I thought I’d share with you what happens here on photo taking day. You might think getting cute puppy pictures is easy- especially since the invent of digital cameras, but- you are WRONG, so very wrong. I am going to share with you why.
This afternoon, I am photographing Brussels puppies for their new families. So far, I have taken 168 photos. All but about 40 photos are instantly trashed. The remaining photos I will crop, tweak, sharpen and do whatever I have to do to try to get them to look decent. Many more of those 40 end up trashed too. Some of them I save for the families to get on their CD rom, but won’t put on the website. I may end up with 1-5 decent photos in the end worthy of the website, an email update or an advertisement. Mind you, these still aren’t calendar quality or framing quality photos. They are just clear, sharp, colorful photos- I hope!! Some weeks after taking 170 or so photos, we go back to the drawing board and start over completely. Some weeks, we make do with what we get. I have been known during “puppy season” to take 8 + solid hours taking photos, editing, sending them to families and updating the website with that week’s puppy photos.
So while in the middle of doing photos today, I got the idea to share it with you. Some days are particularly funny. Some days are very trying. Sometimes you get a puppy that won’t wake up. Some times you think about such things like double sided sticky tape and velcro.
Today our subject is Verdell Barkley. He is quite a handsome fella. However, he thinks a cute puppy is more than a pretty face. He wants you to see much, much more than his adorable bearded face. I set Verdell on a blanket on our couch, facing the camera, ready to shoot. I stand back….
Verdell decides to see what’s up on the TOP of the couch!
There’s gotta be something for him up there!
Guess not…..let’s see what’s over the edge….whoa!
Hold me! Squeeze me! That was scary!
Let’s just stay safe and sniff around on the couch….by the way, what is she DO-ING with that annoying flashing thing in my face?
Maybe if I hide my eyes, it’ll go away?
NOPE! Still there!!
Back to sniffing……
and digging…..
and wrestling….
and growling….
and even biting!
“Verdell! Be a good boy and stand still for your pictures…..”
Oh….alright……
JUST KIDDING!!
All that…..and just one still photo. But, wasn’t it worth it?
Surely you will understand if you get a full “action” photo and not just still portraits? I will try NOT to send photos of their hind end’s at least!!
Although…..my favorite all time outtake type photo was this one of Pixie our chihuahua….now talk about a dog on the move. That dog would not stand still for a single thing. We have precious few photos of her because of it. Every time I take photos, they all end up in the trash! So, one day while trashing more Pixie photos from our most recent photo shoot, I came across this one photo. Since it summed her up better than any other photo I had, I kept it. Don’t stare at it too long. The photo starts moving and it’s bound to give someone a seizure. VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Well every year, we take the kids to their 4H Spring Poultry Show. Here they show their birds against other birds for breed conformation, they show their poultry knowledge in showmanship to a judge one on one, they have a judging contest against other kids in grading eggs, judging ready to cook carcasses and candling eggs, and they have an Avian Quiz Bowl game that is like “Jeopardy” with poultry knowledge. I guess you might say- we are a little crazier about chickens than most families. Most families eat chicken– we do so much more than just eat chicken- we are entertained by chicken.
Here is Jacob. He is showing his bantam white Wyandotte to the judge. He is supposed to introduce himself, give history on the breed and then tell the judge about his bird anatomically from head to toe (or tail). He is supposed to talk about the breed standard and why this is a nice bird and what faults it might have. Did you know there is a breed standard for chickens?? Then he is to put the bird in the cage and “show it off” so the judge can see it walk and strut around. Then he takes the bird from the cage- head first only!! and the judge will ask him questions to see how much he knows. He will be judge on all sorts of criteria about himself, how well he spoke, his bird, his handling of the bird and so on. Jacob is naturally quiet and shy so it’s a big deal to get him to do this!
Now it’s Hannah’s turn. She showed a Porcelain Mille Fleur d’Uccle. Hannah is a natural at this. She is awesome at showing and is not shy like I was when I was a kid. She got 2nd place this year in her age division and she just went up into the older kid’s division! She kicks butt at showmanship. She took the big prizes showing her goats the first time last summer too. Did you ever know chickens could be so much fun? We didn’t either until a few years ago. I had no idea poultry clubs existed. It must be a Kansas thing. In Oregon, we eat chicken, or we “save” the chickens- but we don’t show the chickens. I can bet my kids know a whole lot more about poultry than any of you!
