Or at least what ails your skin. Normally I'm not one to plug a product but this has given me such great results that I think anybody who is around anything that can scratch, cut, puncture, bruise or otherwise assault your skin should know about it. Doctor Burt's Res-Q Ointment is a natural salve made of sweet almond oil, olive oil, beeswax, cocoa butter, wheat germ oil, tocopheryl acetate & tocopheryl (vitamin E), lavender oil, comfrey leaf and root extracts. Anybody familiar with plants and their medicinal properties will recognize the properties of many of those ingredients. I've noticed that it makes my bruises and wounds heal twice as quickly as usual and things like Neosporin can't hold a candle to it. Stings like everything for the first second or two when applied to an open wound but after that is soothing and even the oils get absorbed pretty quickly; I'm one of those people who doesn't like a greasy feeling on my skin. Did I mention it does a great job on bug bites too? Beats Calamine lotion all to blazes both in how fast it takes effect and the fact that I normally don't have to reapply it.
What really wowed me though is the effect it's had on Samwise's scars. Because he was so badly burned on his face he doesn't have much hair there and he's been doing something lately that has made the halter he constantly wears rub at certain points; who knows what he's been up to when we're not looking. (I don't need kids, I've got critters. lo)l The other day I didn't like the look of one of those spots and had Res-Q Ointment in my purse so I thought 'why not?' I know it's worked well on cats that had a really bad allergic reaction to a type of flea collar and couldn't see any reason why it would cause Sam a problem. I also applied it to an old scar of his from the burning that doesn't seem to want to heal and I have been amazed at the reaction. The rubbing spot has scabbed over and is well on it's way to healing and the scar has quit weeping, lost it's scabbiness and the skin around it has a nice healing pink color to it. He's reacting even faster than I do and when I applied it on the second day he didn't seem to mind. The only problem I'm having is that he keeps trying to eat the tin out of my hand. LOL
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Good Horse
Aeolae was a most excellent horse today. She actually let me put the rope halter on her with a minimum of fuss - didn't have to catch her or anything. She wasn't thrilled about it and by the end of the session was really trying to ditch it (didn't help that it was a little large for her Arabian head) but for being as high strung, normally stand offish and untutored in manners as she is, she was great. She likes to play hard to get and for the last few days I've been trying to get Aeolae jealous of the attention I've been showing Samwise; basically trying to give her the idea that wearing a halter and allowing herself to be led around/worked with means getting more attention. Not that I've been ignoring her - we've been playing the friendly game with the lead rope and halter so that she doesn't think they're evil and I've been giving her scratches just to keep her interested. Not that I can blame her for not liking halters since one was left on her long enough to cause scars. I am sorry that they are so attention starved that this works so well but I'll take any edge I can get at this point.
Mark took Sam and I took Aeolae today and she really worked well with me which is really cool as she does prefer men. We didn't do much except with walk with them, teaching them to give us appropriate space, not run through us (which Aeolae is really bad about), back up, turn and other apparently basic things which look easy until you try to get a 1000 lb critter with an attitude and a communication problem to do them. Separating them has been something that has been concerning us, especially when we thought we were only getting Aeolae, but we were able to get them as much as 100 yds apart today without them getting too edgy. It was neat to see their joy though when we did cross paths again.
The one exciting and not so pleasant thing was Aeolae getting spooked when I tried to lead her past our 2 yo over exuberant husky that we had tied outside the pasture. All Daphne wants to do is PLAY but all the horses see is PREDATOR!!! sigh. Anyway, Aeolae pulled the rope out of my hands . . . I'm just glad she didn't run over me when she bolted. I'm also very glad that I was using the type of lead rope used for natural horsemanship and wasn't holding it in a loop as I have a bad habit of doing. I've got a little bit of rope burn but nothing like I would if I had been using a lead rope one can find in any old feed store. She didn't go far though and she came back towards Mark and I, just within Mark's reach, trembling all over like she was going to be punished; needless to say she wasn't other than some stern words. It's amazing to me that in less than 2 weeks, working with them no more than an hour and a half a day, we've gotten their trust and they are following commands so well. All in all, a really great training day.
Mark took Sam and I took Aeolae today and she really worked well with me which is really cool as she does prefer men. We didn't do much except with walk with them, teaching them to give us appropriate space, not run through us (which Aeolae is really bad about), back up, turn and other apparently basic things which look easy until you try to get a 1000 lb critter with an attitude and a communication problem to do them. Separating them has been something that has been concerning us, especially when we thought we were only getting Aeolae, but we were able to get them as much as 100 yds apart today without them getting too edgy. It was neat to see their joy though when we did cross paths again.
The one exciting and not so pleasant thing was Aeolae getting spooked when I tried to lead her past our 2 yo over exuberant husky that we had tied outside the pasture. All Daphne wants to do is PLAY but all the horses see is PREDATOR!!! sigh. Anyway, Aeolae pulled the rope out of my hands . . . I'm just glad she didn't run over me when she bolted. I'm also very glad that I was using the type of lead rope used for natural horsemanship and wasn't holding it in a loop as I have a bad habit of doing. I've got a little bit of rope burn but nothing like I would if I had been using a lead rope one can find in any old feed store. She didn't go far though and she came back towards Mark and I, just within Mark's reach, trembling all over like she was going to be punished; needless to say she wasn't other than some stern words. It's amazing to me that in less than 2 weeks, working with them no more than an hour and a half a day, we've gotten their trust and they are following commands so well. All in all, a really great training day.
