Grapes

This post is basically a weekly photo log of my concord grapes this year so far (looking to be the Best Year Ever as long as I get them before the wildlife does).

Last year, I finally convinced DH to help me put up some horizontal wires in the grape arbor. Prior to that, the vines had always sprawled on the ground, getting buried in weeds and more often than not, if they did produce grapes, the critters ate them before I even knew they were there.  During the Summer of 2022, I tried to just get the vines to wrap themselves around the wires and stay off the ground.  It was somewhat successful, although I missed getting any of the crop.  

This year, I started the Spring with trying to untangle the mess of vines, a lot of which were still on the ground. I didn't worry about pruning them, my goal was just to get them up and running along the parallel sets of wires in the arbor.  I wanted to be able to access the grapes from all sides.  And monitor how they grow and when they are ripe. 

For the first year ever, I noticed the blossoms.  And boy, did they smell good.  Sweet.  Kinda like grapes (who woulda thunk it, right?!?)

blossoms

I decided that I would try really hard to remember to check the grapes weekly, and take pictures of their growth throughout the season.

week 2

(the week after blooming)

week 3

itty bitty beginnings of grapes

week 4

now you can see they might be grapes

week 5

definitely grapes

week 6

week 7

week 8

looking like green table grapes, but they're not

week 9

So far, so good.  Based on past years with these grape vines, they should be ready in early September, weather permitting.  Which means they have about six more weeks to grow bigger and juicier, then ripen to their deep dark purple color.  If the crop continues to do as well as it has the last two months, I should have plenty for making grape jelly, and even can some grape juice too. Although DH is eyeing them and speaking words about making wine using the recipe his Dad used to use. . .

How Does My Garden Grow?

 This year I've been trying to do a better job of chronicling the garden through pictures.  It's something I've wanted to do for (*ahem*) a decade or more but never actually remember.  It's been hit and miss this year but at least I have enough to, I think, get the general gist of what the gardening season looks like.

I have my garden divided into roughly six sections: Northeast, Shed area (Southeast), middle North, middle South (and grapes and blackberries), Northwest, Southwest (and a fledgling raspberry patch).

In 2022 I devoted the Northeast section to strawberries and asparagus and a new compost bin.  There's a bit of room, at least until the strawberry bed and asparagus beds need to expand, for a row or two of other things.  This year it's a row of lettuce.  I began working on that section first this Spring, getting the strawberry bed cleaned up and last year's runners put into rows.

Early May

cleaning the strawberry bed

The Shed section is two smaller areas to the North and South of the garden shed.  Eventually the South side will have a greenhouse built against the shed wall there.  And I'm trying to figure out a (noninvasive) plan for herbs and a cottage garden type flower bed on the North side. But for now I planted cabbage (so far not doing well), dill, cilantro, zinnias and cosmos in the North bed and garlic, Brussels sprouts (critters keep eating), eggplant and beets in the South bed.  Other than the garlic, which was planted last Fall, this was the last section to get planted this Spring, so it was the designated spot for grandkids to play in the dirt in while I was planting other things.

Early May

K3 and Toad digging in the as yet unplanted section North of the shed

The middle South is where I planted all my potatoes this year, as well as a couple short rows of bush beans. It also has the grape arbor, then an empty spot that I assigned to pole beans and butternut squash, then some lilac bushes I'm trying to establish from transplanted suckers, and a wild blackberry thicket that decided to sprout several years ago.

In the Southwest section I put another row of (a different variety) bush beans, sweet corn, zucchini, pumpkins (to run in the corn rows), cucumbers, turnips and more zinnias.

Early June

South half, looking East

This year the middle North section is where I put the onions (5+ rows), peppers, and broccoli.

The Northwest section is mostly tomatoes, a (really spotty looking) row of carrots, a row of beets, then more cosmos and zinnias.  

Early June

North half, looking East

Late June

North half, looking West

Late June

South half, looking West

early July

tomato section (western North half, looking West)

mid-July

bean pole (and grape arbor to right, blackberry mess to left)

mid-July South of shed

garlic (on left) showing signs of being almost ready for harvest

mid-July

North half, looking West (onions need weeding between rows)

mid-July

South half, looking West 

potatoes doing well, corn starting to tassel

And there you have it. My approximately 1/4 acre garden as it looks so far this growing season.  We've eaten lettuce and green beans out of it, and the beans are really starting to come on.  I'll have to get out my canner this week.  Cukes are slow, but finally seeing some little cucumbers on the vines.  Zucchini is apparently a crop failure this year; that's how it goes for me and zucchini: a good year followed by a failure year--and that's why there's shredded zucchini in my freezer from last year still!  The garlic will definitely be ready to harvest by the end of this week.  Seeing lots of green tomatoes, but they typically don't turn red until mid-August for me, so it'll be a couple weeks yet before we get to enjoy a warm sun ripened tomato off the vine.

