Happy Fourth of July!!!

 Oh what do you do in the summer time when the weather is hot? Turn on the hose and play in the water with your Aunt Toni? You don't have an Aunt Toni. I'm sorry, she's really fun!!!

Our middle grand daughter said yesterday was the best day ever. She said that when she went sledding down our front lawn for the first time too. It is the simple pleasures that make her the happiest.

These simple pleasures put a pretty big grin on our youngest's face too. You can't see it but I'm smiling big too. Happy Fourth of July!!!

Chicory Has Staphylococcal Folliculitas

 Admit it, you had to use phonics and carefully sound out the disease. I know I did. How come they have to make these scientific names so hard to say? Why don't they just call it what it looks like, Staffy's pussy hair root. It may not sound all fancy but you know the cause and just what it looks like and where it is,  right? That's pretty informational.

But since no-one wants to name a disease they've researched and spent countless hours working on -pussy hair root, I guess we'll just have to give it a nickname. I'm definitely not going to try to spell or say that big mouthful. Staphylococcal can cause lots of different diseases like mastitis and it is just manifesting itself in the roots of hair follicles in this  particuliar form.

Staffy Pussy Hair Root disease, is common in goats, sheep, and horses. We don't see it much because it happens in areas of high humidity or rainy weather and we usually have neither. This year we have had an unusually wet spring and tada... here it is. I've had this disease strike a few times before and it has stayed on the udder and teats, never reaching the stage where it spreads all over the goat and causes it considerable discomfort and embarrassment.  No goat wants to seen with large patches of missing hair. The poor things don't even have a curtain to hide behind like dogs do.

You will be shocked but due to the Fourth of July being right around the corner, I'm booked trying to get ready for family which is coming home and I didn't have time to research the subject to death which is my usual M.O. Disappointed, well I have a link here for you just in case you need more information.

I couldn't find any pictures of goats with this disease, just humans with the problem. So lucky you, ta da... here they are. Feeling a bit nervous, don't worry, I've never gotten Staffry Pussy Hair Root disease from a goat. So no, you aren't going to go bald any time soon, unless it's already in your genes to do so and I can't do anything about that.

I do recommend disinfecting your hands after treating the animal and better yet using plastic disposable gloves. To treat the disease you can follow the instructions on the link or you can try my method which is to, like them,  pop the pustuls or better yet find someone in the family that loves popping pimples and let them have at it. There is usually one in evey family. One in my family I swear was born a monkey, she could never leave a scab or anything like it alone.

But dear me, I've gotten off track again. Hm...then I Betadine the area to kill germs and dry up the pustul. Don't water down the Betadine but use it straight from the bottle. This is the stuff surgeons use on you to disinfect the area they are going to do surgery on.

Be sure and milk your other goats first before the infected animal and disinfect your hands after treatment. In most cases this disease will not spread to other animals in the herd unless they come in direct contact with the bacteria. Your hands can do that so be carefull. This is why it is a good idea to use disposable plastic gloves you can then toss.  

 Some also recommend giving broad ban penicillin shots but since Chicory's case is light, I'm just going to treat the small area and see what happens. I hate to use peniccilin if I don't really have to.  The Betadine is working well for now and if I need to go up a stage, I will try using watered down Clorox. I know they don't recommend it but I've used Betadine on Athletes foot and it works well but in a bad case, I've resorted to watered down Clorox and that works great too. You just have to make sure and water it down well. I know for a fact it kills Staphylococcal bacteria.

If you question if this is really what your goat has and you don't want to just jump in to treat it, then you'll have to take it to a vet and have them culture some of the drainage from a pustul. Vets are a long journey for us and quite expensive. Honest vets in our area will admit they know extremely little about goats and why should they? They hardly ever have to treat one. Another good reason to treat first and call if I can't clear something up. Then, LOL, I've been known to take pictures and ask for a diagnoses based on them. I don't want the poor animal to have to remain in the trailer for hours while I do my shopping. No, I don't go to shopping very often and when I do, like today, it takes hours.

Heres that link and let me know if you get the research bug and find something wonderful. I will probably do more digging on the subject when the holiday is over. http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/staphDermatitis06.html 

Photography

 Bleeding Heart

Pronghorn Antelope (Photo taken early spring)

Don't know the kind of flower this is but I love the tiny shiny wax like pedals. (I've found the best flowers to put in your garden are not purchased from the greenhouse but given from your neighbors. You know they will grow in your climate and soil. )

It's Moving Day

Get in gear, hurry, hurry, hurry, it's almost moving day. There's so much to be done. The truck will be here on Tuesday and it's driver won't be smiling if we aren't ready. 

