One Of Those Weeks!

It really has been, that's for sure! And frankly, I am glad that its over!

The week before last, Chad's mom passed away.  We being the closest (Chad's bro lives in Co.) got to go to her home and get started dealing with all there is to deal with in these situations.  It sucked.  There are a LOT of old women in his family...all the men have died, and trust me...I don't wonder why!  ( :  I told Chad, if these were the women that your mom surrounded you with as a child, I am truly baffled as to why you are not a flaming homosexual...OMG...

Anywhoo nothing is ever simple and things don't always flow...and these old women have been harassing him since her death.  Her funeral is the 13Th...man I hope it takes care of this drama, its hard on all of us!

Soo...were dealing with that, and my dad calls to say he needs a break from my mom and he is coming up to help us at the shop.  I am glad dad wants to come help, I am not happy that he and mom need a break...but it is what it is...he is still recovering from back surgery and can't do anything...and we all know how men are whey they can't do anything...  Yeah, so dad rolls in on Monday evening.  It was nice to see him and he went right to work dismantling one of Chad's e-bay finds.  Long storey there, but its a silk screen...used for computer boards and that kind of stuff, not clothing.

Tuesday starts and Chad and I are chatting when the machines all alarm out on a low air pressure error code.  Hmmm...that's not funny...we lost a bunch of time last week with Chads moms death and all the drama and leaving for a couple of days...and now it seems the air compressor has some sort of issue.  So Chad tells me to find my dad...THANK GOD dad was there...took me right out of the mix.  They went to work fiddling with it, I called H&H.  We love those guys...best rental place in the area...soooo  they get the air compressor to fire back up, I line up a back up, then Chad starts calling for a replacement- just in case, dad goes back to his demo work and the compressor seized...this time for real.  Its done.

 The mess before we moved the Bronco.

Off dad and I go to H&H while Chad negotiates the delivery of a new compressor from Seattle.  Nice...running on a rental for a few days shouldn't hurt too bad.  New compressor to be delivered Wed. 

   We had to use dads rig to move the Bronco...poor ol' girl needs some work...

It arrived right on time...electrician comes...some of the stuff we need isn't available, must be ordered.  I am screaming in my head, "Are you f-ing kidding me?  This shitty little Coeur d' Alene/Spokane area acts like its big time and it doesn't have a 20 horse rotary screw air compressor or any of the necessary electrical supplies necessary to plumb it in...SSSSHHHHHIIIIIIITTTTTT!  Its not like this stuff in uncommon....Ugh!"

The compressor shed...with the rented compressor plumbed in and running        the shop while we work on the installation of the new compressor.

My dad loves to tell me to chill out...he got his fill of that this week!  ( :  So Thursday rolls around, we decide where we will put the new compressor as its much larger than the old one...(we were running the heels off of the old one, it wasn't really big enough for the job it was doing....) and get all of our supplies for plumbing the air in order...then the electrician calls...Platt didn't send everything he needed.  It will be in tomorrow.  WHATTTTT???? 

Straight off the truck...you can see the braces for the top leaning up against the wall behind the compressor.

Dad shouts from the back of the shop....."Chill out Missy!"  I yell back, "Watch it you old fart..."  Of course I have no options other than chilling out...  Dad leaves that afternoon as he has to make his PT appointment on Friday and wants a wee bit of time to recover from his recent activity and driving too. 

Moving Starr screw machine to make room for the new compressor....that my truck next to it...they both weight 10k...crazy huh?!  ( :  Chad loves moving stuff!  LOL!

Chad puts me in charge of calling machine sales place to arrange their technical to come out and do the run in on the air compressor...they have to be the ones to turn it on and and run it in for the warranty to be valid.  No problemo!  NOT!!

    Removing a cover to try and keep from bending it when moving...definately not an OSHA approved rigging!  ( :

Old guy answers phone, I tell him who I am and tell him the electrician will have the compressor ready for the technician Friday by noon.  He says oh, our tech won't be available Friday.  I said, "Excuse Me!?"  He repeats himself, I then begin to chew him a new one.  I explain to him that I am running the shop on a rented air compressor and waiting until Monday afternoon is just unacceptable and his lack of staffing isn't my fault and if they can't get me some sort of service then they had better come get this compressor right now...I paid cash for it and I want service....NOW!!  He says he will call the sales man and have him call me back...I say fine.

 Double checking the rigging...hmmm!!

15 minutes later the technical calls me back.  He explains he has scheduled maintenance to take care of in St. Maries, and he will stop by and get the compressor running Friday evening before he goes home.  I thank him and apologise for my out burst...he say he under stands...I tell him I owe him dinner...he laughs.

Up, up, and away!!

I tell Chad that I am pretty sure the old guy and the compressor place thinks I am the Wicked Witch of the West, he is not impressed.  I tell him the tech. will arrive Friday afternoon and that I am heading home for the day.

In place and on the ground!

