Schoonover Farm Blog

has grown here at Team Schoonover Farm.  So not only is our largest, main nighttime coyote barking and scumbag intimidating “guard” dog out of the lineup, now our main fixer-upper, hay hauling, beagle whispering, greenhouse tending player is out too.

Tom fell off the top of a pile of scrap metal on a trailer yesterday afternoon.  There was a special at Skagit Recycling yesterday, $300 per ton for scrap metal.  Apparently there were long lines and the local news media there.  This is considered big excitement here in Skagit County.  I was excited because I was going to get rid of some junk.  So we were scrounging around finding stuff that was too inaccessible when we were initially hauling tons of junk (literally) out of here when we bought the place.  I ended up falling twice into waist deep mud going after some metal.  Here is Tom pulling the scrap from out back to the front yard.

After some rearranging, Tom was on top of the pile to compress it so he could get it strapped down.  Well he fell, and his left shoulder and ribs hit some of the metal on the deck of the trailer.  I then had turned and watched as he barely missing hitting his head on a metal beam and ended up flipping over and landing on his feet.  But he was really hurting.  He sat down for a bit before he could tell me where.  I was initially thinking I might need to call 911.  But once the dust settled I figured out that it was his left shoulder and ribs that were hurting but he was having trouble breathing too.  But it was from the pain in taking a breath, not from having any difficulty bringing in air.  So I washed the mud off me, called the doctor’s office, loaded him into the truck and brought him to the clinic.  We then went to get X-rays.  They showed that he had torn the ligaments of the joint between the collarbone and the shoulder-blade and caused some separation there (the AC joint).  He also cracked a rib (fracture).  So he is out of the lineup for 2-4 weeks and if thing do not improve then he will need surgery and be out for longer.  We may not make the playoffs.

To end on a happier note, here are cute goat kids basking in a sun beam in the barn yesterday.

is having a hard time adjusting to being an indoor dog.  We picked her up from the vet today after her ACL repair.  She has  a 6 week rehab assignment ahead of her and is on the DL.  She is not fond of the cat being near her dog food nor the fact that the other dogs are outside and she’s stuck in here.  Then there’s the suture licking issue.  It is going to be a long 6 weeks.

Fixin’ is what we do on the farm.  Usually it is fences and gates, but today was a little different.  When I went out this morning to check on animals, I noticed the door to the feed shed was wide open, and sheep and goats came out.  I was cursing Tom and fearing the worst (widespread bloat) when I discovered the problem above.  The beasts had busted in and broke the door jam for the dead bolt.  I am suspecting Lil, our La Mancha goat, but have no evidence which is good because I was expecting Tom to be pretty mad when he got home.  In the feed shed some alfalfa was eaten, the garbage can knocked over, and the lid to the chicken feed container was off, but it as low so they couldn’t reach it.  The grain bin had been knocked into the chick pen but fortunately we had just put the netting up so they couldn’t get to it or the chick feed.  So somewhat of a mess but nothing dangerous.

After sorting things out and while doing critter chores, I looked up and saw the scene below.  I could have missed it, fretting about things.  But I did stop to notice the beauty around me.  The fog was so dramatic it almost looked like the forest was on fire.

I also noticed all the pollen.  The photo does not do it justice as there is pollen throughout the rain water barrel.  It made me wonder.  I never notice the goats or chickens sneezing.  Do sheep get hay fever?

While I was waiting for Tom, I decided to shear and pluck some bunnies.  I usually forget to do the before photo (and the after photo is not very attractive).  But I did remember to get Susan’s photo.  She looks thrilled, doesn’t she?

When Tom came home, he did not seem mad.  He just said he wasn’t going to fix it and “let them all die”.  So maybe he as a little mad.  But he did fix it.  Hopefully the feed is secure again.

The other chore of the day was giving the goat kids their first shots.  We put them in a pen afterward so we could remember who go their shot and who didn’t.  Then we released them.  Here they are running for relative freedom in the barn.