Growing Girl

Heidi is growing by leaps and bounds. She is over 11 pounds now, she sleeps through the night, and she has learned "sit" and "come" (although not reliably, and the association is helped greatly by little liver treats)!

Who can resist a little foxy face?

Heidi-ho Neighbor

Since my last posts about our old Arkansas house were brought on by the tenth anniversary of its purchase, I suppose it's fitting we remember another "anniversary" of sorts. It was eleven years ago this month that we brought DaVinci home as a puppy. It was definitely another of those firsts, not knowing what we were getting into (a few photos of those early days were blogged about here). He was adopted right after Thanksgiving when we lived in a little townhouse and I was still working full-time. It was a rough few months, as any new addition is!

We've finally gathered up the courage to start again. We have really missed having a dog around the house, and while we love Schrodinger the cat, those are two very different animals. It's taken us almost a year to determine how we could manage a dog, given that we travel so much and are gone all day at times. We really planned to adopt an older dog, but finding one acclimated to chickens and ducks and cats and farm life was nearly impossible. And we're having a major coyote problem this winter (lost two chickens just last week, in fact), so we needed a breed that could survive and maybe even deal with that issue.

So, meet Heidi, the Great Collie (as Jeff calls her):

Heidi is a 15 week old Collie (or Lassie Collie, as some nickname them)/Great Pyrenees cross. She was raised on a farm by a couple who normally breed full-blooded working Great Pyrenees, but their determined female got out and bred with the Rough Collie at the next farm. Heidi was the runt of a large litter, so we really don't know what size to expect out of her. She's only 8 1/2 pounds right now, but she may catch up quickly, or she may stay small (for a Great Pyrenees, anyway)! Either way, her bloodlines give her great potential as a farm dog and guardian.

Lest you think we went pedestrian with her name and bucked our tradition of scientist-inspired monikers, "Heidi" is derived from Werner Heisenberg and his eponymous Uncertainty Principle. It's rather difficult to find pretty, feminine names in the historically male field, so we had to stretch just a bit!



And because there can never be enough cute puppy pictures:

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty

Soft kitty, warm kitty,
Little ball of fur.
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty,
Purr, purr, purr.

If you're a fan of Big Bang Theory, you'll recognize Sheldon's "sick" song. Well, we have a warm, sleepy kitty, but he's sick, himself! Oh, the irony of singing the comfort song about a cat to an unwell cat!



Poor Schrodinger has a high fever. He hasn't been himself the last day or two, and he was noticeably lethargic today. I was quite worried, probably because DaVinci's serious decline was prefaced by marked lethargy. Not that those two things are in any way related; but I was so worried when the kitten didn't want to play with any of his toys, barely got up to greet us in the mornings, and spent every moment sleeping.

He's only been ours for two and a half weeks, but he feels like such a fixture already! So Jeff recommended we take him to the vet, where they ran blood work and ruled out the worst case scenarios. In the end, it's probably just an infection, but the fever was high enough to warrant antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. I hate pumping that tiny body full of drugs, but I've never found a holistic veterinarian or pet naturopath. As Jeff said, their's is just a physiochemical existence, so now Schrodinger is just a little bit heavier on the "chemical" part!

I Spy...

...with my little eye:

three hens
one duck
two horses
one donkey

What a lovely morning view to enjoy out our kitchen window during breakfast yesterday! Of course, the fuzzy spot in the photo makes me think I need to wash all the exterior glass again, but maybe we can just pretend it's a "soft focus" feature ;-)

Googled

Look who Google is featuring today on their decal! It's the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, of all people!



What timing, since our little Schrödinger is very much alive and kicking. He's growing so much, and such a sweet, purring cuddle-bug is he. We'll still encourage him to earn his keep in the shop by controlling the mouse population by night, but he's become quite a fixture in my lap by day! Who knew cats could be so personable?

