March 29, 2007

March 29, 2007 in Cooks Creek. Well, by my definition in a previous post it is apparent spring has arrived in Canada. Or at least in my part of Canada. The geese are back. There are literally millions of them everywhere. They have come this far and have hunkered down waitin for the water on the lakes to open up so they can continue their journey north to their nesting grounds. With that said, it sure don’t feel like spring today. Cold wet snow and a strong wind out of the north makes ya move a little faster than usual when ya are outside. Temperature is around the freezin point but the wind makes it feel a lot colder.

As far as water goes it is not too bad. No floodin that I can see or have heard of yet. The municipal ditches are all open and flowin fast. The municipality has done a fine job of getting everything opened up this year. Normally my fields are half under water by this time but not this year. Or at least not yet. A couple weeks of rain can turn things bad in a heartbeat.

The chickens seem to be well on the mend. I believe they did have cocsiliosis (sp?). I hit them with an antibiotic and the improvement was fast. They are still on the antibiotic and will be for a couple of weeks yet. The antibiotic is Amprol and is mixed with their water. It is expensive but is the only cure. The result for not usin the antibiotic is ya loose your flock. I have to clean and lime the coop but need the weather to turn better so I can get them out of there. All together I think I lost about 15 hens. That in itself is not good but I have learned from it and know what to watch for the next time. Symptoms for this disease (which is a parasite in the chickens intestine) are; early stages = feathers are wet, blood in their manure and on the eggs, off their food, quiet (no clucking) later stages = all the above plus bad diarrhea (no solids, just water), wings start to droop, won’t eat at all, pale combs and around the eyes (go from red to a yellow), no interest in anything (just sit or perch). No fun watchin animals die. Was getting so I hated to go into the barn because I knew what I would find. The joys of farmin heh?

My next fun project around here is shovelin manure. Between the chickens and horses there is a lot of it and it all has to be cleaned up and piled. Can’t really expand on that much more.

The chicken plucker is a hair away from completion. Just need to do the pulley system yet. Have to purchase the motor and idler pulleys and it will be ready to pluck. Hope it works. Can’t see why it won’t. Everyone elses works and I built it as the plan directed.

My other project was the round bale picker. I needed to arc weld it together. The mig will not give the penetration required to weld the heavy steel the picker is made of. I don’t like to arc weld in the shop because I don’t have an exhaust fan (at least not yet). The smoke and fumes are bad after ya weld for a spell. We had some nice days earlier this week so I welded most of it up outside. I ended up makin the bale spear out of 2 old truck axles. Think it will work fine.

My oldest daughter is goin to be graduating this June. She plans on goin to university and goin into veterinary medicine. She has a big ol soft heart and we got to talkin about puttin animals down. I asked her it she thinks she could do the deed. She got real quiet and didn’t answer either way. Well, she went over to the vets in town and asked if she could volunteer her services. It is our spring school break here and she has been going to the clinic everyday this week to help out. She helped put a dog down yesterday. It went pretty well and although she did not like it (who would) she said she didn’t cry. Today they did another one and she said it gets easier. She sat in on a couple of operations today also. She is sure enjoyin the experience.

Lets liten things up here a bit, time for a red neck joke,

Two hillbillys meet on a dusty country road. Guy (goodolboy) is carrying a big bag labeled, "chickens."

"Chickens, eh?" says the other hillbilly. "Hey, if I guess how many chickens you got, will you give me one?"

"Heck, " says Guy who has the bag, "iffin you guess right, I'll give you both of 'em."

The other hillbilly scratches his head and guesses, "Um... five?"

Ya got to like that one.

Well, take er easy, Hopefully the weather will get back to bein warm here. Talk to ya all soon.