altivo

Well, in over a decade of living here, this is the first time I've heard the weather service warn us of the potential for wildfires "due to dry wind and weather conditions." Four years ago we had a two month drought in the middle of the summer and they never issued that warning. Now we get a week without rain and they are telling us that there is a risk of wildfires. This makes no sense.

The weather seemed to be keeping people away from the library today. It was slow and quiet all afternoon and evening. Then, 45 minutes before closing, the floodgates opened and everyone wanted things all at once, the phone was ringing faster than two of us could answer it (two people, three lines...guess what?) Then, at ten minutes to closing, the public computers shut down as usual. Instant quiet. They all left. I'm really glad we instituted that policy. No more trying to pry people off the computer so we can lock the doors and go home to dinner. At the appointed time, things just shut down, like it or not. There are signs of course, and they do get a flashing red warning on their screen starting ten minutes before the shutdown. It took several months, but no one throws a tantrum any more.

Tomorrow the sheep get sheared. That's always traumatic, even though our shearer is fast, efficient, and good. No one gets nicked as a rule, everyone cooperates once he gets hold of them, but catching them for him is always rough. Once we get started, he's usually done with the lot in 30 minutes or less. Still, I'll be glad when it's over. I always feel so ineffectual if a sheep gets away from me during the process.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Home in the oak grove

(or something like that)

If you've ever seen the 1997 Dreamworks film Mouse Hunt, with that hilarious opening that takes place at a funeral, and things go downhill, or rather down the sewer, from there...

We took care of Shaun the Sheep's remains today, in spite of single digit temperatures and ground that was literally as hard as iron. We both tested with a pickaxe but gave up on that idea. The vet, a sheep-keeping neighbor, and the agricultural extension service all recommended composting as the best way to eliminate the corporeal evidence as it were. Seriously, there's no disrespect here. We loved Shaun, but he doesn't need what he left behind, and neither do we. The alternative, turning him into dog food, seemed much too distasteful, not to mention messy.

( Possible TMI for some readers, peek with caution and a sense of humor )

When I went back out to feed everyone and bed them down, I found myself examining the remaining sheep. After previous mortalities, and some given away, we have eight left. All but one of those are Shaun's offspring. Oddly, only a couple of them resemble him much in facial appearance, and both of them are black rather than white. The rest, and especially the wethers, look more like miniature versions of their maternal grandsire, Goose. He was a Finnsheep, white, with a bald patch on top of his head, and quite large. They aren't large, but they all have the bald patch and the sugar bowl haircut or tonsure around it (sort of like Moe of the Three Stooges.) I should get another photo. The family tree is convoluted, because Shaun is both father and grandfather to a couple of them. She-bah is dam to Salt and grand-dam to Ram-bo. All the rest are children of Jetta, who is She-bah's niece. (She-bah's sister, Ewe-nice, had but one lamb before she ate poison ivy and died of it. I guess the prospect of motherhood was too much for her to face. In spite of her limited reproduction, most of our remaining flock is descended from her through that orphan lamb, Jetta.)

In any case, Gary is recovered from mourning enough to actually have said that we could easily get another sheep or two, but let's not get another ram. Hence, no more uncontrolled expansion. ;p Not that we need any more sheep right now, but more attrition is likely. She-bah is eight years old. Salt is seven. Rambo and Jetta are six, I think...

Current Mood: punchy
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

So it's getting warm for tomorrow and Friday, then dropping back down to single digits for the weekend. Nice. With snow possible. Figures are in, too. December was the tenth wettest ever on record here. Records go back 114 years.

Sheepie may be slightly better. He stood briefly for Gary this morning and again this evening, I guess, but needs to be held stable to keep him from falling over. He continues to eat and drink, though, and it goes through as normally as can be expected. He gets another cortisone treatment tomorrow and we'll see how he is over the weekend. If he can't walk around, there's just no way he can keep from getting really sick soon.

It's that W day and I'm tired. See y'all tomorrow.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

The sheepie got at least a temporary reprieve. Vet says it's probably one of three things, old age, injury, or Paralaphostrongylus tenius. He could find no evidence of injury, and the third choice is a parasite infection commonly called "brain worms" (ewww) that comes from deer. A typical parasitic worm, it has a two host life cycle that involves deer droppings, and slugs (ewww again.) Since none of our sheep have been on open pasture where deer pass through for over five years, I rule that one out. So old age and arthritis it is, and Shaun gets a series of three cortisone shots to see if it will get him back on his feet. He's also dehydrated a bit, so we're mixing molasses into his water to get him to drink more. He doesn't seem to be in pain much, and the vet agrees, so we didn't have him put down right now. We'll give him a week or so and see if he responds to treatment. If he has to be sent off to sheep heaven, what to do with the remains when the ground is frozen like iron becomes a major issue.

