perspective, we usually plant approximately 265 acres of barley, corn and soybeans.  Currently there is 55 acres planted.  Barley is done, with 35 acres planted.  I guess you can say corn is started with 20 of the 165 acres in.  And the 70 acres of so...

Among my menagerie of animals is a pair of muscovy ducks.  This spring the female started laying eggs in the chicken coop.  Once my hens saw this mound of eggs they couldn't help themselves but to "brood" on the nest.  It's very interesting how hens are mesmerized by these tiny oval creations; natural instincts and mother nature truly are remarkable.  The female duck began to lay eggs somewhere else so I decided to let the hen "adopt" the nest and just see what happened. Everyday I would gently kick the old hen off the eggs and collect any new chicken eggs that were laid.  Well today I went out and found this...... I tried to put the little creature back under the hen but she wanted no part of it and even started pecking the poor little thing.   I've heard that hens will go as far as kill deformed chicks so maybe this was also the hen's uncontrollable instinct. The duckling was probably only a few hours old and would die if left outside so obvi...

Meet "Railcrest Aerocerf Karina".  Karina was born June 2, 2004.  During her initial classification she was Railcrest Farms' first Very Good 2 year old scoring 86 points and moved up to Very Good 88 during her third lactation.  She scores 88 on rump, 88 on mammary system, 87 on feet and legs and 89 on dairy strength.  She is a good looking cow with excellent height and a deep rib.  Her highest scoring traits are her udder texture being very soft and body depth being very deep.  Traits that we will try to improve with her progeny are rump angle and udder depth.  Her rump is a bit high and her udder depth is a bit deep. Karina is a fantastic cow and is always noticed by visitors when they enter the barn.  So this is all great right?  Well, we have a dilemma.  We have not been able to get Karina pregnant and this is leading to much frustration and the general realization that her time her at Railcrest Farms is coming to and end. You se...