The Whole Crop Story

One of my girls showed signs of an impacted crop about a week ago. I thought for a day or so that she had just been eating extra - but I noticed that it did not go down and seemed to be getting bigger.

I tried a number of solutions over the past few days. Molasses and water --no change. Epsom Salts and water -- no change. Oil Oil and massaging and Epsom flush - nothing. I could not even get the liquids to come back up her throat. At first the lump seems almost solid but with the oil and massaging it got more squishy.

Finally yesterday morning I decided to open the crop up and as I was a little worried about doing it myself I got a vet appointment. Got her down there and my vet wasn't real happy about doing it - He was afraid he was going to kill her! I talked him into it - as I said she was going to die if he didn't help me and if he didn't do it and I had to it was going to be much messier than it needed to be.

So we opened her up and she was filled up with hair! Looks to me like horse hair -not from a mane or tail but probably a winter coat coming off? The neighbors have horses and my guess is that they had a pile of hair from brushing the horses and threw it out and maybe some grain or feed was mixed in and that's why she ate it. It's the only thing I can think of. But the vet and his tech and I were totally amazed at the amount - I would say that with the liquid squished out it was probably larger than a tennis ball - and with the liquid and food and all that was mixed in it was even larger. Since it was so matted and hard to pull out in little bits I was certainly glad I took her to the vet rather than trying to do it myself. He ended up putting 5 stitches in her crop and another 4 to close up her skin. I am going to keep an eye on the stitches and I think she can go back out with the others when those stitches drop off - otherwise they will be too much of a picking temptation.

She is on antibiotics in her water and soft foods and really does not seem any worse for wear and it seemed like the only thing that really bothered her about the entire process was the stitches. She is already jumping around her little hospital pen and trying to get out.

Needless to say nobody is going to be roaming freely any more - it is a shame and they are all going to be yelling at me - but better safe than sorry - and of course the whole incident has cost me close to $60. So I am going to see about making them some moveable pens for the summer so they can get to fresh grass and they will have to be happy with that. On the upside this means that I can have a vegetable garden this summer without having to build a high fence around it - and our flower beds are going to look a lot better.

Crop Problems

Well - I decided this morning that since the chicken with the crop problem was not getting any better that I would slice into the crop and open it up. Called the vet and thank the goddesses he will do it - Not that I am squeamish but I get nervous about doing serious damage to an animal - so we are going at 5 pm today and that gives her a good day and a half for me to check on her before I go away for the weekend.

What worries me is that they mention that the crop gets stretched out and then has a tendency to back up again. Oh well - we'll see how it goes. I am interested to see what is in there that is making this problem. Also I am thinking that another of the chickens looks like her crop is a bit distended. Maybe I am just being hypersensitive now though.

If I have time after the vet I will be heading to Sunshine Acres Nursery for Maureen's open house with the chamber of Commerce. Too bad it is raining so much - but we do need it.

Table Scarf

Table Scarf 

Person Scarf 

Tuesday craziness

It started off as a pleasant morning, to say the least ;) but then dissolved into puke - Tulip puked 6 times and copious amounts too. The last one had big chunks of Greenie in it. I gave her that Greenie as a reward last Friday for being such a good girl getting her nails clipped. And I guess the other 5 pukes were all the meals she ate since Friday and that have not made it out of her stomach due to the Greenie blockage. well- no more Greenies, but she is certainly cleaned out now!

So needless to say I didn't get to work till after 9. and now I am having more problems here ! yikes .

Anyway - I finished the Branching Out scarf on Sunday morning - it is blocking and I am going to unpin it tonight to see how it looks. I gave it a good long time for blocking - over 48 hours as some people said that theirs still came out with that little pull up the middle at the start end. I also used a number 1 knitting needle across the end to keeps extra straight. I think it looks good - it should I figure I have at least 15 hours into it. Blocked it is 66 inches long and 7 inches wide.

I am also making progress on the Cleaves - I think it looks good and I am hoping I love it as much as I think I will - I may go back and buy the same yarn in the variegated red they had because I think that will look pretty cool. Although I should probably make sure the red will go with my other clothes.

The weekend was spent cleaning and organizing and making room for the guys to come in and do the replacement windows. And shopping on Sunday - got a great thermometer for the incubator, four little pillows for the cases that match my summer curtains, couple of new tops from Kohl's, a new Samsonite Wheeling duffle that converts to a back pack. It's a little less room that my old carry-on bag - but the poor old thing has just about had it and the zippers were going. I got the Sampsonite for $41 and the best I see it online for it $80! What a bargain!