Here is Jacob ready for the Avian Quiz Bowl in his age group. I was very proud of him this year just for getting up there this year. Two years ago he got up in front of a large crowd of people -the biggest crowd we’ve ever been to so far for this- to participate in the Avian Bowl for his first time. He kept hitting the button to answer a question, but someone else always got to answer the question. He thought his button was broken. He didn’t get to answer one single question the entire time and he bawled his eyes out the whole time in front of everyone. It was pure agony to watch. The judge felt so sorry for him that he gave him a chance to answer a question without anyone else ringing in and even though Jacob knew it, he was so flustered he answered wrong, which only made it worse. Grandma was in the audience wanted to save him and let him come back and sit down with us, but his mean mother made him stick it out up there till it was over. Later, he learned his button worked but he wasn’t hitting it fast enough.
So- last year Jacob did not want to participate and I didn’t make him. This year, I told him it was time to get over his fear. He understands now why he didn’t get to answer any questions and he KNOWS all the answers but as a result of that first time he has an unhealthy fear of the Avian Bowl. (no, not Avian Flu) He is a shy kid and it takes guts to get him up there in the first place. After crying the whole time 2 years ago in front of everyone and nobody rescued him- he is truly scarred! I’ve decided, since I’m trying to raise him into a MAN with confidence- he needed to face his fear. (Aren’t I mean and terrible?)
So I told Jacob he had to get up there and I wasn’t giving him a choice. If he didn’t want to even push the button once, he didn’t have to, but he had to sit up on the panel. (I am truly a mean mother) So, Jacob got up there. He knew all the answers and had psyched himself into winning, but he got bamboozled by the 6 year old smiling little punk next to him- his friend Graham! Graham hammered the button and hogged the questions because this was his first year and he was so excited to finally be UP there and not just be watching his older sisters. The kid was smoking everyone. Halfway through, Jacob got the hang of it and started hammering the button himself and Graham and Jacob duked it out for the last half. Graham took 1st and Jacob took 2nd. I didn’t care- I was just so glad Jacob overcame his fear. Jacob is BEGGING to go to another Avian Bowl now! (Whew! It worked!)
Here is Jacob with silver and Graham with gold. See? The little punk is STILL smiling.
Here is Hannah with the intermediate panel. She got kicked from beginner to intermediate this year because she turned 10. Last year she slaughtered the other kids. She hit the button and answered so many questions that she didn’t give any other kids a chance as single question. The funny thing is she isn’t even competitive really. She wasn’t even that quick to hit the button. She just knew more than the other kids. If any kid hit the button first, they got the question wrong, then Hannah answered it correctly for them. It went from exciting at first to rather embarrassing really because it was just her and it seemed like she was showing off. We were sort of squirming in our seats and apologizing to all the other parents in the audience quietly as she dominated the game.
Finally, the judge came to the rescue and said she had answered more than half the entire Quiz Bowl questions and she would have to let the other kids have a chance. He meant- don’t hit the button again. Hannah thought he meant- don’t hit it so fast! So, the next question was read. She paused and looked around and nobody went to answer it- so she hit the button and answered it and got another point! We were just groaning in the audience. I’m sure there was a Dad that wanted to grab Jim by his collar and give him a black eye. You’ve heard of soccer parent rage- have you heard of poultry club parent rage? Hmmm- probably not. We are not that cool! So, then the judge re-iterated to her not to hit the button at all! She was already 1st place and nobody could catch her. (Oooohh! THAT’S what you meant!)
Here is Hannah with the intermediate group. This was her first year in intermediate and the questions were extremely difficult this year- even for an adult. She only had 1 day to study the 17 pages of very difficult questions and she did not do well. I have to say, she really shamed the Gallagher family by not winning a medal. We almost auctioned her off in the raffle for not bringing the family home a medal. But- we decided at the last minute to give her another chance.
Well, as you can well imagine, boredom has set in for the non-poultry enthusiasts by this point. William has resorted to going outside and poking his eye out with organic matter.
Thomas discovered that if he threw rocks into this very dense poky bush, the rocks fly back at you. So, he kept himself entertained- thoroughly entertained as you can see by his laughing- at throwing rocks into this little bush. After wrestling him for hours inside the building trying to keep him from squawking, I guess we decided if the rock came back and hit him in the face, well surely it wouldn’t hit THAT hard, right? The plight of the fourth child……
Frankly, I don’t blame either one of them for poking their eyes out and throwing rocks in their own faces after hours of poultry mania.
