Sick Day

Queequeg gave us a scare on Friday. While getting ready for work, I saw her laying on the edge of the landing on the second floor, looking very out of it. Typically when I am getting ready for work, she is following me around, being the inquisitive cat she is. I knew something was up. She was cold, moving slowly, and depressed. I told Zachary and he took her to vet that morning. The vet told him that she had to stay at the clinic for the day for testing. After work I stopped by the vet office to pick her up and hear the results. The vet said all her tests were normal, but she was dehydrated. If she didn't improve over the weekend, bring her back on Monday. They weren't sure why she fell ill. When I went in the back of the office to get her out of her pen, she was angry. She had a rough day, being poked and probed. She hissed at the vet assistant, but she calmed down when she saw me. She hates riding in the car, but I think she was glad to be out of the clinic. When we got home, she went straight for the food dish. Now its Sunday, and our normal inquisitive cat is back.

Patience

Yesterday I found an optimistic Day Lilly up against the house where the snow had melted. It was inspiring to see a tender green shoot up against the brown decay.
Then we woke up to this. Maybe another day, Day Lilly. It's only February.

Weekend

This weekend Zachary and I worked on chores around the farm and the house. The temperatures drifted back to typical February weather, but it still allowed for some extra cleaning in the animal areas to be done. In the winter the sheds for the livestock get built up with manure and bedding due to the winter temps. But in the past two weeks, Zachary has had a few good days to get at the excess build up in the cow sheds. Hopefully the warmer winter weather stays. The cows sure like the weather of late too, they wander into the pasture more often when it is warm and sunny.

We also tried to keep up with the housework this weekend. We took care of the laundry mountain and even put it away right away. That is an accomplishment in our house. :-) A lot of paper sorting took place as well, as we are preparing for a date with our accountant this week. We have a ton a data entry to do in Quickbooks for the farm before then... We also sat down and reviewed our financial situation. With the milk price collapse in January and a bleak outlook for the upcoming months, Zachary and I felt we needed to assess our current status and revise our farm goals for the year. We looked for ways to cut back and save, and what we need to do to survive the slump. It will be tough for us and other dairy farms, but all we can do is try our best.

This morning Zachary and I drove to Iola to my parents' cottage and checked on the house for them. They have been in Florida since December and will be returning sometime in March. Here are a couple views from the deck, looking towards the lake.


How can you be productive when you have this thing laying around?

Kitchen Update

Recently we made a few more cabinet carcasses along the walls for the base cabinets. One of them shows an opening for an apron front style sink we are planning on installing.

Spring, is that you?

Today the temperature reached 50F! The rest of the week the temps will drift back to the 30's, what a tease. Come back soon, will you?

What's in a Name?

An interesting study from England was recently published stating a correlation between naming cows and milk production. It says dairy cows that have names tend to give more milk. Here is the link to the story.
The science behind it seems more of a survey of farmers so I don't think there is much to it, but it is fun none the less.