Apollo Before and After

The top photo is of Apollo taken by the tractor in the summer of 2008. The second photo I took of Apollo today (2/26/2009) behind the barn. That's Artemis in front of him. The top photo is clearer because I took it with my camera, the other I took with my phone. But you can see how much bigger his tail is.

This will be Apollo's first real tail. Last year he grew 7 eye feathers. I can't begin to count his eye feathers this year. I will get to count them in the fall when he sheds them. Then next year he will grow an even better tail.

I could watch Apollo all day. Apparently I'm the only one, all the "girls" at the barn walk right past him when he's strutting his stuff. Last year I was so excited when his eye feathers showed up. I didn't know he was too young to grow a full tail.

I might try to hatch a few of their eggs this year. Last year they were too young to really make fertile eggs and I never saw them mating. I will only try to hatch the eggs if I see them mating. I hope it is more "romantic" than chicken sex.

Hoover Turns Two Years Old

Our boy, the Hoove, turns two today. We're lucky to know his birthday because he was born in a shelter. So we are also lucky to know that he was never abused or neglected. Really we are so in love with this crazy mutt.

To start his day off right we gave him a double tummy rub and for the rest of the day he was the King. So really it was just like any other day

Banana Trees

I have some friends who do landscaping and they were taking two banana trees out of someones yard at the end of summer. They hated to just throw them away but where could they find a place for two banana trees to spend the winter in New York? Me, jumping up and down like a maniac, Hello, I have a green house!

So these two huge banana trees show up and I find one pot big enough and another pot not quite big enough and we dragged them into the greenhouse and potted them up. I have no idea how we will ever move them!

The trees got through the potting shock and were doing great when we had the first serious cold spell. This was the perfect time for the heater in the greenhouse to quit. Of course it was a Friday night and when I looked into the greenhouse on Saturday morning I couldn't imagine what was going on. The banana trees were missing and all the other plants were black, as if there had been a fire or something. I went running in and it was freezing. The temp overnight had been down in the single digits.

I didn't know if the banana trees could possibly survive. The huge, red-green leaves that had been pointing to the sky were drooping, black, and brittle. With in a week each tree sent out a new leaf from the middle of the plant. I cut off all the old leaves and slowly new leaves have been coming up ever since. I should have taken picture of them after the freeze so I could really appreciate their amazing comeback but I didn't want to remember them like that if they didn't rebound.

Hoover's Six Month Pacemaker Check Up

Here's a picture of Hoover in the lobby of the Animal Medical Center in New York City.



I can't thank the great veterinarians enough. Hoover wouldn't be alive if it weren't for their quick work. Today we found out that the pacemaker signals Hoover's heart to beat 74% of the time. All the tests show that everything is working normally and we don't have to go back for another six months. The battery should still be good for 4 more years.

Poor Hoover, he isn't cut out to be a city dog. The noise and the traffic were too much for him. While we were in the waiting room a NYPD officer and German Shepard came in. Then a Rottweiler came in. Hoover is terrified of large dogs. There were also 2 ferrets, an iguana, at least 5 Yorkies, 2 cats, a golden retriever, dachshund, beagle and a Scottie. There were no problems between any animals it was totally peaceful. Pretty amazing in my book.

If you live near New York City and your pet needs care that your regular vet can't provide, this is the place to go.

Salad in the Snow

Here's Kirby having a salad in the snow. I've heard of other people's pigs who hate going out in the cold but Kirby is pretty hardy. She will go out no matter the temp but she would prefer that the sun be shining. She will lay out in a sunny spot when it is 20F if there isn't any wind.

A little snow

Today we are getting a bit of snow. I'm very happy to see the snow as I prefer it to the ugly brown grass. I just wish it could have waited to show for another day because I have to drive Hoover into the city for his pacemaker check up tomorrow.

Here's a video I took with my phone. A little grainy but I wanted to capture snow falling so I can watch it when it is all gone.

If you want to see some really beautiful pictures of snow you should look here
Link

A little visitor at the barn

My first day back from Florida I went down to the barn and I should have know right away that something wasn't right. All the goats were all standing outside, nervous. Inside the goat stall Cleo (emu) and both the peacocks were making odd noises. My first thought was that it was strange for Cleo and the peacocks to be in the stall together. I went inside the barn and opened the inner door and found a little possum (opossum?) cowering in the corner.



I was startled and slammed the door. Then I realized that the poor little thing must be terrified having a giant emu threatening it. Of course Cleo was doing "her job", protecting everyone. I have no idea what the peacocks were doing. I've never seen them act like they were defending the barnyard.



I needed to get the possum out of the barn but I didn't want to be the one to do it. I'm not proud of my fear of dealing with this little guy. I believe if I had taken a moment to think about it I would have figured out how to get it out myself, and I would have had the presence of mind to AT LEAST get a picture of it in the stall. So I'm embarrassed to say that I called my husband and he got the critter out of the barn. Then it occurred to me that I wanted to get a picture. So all of these pictures are of him out in the snow (oh, I miss all that snow!)

Have you been eating poop?

Of all the crazy things that I hear myself say. I know that Hoover, given the opportunity, will eat Kirby's poo. I try to pick up the poop before he gets a chance but sometimes...well...sometimes he gets it fresh from the "oven".

Yeah, it is a disgusting thought. And it is hard to miss "poo breath" when it hits you in the face. It is really bad if he has already started kissing me before I notice. I really really love Hoover so I manage to get over his nasty habits.

Now this reminds me of something that I meant to bring up earlier. During my trip to Florida I unfortunately had many opportunities to visit many public restrooms. I was very disgusted to find in nearly every restroom (I can say that in every single rest stop along the highway I found the nasty toilets) women had peed all over the toilet seat. I truly don't understand why this has to happen. Women! Listen! To! Me! STOP PEEING ALL OVER THE TOILET SEATS IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS!! This is disgusting, rude, unnecessary behavior. It is unacceptable and it MUST stop. I fear that you seat peers are having the next generation of seat peers. You must teach your children NOT TO PEE ON THE TOILET SEAT. I sincerely doubt that you do this in your home or at friends' homes so don't do it in public restrooms.

I hate the melt

So for three days now it has been melting. All my beautiful snow is melting. I take some comfort in the fact that it has been melting for three days and there is still some left. And I hope so very much that the melting will stop before it all goes away. This is the hardest thing for me to watch. I mean you know, watching bad things happening to animals or small children is far harder to watch and I can avoid that but the snow is right out the window and I have to see it every time I go outside. Very unavoidable. Locking myself in some windowless room isn't an option. So the snow is gone from the roof and there are places where I can see dead grass. It is almost physically painful. I was so happy when I got back from FL and found that there was more snow than when I left. I only had two days to enjoy before it started melting.

Finally

Here is a picture of Nigel (my Garmin) with the statistic of our 3 day drive. I must explain the 85 mph maximum speed. There was a semi coming up behind me and I really think he was going to mow right through me if I didn't get out of his way. I had to speed up to pass the semi that was on my right. Really Officer, I swear.

It is amazing how exhausting driving is. Of course if I factor in the fact that my father woke me up at 5:30 the last two mornings and I'm really functioning on a bit of sleep deprivation. He doesn't understand why I'm tired when he isn't. Well it might have something to do with the fact that he sleeps for most of the car ride while I'm driving.

But we're here safe and somewhat sound. The place they're renting is really nice. It will be very comfortable for them for the next two months.