Monday, November 10, 2008

Visiting sheep, gravel, stuck tractor and sick goat

So by Monday we had several ewes visiting the rams on our farm.  There's Madison from Jackie's (in the back),
and Corinne from Bethany's (behind Jocko),
and Gwendolyn from Nancy's (in front of Lewis).
We are expecting three more to come visit this next weekend.  

Then we decided to forgo apple pressing and deal with the more pressing issue of the upcoming storm and more predicted flooding.  I covered all the farm equipment with tarps and tin sheets to try to prevent water damage, and we ordered 14 yards of gravel and proceeded to use our small tractor to spread it in the now moist barn.  As you can see it is a muddy mess:
But we managed to get a decent layer of gravel down before the steering went out on the tractor, and it was completely stuck in the mud.
Then we spend the rest of the afternoon hauling the tractor out of the muck with several chains and ropes from the truck in the driveway and managed to get it on the grass outside of the gate.  Since there's still no steering it's going to sit there until it is fixed.  We still have 2/3 of the gravel left that still needs spreading, but we have no tractor and are not excited to do it by hand- particularly trying to drag it though the soft mud.  So it also sits for now.

In the midst of this Tom and I both noticed that our older doe Candy had her tongue stick our to the right and her right ear drooping.  She otherwise seemed fine, but we decided to call the vet out.  He arrived in the middle of the gravel hauling and looked at her.  He couldn't find anything else wrong, and she did not have a temperature.  So he was worried that she had a brain tumor but thought there was still a chance it could be a dental infection so brought her back to the office for x-rays.  The x-rays showed a small density on the right skull so it probably is a brain tumor but since she's looking so good and not suffering we opted to put her on penicillin and thiamine and see how she does before euthanizing her.  So Tom and I went to the vet's office to pick her back up with her medication, bring her back and administer two IM shots.  Now we are hoping for the best.

By the way, it's our 7th first-date anniversary so after the day's excitement we cleaned up, got dressed and went out to a nice dinner.  The rest can wait for another day after the waters recede.

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