updates

the new frail sheep area is almost done. it was one of those things that could have been left until later except we had to fence off that area anyway because that is where the new septic field is and the big barn animals can't be on that area anymore or due to their weight, they would wreck it. oh well..our frail little sheep deserve a safe place of their own and as soon as its done and I get the grass growing in there again..they will have what they need.

tristie is feeling quite good..in fact she is right back to her normal self. she recovered a little too quickly so I am thinking she did not have a virus..i am thinking more along the lines of possibly kidneys because once she was well hydrated again, she popped right back up.
I will wait until she puts a bit more of her lost weight back on (which shouldn't be long due the way she is eating!) and once she is a bit more solid in health..i will stress her out with a trip to the vets and some blood work to really check her out well.

we lost jill, our little budgie. I think between catching a chill a few weeks ago and damaging her leg, it all was too much. life can be so fragile for frail little birds. jack will be so lonely without her.

Johanna's little sweet chi's are settling in well for their visit. they will be here for a couple of weeks. yesterday mama t finally found some littles that she thinks needed mothering so she moved into their bed and happily hung out with them all. mama t loves mothering.

the baby chicks are growing like weeds. I think I have decided to send them out to the chicken house soon and look for an adult single chicken to be Crosby's new friend and companion. a lone chicken is safer for her, singles are less likely to engage in some of the less nice group behaviors like establishing pecking orders.

speaking of pecking order...andy has been moved into my room. luna and june have been picking on him a lot since jake moved over to the computer room.

there are some not so nice things about animals, just like there are about people. it is what it is and all you can do sometimes is minimize and manage the best that you can some of the not so nice traits that some creatures have. it sucks but it's true.

I have a TON of grass repairs to get to this spring..the front and side dog yards are absolutely destroyed, the septic areas..back yard and upper field are both in terrible shape. it is going to be a lot of work and weeks of re-directing animal feet to get it back to green and healthy again.
just the massive scope of it all, scares me to death. I better come up with some pretty good plans on how to manage all of the grass repairs with all of the animals here. yikes...I wish we could afford a landscaping crew, it would be so much less stressful and far quicker but we can't.
it is the time crunch that makes it so bad...we only have 3 months of water left to grow healthy and viable grass and the bottom field won't be dry enough to move heavy barn animals down there to free up the areas that need repair for quite a while yet.

every year it is the same freaking thing..a race against nature's rainy timetable...dry enough to starting moving animals, wet enough to still grow grass. and this year so very much more than usual that has to be repaired.

arghhh...there is ALWAYS something to stress over in rescue...it drives me totally nutz. but we have grazing animals here and as a quality of life issue, grazing animals must be able to graze. so I can fuss and flail about it all I want as long as at the end of the day they all can happily graze.

and today in anticipation of meeting their needs, i am thinking that grass and grazing land repairing in rescue sucks pretty damn big.