Dexter

Hi! Hope everyone had a great weekend! I got a new kitty over the weekend. His name is Dexter. The person that owned him was going to dump him at the pound, so I volunteered to take him. I didn't want to go to the pound. 

He's about twelve weeks old and has huge feet; he has one extra toe per foot. Cats with extra toes are considered lucky to sailors as their extra toes are said to make them better on boats and better mousers. Ernest Hemingway had a pile of polydactyl cats; his first polydactyl cat was a gift from sea Captain Stanley Dexter (hence where my  cat's name comes from). 

Here's a great article on polydactyl cats:

11-thing-didnt-know-polydactyl-cats

As Summer Winds Down

The end of August draws near. I am totally OK with that. I am looking forward to fall. I am looking forward to the Autumn Equinox and Samhain. I am looking forward to the beauty of the leaves turning colour. I am looking forward to life slowing down.

I haven't been doing much this week, been feeling a little under the weather. I got a bit of outdoor stuff done, but mostly tried to catch up on some online work. I am so thankful I work from home and have such flexible work. I'm not feeling horrible, but honestly I would have a bit of a hard tome working a 50 hours work week like this.

The Christmas sales have started online so I've been trying to focus on cleaning up my stores and getting more art. Another reason I like fall; the art paychecks! :)

All the critters are doing good, thankfully no more duck deaths (knock wood!). The week of having guests near the pond has totally tamed the ducks and now they have turned into terrible adorable beggers.

This was the scene at my front door today ...

This comical trio is my Saxony Ducks. They are big, loud, clumsy and hilarious.

The Bay of Fundy

Last week, I had some friends over for my annual "Friends Fiesta". It was a crazy fun relaxing week :) It was great to see some Ontario friends that I haven't seen in many months and meet some new Nova Scotia friends. On the Wednesday, we went to see the bay of Fundy ...

“The Natural World, Greatest Tides: The greatest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy.... Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia, has the greatest mean spring range with 14.5 metres (47.5 feet) and an extreme range of 16.3 metres (53.5 feet).”
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Fundy

It was really cool seeing the tide go out so quickly! WOW! Here's some before and after pics.

Burncoat Head park- it's free, very cool, and they let you go right down on the ocean floor! 

Me at the beach down the road from Burntcoat Head Park.

Flipflops and the ocean floor don't mix well! They really sunk in the muddy parts of the fround (some was mud and some was rock)

My lovely friend Carol :) 

My son Travis

It was a crazy fun day and very cool! Definitely something worth going to check out!

Duck Update

Greetings Friends!

I just wanted to give everyone a quick duck update. I ended up taking them to the vet and the vet said there was an "Unidentified" disease killing ducklings this summer and their symptoms/death matches it. There wasn't anything the vet could do to help. He recommended continuing with the herbal immunity boosters I had already been giving them- coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and colloidal silver. Since the last two died, I have had no more ducklings die. I now have two ducklings left (They are not much ducklings anymore as they are almost as big as there mom!)

The ducks are all doing great and getting along with each other well. The Saxon ducks have finally gotten use to people and are coming up to the house for food now. They are such a hoot!)

Here's a video my son made of the ducks and hens:

Hugs and love!

Dying Ducks

Sorry, I haven't blogged in a bit. I have been crazy busy getting ready for my campout that starts this weekend, haven't been feeling very well, and have been fighting to keep my Muscovy ducks alive.

Back when I got the Muscovies, about a month ago, I had one pass on. I have no idea why and as their is limited duck illness info online it's really hard to figure out the cause. The other ducklings seemed healthy, so I assumed it was a fluke and moved on. Over the last three days, I've lost three more of the ducklings, one a day :( All died exactly the same as the original duckling did. They went from super healthy looking to dead in 48 hours. Obviously its some sort of disease. :( My heart is broken. I lost Fred, Shaggy and Scooby. All I have left is Velma and Daphne :( and Mom.

I called the New Glasgow vet, but sadly they don't see ducks. The only vet I could find in Nova Scotia that would see them is the Fundy Vet, which is about an hour drive away. Unfortunately, most vets have no idea what they are doing when it comes to "livestock". When I lived outside of Sarnia in farming community, I called six vets about a sick hen and none of them would see her :(

Google tells me to start giving the ducks (and hens) apple cider vinegar in their water, as it can help fight disease. That's easy for the hens, but not so easy for the ducks as they are in the pond. I'm going to try giving them food with apple cider vinegar in it, hopefully they'll eat it!

I pray my other ducks don't get sick! I'm terrified I'm going to lose all my ducks. The Saxony ducks are all still looking really healthy and at least they are adults. Adults are of course better at fighting off disease than youngsters are. I'm told waterfowl young have a really high mortality rate.

I'll keep you all updated.

Hugs and love!

Health Tests

Hi! Hope everyone is having a great week!

As many of you know I have been dealing with some serious health problems over the last year. My test results are in, so i thought I’d let you know the results:

I have Sarcoidosis, which is an autoimmune disease with no known cause. On the disease scale it’s not horrible and certainly moderately manageable. It means my immune system has gone nuts, particularly in my lungs, and I have a lot of inflammation, which can make it hard to breath and cause a fair amount of pain. It can spread to other organs, but mine is only in my lungs (at the moment)

Just like pernicious anemia ((I have had pernicious anemia for about ten years, which means my body kills B12, which means I cannot make new blood) there is no known cure. Obviously my immune system is crazy stupid and hates me.

A specialist will be calling in 3-4 weeks to set up an appointment, so I can get proper treatment (although, sometimes proper treatment is simply doing nothing as it can just magically go away on its own).
I am breathing a sigh of relief, because I was terrified it was cancer (i think that’s sadly where all our brains go when someone gets seriously ill)

Although there is no known cause for the disease, the Doctor suspects that the mold and wood smoke in the Coe Hill home probably caused it :( Mold seems to be a huge starting factor with the disease.

Hugs and love!