When it rains it pours

[FNF]

@FNF I can totally relate to this feeling. I am so observant of every little "off" thing in each of my animals I drive my husband absolutely nuts. I'm worried so and so has a limp today. I noticed so-and-so seems to be a little wheezy etc etc. You're right, sometimes it's multiple things all at once with different animals. And then you get a stretch of time where everyone's healthy and you just get to enjoy them and remember why you keep doing it all. I have learned over the years of caring for all of our animals to not get too excited right off the bat. My Funny Farm and all its Critters are my happy place during this time of raising teenagers, working, and caring for adult parents and I need them even if they do cause me worry, they also give me unconditional love and a lot of laughs and cuddles.

Nailed it.

I also drive my husband crazy with my obsessive observations

 

[MGG]

This thread is great, same thing happens here too. The birds were all doing perfect for several months and then I lost a few out of the blue a couple weeks ago. It's always the favorites or most expensive ones too.
And of course any time I leave. I went to Louisiana a few years ago and right after I got there a huge tree just fell on my duck pen. It was a healthy live ash tree, we had a windy day and it just randomly snapped. Took out the whole back corner. Miraculously nothing died, but we had to rebuild the whole thing and the neighbor taking care of them had no idea where to start.

I love this meme

 

[FNF]

This thread is great, same thing happens here too. The birds were all doing perfect for several months and then I lost a few out of the blue a couple weeks ago. It's always the favorites or most expensive ones too.
And of course any time I leave. I went to Louisiana a few years ago and right after I got there a huge tree just fell on my duck pen. It was a healthy live ash tree, we had a windy day and it just randomly snapped. Took out the whole back corner. Miraculously nothing died, but we had to rebuild the whole thing and the neighbor taking care of them had no idea where to start.

I love this meme View attachment 4043385

Oh my gosh this is so accurate!! So fortunate your ducks were okay!!

We went to CO for our one vacation last year and the person farm sitting for us had a week of rain. Terrible but everything was generally fine, just miserable. And then we got home and Hurricane Helene hit the southeast - we had two or three days more of deluges and flooding - I was just grateful the sitter didn't have to deal with the aftermath. I would have been panicking if I was away!

 

[Strawberry74]

I live in Colorado!

I dread leaving on vacation. I'm a homebody so I prefer not to but my husband likes to go somewhere once a year so I oblige. I start preparing myself mentally a few months in advance and then it takes me a few weeks to get everything in place and lined up for the Farm sitter. All the while my husband just kicks back and looks forward to vacation

I've also noticed that most of my major Farm emergencies happen when he is on business trips. I love getting some me time but anymore I dread it wondering what new emergency will manage to develop while he's gone that I have to deal with all on my own Nothing's worse than the dogs going crazy at 5:30 in the morning and looking outside and seeing a police officer at your gate while your husband's out of town wondering what the heck is going on only to discover that your heart horse is lying on the side of the road dying. That was the worst, but there have been others usually when he is out of town.

 

[FNF]

I live in Colorado!

I dread leaving on vacation. I'm a homebody so I prefer not to but my husband likes to go somewhere once a year so I oblige. I start preparing myself mentally a few months in advance and then it takes me a few weeks to get everything in place and lined up for the Farm sitter. All the while my husband just kicks back and looks forward to vacation

I've also noticed that most of my major Farm emergencies happen when he is on business trips. I love getting some me time but anymore I dread it wondering what new emergency will manage to develop while he's gone that I have to deal with all on my own Nothing's worse than the dogs going crazy at 5:30 in the morning and looking outside and seeing a police officer at your gate while your husband's out of town wondering what the heck is going on only to discover that your heart horse is lying on the side of the road dying. That was the worst, but there have been others usually when he is out of town.

Where in CO are you? We were going to Steamboat Springs area ranch for several years. But I am 100% with you - I do all the prep and he gets to enjoy the trip .

I sympathize with the other things too - our first farm death occurred when he was out of town - a chicken. And then he was at work two hours away and I had to have a goat put down. Never fails.

That is truly terrible about your beloved horse though - I am SO sorry. Farm life, large or small (and ours is small), can be so tough sometimes.

 

[MGG]

Oh my gosh this is so accurate!! So fortunate your ducks were okay!!

