Good Morning!

[WLLady]

We still had little bits of snow left from the snowbanks last weekend and the ducks were all over it! now it's all gone, so maybe get some muscovies on that snow problem there epona LOL. I think syrup is almost finished down there. the trees are really budding out fast. We haven't had a decent day without a pile of wind yet, so i am in desperate need of dormant spray on the fruit trees. it HAS to happen today or tomorrow...so here's hoping its not stupid windy again! we'll have a few muscovies leaving for a new home this weekend, and i have one muscovy sitting on a nest right now. there's probably 30 eggs in that nest. i'll start scooping eggs again - i only want 1 hatch off these guys this year! although the meat does make wonderful pastrami and montreal smoked duck!

need to get started in the greenhouse very very soon. i've been holding out for warmer nights so i don't have to run the heater in there. I will have close to 30 flats of seeds this year i think....conservative estimate! and i think we are thawed enough to get that one coop up on jacks now so i can fix the floor that the rats ate through last year. I want to put that up on blocks way up off the ground this year....those buggers are destructive, they chewed through 3/4 inch plywood to get into the coop. gah! and not just in one spot....they chewed down the entire side along the wall, so the one floor board is no longer stable. about 6 feet....argh!

and time to get that coop up and running, and the other one cleaned out and up and running and move the rhodebars out there. the one coop will be a grow out coop for kids. my nieces wanted to try hatching so i have a hovabator and 24 eggs for delivery LOL. Their mom (my sister) just started chemo for cancer and when i asked if she had the energy she said she still wanted the kids to do it so she could think about something other than her chemo. so....will deliver those soon, and hopefully in 3 or so weeks there will be little fuzzybutts coming back to the grow out coop. it'll be fun for the kids.

hope everyone has a great weekend!

[Killerbunny]

Anyone having trouble getting Straw Boss chopped straw. We thought we bought some but it turned out to be pellets and it looks too much like food to use. Our local TSC/Peavey Mart says they don't sell it anymore. I know @Jaye has used it. BTW how did your shot go??

[WLLady]

morning all!
Muscovies are relocated to @Bayvistafarm as of last weekend. YAY! only been trying to get them there since oh, about june last year?! gah i'm lazy. anyways, soon she will be swamped in muscovies and wondering what to do with them all. LOL
I have one sitting again on who knows how many eggs....likely 30 or so. put the pool out for them and they're loving it.
we are still wavering between 13 and 15 guineas. i do not know where the 2 guineas are coming from/going to. I think they must wander off to the bush and then come back. looks like the several hens are looking for nesting spots. and the boys are trying to divide up the flock. i think i have exact pairs, so hopefully it will work out okay. Uncle Iroh that came back from the neighbours is bonding quite nicely with molly the clydesdale. So at least she has a barn buddy....he sleeps on the edge of her stall wall, right by her food dish, so when she comes in and out he's right there, and he putters around the field with her or the guineas. she's doing okay. And i caught a rat in the barn in a live trap of all things. hopefully that was the ONLY one...but.....this weekend we're going to try to lift the outside coops if we aren't floating away in an ark!

[Jaye]

Anyone having trouble getting Straw Boss chopped straw. We thought we bought some but it turned out to be pellets and it looks too much like food to use. Our local TSC/Peavey Mart says they don't sell it anymore. I know @Jaye has used it. BTW how did your shot go??

As far as I know the TSC/Peavey Mart in Kemptville still carries it. I bought some about a month or so ago. They haven't kept the straw bales in the store, since they started selling the bags of Straw Boss pellets, so you have to ask for them at the service desk.

My shot went fine. I felt unwell and had a low grade headache for a day or so about 48 hours after the shot, but I'm all good now. It sounds like those who got the first shot will potentially have to wait quite a while for shot #2 though. I think that opening up registration for 60 and over this week at the pharmacies participating in the vaccine pilot when they don't seem to have any vaccine available is a bit weird. Hopefully the new online booking system actually does what it says it will do, and notifies registrants when actual appointments can be made. DH is registered and waiting for word.

[Killerbunny]

Well it looks like I have anothr singing rooster like Lucky! Went down to the SF paddock and could hear weird noises. Little pullet is laying an egg and Roger is crouched next to her crooning and encouraging her.

[Killerbunny]

Just to update everyone. My cousin, 85, in the UK has had her 2nd Pfizer shot and all went well. SHe took a sandwich to nibble and had no nausea. Slightly sore arm is all.

[Happy]

I booked my mom on-line the first day it went live. She is 82. There was a glitch that caused me to have to book in Orillia despite entering a postal code in Barrie. Orillia was my only option. The earliest appointment I could get was this coming Sunday (so a day short of two weeks from booking date). My father-in-law is 75 and lives near Bancroft where there has hardly been any cases. He became eligible last Monday and got his shot the very next day with the Moderna vaccine. I'm not sure why senior's in the areas with high variant cases aren't being prioritized but whatever. My mother has informed me that if they plan on injecting her with AstraZeneca she is refusing it. I guess we will see how things go.

[Killerbunny]

https://www.pei.de/EN/newsroom/hp-news/ ... eneca.html
I am adding a link to the Paul Ehrlich Institut info re A-Z vaccine. It isn't "blood clots' as the media keeps blabbing, way more complicated than that and involves low platelet counts etc. It should be noted that a few cases of similar disorders have been associated with Moderna, Pfizer and other vaccines like MMR. Just make an informed decision.
@WLLady please jump in here.

[labradors]

Very interesting KB! I'm really hoping that I don't have to get fobbed off with the AZ vaccine, but today on the news there was talk about not having to stick to one vaccine for both shots. I haven't even had one yet.

Linda

[WLLady]

So the AZ, pfizer and moderna all have the same region in them to be made into protein. So the immune response should be very similar between them. Boosting any of them with any of the other 2 should work just fine scientifically speaking (need to prove it though) And would greatly simplify second shots... Mostly because the rollout is abysmal and how are they going to ensure theres enough doses for those people to get the same manufacturer as the first shot? The jansen (J&J) may also work but it doesnt need a boost its a one shot. As is novavax if it ever gets approval.

As for the venous embolisms... The AZ vaccine is a DNA within an adenovirus. That DNA also has a piece of plasminogen activating factor (PAF) This is a protein that is usually associated with breaking down blood clots. The only thing i can even remotely link to increased blood clots is a very rare genotype in turkish or indian decent (a very small proportion of the population) in which there is a platelet abnormality and increasing the expression of any of the anti-clotting factors (of which plasminogen activating factor is one) can lead to increased clotting. But not just in the brain and not just in the veins but everywhere. But then also if its in the DNA i wonder if there was an antibody made to it somehow in those people which would effectively reduce PAF systemically.... For that to happen the PAF piece in the DNA in the adenovirus would have to be incorporated into another gene in the persons DNA behind a promoter system to be expressed... Which seems literally impossible statistically.... So. I cannot see any scientific reason for the clotting issue with the vaccine unless there was something already going on in those people that affected the clotting cascade.... In fact the AZ vector is built in a way that I would actually do it if tasked with putting something like that together. I do not like the use of DNA because its easy to get into our DNA relatively speaking. And i still do not like highjacking our cells with DNA or RNA......and would definitely prefer a traditiinal vaccine with protein and adjuvant.... But.....

Finally had my long awaited MRI. Did you know that the metal they use is compatible with MRI but it heats up in imaging? It was almost 2 hours of feeling like i was laying on a heating pad on high... Not horrible but the wind at 4c felt really good after leaving!! 42 mm of rain last night and thunderstorms too. Grass is going green in the paddock already. Had our first short small bonfire last night before the rain moved in. Peeper frogs have been going here for a few days now. Hope it stays like this. Loving the weather.