This is the first year that I've had a water hydrant in the garden (DH and I ran the water line from the well and installed it last Fall), and it has made a HUGE difference in the effectiveness of my sprinklers.  With just 100' of hose and a tripod sprinkler, I can reach pretty much anywhere in the garden (I have about 8 spots I rotate the sprinkler to).  Previously, it took over 100' of hose just to get to the garden from the faucet on the outside of the house, and if I wanted to water the Southwest corner of the Southwest section, that required three 100' hoses and the sprinkler didn't spray nearly as far as it does now on one 100' hose.  Best garden improvement ever!

Whole Lotta Fence Posts

 After doing zip, zilch, zero, nada on the 'bring horses to this little place here' portion of our building projects between October and early May, right around Mother's Day DH and I went and purchased the perimeter fencing for my pastures.  The pictures show just a very small portion of what we bought, mainly because nowhere had 200+ wooden fence posts in stock, nor did they have 2000' of non-climb horse fence on hand.  So we paid for it all, brought home what was available that day, and went back three weeks later for the remainder after the order came in.

While waiting for the rest of our posts to come in, DH and I set to work getting the corner posts and brace posts (and perimeter gate posts) installed.  From there came the long task of drilling holes (thank goodness we have an auger for the tractor) every 10 feet and setting line posts.  On days we were both available we got more done, one of us on the tractor working the auger and the other coming behind with the four wheeler pulling the wood hauler trailer with line posts on it.  That lucky person (typically me) got to hop off the four wheeler to drop a post into a hole, hopping back on and driving to the next hole to do it again.  Then after all the holes were we drilling that session were done, we went back and plumbed and set the posts, tamping the dirt back into the holes.

Some of the holes dug easily. That was the sandier/loamier ground, which isn't much.  We have a lot of dense heavy clay.

Some dug less easily and needed a little extra encouragement in the form of DH leaning  all his weight on a really thick/heavy pipe leveraged on the top of the auger.  Definitely not an OSHA approved method, but rather one of those old-school death defying things. Those were the holes where I got to be the lucky person sitting on the tractor working the auger, hoping to God that the pipe didn't slip and my husband didn't become a farm accident fatality.  

Other holes had big rocks that had to be dug out with the tractor bucket, post hole diggers, spade, crowbar, log chains, whatever we could make work.  And some holes just busted the dang auger.   Not to mention the two sets of points that wore out before the auger went kaput. Guess it didn't help that we'd bought it used a good 16 years ago, it's lived outside all it's life and very possibly is the same age as I am.  

So our project got a little more expensive when DH bought a new auger, but boy, is that thing slick!  It's much easier at attach and detach from the tractor, not to mention being sharp.  And it has shear pins that aren't rusted in place, so they do their job and break rather than breaking the auger itself!  The remainder of the holes went rather a bit faster using the new auger (and going through about 4 shear pins).

By the last week of May I was busy in the garden, so DH had to do a lot of the post holes and post setting himself.  It took us, working mostly evenings and some weekends depending on weather and other commitments on our calendars, about a month and a half to get the holes drilled, posts plumbed up and set.  

Once all the posts were in, and the brace posts had been tensioned, it was time to try our hands at putting up the non-climb mesh fence. Neither DH nor I have experience with that.  Hot tape and hot rope, yes.  Hot wire, also yes.  Wood, yes.  Even barbed wire is a yes. Mesh fence, nope.  Here we go into the learning curve. Do much research.  Watch many videos on how, exactly, to do this with the least percentage of failure. Which brings us to this past week.

This is a two-man project, the installing of the mesh.  So we were only able to work on it when we both had several hours of time available.