Admit it. You thought I was talking to the bees, didn't you. Nope, I was talking to myself. You do that when you get older. It helps keep your creaking frame you punished when you were young, moving. My Monday and Tuesday were extreme rush days for the weather man had me pressed up against the wall. 

The clock may rule your day but weather rules mine and after months of cool temperatures, summer is throwing her hand in the mix and all of a sudden ninety Fahrenheit temps are knocking at our door. 

That means:

1. Eleven Cornish chickens had to be processed just in case they didn't survive the heat and I got nothing in return for all the feed I put into them.

2. Bess's fence had to be secured for yaks occupation, since she can handle the heat and the yaks aren't suppose to be able to, so they get her shed for a few days. Yes, we've yet to build shade for them.

3.Two goat gates needed to be rebuilt before company arrives on the fourth of July for they will for sure want to go through them and see the goats. I'd rather not impale them in the process.

4. We needed some clean clothes and hence, seven loads of laundry awaited my attention.

5. The drain pipe that broke on Sunday had to be replaced.

6. The lawn and garden needed watering before the high heat arrived.

And there was no way I could do it all myself, especially the drain replacing and gate rebuilding. ( I don't weld and I don't do plumbing.) Kirk agreed to take Tuesday off from work to handle what I couldn't do.

So first thing Monday after livestock chores, I began on the Cornish. Then washed and hung the laundry on the line two loads at a time while the sun was hot and dried them quickly. And finally, come evening, I began working on the hives. 

The first order of business was to shrink the hives down to three boxes, not five. That meant taking the extra boxes off and brushing each boxess's nine frames with a soft bristled brush to remove the bees and deposit them near the hive. The extra boxes full of partially filled cells of honey were then set aside to be moved separately. Three boxes is quite enough weight for our aching backs to lift.

 And as I brushed, the sun shining through the golden yellow wax, I couldn't help but think of stained glass windows. I caught myself smiling, feeling very calm and homey. 

No, not homely, though some may say that too. 

When I had gotten down to the queen excluder on each hive, I stopped and replaced the inner frame and lid. Wondering what a queen excluder is? See, I know what your thinking. Well, some of you anyway. Just because I anticipated that question, I took this picture of one. It excludes the queen but not the workers because the queen is bigger and can't fit through.

 In the spring, a queen typically starts laying in the upper boxes because heat rises and it's warmer up there. Can't really blame her but it does cause some problems. So a month ago in preparation of moving, I began carefully shifting the frames with brood on them down into a lower box, hoping the queen was with them. In one hive she was and in the other she wasn't. I knew because I found brood in one of the upper boxes when I checked a week later.

 Kirk asked me why I didn't just look for the queen. I do know the difference between a queen and a worker and no, she's not the one wearing a crown. She's is wearing the same outfit as the worker bees but she's a bit bigger, longer, and has a  more pointy butt. So you see, she doesn't exactly stand out in a crowd so you have to look very carefully and sometimes for quite some time. This is why when you buy bees, you can often request to have your queen painted with a white spot on her back to allow for quicker identification.

My don't have that.

Kirk might have half the day to look and look through hundreds of milling bees, hundreds not thousands only because the queen is most likely to be somewhere near the brood or eggs but I didn't with spring planting heavy on my mind.

 

 Me, I'd rather not mess with the frames too much and take the chance of squashing her by accident. Besides, she has been known to go off gallivanting on rare occasions and be where she isn't suppose to be. like on the edge of the box where she likely will be one of those bees that will loose it's life.  Instead, I just moved a few frames and left most of the boxes in tack. I planned to visit again a week later and just peek to see if there was brood where I didn't want it.

Brood is usually laid in the center frames first and with a glance if a frame has sealed brood, you can spot it with out even taking any frames out of a box. As for eggs, they are so tiny, you have to look up close and careful. By a week, I'd be seeing plenty of brood so if it wasn't present, I could feel confident and take out a few frames to check more closely for eggs and I'd be good to go. 

There are three problems with going through a hive too often.

1.You might kill the queen.

2. You are bound to kill bees, though I do use my manners and call out, "Excuse me, coming through. Get out of the way, I'm putting a box on top of that spot." But inevitably, not everyone listens and  a few crunch sounds can always be heard. 