So there's the weekend. I am going to get the eggs into the incubator this week. Should hopefully have 20 saved up by Thursday night. Spanky is coming over then and we will get things set up. One of the hens has got an impacted crop - although she is still eating OK. I tried the molasses cure - nothing moved. Last night I did the epsom salts and water - probably got a quarter cup into her before we ( she and I ) spilled it. So I mushed things around - turned her upside down and ... nothing. Not even any liquid. I could hear it all gurgling inside her but nothing would come out. Since she was getting madder and madder I gave up. This morning she was hopping around as normal but her crop still looks huge. I will give it another try tonight. I guess if I have to I can take her to Vinnie's and have him open her crop up - nothing that I want to do myself. I wonder what she has in there - piece of plastic bag? String? Who knows. Silly chickens.


Looking ahead Ken and I are going down to NY to Maureen's this coming weekend. Going to take Friday off and take our time going down. Need to get a card for Keely as it is her birthday May 5th - oh and one for Eileen too!

Red Wind

Weird Weather

So it has been hot as hell - today it is almost 80*. And the wind is blowing like (as someone said this morning ) the Santa Anta Winds, "those hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen." (from Raymond Chandler's story Red Wind)

So watch out people - Anything can happen.


Housewives with knives 

Mama's got a brand new bag

Like my cool new bag? It's made out of recycled newspapers and only cost $4.95. What a bargain!

Also started Cleaves last night - what you see here is less than I actually knitted because after starting a new skein and getting an inch and a half into it I realized that the first few yards of the new skein was darker than the rest and that I now had a nice stripe around the sleeve. After much cursing and trying to decide what to do I went to sleep - it was after midnight anyway.

Got up early this morning and ripped that bad skein out and attached another one before I took this picture. I am going to save the bad skein for the bottom part of the cowl which will be hidden. Frustrating but it's done now so I can feel good about it. Also I could not get a good picture this morning of the true color of the yarn I had to lighten the picture considerably to get it near to the true color. It is actually a bit lighter even than it looks here. I think it is going to look great over jeans.


New knitting bag and Cleaves sleeve 

S-T-R-E-S-S and relaxation

OK even though the whole Groundhog Day feeling at work is subsiding and even though I had a great weekend. I am still feeling stressy. although it could be merely that I have a low grade headache - it just makes me feel like I cannot follow what people are saying - my neck aches a bit. I don't know - went home early yesterday and wanted to knit but ended up napping for about an hour - couldn't even concentrate. Although I AM half way through Branching Out scarf and more than half way through Clapotis.

Friday night we went to Chicago at Springfield High School and the kids did an excellent excellent job. Really I have not seen such a good amateur production.

Saturday I got my hair cut and colored - Sandy came along. Almost walked out of the place because Chrissie doesn't work there anymore. But had my hair cut and colored by the new guy - who it turns out lives in Springfield. It was a long process and I have to admit I miss the way Chrissie does my hair - I think I need to track her down. Saturday night I ended up knitting till after midnight. Ken called from Worcester about 10 - 10:30 - he and Bob went to see Jim Carroll (Basketball Diaries) at the Lucky Dog. They had an excellent time.

Sunday I cleaned out the chicken coop. I really thought it would take a couple of hours. Thought I would be done by noon time. HA! Took more than 4 hours and I was cursing myself for putting down so much wood shavings in the fall. Borrowed a haz-mat type mask from Sandy and it made a big difference. I don't think I could have done the job with just one of those paper masks. The dust was unbelievable. Very yucky. But everything is nice and clean now. Although the chickens are all discombobulated because I rearranged things. Ken was home about 4 p.m. and I was onto beer already. We decided to have hamburgers for dinner so after he went home and cleaned up he stopped and bought the fixings. Then Susan and Joe invited us over for a margarita- so we did that before dinner. All in all a pleasant weekend.

Wednesday over and done with

Well, thank the gods and goddesses I got through Wednesday. I really feel like I am in the movie Groundhog Day at work lately. Every morning I wake up and think - it's a new day but then I get into work and it is the same exact day as yesterday - same problems same frustrations.

However I totally resisted my first impulse to go home and make margaritas as I realized ( very maturely) that this would just make Thursday that much worse.

