Misfire finds a home

An unknown minivan pulled into the drive last week and out steps an older couple who introduced themselves as the people that own the 1,000 acres that adjoins our place in the back.  Well HELLO!  I’d been wanting to meet them for some time to see if I can get permission to ride on their property.   They’d been wanting to catch me at home for awhile to see if I had any well-broke trail horses to adopt.

I most certainly do!

They liked Misfire from the start and thought she’d be perfect for Mrs. Neighbor who is in her 50’s and just wants a safe horse to plug around on the trails.   They were going to come back to ride her, but then Mrs. Neighbor came down with something and is sick in bed this week.  She sent her son over this morning to see if they could take Misfire home and get her used to their gelding so they’d be buddies before mom was well enough to ride.  Sure!  If she doesn’t work out, she always has a home here.

Talk about pure dumb luck.  I had been worried about hauling Misfire to a new home since, without Bertha, I can’t get my trailer anywhere convenient to work with her.  Badabing, problem solved! 

Not only that, but now I have more trails to ride and more people to ride with and keeping an eye on Misfire will be incredibly easy!

Some Assembly Required

I did a little retail therapy the other night and bought Glenn the grill he’s been wanting forever.   Since I’m on-call for work this weekend, I had plenty of time to put it together.   On the front of the instruction manual it says “Estimated assembly time:  30 minutes”.   HA.  It took me 30 minutes just to get everything out of the box and unpacked.

 

Once everything was stacked around the porch and I had found the package of nuts and bolts, things went pretty quickly.   I got the casters on (without the caster wrench, which I didn’t find until I was almost done), then got the two sides and back up without a hitch. 

 

 

That’s when I hit a bit of a snag.

 

Lacking a second human, I asked for a canine volunteer.

 

I couldn’t have done it without her.  And without the Noodle, that one piece would have been cold and hairless when I put it on.  I’m not sure how I would have managed.

 

 

“Mom, you owe me quite a few meaty bones for this.”

 

As always, there were a few extra pieces.   I’m pretty sure they were just included to make people like me feel like they did something wrong during assembly. 

 

Go team!

 

I’ve got some chicken breasts thawing on the counter, lettuce, spinach, and herbs in the garden, and some raspberry vinaigrette in the fridge.  I can’t wait for dinner!

Color me tired

Whew, what a weekend… and it’s not over yet.   Everyone having a nice long weekend so far?  Taking it easy?  Chilling by the pool, stuffing yourself with bbq?  Maybe you went to the beach?

Did you think of me while you were there??  Did you say to yourself “wonder what ol’ wvfarmgirl is up to this weekend?”  Well, if you did wonder that, thank you.   If you didn’t then I’m mailing you an animal of my choice, postage due.   Keep your eyes out for a big box with holes in the sides.

Let me start by saying that this has been the hottest weekend of the year and it’s been way too long since we’ve had rain, but that hasn’t stopped it from being annoyingly humid.   The horses have spent their days hanging out in the barns hiding from the flies and the dogs have spent their days in the living room hanging out under the window AC unit.  What about me, you ask?

Friday after work I fed everyone as usual then trimmed Quest, Stride, and Maverick.  Which is fairly impressive on it’s own, as my back can usually only handle one or two horses a day.   But those boys are all rock stars when it comes to having pedicures and none of them yanked me around or raised a fuss.   After that it was off to town to get water for the main herd, then home to sow some seeds in the garden (baby corn, fennel, salsify, Chinese red noodle beans, and lima beans).

Saturday saw me riding Frisky and Gentry, trimming Junior, Classy, and Abbi, running to the feed store, cleaning the house and doing laundry, and grooming a bunch of horses after evening feed.

On Sunday I hired a guy and his son to start replacing fence.  The woven wire and fence posts should be in at the end of the week and he’ll get started next weekend.   I rode Kita, Tabby, and Classy, watered the garden (watering can trips back and forth from the house – fun!), mowed some grass, groomed a few more horses after evening feed, then went to town for more water.