First, we chose a fence line to start with.  Being a mid-length line, and also the least noticeable from the road (or house, as DH's shop blocks the view of 99% of it from the house), we decided to begin on the East line.  Hopefully any less than perfect outcomes would be less obvious here.  We attached the mesh to the Northeast corner post, and then began unrolling all 200 feet of the roll.  I'll just say it's heavy and you really should make sure it's square to where you want it before you begin unrolling.  Learning curve.

When we got to the end of that roll, then came the next new skill to master: weaving the mesh together where one roll joins another.  Honestly, that was kind of nice, sitting in the grass across from each other, talking as we twisted the horizontals from the first and second rolls of fence together where they met. That was much less strenuous than unrolling the fence, which we had to do with the second roll once they were joined.

When we got to the Southeast corner post, it was time for the scary part: stretching the fence taut,  attaching it to the corner post and then tacking it to the line posts.  There may or may not have been some terse words exchanged during this process.  It had a rather uncomfortable learning curve. 

But, we got it done!   And before dark, even!

Now we just have three more fence lines and about 1650' of mesh to go! No problem, right?

Plot Twist Part 2

 Meanwhile, shortly before all the foot trouble with Camaro started, I'd happened to see, on my Facebook feed, pictures of three new OTTBs (off the track Thoroughbreds, for those of you who aren't well versed in horse acronyms) that a FB friend of mine had recently brought home and was offering for sale.  Now, typically she does this with a few horses several times a year; buys them when they aren't being raced any more and tries to find new homes with new careers for them, so I always see their pictures posted when they come in and don't really pay much attention.

This time, one of them caught my eye.  Literally, my reaction to that picture was "Damn, look at that shoulder!" That shoulder was lovely.  It was the shoulder of a dressage horse if I'd ever seen one (and I've seen more than a few, LOL).  The rest of the horse was really nice too, well proportioned, and truthfully, looking like a warmblood more than a thin Thoroughbred race horse.

But I'm not in the market for a new horse.  My focus this summer is to get Camaro in the show ring, possibly ending the season with scores at First Level, and put him up for sale in the Fall. (Remember, the laminitis hadn't started at this point). All while building fencing and stalls here at home.  Then, and only then, would I even think about seeking out "the next horse".  And I'd been formulating a list of requirements for "the next horse" since before I'd even purchased Camaro.  He'd been intended, all along, as a stepping stone, as a 3ish year project I would resell and then purchase something that was:

• taller
• with a build more suited to dressage
• in the 3-5 year old age range
• preferably not yet started under saddle western or english
• had the ability to go to at least Third Level 
• that I could plan to train, show, and keep for about 10 years when I more than likely will retire from horses.  Or, at least from riding youngsters, showing, or any regular strenuous riding.

So I scrolled on by with the intention to wait until Camaro was for sale before I even asked any questions of any seller offering a likely horse for sale.  This lovely horse would go to someone else and I'd shop when the time was right.

Yet, I couldn't get this horse out of my head.  It was even a mare, which, honestly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to owning and riding a mare; I was pretty sure I'd stick with geldings as I aged.

Still, I found  myself thinking about her.  I caught myself going back to the FB page where her pictures were posted and examining them closely for flaws.  I didn't really see any.  But I'm not shopping for a horse until my barn is set up at home.

Except, a week later, I thought I would just message the seller and ask a few general questions.  Surely she's had an injury or something that would disqualify her from my required list.  Or maybe she's a terror in the stall (definitely don't want that at home, nope, nope).  Or she bucks or is already on a maintenance type of medication or special foot care.  And I have no money for shopping.  And retraining a racehorse is something new for me.  I've handled lots of them on the ground when they came to barns I'd worked in.  I've even ridden a few after they'd been restarted by someone else.  But I'd never been the person to restart them in dressage.  So I'm not really shopping.

Well, the seller's answers sounded too good to be true.  No known injuries.  Never even actually raced, the mare had published workouts at the track but the trainer had felt she wasn't competitive (fast) enough and she'd never been entered in any races.  Quiet in the stall, no known vices, quirks, or maintenance.  She'd come from the track shod all around--as is the norm--and had since lost a hind shoe but didn't seem sore on that suddenly bare foot.  4 years old, 16 hands and thickly built.  Asking price in the low four-figures.

Okay, nothing there that scares me off. Just wrong timing. My barn isn't ready.  And now Camaro has laminitis, I have big vet bills, and we're definitely not showing this summer.  Which means he may or may not be for sale this Fall.  Forget the mare.

