Thanks for the prayers, keep 'em coming, but now I need ideas

[freemotion]

I will get some recipes for you soon, hopefully tomorrow.

One thought that may help...you may just have to "lower your standards" of care for you animals during this time. What I mean is, maybe not change the water so often (unless there is poop in it) and tolerate some "dirty" stalls (deep litter method for goats!) and change the water maybe once a week, and rotate it so you are changing the water for several goats each day, rather than changing the water for 50 goats all on one day. Just topping up the buckets. Or letting them drink their fill twice a day, then not leaving water (gasp! I know!) but in this emergency situation, they will learn to drink deeply two times a day and will adjust. Then you won't have to break ice or change and clean water buckets. They will survive. You are working to survive, they will, too.

If the treatment is for six months, can they go on just the hay for that time? Can you forego the grain? Or reduce it dramatically for a half year? Tolerate slight thinness for a short time?

Let's say you were experiencing a disaster like Katrina. Your animals would deal with far less care. This is your own personal Katrina. Can your critters help by dealing with less? It is temporary. Just a thought.

 

[Cybercat]

Sheri, is it possible for you to collect a number of water barrels and get them filled ahead of time? I am thinking that if you have a raised platform with filled barrels on top and a washtub underneath, you can just open the bung and let the water out- instead of having to carry it. We all know how heavy water is, and sloshing it is NO FUN! You could also do something similar with pellets or grain, filling barrels or homemade wooden bins and just opening them to let the feed drain down into feeders.. How many pens do you think you'd be using? I don't know anything about your setup, so I am not sure this is feasible.
I'd also consider getting a garden cart and lining it with pond liner...filling the liner with feed or water, and wheeling it from pen to pen...

Get a high school kid to come out once or twice a month to help refill the barrels when you're feeling weak...

I have a couple of upcoming surgeries this summer (one between my shoulder blades) so I think I'll be trying these ideas myself...

Leanne

 

[SheriM]

Cybercat, great idea on the cart with the pond liner. I already have a cart so that's half the battle. That would work great for feed. Not so much for water. You see, I really only have a problem with water in the winter, so Freemotion, I like your barrel idea too, but not in winter. AT -40, it would freeze solid. I had actually planned to devise something like this for watering chickens and I still will if there's time for me to raise some this year. And it just dawned on me that I might be able to use something like this for one "pasture" I have that doesn't have a water source. I like the goats to get out there in the summer, even though there's not much to eat and they still need hay, because they get the exercise. I was leaving the gate open so they could get back into the barnyard for water, but if I were to set up a waterer in there, I could use it as a separate pen. I need the most pens in early fall when I've weaned the buck kids.

That's the frustrating part in all of this. Assuming I do end up going through treatment again, I don't know when it will start and therefore when it will end. Last time, I was diagnosed in March, had surgery in April but didn't start treatment till August, which meant it ended in December. Then there was radiation in January. After that, it was a good 6 months till I started to feel even close to normal. To this day, I don't have the stamina I used to and it's been over a year since I finished treatment.

However, I really like both these ideas. As far as the lined cart goes, I wonder if i couldn't adapt that idea to the large, deep calf sled we have for winter watering. It wouldn't hold as much as the cart, but it might still work.

Oh, and Freemotion, as for lowering the standard of care, that was the hardest thing to adapt to last time, but I did finally figure out that the goats were doing just fine, even if their feet were a little long and the wasted hay had piled up around the feeders a bit. Waterers didn't get changed till they were, well, grungy in my opinion, but not one goat got sick or even gave me "that look" they use when they're not happy with what you've given them. It was a real eye opener for me.

Thanks again, both of you, for some really great ideas.

 

[Mackay]

Natural medicine may be natural, but it is still medicine and there can be conflicts.

Well, then acupuncture may be a good way to go! Some cancer clinics use alternative medicine but I just don't have a grasp on what they use.

The one thing I would recommend is a good greens product like this twice a day if you can but for sure at least once:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=14057&at=0

or the one in Berry flavor. If the docs can keep your nausea down this will fortify you tremendously. There are a couple of herbs in it but they work in a nutritional way, not medicinal, more like eating a salad with stuff you wouldn't ordinarily put in it.
chemo does rob you of nutrition as I see you already know.

Then you want to keep up with Omega 3 fats also, found in fish, but you can get in a capsule. And B vitamins. I think a lot of chemo depletes B vitamins so just a B multi. Have your vitamin D levels checked. Most people with such problems are woefully low in vitamin D. You can read about the importance of vitamin D here. You want the vitamin D levels during serious disease around 90 to 100:

http://www.healthsalon.org/448/vita...ses-viral-infections-what-you-need-to-know-2/

 

[freemotion]

Good stuff, Mackay!

SheriM, I posted the canning recipes in the recipes section. That way, others can find them easily, too. And hopefully others will add their own, and we will have a nice list going.

 

[Cybercat]

Hi again, Sheri...

Still thinking about your water problem...and I found an item that Farmfresh had posted in the BuySellTrade section back in December...

Its the "Homestead Carry Yoke"...remember the chinese coolies stereotypes that we used to see? this yoke is MUCH much nicer though...

And this may be a totally wacky idea, but hey....

Do you have a propane powered weedburner? Could possibly use it to melt down some of that Canadian frozen water.left over in the water tanks..(?)

Leanne