All is fair in love and Jolly Ball

Alan: I'm cuter and smarter. I win.

George: I'm bigger and stronger. I win.

Alan: You're right. Go ahead. Take it. It's all yours. I am not worthy.

George: Hmm. It appears to be stuck to the ground.

Alan: *snicker*

George: I hate it when you cheat.

It's all fun and games until somebody decides to cheat

It was late Sunday afternoon – a little windy, kind of cloudy, and the herd was passing the time until their next meal.

I looked out the window and saw Hank and Lucy napping. George and Alan were up to something, I knew not what.

I went outside to get a closer look.

They weren't getting into any trouble–for a change–just playing Jolly Ball and looking particularly adorable.

Dear Jolly Ball Manufacturer,

You might want to rethink your claim that "puncturing and biting will not destroy" your product.

Anyway, George and Alan were putting on quite a show, running around with the Jolly Ball ...

... using the Jolly Ball to plow the pasture .... 

... and getting into a spirited game of tug-of-Jolly Ball.

It was all fun and games until somebody decided to cheat. Come back tomorrow to find out who did what to whom.

The promise of another week

Today marks the start of week three of sunroom construction. 

If the weather cooperates, it might be close to finished by Friday.

The stucco crew will be here today to put on the grey coat, followed by the color coat later in the week, if it's warm enough.

The painters will come tomorrow to stain the concrete floor and the French doors. 

Smooch and I can't wait for the film to be gone on all those panes. It's blocking our view.

Meanwhile, the former porch railing is now the garden fence.

Smooch has finally stopped barking at the crew, though she watches their every move.

The walkway has been leveled and made ready for the paving stones.

Should be some kind of fun today watching the guys fit all these pieces together.

I don't know if I'm more excited about the stonework or the pallets that the stones came on.

I plan to turn one of them into one of these. The idea came from the Domestic Doozie's blog, 

and she even has a post on how to hang it. I love the internet.

I knew it was too good to be true

It took Hank three servings of antibiotics on top of his food to decide he didn't want to play that game anymore. 

No problem. I was prepared to go back to my syringe-full of medicine method, newly improved and perfected 

thanks to the very smart readers who commented on this post. Forget everything I said and did then, 

because the following method trumps that and then some.

My new technique is similar, minus the coffee grinder, the applesauce, the cheese spreader, 

and the great big stinkin' mess I made all over my kitchen.

The champagne flute wouldn't even be necessary were I not trying to photograph the process.

I cut the tip off the syringe and widened the opening to about a half inch - big enough to drop in the pills.

I pour in just enough room-temperature water to cover the pills.

...then I stick my finger over the hole and shake the syringe until the pills stop rattling - about 10 seconds is all it takes.

Using the least amount of water possible seems to be the best approach.

The thicker the mixture, the better, so it doesn't spill out of the syringe on the way to the barn
or out of the horse's mouth once you squirt it in.

Then I squirt in a little molasses. It sort of looks like Bosco, don't you think? 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers Bosco.

Where would I be without my chopstick? It's the perfect tool for stirring molasses 

into dissolved pill paste through the top of a cut-off syringe.

With my coffee grinder/applesauce method, I would end up with a full syringe of stuff that was difficult 

to administer in one squirt because my finger-span isn't big enough reach the bottom of the plunger when the syringe is full. 

With this method, there's less stuff and no muss or fuss.

Hank is doing fine, by the way. The swellings on his lower abdomen are barely there, though they seem to have relocated 

to his chest area. Our vet is not convinced we're dealing with dryland distemper/pigeon fever. We'll re-evaluate once the antibiotics run out.

Saturday encore ~ Lucy picks a fight with the wind

Lucy: Sure is taking you a long time to get supper ready. It's cold and we're hungry.

Lucy: And the wind keeps blowing this damned door closed.

Lucy: Stay!

Lucy: How long can it possibly take to cut open a bale of hay?

Lucy: Oh for cryin' out loud...

Lucy: Stay open, you stupid door.

Lucy: I mean it this time.

