Thursday, March 31, 2011

We made it!

After what seemed like the longest car ride EVER, we made it to PCB.

Wd did extremely well on the ride down. Considering that we left around 10:30 am and got here around 7, GA time. We watched Spiderman2 at least twice, Bambi, Ratatouille, Land Before Time, and Wheels on the Bus. 
Wd is extremely excited. This is going to be an awesome weekend!
Be back Monday!!
<3

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Where did Spring go?

Yesterday was a rainy, cold day. Much like today, minus the rain.
I'm really missing the Spring Weather we've had in the last couple weeks.
I took Bella to the vet for her second Mitaban bath yesterday. Next week they will do another skin scrape to see if the baths are killing the mites. *fingers crossed* Honestly, she looks terrible. She has a face only we could love right now! Ronny says she has elephant skin, and that's exactly what it looks like. People look at me like I'm carrying around the Antichrist when I take her in the vet, it's ridiculous. I mean really, do you think I would be handling/holding a dog with the scary and extremely contagious mange. Heck no! I just keep telling myself it will all be over soon and she'll be back to her beautiful self.

My chicks are growing like weeds! They are so stinking cute. Although, I am down to 4. The smallest one was dead when I went to feed and water them last night. The 3 Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks that I bought a few weeks ago are almost ready to go out to the coop with the big guys. They are starting to get some of the 'silver lacing' on their feathers and are looking really pretty.
Fence construction has been put on hold. The weather has pretty much ruined that for now.

What a depressing post so far, huh? geez
.
Good news is that we are going to the beach this weekend with Ronny's family! It will be us, Ronny's Mom, his 2 sisters and their families. I am extremely excited! WD is too. Ronny, not so much. He travels a lot with work, so going on a trip isn't as appealing to him...at all. So, getting him on board was rough.
We went to Tybee Island last year on the same sort of 'family trip' and it was just too darn cold to enjoy the beach. So, I'm hoping for warmer weather this time around.

I'll end with a few pics from around my little 'Barnyard'.
Also, on yesterdays trip to collect eggs, I realized I miscounted chickens. I left out the 2 New Hampshire hens. I'm sure they would be disappointed if they knew I forgot them. ;)

 My Blue Wheaten Ameraucana Rooster, Elvis, and 2 of his Hens.
 Bella a couple days after we got her. I'll post a recent pic soon, so you guys can see the 'Elephant Skin'
 Partial view of the current Chicken Coop/Goat Lot/Bunny Home
 BoBo and Bruno after a day on the Lake
 My first chick!
 One of the Ameraucana eggs. It was the exact color of Caroline's shirt.
Little in the rabbit house. Still not sure how she managed this.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Here goes nothin'

Pretty sure everyone's first post starts with that title.
Anyways, Ive decided to start a blog to chronicle all the excitement that happens here around the Bass household.
I guess I will start with some background info to bring everyone up to speed.
From the day we moved into this house [going on 2 years ago] I have wanted to fence in majority of our land, to fulfill my dream of having lots of farm animals.
After months of begging, Ronny finally gave in late winter 2009. So, I started out with one of those 10x10 dog lot deals with 4 panels + the 'chickenbarn' [a shed that was on the property when we bought it that I painted red, and Wyatt appropriately named] and had around 7 chickens in there. Well, those chickens lived a short life here. They fell prey to Ronny's Blue Heeler, Bo, after Ronny thought it would be a good idea to let them 'free range' around the property.
Next purchase was 12 baby chicks, this time last year. Once those guys were big enough, I managed to get my hands on another 4 panels. The chicken lot grew and was relocated to a lower end of our property. Now that we had a larger area I knew I could talk Ronny into a goat...ok, 2 goats. So I had 10 chickens[we lost some in the transport] and my 2 goats, Stella and Little. Over last summer I lost 3 more chickens to the heat.
A few months ago my brother in law, Ryan, gave us 4 more panels. Ronny talked Mobley into helping him move everything one last time, to the location they are now.

We have 16 Chickens[Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Wheaten Amerucanas], 2 Bunnys, and 2 goats. I recently hatched 5 chicks in the incubator!! It was really exciting, but wasn't as great of a turn out as I had hoped for...I started with 36 eggs. Hoping the next go around will be more productive.

Now on to more stuff that's been going on lately...
We also have 3 dogs: Bo [Ronny's Blue Heeler], Bruno[my mini schnauzer], and recently added Bella, another blue heeler and girlfriend for BoBo. It took months of searching to find Miss Bella. Ronny is extremely picky when it comes to the 'look' of a Blue Heeler. When I found Bella, I knew I had found a keeper. She was perfect, lots of blue coloring and a perfect little face. We got Bella when she was 6 weeks old. The Thursday after we got her, she was bitten/attacked by my father-in-laws 14 year old, territorial dog, KC. She seemed ok, she wasn't bleeding anywhere, but her right legs went stiff and she went into shock. So off to the emergency vet we went. She spent the night there, and we learned there was no fractures or breaks in her spine. They were hoping her legs was just part of going into shock. [I guess it would be like Godzilla slapping us around.] We picked her up the next morning and took her to our local vet. She spent two days there on an IV and then they sent her home. She was eating well, but unable to move her legs correctly. They told us she had suffered alot of nerve damage and she needed time. Being so young she had youth on her side and they had a lot of hope for her. Slowly but surely she kept getting better with her walking and I spent a lot of time down on the floor helping her. She is walking fine now and up to normal puppy shenanigans.
Just as we thought we were in the clear with Bella...these little sores popped up all over her head and back. So back to the vet we went. After 2 visits they determined that she has Demodectic Mange, also called Demodex. Luckily, this isn't the scary manage that is extremely contagious and horrible. It's a type of mite that all dogs carry, passed to them from their mother. Puppy's with weak immune systems and some dogs who go through trauma and stress become susceptible to the mites. Thus, causing hair loss and crusty, scaly skin. So, the stress from the KC incident likely caused the mange. We are going weekly for Mitaban Dips at the vet to kill all the mites. Hopefully in a few months we will have a pretty puppy again. ;)

Ronny has some time off from work so he told me he was going to begin fence construction! I'm SO excited! He has one side of posts up, and because of rain and running into trees he had to stop. When we bought the house we knew we had 3.5 acres, but we always said it seemed smaller. Ronny decided to do some clearing last spring and found where a lot of our property was...an extremely over grown thicket. We even found a boat on a trailer! It was crazy. Anyways, we pretty much just bush hogged it all and now they are clearing the rest of the trees to make way for the new fence. :)

That pretty much sums up our background, sorry so long. Now future posts will make sense. 
I will be posting daily...I hope.
<3