It will be helpful to you to build some sort of chute or squeeze gate for confining pigs for treatment. Perhaps you can find plans on the internet. Purdue University used to have very good information and there are sites for sustainable ag swine practices. Giving shots takes coordination, practice, and a good sense of humor. You might want to practice giving "shots" to oranges. Most shots are given in the neck area behind the ear to avoid damaging muscle tissue. Always use a clean, sharp, needle of the appropriate length and gauge to avoid injection site infection. One method I used was to insert the needle into the neck first. After the pig quit reacting to the pinch of the needle, I could then insert the syringe part onto the needle and administer the medication. Mostly, the pigs are reacting to that first sensation. This works well for small amounts of vaccineÂlike 1 cc. If you have to inject a larger amount of antibiotics to a "pig on the run", using injection syringe tubing is helpful. In this case, a length of clean, clear, plastic tubing (a couple of feet) is placed between the needle and the medication syringe. The tubing, as well as the syringe, needs to have medication in it. You can walk up to the pig, (hopefully a pig distracted by eating), slip the needle into the neck area, and squeeze the medication in. If the pig takes off, it does not matter as long as you can squeeze the syringe before the needle is pulled out. If you run out of hose length, your medication will spray all over instead of going into the pig. I found it helpful to stand on the left side of the pig and inject the medication into the right side of neck. This would confuse the pig and it would not know which way to run, giving you an extra nano-second. If you are using a sterile syringe, you can re-draw excess medication into your syringe to use later (the tubing will take extra medication to load). Practice with water in the tube first. As a matter of personal philosophy: 1. Do not use antibiotics indiscriminatelyÂyou will build up bacterial resistance. 2. Feed grade antibiotics have little therapeutic benefit. 3. Vaccinate and practice good herd health procedures to prevent sickness. 4. You probably do not have to treat every little "cold"Âget a thermometer and learn to take temps and observe animals to see if they are off feed or other odd behavior. You can get meds and syringe supplies through vet catalogs (Iowa Vet) or at feed and farm stores. Be careful not to lose the needle--you don't want to be looking for a needle in a haystack (or worse).

I am bone on bone and cortisone DOES work for me, which is why I'm hesitant to switch to a different method that is also just palliative. I have no joint cartilage in my rt knee and almost none in my left knee. Ads for self-promoted products leave me skeptical. "Cortisone turns off the cells that maintain healthy joint cartilage." Cortisone is location specific (area of influence depends on amount of inflammation) so a knee injection will not affect cartilage in other areas of the body. Cortisone signals white blood cells to stay out of the area. White blood cells trigger inflammation-caused fluid build up (not sure I'm saying this right, but white blood cells=inflammation=excess fluid; knock out the white blood cells and the process stops). Cortisone effectiveness wanes over time (rate depends on level of activity). I get one shot every 9 to 10 months and I'm good to play golf, exercise at the gym and (sigh) go to work every day. According to most people I've heard from, once the cortisone shots stop working for the knees, the other palliative care regimes are also not effective. I wish an MRI would alleviate my knee problems but the last one in November only proved once again that I'm lucky to still have the cortisone work for me!

