Another Day on the Farm

We have been living in our house for three years now. In that time so much has been accomplished.  The kitchen is just about completed.  We still have a few things to finish.  We have been sanding and replacing floors downstairs.  The landing upstairs has been neglected. It has been sitting there naked for the last three years.  I have painted the walls and in doing so have dropped paint on the floors.  Green and white.  Small droplets that have to be sanded away or they will show up under the stain.

After sanding for most of the day the job is complete.  We have southern yellow pine floors.  Sometime during the last 50 years the large pine floors have been covered over. After seeing the poor shape of the flooring under these boards downstairs we knew we had to keep them.

While Ted vacuumed all of the sanding dust up I tapped the baseboards to keep the stain and polyurethane from messing them up.

Now the fun begins.  We are staining the floors Provincial by Min Wax.  Word of wisdom. Always start in a corner. 

Looking good! Simple method. Stain on with a sponge and wipe off with rags. How hard can this be?

It is really looking good.  It surpasses my expectations.

It has to dry overnight, and tomorrow morning we will apply the first of three coats of Poly.  Oh I just can't wait.

We are doing the stairs after the landing is completed. 

During all of this we took a break to get and drink and let the dust settle.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the sheep were up in the field.  We noticed that Truffles was still laying down in the shelter.  He never spends the day in there.  We thought that maybe he was feeling poorly after the de-worming yesterday.  We took a walk to check on him and he was just laying there looking at us.  I gave him a B Complex shot, and a 5ml dose of Red Cell thinking that he would get a boost and feel better.  We looked him over closely.  Truffles has always had trouble with his horns growing poorly.  They do not have a good curl and would actually grow into his head and kill him if not trimmed.  Unlike other animals with antlers sheep have a blood supply inside the horn and they will bleed if you just cut them. Last fall we hauled Truffles to the vet to have the horn trimmed and learn how to do it ourselves. It was actually sawed off.  Truffles horn had grown after being on rich pasture all spring and summer.  His horn had grown into the skin and made a sore under it.  In this sore we found a load of maggots.  Totally grossed out and utterly upset we headed back into the house to ready our supplies.  I did think about taking pictures but my camera was upstairs with the floor work.  Thankfully we had purchased an OB saw like the one the vet used.  I gave Truffles a shot of Penicillin G, poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide over the area and we secured his halter to a tree in his pasture to lessen his fear and hold him steady.  Ted took the ob saw handles in each hand and straddled Truffles back so he could saw fast and hard.  The metal cord cauterizes the blood vessel and prevents bleeding.  I had 2 4x4 gauze sponges liberally coated with blood stop, just in case,  and coban wrap at hand.  When the horn came off, no bleeding, we put the gauze and coban wrap on.  We cleaned the open area on the skin and applied Blue Kote.  This medicine is excellent and prevents infection and promotes healing.  The wonderful thing is, Truffles went immediately to the hay and began eating.  It must have been very painful and hurt when he ate.  Thank heavens he is happily grazing in the pasture.  We will check him again in the morning, give another antibiotic shot and spray the wound with Blue Kote again.  I know the maggots gross out many people but they are actually beneficial in cleaning up wounds.  Maggots only eat  putrid flesh and will leave a wound clean and healthy.  I have actually used sterile maggots in the hospital to clean up wounds. Can you imaging reading that order on the chart?  It has been an eventful day and we are exhausted both emotionally and physically.  I can honestly say that I didn't know if we could do it but we did.  I guess having no choice in the matter seals the deal.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm