Sunday, May 8, 2011

Email and last week

Again please email me at ebonwald@gmail.com from now on. My arvig account is inaccessible and I cannot go and retrieve any old emails either.

Last week was a week that I never want to ever live through again. With the cold, rainy, muddy, windy spring I've had the spectrum of atrocities happen here. Sick animals, animals not responding to treatment and losing them. Unexpected losses, hard ones too.

My chickens have gone completely in to eating all their eggs unless I sit there and watch them lay them. I put a rooster in with them and it doesn't seem to help. I don't have their indoor/outdoor chicken door ready yet so I just gave up and let them all outside. I'm sick of losing so many eggs each day. I knew the 7 new ones did this and no matter what I did, or supplied, they still ate them. I am furious and disappointed.

My cell phone died last week and in the course of two days I got two new phones...a replacement for my newest phone and a replacement for my back up phone. So in the end it was ok, and i got 10 dollars off my next purchase of accessories b.c. I was the nicest customer they'd had in days! I was SUPER nice, as I always am and it was recognized and rewarded!

I lost my parakeet of 10 years, Kipper. He was my first cage bird, and he stayed here longer than any other cage bird I had. I miss his singing already.

My desktop is still broken.

I'm finally starting my spring clean ups, but not having any income for 6 weeks really sucks. No snow to push and it was too cold/ rainy with heavy frosts every night to go start clean ups any sooner.

I am STILL without green grass.......and although its starting to turn, my sheep are still on hay and they hate this fact and remind me every time I go outside. they are completely spoiled.

I've had ewes with no milk for their lambs this year. I'm also supplementing EVERY BFL lamb, and four Shetland lambs.

I've had a ewe with mastitis. Lord talk about one end of the spectrum to the other!

At any rate I'll stop there.

This spring has been the wettest, coldest, windiest, spring on record in my county and I am feeling it through and through.

Yesterday I had my first lamb of the second round of lambing. A gorgeous moorit ewe lamb out of WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) and WhitePine Naomi (Wintertime Blues x SP Nirvana). She's got the most crimpy and consistent fleece I've seen this year from a moorit so I'm pretty stoked about her.

I'm hoping gas continues to go down. otherwise my trip to Oregon and back for BSG is going to be so costly for my transportation I'm doing for fellow shepherds.

Off to tend to the critters. Today is a better day. Let's hope they continue to get better :)

8 comments:

Michelle said...

Garrett, I'm glad to hear today is a better day. I am SO SORRY to hear of all the set-backs and heartaches you've been suffering recently! You deserve a gold medal for being such a good customer when things were going so badly for you; many of us take our frustrations out on others and you obviously didn't. You're a good man (with great sheep). :-) I keep trying to drum up more sheep business for your Oregon trip; hopefully some of them will pan out.

Anonymous said...

Where are you going to in Oregon? Probably too far away from me, (I live on the coast, 30 miles from the California border), but if you needed a place to bunk, hubby and I could put you up here. I'm so sorry to hear about all the stuff that's been happening. Hopefully getting it off your chest will help. I know it helps me...

Sabrina Wille Erickson said...

So sorry things have been rough for you, Garrett. Our spring weather has been miserable up here...but I know you all were hit even harder with precipitation down there.

Some years all the bad is just heaped up. It is never fun to live through one of those years. I hope it all starts getting smoother for you very soon.

Take care!

Kelly said...

My dear friend....you know as well as anyone how badly I feel for your loses. Just let me say...you are one of the most inspirational people I know. You love every single animal that crosses your path, you treat it with respect and do your utmost to be a good steward of your domestic charges. Don't beat yourself up too badly when mother nature decides to let you have it with both barrels.
Glad you days are getting better, and try to remember that the Good Lord never gives us more than we can handle. Obviously, he knows you are one of the strong ones.
all my best-K

Cynthia said...

I am so hoping that this next week will help turn your life around darlin'. This has been an absolutely HORRID year for all of us in the Midwest and I know what you speak of. Our trees sent out buds just the last day. Our sheep are nuts for food and the hay just isn't keeping them in good health. I have had to let animals onto fields that will die from them eating the budding grasses but there is no more money waiting for this spring to spring and animals must eat.

So many hugs and so much love sent your way.

Potosi Sheep Farm said...

And I thought my week was bad! Your week beats mine for sure. Hope spring come to MN soon so you can get to work and have grass for the sheep. Hugs and prayers coming your way.

Potosi Sheep Farm said...

PS. You ARE one of the sweetest, nicest people I know!!!!

Jenny Holden said...

Hey Garrett, poor you! You're really going through it. I really hope that the good days roll in now, you deserve them.
Sending grass-greening thoughts from across the pond x

A long time coming!

 It has been a long time. Too long in fact. We lost access to our farm website and ebonwald website when WEBS.COM was closed by VistaPrint. ...