How does it feel to get stung on your eyelid?
You can ask Drake, but the answer is “painful”. Drake was crying and the kids ran in saying his eye had been stung by a yellow jacket. I was relieved it was his eyelid…which continued to swell significantly.
Motorcycle Explorations
Drake has desperately wanted to go for a motorcycle ride out in the foothills so he was eager to help me finish repairing the damaged roughed in plumbing for the shop so we could leave as soon as possible. It really was a lot of help to have him as a gopher where he could ride back and forth on his motorcycle retrieving anything we needed. Eventually, as the heat of the day peaked, we finished up and loaded up to go. Landon felt dejected thinking he wouldn’t be able to join us which quickly turned to elation when I invited him. He scrambled as fast as he could to get dressed for the adventure. The hills were hot and dry so it was amazing after traveling west for the entire journey to reach an oasis dead end. The road on which we traveled came to an abrupt end on the precipice of a deep ravine. In the bottom was the beautiful clear water of a large canal. It would have been so nice to jump in for a swim but the boys weren’t prepared for that.
Some Highlights:
We had a failed stalk on a badger.
Landon learned that you should never climb onto a motorcycle from the right side when my TW200 toppled over on him, gratefully not injuring him.
We got a lot of pistol shooting at ground squirrels and they entertained us all of the way back to the truck as they played chicken with us darting across the road and running alongside us.
The “E” Revisited
It has been a couple years since we hiked to the E so the kids jumped at the chance to make the hike this evening. The hike isn’t too difficult but the steep hillside does require some scrambling and always causes burning in various muscle groups. Even our energetic lab puppies, Rex and Lucy, had their energy reserves depleted by the time we reached the spectacular view. It really is a beautiful valley with our house and shimmering pond visible in the evening light. I don’t know which the kids enjoyed more, the spectacular view or the wind that greeted after we crested the summit of the bluff.
Zack’s a Dad! & Septic Celebrations
I am so excited about our new litter of puppies! When I had to retire Zack as our German shorthaired pointer stud dog, because he had missed several siring attempts four years ago, I was heartbroken. He has been an amazing hunting dog and companion and I really wanted to keep one of his pups to continue his lines. After the natural process failed several times and my investment in transcervical insemination was unsuccessful, I had to face the sad reality that I wouldn’t get to keep one of his pups. He is getting old but just had a fantastic season so I decided to give him one last hail mary try at siring a litter and it worked! Tick just finished whelping 10 puppies!
I received the much-anticipated lab results from the soil samples the health inspector required in preparation for our septic system when he gave the ominous warning that we will have to take our house off the market if the soil lab results come back as unsuitable. I am joyously relieved the deep sample came back as B1, middle of the road, the topsoil came back as C1, a step above acceptable poor soil. I called our septic contractor to celebrate and discuss the next steps but I couldn’t reach him, maybe tomorrow.
Puppies and Chicks
We have managed to help keep this puppy alive but she sure seems like she wants to die. She has just enough strength to nurse but the other puppies are so much larger and stronger than her now, that she has a difficult time staying latched on long enough to get the nutrition that she needs. I have spent a lot of time making sure that she gets a lot of time nursing and bottle feeding her but I just don’t know if it will be enough. She’s just not gettng over the hump. Several times today I thought we were going to lose her but she has managed to pull through each time.
I was excited that the concrete guys were out today prepping one of the bays of the shop. Unfortunately, when they were removing some of the pit run with the skid steer they collapsed a section of ABS drain pipe. I had warned him a couple days ago that the drain line was shallow and that they shouldn’t drive over it with any equipment but apparently, it wasn’t remembered or explained well enough, so a repair is now necessary.
The boys and I were out working in the shop when we found three baby birds that must have been blown out of their nest in last nights storm. Only one of the three was still alive and they scooped it up and cradled it in their hands.
When it pitched back its head and opened its mouth while sitting in their cupped hands, they rushed to find a worm. The worm was small but still too large for the tiny chick. It did hungrily accept a smaller piece of the worm. Its translucent skin allowed us to watch the dark worm slide down its throat and disappear into its body.
We tried to get a view of its nest behind the basketball backboard on the shop but the was no way to access it. As a last resort, Drake deposited the sparrow chick into a robin’s nest in our front yard where one of three eggs have hatched.
They were happy to report this evening that the rescued sparrow chick seemed right at home in its new foster family.
As I was putting our little struggling puppy back with her mom tonight I noticed one of the other pups had a cut on her left flank, leaving a pretty good-sized gap that allowed me to see her ribs and a smaller parallel cut slightly further back. So far this has not been an easy litter. Sammi may have bitten her but it they seem more like the result of being stepped on. If I took her to the vet for stitches in the morning I’m afraid they would have said that the tissue was too dried out to attempt to close the wound or they would have to freshen the edges by trimming it. I pulled out my canine first aid kit to take inventory of the suture kits that I have. All of them are much larger than what I needed for this puppy but I didn’t have anything smaller. After figuring out how to swaddle the puppy successfully in a towel I managed to close the largest wound with two stitches. I really wish I’d had a smaller-diameter thread as well as a smaller needle for the size of stitches that were needed in this case. The size of needle and thread they used on my finger would have been much more appropriate.
This litter needs to start going a lot smoother so that I can stop the odd hour routine and get caught up on my sleep.
