The Week Condensed

May has been a whirlwind.  Several months ago I had the idea that our church could raise funds for a medical mission trip to Haiti by holding a yard sale.  The response was overwhelming; people seemed to bring in items by the truck load!  We finally held the yard sale last weekend and it was extremely successful.  Several wonderful volunteers spent two days helping me pull off this event - some of us even spent the night at the church so we could be up and working by 5:15 a.m. on the day of the sale.  It was worth it - we raised $2,600!  In addition to raising money for the trip, we helped our less fortunate neighbors by selling much needed clothing and baby items at extremely discounted prices.  Unfortunately, due to building safety concerns at the orphanage, the medical mission trip has been postponed indefinitely.  The orphanage had to close two unsafe buildings and now have no place to house volunteers until they build their own earthquake safe housing.  Hopefully, that will happen within the next year and our awesome nursing team will be able to go next summer.


We have more animal concerns on the farm.  We recently lost both of our roosters and one of our hens.  We've determined that they were killed by the coyote that my son and I saw in our front yard last week.  My sidekick and farm dog, Ginny, now knows that she's supposed to chase off the coyote so we're hoping we won't lose any more chickens.


The goat problems from this winter seem to be continuing.  One of the goats whom I nursed through an upper respiratory infection is seriously ill.  My hubby found Layla down in the pasture this past Friday.  After researching her symptoms, I've determined it's listeriosis, a bacterial infection that affects the brain stem.  I'm working hard to nurse her back to health but her prognosis isn't good.  I would love to call in the vet every time I have a sick goat but that isn't practical when you have a large herd.  


I'm wrapping up my last class of the semester, Human Growth and Development.  I've completed all my assignments and just need to put the finishing touches on my research paper.  Just think, I'm 1/5 the way through my masters degree!