I slowed down a lot today, thanks to Anne.  And I do mean THANK YOU, ANNE for making me slow down.  I wasn’t expecting her to come over, but after morning feed and trimming Kita, Semi, and Misfire I went down to the house for some breakfast and much needed rest for my back.  That’s when Anne came down the drive and effectively saved me from myself for the rest of the day.  Considering her intention was to come over and help me work, I think it all worked out for the best.  She spent some time grooming Sadie, who is looking much better since she’s been on an altered diet for her ulcers.  Then we took a drive and ended up getting lunch and ice cream at Dairy Queen.   Try the new raspberry truffle blizzard.  Trust me.

We got back to the house and played with Jasmine and Quill for a bit.  Quill didn’t want to have anything to do with the halter on his face, but we could rub him all over with it and he didn’t seem to care.  Jasmine is finally warming up to us humans and she let me cut away the huge knots in her mane and ate carrots out of Anne’s hands without laying back her ears and acting nervous.   We were allowed to scratch her neck and ears as long as we didn’t go any further back than her withers.  It shouldn’t be too much longer before I can get a halter on her.  She showed interest in Quill’s halter and tried chewing on it while Anne was holding it out for her.  At least she’s not afraid of it after what happened to her face when she was younger!

Then Anne had to go, so I sent her off with a ton of eggs.  People don’t leave here without eggs.  It’s just a fact of life.   As she was pulling out the driveway, I couldn’t help but think that maybe I should go inside and think about doing something like this:

 

 

OH YEAH.

 

 

Somebody wake me up when it’s time to feed again. 

Sky

Since the last three horses have shown up here, there’s been all sorts of interest in Sky.  He’s garnered almost as much interest as Maverick did in the beginning.   What is it about those adorable little boys that makes all us women swoon and want to just hug and kiss them to death?  I think in Sky’s case, it has a lot to do with those beautiful baby blues of his.

 

 

Or is it the case of “diaper rash” on his cute little bum?

 

Or is it all those little baby muscles?

 

Maybe it’s his shy side that makes him irresistible?

 

 

Poor Jasmine.  Doesn’t she realize that if she lets me get a halter on her I will pour a gallon of Cowboy Magic on that mane and make her look beautiful again?  At least she’s finally more comfortable with me being close to her while she eats as long as I don’t try to touch her.  If I so much as move a hand towards her, she gets this nasty little ‘tude and lets me know in no uncertain terms that she will eat me if I try to touch her again.  So far the best I can do is rub her head and neck as long as she’s got her head in the bucket and I’m holding the bucket for her.  She did take a few carrots from my hand the other night for the first time.  Progress!!   I have another four months or so before I need to wean the two, so time is on my side.  She’ll come around eventually or I’ll get stomped.  It’s looking like 50/50 right now.   Bets anyone?

 

Photo credits go to Anne on this one!

Quill

Sky’s big brother has been named Quill for that adorable feather shaped blaze of his.

 

His personality is really starting to come through and he’s become quite the attention hound.  He enjoys a good scratch as much as the next horse and comes running to the gate when he sees me in the yard. 

 

I really need to get a halter on him and get him away from Jasmine because she still allows him to nurse!  ACK!  For a mare nursing not only a foal, but a yearling as well, Jasmine is holding up really well.  But Sky shouldn’t have to compete with big brother when he’s at the milk bar.

While he’s friendly about getting scratched, as soon as he sees a halter or lead rope in my hand, he’s running for the hills.  Maybe one of these days he’ll tire of running away and just get over himself and let me get a halter on him.

Or maybe he’ll just get tired.  Period.

 

Doc was here last night to take a look at Sadie, who has been off her feed for two days and acting lethargic and not like herself.  Poor girl has bronchitis and he also suspects ulcers.  So she’s on pepto bismal and penicillin for two weeks and let’s hope that does the trick.  She really doesn’t like the pepto and I don’t look good in pink.

The end is near

When the great and merciless Catzilla descended from the heavens, the chickens knew that this would be their final stand.

 

 

Photo credit goes to Anne. 

Flying Jelly Belly credit goes to me.  But she’s forgiven me already.

Knowing my limits

I’ve always known my limits – what I’m capable of doing and what I’m not.  It’s just the part about admitting my limits to myself that I have problems with.   For instance, when Glenn and I first started discussing him becoming a truck driver I knew I wouldn’t be able to take care of and train all these horses, take care of the garden, work full time, and keep up with all the farm maintenance by myself.  But, I was more than willing to kill myself trying.

Last week when one of the many thunderstorms rolled through the area and the rain was coming down in buckets, I took a break and chilled out on the porch to watch it rain.  That was the first time I had really stopped, taken inventory, and made a mental list of everything that had to be done.  Like the yard grass being over a foot high in places.  The trash that has blown in that I haven’t picked up yet.  The burn pile growing out of control.   The pasture fence that I keep hastily fixing just for Ellie to push down again with her butt so she can come back into the yard.  The outhouse, which is still an outhouse and has not made the magical transformation into a chicken coop for the meat birds and guineas.  The porch, which is still a disaster area from all the times Ellie has done a midnight raid looking for food.  The round pen that isn’t built yet.   The gutters that still aren’t on the big barn.  The run-in sheds in the top pasture that still aren’t built.  All the plants and seeds that are still waiting to go into the garden.  All the rotted manure that’s still waiting to top off the garden beds.  The perennial flower bed that I need to make.

The list just keeps going on, ya’ll.

And let’s not think about all the riding and training I need to be doing.  Really, let’s not think about it.  Please?

So once I got over the depression caused by thinking about all the stuff I need to do, I had to come up with a solution.   I needed to hire some help, but who?  I really didn’t want to put an ad in the paper and go through the process of interviewing people.  That would be just one more thing on my to do list until I found someone reliable and sober.  Emphasis on sober.

Well, duh.  Anastasia teaches adult re-education classes and also has about a million nieces and nephews.   So I sent her an email to see if she knew anyone reliable and hard working looking for some part time work.  She called me back within two hours with the perfect family!   Dad used to be a truck driver, but was held at gun point at a truck stop and is ready for a new career.  Mom has always been a mom, but is now getting ready to start college in the Fall.  They came over Friday evening to meet me and talk about hours and pay. 

Dad has carpentry and mechanical skills, mom will be cleaning the house once a week, and their two teenage boys will be keeping up with the mowing and weedeating.  I warned dad that he will  be put to work!  He’ll be tackling all those building projects that I’ll never get to and the whole family will be replacing fence while I take care of the horses and finally do some riding.

Keep your fingers crossed that this works out because I’m really excited about finally getting some projects done around here and having more time to spend with all these horses!  They start tomorrow evening so I’ll let you know how it goes!

 

Because nature abhors a vacuum and I abhor a post without pictures, here’s a pop quiz for you!  Don’t worry, it’s an easy one.  Who does this muzzle belong to?

 

 

If you don’t know who belongs to that adorable, velvety little muzzle, then I know you all know who this is!

Bunny Bellies

It’s a tough life, but someone has to live it.

 

I say goodbye, you say hello

I said goodbye to Glenn today at the bus station when I dropped him off to head to Iowa for his first truck driving job. I’d like to say it was very tearful and romantic, but how often does that really happen anymore? The sun was shining and I wanted to get back to the farm, durnit! Besides that, on our way in we noticed three horses in Cattle Baron’s pasture – the same three that were supposed to be coming to us. They were from the same people that turned over Maggie, Marbles, and Frisky and they were going to call us when they were ready to bring over the other three. The guy assured me that he knew where we lived.

Apparently not. And the phone never rang.

He brought the horses over last night and went right past our place with all the horses and dumped his horses off with all the cattle. My mind is still boggled.

We stopped by and talked to Cattle Baron to find out what was going on and he said that he didn’t mind keeping them because he wanted a well-broke horse for his wife. Let’s review here: 6 yo mare, her 1 month old foal, and her yearling colt. None of them are even halter broke. But I’m sure you already guessed that.

Now trust me, I felt no great need to bring in three more horses. And if Cattle Baron knew anything about horses, I would have considered leaving them there. Or if he took care of his cows. Or if he spayed and neutered his dogs and cats. Or if he didn’t leave dead cows lying in the pasture for weeks. Because of all the previous evidence of his lack of animal husbandry, I felt obliged to whip out my power of persuasion. I barely had to twist his arm before he told me to go get them and take them home.

Let’s do a little math.

20 acre pasture + 3 untouchable horses + going 1/10th a mile down a gravel road + just little old me = DISASTER

So who ya gonna call when life deals you lemons and you have no sugar? Anne to the rescue!!!! It took about an hour and a half, a bucket of sweet feed, and more patience than I thought I had left in me, but we did it! Mama and babies are snoozing peacefully in the quarantine pasture as I type. I can get fairly friendly with the yearling and he lets me scratch him all over, but as soon as I try to get a lead rope around his neck he’s gone. I was able to scratch mom’s shoulder for a brief second, and rub her head while it was in the bucket eating, but that’s it. Baby wants absolutely nothing to do with the scary humans and spends most of his time sandwiched between the other two.

Since it seems that they’ve just had a lack of handling, rather than bad handling, it shouldn’t take too long for them to buddy up to the food lady. Marbles and Maggie are coming around quickly and Marbles now shoves his back to me in an effort to get a scratch. Maggie still lays her ears back when I reach for the halter, but at least she’s no longer biting or striking. We actually got all the little monsters wormed last night, which was an adventure in itself!

Your turn to say "hello"!

Jasmine, Sky, and ? I need a name that fits that adorable pointy blaze on his face. Help!

Check out the divit in mama’s face. It looks like someone left a halter on her when she was younger and her face was forced to grow around it. Poor girl!

They didn’t know what apples or carrots were, but after Anne threw some pieces on the ground for them, they quickly realized that apples were worth almost overcoming the fear of humans.

For horses that have never had their feet trimmed, Jasmine and the colt have incredibly good feet.

Those ears… I really want to play with those soft, furry, curved, uniquely colored ears.

I’ll start ground work with Jasmine once Sky is weaned and hopefully have her broke and adoptable before the end of the year. Sky and his big brother will spend the Winter in the back pasture with Maverick, Marbles, and Stride.

Oh, and OF COURSE Jasmine originally came from the Krazy Kolor breeder down the road from us. ARGH!

THIS IS IT! At least for this year. Tabby, Meghan, and Abby are headed to their new homes soon. Genesis is heading over for pony training with Anastasia next month. Once everyone finishes shedding out and don’t look like they have mange, Anne is coming over for photography day and we’ll get new pictures up on the rescue site. Once all the colts are halter broke, Doc will have a field day out here gelding them all. Let’s hope none of them are shy about dropping that second dangly like Maverick was!

Inter-species relationships

I am the last person in the world to be called racist.   Just look at the variety I have here on the farm!  I don’t view humans any different than chickens – variety is the spice of life.  So when it comes to inter-racial relationships, I’m all about doing what makes you happy and to hell with what anyone else thinks about it.

But I guess in some ways I’m a little more traditional than I think.  Take the Elvira / Travis relationship for example.  I figured maybe Elvira was big enough to go into the coop with the rest of the Silkies so I moved her out there Sunday evening.  Bright and early Monday morning, she was standing on the porch scolding me about how terribly frightening it was to walk all the way from the coop back to the house on her own.  I bent over and she practically leapt into my hands and I put her back in with Travis, who was jumping around the hutch in bunny ecstasy when he saw that Elvira was home.

I don’t get it.  Does Travis think he’s a bird or does Elvira think she’s a bunny?  They eat together..

 

… and they even sleep together.

 

Odd as it is, I suppose I can live with it. 

 

But then there’s this.

 

 

  

 

And I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to handle  that.

One more try

Since the chickens are doing a less than great job of keeping the bugs down, I decided to try Guinea hens one more time.  Glenn picked up 20 meat chicks and 16 guinea keets from the feed store today and is getting them settled in the side room as I type.  This time, we got some very high protein food for them and they won’t go out into the great wide world until they’re ready.  We’re going to “remodel” the outhouse, run some electricity out there for a heat lamp, then move all the munchkins out there.  While they’re growing we’ll get a new covered pen built around the outhouse for guineas until they are big enough to go forth and eat bugs.

The meat birds should be big enough for butchering at 10 weeks, which will be around the same time where I start filling the chest freezer with veggies from the garden, too.   I’m thinking a bigger chest freezer might be necessary in the very near future!

 

The people at the feed store told us that the meat birds have to be encouraged to stand up or else as they grow they’ll become very weak in the knees and unable to stand!  To encourage them to get off their lazy butts we need to keep moving up the feeder as they grow so they have to stand in order to reach the food.

