…an aggressive and malignant neoplasia with a grave prognosis.
…is an incurable tumor of cells that line blood vessels
…the disease that killed Maggie yesterday.
We are heartbroken. She hadn’t been herself for a couple of weeks. She stayed Velcroed to me or Steve. She was stuffed up and had crusty eyes that I thought were caused by the pollen on the tall grass she walked through many times every day. She’d have a down day but bounce back quickly and be great for days. I’d look at her at night, think maybe it was time to see if we could do something for those allergies and she’d be bouncing at the bedroom door when I got up in the morning.
On Friday morning her eyes and her nose were crusty. She had no energy. I called the vet’s office. “Maggie’s old (11) but I think it’s more than that, I think she’s developed an allergy to pollen. I want her to have a check up.” We made the appointment for July 9. We walked out to the tomato tunnel and she sprawled out in the shade while I worked for a while. It nagged at me. The crusty stuff on her eyes and nose was dark brown…dead blood brown. Why hadn’t I paid more attention to that? I got sick to my stomach and I’ve been that way ever since.
Hemangiosarcoma tumors will burst, bleed, stop bleeding. Dogs don’t work the same way we do when it comes to internal bleeding. We need attention. Dogs reabsorb most of the blood back into their circulatory system. The rest of it is shed. Maggie’s down time happened when the tumor bled. She was back to herself so quickly because her body reabsorbed the blood and she felt good again.
Nagging…so I stopped working, sat on the ground with her and checked her out. Tumor, on a mammary glad. We couldn’t wait until July 9, we needed to go now. The tumor needed to be removed now. I called the vet’s office back and through tears made a new appointment. Bill would work through part of his lunch to see Maggie if I could be there in an hour and 20 minutes. It takes an hour to get there. I knew it was bad. I have a very strong set of beliefs about what I will, won’t and can’t do to an animal. #1 – do not delay the inevitable if it means prolong discomfort or causing pain. No suffering. I needed Steve to come with me in case Bill said the tumor couldn’t be removed.
It was much, much worse than I expected. The prognosis – hours to two weeks. Hours, literally. There’s no way of knowing when the tumor would bleed. There was no way of knowing when the rupture would be big enough to cause her to bleed out, faint and stop her heart. Hours? Weeks? She wasn’t in pain so we brought her home to die. A twist – the tumor I found isn’t the tumor that killed her. We were blind sided by the hemangiosarcoma on her spleen.
She went down hill a little Saturday. She’d had a bleed. Sunday morning was wonderful. She and Sebastian got into a mouse nest. Maggie got three, Seb one and one escaped. By Sunday night she was down again and I knew yesterday morning that she wasn’t getting back up. The tumor was bigger than a baseball and displacing organs. It had its own blood supply and was growing fast. I made the call and had her put down. She did so much for me – saved me from a mistake I made with a bobcat, came between livestock and coyotes, brought escaped bulls home through the woods rather than down the road, solved a loose calf problem in 30 seconds while pregnant with a litter of nine puppies when we couldn’t solve the problem with six people in two hours, gave us 18 puppies (Scooter is one of them) and so much more. I couldn’t let her starve to death and she wasn’t eating. I owed her so much better than that.
I’m sick to my stomach and I will be for a while. I’m miserable. Steve’s miserable. Seb and Scooter are miserable. Scooter moans. Seb cries. Give us a few days and we’ll be ok. There’s too much work here for one farmcollie. The boys need a little sister.
Terrible quality, I used my cell phone and got too close. Tomatoes are setting on in tunnel 1. Runner ducky, you’re the one! You make bath time lots of fun! Thanks Jimmy, I’ll be singing that in my sleep!
I’m cold. It’s cold. Moving between the warm greenhouse and the 39*, windy, cloudy outdoors makes me cold. So here I sit, with a cup of hot raspberry tea, doing something highly unusual these days – blogging. I’m good at blurbing but not so much at blogging anymore. I spend a lot more time doing than writing this year, a most welcome change.
