BrownSheep- It's been a while

[BrownSheep]

Hello!

I'm currently on break from school but still working my job with a lab on campus trapping kestrels....It is amazing. I encourage you to look them up if you aren't familiar with them. They are marvelous little birds. Although a little vicious on my poor fingers.

We are still lambing. We have lost four counting the twins from before. We have 15 living ones who are doing pretty well. The cold has been a huge challenge. We've had a couple develop aural hematomas due to frost bite. They should be fine though. We do have a heat lamp and a lot of straw( inside and out) available. The yaks are fine. Cold? What cold?The calves still escape the feedlot. They don't give a flying toot about humans and looooove to harass the dogs.

I've worked on spinning quite a bit and feel pretty accomplished. Although, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I spun my first "pretty" BFL roving and boy, was it nicer than the Mauche stuff I had started with.


I've just done a basic headband/ ear warmer with it.
.
I have three more rovings coming in from etsy. It has really given me the itch to get my sheep sheared. Alas, another couple of months to go. The loom is still being rehabbed and I don't think my mom knows about it. I've signed us up for a class so we actually will know kinda how to use it. She does know about the class. She asked my dad if he could really afford to send me to a weaving class since he sent me to a spinning class and ended up buying a wheel.

Im currently teaching myself to knit a hat using some store bought stuff.

 

[BrownSheep]

I've found that each fleece (and type of fiber) has a mind of it's own and wants to be spun differently. The Shetland fleece was soft and fine and wanted to be spun into a fine yarn.

I learned this recently. I spun some little 2 once samples I got at the spinning class of Merino and bamboo or silk. That stuff just wanted to be dental floss, it really did. I struggled to keep it thicker.

 

[BrownSheep]

Well something bad happened today and it has plunged me into a little depression.
Apparently, school starts on monday...I had assumed it started on the 20th following MLK day like usual....I guess not! I'm glad my co-worker mentioned it but it does bum me out. Especially since I thought I would have this entire upcoming week at home. Now, I'm rushing around trying to get my crap together for Monday.

Not a whole lot to report on the animal front.

Work is going well. Catching and banding. Tomorrow I have to be in at 4:30 am since we are going to try to catch some snoozing in the nest boxes. We don't actually know if they utilize the nest boxes outside of breeding season so we may very well strike out. The professor who employs us sent us an email entitled Surprize! at 2 this afternoon informing us .

I don't want to get up that early.
I don't want to go to school.
I wanna go home!

Sigh, I'll have to get a bunch of banding, tagging, and vaccinating done next weekend...Long distance farming isn't for wussies.

 

[BrownSheep]

Something not so funny happened today.
Yesterday, I got up to go to work at 4:30 am. I backed out of my parking space and my break squealed which is pretty normal for them. Then I realized it wasn't my breaks. I left about a 8 inch by 4 inch scratch on my neighbor's car. I left a note and went to work. My neighbor's were pretty cool about it and were mostly grateful I took responsibility and am going to pay for. Especially, since there is no damage on my car and most people would have just left it. I'm just going to pay out of pocket since I don't want it to screw with my parents insurance.

Here's the funny not so funny part.

Today my sister and I went to Walmart. In separate cars since we would be headed different places after. I pulled in to a parking spot and she followed. As she pulled down the "lane" somebody backed out of their spot incredibly fast. Luckily she so it and slammed on her acceleration. If she hadn't they would have hit her driver's side door. As it is they took off her rear bumper.

First thing they said was " We should just walk away it will be better for both of us." .....Uh, no it won't. The guy didn't have insurance and ran into the store as soon as my sister got his name and phone number. My uncle and my aunt came and helped us attach the bumper well enough until she can get it into get repaired.

 

[jodief100]

That sucks.. Sorry to hear it.

 

[Hens and Roos]

bummer, sorry to hear

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Bad luck.... ugh!

 

[BrownSheep]

Incredibly bad luck, but it is wrapping up ok.

 

[BrownSheep]

I'm in a bit of a conundrum. Not a bad conundrum but I just don't know what I should do.
I plan on applying to vet school this fall. I don't have any experience in an actual veterinary clinic which is pretty critical. My vet at home has offered to let me work there this summer.
It would mostly likely be part time and minimum wage.

The professor I currently work for has encouraged me to apply for a summer research experience. It would be studying raptors and most likely kestrels since that is what I work with now. It would run for 10 weeks and pays more than what I would make at the vets all summer.

It would be hands on with the birds and would still be valuable experience for vet school. My professor is great at finding research conferences to send us to ( She's already sent/sending me to 4) so I would most likely present my project over the next year.

Dad says work at the vets.
Mom says do the research.
I'm going to talk to my adviser Thursday and see what he thinks. If I am still muddled I'm going to call my vet and ask his opinion since he's always been very straight forward with helping me.

 

[purplequeenvt]

What schools are you thinking of applying to? My best friend started vet school last fall. She applied to many schools and got accepted to the University of Glasgow. Yes, that is Glasgow, Scotland.

I know that vet school like to see lots of stuff like work at vet clinics, but I bet your research would be a plus too. A couple years ago, when my friend first applied to schools, she got an interview with Glasgow. She didn't get in, but was put on the wait list. She asked what she could do to make herself a more appealing candidate, they told her she needed more diversity on her resume. She had done a lot with large animal vets, but not a lot with small animals. She worked on that over the next year and got in this time.

Can you find vets that will let you volunteer in their offices or let you ride along on farm calls on top of doing the research?