Insemination Equipment

LIKE CHRISTMAS!!

The tank was found on Craigs List.  A tank like this is generally VERY expensive.  I got mine serendipitously from a vet in the area that was no longer wishing to provide his clients with AI.

We think we will call him "Big Papa"

 and the Kit itself came from Bovine Elite.  I chose the KimbiColor AI gun since I am still new at this, and this gun is supposed to be the best gun.  I thought I would just start with that..with the added benefit that it handles .25 and .50 straws.  I will not have to keep both sizes and sheaths etc.. on hand.

Now we wait for straws...........

I Love Colloidal Silver

I LOVE Colloidal Silver.  I will go so far to say that if it were not for colloidal silver I would not be the woman I am today.  I use it for so many things, and it has saved more than one of my animals that others said would not make it.

This little piggie was too sick to go to the market.  You can see that her eye was swollen shut.  Mamma had rejected her and we missed her.  In this photo she is nearly a week and her eye looks lost.  And indeed we believed it was.  We began with getting FOOD into her (no shortage of raw cow's milk) mixed with a mega dose of Colloidal Silver.

the next DAY it was looking better, there was a little opening forming by the corner of her eye and yucky goo coming out.  We used a needle-less syringe and filled the abscess with CS.   Every time she ate, she got CS.  By this second day, her apatite was up and she was moving around more.  She was actually screaming when we took this picture....like a normal pig. 

This day we are seeing MUCH improvement as the abscess was forced open with the syringe and the CS and all the puss drained out.  We were still fairly sure she had lost the eye.  We could not get it open and there was no evidence of a sparkly eyeball.  

 Day Four of the ongoing CS treatment and the dead flesh is falling off, you can see the beginnings of a sparkly little eye in there....see it? (YEA!!)

 Day five.... dead skin falling off more and a bit more drainage.  She can blink the eye to sunlight, so we know she is not blind.

 Day six.. wound healing nicely.  NO more infection.  AND she eats like a ....PIG!!

 Here you can, on Day seven see her looking into the camera with that eye we thought was dead!!  Hair is already starting to grow back too.  I have no doubt there will be some scarring, but a life saved is worth it!!
Colloidal Silver is my go-to thing for so many problems on the ranch.  Most folks would have culled and not bothered with her.  A penny saved is a penny earned.

Today in my garden

Today I spent most of my day in the garden.  

I am happy....  I wish I had the time to run up to the house, get the nice camera then shoot the pictures, but by the time I got to the house the laundry would need changing.....so I use my iphone...

SATAN's ANIMAL!!

We generally live peacefully with the predators around us.  We have a resident Mountain Lioness that lives down the street, a single male bobcat that lives in the thicket on the adjoining parcel, and numerous hawks that fly over head.  None of them bother us.  We keep our animals in such a way that we have never lost one to those predators.

The Raccoon in the area  are another story entirely.  Somehow they figure out locks, slice through fencing, tear off walls....and many other horrible things to get at our animals.  I hate them.

I know, you are probably thinking "oh, how cute!!"  Any thing that tears the head off of another animal just to leave it to die is NOT cute in my book.  These two in particular have been horrible.  AND they refuse to be trapped.

Our ranch dog treed them (she was tired of their shenanigans as well!!).... I was trying to figure out how I could get both of them, since if I shot one... the other would run.... when my husband came along side me with both of our shotguns.  I used my .410 and he used his 12g.   One....two.....THREE... down they came tumbling...NEVER to kill a chicken again.

Artificial Insemination Class Completed

So, I finished the three day course for certification in AI.

Here is the little cow I qualified on.  This is not for the weak of heart... just for the folks that want to improve the genetics in their cows.

In the world of the Irish Dexter we have a saying "for a Dexter".   In other words folks will say..."Hey, that is a nice udder on that cow, for a Dexter"  "Look, that little steer will produce a nice carcass  for a Dexter" , do you get what I mean?

I would like to stop doing that.  I own a really nice, well bred bull.  But if he were any other breed, he would be a cull.  Not that there is anything too horrible about him... but he is not perfect.  There are several bulls around the world I would like a chance to breed to that are much closer to perfect.  With a breed like the Dexter, we need to breed the best and eat the rest.  It is the mantra of the Livestock Conservancy, and I think more of us that are bringing the old breeds back, need to take it seriously.

This is my bull:

He is really nice.....(did you say it?) for a Dexter!!  I have him for sale... but would not be sad if he did not sell, I love him...he is a sweet boy.  

Learning to Love April Showers

All my life I have worked outdoors.  Chores are no fun in the cold and wet.  When we were in the petting zoo business it was even worse!!  Rain made for wet animals.... people still wanted us to come.  UGH!!  wet, cold, rain... I learned to hate it.

Life has calmed down a bit now.  This morning the rain is coming down.  A soft spring rain that helps grass grow.  Even though my shoes and clothes are wet from the 2 hours it takes to feed, milk,muck.  The house is warm and I will be able to change clothes (unlike when we would go from party to party in the rain).

Pictures of the rain....

A Potted Watched (or not, as it were)

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have burned a pot, all from multi-tasking gone awry.
Fixing a burned pot.

Grmblegrmgelgdasdlgrmmmblelel

"smoked soup" seriously... I doubt I will be able to get the kids to see anything good about this soup.... pig food.... (so glad I have the pigs, I meant to do this....)

So here is my secret for cleaning burned pots...

a scoop of Tide.... yes Tide.....

let it simmer.....

and simmer... make sure it doesn't run out of water.. and further burn the pan...

after a while...maybe 30 mins of simmering.... see if it has softened.... and when it is soft enough it should scrub off with no hard scrubbing.

and within a few minutes you should have your pot back!!