3. Bees seal things together with wax and propilis. (It is a natural nummer and you can suck on it if you have a sore throat to deaden the pain.) If you continue destroying their work, they spend time repairing the damage that could be spent fulfilling duties that leads to a higher yield of honey production.   

I also had to fasten the remaining boxes together so that they didn't shift in transit, releasing the bees all over the countryside. That is what the hive staples are for. You put pound one end into the lower box and the other end into the upper box securing them together. Then I taped the lids on.

 After the sun went down and the temperatures had dropped significantly, when Kirk and I were wishing we were snug in our beds, we went out with head lamp and flashlight to put window screen over the openings. You have to be a bit careful and try not to shine your light directly onto the openings, as the girls think its a burglar or maybe that it is sunrise, I'm not sure which, they are talking, but for either reason, they try to come out. Since we want them to stay in, we have to work quickly. The fine metal screen keeps the bees in and still allows the passage of air.

,

 Early Tuesday morning we headed out wandering on a two-track road through field of grass where sheep placidly grazed and a couple hawks soared overhead. 

 Their watering hole would now be a tank serviced by a wind mill twirling in the breeze - instead of a dog dish. I couldn't help but envy them, no, not the part about drinking out of a water tank, but the view. Oh how the view spoke to my soul and I ached near to tears wanting to someday be like them. Somewhere where I too could wake up every morning and look out on large expanses of fields. Where man's footprint was light and nature was the  prime decorator.

You Have Been Sequestered

By opening this blog, you have here by been sequestered before Rexroat's high court as a jury member in a case of abuse.

No, you can't get out of it and don't give me any of those mamsy pamsy excuses. You popped into this blog with the intent of reading it and thereby you have the time and means necessary to pronounce judgement upon this case.

Besides, I think it is clad tight. In part, because would any self respecting chicken go around looking like this if they didn't have to?
Self respecting chickens that is, that are not molting and are thereby fulfilling their duty to the best of their ability by laying eggs. I'm only bringing this case before you, all knowledgeable ones, in case there is the slimmest of chances that I'm wrong, that these four fully feathered hens did not do the dirty deed. That they did not torture seven - one year old hens by pulling out a feather or two at a time with their beaks (Ouch!) until they look like they are running around in their red winter underwear. 

    

 

So I ask you ladies and gentlemen, are these four - two year old, fully feathered hens guilty of abuse?   

What shall be their punishment? I'm leaning towards - off with their heads. No, I have not be reading Alice In Wonderland to the grand daughters.

 I did just processed eleven Cornish chickens for the freezer yesterday, since we've skipped the eighties F. and gone to the nineties and I feared the Cornish chickens won't survive. As you can see, they were plenty big enough, making it time for these meat birds to  journey where they will remain nice and cold. 


Possibly, the memory of how much easier chores were to do this morning with out them ,has me thinking in that direction. So jury-- this is the moment to vote. Are these four - two year old hens guilty of torture and do they deserve the death penalty? 

I need each and every one of your votes so if you have trouble commenting on this blog, please fill free to e-mail me your verdict to hollyrexroat@gmail.com. I'll be anxiously awaiting their fate.

THAT Subject

Yes, it is time for THAT subject again. You know the birds and the bees. Only today we are only going to cover the bee part. Yes, I've been reading up on the sex life of a queen. It's so much more interesting than who's sleeping with whom in Hollywood, which I could care less about.

My concern is the survival of my two hives. I'm a bit worried for them. You see hubby says they'd better start producing honey and get off welfare. Yes, due to drought, plagues of grasshoppers and the like, the girls have been having their groceries delivered, not going out and shopping for them themselves, and fixing their own meals. 

I love my bees and in the interest of keeping them, I might be going just a tad bit far. I knocked on their door one cloudy, cold day last week to check on them. It was just a howdy do call as I wasn't dressed for a formal visit being just in a sweatshirt and jeans, not my jumpsuit and bee veil. The butler just told me to go away, they were busy cleaning house and promptly turned around and went back in. She made me feel guilty for my house needed cleaning too. 

At least she wasn't cranky about it for she kept her voice soft with a pleasant hum. I think it was because I knocked softly which is very polite. One doesn't want to stir up trouble especially if one isn't suitably dressed for the occasion. Cloudy days can make them irritable. Cabin fever you know. 

   

I'm a bit worried about what they are eating with all the rainy days we've been having and the fruit trees are done blossoming and the lilac blossoms are starting to wane. All they have left for the most part is some flowers on the prairie. But soon it will be moving day and they can feast on alfalfa. And as for me, I'll be at a loss because almost every day I spend a few minutes just a foot from the hive watching to see what color of pollen they bring in and guessing where it comes from. 

