Busy on the farm

Been busy here at Apple Jack Creek.

Sasha is learning to walk on a lead, and doing fairly well, though she still crowds me sometimes, she has figured out that if you walk forward when the halter tightens, it lets go, so she will follow along nicely for the most part. She had a bit of mastitis - our first time dealing with that - but it has been clear for the last two days, so whew.

Tonight she got to go out to the ditch on a tie out cable and mow the long grass out there. That worked pretty well, which is good. Might as well have her mow it down as me do it with the scythe then carry it to her!

I got some tomatoes and peppers at the store (good prices now while it's all in season) and made salsa, and canned some potatoes and froze up some perogies. We had some of those for supper tonight and they turned our well, which is good. They are slow to make, though not difficult, especially with the bread maker to mix the dough and the pasta machine to roll it out.

We hadn't seen Mackenzie today, and just as I was starting to worry, he sauntered in and lay down in the shade under the hallway that connects the north and south wings of our house. As we ate supper, he moved out front, where we could see him ... and I noticed he had some abrasions on his front leg. It took three of us to get a better look - The Reluctant Farmer and The Boy holding him down while I clipped off fur and tried to get a better view of the wound. There is some sort of hash on his foreleg, but it has scabbed over and is clearly very, very tender. We slathered calendula ointment on it (he will lick it, and at least this is safe if he ingests it, I made it myself so I know what's in it), and have him tied in the barn (with metal cable, as he will chew through anything else, and honestly I wouldn't be shocked if he figured out how to escape from this, either). He did go directly into Sasha's milking stall and lie down, refused ordinary food (though he gladly ate the treats we bribed hiim with) and wasn't interested in water, either. Hmmm. He's also got a small puncture on his nose, a bloodshot eye, and an abrasion on the rear leg on the same side as the injured foreleg. Battle wounds, exacerbated by licking? Maybe. We'll keep him in the barnyard for the next while and see how he does. He is nearly impossible to transport, so taking him to the vet is only for something really, really dire ... It's just so hard on him. Fortunately, my vet understands this and will happily advise over the phone, so I'll give her a call tomorrow and get her advice before the weekend.

The adventure never ends, but I still wouldn't trade it for city life no matter what. :)