Behind the Waterfall

So...you should all feel extremely lucky because you are getting 2 posts from me in the same weekend! Haha, jk but I thought I should share this with you all before I forgot and didn't get around to it for another 3 months. So these are some pictures I had of my adventure to the waterfall with my friends Juliana and Cecil. I have spent the weekend with Juliana in Twin because of animal care this week, so I didn't have to drive back and forth between Twin and Rupert twice a day. So we decided to have an adventure because we were bored. We're going to come back sometime soon in swimsuits and play in the water below the waterfalll, but it was too late today to play, and a little chilly cuz there was a storm coming. There are a few other pictures that I liked better, but I'm having technical difficulties getting them from my camera to the computer.

This picture was taken right behind the waterfall.
Here's all of us hiding from the spray. It was pretty wet down there.

Directly above Cecil's head, there is a cave that I am going to explore some day.

A gorgeous view over looking the canyon from where we were.

Hiding from Cecil to try and scare him.....it didn't work. This was right before we discovered a patch of stinging nettle.

Great Fun at School!

So, it's been awhile since my last post...again. No surprise there. But it's time for some great pictures and an update on how school is going. I'm loving it as always. My classes are about 2x harder than they were last year, but I am feeling surprisingly competent. It probably helps that I am working part time at a clinic in Rupert, so I get to see a lot of things in the clinic and get an advantage in class.

These first three pics. are at one of my labs. We were learning how to prep cows for various abdominal surgeries. The third picture is the result of me trying to place an IV catheter...yes that's blood.

This is after our neuter lab. This is Dude, he was a sweet dog that looked a lot like Sam.

And this is Rufus, our holstein bull calf that we are bottle feeding. He is sooo cute, he gets so excited when we feed him, and will run and buck and jump around his pen. He will play tag too, it's super funny because he is still way awkward on his feet and always trips over himself.

And this is our Iguana. He's a pretty good boy...we haven't figured out yet why he is orange and not green.

This is what blood looks like at 100x magnification. All the small reddish dots are red blood cells, and the small purply thing is a white blood cell. Specifically a neutrophil, in case you were wondering.

Ok, this is Bobby our ball python. And this is whathappens when you turn your back on a snake for about 15 seconds. I took these pictures when I still thought it was funny that he had crawled through the paper towel roll. About 15 seconds later, I realized that he wasn't come out of that thing the way he went in...nor was he coming out the other end either. He actually got surpringly far by the time I was able to unwrap him. And let me tell you unwrapping those cardboard rolls is not exactly easy when you have a squirmy snake inside. He probably made it until about 6 inches from his back end, before he was just stuck.

So that's probably my most exciting events of this semester so far...although I could think of many more stories if you want to know. I'll keep you updated as the semester goes on. :)

PICTURES!!

Woohoo!! I finally have pictures! Thanks to my "new" camera I got for easter and the sweet deal I got on my SD card, I am now going to have a blog full of pictures instead of just me talking...which I'm certain that you are all going to miss. Here are some of the pictures from my past semester, though they are in a somewhat random order.

This is a picture of my fish tank that I took yesterday. I think I have finally gotten everything worked out. 4 of the fish in here have stayed alive for 3 weeks. I just got th Plecco yesterday (yes, you can see some algae growing on the glass) and one of the small fish have been there from the beginning. He's a trooper, let me tell ya.

I'm so excited to finally have my fish tank up and running.

These are some pictures of our baby goats that were born a couple weeks ago. They are so cute and just love to climb all over you when you go in the pen. The picture below gives you a vague idea of size, the green bucket is about the size of a five gallon bucket. They wouldn't hold still for me to get a picture of all 4 of them together, and it's kind of hard to take clear pictures on my phone anyway.

These are a couple pictures of the two baby pigs I got to bring home for a night to bottle feed. They are only about two weeks old in these pictures, and they are so darn cute. Feeding times took less than 5 min. It took me one or two to make the bottle, and they only ate for about 15 sec. each and then they were done. I could actually watch their belly bloating as it filled up with milk.

And this is Zebra, our resident mouse. His name is pronounced with a soft 'e' as in elephant.