So The 'Barn' Isn't As Sound As I Thought
The best laid plans of mice and men . . . often have leaks in them. Ok, so that's not how the saying goes but it fits the situation and stays within the spirit.
When we moved up here in 2002 we were fleeing like refugees (read the story here) and were able to get not only enough land to insulate ourselves with (55+ acres) but a house we didn't have to build and a storage building that was obviously once used as a 2 room house which, now that it's acquiring livestock and asssorted acoutraments, I'm dubbing the 'barn'. On one end of that building is a very nice large shelter that looks like it could have been made for keeping livestock; that's going to be Aeolae and Samwise's run-in shelter. What's really nice is that there is a door from it into the 'barn' which will make it easy to keep feed, tack etc. nearby but out of their reach. The plan is for it to also hold as much hay as possible but right now it's stuffed with stuff which has to get condensed and hopefully a lot of it moved into the loft which I still need to build. Fortunately that's nothing more than putting boards on the rafters but the braces come down at wierd angles. Arrgghh.
God knows how old the building is but at least it's still sound with a good floor. That is except for about 5 leaks in the roof that I've found so far which is kind of depressing. That's not counting Aeolae's and Samwise's shelter which we didn't really pay much attention to before; there's only 1 really troublesome leak there though. There's still some old tar paper rolls around here that we repaired the roof with a few years ago but they don't seem to have held up real well since there's leaks now in some of the old spots. It's a miracle things have held up as well as they have though with the winters we have and how much the building has been ignored.
Now to figure out what to do about those leaks since enough boxes of stuff have been ruined already in the 'barn' by being leaked upon. Having stuff in the loft will keep the hay dry but is hardly satisfactory. Having it re-roofed is out of the question this late in the season and dealing with the set up expenses of the horses. If we had 6 mo it would be do-able but I doubt God will see fit to cancel winter this year. If any of the tar paper is still good and if my dad can come up (Mark and I don't do heights) we'll probably do that again to get us through this winter; if not . . . well, improvise, adapt and overcome. Thank goodness for rolls of heavy plastic we picked up for some reason years ago and various tarps. Believe me, when you're moving in a panic, tarps are your friend since they do something to keep the elements off your stuff. We probably have enough large ones to cover the roof and have friends to help get them up there but the process is liable to be interesting and I have no idea how well the plastic/tarps will hold up although the snow will probably slide off quite marvelously. If it's too much of a hassle we could just put the hay outside on pallets and under tarps, a fairly common practice around here, but I'd really like it to have more protection and to not have 300 bales of hay cluttering up my yard. The work involved in clearing the 'barn' though is daunting especially in a time crunch - the sooner we can get the horses moved the better. Too much to do and not enough time.
When we moved up here in 2002 we were fleeing like refugees (read the story here) and were able to get not only enough land to insulate ourselves with (55+ acres) but a house we didn't have to build and a storage building that was obviously once used as a 2 room house which, now that it's acquiring livestock and asssorted acoutraments, I'm dubbing the 'barn'. On one end of that building is a very nice large shelter that looks like it could have been made for keeping livestock; that's going to be Aeolae and Samwise's run-in shelter. What's really nice is that there is a door from it into the 'barn' which will make it easy to keep feed, tack etc. nearby but out of their reach. The plan is for it to also hold as much hay as possible but right now it's stuffed with stuff which has to get condensed and hopefully a lot of it moved into the loft which I still need to build. Fortunately that's nothing more than putting boards on the rafters but the braces come down at wierd angles. Arrgghh.
God knows how old the building is but at least it's still sound with a good floor. That is except for about 5 leaks in the roof that I've found so far which is kind of depressing. That's not counting Aeolae's and Samwise's shelter which we didn't really pay much attention to before; there's only 1 really troublesome leak there though. There's still some old tar paper rolls around here that we repaired the roof with a few years ago but they don't seem to have held up real well since there's leaks now in some of the old spots. It's a miracle things have held up as well as they have though with the winters we have and how much the building has been ignored.
Now to figure out what to do about those leaks since enough boxes of stuff have been ruined already in the 'barn' by being leaked upon. Having stuff in the loft will keep the hay dry but is hardly satisfactory. Having it re-roofed is out of the question this late in the season and dealing with the set up expenses of the horses. If we had 6 mo it would be do-able but I doubt God will see fit to cancel winter this year. If any of the tar paper is still good and if my dad can come up (Mark and I don't do heights) we'll probably do that again to get us through this winter; if not . . . well, improvise, adapt and overcome. Thank goodness for rolls of heavy plastic we picked up for some reason years ago and various tarps. Believe me, when you're moving in a panic, tarps are your friend since they do something to keep the elements off your stuff. We probably have enough large ones to cover the roof and have friends to help get them up there but the process is liable to be interesting and I have no idea how well the plastic/tarps will hold up although the snow will probably slide off quite marvelously. If it's too much of a hassle we could just put the hay outside on pallets and under tarps, a fairly common practice around here, but I'd really like it to have more protection and to not have 300 bales of hay cluttering up my yard. The work involved in clearing the 'barn' though is daunting especially in a time crunch - the sooner we can get the horses moved the better. Too much to do and not enough time.
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