Ice Skating, Halpern Homestead Style!

During the winter the webbed footed gang have been practicing their ice skating skills. The frozen pond was just what they needed.

Depending on the day, you could see all of them sliding around on the ice, trying to keep their balance.

They were getting pretty good.

Julies even got some practice. 

The pond has since thawed and the birds are back to swimming. The fish seemed to have made it through the winter as well. 

Thanks for reading!

The Pond

We put in a pond for the ducks and geese who have refused to use it so far

But Juliette doesn't mind. Less crowded that way!

An Update on Juliette

Juliette is slowly improving. She still needs her rest and she has been getting a lot of it. She has a cough and runny nose still. We have been unhooking her IV and letting her outside whenever we can go with her. She has been barking at her favorite squirrel tree, chasing the chickens and helping me in the garden. 

The IV fluids make her cold and she shivers, so we put blankets on her.

She gets pretty tired outside and lays down to rest often. It is really nice to see her outside even if she is just resting.

Yesterday I worked in the garden for hours and she was outside with me the whole time.

Hi dad!

Lots of smells in here!

Delicious!

"I'm coming"

We took the IV out on Saturday night. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she wont need a new one for a long time.

Thanks for reading and thank you for all of your nice comments.

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?

Thanks for reading

 It hasn't been several years

Mousing, Halpern Homestead record, and winter madness.

Since the addition of a silly cat named Henry awhile back, the mice have been on high alert. He is a master hunter! We often find mousicles in the yard or see him throwing them around. He brings them to the house to show off, then him and Julies throw the mouse around for awhile. 

How about a play by play.......

He waits in the bushes before slowly creeping out.

Looks around for prey.

Licks his lips in anticipation.

He then enlists the help of his hired 'Muscle'

He marks the spot.

 She digs.

No luck here

 Hi dad.

Winter gave Spokane a huge blast this past week or so. It is so cold, the birds are reluctant to come out if the coop. Usually just the webbed footed ones are brave enough to test the cold. It was -8 degrees last week. Brrrr.

 The birds know how to keep warm though. They make big bird piles at night and huddle up together.

 They also set a Halpern Homestead record yesterday. A 20egg day! That's a lot. We have been getting over a dozen a day for more then a week, and the productivity keeps increasing. Each day another egg more than the last.

It's also Chanukah right now so we have lots of family dinners to attend. We hosted the family at our house last night. We served free range turkey and a vegetarian spaghetti. Everything was so good!

 We tried to take a family photo, but Henry wasn't having any of that.

 That's better.

 Grandpa and Grandma Halpern.

 Some photos of the snow mess.

 We bought this 300gallon stock tank on CL for $125. We plan to us it as a bigger pond for the webbies this spring. Just need to flatten some ground for it. We will also use it for livestock when we move to our forever home.

That's it! 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. 

:-)

Chicks are growing up so fast!

For those of you who already know our dog Juliette, this may not be a surprise to you, but she loves baby chicks, ducks, geese, and anything else new on the farm. We have our hatching operation setup in the office of our house. Julies waits in front of the door at all hours hoping to get in.

This is the bin that holds the fresh babies when they are still fragile.

We gave them some play time out of the bin to see how stable they were with temperature changes.

Looks like they were pretty safe.

They grow up so fast! We decided today, that they were ready to go to the outside brooder box in the coop. 

So we gathered them up!

One by one, we gathered a handful and headed for the barn.

A safe arrival. They were very happy. Running around and exploring.

Jumping too! Top right of the photo!

Last couple in.

White chicken "Ummm.... Hello? Are you leaving us here? Don't you see that big fuzzy thing in the window? Take her please!!!!"

Julies loves the chickens!

We have 24 more eggs in the incubator now. As of 9/9/10 24 of 24 were fertile. They should come out on Sept. 25th. Very excited for this! I am really enjoying having baby chicks in the fall. It used to be that baby chicks were a sign of spring. Not at the Halpern Homestead! Chicks year round!

Thanks for reading!

Mike