Crabbing!

Yesterday I went out crabbing with my grandfather for the first run of the season. The weather was spectacular out on the Chesapeake Bay, and though other crabbers had taken his usual spots, we still found somewhere to lay our lines. Watching the sun come up on the bay is an amazing experience... the sun is reflected in a thousand tiny mirrors, amplified over and over. It comes up red and burning, and the sunrise is always spectacular. The wind coming off the bay is always a little chilly and also a little warm, making the entire thing an experience not to be lightly forgotten. As we drove out over the water at 5:30 AM, right before the sun came fully up, I chanced to see an osprey flying above with a fish in it's clutches, perfectly silhouetted against the sky. Fish leaped out of the water, water birds called to each other and flew off the water as our boat disturbed them. I even saw a very rare (in the bay at least) horseshoe crab.

We laid three "trot" lines (I'm not actually sure if this is "trout" or "trot" since I have only ever heard it spoken) with chicken necks tied up their lengths, and detergent  containers as floats on the end. We caught them up and ran them over a roller on the side of the boat, allowing my grandfather and I to take turns dipping them out of the water with a net. Leaning over the boat as far as possible without falling in, we dove after the crabs as they were pulled up, clinging to their chicken necks. Blue and shimmering, the females with bright red claws, they are agile swimmers and beautiful to behold. Each and every crab gets measured to make sure it is a legal size; if not, it is tossed overboard to live another day.

All in all we got 2 bushels of crabs, and called it in a little early due to the crabs ceasing to come up at a good pace. I always have a wonderful day out with my grandfather. He is one of my favorite people, and I adore his silly humor and loving personality. Crabbing with him is one of my all-time favorite activities, both because I thoroughly enjoy the experience as a whole, and also because it is a solid day that I get to spend with just him.

Photo Blog! Pics from the Farm

Inside the main hen house

Bella, who I shaved terrible.

Molly, one of my all-time favorite dogs.

Piglets!

The sheep gazing pitifully at me, waiting to be fed.

An escaped herd of lambs. They were sneaking out under one of the fences.

Bad Blogger!

Ah, I have become a terrible blogger. Even during the semester I was able to get one or two in a week, yet now I am having a rough time. This morning I finished up my veterinary school application and my personal statement. I haven't hit the submit button yet, but I am almost ready to. Does anyone have any questions about applying to vet school or the application? I know I have around 10 followers; not sure how many are planning to apply or not.

I normally shadow on Thursdays, but the vet I ride along with is attending a funeral today. This gives me some extra time to get things done around the house and in the garden, and actually sit down and write on my blog! Really things haven't been too interesting. At the farm I helped with another batch of piglets, and dewormed another pile of lambs. My animal handling skills are definitely benefiting from my time at the farm. The farm calls the last couple of weeks have been pretty routine; vaccines and floats and hoof abscesses.

There was one case that was pretty fascinating a couple weeks ago; we did a 24-hour check up on a foal and it was very sick. The ears and whites of the eyes were completely red, and it's gums were splotchy in color. The placenta had some hemorrhaging and the uterus was probably mildly infected during pregnancy. The foal also had front knees that were backwards, and had to be splinted. Though we looked for other genetic deformities (normally they come in pairs), we couldn't find anything obvious. After a strong round of antibiotics, the foal has now recovered, has straightened legs and is quite a handful to hold on to for it's blood draws! It was good to see such a quick recovery, and to know that without our intervention the baby would not have made it very much longer. 

~Melissa

Week at the Farm

My week at the farm was pretty eventful. Monday I headed in a little early to help catch and load two sheep going to market. One was a sheep that had somehow gotten it's tail ripped off, and the other one was the sheep that had prolapsed their uterus a couple months ago. We got everyone loaded without too much of a problem. The sheep were going in the back of a pickup, since two sheep easily fit in a cab. The worst part was getting the larger sheep (probably around 200 pounds) up into the back of the truck. As you can imagine, they don't help very much!

Yesterday we started the day by catching all of the ram lambs (24 of them) and isolating them from the ewe's and the ewe lambs. They were starting to get a little... aware... of things so this is necessary to avoid incest. The ram will be coming back in a couple of weeks to try to get some November babies.

I'm headed in today for my normal shift, and then going to two family parties this evening.

~Melissa

Personal Statement

Well I'm sitting here revising my personal statement for the 10^nth time. VMCAS opened on Wednesday, so I have been working slowly on getting everything taken care of. I stopped by the community college today to request that my transcripts get sent out. One of my eLORs is in already (way to be on top of things for that recommender). My GRE scores are unofficially in and the score reports already requested to be sent to my schools.

Where am I applying? VMRCVM, Missouri, Wisconsin and (possibly) Colorado.

Really if I don't get in to my IS (VMR), then I am hoping for Wisconsin or nothing at all. I love vet med, but I don't love it enough that I can't wait another year to save myself $100,000+. My instate and Wisconsin would be the lowest cost for me (IS at $20,000, Wisconsin at $25,000). Wisconsin is better for large animals I believe, but I do quite love VMR.

It's bizarre to actually be here, in the process of applying. When did I grow up? When did I become a senior in college, knowing 100% what I wanted to do with my life, engaged, living independent (kind of) from my parents, hoping to make a dream come true by getting into vet school and putting myself through 4 years of hell (or so I have heard) to earn 3 letters and a ton of knowledge?

Where does life go when you aren't looking?

~Melissa

Relaxation?

Things have been crazy around here. Between taking care of the geese, chicks, chickens, cats, dog and horses, working multiple part time jobs, helping out my grandmother, upkeeping the house, working in the garden, studying for the GRE and prepping for the opening of VMCAS (Today!), there hasn't been too much free time present for me to sit down and pen something. In a little under an hour I will be heading off to take the GRE. I am certainly hoping to do well, and feel like I have studied my butt off for it.Whatever time I have left this evening will be spent starting on my VMCAS, revamping my personal statement, and possibly rounding up some chickens and cows to go to market at the farm.

Monday morning when I got to the farm, one of the hogs, Daisy, had just had her first litter. No one had expected her to have them so early (she was supposedly due tomorrow), so it was a surprise. She had ten little ones, and took to them right away. I have gotten a bit more used to both her and the other sow, Lillian. They are in the main barn in the farrowing pens. These are pens with an escape side for the piglets to go in when the sow gets up and moves around. This helps lower the amount of piglets that get squished! On commercial farms, they put the sow in very small cages, with bars too tight for the piglets to get anything but their noses in to suckle. This is portrayed by animal activist groups as being cruel, but in reality this saves the lives of many piglets.

ANYWAY... Yesterday I helped clip off the end of the piglets teeth (they are born with really, really sharp teeth and can actually damage the sow's teats), and give them iron shots. I was brushing up on my piglet grabbing and handling skills! In a couple weeks I will be helping with castrations on the gilts.

And now I'm on my way to go take the GRE! I have a ton of pictures stored up to post on here, so hopefully I will get to it soon.

~Melissa