FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[FarmerDenise]

So,... I came back inside after feeding the chickens, the dog and the rabbit. I checked on here and saw Bee's note on her boy going off to bootcamp.
DSS (Stepson) has a dear friend who is going off to boot camp on Sunday. I liked Bee's advice of sending the young man off with preprinted envelopes. Well I found out the hard way that my printer doesn't do envelopes. OOops. I decided to do labels.
DSS came back a little whole ago (just in time for dinner ) with his friend, ...as I am putting on more pasta and asking SO if we have any hotdogs to add to the meal, I tell the young man that I would be willing to print out two sets of labels. One sheet for people he wants to mail letters to, and one sheet with the address of where he'll be. He had no clue as to what that address might be. I told him to get it ASAP and I would print it out for him.
I got a wonderfull hug for my efforts.
Who says teenagers are awfull.
They might be sometimes, but with the proper management, they are usually ok.

 

[Beekissed]

He won't get his address until he gets there but I bet he did give you a hug...those addresses are a mile long with lots of abbreviation and punctuation. For a teenager, this is enough to make you not want to write too often, as they make you put your return address on every envelope. I was sending stamped envelopes but my boy said not to waste my stamps, as he had plenty. Teens are wonderful at my house!

 

[Farmfresh]

Do your own Post Mortem!

According to my sources

"Marek's disease is a Herpes virus infection of chickens.

The disease has various manifestations: a) Neurological - Acute infiltration of the CNS and nerves resulting in 'floppy broiler syndrome' and transient paralysis, as well as more long-standing paralysis of legs or wings and eye lesions; b) Visceral - Tumours in heart, ovary, tests, muscles, lungs; c) Cutaneous - Tumours of feather follicles.

Signs

* Paralysis of legs, wings and neck.
* Loss of weight.
* Grey iris or irregular pupil.
* Vision impairment.
* Skin around feather follicles raised and roughened.

Post-mortem lesions

* Grey-white foci of neoplastic tissue in liver, spleen, kidney, lung, gonads, heart, and skeletal muscle.
* Thickening of nerve trunks and loss of striation.
* Microscopically - lymphoid infiltration is polymorphic. " poultry disease guide.

So if you open Easter up you should see grey- white blotches on the liver or other internal organs.

 

[keljonma]

Sorry to hear about Easter, FD! At least she had good care and lived loved.

 

[punkin]

So,... I came back inside after feeding the chickens, the dog and the rabbit. I checked on here and saw Bee's note on her boy going off to bootcamp.
DSS (Stepson) has a dear friend who is going off to boot camp on Sunday. I liked Bee's advice of sending the young man off with preprinted envelopes. Well I found out the hard way that my printer doesn't do envelopes. OOops. I decided to do labels.
DSS came back a little whole ago (just in time for dinner ) with his friend, ...as I am putting on more pasta and asking SO if we have any hotdogs to add to the meal, I tell the young man that I would be willing to print out two sets of labels. One sheet for people he wants to mail letters to, and one sheet with the address of where he'll be. He had no clue as to what that address might be. I told him to get it ASAP and I would print it out for him.
I got a wonderfull hug for my efforts.
Who says teenagers are awfull.
They might be sometimes, but with the proper management, they are usually ok.

I remember the hugs my DS used to give me as a child. The kind where they wrap their arms around you, squish thier little body against you and squeeze for all they're worth. But, when my 18 year old DS hugs me now, it's a whole different yummy feeling.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I remember the hugs my DS used to give me as a child. The kind where they wrap their arms around you, squish thier little body against you and squeeze for all they're worth. But, when my 18 year old DS hugs me now, it's a whole different yummy feeling.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

SO told DSS's friend today, that he should put his name on a pumkin, I had suggested he should mark one up. We can take photos of it, as it grows and he can see how it changes. I thought it might be fun for him for halloween, to get a picture of "his" pumkin.

I picked some more peaches today. I thought originally that I might dehydrate them, but I have been eating them. They are soo delicious, juicy and sweet. We have blackberries ripening, the neighbor offered that I should help myself to her figs, and the melons are getting big. The grapes are growing nicely too. I think I'll have enough fruit to put up yet. Oh and I almost forgot about the pear tree at my DD's house.

I have been eating left overs all day. And peaches.
We ran a lot of errands yesterday and are both a little whiped out today. So spent most of the day puttering, doing dishes, vacuuming, laundry, sitting with the chickens, cuddling kittens, putting yocheese in oil, picking peaches, admiring our big garden and talking with friends.

I might do the necropsy on Easter. She is in the fridge. Thanks for letting me know what to look for. I used to get the necropsy reports for my chickens last year. Fortunately we have a nurse friend, who could translate
All our chickens that I had sent in last year died of marek's.
The symptoms for Easter are a little different, but maybe because she had injured her leg. The wasting away is the most significant symptom as far as I am concerned. And when I talked to the pet psychic she said she thought something was wrong in the stomach and she mentioned a growth. At that moment I flashed on marek's.
Easter would just have been starting puberty, which is a primary time for marek's to strike. Especially if she was female, which I was beginning to suspect.
If is is marek's there isn't a hole lot we can do about it. Most of our chicks were from farm stores and were immunized for marek's. That was the case for us last year also, but we still lost most of our chickens, vaccinated or not.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've been preoccupied with Stepson's friend leaving for boot camp and a very sick little foster kitty.

Little Cricket was as perky as can be on friday night. Sucking down his bottle and then climbing all over SO until he was tuckered out and I put him in his box for the night.
Saturday morning I got up to feed him at 7:30 and he just wasn't acting right. He didn't drink much and didn't fight me or climb all over me. I tried again a few hours later and noticed how lethargic he was. So I decided to call the Humane Society and arranged to have him be seen be a vet tech. The vet's don't work on weekends.
She checked him out and gave him fluids subcutaneously.
He was no better today, so I took him in again. This time he was running a fever and had lost weight. Not good when your just an itty bitty little thing. I left him there for a few hours, so the nurse could take care of him.
After one attempted feeding tonight, I rubbed him gently as I always do and he started to purr and then he sucked on my finger. I hoped he would take the bottle, but he didn't go for that. His temperature is still a bit high. I hope he makes it through the night. Tomorrow he is supposed to see the vet at 9:00am

This morning as we were watering the garden and feeding the chickens, Stepson's friend stopped by to say his last goodbye. I gave him some address labels so he had our address. We both told him we loved him and that we were very proud of him. That this was a courageous thing to do.
We sat for a while, just missing him already and thinking what a great kid he is and how much he helped us, even though he and Stepson pulled some very stupid stuff that they had gotten yelled at for.
I wonder where he is now and how he is doing. I guess he is in Seattle somewhere on a base.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Well, it's that time of year when we are superbusy.
Every morning SO gets up early and starts the watering routine. I get up, feed the animals and start work in the garden or preparing for kitchen work. In between, the housework still needs to be done, friends and family visited and visit, and hopefully we manage to get in some quality down time.
I try and pick about three buckets of weeds daily to feed to the chickens, some of it goes to the rabbit as well. I spend alternate mornings harvesting, right now we have zuccini, summer squash, lemon cucumbers, the first blue lake pole beans, basil, lettuce, carrots, blackberries, blueberries and assorted peppers.

 

[2dream]

Sure am glad I got through with my chores before I read your post. I am so tired just reading what all you have done I am going to take a nap. You need to relax. LOL

 

[FarmerDenise]

Don't worry, I'll play computer games later