He loves to be cradled in one arm and stroked on the belly and chin. His little paws stretch up and alternately flex and stretch, kneading the air while staring into my eyes and purring. He's really, really hard to resist, and even Jeff has taken to carrying him around like a baby.

Itty bitty kitty

He's suppose to be a barn car (shop cat, really, I suppose, but same thing). But at the moment, he's a bit afraid of the chickens, so he's in the study with me ;-)

Our good friend's wonderful cat had kittens, and they were originally all spoken for. But this little guy went home with a boy who turned out to be allergic. We've been talking about an outside cat for a while, so we offered to take him. I just got him this afternoon so he doesn't have a name yet, but it will likely be Schrodinger. For all you readers a little fuzzy on your physics and quantum theory, here is a brief (though macabre) explanation of the appellation!

Doggone Cute!

We had our wonderful DaVinci for ten years, and I just now find this perfect doormat. Doesn't make much sense without a cute canine around, but it sure makes me smile to think about it!

This one is also funny, but it would have never applied to DaVinci. Our boy was very polite about restraining his tongue and never offered unsolicited baths.

Rockin' Robin

My tree trimmer friend brought me more than just wood chips yesterday! I've been getting free loads of wood chips delivered for the landscape beds the last few days. When I went out to meet the truck Tuesday morning, the workman climbed out with a tiny baby bird on his shoulder. He said he found it while picking up some brush at the previous job site, so there's no telling if the nest was destroyed in a downed tree or if it came to be on the ground for some other reason. But since he was working, he asked if I would take it.

My mom frequently rescued baby birds when I was younger, so I've had a bit of experience with it. But sadly, the death rate seems rather high. I can only remember one baby making it, but I suppose the principle is more in the caring and trying than in the success. So, of course, I took little Robin and we're trying to make a go of it.

She (I don't have any idea how to sex a baby bird, but since all our other avian friends are female, I guess she can be, too); anyway, she is very active and healthy and doesn't seem frightened. She peeps a lot and likes to sit on a finger or shoulder. She takes food well and produces nice, plump stool, so perhaps she has a fighting chance. We'll see!

M R Ducks

M R ducks.
M R not.
O S A R; C M wangs?
Y I B; M R ducks!

This silly little saying was tickling in the back of my mind while watching our ducklings, but I couldn't quite recall the whole thing. I asked Jeff, and he proceeded to drawl out the entire redneck exchange fluently. That brilliant mind can retain just about anything!

Here's a little video from a week or two ago of the ducks taking their morning bath. They are so amusing!

Lucky Duck

Our latest fowl adventure is the incorporation of ducks into our little menagerie. I bought four Pekin ducklings the other week. They are only sold as straight run, so we don't know gender yet. Names are under consideration, so if you have any suggestions (keeping in mind Jeff's "punny" sense of humor), be sure to leave a comment! As Pekins are the white breed best known as the Aflac duck, we are toying with a bevy of insurance company names (which would also be gender neutral)!

Ducks are adorable, but, wow, are they a lot of work! They are ten times as messy as chicks, and it's a constant battle to keep food and water available. They go through a gallon waterer in under a few hours, even when I provide a separate pan of water to play in. They gobble down food like little jackhammers, sending bits of starter feed flying every which way. The heat lamp casts a glow even at dark, so I have to tip-toe around to check on them in the early mornings and evenings, because if they see me they pop their little heads up and start whistling like mad to be feed and watered and bathed. They are wearing me out!

Farm Life Hardships

It's a miserable day here. It's freezing and raining and snowing and sleeting. And it's a sad day, because a horse had to be put down.

One of the horse boarders recently acquired a rescue off-the-track thoroughbred. He was a real sweetheart and I had taken to feeding him treats over the fence since he hung out near the house constantly. But adjusting to a new home is always stressful on a horse, and herd dynamics don't make it easy. He was not in the best condition to begin with, and he was picked on by one of the other geldings. He ended up falling down and getting trapped under the fence on our property line last Friday evening (right outside our dining room window, in fact). It was as close to a real "ox in the ditch" situation as I've probably ever encountered.

