Almost a tragedy

Today was a rough day. When I went out to milk the goats this morning, Dottie wasn't at her usual post waiting at the gate. She was laying down inside one of the stalls, not feeling well at all. I think she had grass tetany. I left them out too long in the pasture yesterday, and she ate too much. Although the others, and even the horse, are all fine. Dottie is older, though and has been having a harder time after her kids were born this year. Anyway, I thought she was going to die on me.
I offered her all sorts of herbs, vitamins, etc, which she refused all of. Then I got out the big syringe, put about 20cc of propelyne glycol in and gave her a dose of that, orally, at 4 pm. She didn't seem to get any better right away, so I decided I'd better put her down. I sat and cried and told her what a good girl she's been over the years, and generally said goodbye. I was going to have John put her down when he got home. So I said my goodbyes, then went and did all the evening chores. Then I went back over to the dairy side to feed the rest of them, and Dottie was feeling better! So at 6pm I gave her another 20cc of the p.g. and decided to see what happened. I stuck my head out the door at 8 and she was looking up at me with her ears up again. Before they were sticking straight out and droopy. So the p.g. worked and I think she will be okay after all. I'm going to have to start watching her more carefully now that she is getting old and not as robust as she used to be. Her two boys are old enough to start weaning, which I'm doing on Wednesday. She's going to be even more pampered than she has been. I'm sure she will become even more demanding when I do that. :-)
On Saturday, I'm setting up my booth at the Kila Community Coalition's annual "rummage and collectibles" sale. The sale is benefitting the new park that is in the works to go along the new bike path through Kila. It should be pretty nice when it's all done. A good place to take the family and have a picnic, etc. You can ride your bikes there, have a picnic lunch, and ride back home. The sale is from 8am to 4pm at the Kila community church. Easy to get to, it's right on the main road just off the highway as you turn into Kila. So, come check it out. There will be things both inside and outside, so the weather won't matter too much. Should be a fun time!
I still don't have the garden beds done. Tomorrow I'm spending most of the day digging them up and getting them all rebuilt. It's going to look pretty nice when it's all done.
The tulips are still blooming profusely. They look so pretty. So do the daffodils. My little "porch" garden is starting to come up. The lettuce, radishes, spinach and swiss chard are all starting to emerge. The potatoes I planted out in the forest garden are starting to grow finally. The soil is just not very warm yet. It's been raining and cold for a long time now. Hopefully by mid-month things will start to warm up a bit and the garden can be planted and everything will grow well. We will probably have a late fall since the spring is slow. We will still get a good harvest.
Today I took thin baling twine and strung it up above the turkey pen in a grid to keep the predatory birds away from the babies. I'm down to two surviving baby turkeys now. Hope the other two hens hatch out more! There are two sitting on nests now. I think the grid will work because the birds won't be able to fly in and snatch, then take off again. Their wings will get caught in the string. They have pretty big wing-spans, so they won't feel comfortable in coming in under the grid. They wouldn't be able to get back out easily. I only did it over half the pen, though. The half with the bushes and nests in it. The mama birds are hopefully smart enough to figure out that they are safe on that side. The babies have learned quickly to hide when someone sounds the alarm! One I don't ever see out till it's chore time, then it ventures out with the other one. It hides most of the day.
Well, that's all the news for now. More as it happens.....