 What one can't help but observe is how different in appearance the bees are despite the fact they are all Italian and have the same mother. Why so different? Well, that is the part where things get spicy.   

Not one to give a hoot for romantic stories I find a bee's love life fascinating. Well, actually on second thought you probably couldn't call it a romantic story, more like an orgy. Yes, I said orgy - get over it. We are talking about insects after all.

I guess I'd just better tell you the facts of life before you get your tail feathers all in a whirl. The queen when she is mature, goes on a maiden flight. She starts out a virgin and whoa does she get busy. The next few days she has one fling after another with drones from other colonies. Enough to last her a lifetime.

The price for such a good time with a queen is death. Dead drones tell no tales. No they aren't killed by assassination like in the case of many vicious female spiders. Instead, they leave their mating organs inside the queen and that kills them. Ouch! 

The queen puts all this to good use though and stores all this sperm inside a sac in her abdomen known as the spermatheca. Every time she lays an egg, and mind you she lays over a thousand a day, she secretes a small amount of sperm from this sac.

The result of the queen's mating flight is the same as all the tom foolery our barn cat Callie does before she has kittens. "Oh that pure black tom is so... handsome I think I'll just have a little fun with him." And a few minutes later she's saying the same thing about the grey tom, and the tabby colored tom, and the Siamese one, and before you know it she's so ladened down she can hardly stand. Like she was doing this morning. Yup, the result of such tom foolery will be a litter of kittens with an assortment of colors. 

The same result happens with bees. I want you to scroll back up and take a good look at this bee collecting pollen on a dandelion blossom.

And this one on the onion blossom.

And this one on the thistle. Note the dark color or light as it may be, along with the width of the black bands. These bees are not all from the same hive but they could be. The one on the dandelion blossom and the one on the onion blossom are. I just needed some good photos to prove my point so I threw in the thistle one too.

This means that some bees in a hive are full siblings and some are half sisters having the same mom but different dads. The same can be said for the drones, only they would be brothers.

The differing fathers add strength to the hive by their genetic differences. One lending genes for superior endurance, another the canny ability to find pollen in a hurry, etc. 

So there you have it the bee part of the birds and the bees story.

Yarn Stash and Yarn tips for Crocheters and Knitters

 I vowed within the next year I was going to go through every storage container I own. Now that is a lot of storage containers as I've 13 grade levels of home school books that my husband insisted I keep and the containers full of fleeces to spin. The overflowing large box of tax returns with is probably way over ten years worth. The boxes and boxes of fabric. Well, you get the idea. And with this going through, I'm going to toss and toss and better organize the rest.

When my temperatures plummeted to the high 93's Fahrenheit, I knew I was in trouble. Especially since I took my temperature under each arm and my tongue to see if they were the same. Not hardly. They  have continued to be two or better degrees difference.  In a normal body, they are close to the same with just a few tenths off. I know I had that once. That is what prompted the, "Your weird." comment from my doctor. Said with a laugh of course because we both know how strange this body of mine behaves and though medical books go to great lengths to describe the human body, mine when faced with these well researched facts replies, " But I don't wanna."


What does that have to do with too much in the storage department of our home. Well, since my family kept saying, "Holly your really purple colored." Then, "Your really red now.", and a little later, "Your really pale.". Know that they weren't describing my clothing. It was a bit disconcerting so I decided that being a chameleon probably wasn't good and low hypothermia temperatures weren't either so you'd be proud of me, I took a sabbatical from work.

Okay, your right, that would be a lie. I didn't really. I did sit on my hiney and watch movies for two days. All except the time to do a bit of quick cooking and livestock chores, the essentials. But to the shock of myself and my husband, I sat on the bed and watched movie after movie while I organized left over garden seeds, and uncluttered my yarn bins. Yes, I said bins as in plural.

I have not gone through them in years and after the fiber fest weekend where I included watching some videos on spinning, I was itching to see what treasures I squirreled away years ago along with some fiber I'd bought a year ago but managed to forget I had. Don't tell me I'm the only one that does this.

What I discovered was a mess. I had a lots of bobbins and many of those had a single ply on them but no mate to which to ply to. So I took them off on to toilet paper centers creating a center pull and an outer pull and plied the those two strands of single ply yarn together forming yarn. I've still two to go. Then there was the scads of balls of yarn which is not the proper way to store it. So I made them up into proper storing skeins. Why not store in balls? Well, it distorts the twist and stresses the yarn. So those in balls had to be rewound and sat in very hot water to relax the fibers. Those are the ones on the clothes line and in the bathroom.

