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Dog crates are used for many things on a farm..... you just never know what kind of critter you'll have to be either caretaking or transporting. 🐰🐔🐍🐢🐱🐀#truth Birds are fairly sensitive to toxins, and I've used this recipe with great success both in the coop and when cleaning transport crates. Note: it also works well for kitty litter boxes AND, once you have the spray mixed up (I personally just use 8 oz of water + the other ingredients), you can use it as a misting spray over your kitty litter if it is a little stinky on occasion. #poopourri 
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We've had some really aggressive hornets attempt to take over our porch this week. (I'm pretty sure they aren't officially Murder Hornets😜), but act like close cousins, so I've named them Mayhem Hornets!🐝 Any entomologists out there that can identify these? They are HUGE and have a nasty long stinger. They aren't yellow jackets... too big .... any thoughts? #mycurrentIndiannameisRunsFromWasps #thehornetsarereal   Facebook is so kind... it always asks "What's on your mind?" whenever I venture in. (As if they care😶. Believe me, they don't condone my view of the current narrative😉) These three things have been consuming quite a bit of my time these days... what about you? What's something that's consuming quite a bit of your time (good or bad) these days? xoxo~ liz #theapplicationofknowledgeispower #gardenofeatin' #thetruthisntalwayseasytofind #discernmentisagiftnottobewasted #GroundedinTruth #farmgirlwisdom #ThanksYL 
Happy day friends! #sisterfromthesamemista #farmgirlphotos #OwenandEleanor  It's true! Birds of a feather do indeed flock together😉! #lovetheflockyourewith #familyflock #inittogether #quarantinelife2020 #ThanksYL   It's been a mani / pedi kind of afternoon ... not mine! 😉 The outside of a horse is definitely balm for the inside of this girl.... even if it does include hard work! Hope your weekend was filled to the brim with good things! xoxo~ liz www.goodmedicine.info #farmgirlskillz #theywaitinline #nosocialdistancinghere #farrierskillssavebigbucks #25yearsfarrierexperience #notforhire #hardlaborwithnopainthankstoSulfurzymeandBLM 
Guineas are flat out not the smartest bird on the planet, but they are devoted to their mates. See that miserable male guinea standing out there in the pouring down rain looking into the bushes? His mate is in there sitting on eggs and he's standing guard for her. 💖 .... in the rain. Bless his heart. I'm not saying they love one another, but they certainly are devoted. Do you have someone this devoted to you? Are you this devoted to someone? I do hope so.... we need each other. We need community. We need togetherness. We need closeness. We need to know we are cared about... in close proximity to one another. This bird.... he doesn't care that it's raining cats and dogs. Companionship and togetherness are what herd and flock animals do. Without it, survival and thriving becomes compromised. Happy Saturday friends.😘 xoxo~ Liz #humansareherdanimalstoo #togetherforgood #standwithyourfriendsandrelatives #domesticdedicationonthefarm #farmlifemirrorsreallife #ThanksYL  Meet Spanky.... when he was younger, I'm pretty sure he thought his name might be "No, Spanky" 😉. Spanky isn't a teenager anymore, but his antics (and his genetics) still land him in trouble on occasion. He is a fence jumper, and a digger.... and he loves to utilize his herding genes to keep the cows and horses all in line when he thinks we aren't watching even tho he knows we prefer he not unless asked. #cattledogsskills His failure to heed our attempts to keep him from getting into trouble has given him a snaggle tooth and a few hard earned life lessons. So I wasn't entirely surprised when Spanky went from running like the wind, to favoring his back paw last week. I was pretty confident he had gotten stepped on when he was in the midst of shenanigans. Nothing appeared to be broken.... just a sensitive paw. A couple of days passed, and instead of getting better, it seemed like it was getting worse... swollen in fact. So, before making a vet appt, I did a thorough assessment again, and this time, found what appeared to be a scab on one of the pads of his paw.... but a suspicious scab🤔. I grabbed a pair of tweezers and gently worked at the scab.... only it wasn't a scab..... It was the mother of all thorns 😱. Poor baby! I felt terrible that I hadn't found it sooner😥..... the good news is that, his relief was almost instantaneous, and after washing his wound thoroughly with colloidal silver and a couple of other natural healing agents, and starting him on Inner Defense to boost his immune system.... swelling is now negligible and he is back to bossing cows around when he thinks I'm not looking. Being prepared isn't a season.... it's a life skill and it's on the daily around here... ie: business as usual on the farm. We know how to care for our own, but we also know when we are in over our heads. I've got to make a vet appt this afternoon for something that's beyond my skillset, and that's ok.... that's why we love our vets!..... But it surely is nice (and economical) to be able manage many health concerns from home! Have a beautiful day friends! xoxo~ liz www.goodmedicine.info #hesmylittlebuddyandmyrighthanddogranchhand #knowbetterdobetter #everydayprepper #ThanksYL #wellstockedyearroundforhealthandwellness #everyoneshouldkeepInnerDefenseonhandd
