HISTORY 18

March 2, 2003

Rick just found out he has heart disease - well, angina, anyway. The doctor has him taking two different pills for blood pressure and wearing a nitro patch. This is scary. He gets chest pains sometimes when he's carrying a bale of hay from the upper barn to the lower barn. He may not be able to keep on doing the lion's share of the work with the alpacas. I am already considered disabled because of my lung condition, and I can only do anything for about 10 minutes before I have to quit and catch my breath. We've started to talk about herd dispersal, although our discussions have been mostly just to bring it up, look at each other, and drop the subject. I can't yet bring myself to think of what life might be like without him. I can hardly even say the words.

We had to laugh at Seneca yesterday. After we had fed the 'pacas, cleaned up their poop, given them water, and essentially finished our evening chores, we stayed in the barn for a few minutes just talking with the animals. I tilted my head sideways and looked at Seneca and said "Hi, there!" He tilted his head to look at me. I tilted my head further, and so did he. We kept this up until I couldn't tilt my head any further (my shoulder got in the way). When I straightened my head, he straightened his. It was the cutest thing!

The weather has been harsher this year than ever before in my memory. Most of the winter we haven't seen temperatures above 50 degrees. Almost no sunshine, and that only sporadic, through the clouds.

We have had to close the garage door at night because the winds have been so bad and the garage faces the wrong direction to provide any protection from the wind. With the garage door closed, the poor 'pacas are essentially cooped up in a little 12 x 12 area all night. They're getting a bit cranky, too. You should hear them at meal times! They don't sound like alpacas at all - they sound like pigs, grunting and making the strangest, funniest noises!

We haven't really done any herd health things this winter because of the weather. The 'pacas are pooping in the barn because they couldn't get outside to their poop pile, and the whole center of the barn is a mess. Come spring, we'll have a major job digging all that out of there and cleaning up so that the 'pacas will go outside again. The pile area keeps getting larger because Seneca sniffs the edges, then does his thing ... with his rear facing away from the pile. The others turn around and point their rears into the pile, but not our boy! *grin*

I'm afraid to give Seneca any more AD&E because I know the vitamin E accumulates in the body and can be toxic, but I do worry about the condition of his legs. They seem a little bit straighter, but I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking on my part. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. Seneca is refusing to eat from his cookie sheet any more.. he wants to eat out of the food bins like his mom and aunties do. But the gals keep shoving him away, so I'm not sure he gets very much feed. Fortunately, he's still getting most of his nutrition from his mom.

The goats are doing well, too. They've beaten a path through the snow to the gate... the same path Rick uses when he takes feed and water down to them. As with the 'pacas, we haven't done any herd health stuff with them because of the foul weather. We've had more snow this year than we've had since sometime in the 1970s! More than 28 inches in February alone... lots more snow than I wanna see again, that's for sure! Anyway, the goats seem to be doing fine. Their coats are thick enough to protect them from the cold, and their 3-sided shelter is open on the right side so that the wind doesn't blow directly in on them.

It breaks my heart to think we might have to give all this up.

March 30, 2003

Rick underwent angioplasty two weeks ago, and seems to be feeling much better. I can't say he's back as good as new, but he thinks he's getting there - and that is SUCH a relief!

We're weaning Seneca. He doesn't like it at all. At first, we put him in a pasture with Clovelly, who is pregnant, but she continually attacked him. I don't know why she doesn't like him, but if he tries to eat from the same food bin or the same flake of hay that she's eating from, she immediately starts trying to chew on his ears. She makes the ugliest noises while she's doing this... not at all typical of alpacas! So we've had to move him into a pasture by himself. We can't put him in with Molly - she's still a maiden, due to be bred this spring. So now all the ladies are together, but Seneca is all by himself. He is not a happy camper. He hums a lot in his distress. His mom, on the other hand, scarcely seems to notice that he's gone! She ignores all his pleadings and goes on about her business as if she doesn't even know him!

I'm told we have to keep him away from his mom for at least three weeks. We'll probably keep him separated until Molly is bred, and then let them all stay together again. We'll put Clovelly in the smaller pasture with her cria once she's delivered and before she's re-bred, but then we'll let them all have the run of both pastures, as usual.

I fell over a cat last Friday. I was walking across the room when the cat decided to run right under my feet, and in an effort to avoid stepping on her, I fell hard. I have done something very unpleasant to my left arm, but I don't think it's broken. I have a really lovely bruise - on the inside of my arm! I have no idea why it would be on the part of the arm closest to my body, but that's where it is! I also have a bruise on my thumb and a small abrasion on the instep of my left foot. Other than being unable to lift my arm or hold anything in my left hand, I'm okay, though. It will just take time for all my smashed muscles to collect themselves again!

This does make it hard to take care of the animals. Fortunately, we have a friend who is coming twice a day to help out - don't know what we'd do without him! The only thing he doesn't do is pick up paca poop, so that will just have to wait until my arm gets better, unless Rick decides to do it.

It's snowing today. Temperatures in the 70s yesterday, and today it's snowing! Rick had unplugged all the electric waterers several days ago... and now they are needed again. Which reminds me... he also turned the hose on! I'd better go turn off the water to the hose (it has a nozzle that keeps it from gushing water all day) so that maybe the hose won't freeze and crack.

More later....

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