Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our neighbours to the South.  I hope you have a wonderful celebration and enjoy your friends and family and lots of turkey and trimmings.



Update is Due...

Well, I'd say that an update is due.  I've been very busy with life things and well, sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day.  When life is busy, blogging is what suffers.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few updates on life in the past couple of months.  Thanks for your patience, bloggy friends!!

A Bloggy Giveaway

Linda over at Sewfine Quilts is having a giveaway!  You can get in on the fun, too - just visit her blog HERE, leave a comment asking to be included, then do a post on your own blog about her giveaway!  Pretty easy and she's got a lovely table topper and a couple of other neat things that you could win!  Good luck everyone!!!

Rueben the Rooster

We've had Rueben the rooster for almost two years now.  He was an SPCA seizure and I adopted him from them when I was in picking up some budgies for Greyhaven.  He had been tied BY HIS FOOT (!!!!!) and seized in a cruelty investigation.  They treated his foot and I adopted him when his foot was well again.
 

Well, Rueben now has a thing called Bumblefoot.  It's a relatively common occurence in chickens/roosters caused by staphylococcus bacteria.  If the bird gets an open sore in the foot, the bacteria can enter and cause the infection which can include redness and swelling with pus and can be very painful for the animal.  Rueben has been hiding up at the far end of the pen for a couple of days.  He was fighting with Roscoe, one of the other roosters last week, and was knocked down in the pecking order.  I suspect it was because his foot was sore.



Rueben the rooster

I have now isolated Rueben in a large cage in the barn away from the other chickens.  I have treated his foot with some (believe it or not) Preparation H to reduce the swelling.  Tomorrow I will head to Langley to get some antibiotics and proper treatment cream for him.  I have done some research on this condition which, in 20+ years of poultry keeping I've never seen, although I HAVE heard of it in parrots. Poor Rueben.  Hopefully he will be back in action soon.  When we put his food and water in his cage tonight, he seemed very thirsty.  Good thing we noticed him up at the far end (it's over 100 feet long and the weeds are very long right now).  So, he has nice clean water and fresh food now, and a safe, clean place to sleep tonight.  It's always a bit stressful treating the outside animals because we don't see them all the time like the inside animals.  Rueben is used to being handled and fussed over, however, and he's a very good patient, thank goodness.  When I picked him up at the SPCA, the girls there had grown very attached to him.


I have to be very careful in treating Bumblefoot.  The staph or other bacteria that cause the abscess can infect humans.  Best to wear gloves in case of any open sores or nicks on your hands.  It also can be transmitted to the inside birds.
 
Hopefully Rueben will be back to his old self in no time. I'll keep you updated!



I Won!!!

I won a bloggy giveaway this morning!  Janet over at Olde Crow Primitives had an Awesome Autumn Giveaway.  Her DH drew the names this morning and I came in second place!!  The autumn header that you see above was my prize!!!!  I'm SO excited!!!  Janet even put a parrot on it (I think that is my Maya) - how thoughtful!!

Thank you so much, Janet - I just LOVE it!

If you have time, go on over to Janet's blog and have a look around.  She has some fun stuff for sale, too!!

When Depression Wins

Monday brought with it a sad story from the hockey world.  One of the Canucks' (our home team) previous players was found dead in his apartment in Alberta - apparently from suicide.  Rick Rypien was a gritty centre for the club for six years.  He had signed with the Winnipeg Jets for this upcoming year.

Vancouver Canucks'
Former Centreman
Rick Rypien
1984-2011

Depression affects everyone.  As a fellow sufferer, let me tell you that you CANNOT judge anyone unless you've walked a mile in their shoes.  It's a horrible affliction (a chemical imbalance) - one that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.  My heart goes out to Rick's family and former team mates and I really feel for what he may have been going through.  Apparently he had suffered with depression for a decade or so.  Perhaps he couldn't get it under control with medication, or the medication wasn't right for him, or didn't take his medication - no one will ever know now.

A seemingly bright light in the hockey world in the form of talent and the result of many years of hard work.  What a shame that the light has been snuffed out.  Depression has won again. He was only 27.

My thoughts and prayers are with those Rick left behind.  Their questions will never be answered.  Rest in Peace, Rick.