I couldn't forget her.  She wouldn't leave my mind.  I had more questions.  The price, well, horse prices have gone astronomically high for show horses in the last few years, and there was no way I could find anything within two hundred (or more) miles that matched my requirements list for even double what her asking price was.  Forget her.  She's in Ohio, over four hours away.  My barn isn't ready.  I have no shopping money.

So, I show her picture to DH, and tell him about her.  Because he will most definitely not want me to even think about another horse.  Never in our nearly (at that time, anniversary has since passed) 30 years of marriage has he looked and me and said "yes, buy a horse".  That will be that.  He'll point out all the reasons why I should forget her and I'll move on. The hard NO.

Gosh darn it!  He said "if you want her, buy her!"  WHAT?!? Seriously, who is this man and what has he done with my husband?!?  He even said if I can find a place to keep her until our barn is minimally ready (perimeter fence in and two stalls erected), why not buy her now?

I'm nursing Camaro through this laminitis, still hoping he will recover like he did in 2020.  I'm working at the barn where I board him.  I'm working at home on the garden, raising meat chickens, and putting in fenceposts with DH.  Do I have time for horse shopping?  NO.  But I messaged the seller again, with more questions.  And asked if she had an under saddle video of the horse.  I really want to see her move with a rider on her back.  Surely that will rule her out for me.

Questions again came back with satisfactory answers.  No post track ride yet, but the seller did have a date coming up that she planned to video her own trainer up on the horse for the first time.  Okay, thanks.  I waited.

The video was posted over a week later.  I watched it three times on my phone, trying to note every little detail.  I could see signs of body soreness in the tightness of the mare's trot, and her head position, but that is all typical until they've been off the track long enough to be let down.  The trot could be developed.  The canter, wow, it was a surprisingly balanced and soft looking canter all ready.  And in the walk, I could see the mare's back swing.  Oh boy, I like what I see!

So I watched the video again, twice, on the computer, where surely the bigger screen would make disqualifying faults easier to see.  Still, nothing alarming.  I had DH play it on the TV, where I sat just a foot away, and watched the video a few more times under close scrutiny.  Dang, I like this horse more and more.

But I'm not about to buy a horse sight unseen.  Videos can be edited to show only the very best, not the possibly six previous canter departs that were explosive rather than the lovely easy departs displayed in both directions on the screen.  Maybe there was lots of head tossing.  Or spooking, or crazy running around with her head in the air, that wasn't shown.

With DH's encouragement (again, who is this guy??) I messaged the seller and requested a time where we could speak over the phone.  We did, later that day, and set up a day and time the following weekend for me to see the mare.  DH even went with me.

Well, in person her neck looks shorter than I thought it was, but it's still proportionate to the length of her back, so not a disqualification.  Her eyes are a tad small, but not piggish.  They are actually kind of typical Thoroughbred size, not the bigger (cuter) Arabian sized eyes of Camaro.  She's super quiet.  No screaming when taken away from the barn and into the arena alone.  She stands well, no need for a chain over her nose.  She let me run my hands up and down all four legs, no signs of swellings or previous injuries.  Feet freshly attended to, fronts shod and hinds barefoot.  No sign of tenderness on her newly naked and trimmed feet.  In the indoor arena, she does not dash off when the lead line is unhooked.  Rather, she has to be encouraged to trot off.  Nice trot.  Good action of the hocks, I can see that she'll have the ability to bend and sit with them years down the line.  And then there's the canter and suddenly she's getting into it, having fun zooming up and down the long wall.  But not excited, not bucks, just enjoying the forward movement.  And she stops and stands on her own, looking at us for more direction.

Oh damn, I'm buying a horse.  At least, I put a deposit on her, pending a pre-purchase exam, and DH and I drive the long way back to Michigan with a (short) list of area vets to call to set up that PPE and discussing all possible boarding options for her until our place is hopefully equipt sometime in August.

Out of the blue, I am in contact with a lady I know only from meeting her less than a handful of times six or so years ago when we both were helping out at the barn of an eventer.  I did morning feed during the week, and she cleaned the stalls.  Rarely were we there at the same times. But, as Facebook enables you to do, we were friends and thus when I put out a 'hey local horse friends' call for temporary boarding for an OTTB mare yet that month, she saw my post and messaged me right away.  She has an empty stall at her house.  She doesn't normally board, nor does she have an indoor arena, but she had tons of experience with Thoroughbreds and a soft spot for OTTBs.  We got together. She currently has three older Thoroughbreds in residence.  They go in stalls at night, and hang out in a couple biggish pastures during the day. It sounded like the perfect low-key yet not-put-off-by-the-OTTB-aspect farm to move this mare to.  