We enlisted some help and managed to get him up and taken care of, but if this were a movie, that scene would have been foreshadowing a darker moment. I got a knock on the door early this morning by a passing good Samaritan who had seen a horse stuck along the far back fenceline and thought it was ours (the pasture is right beside the house, so it's an easy assumption to make). It was the same horse. I quickly called his owners and ran out to check on him. It wasn't good; he was stuck down and had obviously been struggling for quite some time in the wet, cold mud. After removing the fence, calling in reinforcements, and the eventual arrival of the vet, it was to no avail. There may have been other health conditions complicating matters, but there was nothing anyone could do by then.

He'd only been here a few weeks, but to have this happen so close on the heels of DaVinci's death really hurt. Loss is part of love, but since we've been on the farm, we've had to part with three chickens, a dog, and now a horse. Farm life isn't for the faint of heart.

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

We've had a very full week of ups and downs. We had made plans to travel to Edmond, OK (by way of Arkansas to see family) to stay with friends for the big church weekend with socials, dancing, and the Jeremiah musical premier.

All that went very well and it was a wonderful experience. But in the midst of it, we received very bad news about our pet. DaVinci had not been himself the day before we left, and we thought perhaps the recently prescribed medication was affecting him. But we found out from the pet sitter on Friday that he was becoming increasingly weak and inactive. We had her take him to our vet, who found he was losing blood and going downhill fast. After bloodwork and x-rays were inconclusive, they transferred him to the regional emergency animal hospital for more tests and monitoring. By Friday night, he was pretty bad. An ultrasound revealed a large tumor on his liver had ruptured and was bleeding out. They had already tried IV fluids, and it wasn't helping. They did a blood transfusion through the night and gave coagulates to try to stop the bleeding, but he never stabilized. He wasn't in any pain and our pet sitter was able to be with him when he died Saturday the 29th shortly before noon.

We are heartbroken to be without our faithful companion of ten years, and it was so difficult to not be there with him and say goodbye. But he had a wonderful, healthy, full life and we are thankful for the time we enjoyed with him. We were able to bring his body home Monday and bury him under the beautiful tulip magnolia in the backyard. We will start the new calendar year without him, but we'll have a decade of fond memories to reflect back on.

DaVinci was...

...our big bellied baby

...always quick with a hug

...a natural weed barrier

...a good excuse for a nap

...a fabulous babysitter

...a patient chipmunk hunter

...an experienced remodeler

...never far from a toy

...frequently aspiring to new heights

...prone to stick his nose in

...our beloved friend who will be greatly missed

What a Week

Wow, am I glad this week is over! It's been quite a doozy. After almost burning down the laundry room due to a dryer vent problem a few weeks ago, we thought the worst was over. Turns out, that overheating somehow damaged the dryer (even after replacing the electrical cord, downsizing the breaker, and putting in a new, better dryer vent) and allowed it to short out several days ago. It "went to ground" (whatever that means; the electrician kept repeating this as if it explains everything) and popped light bulbs, caused outlets to stop working, and worst of all, blew out the control boards in both the washer and the dryer. And let me tell you, frontload washers and dryers have very expensive parts.

As if that weren't enough, we had horribly gusty winds Thursday and into last night which took off about 15-20 shingles on the back of the roof. It's mostly where the new addition and roof penetrations are, so we suspect the shingles were weakened by that. But it's going to rain Monday and Tuesday, so we have to get someone out here Sunday.

Then, in the midst of those terrible winds, we almost cooked the chickens. We had placed a heat lamp in the chicken coop to give the girls a little warmth. But the post that the lamp was clipped to got blown down and the lamp scorched the pine shavings. If the lady who boards her horses behind us hadn't seen it smoking, we might have lost the chickens, the coop, and the shop!