Friends came over last Thursday to help us cover high tunnel 2. It took 90 minutes to do both ends and the top, great time for a very windy day. Also on Thursday, the runner ducklings and buff orpington chicks arrived.
Tunnel 1 has been full of greens all winter. It’s between seasons now as I baby along spinach and tomatoes at the same time. The spinach is coming out this week. The peas, spinach, beet greens, various other greens and lettuces, radishes and turnip are up outside. The garlic looks great in tunnel 1 and outside but I’m not sure what will happen with the plants in the tunnel. The ground didn’t freeze. The plants look fantastic but when I poke around in the soil I don’t find any bulbs. I’m leaving it in and working around it until it’s time to be harvested.
Rhubarb is ready to cut. I’ll take strawberries out of the freezer for rhuberry jam and pie. I’ll freeze what I need and send the rest as it’s ready to a local restaurant. If the frost doesn’t kill the blossoms the next two or three mornings we should have a ton of cherries in late summer. The three trees are covered with blossoms. The apple trees are also covered.
I’ve started so many seedlings again this year that they’ve overflowed to high tunnel 3 plus an additional 190 six packs of cold crops outside on a bench. The second greenhouse isn’t going to be ready for use this year. Our to-do list is longer than usual and has more big projects than usual.
It’s not going to get warmer outside today so I suppose it’s time to go back out. It’s a 30 second walk to the tunnel…I probably won’t freeze between here and there…probably.
The Washington County Food Alliance is a group of farmers, food producers, distributors and producers working together to build the agricultural infrastructure in Washington County, Maine. We have a privately owned processor that many of use now. He’s in the process of obtaining state inspection so that our products can be sold in the state of Maine. If you live nearby and are interested, please fill out the anonymous survey at the link below. It takes about three minutes. Thanks!
…Beef, lambs, hogs, goats, rabbits, poultry…
Would you take your livestock to a certified humane, inspected livestock & poultry processor in Washington County, Maine?
Tell us!
We’re Washington County Food Alliance and we support this project.
It’s maple syrup season! We visited Chandler’s Sugar Shack today to stock up on maple syrup. We picked up a gallon for Sarah and Keith. They were here from Kentucky last year and visited the sugar shack. They’re ready for another gallon. We also picked up two gallons for other friends. We support buying locally!
These are updates pasted in from the farm’s facebook page. It’s so easy to add a blurb in seconds over there that I’ve neglected the blog.
February 20
I hooked up 300′ of hose and watered the large high tunnel. I usually can’t use the hose until April because of the snowbanks on the north side of the house where the faucet is located. Love it! 40* and sunny. I had the door open to circulate air in the tunnel. Garlic’s up and doing well.
February 23
37* (unusually warm), snow, sleet, freezing rain, flog, rain and sunshine today. I set more traps in the newly planted tunnel today. Something’s digging holes in the freshly turned soil to find the seeds I planted. Voles? Mice? We’ll see.
February 24
I’m attending a Farm To Cook meeting this afternoon. Farmers and school cooks are getting together network and learn more about the Farm To School program. I’m very excited about this. This is our Kids Menu.
February 27
The Farm to Cook meeting was great. I’ll be working with a local elementary school and a university!
March 1
Jetstar tomato seedlings; going into a high tunnel in April.
Boc choi and dill seedlings.
March 7
We’ll be at the Washington County Food Alliance meeting this afternoon. 1-4 pm @ Whitneyville Hillgrove Community Hall. Members of the Alliance represented us at the Hall of Flags in our state’s capital last week.
Washington County Food Alliance is working on building agricultural infrastructure in Washington County (Maine). Part of the problems food producers have are laws that make no sense. A farmer prepared this pamphlet for legislators at the Hall of Flags last week. It was waiting for them when they got to their desks Thursday morning. This link opens to a pdf file.
(note: Legislators were open to hearing about these bad laws. The juice law will be rewritten next year.)
March 11
The ducks started laying last weekend. Duck eggs are my favorite for baking. I found this snake skin amongst trays in the seedling house this morning. The 128 tray above this one wasn’t nestled in and left just enough space for a small snake to slide in. A 128 tray is a tray with 128 cells.
