Home on the Range

Odin's leg

2012-02-02T15:51:00.000-06:00

**this post contains graphic pics**

The vet was out Tuesday. Unfortunately that is my one 'day shift' at work so I wasn't around but Pie was here to assist. He did pretty good for being a non horsey hubbie.

Today was the first bandage change and my first really good look at what we're dealing with, it was quite a mess before the vet cleaned it up.

We will never know for sure how he did it, but the working consensus is that he got his leg caught in the feeder or was in the feeder and one of the other horses took after him and he banged it/scraped/gouged it getting out of the way.

Fortunately he managed to miss anything important such as tendons or tendon sheaths. But it is bad, and it will be a long time healing. Right now the estimate is 3-4 months of bandage changing, probably 10-12 months until it's fully healed. Seeing as he's a colt and still growing that should help minimize how bad the scar will be when he's an adult and he should have no physical problems with that leg.

So here y'all go, as of today this is what its looking like:

his legs aren't really that bad conformationally,

this is just a bad pic and he was being pissy

full view of the worst of it

his little tail was in the way enough

to need to be knotted out of the way

close up, steam rising because it had just been cleaned

yep, that's bone you see

this is what has me worried the most

I'm very grateful to have a friend that lives nearby that came to help me with this initial bandage change. I'll confess I'm not very good at wrapping legs. Scott lives just down the road and breeds/trains/shows horses, and thankfully he's had a lot of experience with stuff like this.

Wordless Wednesday ~ :P

2012-02-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

Stalked

2012-01-31T17:47:00.001-06:00

The other day I took my camera and went for a walk in the pasture. I was looking for something suitable for the 'framed by nature' Sunday Stills challenge.
I hadn't gone very far when I got the distinct feeling that I was being followed...

Sure enough there were Eli and Oliver. I shoulda known! Those two goofy cats will even tag along when I ride out in the pasture lol

** I had to work today, Pete was in charge for Odin's vet visit and then he worked tonight. Hopefully I'll have an update for you by tomorrow **

Sonuvabiscuit!!

2012-01-30T19:01:00.000-06:00

Today Pie & I ran errands in the city and then came home to meet the farrier, who beat us to the barn by a couple minutes. Scott (farrier) was standing looking at Odin and says "Hi, what happened here?"
Not something you ever want to hear... I got up to Odin's pen and looked at his back leg. Then I ran back to the house to call the vet. His back leg is cut open, it looks deep but like it missed anything important, and its too late to stitch. She said to clean it, wrap it and she'd be out tomorrow. So for now, this is Odin's fashion statement:

Pie & I walked the whole pen and I can't find blood anywhere nor anything that looks like it could have caused a cut like his.
Fingers crossed & jingles that it's not bad and heals up good. So far he's putting weight on it and walking, although you can see he's ouchy on it.

Sunday Stills ~ Nature's Frames

2012-01-29T03:06:00.000-06:00

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: This next weeks challenge is to get something framed by nature. Trees making a frame over a stream, a branch making a fork around the moon…nature does a lot of this if we’ll just open our eyes and look.

All but one of my photos are from the archives again this week. I tried to get out to take there but I about froze my poor fingers off, even with gloves!

This first one is the 'teepee' at the park where we take our staff every year for a picnic:

Rainy, my friend Kimfer's dad's horse:

The moon framed by clouds (taken earlier this month):

A curious eye framed by luscious lashes (taken Saturday):

I rescued a horse!!

2012-01-28T01:54:00.000-06:00

**disclaimer, no I did not actually

get another horse at this time**

In my post on Thursday I mentioned that I have a thing about "rescue". There are some horses that are rescued where that term is, IMO, correct. But there are sooo many horses out there that are 'rescued!' where I would debate that term.

If you bought a horse from the kill pen, if you bought a horse that was being abused, if you took in a horse that had been abandoned... those are rescues.

This horse is sure as heck a rescue! (if you haven't read Argus's story before make sure you have tissue handy if you click that link)

A horse that needs some training, a horse that didn't have perfect hoof care or needs some weight (not drastic, just not A+), if you buy a horse from a sale/auction, those are not rescues. You bought a horse.

If you buy a horse that was living in a way you personally don't agree with, whether it was worked hard on the show/rodeo circuit or lived in pens 24/7 and your horses only live in pasture or are only ridden 30 minutes 3 times a week... if their basic needs are being well met, you didn't rescue, you bought a horse.

The horse that has no shelter from the blazing heat/frigid cold/wet/wind, little or no feed, unclean and/or limited water. You could consider him a rescue.

The horse that is being sold because the kids lost interest and have moved on to boys/girls/cars/college/etc... you bought that horse.

There's nothing wrong with rescue, either groups or the individuals that do it all on their own. Bless them! The horse industry does need them!

