Waiting for the Foals Permalink | 176 Comments

Last semester our neonatology class was devoted to learning about all the nasty things that can go wrong when large animal “babies” enter the world. We primarily focused on horses, but touched a bit on cattle and camelids (llamas and alpacas) as well since we occasionally get a few of them as patients. This semester, if we happen to be in the right place at the right time, we’ll get to put all of that knowledge into practice.

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The Minnesota Winter Permalink | 2 Comments

It was 15 below zero when we woke up this morning, so the Minnesota winter weather is finally starting to live up to its hype. Yesterday we had a high of -1. Granted, I’ve been in colder weather in Maine, but in comparison this year, anyway, Minnesota looks to be consistently colder than the coast of Maine.

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City Life Permalink | 61 Comments

It’s kind of interesting how things switch around. When we lived in Maine, we found the need for a “big city” fix about once a year - a trip to Portland or Boston to once again experience “civilization” and see what the majority of the people in the world called “living.” Invariably, it not only fulfilled the need to immerse one’s self in the human stew, but also served to remind us how lucky we were that that we didn’t have to live in that environment every day. Now that we live in the city, we, of course, seek the opposite venue to sooth our souls. More than one person has told us that the northern reaches of Minnesota along the banks of Lake Superior was very similar to the coast of Maine - rocky bluffs, endless water, lots of pine trees, and not a lot of people. So we took advantage of my temporary respite from studying during winter break to spend a couple of days exploring the north country in hopes of discovering new “favorite” places and to give us a respite from the traffic and pavement of the Twin Cities.

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Christmas with the Animals Permalink | 332 Comments

Having made the “big move” in August, we decided against any more travel this holiday season. I only have two weeks break between semesters, and although it’s always nice to spend the holiday with family, when you factor in travel time and finding accommodations for the pets, and on and on, holiday traveling would have negated just about all of the restorative power a winter break can bring - sorry, Mom, maybe next year.

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