PPE arranged, boarding lined up, now all I needed was a favorable report from the vet to complete the sale.  That went off without a hitch, as did arranging shipping from eastern Ohio to mid-Michigan.

It just all went down so flawlessly as Camaro was sinking in his laminitis.  I don't want to sound like I replaced one horse with another, or I don't care what happened with Camaro.  I'm deeply disturbed by all that he went through, especially as some of it could have been avoided (--he should have been wearing his grazing muzzle, and I had said this to the barn owner back in early May when the grass actually began to grow, but she hadn't felt the grass was growing fast enough to be a threat--the not putting him on immediate stall rest but letting him graze with the muzzle on--the farrier's special shoeing  that was actually detrimental in the big picture).  I've found myself in a funk over Camaro and how our partnership ended. I have questioned myself, my knowledge, my abilities, my worthiness to own a horse.

But I do feel like this mare has been sent to me from above.  She checks all the boxes.  Dh willing to fund another horse even though it wasn't in the plans for this summer (and the fact that he's never willingly forked out money for horses).  The boarding situation being perfect.  The PPE where the vet found nothing that would indicate the mare is physically not capable of reaching Third Level in a handful of years.  The shipper who is a regular to and from the farm where the mare was at, who was heading home empty and gave me a discounted rate for that date, and happens to be based only about TEN MILES from this little place here!!  What?!?  Yes, it's true.

Too many things to not think that somehow there is a divine plan being played out for me right now.

So, meet The Poetess.  She's a 4 year old, 16 hand, unraced Thoroughbred mare who is going to learn a new career in dressage.  

Plot Twist!--Horse Update

 It's been a wild, wild ride since my May horse update.  In fact, I posted that update, and then BAM!! Problems.  Camaro didn't greet me when I went to get him from turnout.  He seemed slow, reluctant to come in.  I figured maybe he was wanting to eat grass (which was rapidly dwindling as we entered a time of early drought) rather than work.  Typically, he comes eagerly and enjoys his work (and post-work sugar cube and peppermint).

He walked slowly, but other than that seemed fine.  He stood fine to be groomed and tacked.  But when I went to lead him to the arena, he resisted.  He didn't want to take that first step, but he eventually (after a few seconds) did anyway, because he does like to please his person.  

I began our typical walk in hand around the arena in each direction so he can see things--especially anything that's changed since our last ride--and he just didn't look right.  I tried trotting him in hand.  Uh-oh, do I see signs of lameness?

Even though we were still in the "no tight circles/no longeing" stage of his knee rehab, I put him on the longe line for a better look see of how he was moving.  And it wasn't right.  Nothing huge, but there was definitely something there.  

So I didn't ride.  I asked the barn owner how he'd come in from turnout the night before, and she said "a little off, not his normal self" and then proceeded to say that the two nights previous to that she'd had an intern bring horses in at night and the intern had remarked that he was 'slow to come to the gate, not like he usually is at dinner time'.

Oh no!  Oh no, no, no!  Immediate vet call, as this was exactly the time of year and exactly the vague way his laminitis episode in 2020 had begun.  That had taken several months for him to recover from, thankfully without permanent lameness, and hadn't been cheap or enjoyable (he'd hated being on stall rest).

The vet came (not the one I normally use, she was on vacation that week, but another one from the same practice) and confirmed that yes, most likely Camaro was in the beginning of a laminitic episode.  He was prescribed a three day course of Banamine, but not necessarily stall rest since that hadn't been quiet in 2020--and we wanted to avoid redamaging his knee if he paced and circled all day and night confined to a stall 24/7--so we put him in the least vegetated turnout (since there is not drylot paddock) with his grazing muzzle on.

And he got worse.  The Banamine did hold him comfortably until the tube was used up and he'd been off it about 12 hours.  But once it left his system, oh boy, did he look worse than before.  So, call the vet office, and they recommend putting him on 1 gram Bute twice daily.  After two full days of that, he was looking still worse, so another call to the vet office and they said up the Bute to 2 grams twice a day.