However there are bad rescues, the ones that are either taking advantage of people's hearts & money or that get in way over their head until they themselves need rescuing. And there are definitely enough horses out there that truly need to be rescued that theses groups don't need to go trolling for horses!

**happened to me in the feed store a few years ago when I was buying senior feed for Cessa and it p!$$es me off even now when I think of it**

There seems to be almost a social stigma against buying or breeding horses these days. Maybe that's why there's an overabundance of the "I rescued MY horse" being uttered.

Friday Funny ~ Cab ride

2012-01-27T14:40:00.000-06:00

A British passenger in a taxi in Dublin leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from the edge of the bridge over the Liffey River.
For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, and then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry, but you scared the devil out of me."
The frightened Brit apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten an Irishman so much.
The driver replied, "Will the saints in Heaven forgive me -- it's entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab. I've been driving a hearse for the last 25 years."

Friday Funny ~ Politics

2012-01-27T00:19:00.000-06:00

Late one night, a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs.
"Give me your money," he demanded.
Indignant, the affluent man replied "You can't do this - I'm a United States Congressman!"
"In that case," replied the mugger "give me MY money!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom and Dick went to hear a politician speak. Tom nods off and when he wakes up he finds the politician is still talking.
"Hasn't he finished?" he says to Dick.
"He finished about half an hour ago," replies Dick. "But he hasn't stopped yet."

Treats

2012-01-26T15:40:00.001-06:00

I was reading a popular horse magazine last night and something caught my eye. There was an article with a lady that had a big win at a show and she was talking about the treats she gives her horse for a reward, chocolate chip cookies & bananas are his favourites. After their big win he got bananas and a bag of Ruffles.
Examples like those above kinda make me cringe. I'm sure there's lots of treats we give to our horses that aren't exactly good for them. I've heard of things like soda, beer, all sorts of candy (sweet, chocolate, crunchy, salty, etc), chips, and so on. Peppermints & sugar cubes are long time favourites. Other traditional, and probably healthier, treats include apples & carrots.
Something I find interesting about treats is how some people just assume all horses will eat them. I've read plenty of articles/blog posts/comments on horses that have been "rescued" and how the poor thing didn't even know what a carrot/apple/peppermint was!

(the term rescue is a bit of a sore point with me, not every horse that comes from a not perfect situation is a rescue!)

Some horses just don't like those treats. My little Odin will not eat ANY treat so far. Trust me, I wish he would. It might make some training things a bit easier. For example as soon as Tavi found out he got to eat cookies if he walked into the trailer calmly he was going in & out like a pro.
Until a couple years ago none of my horses would eat carrots. Now they'll eat them, but only the 'baby carrots'. And if you even try to offer them an apple or a peppermint they'll just look offended and turn their noses away lol Horse cookies on the other hand will get you plenty of attention!
My horses get a cookie once they're haltered. After working they'll get a pail with some cookies and/or carrots or if they're put into the tie stall they'll have their cookies/carrots put in the feeder.
So what do you give your horses for treats? Or are you a non treat person? Also do you feed treats by hand or from a pail?

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T01:09:00.000-06:00

Selling a dream

2012-01-24T00:41:00.000-06:00

Recently a Facebook status caught my eye. It was in regards to a message to her horse's former owner updating the lady about his progress. The reply she got was along the lines of:

"I'm happy for you but please don't keep updating me. It reminds me of how much money I wasted. I did my duty by finding him a good home, but it was nothing but pain for me to have had him"

Of between 20 - 25 comments (not including mine or the original poster's) there were only about two other people that didn't dump all over the previous owner.
I can relate though. Its painful when you have a horse and have dreams and hopes for him only to have it not work out. Remember Quinn?

I had a lot of dreams for him... he was going to be my 'step up' barrel horse. Hopefully a 2D horse that could move up to 1D. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. I held onto my dream for him, and him, hard and tried hard and it was a very bitter end.

(in fact if I was a different person

he probably would have ended up as a steak)

I sold him to a friend of a friend and had a couple messages to let me know he settled in well and they really liked him. That was nice to hear and I was glad that he had found a place with good people.
Then through another friend I'd hear about how AWESOME he was and even kids could ride him and blah blah blah.
Yeah that stung. It made me feel like a big fat failure. I totally doubted whether I should even own horses and was considering quitting horses all together.

(other than Cessa,

who would live out her days as a pasture ornament)

So obviously I didn't really want to hear anymore of those updates.
I did talk to the buyer again, she let me know the only reason the kids could ride him is that it was a total 'no pressure' situation for Quinn. Anytime anyone got on him and wanted him to "work" or had any expectations besides toodling along in the pasture on a total loose rein, mindlessly wandering along well then Quinn would revert to his former badass which had caused me to sell him.