To the Rescue
Our little lab pups are only two days old and when I made my final visit for the evening I discovered one the wasn’t going to make it through the night. To steal a line from The Princess Bride, she was mostly dead. After all these years, my heart sinks when I find a puppy teetering on the brink. She wasn’t completely lifeless but she was limp and could barely make a sound. When pups are like this, they will easily slip away without immediate stimulation and assistance. Her skin was tight and looked dehydrated. I pulled the cool pup from the whelping box, even though it is quite warm, and put her under a warming light. I rushed back inside where Kim helped me make the supplemental milk concoction. I grabbed a syringe for the milk and another syringe & needle for subcutaneous fluid administration. The puppy had a very week sucking response and my pinky finger so I hurriedly started giving her milk from the syringe. After getting fluids into her, the next step was to give her subcutaneous fluids. I drew the first syringe full of the warmed water. Tap water is a poor substitute for a proper saline solution and Kim expressed that concern. I explained to Kim that I didn’t think we had the time to acquire saline solution so I proceed to inject numerous syringes of water, creating tumor-like lumps on the tiny puppy. Before long she was perking up and gained enough strength to nurse on Sammi. She is still not far from slipping away, but I’m grateful she’s no longer currently going over the edge. I am cautiously optimistic that she’ll make it through the night but they are quite fragile at this young age.
Anniversary Escape
Our realtor called to see if we had time to squeeze in a house showing before we left, to which we agreed. In preparation for the showing, Kim went into cleanup mode as I prepped the dogs for the others litters that should be coming as soon as tonight but more likely within the next week. It is really hard right now to manage the whelping boxes temperature. We are just borderline too cool without heat lamps but it can easily get warm enough that even a 60 watt light bulb can raise the temperatures dangerously high. To prevent the temperature risk to the puppies, I have been looking at a variety of different types of temperature sensors that would allow me to be able to turn on the heat lamp if it gets cool, shut off if it’s warm enough, and turn on a fan if the temperature began to increase too high. Probably simple for an electrician but a challenge for me and I haven’t found my solution yet. I considered trying to build an Arduino sketch and circuit but I just don’t think I would trust it with my limited experience.
The next week is going to get a little crazy so Kim and I decided today was the best day to get away for the night and our kids are able to stay with their cousins. Our destination was Treasure Island, unfortunately, nothing actually exotic, but it should be a fun themed suite.
Before checking in, we decided on an early dinner at a new restaurant. As we pulled into the empty parking lot of the unimpressive home of Luciano’s, we seriously considered trying an alternate new dining experience, but the rave reviews online convinced us to give them a try. From the beginning ciabatta bread to the house salad, lasagna, and the cheesecake de jour dessert my meal was fantastic. I was really impressed with Kat, our server, and the meal she helped me select. Kim, however, selected Chicken Athena, supposedly a popular lemon chicken dish that was unfortunately disappointing. It’s great adding a new favorite restaurant to our future options.
Last Day of School
I made the rookie mistake of returning the skid steer without topping off the fuel. It was already unloaded when he asked me at the counter…$6/gallon, oops. $200 for the 24 hours after the discount he gave me for how they recorded the rental when I picked it up. Not sure what the issue was, but I was grateful for the discount.
Today our kid’s celebrated their last day of school by inviting some friends over for food and a water party. Water fights started in the backyard and ended with a trip out to the pond.
Doesn’t everyone haul kids around in a dump trailer? They had a great time on a beautiful afternoon. As Kim and I were watching the kids fight for dominance on the paddle boards, we decided we need to create a beach. The bank consists of pit run rocks and gooey clay. Not easy to get into the water and not easy on their feet. The timing of the idea was great because Monty’s large excavator was still here from trenching. As we were talking about calling him to do the digging, we heard the excavator fire up!?! They were literally loading it up as we were having the conversation. I road over to talk to him about digging now but we will have to wait.
Concrete guys were out today with a compactor and prepped the shop and dog pads. We really need them to get those finished up.
Before heading to the temple, I was out working Rex, my black lab pup, when I heard newborn puppies. Sammi had whelped ten yellow lab puppies today. I always like to be involved with and monitor the whelping, but occasionally, they are sneaky and prove they don’t need my help at all.
We Love Skidsteers
I got to use a new/modern skidsteer for the first time, a John Deere 318G. When I first climbed into the cockpit, I was not excited about the joystick controls for all locomotion and bucket control with a foot pedal for RPM control. After a brief learning curve, I loved it! I put new gravel around the dog kennels, removed and smoothed the dirt covering the power line trench, and took care of several odds and ends. I wish it was it was in the budget to add the incredible machine to my set of tools.
I took our dump trailer to get a load of 3/4 gravel and discussed the max I could get was about three yards so I wouldn’t exceed my dump capacity. Guy comes over with a big loader and dumps his whole bucket without a concern. When I weighed out, the lady was as concerned as I was. I can confirm that my trailer cannot dump 13,000 pounds. I had to get a lot out manually before I tried my 2nd dump attempt which was successful. Lesson learned – make sure you talk to the guy that is actually loading the material before turning him loose.
Soil Samples and Our House is Listed
We are still in limbo with regards to our septic system. Our contractor and health inspector convened once again near our house site to review the two test hold I had dug. Skeptical of the improved soil he requested an additional hole be dug as he watched. He reiterated that this was the worst soil he has ever seen. The unusual part if the soil is a weird mix of sand and clay. When wet it is malleable like clay but as it dries out, it’s largely fine sand. The inspector cautioned me that, if the soil samples both come back unsuitable, I should not go through with selling our house. I replied that before I resigned myself to that, I would be digging many more test holes. I have the two soil samples so tomorrow I’ll get them to the lab to start another waiting period. I just hope they come back much better than the inspector fears or the hassle with him is just beginning. The two soil tests will cost $130 each, ouch.
Our house is officially on the MLS with signs posted! Tifini got several interested parties and already has a showing at 1 pm tomorrow. I couldn’t locate a skid steer to rent today so hopefully, I can get one tomorrow. Our driveway still has a large hump from the newly covered power line that I need to remove and I need to put new gravel down on the driveway and between the dog kennels. Time to get the house stage ready again.