May 23rd Weekend

I finally got a weekend where I was both off and able to enjoy some nice weather!! I had decided that I deserved a little time off so I finished work early Friday afternoon and spent the entire afternoon with Bailey. I went for my first ride of the season which was a little bumpy due to my being out of shape and Bailey being slightly hesitant of what we were doing but we smoothed out enough to have a good time and after wards Bailey got a bath.

Saturday Robbie took me for a tour of the lab where he spends most of his days; It was lab-like, and then we went for lunch at a sketchy looking establishment called the "Fat Cat" which specializes in donairs, gyros, souvlaki and shawarma. We wanted shawarma but ironically they were out so we ended up with some gyros which were very yummy, plus a steal of a deal at 2/$6 (except Robbie forgot to show his student card so we paid $7.90)...Still not bad.

That afternoon we decided to take a spontaneous trip to Elora, which is a small town about 30 minutes from Drayton, to hike around the Elora Gorge Conservation area. There is an actual gorge through which the Grand river runs and there are some nice trails with beautiful scenary. The sun shone all day and there were very few bugs. We are thinking about taking a weekend to do some camping and maybe some tubing down the gorge.
http://www.grandriver.ca/index/document.cfm?Sec=27&Sub1=124&sub2=0

Today was less eventful but still enjoyable. Robbie spent the majority of the day working in the lab and I went for a second ride on Bailey. Robbie has gotten it into his head that it will be fun to dye his hair Dark Brown so I'm going to do it for him but I'm a little scared so I will keep you all posted on how it turns out.

Victoria Day Weekend

We have both been so busy with work/school that we have not been up to much since the last post. My associate had a death in the family but for some unknown reason she didn't think twice about leaving for the ENTIRE week, meaning I have been the only equine vet on duty and that I have been stuck doing the on-call for the past eight days excluding Thursday, which my boss was "nice" enough to cover. To say the least I have been busy and I am hoping that she has the decency to show up on Tuesday.

I am sad to say that I have managed to kill my healthiest tomato plant in an attempt to transplant it into a larger container. Despite our valiant efforts to stabilize the stem which snapped in half, within 20 minutes it was limper than a wet rag, so it does not look too promising that we will be having fresh home grown tomatoes anytime soon. On a brighter note we enjoyed some home grown Swiss chard with dinner tonight and it was delicious. Mom was right though, alot of fresh leaves shrinks significantly once cooked.

While on a walk today we came across a side table that was being given away for free so we now have a new to us table which Cooper appears to enjoy and I have discovered that biking in the wind, up hill, when it is hovering around freezing, is not an enjoyable experience. (The weather has been unusually cool). I have been going to palates class every Thursday, but I am still waiting for my yoga matt to get here in the mail, then I might be motivated to do more exercises at home.

I hope that every one had a great long weekend! I should go save my cinnamon buns before Robbie eats them all!

Chicken soup and canasta

Being the frugal shopper that I am I thought I had found a great deal when I found a large package of chicken for under three dollars. What I found out is that chicken necks and backs have very little meat on them. What meat was on the many-boned carcass was mostly fat and cartilage. So Jenn had the great idea that I should make homemade chicken soup. I decided to make it in the slow cooker and it was delicious with the homemade biscuits Jenn made. Last night our taste buds ventured to South America with a stir fry marinated with a honey/habanero pepper sauce imported from Costa Rica (a saporous, spicy gift from Rhonda Brown ;).

Now I'm going to let Jenn tell you about her weekend emergency surgical adventure. It involved bones, blood, and Butorphenol.

I did feel a little like a super star on the weekend but I guess I should hold off on the gloating until I recheck my patient at the end of the week. A small yearling paint tried to jump over the breast bar while in a trailer and got her legs hung up over a partition. She had a large laceration over her hind cannon bone and after thorough examination had also fractured her medial splint bone (which is vestigial in the horse but would be equivalent to the long bone in our index finger). So with 10 or so onlookers and Robbie as my "technician", I dropped the horse outside on the grass and cut out the broken end of the bone. Then I got creative and borrowed some guys dremel tool and smoothed off the remaining bone and then sewed the leg back up. The horse woke up and got back on her feet and was able to walk back to the barn. I felt just like James Herriot. So now I just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the wound doesn't get infected. I think that Robbie secretly enjoys coming with me on calls.

Robbie again. So apparently James Herriot is some old school vet who is famous for writing many veterinary inspired books.