I split.

The circut breaker...100 AMPS!

Idle screen...yahooo!!

All ready to run!!

When I get home, I see the land lords mules both laying down in the pasture...odd I think.  But I can see that there are some tire tracks leading to the barn...so I decide that maybe he drove them today, and over did it with them.  Its not a rare occurrence around here for him to push too hard...so I begin feeding.  As I feed Scarlett comes to me from where she was laying, she looks miserable.  I also notice that she has no bridle marks or really any harness marks on her.  She is just soaked.  I then look at Missy...same deal.  Super, are these two collicing?  Now, way not two out of the eleven.  Not possible.

Scarlett continues to follow me and lay down, then rise get closer to me and lay down.  No rolling, just laying.  I call the land lord and leave a message.  I watch them as I finish up outside.  As I am getting ready to park my Danger, I notice Missy start rolling. Then Scarlett.  Everyone else is eating...happy and content. 

I call the land lord back, this time he answers.  I tell him that if these two mules aren't collicing, then its something I have never seen before and I am calling the vet.  He says he will be right out.  Vets office say, vet will be right out.

I gather up Scarlett first as she is still following me when I am in the pasture.  I tie her and catch Missy.  I knew when Missy let me approach and catch her with no effort that she was ill....  This mule is the hardest animal on the place to catch on a good day.  I got both mules in the barn out of the rain and waited. 

As I am watching them, I realize that their ears (or antenna's as Chad and I refer to them occasionally) are all droopy and kind of flopped over like a dogs.  I was certain they were feeling poorly.  I allowed them to stand and lay as often as they wanted, but would stop them from rolling.  This was no easy feat with two animals exhibiting the same signs simultaneously.  Luckily every time I started getting after one, the dogs would charge into the barn and startle both of them thus stopping the rolling.

The land lord arrived first.  It took him 35 minutes.  I had nothing better to do than time everyone as I waited...so that's what I did. (I was counting times up and down too, but have since forgot where we were when everyone arrived.)  He took over Scarlett and I got Missy.

Scarlett decided to lay down, but he kept her from rolling.  Missy was bothered by the dogs, so she wouldn't lay down.  Then suddenly Scarlett went flat on her side and groaned, her neck was stretched all the way out.  Eyes were rolled back in her head and her lips were pulled back on her teeth.

The land lord started hollering like a crazy man, and for a brief instant I found my self thinking, if she dies in this stall, we will have to get the chain saw and hack her into quarters to get her out.  This is going to be messy...  Luckily the yelling brought her head up.  The land lord then started shrieking about what was taking the vet so long.  (From initial call to arrival was only an hour and ten minutes...not too shabby really.) I told him I'd call and find out...well the answering service had to page her because it was now after 5 p.m.  She called back almost immediately and said she was heading down our road.  Then she did something that made me sooooo happy...  She started taking their mules medical history on the cell phone as she drove.  We were finishing it up as she pulled in front of the barn.   

Each mule got a sedative and some banamine.  Then she went to work on Scarlett as she was the mule presenting the most signs and symptoms.  The mule had laid back down and we couldn't get her back up...well until the NG tube was placed...then suddenly she found her feet.  The palpitation found nothing but a little bit of stool.  The NG tube brought up a little bit, but nothing significant...so she gave the mule a dose of oil and went to work on Missy.  Same for her...

Neither mule had left the property or been fed anything that the other animals hadn't been...so the vet had no good ideas as to what could have caused this...but she did advise a sweep of the pasture the following day.  She left us with instructions and banamine.

The land lord stayed the night in his cabin and called us at 1:30 am to say Missy appeared to be painful again.  He called the vet and she said to go ahead and give her more banamine even though it wasn't as long a gap between doses as shed like, and if they symptoms persisted to take her to WSU.  So Chad and I hiked down to the barn a little before 2 a.m. to help the land lord dose the mule and then tried to go back to sleep....which of course is never easy...

We drug ourselves out of bed and to work.  The electrician showed up and got his part done.  Only took him a few hours.  I left before the technician got to the shop because I had to get home to walk the pasture and check the mules.  The land lord had left them around noon and they seemed back to normal...yippee!! 

The tech did show up and get his job done, and I will be sending over a gift certificate for him this week because I really do appreciate the fact he made it happen for us!!

I walked to pasture and found nothing...notta....zip....zilch.  All of the horses were upright and happy.  The mini donkeys had slipped through the gate on the land lord, and he let them run the farm....but since it was raining, they ran the barn instead.  They kept the big mules entertained I am sure as they pulled everything off of the walls, they pulled down six bales of hay, and they brought in some junk from outside and just had a mini party in the isles.

On Saturday morning I let the mules out with everyone else, no worse for wear...with their anteia ears in their upright and normal positions!!  I still have no idea what could have possible made them ill and no one else.  We haven't had any changes in feed, water, location, or exercise....

Ideas anyone?