Which made him look a little better, but man, that's a lot of Bute and not good for his gut long term.  So, another vet call, and this time his normal vet came out.  She was not happy to see the condition he was in (indicative of a large amount of discomfort).

She gave him an IV round of DMSO.  She made him some 'bumpers' for the heels of his front feet to change the pressure on his coffin bones.  She took radiographs of both front feet (none of the hind although she suspected they were also inflamed this time around).  She ran a test for Cushings/PPID.  She put him on stall rest with strict instructions not to even take him out to clean his stall if we could clean around him safely.  She prescribed twice daily Bute but only at the 1 gram dosage level. She recommended we contact Camaro's normal farrier (who is the farrier for the entire barn where Camaro is boarded) and get him out ASAP to change the type of shoes he had on to ones more therapeutic for laminitis.  Specifically glue on shoes.

Amazingly not protesting his stall rest this time around.

We waited for the test results.  We followed her instructions to a T in regards to stall rest, and medication, and contacting the farrier with the shoeing change info.  The farrier couldn't come for at least 5 days, and said he would order the special shoes and would confirm with us the date he was coming to work on Camaro.

The test results came in after about six days.  Positive for Cushings/PPID.  Well crap.  That explained alot though, about the laminitis in 2020 and again now when none of the other horses on the farm had had issues with their feet.  Camaro was put on a starter dose of Prascend.  Vet bills are racking up.

The farrier came, without confirming his imminent arrival, and I didn't know until after he'd finished with Camaro, that he'd even been there.  I'm not going to sugar coat it; I wasn't happy with the situation. I had wanted to be there to talk to him in person, but had left a check for him with the barn owner in case the day he came was one of the two days I was going to be out of town that week. But it wasn't either of those days.  It was the afternoon before the day I was going to be gone; literally less than three hours after I had left the barn when I finished cleaning stalls..  I totally could have been there and had requested that I be there if the farrier was coming.  

But I wasn't notified he was on his way, or even after he arrived.  Instead, I got a text with a picture of a special shoe on the right front foot, many hours after the fact.  It wasn't what the vet had prescribed, but I was told "that was going to take too long to come in and he (farrier) didn't want to make Camaro wait longer so he'd made a special shoe that was similar."  Well, I wasn't sure, based on the picture and the fact that the shoe was nailed on, not a glue-on, that it was the right thing to do.  But, the text had told me how much relief Camaro seemed to feel after the shoe change, and that he'd 'walked out sound'.

When I saw it in person, about 68 hours post-farrier, after getting back from out of town, and after texts from the barn owner as I was driving back into town that Camaro seemed "a lot more uncomfortable than he had been right after the farrier put on his shoe", I was so shocked.  His toe looked chopped off, and only one front foot had been done (the vet had wanted both fronts in the special shoes) because the farrier had 'put hoof testers on the other front and didn't get any reaction, so didn't feel that one needed changing; he'd be back in a week for the normal six-week appointment anyway and do the rest then'.  Camaro looked flat out miserable.  Through this whole stall rest situation, he'd been quiet, not like his unhappiness on stall rest in 2020, but at least his demeanor had been perky.  Now his eye had a very very stoic look to it, and he didn't greet me when I walked up the barn aisle like he'd always had.  He wasn't even looking out the door of his stall; he was standing in the back with his head down.

I called and scheduled the vet for a recheck in a couple days, when she had availability in her schedule, because I wanted her (not the first vet from this episode) to be the one to come assess him post shoeing.  And I had a bad, bad feeling as to Camaro's potential to pull through this laminitis flare up as successfully as he'd pulled through the one in 2020.  

Well, given that those radiographs had shown some rotation of the coffin bone in the right front (the now chopped and mangled hoof with the custom shoe) when compared to the radiographs taken back in early February at the time of Camaro's knee injury, and seeing the new shoeing job which in her words "wasn't the same effect as the shoe she'd prescribed and sure didn't do Camaro any favors", and now knowing that Camaro has Cushings (which makes horses very prone to laminitis) the vet and I had a very in-depth conversation as to the prognosis.  I brought him out of the stall and she watched him walk (this was about the middle of the day, so peak time between doses of Bute, when he was pretty comfortable) and also showed her a video the barn owner had taken and sent me the night before, shortly before the dinner time Bute dose, of him being walked a short distance (why was he out of his stall?!?) and obviously incredibly painful and reluctant to move.