So I had a couple of glasses of box wine and knitted for over two hours. Got three repeats of Branching Out done and did a swatch for Cleaves. Turns out my yarn is a bit bulkier than what was called for. I don't want to use a smaller needle though because I think it will come out too tight - so I will have to decide how many "sizes" to go down. But not today.

Ken came by after he did his laundry. We haven't had a laundry date in so long - I miss them and I promise to go on the next laundry day. He ate his roast beef sub from The Subway ( not Subway - "The Subway") in Springfield - with lots and lots of onions. As a matter of fact I noticed later that his ears smelled like onion - and the explanation was that he touched the sandwich and then put his fingers in his ears. ( Ha! I tell all don't I?)

Anyway, and then I got another 1 and 1/2 repeats done on the Clapotis which involved to more dropped stitches. Yeah!

And now it is Thursday and I am struggling through the day but I think this will be the end of Groundhog day and tomorrow will be that wonderful new day I have been waiting for. AND I am getting my hair cut and colored on Saturday and I cannot wait! So there is only joy ahead in the future.

"Branching Out" is finally branching

Well, I think I finally got it figured out. After a few false starts I made it through 6 repeats. Even though I still have to concentrate more than usual - I didn't make any bad mistakes. The color is a little funky here, I couldn't get my camera to capture the true color - but this is about as close as it came. I really like the pattern and hope to do more lace items in the future.


6 repeats - 11 inches 

Cleaves Along

"Finally she puts up a picture of the Clapotis!", I hear you say. Or maybe I am just hallucinating. Anyway - here it is with 3 drops done. I was surprised and pleased at how good the colors looked in the sunlight - Of course by the time I got my camera out the sun was a little less strong so the colors didn't seem as jewel like as when I first sat outside.

Also got my new sundial in the picture that I bought at the Spiral Shop in Marlboro VT - where we stopped on Easter Day. Really cool place owned by Harold Makepeace. I am stoppong back up there next weekend after I get my hair cut in Bratt and will take some pictures (if the weather holds).


Clapotis and new sundial 

You asked for it, you got it - a Bad Hair post

OK, so Ken thinks I should chronicle my hair today. I won't frighten you with a picture but here's the problem. I washed my hair yesterday evening after our longggggg trek up Mt. Ascutney (and no we didn't make it to the top) so of course this morning it looks funky. I attempted to fix it with a comb and water, with a brush and water - but it did not come up to my standards (HA).

So I decide to use some John Frieda Sheer Blonde hair wax - or what ever it is called - that I bought to use on my shorter hair style. So I put a little on it it didn't help much so I decide to put a whole bunch on and Oh my! Greasy head. I feel like the time I was maybe 6 years old and I took my father's Vitalis Liquid Hair Tonic (which by the way they still make!). My hair looked like it had been dipped in olive oil and my mother made me go to school with it that way because it was too late to rewash it before the bus came.

So there you go. - my hair may not look as bad as that time when I was six but I have the same feeling about it. I hate having greasy hair.

The new digs

Below are a couple of pictures of the office - OK technically a cubicle - but this is the closest I have come to an office so far. Pretty much looks like my old cubicle but bigger and more enclosed. And look! over there! Is that a window? Indeed it is.

I'm a movin' on up!

My office - from the sky-cam 

My Office- facing toward windows  

You may think it's Thursday

But guess what - it's really Monday. Yes that's right, everything I did at work for the past three days I am now going to do again. So I am just pretending that it is Monday so I don't have a conniption fit.

On a happy note I got the front garden rakes last night so the time change has done something good for me. Poor Ken however is having terrible trouble sleeping. How well I know that feeling - around 4 a.m you are ready to let someone bonk over the head just so that you can stop obsessing about whatever it is that your mind is running around about.

If I have time this afternoon I will post a photo of my brand new digs here at work. People come by and say it looks just like the old digs, and it does look like I picked up my cubicle from one room and just plunked it down in a new room. Is that something to be proud of - yes I think it is.

Oh and hi poopy face - why don't you leave a comment when you stop by?


*****
11:51 a.m. update - scratch the above - tomorrow is going to be like Monday - looks like I am not even going to be able to get to all the stuff I need to redo until then.

April Fool's

Has a whole new meaning for me now - So I am proud to be an April Fool! Happy Spring - Work is done - moved my desk today - all set up in Customer Service and now I gotta ruuuuun! and do shopping for the party!