These are pictures of the tail end of our biggest funderaiser we did this year. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of when it was set up, but this is what was left over that we had to go store in our barn. I was one of the few who had a truck to haul things back and forth, I don't think the truck has been this loaded down in years. Haha, good 'ole truck.

And this is Squirt, (No, I didn't name her) the puppy who has stolen my heart this semester. She's a German Shepher mix, and is the cutest thing ever. How I wish I could take her home :(

This is Squirt all tired out after chasing a ball around our classroom for about three hours. They don't get out of their kennels much except for walks and to be poked and prodded in labs, so whenever we can we let them out to play.

I'm sure that I have many more pictures somewhere that I could put on here, but this is enough for now. I'm certain many more adventures await me.

So Far So Good

So an update on my fish, only one more has died since Sushi died. I have three fish left and it has been 4 days since the last death. This is looking promising. I am debating whether or not to get another betta and either put him in the big tank again, or into the small tank where Sushi seemed to do so well. I don't know if I want to manage two tanks right now however. Any ideas on good fish to put in there? Without a betta in my 10 gal. it opens up a lot of doors for different kinds of fish. I don't have time for a long post, but I just thought I should let you all know. If all is still well next week, I will probably try to get another fish or two.

What A Sad Day!

So I have some bad news for all of you...Sushi died!! I think I know what happened, but it still came as a surprise this morning. On Saturday morning when I fed them he seemed just fine. I noticed on Thursday that a couple of my other fish seemed to be not doing so well, like they were having a little bit of a hard time breathing, but I figured it was just me being paranoid. I've been watching those two very closely and it seems like they are starting to swim a little crooked, but that could also just be paranoia in light of Sushi dying. The other two seem just fine. I never noticed Sushi acting funny either. I don't remember seeing him last night when I fed them because I wasn't really feeling well so I didn't stop to watch them eat like I normally do. I didn't think anything of it because he likes to hide in one of my decorations and usually it takes him a minute to come and eat. But this morning when I was feeding I didn't see him again and this time I looked under his rock and there he was dead. For quite a while it seemed too. I took a test of my water and it seems some of my levels have skyrocketed. I'm sure that's what killed him but I didn't expect it to be so sudden. So here's to Sushi, the best fish ever. I wonder if I put too many fish in there at once, but hopefully I can get this tank worked out so I don't keep killing things.

Fish!

So I have some exciting news...I got fish! I set up a new 10 gallon fish tank last week, with some help Ryan and am happy to report that my tank has been stocked with 5 healthy fish. Usually it takes a little longer before you are supposed to be able to put fish in a tank (but thanks to some advice from Ryan) I took a few tests to check the levels in my water and the lady at PetSmart said that I could add some fish. So I got a couple cool looking ones and decided to put my Betta in with them. So far so good. He has shown very little interest in them except to chase them away from wherever he wants to go at the time. Although I think he has started to adopt one of the corners with a decoration that he can kind of hide in as his territory. The other fish are so much smaller than him that I doubt there will be any trouble as long as they stay out of his way. He is really pretty though when he swims underneath the light cuz it really makes his red stand out on his fins. Now that I have my new phone that I can take pictures on and upload them to my computer, I will take some and regularly update my blog with pictures! Same phone number, so don't worry. They look like they are happy in my new tank so if all is well in a week I will go get the rest of my fish. I will prolly get 4 more, maybe 5 if I find a cool one I have to have. My choices are limited though since I have the betta in there. They have to be smaller fish that don't have flowing fins. Otherwise he might think they are another betta and we would definitely have trouble then. Anywho...Life is good with me as I hope it is with you. Call anytime, I love to chat :D

Where does the time go?

Once again...it has been quite some time since I last posted. I was just about to bug mom about not having updated her post since Halloween, but I'm not really in a position to talk :D So here is my post, and my official call to mom to update hers. If I can do it...so can you! So here's what's been going on in my life, as well as some thoughts and feelings that I wish to express.