Then there were those in small loops when I was spinning a great deal but had broken my kniddy noddy, (the thing you wind your yarn around). So they had to be rewound. I'm still doing that.

 What I discovered from the relaxing the skeins in water and some just tucked in the bins, was skeins with a balanced yarn like in this picture. See how it hangs in a perfect loop. That means I spun the singles and equally plied two singles back on themselves with equal twist so they balanced out.

 

And I found this wa....y under plied skein which I redid on the spinning wheel. No, I didn't take it a part but just added more twist in the proper direction. This is a good picture to show you. Look at the left hand side of the loop and how it twists to the right. Because I spun the singles with the wheel going to the right and plied with the wheel going to the left. If it is under plied the twist will be to the right.  

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READ THIS FOR TIPS FOR KNITTERS AND CROCHETERS

This skein twists slightly to the left which means it is over plied  just a little. One expert likes her skeins this way because she calls it energy and did you know that depending on whether you are crocheting a project or knitting and whether you are a continental knitter or a thrower, which way you should spin your yarn? I didn't but I did know that years ago when I crocheted if I didn't buy a yarn that haD a tight twist, I frequently split the yarns with my hook. A very frustrating thing. It is because you are untwisting the ply a little with the motion of crocheting said my daughter and the video I'm waiting on.

So if your project is crochet then you should do your single plies with the wheel going to the left and ply with the wheel spinning to the right. That will solve the untwist problem. Now most commercial yarns are made for knitters so beware what you buy. Look for a good solid twist, not an open yarn because remember you will be untwisting the yarn slightly.  

Commercial yarn is great for a continental knitter but not for a thrower knitter because the later style untwists the yarns slightly also. Blow me away. I learned so much in the first few minutes of this video that I had to have it. What video you ask? I don't know but when it comes I'll show you and remind this brain that was so over filled our fiber fest weekend which one it was. There is another one on color I can't wait until it comes out but it isn't ready for sale yet. 

I found in my bins, white yarns from different fleeces because they had a slightly different color and look but of what type of sheep I wasn't positive. Yup, should have labeled. As I spin up more of the fleeces in the basement I'm sure I'll figure it out so I tied the two different types together.

 Lastly, I put the balance and really closely balanced yarns in their proper twist storage shapes and labeled them. Very, very important. Though I could tell for the most part exactly what each skein was by sight and feel, there were those few mysteries. This organizing also allowed me to see how many skeins of each color and type I had so I knew whether I had enough to make hats, scarves, and mittens, or if there was enough for a sweater or vest. I confess, I spin far more than I knit and that has got to change. As for combining colors, it would be only possible with yarns of the same diameter. I'm spinning finer yarns than I once did and now I'm going to start making three and four ply yarns all because of this video I can remember who did it or what the name is.

Some of my yarn I knit for socks but now I've found out that you need a little silk, mohair, or nylon in the yarn for socks to give it a longer wear factor. So I'll be spinning yarn with silk or mohair from now on for socks. 

Stay tuned because I've asked my daughter to ask her friend who knits socks as she walks in the mornings. You heard me right, she knits as she exercises. Not only that but she knits all the socks she wears. That's impressive!!! What I want to know is 1. What types of fibers or combination of fibers she choose. 2. How many plies she prefers? I doubt they are two ply like all the yarns I prepared to make socks with for I've since found out that in a two ply yarn the fiber moves outward from each other. In a three or more ply, which is more likely her choice since it is rounded and the fibers turn inward. Mutiple plies makes the yarn stronger and more water resistant. It takes less yarn to make a garment from a three or more ply than a two ply. Did you know that? I didn't until the video. Cables should be done with a four or five ply yarn to make the cables stick out more pronounced for the four or five ply creates a very rounded yarn. See, I've just got to have this video for I'm paroting it when I talk about two and three ply or more yarns.

But, wait I was talking about socks. I want to know from this gal 3. if there is a favorite stitch for the heels and toes that aids in making them last longer. If anyone should know, this gal will. My goal is to make socks in the next year from the toe up because I've already make six or so from the top down with two ply yarn. I'm going to change to three and four ply and I want to do ones where you make two on one large circular needle at the same time. That is if only I can follow the instructions in the books. Not my strong point.