I did not watch the inauguration, though I did hear the oaths administered (complete with fluffs by both parties in Obama's case.) In spite of the raves from many quarters, I was disappointed in his speech, which ran far too long without saying nearly enough. The only good point, I thought, was when he said that Americans as a whole have been avoiding making hard choices that must be made. We can't have our cake and eat it too, in other words. This has been blatantly obvious to me for many years, but politicians and voters from both sides of the aisle continue to think they can do that.

Our library's 100th anniversary display of books is out in the case now, and I still find it interesting. We have the top ten best selling adult novels from 1909, reacquired from used booksellers in 1909 editions or as close as we could get. These were surprisingly inexpensive, in fact. All ten, including shipping, added up to about $50. We also have a set of nine modern reprints of children's books that were popular in 1909, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Wind in the Willows, The Call of the Wild, and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

This spoiled pony isn't used to coming home to an empty house. Yeah, I know, the dogs are looking at me and thinking "What empty?" Still. I was worried that I was late due to a network problem at work, and completely taken aback by the absence of Gary's car when I reached the house. Then I remembered. He's back in school and has a class on Monday night. There were lights on and he'd built the fire up before leaving so it was pleasantly warm, but empty when I didn't particularly feel like being alone.

He just called a few minutes ago during his class break to ask if I'd listened to his message on the answering machine. Um, no. I never think to look at the thing. Telephones just aren't on my interest list and never have been. So anyway, the message apparently was that he'd called for the sheep doc, who didn't arrive before he left for class so he called back and asked them to reschedule for tomorrow. Apparently no change in Shaun's condition. Good thing he called though. Then I tried to listen to the message and it's unintelligible. The combination of his digital cell phone and a cheap digital answering machine means that about 60% of each of his words gets lost.

So it's dark and cold and I'm here alone until bedtime at least.The dogs lost interest once they got fed. I don't feel like weaving so I guess I get to read for a while and go to sleep.

Current Mood: lonely
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

Only the border to go on the purple onions runner. I think there will be enough warp left for two more pieces, and I've already designed them in my head. One will be called "Pink Snow" (from the Cat in the Hat) and the other will be "Drunkard Cat's Tracks." You'll see why when it's finished.

Shaun is still the same. No worse, but apparently no better. Probably we'll have to call the vet tomorrow. Possible diagnoses include spinal injury, kidney disease, or even botulism. Yeah, that last one usually presents in sheep starting with hindquarter paralysis. A few sheep survive it, most die, alas. Likely sources for botulism would have affected more than one of the sheep, though.

Bed time now, as soon as I get the fire built back up.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

No weaving done today. Went into Chicago with Gary to go shopping for his mom, shovel her snow, have Chinese takeout food for lunch with her. Then he did animal care while I went for our own groceries, and we had dinner and went for assorted cheaper items at the evil W place.

We have a sick sheep. Shaun, our original ram, is getting old and has been slowing down for a while. I've been attributing his slow movement in cold weather to arthritis and the temperature, but it seems there may be more. Today he was down and would not get up. Seems alert enough, and eats if you bring the food to him, but even if we pull him to his feet, he doesn't seem able to stand.

We got a towel under him and lifted him to make him walk to the lambing pen, where he is still able to see and hear the other sheep but they can't trample him or take all the food away from him. He shifts positions, and moves around the pen, but we still haven't seen him actually get up. Gary turned the heat lamps on at one end so he should be more comfortable for a while at least, but I've got a feeling we can't save him unless he gets up again.

I knew this was coming, and can accept it, but Gary's having a hard time with it. I had no idea he was so attached to this old sheepie, but he is, almost like with a dog.

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: Frozen oak grove

After!
Originally uploaded by Altivo

Wrestling these guys to get them sheared in 89 degree heat is not exactly fun, but it was necessary. They are much more comfortable now, and we have one more spring job crossed off our list. Front row, left to right: Dodge, Salt, Louie, Shaun, Rambo, and Jetta. Hiding in the back are Shebah, Genie, and Wetherby.

This morning I was getting ready to leave for work when the weather radio alarm sounded. It was a ten minute warning of an approaching severe thunderstorm that was dropping hail and gusting winds to 75 mph. We ran out to put the horses back into the barns and close everything up tight in spite of the temperature that was already in the 80s (F) and sticky humid. The storm did arrive in ten minutes, but with no wind to speak of and no hail. It did rain hard. We got an inch (2.5 cm) of rain in ten minutes. I left for work 20 minutes later and encountered four places where there was water to the depth of several inches running across the paved roads.

Current Mood: hot
Current Location: Home in the oak grove