School is AWESOME!! I am loving the things I am doing here at school. Last semester was just a teaser, we always talked about the stuff we were going to do, but we didn't actually do very much of it. This semester we are actually doing a lot more. The funnest thing I have learned to do so far is blood-draws. (I know you guys probably think I'm weird) Cows were actually a little scary to do, because it's not like people where you can take your time and gently place your needle, then glide it right into the blood vessel. Getting them into the chute and prepped is the easy part. Finding the vein isn't even that difficult as long as the cow isn't a total nut-job. The hard part is getting past the mental block. Like I said before, you can't just glide a needle into a cow. First off because they won't just hold still and say "here, stab me!" but more importantly because their skin is much thicker and you have to do just that....stab them. I'm not talking about driving a needle clear through their neck, but you do have to use a certain amount of force to get through the skin, and let me tell you its nerve racking with your entire class watching you go first. I was shaking so bad I could hardly hit my mark, and it took me a minute to get it just right but finallly I got it! It was actually an exciting feeling and I was somewhat proud of myself that I got it on the first try. We did goats next and they were easy. They were much easier to restrain and we got to use a smaller needle. With goats you can just slide the needle in nice and easy and it takes about 20 sec. for the whole process.

Besides just having fun, I am learning a much greater appreciation for the miracle of life through my schooling. I am constantly in awe of the body and the amazing things it does, from the most intricate relationships between cells to the way it communicates with the greater environment. I am getting more and more excited as time goes on to learn all I can so that I can do my best to help these animals that have no other way to help themselves.

With this excitement has also come an anxiety because while my professors are teaching us all the ways that we can help animals, they are also making us painfully aware of all the ways we can kill them as well. The difference between life and death in a horse (or any other animal but its of particular concern in horses) is the difference between giving medication in a vein vs. an artery. Often times, especially in the neck, these two are sitting right on top of each other. We have also learned of various other mistakes that could easily happen while doing rather routine procedures. I am scared to death that one day I am going to kill something that had no cause to die. On a similar note, I know that there will come a time when I have to put an animal to sleep because I know it's the best help I can give that animal. This is something that I am prepared for, though I don't think that will make it any easier when the time actually comes. It's times like these when I wonder if I have really picked the right profession. But then I see animals like the ones we have adopted for the semester, and I see the awful state of life they came from, and how happy they are now and it makes it all worth it. We got some dogs this semester that were severly emaciated. I mean every bone was sticking out and they were depressed and had no energy. I nearly cried when I saw them for the first time. A couple of them would just sulk in their kennel and barely acknowledge our presence. They gulped their food down so fast it would make them puke. Now, less than 2 weeks later they have gotten a spark back in their eye and seem to want to live again. They have been steadily gaining weight and are eating food at a normal pace. They bark and jump at their cages when we enter the room and seem genuinely happy to see us again. (Even though we do poke and prod at them quite a bit). One of the dogs is still a little reserved but she is doing much better. It is these moments that make me 100% certain that what I am doing is the right thing. I feel such a sense of pride and joy that I was a part of making these animals' lives worth living. And that is enough to make up for everything else.

Another fun thing that I have been doing in school that I want to mention, and I actually have pictures, is the building of our new bird house! This 'bird house' is a 10x10x10 building that we built from the ground up. The pieces all came pre-cut but we put everything together it was quite the adventure!! The pictures aren't in order, and the barn isn't totally done, we still have to put in the insulation and windows...but let me tell you, I can't think of a better place for a sick bird to be than this will be by the time we're done with it :) There's a loft and everything.

The gang. It was mostly just us Vet Tech's but towards the end we had a couple male hands chipping in, it's almost done in this picture :D
That's me in the blue coat helping to nail down the roof.

Haha...I hardly think standing on a tractor follows the OSHA guidelines for safety, but sometimes it's just better to turn a blind eye

Wrapping up for the day

Corrie in front and Richelle in back trying to screw the front of the barn together.

Molly is on the left wearing her sweet hat her dad brought her from Peru I think. If you can't tell, it's a beanie with a mohawk on it. Molly and Richelle are two friends I hang out with most.

Lol...kind of a candid moment, I wasn't really expecting the picture. I'm standing in the loft.

All in all it was a fun day and Beck (our red-tailed hawk) is about ready to move into his new home. We have a chain link pen that we're going to put out front so that he can be indoors and outdoors, hopefully everything will be done by this week. Anywho, I think this post is about long enough so I will try to keep this more updated so I don't have to do big huge posts every time....but I've been saying that all along so we'll see what actually happens.