We talked about where in the recovery process he was, how it differed from 2020's laminitis, what additional treatments we could do, what medications he could be given to make him comfortable (and what the dangers/side effects were of those meds), how many months it likely would take for him to reach comfortable without being on meds, the special shoeing he would require forever more, and the likelihood he would ever be sound again.

In her professional opinion (which matched my gut feeling having seen him myself), because of the rotation of the coffin bone and the severity of the laminitis this time, the likelihood of him ever being rideably sound again was very low.  He could, possibly, recover to be what is known as 'pasture sound', which means a horse can hobble around fairly comfortable in turnout, but never comfortable with weight on it's back (as in riding).  However, with the Cushings, he should not be on grass turnout, only on dirt lot turnout.  And he would hate being able to see grass, but never allowed to eat it.  

In order to reach that 'pasture sound' level, though, he was going to have to endure many more months of pain as the inflammation in his feet slowly subsided, and then would come hoof abcesses, which are a typical part of the healing process in laminitis (he'd had a big abcess in 2020 once he'd started getting better), and in themselves cause a great deal of pain as they build.  We could keep him on high doses of pain meds, all of which are known with long term use to cause ulcers and kidney damage.  All of this in the hope that he'd be able to kind of shuffle around outside of his stall for the rest of his natural life.

I decided, and the vet concurred, that it was not fair to put him through so much agony.  And so I made plans for how/who/when to have his body hauled away and set a vet appointment to have him euthanized early in the morning less than three days later.  

The vet and I both cried as we put Camaro to sleep.  But, we first took him outside and let him graze the grass for about 15 minutes, then administered the drugs to stop his heart, and he died happy, with a mouthful of grass.  It was a somewhat comforting, and fitting, end to a bad situation for him.

Chewing away happily

Now that I'm crying again, and maybe you are too, reading this, let me say

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  Yes, the plot twist isn't over. . . 

(to be continued)

Chickens and Cherries

 At the end of June, my broilers went to the processor.  I'd hoped they would go a week earlier, but when I called for the appointment the processor was booked full, so we pushed them out another six days.  Unfortunately in that time we had a very hot spell, and a bunch of that smoky air from the Canadian wildfires, and I lost two of the bigger birds in that batch three days before their date with destiny.  The rest of them did okay through the 90 degree temps and hard-to-breathe air, and weighed in between 5 pounds and 7 pounds!! Big chickens.  Perhaps I fed them a bit more than they really needed.

That left just two Brahma pullets in the grow-out pen. I'd purchased them at the same time as the broiler chicks so that I would have some replacement hens this Fall.  At first they were confused as to where their bigger, greedier, bossier flock-mates had gone, but they quickly got over that when they figured out there was no longer competition for the feeder.

They stayed in the grow-out pen until last week, when I moved them to the coop with the big hens so that I could put some unexpected new occupants into the grow-out pen.  When I'd gotten these Brahma pullets in May as day old chicks, I'd gotten just two even though ideally I'd like six new pullets a year to replace my older hens with.  The last two years, DD2 had taught science in summer school and had hatched out chicks with the students (chicks that ended up at my house when summer school was over).  I assumed that this year would be the same, so I refrained from buying more than two laying hen chicks and only bought those because I didn't have Brahmas in my flock any more and I missed that breed.

Well, DD2 isn't teaching summer school this summer.  And the new science teacher isn't hatching out chicks.  So, there wasn't going to be a plethora of chicks brought to me at the end of July afterall.  Well shoot, now I was behind the eight ball on replacement pullets.

Until I got a message from DD2 early last week.  One of the other faculty members was rehoming her flock of chickens.  Was I interested in 5 hens ages 2-3 years and/or 4 pullet chicks that were 4 or 5 weeks old?

Hens, no.  I have 2-3 year old hens and they're slated for culling this fall. I don't keep old hens, this isn't a chicken retirement home.

Chicks, you betcha!  That would give me exactly the amount of replacement pullets I'd wanted. So currently living out in the grow-out pen are four Mystic Maran pullet chicks.

The Marans will stay in the grow-out pen and get a little bigger before being integrated into the coop with the Brahmas and the older chickens.  Their move into the coop is timed to coincide with when my new batch of broilers (that arrived on Friday) are ready to leave the brooder and live outside until their induction into freezer camp.

