There's always something when you live on a farm...

After we got all the critters fed Saturday night, it was time to shut the chickens up. We keep the ducklings pinned up in the back of the chicken coop where they have access to their little pond of water. We trotted around back, peas in hand for their usual late night snack. To our surprise, Jon had a terrible cut on his bill! Not just any cut, a rather large cut and a huge, swollen lump.

Of course, we snatched him up and put him in a cage by himself in the house. Upon further investigation of his bill, it appears that he snagged it on some wire, only hooking himself more as he tried to free himself. Thus leaving it scraped and tore.

He's stable as of now, his bill is clean, and he's tucked away safe in the garage where he gets medicated twice a day. I don't think there's any need for him to be taken to the vet -- unless he gets progressively worse. We have Vetericyn, which is a miracle spray! I don't ever want to not have that on hand.

The anticipation of the 4th is really starting to get to me. But come on, it's only FOUR days away!! Since we have so many people coming down -- we're up to 6 now -- we're going to split our festivities into not one, but two days. Friday (the 4th) is mainly going to be a big family-ish BBQ with a few fireworks. Saturday is our big to do, which is what I'm looking forward to.

Not only will we be BBQing yet again, but we'll be setting off ALL our fireworks that night... all of them! We're also going to have a humongous bonfire, music, drinking, S'mores!! There are many good times to be had, my friends. I hope everyone has a blast this 4th, it's been too long.

All three of the kittens have some type of URI going on, which sucks and is not fun for anyone involved. Not only are the poor kittens miserable, but we have to worry about them potentially infecting the other outside cats. I call the vet a little while ago and explained the situation. Because she's so awesome and knows that we have so many kittens, she agreed to just perscribe them in some meds, which we'll be picking up Wed.

I completely forgot to ask if she had time to neuter Declan and Neal that day. It's either then or Thurs., because they wont be there Friday -- it's not like we would want to have neuters done that day anyways -- so I need to remember to call tomorrow and see if she has time.

I'm SO nervous to get these two neutered!! It's a must, though, they're getting far too old to be housed with a female nearing the age of maturity. I definitely don't want either of them fighting over her, I'm sure she would agree.

I know I'm missing a key subject in this blog. OH! I remember, we got our fleece today! It's a print that the lady picked out, but we matched the solids. The remaining fleece will be used for a rattie cage set, which I'm ecstatic about! I'm hoping we have enough to make doubles of everything -- the rats are so bad to chew and gnaw on their cage set items... it's frustrating. So there's another task for Wed., along with a dive to Fredericktown, neuters, stopping by the grocery store, grabbing a couple last minute fireworks, cleaning the glider cages, AND trimming everyone's nails. Yeah.. it's going to be a rough day.

Until then, I suppose I should try to rest up. I have a long day of work tomorrow, then an evening longer day of running errands. At least I'm off for a couple days after that.

Love & Peace

-Megan

Here's our poor mangled duck:

The fleece that arrived today:

And lastly, Toby and his ever funny sleeping patterns: