Late Breeding Season

From year to year I can almost know when the parrots and the like that are seasonal breeders are going to start breeding.  It has become anticipated that come June/July I am hand rearing a brood of maroon tail African Greys and Ringnecks, however this year I had to throw out the rule book.  If I had written this blog a couple of months ago, as I had fully intended, it certainly wouldn't have been anything like what I am now posting.

March time I noticed a marked difference in the birds with them almost begging us to clean out their nest boxes from last year and fit them back into their cages.  I similarly begged Johan, telling him that as early as it was in the year, the birds were ready to breed.  He blatantly ignored me and continued with anything to do with budgies and left the other poor birds to get on with it.  Visiting Bakkies and Daleen at Easter time we happened to discuss this very matter one evening and I was quite hot under the collar about it as I was certain we had missed the window period to a good breeding season which would either have been over early or we could have had a bumper time with two or maybe even three rounds of chicks from each pair.  Johan was quite non-commital to any thing, however Bakkies reckoned that 'we' were right to wait.  He reckoned that by waiting the birds will breed better later in the year.  So, okay, having another opinion made me feel slightly better about not doing anything positive at the time, but some months on now and I was beginning to feel that maybe Bakkies too had been wrong and we were in fact going to go a whole year, or season, without one chick from any of them.

It is by all accounts way too hot for the birds to be breeding now as we have gone from a cool winter - much cooler than the last few years anyway - to an extremely hot 'spring'.  when I say hot, I am not exagerating....it is 29/30 degrees celcius every single day.  To top it off, we have had winds that are blustery all day long and most days it is just plain unpleasant. So with it being as hot as it is, the birds should actually not even be considering breeding now - and yet they are.  In the last few weeks I have noticed how they have been going into their nest boxes and when Johan was here earlier in the month, he had a peek and noticed that they almost all have either been into the nests and/or laid eggs. 

Well most interesting for me are 3 pairs of Red Rumps which were given to Johan by Bakkies to try out.  The first pair I don't think have been anywhere near the nest as it still looks as undisturbed inside as the day that I put sawdust in it.  The second pair we had high hopes for as they were definitely going into the nest, but then sadly a bird of pray came and attacked the male through the wire and it died.....  The third pair are what we pinned all our hopes on and we watched as the hen laid first one egg, then a second and a third right up to five eggs.  With keen anticipation and much trepidation I have been keeping a watchful eye on these eggs and will you believe it when I tell you that two of the eggs hatched!!!!  The chicks were the tiniest  and fluffiest little things I've ever seen.  The first chick only survived two days but the second one is growing bigger and stronger by the day.  The other eggs haven't hatched, but that's okay.  I will be happy if they manage to raise the one chick, then at least we know that there is hope for more in the years to come.

As for the other birds - well Olive, our ever faithful ringneck, laid five eggs and I know that she has chicks now.  I'm not sure how many there are as she is viscious and mean to me, so I am waiting for Johan to come home so he can have a look.  The African Greys are still sitting on eggs and hopefully they too will be hatching soon.....so I have been proven wrong, but I had to wonder if it was nature adjusting to a situation that wasn't helped by us not fitting the nest boxes?  No, I don't think so, because if the birds were ready to breed when I thought they were, they would have laid eggs in the bottom of their cages, irrespective - and they didn't....

 first pair of red rumps

 cockatiel hen

 second pair of red rumps before the male died

 Olive and her partner

 one of the African Grey pairs

 cockatiel chicks

 not a great photo but difficult to photograph in the nest - the red rumps' chick

the red rumps eating to feed their chick

Horsey Tales

Well after we put Titan down at the beginning of August, we decided we were going to keep the horses home.  It was best to keep and eye on them  instead of worrying where they may have wandered on the plot next door and whether or not they had picked up another scrape or scratch or gash or wound of any nature. 

With keeping them here it just means that they can be less picky about what they eat as they would have to settle for what is left before the rains come.  So it has been more than a month of staying here with us and every day as we look out across our plot I am surprized they still find anything to graze on.  Graze they do though and they are at it all day long.

Just before the end of last month I went out one afternoon to feed the horses and noticed that Switch was some way off looking most distressed.  To watch her it looked like she was choking, as she went round and round on the same spot, lifting her head and then tucking it in again.  I immediately phoned our vet and was panic stricken that she too may have the same problem that her foal, Titan had.  She was stumbling around as she continued to lift and let fall her head.  Chris, our vet, suggested that if she were choking, as she very well could be, then I should get her to water and squirt it into her mouth and down her throat to move whatever may be causing the problem.  This in itself was no easy task as she was far from any water and a hose.  I haltered her and started leading her up and that is when I noticed that she couldn't walk.  She was definitely unsteady on her feet and was dragging her front left leg.  We managed to get her up near the water tank and I connected the hose.  While NiQi held her still and then managed to get the hose into her mouth, I then turned water on so it could squirt down her throat.  Not a happy event for her at all as she kept spitting the hose out of her mouth.  We then observed her behaviour and decided between the two of us that her leg was actually the problem.  NiQi took a video on her phone which we sent through to the vet's emergency line and then I phoned them to find out what they thought.  Chris decided to come through himself and soon after he was here.  The long and the short of it is that it appeared one of the other horses, and by that we assume it was Navajo, kicked her on her shoulder.  It was most likely an accident, as he would not have gone for her, and she unfortunately ended up being in the middle of two of them.  He gave her an injection for the pain...it was the agony she was going through that resulted in her going round and round in circles tossing her head up and down.  We used an ice pack on her for a few days morning and night, rubbed arnica ice on the affected area for about a week and gave her anti-inflammatories morning and night too.   She will stay separated from the other horses until after she has had her foal in January. Navajo is happy there is just a fence between them as the two of them often call to each other and stand on either side of the wires talking to each other.

In the meantime she is chomping madly on what little grazing she has to herself.  She has finished the back camp where the sheep used to sleep and she has finished under the top citrus trees - as well as the trees themselves...sadly.  Now we have moved her around the house and flat.  The rain is on it's way I can feel it in my bones...lol  The horses are looking for something green for extra nutrition - thankfully they have not lost weight and become gaunt as we supplement them with horse rider meal.... in fact I think they are very spoilt horses.

 eating on the asparagus fern...nothing is safe now

 We had to tie her off from getting to the aviaries

 under the carport taking a nap

 the fruit trees!!!!

Behind the main house

Almost 24

Home alone today, washing all the curtains in NiQi's flat and feeling quite sad, for whatever reason I don't know.  Tomorrow is NiQi's 24th birthday and I guess that the emotions that well up inside me today are a culmination of the years since she was 21 and what brought us to this point in her life.

When we decided all those years ago to open our hearts and our home to this tiny little baby with the big brown eyes, I guess I really didn't have a clue what to expect years down the line.  Taking NiQi in and knowing she had cystic fibrosis was really not enough, it has, to say the least been a life of learning and it isn't over yet.  To say that cystic fibrosis isn't the 'be all and end all' of our family is the truth, because even though it plays a huge role in our lives, we have not allowed it to take over...we are not obssessed with it.  I do not blame cystic fibrosis for any of the wrongs in our life and I do not hate it as so many parents seem to do that live with it daily.  I think the fact that Matthew was born without cystic fibrosis made me realize early on into Mark's life after diagnosis, that we have to create a 'normal' family life as much as possible.  Looking back on my own childhood I was very blessed not to be a sickly child and if I was ever not well, we were put to bed and basically left to 'sleep it off.'  I know that may sound terrible but I guess we soon learned that with 4 children in the house, there was very little time to be sick.  That is not to say that my parents didn't tend to us when we were sick, because they did, but it always felt to me like being sick was punishment so I didn't really want to be sick and lying in bed on my own.

When Mark was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 15 months, it was somewhat of a relief.  Finally I had a reason for having a child that was always sick, and although his illness was somewhat more than the common cold or a bout of flu, I no longer had these feelings of guilt whenever he became ill, because there was a very good reason for it.

I took to caring for him like a duck to water...I think God meant me to be a mother to someone who needed me so much - but still there was something in me that never wanted to worry a doctor un-necessarily, something that made me hold back in case I was imagining things, something that has always made me wonder whether I am over sensitive in my thinking that something may be wrong, that actually makes me wait....wait for what, you may ask and my answer is - wait, they may be okay in 5 minutes, or half an hour.  This is how I used to be with Matthew more so than Mark or NiQi.  Matthew I always saw as being like me - he was tough, he would pull through, panado would sort it out.  Only many years later did I realize that I did Matthew a dis-service as a child when it came to him feeling unwell.  He needed the same attention that Mark received when he was sick and he didn't get it.  Not because I loved Matthew less, oh no, not at all, but because I thought in my heart and my mind that he wasn't as weak and so it could not be that serious.

I think because NiQi's early years were so very 'normal', I expected that as she became older she would continue as such.  Having seen how Mark suffered, we soon realized that cystic fibrosis doesn't treat all patients the same way, and quite frankly NiQi was one of the 'lucky' ones.  That is, until she hit puberty and then suddenly her wiring changed and all of a sudden we saw in her the possibility that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as healthy as we had thought all those years.  I remember some years ago sitting in clinic and her doctor telling her and I that every year since she had attended to Steve Biko clinic, her lung function had decreased by 10% and if it continued on that downward trend she would be dead within two years.  It was shocking for both of us to hear it said like that and I don't know if NiQi determined to make more of an effort to take care of herself or what it was, but she saw through that year and the next and the next.  Yes we have had setbacks, and extreme ones at that, but every time NiQi has rallied through them and pulled through.  Her worst was the week between Christmas and New Year 2011/12 but a miracle happened and through prayer and her will to live she survived.  Her next major setback was July/August 2012...that was when we saw her confused at what was happening to her, yet determined to carry on.  I remember walking out of Steve Biko hospital holding Johan's hand after receiving what was at that time the worst news concerning NiQi.  Only once before in my life had I felt defeated and that was when Mark's doctor had said to me that there was nothing more they could do for him and it was just a matter of time.  This time round the news wasn't as devastating, but it was equally hard to accept.  Hearing that if NiQi didn't have a lung transplant she wouldn't survive more than 6 months was a tough blow.  It was her choice to make, not ours and she decided to try.  So walking back to our car on that day with snowflakes falling gently around us, it was definitely a strange day to remember.  Just a couple of weeks later she was home and we made a trip we thought at the time may just be our last with her.  We travelled down to KZN for my sister's 50th birthday, a birthday we wanted to share with her.  She sat bravely most of the time laughing and chatting without her oxygen, wanting to savour the time with her family feeling normal and not wanting to spoil it for her aunt.  Eventually after much persuassion she allowed Johan to fetch her oxygen for her and she sat the rest of the time  quietly taking everything in.  Every time anyone took a photo, she took off the oxygen tube as she didn't want to be photographed with the oxygen pipe showing.  Just a few weeks later was her 22nd birthday and we celebrated quietly at home with a handful of friends.

Since then, God has been gracious to her and given her much more time than was predicted.  She is still pursuing having a lung transplant and we support her all the way.  Recently her doctor said that she is having quite a time convincing the transplant team that NiQi does in fact need a transplant.  They don't seem to think she is critical enough.  Her doctor told them they don't know her.  They don't know her history and they haven't seen her as she has seen her.  It's easy to think on looking at her and talking to her, that NiQi is like you and me because that is what she makes you believe.  Tomorrow she turns 24, a birthday I didn't ever think we would be celebrating.  Whatever Gods plan for her life, He most certainly will be with her every step of the way, as He has been in the past.

Happy 24th birthday NiQi, may God continue to be with you for a long time to come.....

 September 2012 @ clinic

NiQi's 21st - before all the drama

NiQi's 22nd - having her hair done

Blowing out her candle with the help of her neighbour

 

 @ Sara's 50th with Jess, Paige and Tiffany

@ the 'Charitea' on 9th August this year

Lucas and Associates

I've been wanting to write this post for a while now, but ai ai ai, where does the time go?

Where to begin when your heart wells with pride at your husband and son working together to build on an idea that started in 2001 - the year Matthew completed his schooling.  Since then Matthew has studied, worked extremely hard for two businesses, got married and settled down and for the last 18 months been striving to be his own boss.  At the same time we have moved to a new province, Johan has been contracted to the NPA and SAB, joined forces with another company - which didn't move forward and also been working incredibly hard towards the day when he could be on his own.  Finally the time has arrived where Matthew has too much work to manage on his own and that is why Johan has gone down to join him.

The two of them make a great team.  They work well together and share the same work ethics and standards.  All our married life, Johan has been an incredible provider for his family and we all know that he has not done it alone, nor by his own efforts, but rather through the grace and favour of our dear heavenly father.  God's presence in our lives is magnified by the blessings that we enjoy daily and it is the guidelines we live our lives with that Lucas and Associates have based their company policies and principles.

My boys....loving you is so easy.....

www.lucasandassociatessa.co.za

 

Starting a Library

More than a year ago I had a dream, seriously, I had a dream - and in that dream our community opened a library.  When I woke I remembered the dream and told Johan about it.  That dream stayed in my mind for a while and I began to wonder, why not?  The municipal library that had serviced our area was closed down many years ago and I felt it was a shame that there are so many denied the opportunity to lend books and read.  I guess I felt this way because I am privileged to have loads of books in our own home which I can read at any time...I can read them once, or twice or even more often if I like and I value the worth of words placed into a story.  After mulling the idea over in my mind for a while, we put it to our community at one of our meetings and it was decided to start our own. We sent out letters, wrote articles for our community paper and asked family and friends both near and far to donate any and all books they were willing to let us have.  We received books by the box load and then books by the bakkie load.  We posted it on our facebook page and soon books were coming to us from all over the country.  Friends from school who I haven't seen for many  many years, made a plan to drop books off with my sister, who in turn brought them up to us.  Book clubs sorted out their books and gave us loads to sort through.  We have been truly blessed over this time, collecting and sorting and storing until we had enough to put together that may look like a library.  Once we had enough books we had to think about shelving....that took a while longer than we had planned, but eventually with a hefty donation of wood from a local business in the area, George, our vice chairperson put it together to make us 8 shelving units.  In the last week we have been working like the clappers to bring it all together ready for our meeting today.  Unpacking all the boxes, sorting into fiction and non fiction, English, Afrikaans...and even a few books in Zulu, French and German, making piles alphabetically, cleaning, wiping and dusting.  A few times this past week I have caught myself with a lump in my throat at the realization we are going to have a library.  Books are on the shelves and we are almost ready to start lending books out.  We still have loads of books to pack out, but we need to wait for more shelving first....that won't stop us starting out with what we have though.  Hopefully one day our little community library will grow to a place that will also teach people to read, a place where people can grow and extend their lives by broadening their horizens.  When I think that it all began with a dream and the Lord has now made it reality....