Rabid Sheep!

Phil and I finally got smart and headed up to start digging as soon as we were up (Phil did chores first, though). By about 7:15 we were up there, along with Joe, who woke, bleary-eyed, and wanted to join us. Phil asked him to hold the rake, and he faithfully held it for the next twenty minutes, swaying a bit as he woke up the rest of the way.

It took us about an hour to mostly fill in the rest of the enormous holes. After breakfast (24 eggs and half a loaf of bread), Phil took the older boys up to water the trees. While I wouldn't say they were entirely willing, nor entirely focused, they worked on that project for about six hours, and watered almost 200 trees between the two of them. (One would be in charge of moving the hose, while the other held the watering wand over the tree.) At about 6pm, it started to rain, and they gratefully ceased.

Phil and I planted trees. Well, I also did a massive quantity of dishes, and he also laid out some irrigation line. We hope to get the replacement parts for our drip irrigation tomorrow, and there's about 5000 feet of line to lay out.

This portion of tree planting progressed slowly. When Phil scraped the topsoil off before augering the holes, the excess created mini-mountains. And we have to level these by hand in order to 1) to back fill the holes entirely, 2) to drive any equipment through in the future, and 3) to help the grass grow so the sheep can graze. What a project. We got 15 more in the ground. By my calculation this evening, we have 115 to go. We're getting there!

As I was going from orchard to homestead to get more minerals, I felt a little pricker in my shoe. When I felt it again, I realized it was actually a bee. Yes, somehow a bee flew into the extremely small space between foot and shoe and stung the top of my foot to let me know it was there. When I removed my foot, it flew away. Baking soda paste removed the pain almost immediately.

Towards evening, I was again fetching something when I noticed Isabella foaming at the mouth. And not just a little. She had strings of mucus-like saliva flowing from her mouth, mounding on the ground. Foam out her nose, out her mouth.

Rabies? And she in a pen with our new cows! No!

Phil and I set up an emergency pen in the cattle trailer, and dragged and pushed the stubborn ewe into it. I gathered up every bit of sheep spit I could and tossed it out of the pen. Of course, if she has something bad, surely the other animals could get it, too. They all share a waterer, after all.

Once she was confined, I checked online for possible diagnoses. Bloat was an option, and she had a protruding left side, but her sides always protrude, and she hasn't had many (any?) fresh greens, and, of course, no grain.

The other option was choking, and that seemed to fit. She seemed to be coughing up something.

Oh, joy. To help a choking sheep, the owner needs to tube the sheep. So with Phil holding her back end steady, I took a length of hose, perhaps 30 inches long, and tried to stick it down her throat.

By now, she had foamy saliva everywhere. And she wasn't thrilled to have hose inserted deep into her body. The first time, I think she managed to clamp down on it and it didn't even reach the back of her mouth. The second time, though, I was more determined, and just pushed it down and down.

Suddenly mucus and green stuff flowed out of the end of the tube. Then Isabella really fought me, so I pulled the tube out. Stuck in it were kelp granules.

Kelp is a wonderful dietary supplement. Because it comes out of the sea, it contains all the trace elements in the proper proportions that people (and, I suppose, animals) need them. Since we got cows, we have four buckets with four different supplements for the animals to choose from: a "free choice mineral program." The kelp has been wildly popular with all animals. Isabella, apparently, went crazy with kelp. The granules expanded inside her and began to choke her.

That tubing trick did the job, though. Immediate relief from foaming and gagging. Her side was not so distended.

And I had something exciting to write about.

Shortly after that, the rain commenced. And, thanks be to God, it has rained hard for several hours, much more than the measly one-third of an inch predicted.