Fall Walks on the Farm

Kelsi and I are lucky enough to not have to leave home to take the dogs on a walk. During the fall is especially nice, since the field grass is not as tall and the tics have long since disappeared from the blades of grass along the deer trails.

We usually head up the upper field since there are many game trails. On this walk we kept hearing a noise behind us. We looked, but did not see anything. 

Weird, what was that noise?

Was it you Julies?

Julies: "Not me"

I see something coming down the trail; what is it?

Hard to tell.

Matilda!

She likes to follows on walks!

Once we start heading back all the animals run for the bottom of the hill.

We found Matilda waiting on this old farm tire.

And Khma was anxiously waiting near Matilda.

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How we relax at The Halpern Homestead

It has been busy at The Halpern Homestead ever since the weather has finally turned for the better in Spokane. With all the work in the garden and the greenhouse, we have been very busy. Our busy spring schedule has been hard on the animals too! 

We always have the animals running around, coming, and going at all hours.

So when the time is right, our animals like to rest. Like walter here, taking a break in the lawn.

Or Khma, resting on the sidewalk.

Henry's dirt nap!

Juliette, resting by the tree, looking over the land.

Greenhouse naps are a must when helping mom and dad run the greenhouse sale.

Dust baths and naps.

Hammock naps.

Pillow hogging naps.

Raised bed naps.

Hoses are the best nose pillows naps.

Daddy's lap naps!

Hope you animals are enjoying the warm weather as much as ours are!

Our dog, Juliette, is very ill.

We have had Juliette for nearly 4 years now. She just turned 4 on the 9th of March. We have known that Juliette has kidney disease since she was very young. We were told she may live for "several years". Juliette has recently taken a turn for the worst.  She started out not eating a few days ago which was ok for her, since somedays she just doesn't want to eat. Then she became very fatigued and tired. Yesterday she developed a cough so we decided it was time to get to the vet. When we got there she was running a high fever so they ran some blood tests and discovered her kidneys are failing because her kidney enzymes are very high, her blood cells are low which causes fatigue, and she has developed leukopenia (fancy term for: her immune system is weakened and she can't fight infections as well). The doctor starter her on IV fluids and we rushed her over to the pet emergency clinic with the IV running.

The emergency clinic held her all night, kept the fluids running and gave her antibiotics. Her temperature was up and down all night and into today. She appeared more lively this morning when Kelsi picked her up from the Pet ER. Then Kelsi had to take Juliette to the regular vet for her daytime fluids and monitoring.

I visited her this afternoon after my nursing school clinicals. We went on a short walk and she appeared to be more like herself. More smiles and wags. Just not quite herself yet. This afternoon the vet ran her blood work again and she is still abnormal in the same areas but, she has improved somewhat. They said we could take her home for the night.

She was happy to see us but, still very tired. She just laid around while we got our discharge instructions. We were allowed to continue the IV therapy at home because of my work and school training. So now Julies is resting on the couch while her IV infuses.

I think she is happy to be home. She is very sleepy still and we are hoping for the best. It has not been "several years" in my opinion and I am not ready to lose my best friend. I really hope that she pulls through. She is the best dog a small homestead could ever hope for. She protects her chickens, she protects her little sister, she eats all the leftover vegetables, and helps the cat hunt mice in the field. What more could you want in a dog?

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 It hasn't been several years

Happy Birthday to My Daughter!

It's Juliette's birthday!

She turns four today.

For her birthday, she got a split elk antler that was shed naturally.

If you can't tell, she digs it.

She won't even hold still long enough for me to take a decent picture.

But, I suppose, it is her birthday.

♥

Free food!

Kelsi and I came across a sweet deal on apples and grapes yesterday. They were free! A friend of my parents is moving out of state this month and they had grape vines and apple trees that were loaded, and the fruit was going to stay that way all winter. So we went and picked some! I picked 80 pounds of apples and 50 pounds of grapes. My mom and dad picked 112 pounds of grapes and 193 pounds of apples. If anyone out there has any suggestions for us on how to us all of this, let us know!

The unfortunate thing about grapes, is that they are on a vine. We diligently separated the grapes from their stems for a couple hours. We had some help from our animal friends to. 

It was hard work!

This is the end result. The grapes are in a 7.5 gallon pot. 

 Yumm! This is what 114cups of grapes looks like! But, we couldn't have done it without all of the help we received from our four legged friends

 Khma

 Khma

 Henry

Julies!

Thanks for reading!

Poor Little Khma

Khma had to have surgery last Thursday to fix her luxating patella. This is her right after surgery.

She was very sad and would cry whenever we would touch her. It was awful!

But on the plus side, this is her today...

Even though she looks a little scared here, she is actually doing a lot better. She is hopping around on her three legs and appears to be pretty happy. Thank goodness.

For the first day she wouldn't eat or drink, so I went out and bought some baby food for her. Since she is doing so much better, I gave the rest of her baby food to Jules.

She was having fun playing with the bowl.

I'm surprised there isn't more rice on her nose!

It is amazing the love that I feel for these silly animals. 

They are really like my children. 

:-)

Our Farm is Starting to Look Awfully Fowl!

At the Halpern Homestead, we are having to wade through a yard full of birds, hopping and jumping all the way. We love baby chicks, so we have a lot of full grown hens now. We like it, but our yard is always full of them. They have acres to run on, but they really only like to be by the house in the front yard. Heres what the yard looked like a couple of days ago.

Tawny, Lois, Rhonda

Rhonda, Betty, Lois

Bella

Kelsi and Tawny

Fancy

Willis! Our female duckin

Sophie's head and Willis

Blue, our male duck

Sophie and Willis

The water fowl running from the camera. 

Julies and I looking for squirrels

If anyone is wondering why we have been posting so much these past two days, we have a good reason. The garden is planted. The weather is poopy. We are running out of spring projects. Just today Kels asked me how much paint costs so we can paint an out building thats looking a little rough.

Thanks for reading!