March 12
I picked up two more schools in the Farm To School program after a long conversation with the superintendent.
It’s an excellent winter to be a four season farmer. It’s warm! We’re regularly in the high 30*’s and 40*’s and some parts of the state are hitting 50* now and then. We have about 4″ of snow not counting the dusting we’re getting this morning. The largest high tunnel is planted and thanks to a small snowbank behind the house and warm temps, the seeds are well watered in. I ran 300′ of hose yesterday from the outside faucet to the tunnel and soaked everything. I’m normally not able to get to the outdoor faucet until some time in April. Once I patch a very large hole in the small tunnel I’ll fill it with beet greens. We could still get a lot of snow. March is typically our snowiest month. When it snows in March though we know it’s not going to last long.
I’m hoping to know the outcome of the high tunnel grant by the end of the week.
We spent a full day at a working retreat for Washington County Food Alliance last week. We got a lot accomplished and left with to-do lists and visions for the future for food producers in Washington County. I feel like we’re a lot more organized on one hand and beating our heads on the wall on the other hand. There’s so much to do to build farming infrastructure in this county. Maine is a huge state. All of the other New England states would fit inside Maine’s borders. We have only 16 counties. Washington County covers a huge area. So much to do…
Steve is ice fishing with Jon today and Taylor’s still asleep. She’s been on vacation this week. She went to Bangor to the basketball tournament game for her high school’s boys team. They lost so that was the end of tournaments for them. She had an orthodontist appointment Thursday. Other than that, she’s been holed up at home working on one of her college classes and hanging out. Her employer is closed for the week so she’s had a real vacation.
The first of the tomato seedlings are up and growing.
This week brings a skipped school day to shop for a prom dress and shoes (being an awesome kid comes with advantages like a mom who lets you skip school and takes you shopping and out to lunch), a Farm To School meeting, a best friend’s birthday luncheon and sunshine. It’s a good week!
I received this email this afternoon. Right up front, this is not an organic farm. I can explain why later if anyone is interested. We don’t use petrochemicals, Round Up ready corn (but we could, it was offered to me last March) or anything like these but we’re not organic.
I hadn’t heard of Dr. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak until now. I’ll do a little research on them tonight. We are going to the Ag Trades Show tomorrow and will try to get into this workshop for a little while. It’s a long drive there and back so we’ll leave early to come home. I wish I were going to be there for the reception after so that I could hear organic and natural farmers’ thoughts.
What do you think? Can genetic engineering and organic growing co-exist well? I don’t hesitate to say genetically engineered “food-like substances” (thanks to Michael Pollan for this term) have no place at my dining room table.
Robin
From: Braswell, Sarah
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:22 PM
To: reports@mainenature.org (She must have googled my name to find this address)
Subject: Organic farming and ag biotech bring food to same table at Maine Ag Trade Show
Dear Robin,
I thought you may be interested to know about an upcoming event of interest to the Maine agriculture community. Tomorrow, as part of the Maine Agricultural Trade Show, there will be a workshop featuring a discussion among conventional and organic farmers working together for the common good. While genetically-modified crops have traditionally had little support in the organic community, the workshop is focused on how the two agricultural practices can coexist. The workshop goes from 1:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13, at the Augusta Civic Center.
Keynote speakers at the event include Dr. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, the husband and wife team who co-authored “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food.” Pamela is a plant geneticist at UC Davis, while Raoul is an organic farmer.
For more information, visit our blog or you may contact John Harker, Agricultural Resource Management Coordinator, Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, at 207-287-7620. I would also be happy to provide you with more information.
Best,
Sarah Braswell
on behalf of the Council for Biotechnology Information
202-585-2903
I watched, waited, listened, hoped for better than predicted and then quietly endured 16″ of very wet, very heavy snow fall. We still have snow to move. So much built up around the north side of the biggest high tunnel that we’re still not done cleaning it up. I moved all the snow off the tunnel but that means it’s all sitting on the ground now. Steve used the snow blower to mov then I went out to pull more down so that it isn’t too deep for the blower. I’ve raked the roof a couple of times, shoveled, shoveled and shoveled more. There’s so much snow compacted into a 3′ x 3′ x 10′ strip right now that it’s been declared “tractor work”. It slid off the roof and landed in front of the back porch soon after I finished shoveling out in front of the back porch. Timing, eh? Steve will deal with it when he gets home.
