I’m feeling pretty lame that I can only seem to manage to crank out one post a week here on the farm blog. Trust me when I tell you we have truly just been that busy! I’m also fighting my frequent nemesis, respiratory issues. My asthma and allergies kicked up into what is now a full-blown upper respiratory infection (an inflammation, really), necessitating a visit to the doctor’s yesterday, and the unfortunate addition of antibiotics and Prednisone into my routine over the next few days.
I have such a love/hate relationship with Prednisone; I do enjoy its benefits, like, oh, you know…being able to breathe without sounding like I’m on the verge of needing an oxygen mask. But that comes at a price. There are many possible side effects, and the more serious long-term consequences to the liver, adrenal glands, and bones. My allergist put it to me this way: “You’re improving the quality of your life now by taking it, but taking quality and time off of your later years as a tradeoff.” Okay. So it becomes a choice between being able to breathe (one of the more desirable quality-of-life elements) or risking osteoporosis, my adrenal glands not producing cortisol any longer, and damage to my liver. So I try to avoid using Prednisone any more than is necessary. When I finally cave in and accept that I need it, it’s because I’ve been suffering for at least a couple of weeks, and that was definitely the case on this occasion. It still means that I end up on the stuff at a bare minimum about half a dozen times a year, and sometimes more often. I’ve been asked if I think that the livestock are the cause of my issues, and I’ve given it a lot of thought, and paid attention to see if there is a correlation. Honestly, there is not. I had these problems back when we lived in the city, too – a completely different environment without livestock. So, I don’t think that’s my problem. Besides, I am thrilled to be able to raise some of our own food and know its source is healthy and humane. Can those foods heal me? I think that gradually, over time, yes, they will contribute toward my better health. But there are decades of damage to undo, so expecting immediate results is not realistic. In the meantime, I have to sometimes rely on allopathic/pharmaceutical methods to see me through some of the more serious “bumps in the road,” such as I’m riding over right now.
So, at times like this, it means that I still perform chores around the farm, albeit with more assistance than usual from my Handsome Husband. I’m really grateful for his extra help, because he already does so much around here. For those not in the know, he drives 130 miles round trip every day to and from work, and then comes home to a second job here on the farm. He works so hard!
On Monday, we had the excitement of bringing home our two new additions: Lillie, a milking doe, and her doeling, Molly, both Nigerian Dwarves. So that has been a definite bright spot in the week so far! They are adjusting to their new home and doing quite well. It always takes time for new goats to integrate into the herd. The existing herd kind of does some hazing ritual stuff – we are not fans of it, but it’s part of “goat culture” and we just try to keep it from turning truly hostile. The girls are feeling more comfortable – they will have been with us for 48 hours as of around 7:00 pm tonight, so all things considered, it’s going pretty darn well. Lillie is not quite used to the milking routine yet – I have to lift her onto the stand and work with her to get the teat cups to our milking machine attached, but once things are in place, she happily munches away on her grain ration, and she is getting a lot of petting and soft-voice praising attention, which she also seems to enjoy.
Molly went on her first walk around the yard with the other kids yesterday, during which she gave me quite a workout, especially considering my current breathing restrictions! Ms. Molly decided it would be fun to make a rogue break for it and run me around a good portion of the North/Northeast perimeter of our property. I couldn’t keep up with that little rascal and finally had to resign myself to just heading down to the barn, where the other kids had struck off in search of grain. Molly was merciful and finally followed me down there, where I was able to get Inara’s hooves trimmed (although, not without a lot of protest from her.) River and Badger will have their turns soon. Sooooooon! SOOOOOOON!! MWAHAHAHAHA…Ahem. Please excuse the evil supervillian voice you may have just heard, and ignore the tented fingers, too. Thanks, Mgmt.
But seriously. Hoof trimming has to be one of my least favorite activities, and I know that the goats share in my disdain for it. But it is a necessity to keep them healthy. It will be so much easier to trim the kids hooves when they are tall enough to be put on the milk stand to hold them in place. Are you wondering why goat hooves must be trimmed? They are kind of like our toenails, and get all gangly, gross, and make it difficult to walk on if they are left untrimmed. There’s a good write-up on Fias Co Farm’s website regarding hoof trimming, if you’d like more information. Oh, and that reminds me – we just ordered some herbal dewormer from Molly’s Herbals (part of Fias Co Farm) and the return address on the package made me realize that they are less than an hour away from us! I’ve been consulting their information-packed website for at least a couple of years now, so I’m thrilled that there may be (hoping!) the possibility of meeting them someday, as well as hearing that Molly is in the process of writing a book on goat care.
Well, I should get back to my chores for today. Hope that you are all doing great, and I am making it a goal to write more often. 🙂
Related Images:
Leave a Reply