Worming

I bet you all thought this would be about having earthworms in the garden.  Nope, 7 years and we still don't seem to have earthworms.  We had some red compost worms last year that made it through the winter under some straw in the vegie garden but no sign of them this year.  It was too dry, I think.  Not a tiny bit of rain all winter and spring.  Oh, what an exciting day it was in Fernley when we found our first earthworm after only living there a couple of years.  Here in our sandy realm, so far not a one.

Nope, today we wormed the cat, the two dogs, the three goats and the miniature horse.  We generally do this in early June every year.  I don't recall why we do it in early June but we must have had our reasons when we first started this tradition.

We are worming the cat and the dogs specifically for tapeworms.  Penney had tapeworms a couple of years ago.  I thought is was shocking.  In all my years of dog ownership, I had never actually had a dog with known tapeworms.  There are no fleas here so we thought we were safe.  Turns out that if the cat or dog eats rabbits [and ours do] the rabbits all have tapeworms which the directly pass on to the dog or cat.  Isn't nature fascinating!  Yuck.

Any way, it is real and we are working to prevent problems.

I finally found a farrier that will come out our way.  I got a recommendation from the vet tech at the animal clinic we have been taking the dogs to occasionally.  Honestly, we worm and give the basic shots ourselves so unless your getting neutered or need rabies or are really sick, when you are a pet around here you don't see the inside of the vet's office.  Saves us a ton of money.

Pets

I am a pet owner.  Many years a go I had a large Umbrella Cockatoo named Sophia and a cute little cockatiel named Cleo.   The big bird would fall asleep with one foot tucked up, as birds do, and the little bird would sidle up to it and bite it on its upraised foot.  Then, Sophia would be startled and wake up.  One day,  Sophia  was on her perch with little Cleo.  As I watched, Sophia closed her eye to just the tiniest slit.  Little Cleo sidled up to the large bird, a little at a time, just like normal.  Finally, Cleo reached over to bite Sophia's upraised foot.  At the last moment, Sophia moved her foot just out of range of the little bird, opened her eyes wide and said "Gotcha!".  I thought that was amazing.  The cockatoo had just pulled a joke on the little bird.

Over time I have noticed that many animals have an ability not only to think but to solve problems, compare fairness as in "he got the bigger bone or better food than I did", and even play jokes on one another.  I never did figure out how some moron decided that animals din't think or couldn't feel.  They certainly do.  They just do it in their own way according to their own priorities.

Hay

Well, this year I am stocking up on hay early.  Hubby called around and found us some hay for $6.50 per bale and the going rate right now is $13.50 per bale.  I am hoping the price will go down a little more but I think the best we could do is $12 per bale.

The bales are the three string bales and weigh about 115 pounds each.  We managed to get 11 in the trailer and three in the back of the old Chevy pick up truck.  The reason the price is low is because there are quite a few weeds in them and there are some fox tails.  That would be mostly cheat grass fox tails.  Our three goats are used to eating weeds [that is what they do all spring and summer] so we don't think it will be an issue.  Richard says he feeds it to his goats and they are doing fine.  Sure enough when we got there he had goats running around.  The goats eat at least 2 bales a month for much of the year so I would prefer to have 4-6 more to get us through until next July when they will be cutting hay again.

Watering overnight tonight is the north zone.

Weather a bit cooler, 92 degrees and windy this afternoon.

Yesterday we got two bales of straw on the way home from Dayton.  We met at Starbucks for coffee and Hubby went to the parts store and recycled the oil.  I went to Smiths and got a few groceries.  Also went to the bank.

That evening we did something we haven't done much in the past.  We went to a live concert downtown Carson City.  It was a blast!!!  Now that Hubby is working swing instead of graveyard we are able to do something like that.  The weather was warm and just a little breeze and the sun was going down in the west.  We were people watching and enjoying the band.  Some blues, some rock and a good guitarist and a good keyboard player.  Fun.

Dog Troubles

I have an appointment for Penney this afternoon at 3:30pm.  We don't go to the vet often.   We give the dogs their shots and we deworm them ourselves.  Saves us a lot of money.  But the ear trouble seems like one of those things that needs someone who knows what they are doing. I can't see what is inside Penneys's ear canal.  She is still shaking her head a bit though it is much better.  The thing is that if we wait and it gets infected we have a much larger problem on our hands. Too bad it is the hottest part of the day.

I might get some of that dog ear cleaning fluid.  I don't know.  Not for this situation but to make sure that her ears stay clean.  On the other hand, she doesn't seem to have dirty ears so?

Fed the goats weeds.  I think I will mostly relax today.

UPDATE:  Penney has come back from the vet's office.  She had a fox tail in her ear.  This sucks.  I was going to try to rake up some of the cheat grass since it got out of hand and is already dried up for the most part but this means that I have to try to do something about it as soon as possible.  The vet says don't worry about Penney needing her ears cleaned as they are very clean already.

Dog Troubles

The Corgi got something in her ear when we were on the bug side of the house.  I called the vet and he said it is probably a fox tail this time of year.  There weren't any fox tails anywhere near her when she suddenly started shaking her head and climbing into my lap. We'll see tomorrow when I take her in.  If it is a bug, I am finding another vet who is willing to listen to me.

Last time he didn't believe me when I told him Penney was acting out and that she never does that and that something is wrong with her.  I finally figured it out on my own a day or two later when I figured out that Penney was getting Needle-and-Thread grass seeds stuck in her coat and she was upset that they were poking her and hurting.

I am calling right away tomorrow to get her in.  I certainly hope it is early since it will be 95 degrees tomorrow and I have no A/C in my old truck.  I can probably take the little car, Skittles, if it will be early enough.