It’s been a wild ride the last several weeks. From family stuff to wildlife stuff to farm upkeep and dog rescue, annnnnnd the work that pays the feed bills, I have had my hands full.
First off I am so grateful for the folks who have ordered prints. Making them - I mean actually having to set aside time to do something I LOVE, has been what keeps me sane. As much as I am grateful for the income it brings, I also don’t view it as work. It is the most gratifying process from start to finish. Speaking with customers about the wood they prefer (or sheet metal), editing the photos, printing and mounting the photos, the sanding, keeping the customer updated on the process, and then personally delivering or shipping them out is always therapeutic.
August has been pretty slow with petsitting due to this last little outbreak of colds/ allergies/ or other funk, so I’ve been more active this month at the shelter.
Yesterday the wildlife removal company took the final step in the exclusion service they performed and removed the one way door since nothing has been spotted on the camera since Sunday night, and closing up the crawl! I am thrilled. As much as adore and love all the wildlife, we can’t go through another winter waking up to skunk smell and hearing the brawling between the skunks, opossums, and cat that were living under there.
After I got home last night from a full day away from the farm helping out with family stuff the next town over, as I was putting up the ducks I noticed Quack Nicholson had fly strike. If you are not familiar with fly strike, it can be deadly and this was my first experience with it. I soaked Quack in an epsom salt bath for 20 minutes (in which I had to hold his body under the water and his head above in a most awkward position, so it felt like hours) and will take him to the vet today. Since I’m not familiar at all with it, all I had to go on in immediate care at home was what I found on the internet, and it seems depending on how bad his case is - which was a quarter sized patch of exposed flesh being devoured by maggots, he may have a long road to recovery, and could even possibly not make it. Birds are very risky to anesthetize, but this will likely have to happen in order to clean the wound and remove all the maggots.
I’ll update later this eve when we’ve seen the vet.
I’m off to work outside a bit before the heat rolls in!
xo
-s
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