Awesome Autumn Giveaway at Olde Crow Primitives!

My sister, Janet, over at Olde Crow Primitives is having - well, just like the title says - an Awesome Autumn Giveaway!!!  Go on over to her blog and check it out!  It's a great giveaway with some great stuff!!!  You must be a follower of her blog, but all the rules are posted oh her blog,so go check it out right away!

Thanks, Janet!

Treasures from Craigslist

I love Craigslist!!!! I have found many treasures on Craigslist over the past several years.  I have two foster birds that came to me through Craigslist.  Our livestock guardian dog, Jake, was posted on Craigslist.  Our two new rescue goats were posted on Craigslist.  And so it goes....

The other day, I took Dad with me to North Vancouver, where we picked up my latest Craigslist treasure.  It's so lovely and I have been looking for one like it for YEARS.  I have a couple of places in mind for it, but can't decide quite yet.  Here's a photo (courtesy of Moe, as you know my camera is MIA).

My latest "Craigslist" treasure!!

This cabinet is taller than me!  It's solid pine, and has SO much character.  I got it for a great price, too!  Thanks again, Moe.

I LOVE Craigslist!!!

Proud As Can Be - A Corby Starlet is Born!!

I have a sister back in Ontario.  Her name is Janet (you can visit her blog HERE) and she's married to an amazing man named Stan.  They live in a hundred-year-old farmhouse and they farm the land (can't remember right now how many acres they have).  Stan also has an interest in aircraft - namely, homebuilt aircraft!  I have visited a couple of times over the years and seen Stan's project in the big shop, but never dreamed of all the time it REALLY entailed to complete such a thing.  We got an e-mail a couple of weeks back from Stan telling us that his project was complete and that it just needed some tweaking and fine tuning.  Here is his e-mail dated June 27, 2011......

A Corby Starlet is Born

Howdy Folks,

Just thought I would send you some pics of the birthing of my brand new Corby Starlet that was 10 years in the making. Well actually some parts are ten years old and and others are every where in between. It was moved from the shop to the hanger today and I am starting to get used to the idea that this thing may actually fly! Kinda like a flying sports car and should be fun to fly once I stop my knees from knocking. Lots of testing to do yet and then will see if this thing can defy gravity.

Cheers

Stan (photos below)

I am just so proud of Stan and Stan, I can't imagine how proud YOU must be - congratulations!!!!  What an accomplishment!!  Hard to fathom the magnitude of such a task.  Can't believe it was TEN years in the making!  What dedication and determination!!!!!  We will be waiting for updates on that Corby Starlet. 

Shower With a Friend?

Today I showered with two friends. Now, before you go thinking that I'm some weirdo, let me explain.  Birds need showers.  Humans need showers.  I have two shower perches in my shower so that I can take one or two birds into the shower with me to get their showers.  This helps to (ahem) "kill two birds with one stone" - if you'll pardon the pun!  :-)  It's pretty easy to just put each bird on a perch and go about having my shower.  I don't have any RECENT shower photos (only the birds, only the birds, don't worry!!! LOL), but I have a couple of old ones that I'll post.

The last three days, I've showered with 6 birds - today it was two African Greys, yesterday it was two Quakers, and the day before that, it was three Quakers.  Bella & Bobby share a perch.  My cockatiel, Cheek, does NOT like to shower nor does Elmo, another Quaker.  Elmo will sit on the top rail, though, and tell us all how it's done!! He looks so tough up there, but if I go to pick him up and put him in the water, he's bound and bent to get away - he's such a cutie-pie!

Here are the pics I promised.  They are a few years old, but at least you can get a feel for showering birds.

Maya in the shower

Maya again

Bobby (middle) & Bella and Maya in behind BEFORE getting wet!

Maya & Theodore

Most of the birds enjoy their showers.  Maya actually squawks if you hog the water - LOL!  She likes a nice, solid spray of water and turns back and forth.  Theodore doesn't really care for his showers - he keeps his feathers tight to his body and the water rolls off so he looks like he hasn't had a shower when we're finished.  Abby has no tummy feathers (she's a plucker), so she gets wet whether or not she wants to. 

So, save water - shower with a friend today!!