Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[goatgurl]

sorry dh has to go thru this. even tho youall know that he is the scape goat in this whole thing doesn't make it any easier to swallow. on the other hand the fact that he is out and away from all that stress is a good thing. and he is so right, i found out the hard way that its much better to be the indian and not the chief. you guys will get thru this together.
I'm just glad I'm not a fat lazy hen at your house. hope you got your stuff planted before and after the rain. we got a pretty good rain last night ourselves. youall stay safe and out of the deep water.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sorry you're hubby had to go thru that, but hope he can find something even better.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks, GG and Deb.

I feel bad for him, but he's moving on. However, he did commit one tiny little act of defiance today and I'm sure it made him feel better. He's gotten text after text and call after call from the people who worked under him. So, he forwarded a text to his ex-boss from one of the directors in one of his offices. She told him how she had grown so much under his guidance and that she never would have stayed at that job without him as her boss - and how he was the best boss she'd ever had in her 40+ years in the workforce. I was glad he did it even though he kind of wishes now that he hadn't. Oh well!

Busy day today. I got lots of stuff planted, built a fence around the raised beds to keep the dog out, mixed up some more fermented feed, rinsed the sprouting seeds several times, did the normal feeding and egg collecting chores, wormed a few goats, got stung by a bee or three (ouch), butchered a roo and generally stayed busy all day long. I put a pork shoulder in the oven early this morning and it cooked for about 8 hours....smells sooooooo good. We'll be digging into that in just a bit.

Not sure what all is on the agenda tomorrow. But, I need to do some more worming. Checked one old goat gal today that I've been trying to catch for awhile...well...today I caught her pretty easily. Her membranes are white, not red, not pink they're white. I gave her a quick dose of Safeguard. I'll do that for a couple more days (if she makes it that far) and then give her an injection of Ivomec Plus. I swear I've never had so much trouble with parasites. I told DH that I might have to close the gate between my pasture and the neighbors pasture that he lets me use. Only difference between now and the years when I didn't have trouble like this is that the goats have access to a pasture with a pond. I'm wondering ... maybe with all the damp ground around the pond, and all the lush growth from all that dampness, maybe the goats are being re-infected over and over and over again. That and all the dampness we had earlier this year... I just don't know anymore. What I do know is that I'm tired of this. I've always prided myself on taking excellent care of my critters - but right now I'm doing everything I know how to do and it isn't enough.... it stinks.

On the other hand - the chickens are looking fat and sassy. There's been an increase in some of the layers. The ones who live in the barn, with lighting, are picking up their production quite nicely. The birds further out in different pens, without lighting, not so much.

Eggs in the incubator should start hatching in a day or two. I really hope I get some Turkens out of this hatch! I think they are so ugly they're cute, so my fingers are crossed!

Alrighty - that roast is calling my name. Ya'll have a great evening!

 

[Denim Deb]

The dampness could be the problem. Hot, sunny days will kill the eggs.

 

[goatgurl]

i have run into the same problem with some of my goats this year, worm and worm again and they still come up pale eyed. then i lost a doe to barber pole worms a couple of months ago and at about the same time i saw an article that connected copper deficiency to increased parasite susceptibility. these does were unthrifty looking, hadn't shed out good and just looked like crap so i decided wth if i killed with copper i wasn't going to do any worse than the worms were doing and i gave everybody a double dose of copper. if they were kids i gave them one, yearlings got two and older adults got 3. these are 4 gm pills. and low and behold everyone decided to slick off, get pink eyed and just look better in general. a vet friend and i were discussing this and she said that because of first the drought for years and then this wet cool spring they weren't able to get the minerals they needed out of their forage and that loose mineral just weren't enough. worked for me, no one had any adverse effects of the double dose and I'm fixing to do it again in a couple of weeks.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds good to me - I bolused earlier this year, but by golly, I'll do it again. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Woke up this morning to continued rain. Looks like we've had about 6 inches, so not nearly as much as some others. Coastal tides are running 4 feet above normal and the bayous are still rising - but we should be fine. The next threat is winds. Winds are running steady around 20mph, and "they" say we can expect the occasional 50mph gust. No idea where that came from. We did have a small tornado touch down about 20 miles north of us, but we didn't see anything like that here. I haven't been outside yet this morning, but from upstairs looking out, things are wet, but it's certainly been worse.