To compound our animal concerns, DaVinci has not been eating well for a month but has been guzzling water lately (and experiencing the frequent bladder urges you would associate with that much liquid). After an exam and thorough workup, the vet found that he has a significant hypothyroid condition and wants him on a twice daily medication, probably for the rest of his life! We'll test it out for a month, but we're not ones to subscribe to lifetime drug regimes as a solution.

And to top it off, I've hurt my back and am hobbling around with a forward tilt like an elderly person. I strained my low back muscles carrying several 80 lb sheets of subfloor upstairs for the new closet (with Jeff of course, but somehow hurting myself over 40 lbs doesn't sound as noble). Anyhow, I've started to notice the abundance of dust and dog hair accumulating on the floor, now that my eyesight is directed downward. And just when I'm least capable of getting down there to do anything about it, too! But thankfully it's Friday and the Sabbath and weekend are upon us.

Great Blue Heron

We've had a large avian visitor several days in a row now. He (or perhaps she) lands in the large expanse of side yard we idealistically call the West Meadow (I hope to plant a field of wildflowers there one of these days). He's quite gorgeous, and he just sits there or walks slowly through the tall grass. Once, I saw him stretch low and then swoop quickly at something, so we wonder if he's hunting. He's welcome to some of the mice around here!

(Not) Butterfly Bush

Jeff argues that Lantana should be called Butterfly Bush, not Butterfly Bush (Buddleia, actually). I can see his point. Every afternoon, we enjoy a swarm of butterflies around the walkway and front porch, all congregating on the New Gold Lantana. I have yet to see a butterfly on the nearby Buddleia, so perhaps Jeff is on to something!

Barely Hanging On

Does anyone know why frogs would be attracted to our old single pane windows? I've never seen this before in previous homes, but this is the third frog in about as many days to suction himself to the outside of our wavy glass windows in the late evening.

It looks like the little guy is inside the house,

but that's just a reflection of the dining room. 

Our only guess is that the lights on inside the house are inviting to insects and the little amphibians are helping themselves to an easy dinner. But we can't substantiate our theory as we've never seen them eat anything. In fact, they barely move. They're just parked there for the night and gone in the morning. It's very curious!

Zoological

Jeff and I took our nieces to the Memphis zoo a few weeks ago on our way to Edmond, OK to meet up with my sister-in-law. Bekah had never been to a zoo before, and I've never seen pandas, so it was a good enough reason to make a special trip! We had a great time and even managed to stay decently cool, given all the shade and water features they employ.

Woodland Creatures

We really enjoy the antics of the squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and other wildlife around the house. Now that DaVinci has run of the whole yard, I'm a little concerned for their peace of mind. But so far they haven't gone into the hiding and we have capture a few charming photos.

Thirsty squirrel sipping from birdbath

Don't you just want to rub that little white belly?

Squirrel hunkering down as blue jay divebombs

Happy Chicken

The baby chicks are growing fast, and we hope it won't be long until they are out enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. They'll have a perfect leader to teach them how, as Atomic Cluck has mastered the after-lunch nap. We came upon her in the middle of her little respite, leg and wing stretched out as if sunning herself, eyes closed, basking in the cool, moist mulch under the cannas. Could there be a happier chicken?

Chickens Little

Our new babies have come home to roost! I picked out two Buff Orpingtons, two Americaunas (which lay the colored eggs), and two Silver Laced Wyandottes. I had to go to two different places to get the breeds I wanted, but I've been calling all over town for over a month now trying to get the right combo of chicks at the right age. I wanted to raise them all together and I wanted pullets (females), so that led to some careful planning. Ordering from the hatchery required purchasing 25 or more, and we definitely don't have the time or space for that kind of operation!

The smallest one, an Americauna that is only three days old, fell asleep in my hand!

We made them a cozy home and brought Atomic Cluck in for an introduction. She got extremely still and just stared at them. Then she hopped off my lap and ran out into the yard calling over and over. I have no idea what's going on in her little brain, but it was certainly unusual behavior. Once they are a little bigger and stronger, we'll start some supervised "play" time between them.