It’s 38* and sunny. Is this January thaw?
I’m still working on the seed order a little at a time. Leslie’s been very helpful tracking down the snap peas I want. Ali’s already posted her list so I’ve looked to see what she’s doing this year. My biggest challenge now is to figure out how much of what I want to grow. Before I can finish the Fedco order I need to speak with two wholesale customers. I’m not sure they understand how much is in “as much as you can grow”.
I’ve applied for a grant that will help buy a high tunnel through the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll be awarded one of only 18 grants for the state of Maine but hey, you never know. I know I was one of the first to get my app in. Maybe that will help. I don’t get bonus points for being socially disadvantaged (Asian, Indian), a new farmer or low income. I’ve avoided opportunities open only to women because I never felt like not having a penis (pause for choking to subside) was a disadvantage. I’ll leave it at that.
What perennials do you grow? I want to start a new flower garden or three and quickly admit to knowing little about flowers.
I’m fighting off a sinus thing that’s making my head want to explode so I’ve been lazy all day. I’m watching videos and looking at seed catalogs. Here’s a video of my favorite farm and farmer, Gloria Varney of Nezinscot Farm. I went to an experiential weekend at Nezinscot several years ago. Gloria helped me polish my bread baking skills by inviting me into her kitchen at 4:45 am. Other women joined us and we had a great morning. I had to leave before my bread was in the oven because my morning chore that day was to work in the dairy. I fed bottle calves.
Yup, you read that correctly. The laying hens are leaving. They’re packing their bags and heading over to Lone Moose Farm in Carroll. It’s another of the farm’s changes. I can buy eggs from Jan or Joe and Wayne @ Rising Phoenix Farm for less money than I can raise them. In the spring I’ll buy a few bantam chickens and put them to work. I’m thinking about offering the mallard pair to Randy (Lone Moose) too. I’ll also be buying runner ducklings. They’ll be my new egg producers. We still have all seven Bourbon Red turkeys. What I’ll do about that is up in the air. They’ll probably live to be 100 years old. I’d be happy to re-home three of the hens.
I don’t know what kind of bantam I’ll be using. I’m going to choose only one breed. Do you have suggestions?
It’s 34* today, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and the wind isn’t blowing. I’ve opened the barn door to let the ducks out if they’d like some freedom. I haven’t seen them waddle out yet. The hen house…poultry house I guess it’ll be called now, is open too. I moved the water bin outside to force the birds out into the sunshine and get them moving. The turkeys took off to explore the path Steve made with the tractor.
I think I’ve found someone to hire for the 2010 season. More on that later!
…does it take to raise a pound of beef? All too often people go off on tangents about beef being nearly equal to the devil. Little do they know. No, that wasn’t a sentence cut short. How about, how little they know. All beef is not created equal. Here’s a good read on the subject.
A friend asked for this recipe and I thought someone else might be interested too.
Enough evoo to sautee onion and garlic until golden
2 TBL butter
1 medium onion
1 large apple
1 cup apple cider
4 cups chicken stock (veg is ok too)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 two pound squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 2″ pieces
Sautee diced onion and garlic until golden. Add cider and simmer five minutes. Sautee apple in butter until tender. Add chicken stock and squash, cover and cook until squash is tender. Add apple to the pot. Puree either in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in cream. Serve warm. This stores in the fridge for up to a week.
I used butter and cream from Houlton Dairy, an apple and an onion we grew, cider from western Maine, chicken stock from chickens we raised, garlic from The Maine Potato Lady (cloves too small to plant but great to eat) and squash from Stonewall Farm in Lincoln.
My friend Elaine’s sister, Ellen, is in Haiti. Elaine posted a link to Ellen’s blog this morning and I’ve been reading with a cup of coffee while I wait for it to warm up outside.