Think I'll sip on another cup of coffee in the hot tub before I seriously start my day.

Happy Sunday, ya'll!

 

[goatgurl]

yup, raining here too. not near as much as youall have and I'm thanking the good Lord for every drop. we need it bad. pond behind the house is down almost 6 ft from this spring.

 

[Britesea]

You might want to look up bindweed and goats... I don't know about them, but I know bindweed is NOT GOOD for ducks. Being related to morning glory, it apparently has psychotropic qualities.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@Britesea - thanks for the suggestion. I looked it up and it seems that it's safe for the goats. That's probably why I don't see any in the pasture - only in the garden! Maybe I'll let the goats do garden clean up.

Mama drama continues. A few weeks ago my mother called me saying that her silver coins that she's been collecting for years had disappeared out of the safe. Since my brother has the combination to the safe she blamed him. She told several people and threatened to call the police. My aunt convinced her not to. My poor brother was understandably angry and upset that she would accuse him of that.

When I talked to mom, I gently suggested to mom that maybe she had moved the silver and simply forgotten that she had done so. She responded (very indignantly) that she wouldn't do that.

So, yesterday one of my aunts called and said that she was taking my folks out to dinner. She thought that would be a good opportunity for my brother and/or myself to go search the house before the locks are all changed later this week. (and why are the locks being changed you might ask - because they have lost every key to their house - along with their credit cards) I'm surprised my mom didn't accuse my brother or me of stealing the credit cards...even though she called me to see if I knew where she put it after we went shopping.... geeze. However, I digress. Back to the story...

I live too far away to just run over and check the house for wayward silver so my brother waited for them to leave and he started investigating. He checked the safe and the silver was not there, so he started looking around. He went to mom's closet and guess what? The silver is tucked in a corner and covered with a couple of scarves. She either is living up to her vindictive past or really did forget that she moved it. But, I'm inclined to believe that she's acting out on her anger at my brother.

Now - I'm inclined to call bull**** on her actions, but I don't know what good it would do except to possibly re-direct her anger to me, lol. If she does that she won't have any kids left...because my brother is over, finished and done with them. They are treating him badly and he's having none of it. He asked me if I knew how it feels to have your parents betray you. So, I reminded him of the times our parents did things for him and my sister and totally left me out. Things like holiday celebrations, and vacations they took them on. I reminded him of the car they gave him, and the car they gave my sister. (I guess later on they felt bad about it so they gave me the boat that they no longer used - but then they took it back!) They took money out of their investments and gave my brother and sister each 3K - but didn't give me any and then lied straight to my face about it. I asked my siblings and they both said that they simply assumed that I had been included. Nope. So, I do have an idea of how he feels.

I refuse to fret over these things. It is what it is and I simply won't hold on to anger because of it. However, all of these things shaped me and my feelings towards them. As a result, I am fiercely independent and have never asked my parents for anything. No loans, no help - nada, nothing. For that I am grateful. But, I do feel duty bound to at least try to get them to a safe place. I don't think I will be successful at that until something bad happens and they are forced to leave their home. They simply believe that they are still high-functioning and that everyone else is wrong. And, even though my father is 87 and more reality based than my mom - she can convince him of anything. He refuses to believe that there is anything wrong with her and because of her stories he is absolutely furious at my brother. It's a lose-lose situation.

Enough of that!

I have a buyer for 10 of the chicks that I hatched out. I placed a Craigslist ad and priced them at $5.00 each and they are supposed to go tonight. I hope the guy comes through, cuz I'm tired of the little stinkers being in my breezeway and I'm afraid to put them outside just yet. And, I still have eggs in the incubator! After these hatch will somebody please hide the incubator from me??? Please?!

Break time over - back to work.

Happy Tuesday ya'll!