Jennifer - If the foundation problems have been solved, your floor should be OK to work on. If the foundation issues have not been fixed, don't spend a penny on anything until they are. They have all kinds of dirt, grime, dust and yucky stuff on them. I've worked on floors that I had to scrub with a commercial floor scrubber and detergent to see what the species of the wood was. It's going to be a multi-step process, much of it done on hands and knees, so get knee pads. You will end up with a floor that is clearly old, but one that is clean and looks like it's a 90-year old floor that has been well-cared for. If you want all spiffy and brand new, you'll need to have new flooring installed. STEP ONE - Scrub the heck out of the floor with a floor scrubbing machine that has stiff brushes. Wipe up the dirty water and grunge with old bath towels or those white terry shop towels and scrub until nothing much is coming off. Wash the towels, you still need them. The best machine for you is probably the smaller floor scrubber/polisher ones with two revolving brush heads - they are easier to control. Make sure they have scrubbing brush heads as well as polishing heads. Let it dry. What is left is not water soluble, so you go to solvents. STEP TWO - Get some odorless mineral spirits, a couple of bags of medium steel wool, a good 5-in-one painter's tool (the scraper, can opener, etc. combo tool), and a tack removal tool. OPEN THE WINDOWS! DO NOT SMOKE! Wear GLOVES (it's not terribly toxic, but it's a skin irritant to many people) Starting in one corner, work along a strip of boards, dipping the steel wool into the mineral spirits and scrubbing with the grain ... use the scraper as needed to remove the crusty gunk. Wipe the boards with the towels as you go. NOTE: The color of the wet boards is very close to the color they will have with a clear topcoat. If you find staples, tacks or stuff, remove them as you go so you are leaving a clean surface behind you. NOTE: If you drop the towels from this step into a tub of soapy water, you can wring them out, wash them and keep reusing them. What you should have now is a floor that is free of dirt and grime. It may still have some patches of the old finish, but don't worry. STEP THREE - Sanding and staining. Evaluate the color and the surface ... Color: it's normal for older floors to have color variations. You can easily lower the contrast in the colors if you want by using a stain that is close to the middle of the colors you see. You can go a couple of shades darker, but you can't go lighter without heavy sanding. It's easy to go redder, hard to get rid of red. Species: what kind of wood is it? (it matters for staining) Surface: Decide what to do about any stains and scars that remain. I consider them part of the history of the house ... the india ink spatters where the architect who lived in one house had his work table, the square traces of the old radio battery, the wheel marks from an old table or chair ... it's patina. Clean them up as best you can, but don't stress over it. Think of all those people paying premium for salvaged wood that looks beat up ... you have it already. Fill any large holes and cracks with a filler that matches the boards. the so-called "stainable" fillers will seldom stain anywhere near the color of the wood you filled. Let these dry. Sanding: To get the finish to stick, you have to sand the floor, but you can sand lightly by hand. Buy the BIGGEST rectangular hand sander you can - 1/3 or 1/2-sheet orbital rectangular sander (expensive, but try Craigslist or pawn shops) and several big packs of 80, 100 or 120-grit paper. Sand lightly with the grain, wall to wall, then clean up the dust with a vacuum and wiping with a cloth dampened in mineral spirits. Your objective is to sand off just a tiny bit of the surface, not "get down to bare wood". It's often called "scuff-sanding, because you are scuffing the surface to get better adhesion. If you stain, do it by the "wipe on" method, where you dip a cloth in the stain and wipe on layers until you like the tone. Trying to apply it and wipe it off to the right tone takes too much practice. Matching the medium tones in the floor is least likely to give you problems. Also make sure the stain is compatible with your planned topcoat. Apply the final finish: any floor topcoat you prefer, following the package directions. If you can find a topcoat that is easy to recoat and fix scratches on, use it - matte instead of shiny hides flaws best. Remember that even "clear" polyurethanes tend to add a yellow tone - water-based ones dry with less of a color change. ============== The pictures are of a bath I recently did. I would have preferred to keep the old oak flooring, but it had water damage, and it was harder to replace just the damaged boards than to remove them all and install new flooring of that style. The room was too small and patching wasn't going to work. The pine floor was laid down in the 1890s. ============ This is the hallway ... haven't done anything to it yet, but it's fixable. I'll follow the process above for cleaning and finishing. Here is a link that might be useful: What can be done to craptastic floors!

You are like a lot of people shopping for hardwood. I was the district mgr for Bruce Hardwood. You are getting bad advice. Your reasons for wanting a solid is based on inaccurate info. That was what I meant. The first link provided to you is an out of state hardwood company. They of course will sell you anything you order but won't stand behind it. At least the other company is Florida based. Its just important for you to understand the difference and all engineered is not the same. Suggest you search this forum for Advice from a Hardwood rep for those shopping. I wrote that several yrs ago. You need to get better information. There are valid reasons for wanting a solid but you should also understand why your local dealers are advising against it. Sorry if I sounded harsh.