 

Meanwhile... at the same time the first batch of broilers was about to go to the processor, my lone cherry tree was producing a bumper crop of cherries. One day the tree looked like this:

and two days later I was picking a big bowl full of red ripe cherries

and making them into a yummy cherry pie.

Three days after that pie was made I picked the rest of the tree, and put up 14 cups of pitted cherries in the freezer.  That made a total of 20 cups of cherries from that tree; the biggest yield it's ever had.  Typically I'm outwitted by birds and raccoons right before the cherries turn red. This year, I'm the victor.  

A Little Sewing; July Update

 There's been a tiny bit of sewing going on in the past few weeks.  I made one last quilt block, a scrappy/strippy 9-patch using the same purple paisley fabric as the blocks I showed in May and June.

Then, I started working on a project that had been requested by DS1's kids. . . When their mother died in April, they had each been given a small teddy bear by the Gift of Life organization (K2 had been a registered organ donor).  In late May, Toad asked me if I could make his bear some clothes.  K3 quickly chimed in that she'd like some for her bear, and Rascal also said his bear wanted something other to wear than the green Gift of Life t-shirt it had come in.  

So I asked for a bear to volunteer to come stay with me for a little bit.  I needed to measure it and make some prototype patterns.  Then, here and there, as I had a bit of extra time, I began to sew new bear clothes.  K3 even picked out some fabric for the clothes for hers when DD1, DD2 and I took her and Faline with us on our annual overnight pilgrimage to Shipshewana.

striped pajamas 

(made from an old tank top)

color-block style pants

I have lots more bear clothes that need to be made yet; K3 wants a couple two-fabric shirts and Rascal wants a red t-shirt, plus Toad has a whole summer wardrobe in mind. It's just hard to find the time for sewing right now, as when the weather isn't favorable for working outside then I need to be inside catching up on housework!

Here and there I've put a few stitches into the cross stitch Santa that's been in progress since March.  All the stitching and back stitching are finally completed, and I just need to do the beadwork.  That can wait until Fall, especially because I need good natural lighting and the only crafting time I have right now is at the end of the day after dark (10 pm-ish).

Meanwhile, I do need something to stitch that can be easily picked up and put down (so not a sewing machine project). I chose to start another counted cross-stitch, this one of folk art roosters that I bought the pattern off Etsy several years ago.

Knitting Update; July

 My Quadrille socks are finished!  The yarn is a much more RED red than shows in the pictures, and is also slightly tonal.

Of course now it's consistently near or over ninety degrees outside (and in Michigan, that means it's also humid), so I haven't worn them yet.  Barefoot the majority of the day as well as the night this time of year.

Despite the hot weather, I cast on for a shawl, LOL.  This one I'm making with some of the yarn DD2 brought me back from Peru in 2017.  Given where it came from, it's kind of right that the pattern I am using is called Travelling Woman.  The yarn is either a lace weight, or a light fingering, I'm not exactly sure. It came in a very large cake I barely stuffed into my yarn bowl, but without a tag or any sort of identification.  It's luscious soft wool yarn, and I can't wait to see how this shawl turns out.  I'm using the instructions for the fingering weight version and making the large shawl.  If I run short on yarn (I think there's plenty here), I have a coordinating color I will use on the lower portion.  That is also yarn from DD2's trip to Peru.

Reading wise, I finished Breakfast with Buddha.  There are more in the series, but for now anyway, I think I'll skip them.  Parts of the story were really interesting, and others not so much.

I didn't finish Dressage Training Customized before it was due back to the library, but I did find it useful enough that I hunted down a copy on eBay and purchased it for my own personal library.  I will consult it in future months.

Currently I have two more library books I'm trying to read simultaneously before they are due back (one next week, one the week after):

• Beyond the Track: Retraining the Thoroughbred from Racehorse to Riding Horse by Anna Morgan Ford.  So far, a lot of it is stuff I all ready knew, and training techniques I have used with many, many non-racehorses.  In other words, my usual MO when working with a new to me horse or starting a horse under saddle. I have picked up a few new kernels of knowledge though,  and am liking the book overall. I have an ulterior motive for reading it, but you'll have to wait for a future post to find out more.
• The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald.  Can't really say much about this book so far, I picked it up as a not-much-attention-required read to take with me on a short trip DH and I took the eldest three grandkids on at the beginning of this month.  I think I might be on chapter two, or maybe three.  It sounds interesting, so hoping to read it before it needs to go back to the library.