So I get it. Its nice to know that the horse you've sold is in a new home doing well. To be updated after that and reminded of what didn't work out for you, the lost dreams, the lost time, the lost money (let's be honest, for most of us money IS a factor!)... well that can hurt.

Oh, and as for Quinn... I recently messaged his buyer to see how he's doing. He's pretty much living his dream life now as a pasture ornament.

Those carved birds

2012-01-23T00:01:00.001-06:00

These ones, from my Sunday Stills post:

They aren't just carved, they're carved by chainsaw. Pie & I saw this place when we went to visit Uncle R at the cranberry bog. We had to stop and check it out. Glad we did too because it was pretty neat.
The carvings all start off like this:

And unless he has a commission for a certain work the chainsaw artist lets the wood speak to him and he goes to work. Here are some of the pieces that were there:

Pie & I would have liked to get one commissioned, but not enough to pay to ship the darn thing all the way home! lol

A Good Horse...

2012-01-22T15:58:00.000-06:00

is a good horse, regardless of breed/discipline. Which is part of the reason I love this video:

Sunday Stills ~ Birds

2012-01-22T01:04:00.000-06:00

The Sunday Stills challenge: For this next weeks Sunday Stills, shoot some birds

Unfortunately its been CRAZY cold here lately. We're talking -35C to -50C. I don't think I would have been able to keep my camera warm enough to use outside, even if I had wanted to try! So this week my Stills are all from the archives.

The snowy owl I caught napping, at noon on January 1st.

My friend Shann's pretty hens.

Sea birds at the harbour in Halifax.

Bird carvings by the cranberry farm where my Uncle R works (in New Brunswick)

The Cabin (a bit late)

2012-01-21T02:45:00.000-06:00

A while ago...

(okay, so it was in October)

I promised to show you guys a bit more of the cabin Pie & I stayed at on vacation. It's not anything super fancy, but it's cozy & quaint and I LOVE that place and I'm so grateful that Uncle D & Auntie S let us stay there :)

Here's a view of the cabin from the front, nice porch with a swing and barbeque, fire pit out front.

But before you even get to the cabin
you have to take the highway,

then a blacktop highway,

then a quiet little paved road,

then find the turnoff and follow the secluded little lake road

yep, that's the road

This is the corner of the living room, to the left of that chair are the two little bedrooms and a small bathroom. The kitchen & eating area are opposite the living room (That leather couch faces them)
While we were there it was chilly at night so we fired up the wood stove (thanks again Uncle D for making sure there was ample firewood!)
Auntie S is very artistic and her art is everywhere at the cabin. Those two paintings below are her's.

I love the little details, like the wood floors, rough and rugged...

And the maple leafs on everything from the shutters to the deck railing

More art :)

Outside there was the hammock (yes I used it) You can see more art hanging by it

evidence of art on the paint splashed rocks

I loved walking around outside and finding little surprises like this

Even the birdhouses were painted & pretty

And of course the views were divine! I love Auntie & Uncle's cabin, it is truly a special place built of love :)

Friday Funny ~ Going buggy

2012-01-20T01:12:00.000-06:00

A man goes into a pet shop and asks for 15 cockroaches, 35 termites, 12 wasps and three mice.
"What do you want all them for? asks the storekeeper.
The man replies, "I'm moving out of my apartment tomorrow and my landlord said I had to leave it exactly as I found it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A man answers a knock at his front door. Outside is a six foot ladybug which proceeds to head butt him, kick him, and stomp on his head.
The man wakes up in the hospital where he describes his ordeal to the doctor.
"You're the sixth case like this we've had in today," says the doctor. "There's a nasty bug going around."

What's this I see?!

2012-01-19T00:02:00.001-06:00

What's that? Snow?! Yay it snowed!! Saturday night we finally got some of the white stuff. Unfortunately it also brought absolutely FRIGID temperatures with it.
We've been so spoiled with mild temperatures that even our regular seasonal temps would seem really cold. So instead Mother Nature is blasting us with extra cold temperatures. I kid you not. Yesterday the temps were in the -30 to -40 range (with the windchill it was almost -50!). Keep in mind those are all Celsius.

(so -22 to -40F, windchill -58F)

Tuesday night (very early Wednesday AM) I let the dogs out for their final potty before I went to bed. I picked Walter up from where he had curled up to sleep, opened the door so Tucker, Comet & Misty could go out, set Walter outside the door where he promptly fell over.
Seriously :o Poor Walter! That cold was a bit of a shock... probably extra so because he'd been curled up on the dog bed in front of the pellet stove (yup, I felt bad)
He got back on his feet, pee'd and came in and tossed me a look that clearly said "what the HELL were you thinking woman!"
I will gladly take the snow, I just think this extreme cold is a little cruel. To try to take my mind off it I admire the snow and take pictures that amuse me, like this one... I think it looks like Mini Wheats for a giant

**I took this from inside my nice, warm truck**

(almost) Wordless Wednesday ~ Treed!

