Thursday, September 30, 2010

Good to be home

I had to get a SVT (super ventricular tachycardia) ablation yesterday to remove extra electrical path ways in my heart which were causing tachycardia (fast heart rate). (I had an episode of some palpitations in the spring and after jumping through all the hoops and getting all sorts of tests done that's what they found out.) The scary thing is I was put on a monitor for a month and I had to send the reading through the phone for the NP to read and I only noticed the palpitations once or twice and there were five automatic readings a day that I had to send. Basically if I didn't find out or get it done I would have gotten heart failure.

So yesterday morning I went to the hospital (my Mom took me) and I got the procedure (technically not surgery) done. The cardiologist uses a wire and goes up through the artery in ones' groin to the heart and finds the extra pathways and ablates (kills) them. I was kept there over night for observation and now I'm home. It's so nice to be home. Now I can't lift more than 10 # for 4 days. The reason is they don't want the artery popping open and oozing or bleeding.

The couple days before the procedure I got my goats shorn and my 19 market lambs shorn-they look very nice by the way. I'll have to do a post on them. (I have 10 small market lambs that I decided not to shear as well as the 19. 8 are pure Shetlands and 2 are crosses who didn't grow well. They will be shorn in the spring and sent to the Easter market.) I didn't shear my little TX kid-Grace as she is very thin and has bottle jaw. I have been deworming (she got dewormed 3 or 4 more times than any one else) her all summer and she just seems not to be able to handle worms. I dewormed her with Valbazen and then I'm going to use Ivermectin. (I heard that in severe cases one should use one and then the other after ten days.) I just hope she'll be ok! The poor little thing eats, but is weak.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Cow for sale

Picture taken last fall after she freshened.

I have a Jersey cow bred to Honour-polled (one of Genex'es bulls) for an end of Oct. calf (she is vet checked). The cow is 3 years old and this will be her second freshening (she's dry now.) She is halter trained and also trained for hand milking (I also used a belly milker a couple times with her.) She would be a great family cow. I'm selling her as I need the shed/pasture space for my flock of sheep and goats. She is $1200.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WI Sheep and Wool

I had a great weekend at the WI Sheep and Wool Festival. I had a vendor booth to keep me busy on Fri. and Sat. (I don't sell on Sun. so a friend sold some of her product in the booth space on Sun.) I sold roving, yarn, handspun mohair lock yarn, mohair locks, raw fleeces, sheepskins and combed top.
I bought a skirting table. This will be nice as I have used a ping pong table for the past couple years.
I showed several fleeces in the fleece show and Everest my teaser ram's fleece got a second.
The judge did not like my Corriedale fleece (she said it was not consistent and was OK for commercial), but liked the Coopworth fleece. Here is Everest's fleece.

Also had a great time visiting all my sheep and Angora goat breeder and fiber friends. Thanks Tori Gygi for explaining some sheep conformation (shoulders and backs) to me!


It rained when I was gone here at home quite a bit (I left on Thur. and got back Sun.) and when I got back the grass had grown about 1/2 in.! Aug. was dry so the rain is greatly appreciated.

I got a couple new pages up -Shetland Ewes , Shetland Ewe Lambs and Commercial Ewes .

Monday, September 6, 2010

Pied Piper

I walked out to the pasture and there were sheep and goats scattered around.
I yelled "sheep!" and they came crowding around. Am I the Pied Pier?! I must be as they are all standing there waiting.OK I get the message-I'm supposed to open up the fence so the can get new grass. Let rip...

They are always in such a hurry to get the new tasty grass!

I created a page for my Angora does and am working on a page for some of the Shetland ewes.