Here are some pictures of Sassy at a brighter time - helping out with our engagement photos. As many of you know, another vet came out Wednesday to run some tests on Sassy. While the scans were non-diagnostic, Sassy appears to be suffering from laminitis. Her condition worsened significantly on Monday but thankfully she appears to have stabilized and today was a tiny bit better. I was told Wednesday that she may only have a 10% chance of recovering at this point, but that’s enough for me. This condition often is associated with sugar in the diet so I have overhauled Sassy's feed. She is now getting special herbal tonics from Australia and medicine for Cushing's disease. We are still waiting for the results of a blood test taken Wednesday as well. Sassy is in pain but she is still eating and drinking, perky as ever, and trying to break out of the new stall we built to keep her resting. The last week has been a total whirlwind as I try to nurse her back to health while working and parenting. If we can get Sassy to hold up her leg long enough, we will attempt a special shoe. Sassy was born when I was 11-years old and has given 29 years of carrying my weight and now I am returning the favor. Some of you have asked about donating to help with Sassy's medical bills so I set up a GoFundMe. Please know, however, that if you're supporting me here you're helping too. I am so grateful for each of you - this has been a tough year but we will endure and persevere together. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sassy-get-back-on-her-hooves?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1
Sometimes horses need a spa day too. We recently treated Sassy with a hoof soak for white line disease. This is a bacterial infection in the white line part of the hoof. It is not serious unless the hoof cracks so severely it renders the horse lame. To treat Sassy we used Clean It, a powder that is added to water, put in a bag, then you stick your horse’s hoof in the bag. It has to stay there for 45 minutes. Then you dump the water and do another 45 minutes in the bag for the vapor stage. It releases hypochlorous acid, which is the same substance white blood cells release to fight infections. Sassy is back to “normal”, which I use lightly because our farm is anything but normal! 🤪
It’s almost Spring and love is in the air. OK, maybe not love. But, we hope whatever is in the air, produces some cute kids in 5 months. Goat breeding season is here! Our mini Nubian, Sundae, is in heat so we moved Tod, our buck, into the lady goat pasture. Peter is sitting this one out. However it has turned out to be a lot more complicated than I had predicted. Who knew female goats have preferences and need some time to warm up?! So high maintenance! I’ll have an update soon but Operation Valentine’s Day may need a new mission plan.
There was a manhunt for an attempted murder suspect around the farm last weekend. I was out feeding the chickens, bringing animals in for the night, when I noticed a helicopter hovering above my head and sheriff vehicles driving down the road. At the same time a friend sent me an alert from the Sheriff’s Office saying to stay indoors because they were combing our neighborhood for 2 people in connection with a shooting. The teenage suspect had fled the scene with a friend and ended up two doors down from us. It was a 16-year old who got into some kind of domestic dispute with his mother‘s boyfriend or husband and shot him in the face. That man is in critical condition now and the 16-year old is in jail. Terrible story and a reminder you can move out to the country expecting peace and quiet - but anything can happen, anywhere. Stay safe everyone!
Why Buy A Generator? You Have One Parked In Your Driveway. - YouTube
The inverters in the video descirpiton of the above video is good. You don't want over a 1000 watt one. And maybe use no more than 700 watts. To run a refrigerator and something else small.
The below video is a lot of technical details.
How to Turn Your Car into a Generator In 60 Seconds In Case of Emergency Power Outage - YouTube