Lucy: Oh, what's the point...
Do I really want to lose my nose over this?
She's bound to come out with supper eventually.

Deep Voice: Step aside, little lady.

Hank: Let me show you how it's done.

Even the wind doesn't argue with Hank.

Peach's wild ride

It was Thursday at lunchtime, and I went outside to do chores. I shooed all the chickens into their pen, or so I thought, 

and let Wynonna into the yard for the afternoon. I was back at work in my office when something out the window caught my eye.

Peach was having pork for lunch.

Peach: Could you pass the mustard, please?

Peach: Easy there, girlfriend. I'm riding bareback and there's nothing to hang on to.

Wynonna: Get off my back now or I will buck you off.
This isn't my first rodeo, you know.

Wynonna won the go-round, Peach rejoined her sisters in the coop, and I went back to work.

Hank joins the clean plate club

I love you guys. I mean it. You offered up so many great suggestions and recipes on yesterday's post, I will forever be in your debt. 

Never in a million years would I have thought Hank might take his medicine if I simply mixed it in with a little feed. 

That method worked for so many of your horses, I had to try it.

Last night I mixed Hank's medicine with applesauce, spooned it over a bed of timothy pellets, then drizzled it with molasses. 

I've watched enough cooking shows to know the importance of presentation. 

I considered using a china plate or, at the very least, Fiestaware, then thought better of it.

Anyway, I took "dessert" out to the barn and Hank dove right in, much to Lucy's dismay.

Lucy: This doesn't seem fair at all.

Me: It's not polite to stare at Hank while he's eating.

Me: Beg all you want, but you're not getting any.

Hank: Is that all there is?

Me: Yes, except for that little bit on your whiskers.

We've got 22 more servings to get through before the antibiotics run out, and Hank might turn his nose up at the applesauce/molasses concoction at any time, but that's ok. I've got plenty more recipes up my sleeve now, thanks to you all. I can't wait to try the meds and jelly on bread. I'm thinkin' a nice sourdough, or maybe raisin... I wonder if he'd like English muffins?

A syringe full of applesauce helps the medicine go down

This story began about 10 days ago, but let me preface it by saying that Hank seems perfectly fine, he's not acting 

a bit sick or out of sorts, and I'm not freaking out about this too much, so I don't want you to either.

Anyway, Hank developed these symmetrical swellings on his lower abdomen. I've highlighted them in the picture below 

so you can see what I'm talking about. They don't bother him in the least, but they're not supposed to be there.

I called the vet and gave him the whole story. He wanted to start with some blood work. I drew the blood samples over the weekend. 

Hank's blood chemistry is A-OK, but his white cell count is low. The vet thinks maybe we're dealing with dryland distemper, maybe not. 

He recommends a two-week course of antibiotics as the place to start. I picked up the pills on Monday.

Which is the real point of this post. How does one give a horse "15 tablets by mouth twice daily for an initial 14 days"? 

I'll share my method in case any of you find yourselves in a similar predicament. 

And by all means, if you've got a better way, please share! I'm only on day two!

This is my arsenal of supplies, developed and finely tuned from years of experience I'd rather not have acquired.

A mortar and pestle is adequate for grinding up a few pills a day, 

but when you're looking at 15 pills twice a day, I prefer a coffee grinder. Call me lazy.

So you grind up the pills and set them aside.

Then you cap off a 2 oz/60cc dosing syringe with the top of a pen because you've lost the original cap,

and you add enough applesauce to fill the tip and then some.

This is where the champagne flute comes in. It's the perfect extra pair of hands to hold the syringe while you add
the ground-up pills. Scrape the pill powder out of the coffee grinder and into the syringe with a cute ceramic-handled cheese spreader
or equivalent. Add applesauce and a dollop of molasses and stir with a chopstick until combined. 

This next part is where it gets tricky...

With enough practice, you won't be wiping applesauce off the ceiling.

Then the real fun begins and you go outside, halter you horse, and squirt the contents as far back in his mouth as possible.
I have no pictures to show you of that part, as it requires two hands...actually three or four would be better.