  I probably should have titled this post "The Case of the Peculiar Egg Placement", but then, that would sound like a Nancy Drew mystery, and that would have dated myself for sure! This has been a season of busy, and I've got so many topics I want to write about and little time to do the big topics justice. So, in the form of constructive procrastination, I've got to share a little farm hilarity. A bit of backstory: After a summer of drought, Mother Nature has seen fit to gift us with the wettest October on record. At last count, our area has gone from drought to 8 inches over the yearly average in a short 31 days. This has created all sorts of excess water issues on the farm. (Wherever there's water and animals, there will be copious amounts of mud). Case and point: Last week, our internet guy came to fix our unstable internet situation. Turns out, even a colony of fire ants had moved to higher ground (our roof), and had moved their entire nest (dirt and all) to the radio receiver box. Because of all the rain, we have mucked our little hearts out daily. Last week, I noticed an interesting thing in all my mucking of stalls and turnouts. Eggs kept appearing in a very peculiar location....right out in the middle of the turnout... in front of God and everybody. Now, chickens tend to like a little privacy when they lay, so the location is odd indeed. When something out of the ordinary occurs, curiosity drives me to figure it out... and this little mystery was bugging the heck out of me! These eggs.... I gave them 3 options:
To add to the mystery, each day, there was an additional new egg.... so bizarre! Yesterday, while we were outside doing chores, I happened to be in just the right location at just the right angle to look up and solve the mystery. Drishti! (That's this particular hen's name). She has found, perhaps, one of the most dangerous places to nest. Even worse.... it appears she is broody, and intent on sitting on her eggs til they hatch... well, the eggs that haven't yet rolled off the roof! We're gonna have to figure out how to move her and the remaining eggs to a safer location. I have never had a chicken who wanted to lay eggs in such an elevated place. Typically, they are ground layers.
Ants on the roof..... eggs in the gutters. You know it's been a rainy season when everyone, and everything is moving to higher ground! Welcome! You've found my first official blog post on the updated website! This has been a work in progress for the past several months, and.... not being exactly technically savvy (give me science or farming any other day!), I've had to call in some excellent tech help to assist in the upgrade. You can finally find ALL you need right here in one place!
The move to the new website put blogging on a little hiatus until we could get everything matched up properly. I think you'll find this venue MUCH easier to navigate. Growing means learning, expanding, and exploring new options, right? Speaking of growing.... She's now 10 months old, and it's well past time for an Elsa update! Sweet girl shows up on Facebook with some regularity, but I need to update here.... this is kind of her 'baby book' after all. For all my love of animals, I never thought I'd love a cow as much as I love this heifer. I guess that's what might happen when one lives in your bathtub for a few weeks, and syringe feeding around the clock takes control of your life! The cards were certainly stacked against her. Birth during 20 degree weather (which cost her parts of both ears), failure to thrive (because she couldn't suck properly), trips to the vet (because we didn't know any better.. couldn't see the internal cleft palate... and subsequently also missed by the vet).... it did not look good for Elsa. If you scroll back thru my early 2018 posts, you'll find her history scattered throughout. Nonetheless, she prevailed. Her story hasn't been without a little work and some modifications in her/our life. Elsa is a permanent mascot on our farm. She is a greeter, social maven, photo bomber, and so much more. As she's grown, we've adapted and risen to the challenge. Her cleft palate is not easily repairable. According to a couple of vets I've consulted at Texas A&M Veterinary College, the surgery would not be easy on her. Cow mouths do not open very wide, and any repair of this nature would only be manageable by entering thru the side of her face...effectively eliminating the possibility of surgery unless absolutely necessary. Elsa eats well (albeit messily!), and does not seem to be hindered much by her birth defect. Fairly early on, we discovered that she is also moderately tongue tied, and is only able to stick her tongue out of the right side of her mouth. This really doesn't seem to affect her much, so I'm torn between getting it fixed surgically (rather, putting her thru that surgery), and just letting her carry on as she has been. She doesn't know any differently, and so it seems more like the surgery would be for us moreso than for her. Cleft palates in calves are not as rare as you'd think. Unfortunately, most calves are birthed fairly unattended, and if they go without nursing for long, they die. As in the case of Elsa, if the cleft palate is undetectable externally, the rancher usually assumes the calf simply died of natural causes. Cleft palate in calves is not a genetic anomaly...it's caused by eating the wrong plant during the first trimester of pregnancy (a similar thing can happen in people if certain medications or products are consumed during the first trimester too). In Honey's case (Elsa's mama)..... she apparently got ahold of a select few plants in the lupine family..... the most common culprit for bovine cleft palates. Honestly, we're blessed. Her deformity could have been much much worse, and her personality more than makes up for the bit of added work that is required for her health and safety. Milestones Just like all babies, Elsa has had her milestones.
Lessons from raising a Cleft Palate Calf
Stay tuned.... Elsa will always be making an appearance here. She's one of us..... part of the 'farmily'. Thanks for visiting and celebrating our imperfectly perfect life on the farm. Hugs and Love - Liz |
AuthorHey there....thanks for stopping by! This is me (Liz James)... an eclectic mixture of holistic (and organic) farmgirl meets pharmacist. It's a synergy that works well as I speak truths and dissect fact from fiction. If you're looking for healthier living options, you've come to the right place! Archives
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