The sad part about this is that I’m pretty darned sure nature did not make a bird this way.  Natural selection would have eliminated that that specific bird a long time ago.  So although I know I’ll be eating some fairly healthy birds that have never rec’d steroids or chemicals, I’m not sure I’m happy about eating a man-made “hybrid”.  How do you guys feel about that?  Would you stick with a more natural breed, or do you think it’s ok as long as we’re keeping them as healthy as possible and not shoving them full of steroids?

Random Lunch – 05/06/09

 

Frog legs anyone?  I’m going to have more than enough to go around.

 

These aren’t even in the pond.  They are in the stream/run off that goes through our yard.  They’re even in old hoof prints:

 

I’ve always wondered what tadpoles eat.  Now I know.

 

 

That poor worm probably has family and friends in my garden just wondering where he’s slimed off to. 

The one death that has always terrified me is drowning.  Now I have to fear my corpse being devoured by tadpoles.  What has the world come to???

Snakes need love too

After our trail ride yesterday, the two-legged Maggie stuck around to just chill out and try to relax before finals next week.  Kenzie had seen the humans just sitting around the house and had come down to stand in front of the strawberry patch and stare at us.   Glenn couldn’t resist, so he took a handful of grain out for her.  As he was standing there feeding her, he said “MAN!  That’s a big black snake!!  Good thing it’s dead!”

While Glenn is typically a compassionate guy when it comes to animals, he’s also an ophidiophobic.   He didn’t want to see the snake suffer, but he also wasn’t going to get anywhere near the thing.  Oh, and all snakes in his eyes are copperheads.  They’re all dangerous, all venomous, and all of them will slither up his pants leg and bite him the first chance they get.  So it was up to us women to go check on the snake and make sure it was ok.

We found the three foot rat snake alive, but tangled up in a piece of the deer netting that I had used to keep the chickens from tearing up new seedlings in the garden.  The poor thing was punctured from a stick that was also wrapped up in the netting, and the netting itself had sliced him in a few places.  Maggie picked him up and took him to the house while I went to get some antibiotic cream and the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

The snake stayed pretty calm the whole time.  While Maggie was cutting away the netting on his back half, the front half was slithering around in her shirt looking for warmth.

 

 

Once the netting was cut away and the little guy was free, Maggie coated his wounds with Neosporin and took him back to the chicken coop where we found him. 

Lesson learned?  Today I’m going to pull all the deer netting and throw it in the trash.  I’ll use chicken wire instead, which will protect my seedlings, but shouldn’t hurt any local wildlife in the process.

 

As for the trail ride, check out the Training the Unwanted blog for a Gentry update.   I dreamt last night of sitting in a jacuzzi for hours on end – does that give you a hint as to how it went?

What’s one more?

Since Marbles and Maggie won the name poll for the last filly and colt that came to the farm, the second place filly name, Kenzie, goes to the latest addition. She’s an 8 month old spotted Tennessee Walker, and guess what? She’s not halter broke. What is it with people not working with their babies around here??? Her owners bought her from a cattle auction about a month ago for 40 bucks. She’s in good shape, and is a tall leggy little girl. She seems to have a very sweet personality and while I was standing with her tonight she kept breathing in my face trying to introduce herself. She knows what treats and carrots are and seems to have a calm demeanor. When she got off the trailer, she simply looked around and stood quietly beside me. When I let her loose in the pasture she just moseyed off and found some grass to munch on, ignoring Maverick calling to her from the next pasture over.

Glenn fell in love with her the minute he laid eyes on her. He even said that if she turned out to be a good sized mare that gaits, he’d be willing to sell Willow and keep Kenzie. You have no idea how much I like that idea! Anyone want to buy a conceited little hussy too smart for her own good in a couple of years? :)

Anyway, what do you think? I think she’s just a cutie pie.

It took about five minutes for her to see Ellie at the bottom of the hill and rush down to meet her.

Ellie was, of course, on her way up to me to beg for more food. She’s a professional beggar by now.

Ellie really didn’t care if Kenzie wanted to hang out with her or not. She was on a mission for food and nothing and no one was getting in her way.

I know, I know. Yet another youngster that’s just going to hang out around the farm for a couple of years until she can be broke to ride. And another baby that I need to halter break. I guess I need to hurry up and win the lottery so I can quit my job and work with these guys full time.

Is it true that you have to play to win?