Sunny Day

Sometimes you just get a 3 horse pile up under the warm sun.

Busy Sunday

Here is what my Sundays are like. Get up at 7:30am in full winter gear, drive to the stables. Grain, hay and water 20-30 horses, feed the barn cats, crack iced water buckets, put the 100ft hose back into the heated office. Go home, feed and water my 4 horses, 30+ chickens and 2 dogs. Get inside to shower and get ready for church. Drive 1/2 hour away to church. After church visit with friends, go to lunch then go to the grocery. Get back home in the late afternoon. Feed the stable horses again, if needed. Chop wood from our shop,bring wood to the house for the woodstove, move a round bale for our horses, feed our gang again, visit with neighbors, drag our my 200 ft. hose to water my animals, put hose back into the house. Take a 20 minute break waiting for the chickens to come back into the coop. Then count chickens and gather eggs, put up the dogs, make dinner. By then it is late and time for bed. Sundays are the busiest day of the week for me.Whew!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Ooo, how I love perfume in all its forms. I stumbled upon Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab or BPAL, via Ebay a year ago. I tried some of the used vials for sale there. Who can resist fall and yule scents to wear? Perfume has always been my favorite thing. New scents or natural scents I have to try them at least once. And as I get older my scent choices change. As my sense of smell wanes I choose richer and stronger scents. Roses, carnations, coffee, dew, smoky leather, books are just some of the scents I adore. And BPAL has that and more. I just have to be careful around bees and my flower scents, I get the wrong type of insect attention.

Ricochet Smart Peppy Stallion

I got to see this sweet stallion in action at my trainers place. She is just tuning him up. He is for sale if anyone is looking for a 2004 AQUA cow horse stallion. I like his coon tail and sweet temperament. His owners link for more info: Big Iron Ranch.

On Frozen Pond 2011

Here is Alan testing out our pond last week. It was in the teens last week and our pond iced over. However, this week it is almost thawed in the warm up.

Luna Back in the Game

Our farrier came out and took a look at Luna's front feet. She was sensitive to the gravel on her frogs. So he went ahead and put shoes on her front feet. Her feet are fine and she is just being cautious after they got sensitive. She can continue with her training again.

Luna Got Fit

Luna has been at my trainers for 20 days and we got to visit her. She slimmed down nicely as she has been hayed only and worked out most days. Until she turned up lame in the front. Our farrier is coming out this week to see what is causing her lameness. Luna seems happy and was glad to see us. Normally she ignores us. We think she likes to be ridden and having a job other than broodmare.

Dog Tired

Some days even the cat gets dog tired. Poppy is napping next to Hickory and Osa next to the woodstove. All are warm and happy to be indoors even though all three normally live outside 24/7.

A Possum Story

Our neighbor asked if we wanted a cat. See a stray cat has been killing birds in his barn and he wants it gone. So we offered to trap this stray cat for our neighbor and keep it as our barn cat on our farm. So I set up our trap baited with cat food. The next morning I went to see the cat. A cat it wasn't, an angry possum it was. So I tell our neighbor what I caught, he laughed and said it was my possum problem now. He suggested I make it into a pet or something. I offered to release the possum and he said no, take it home. My possum, my problem he said. So I took it home to show Alan and we decided to release the angry possum. We took the cage to an abandoned property and let it go free. The possum ran out then stopped sniffed the air and high tailed it back in the direction of my neighbors property. I guess that is home for him. We never did catch that barn cat. Oh and trapped possum leave very stinky presents in a cage. It took a long time in the cold to get the possum pooh out of the cage, away from my horses. Possum carry a protozoa that affects horses called EPM or Equine Protosoal Myeloencephalitis.

Great Hippos

I found a funny artist who paints hippos very well. Leslie Sealy captures the hippo as the possible mount in art history humor. Here is her website: http://www.hippohoopla.com/originalArt.html

She has a real talent for this MAD type of art for hippos.

EW no more

EW is Entertainment Weekly Magazine. I have been a subscriber since the 1980's. I can't stand how useless it has become. For one thing, we don't have TV so half the info is useless, not their fault. But now they have filed the magazine with drug ads like a Readers Digest. The rest of the magazine contains large photos and hardly any words, most refer to "on-line for more info".

EW online is great if you have high speed band width. Out in the Ozarks, we are still using dixie cups with strings thanks to Century Link keeping us in the dark ages.

The magazine has become old, tired and lost its audience, the multi-media consumer i.e. -me!

So I am donating my EW's to the Senior Center where they belong. I am cancelling my subscription after almost 20 years. I will have to seek out my own sources for new music, books and movies; but at least I won't have to flip through drug ads doing so. A magazine should not make you feel old while reading it. Bye Bye EW you won't be missed in my mailbox.

Upside Down Maple

Being sick and trudging out into the snow is hard enough. Harder still is when you have a horse on her back in the stall. Maple our 8 month old weanling fell asleep against the stall wall. She was on her side unable to roll over to get up. I got back to house and had Alan come and lend a hand. He calmly stood by her head and tucked her front legs and rolled her over. No ropes, no pulling just horse weight all rolled over and up again. And there stood a feisty know it all Maple again.

This photo is a summer shot of Maple and the stall before hay was added for the winter.

Horses can do silly things even in large open and cushy stalls. Maple is running all around in the snow and pretending nothing silly happened.

Snow Zombies

Today Alan and I are taking turns napping, feeding the animals and trying to get over the flu. I can't sleep at night, fluid in the lungs and coughing. During the day it feels like we have helmets over our heads, hard to hear, we have no energy to do anything. We are snowed in and just do not have the strength to go outside to plow the drive. I was able to go outside to feed our horses, it took a while.

Though we are sick inside, the snow has fallen and the world outside is quiet and peaceful.