Thursday, September 23, 2010

Interesting Times

Yesterday, we had a bit of excitement.  Apparently one of the horses in the field, Buck, decided he liked the molassas mineral lick a bit too much.  Too much molassas has the unfotunate side effect of causing constipation.  In humans, this may not be a big deal, but in horses it can be life threatening.  As a result, we got to walk Buck around the arena for 2 hours while we waited for the liquid parafin to kick in.  Liquid parafin is used over here rather than caster oil for these types of problems.  We kept him walking to make sure he didn't roll and twist his gut, giving himself colic which can be fatal.

Turns out, my random herb knowledge may be useful after all.  We are out in the middle of no where.  It took us a few days to get someone into a town big enough to have a store with cough syrup for Jennifer.  She was having a hard time sleeping until I remembered that Elder Berries can be used as a cough suppressant.  It isn't as effective as cough syrup, but Jennifer ate a few handfuls of the berries before bed and was able to get a good night's sleep.  It makes me wish I had thought to bring along my herb books.  There are so many things that grow over here.  I know that some of them have medicinal properties, but I can't remember all of them.  I wish I could, especially since it seems I may be catching what ever she's got.`

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