Our final winnings: (ribbons go purple, blue, red, white highest to lowest)
HANNAH
Partridge Cochin, blue ribbon
Mille Fleur d’Uccle, red ribbon
Showmanship, 2nd place medal
JACOB
Americauna, purple ribbon
White Wyandotte, purple ribbon
Showmanship, 2nd place medal
Poultry Judging, 1st place medal
Avian Bowl, 2nd place medal
Here is the poultry club- well a good part of it anyway. What a wholesome group of kids, huh? This was the smallest turn out we’ve had in the 3 years we have participated. There were lots of other 4H events this weekend I heard. Surely NONE were more entertaining than the poultry show?!?!
I haven’t been able to write about this news on the blog yet because I have been too sad about it. Cookie, our Nigerian Dwarf goat died Sunday the 4th. She was pregnant and due to kid March 10th.
Cookie had been sick and refusing food and we had taken her to the vet to try to figure out her ailment. Through talking to two vets and searching and reading online, we determined she had pregnancy toxemia. She was off feed and would not eat and wanted to just lay around. We started making a liquid gruel and turkey basting it down her throat to keep her nourished. We started treating her for the toxemia with medication and had scheduled a c-section to safely deliver the kids since she would not have the strength to birth them naturally. I tried to get the appointment made for Friday the 2nd or Saturday the 3rd, but neither of the two vets we use were available that day. Both vets made appointments with me Monday the 5th and I planned to take the earliest appointment that morning.
So, we had to nurse her over the weekend and we continued her medications and her liquid diet as we had all week. Friday, she had more strength and was doing better than she had been previously. Saturday, she was up and walking and drinking from the water bucket which were definite improvements. We were thrilled that she was finally improving after a week of worry and I was confident everything would be ok after her c-section. She was going to make it!
Sunday morning before church on March 4th, Hannah brought Cookie her breakfast and found her body in the igloo doghouse, dead. We were all in total shock. I flipped her body over and noticed she was dilated and bulging from pushing. Apparently in the night, she went into labor and it was too much for her- just as I knew it would be. She died trying to deliver her kids, our first kids! If I had known she was in labor I would have taken her to the emergency clinic. I knew she did not have the strength to deliver naturally.
We all bawled off and on for days, and I am not normally a crier! Every time I thought of her or spoke about her, I couldn’t help it. She wasn’t just a goat to us, she wasn’t just livestock– she was our pet and we loved her. We got her at 2 days old and raised her on the bottle along with Snickers. We have waited almost 2 years to get our first kids from her and had just taken the goat nipples and bottles out an washed them in anticipation of her babies. I was doing everything humanly possible to save her and I was so encouraged by her improvement that I let down my guard. I didn’t think she would die. Now, I am full of regret and all the things I would have or could have done differently. My heart has been heavy with grief over that goat and sorry my kids had to find her and deal with the sadness of yet another loss not long after Millie lost her little puppy.
We debated all day Sunday what to do with Cookie’s body. Monday Jim stayed home from work so we could properly bury her. Nobody wanted to send her body to be incinerated and putting her body in a dump just did not seem right. So, Jim and William dug the hole. I went out and helped finish digging when they tired.
When the hole was dug, we all gathered around. Hannah got Snickers because she wanted her to come to the funeral too. Snickers knew Cookie was sick. We knew how sick Cookie was because of Snickers. Snickers stopped head-butting with Cookie and instead would lick her on top of her head and on the face trying to make her feel better. When Snickers ate, she dragged hay over to Cookie and dropped it on the ground in front of her to try to encourage her to eat too. Anytime Cookie would muster the strength to walk, Snickers walked side by side with her and let Cookie lean on her a little. They were very close companions and Snickers knew, probably long before us, that Cookie was ill. It was only fitting Snickers came to Cookie’s funeral too.
Jim brought Cookie over in the wheelbarrow, in a bag. He said to me, “Nicole should I bury her in the bag our should I take her out of the bag and just lay her on the dirt?”
Willy, our 6 year old, answered, “Dad, we should leave her in the bag because if Snickers sees Cookie, she might die of a broken heart like on Where the Red Fern Grows.” I think my heart cracked a little at that comment, but we all agreed. So we put Cookie in the hole in the bag. We all filled the hole in together.
Meanwhile Snickers ate bark, leaves, and anything else she could find in the woods while we buried her friend, apparently unaware of what was going on.
It wasn’t long and we were done. Cookie was buried and we were all glad we did not send her body away and that we buried here right here on our farm where she belongs.
Hannah noticed Snickers and her inattentiveness to anything but the tasty morsels she was finding. Hannah finally said with a little disgust, “I think Snickers just came to the funeral for the food.” (With kids, there is always comic relief)
Sadly, there will not be any baby goats this month. We are looking for a new friend for Snickers because she is lonely now, but nothing will replace Cookie, the goat Snickers grew up with.
Around The Farm Blog
