pumpkins and urgent care

So they say things happen in "3s". Yesterday was one of those days. First, the truck died while Michael drove it down the street to take a check to one of our neighbors. Then in the afternoon while Michael was in Boulder playing soccer, I sliced my finger pretty badly while cutting up a pumpkin for a recipe I was making. Since the truck was dead, I had to call on a co-worker that lives nearby to take me to urgent care. When Michael did come home, he had gotten injured at his soccer game (soccer ball to the groin, pulled hamstring, and sore back).

My finger is slowly healing...but typing is hard.

hello out there

So until a few minutes ago, I hadn't even logged in since Tuesday. For those who left me messages, I do apologize.

This week has been an alpacapalooza week...a lot of farm chores and alpaca business stuff happened all week, and looks like it will be continuing this coming week. Don't get me wrong, hauling 50-pound bags of llama chow, giving enemas to the constipated baby alpaca, and attending a multi-hour alpaca association meeting where we spent way too long arguing about how to revise the committee structure were all exciting adventures!

This week I'll spend part of Tuesday watching Pokie getting knocked up. sometimes farm life is weird, eh?

well, maybe not so weird compared to my very nerdy alter ego, past life as a physicist. I am not embarrassed to admit that I LOVE the new song and video "white and nerdy". Can anyone else identify the equation in the background?

busy week

hello kind readers. I have been a very busy lady this past week. Here's the week in review:

Sunday: the new baby was born. We've decided to name her Amiya (a-ME-ah)

Monday: long day at work since I missed a lot of work the week before.

Tuesday: missed more work due to post-natal vet exam in the middle of the day...sigh, behind again!

Wednesday: after work went to visit my friend with cancer. She's doing great. I'll have more info to come.

Thursday: had my friends Brooks and Lisa to the house for dinner...we had invited them up after they got engaged (in July), and this was the earliest we could arrange it!

Friday: another long day at work followed by crashing out early

Saturday: had some work people up to the house to visit

Sunday (today): spent 3 hours (9-12) working with the herd (worming and toenail trimming); after lunch spending another 3 hours outside picking tomatoes. Then went to Boulder to our CSA's annual end-of-season celebration. When we came home we set up our construction work light and picked raspberries. Today Michael and I picked 5 gallons of tiny tomatoes and several cups of raspberries. (And 5 eggs today). We should have a frost tonight, so we wanted to make sure to get as much as we can. There are still TONS of tomatoes out there...we'll see what survives!

If anyone is interested in tomatoes (they are large pea-sized), please let us know!

I'm hoping for a calmer week this week and a chance to reconnect with friends I haven't seen in ages and ages (PB this means you!)

It's A GIRL

This morning Pokie had her baby, and it's a girl! Our little girl is 16 pounds, 7 ounces, and is light brown. She's got a little bit of white under her chin and behind her right front knee. She's very active and seems to be quite healthy.

This little girl is super feisty...she was standing within 30 minutes of being born and escaped twice from the pen we put her and mom in!

Any name suggestions are welcome!

false alarms and uterine torsions

Ok, so it turns out Pokie was not in labor, but instead had a uterine torsion. After a day of watching her suffer and not go into stage 2 of labor (water breaks, vaginal dilation, pushing, baby coming out), I called the vet. My hunky vet came out and after a very quick exam, said she had a uterine torsion. This means that her uterus was twisted 180degrees.

Here's a nice description that I found online:

If you think about your arms as the two horns and place them in front of you in the shape of a "Y" you

would be a normal (alpaca) uterus. In a clockwise uterine torsion your left arm would go over

top of your right. In a counter-clockwise torsion your right arm would go over top of

your left. The torsion can be anywhere from 90 degrees to 360 degrees and

beyond. The place where it twists is normally near the cervix. This prevents the

cervix from dilating and will prevent birth if it is not corrected.

So the way we fixed it: my vet gave her a shot of anesthesia and after she got sleepy, we helped her lay down. While he held the baby still by applying pressure on her belly, we rolled her over in the direction of the twist (counter-clockwise). She was out cold for 45minutes, but the procedure lasted only about 2. I stayed with her and kept the other alpacas away from her and held her head until she woke up. The whole herd was worried about her, especially her daughter, Samsara. They kept coming over and trying to get her to move.

Once she woke up and started eating, she seemed like a whole different animal...back to normal Pokie behavior! What a relief. Now we're on baby watch again. Apparantly her cervix is slightly dilated, and since this "procedure" was done, she could deliver tonight or tomorrow or in a few more days.

Thanks for all your thoughts and well-wishes :) I'll let you all know how things turn out.

wating on a delivery

I am at home this morning, waiting to see if Pokie will deliver. She was sure acting like it earlier this morning, but now I'm not sure. She was showing a lot of "classic signs" at 7am...straining, staring off into space, being separate from the herd. She has had a few nibbles of food, but she hasn't really eaten (a very un-Pokie like behavior). So I'm sitting around watching and waiting.

I think that my presence outside was distracting to her, so I came in to spy on her from the window. Strange, I know, but I'm not sure what else to do. at least this way I can check email and do some work-related stuff (and cook my bean soup for dinner!)

I'll keep ya'll posted.

bunny is a rooster

Bunny, our gender-nebulous chicken, is now confirmed to have rooster traits. Yesterday morning while eating breakfast, I heard a rooster crow...and the sound clearly came from our hen house! I went outside and there she was, flapping her wings and crowing a rooster crow. So I suppose I need to stop using female pronouns when I refer to Bunny. Sigh. We'll have to figure out what to do with her/him.

And this morning I found out one of my friends has cancer.

13 eggs yesterday (we had forgotten to collect them on Thursday). 4 more pumpkins harvested today and a few more cups of raspberries.