We went to CO for our one vacation last year and the person farm sitting for us had a week of rain. Terrible but everything was generally fine, just miserable. And then we got home and Hurricane Helene hit the southeast - we had two or three days more of deluges and flooding - I was just grateful the sitter didn't have to deal with the aftermath. I would have been panicking if I was away!

For sure. It's always something. And so hard to find anybody that knows anything about birds to watch them. I'm so used to being around them I pick up on issues almost right away. When someone isn't used to being around birds they either never notice or don't until it's too late. And it's so hard talking people through bird stuff they've never done. I have so many little diagrams and stuff drawn up on my phone I've sent to them. I had to try and talk her through wrapping angel wing on a duckling one year. Didn't go great
We don't get too much rain here so when we get a lot at once it just soaks everything. Water sits really bad in my pen too so if it floods sometimes stuff will get wet and chilled and just die. We got two huge storms during and right after I came back from Ohio I think two years ago now. I think like 6 inches of rain in just a week, it was crazy. I took these on my pen camera at the time

Anyway it was in August and caused a huge boom in the mosquito population. I've never had an issue until then or since but a ton of my ducks got west nile, I was losing them nonstop for a month after this. I tried so many things, ivermectin, SQ fluids, tube feeding, etc and only saved one. I lost over 40 young birds, I don't remember the exact number now but it was awful. The sitter kept calling me on my way home saying she kept finding wet dead birds.

 

[Strawberry74]

Where in CO are you? We were going to Steamboat Springs area ranch for several years. But I am 100% with you - I do all the prep and he gets to enjoy the trip .

I sympathize with the other things too - our first farm death occurred when he was out of town - a chicken. And then he was at work two hours away and I had to have a goat put down. Never fails.

That is truly terrible about your beloved horse though - I am SO sorry. Farm life, large or small (and ours is small), can be so tough sometimes.

We are north east of Denver about an hour. I think Steamboat is a couple hours, but never been.

So true, so very true! My first Farm death was from our 1st predator attack and I lost a chicken, 2 others injured, while he was on a work retreat. Why does it always happen that way? Very very bizarre!

Yes (hobby) farm life is full of enjoyment and tragedy. Losing my horse in that way was horrific.

 

[MGG]

I live in Colorado!

I dread leaving on vacation. I'm a homebody so I prefer not to but my husband likes to go somewhere once a year so I oblige. I start preparing myself mentally a few months in advance and then it takes me a few weeks to get everything in place and lined up for the Farm sitter. All the while my husband just kicks back and looks forward to vacation

I've also noticed that most of my major Farm emergencies happen when he is on business trips. I love getting some me time but anymore I dread it wondering what new emergency will manage to develop while he's gone that I have to deal with all on my own Nothing's worse than the dogs going crazy at 5:30 in the morning and looking outside and seeing a police officer at your gate while your husband's out of town wondering what the heck is going on only to discover that your heart horse is lying on the side of the road dying. That was the worst, but there have been others usually when he is out of town.

Yeah trips always stress me out so much. I have like a million cameras I put on everything, but sometimes that almost is worse. It drives me crazy seeing stuff not done just the way I like it, lol. And I always have to buy so much feed so it doesn't run out while I'm gone.
The same thing happens to me but with my dad. He's who always helps me with catching things or fixing issues, so of course I always need his help when he's not here. The rest of my family tries but it's just not the same. My siblings couldn't catch a bird if their life depended on it, let alone one that can fly

That's terrible, I'm so so sorry.
I hate having big issues like that when there's no one around to help. Animal deaths can be so depressing. There have definitely been some instances that have made me not even want to have animals any more, but there's always more things that make it worth it. I've never had horses but I've always loved them. I'm sure the bond with an animal like that is on a whole different level than with any bird.

 

[FNF]

Yeah trips always stress me out so much. I have like a million cameras I put on everything, but sometimes that almost is worse. It drives me crazy seeing stuff not done just the way I like it, lol.

SAME!!!!

 

[MGG]

SAME!!!!

I think everyone hates it, because I'm watching their every move so close
I'm always texting them, like this feeder isn't full enough, or why is that duck limping, or you didn't rinse the pond out enough, lol.