Winter arrived yesterday afternoon. Steve and I worked outside most of the day. Around noon the air changed it became noticeably colder. By the time we came in I was starting to realize I’d gotten chilled. What feels chilly when you’re moving is cold within minutes of standing still. I called it a day and we came in for hot coffee. This morning we woke to 4-5″ of snow (haven’t measured yet). It’s sliding off the metal roof now, creating THUDS when it hits the ground that send the 30 pound cat scrambling for shelter.
I lucked out this snow! I don’t have to clear snow from the greenhouses. The sun is bright, the breeze is mild and the houses will warm quickly and shed the snow on their own. They’re off to a good start now.We have three this winter, by the way. The new house isn’t finished and isn’t going to be finished. I made the decision to leave it uncovered for the winter. There’s no sense in exposing poly to the elements on an empty house. We’ll cover it early in the spring, put plastic down to warm the soil quickly and fill it full of tomatoes in April.
Taylor has today off and we’re going to get the Christmas tree. It’s a little tricky with snow on the trees but today’s the only day we can go unless we wait two weeks. Enjoy your day!
This year’s weather has slightly complicated my seed order for next year’s crops. I’m looking at the list of seeds I can’t order from Fedco this year.
Double Gem corn: Discontinued by supplier.
Sugar Ann snap pea: Crop blown away by hurricane. (say it isn’t so! Noooooooooo!)
Telegraph Improved cucumber: No crop. (gasp!)
Turk’s Turban squash: Dropped for slow sales.
Winter Bloomsdale spinach: Crop failure.
Oliver brussels sprouts: Dropped by the trade. (gasp!)
Wakamine cabbage: Crop failure.
Dominant cauliflower: No longer available.
Moon Lily: Slow sales. (love this when the moon is full)
Pro-cut Lemon sunflower: Crop failure.
This is the last year I can order Buffalo hybrid tomato because it’s been dropped by the supplier. I knew this last year. I like this tomato in the greenhouses so I’ll order early and buy as much as I’ll use in two years or am allowed to order. It holds up to cold weather in the spring and keeps producing until I pull the plants out to make room for fall crops. Sugar Ann peas and Telegraph Improved cucs are my biggest loss. Sugar Ann is my personal favorite and Telegraph goes nuts in the greenhouse. I hope someone else has Sugar Ann. They have Bodacious corn. I’ve grown it before and was happy with it so I’ll try it again this year. New on my list will be Opalka tomato and cumin! I’m excited about cumin.
We had a nice Thanksgiving here with family and friends. It’s my favorite holiday because it’s the only holiday that my entire family is together. We all enjoy Christmas but none of us make a big to do over the day. We had a lot of laughs on Thanksgiving. Kristin and Robbie cut down Kristin’s Christmas tree. Jon, my bil, turned it into a free range tree that ran back to the woods while Kristin took Sebastian for a ride. Have you ever played I Spy in a forest while looking for a tree? Fun stuff!
Thanks to Tish at Rural Ramblings for the Best Blog Award! If I’ve chosen the recommended 15 bloggers it’s purely coincidence. I chose the first blogs I read when I hope Google Reader in the morning.
Now the rules:
Anyone awarded with this one must pass this “BEST BLOG” Award to 15 bloggers who he/she thinks have the best and greatest blogs.
For the new awardee… To receive and accept this award, copy and save the award, then…
Make a post in your blog about the award, like this one, but write in your own words, or at least a reasonable facsimile.
In your post, mention the name of the blogger who awarded you, and include a link to their blog.
Some of my favorite blogs are: (they open in new tabs/windows)
The ducks are still spending most of their time at the pond. It’s unusual that there isn’t a little ice on the pond by now. We had a warmer than average November. I saw heads popping up over the bank early this morning so I went in to get the camera.
Let’s get breakfast!
Single file! No pushing!
Forward! March!
Hey! I’m a mallard. I can fly…
Hey! Maybe I can do that too!
Ooops. No flying for me. There’s a reason I’m called a runner. It didn’t go well for him either.