2012-01-18T00:03:00.001-06:00

*SOOC other than cropping & my little watermark*

Okay camera buffs...

2012-01-17T00:05:00.002-06:00

I wanted to do a bit of a side by side comparison of the two cameras I got for Christmas, well more liked stacked on top of each other.
The first test I gave them was night shooting. I tried to get two shots as similar as possible to compare the cameras. What better subject than the waning full moon on Friday the 13th?

S9100

P500

So what do you guys think?

** edit to add: both cameras were handheld, both settings were the pre-programmed night modes **

Time Out!

2012-01-16T01:08:00.000-06:00

My poor little Tucker dog is on a forced R&R, which he's not very thrilled with. Instead of playtime looking like this at our house:

There's supposed to be no wrestling, no running, no jumping, and he's restricted to hand walking for potty breaks. Do any of y'all know how hard that is to enforce with a Boston? Better yet, with two Bostons and one is a pup?!

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, it could have been as simple as slipping on the ice, but Tucker has a back injury right now. When Pie came home from work Friday night I let the dogs out to greet him, everyone was fine. But when they all came back in Tucker couldn't make it up the deck stairs. When I brought him in he would barely walk, and when he did he didn't use his hind legs right. When he stood he'd kinda hunch his back. Poor little guy was miserable. :(

I went to bed, but it was a restless night. Got up early to call the vet's office. When I told her what was going on she squeezed him in.
(I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I love our vet, she's awesome!)
He's already doing much better, which is a blessing and a curse... nice to see him on the mend but it makes it SO much harder to keep him quiet & calm! He is on pain meds so that's part of it but I really think he's on the mend :)

The good part of this R&R? More pics like these:

Tucker would like to thank his "on-line Aunties" for their well wishes, jingles and Facebook messages :)
Please keep the jingles coming, I want my little guy to make a full recovery :)

Sunday Stills ~ Corners

2012-01-15T01:20:00.000-06:00

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: This weeks challenge it to photograph corners…..corners on buildings, boards, streets…..just find yourself a corner and play with light and shadows.

I stopped at the 4 corners created by a cross-road by my place.

First is the barb wire gate at the corner post of a pasture:

This marks the corner of one of my neighbour's places:

Country & I Know It

2012-01-14T02:18:00.000-06:00

This has been making the rounds on Facebook & Youtube... thought I'd share it with y'all

But this has to be my all-time favourite. Pete has always said this is Tucker's song lol

(I found the above video via Mary's blog)

Friday Funny ~ Word Play

2012-01-13T00:03:00.001-06:00

Two trucks loaded with a thousand copies of Roget's Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing house last Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied.

The "Help"

2012-01-12T01:29:00.000-06:00

Whenever my nieces & nephews come to visit the big draw is getting to see all the animals. They love to "help" do chores.
On Christmas Eve my sister & her family and my brother & his family were all out at 'The Ranch'. Pie & I had waited to do chores because we knew the kids would want to help out and see the horses, pony, donkey and cows.
Lucas got right to work...

You know how it is, when you put a round bale out and a piece flakes off. Well he saw me gathering that up and throwing it to the cows so he ran over to help. It wasn't long and Zoe was right behind him...

(I just love the 'huge' handfuls they grab lol)

Little Abigail (or Abby-gail as someone calls her) ran over then turned and giggled. You could almost hear what she wanted to say:

"I can't help, these silly mitts have no thumbs!"

I love this picture so I just had to include it. I think my bro had no idea that George was sneaking up to check him out.

Don't worry, they didn't get worked to death. But it is rather pathetic... they were trying desperately to make snow angels with the little patch of snow.

Lucas & Zoe learned that a very important chore is to check the waterers. Gotta make sure they're working all year round, and in the winter check that there isn't ice in them.

("Its water Auntie!")

And of course the obligatory 'sitting on a bale' shot :)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Whooooo do I see

2012-01-11T00:00:00.002-06:00

D'oh, a deer!

2012-01-10T00:00:00.000-06:00

When I was out shooting pics of the hayfield the other day something caught my eye.

There were a couple of deer out there.

Then, just after I snapped this shot I took a quick peek at it

and realized there weren't two deer,

there were three.

I zoomed in a bit more and shot the two standing on the right.

And that was it.

Too many little shutter clicks, they were off!

I watched them bound away,

white tails swaying in the air like show girls.

Headed for the hills, err, hill.

Wherefore art thou?

2012-01-09T00:03:00.001-06:00

See my header pic up there? That was taken in early December 2011. This pic below, that was taken this past Saturday... so about a month later. Other than that big shadow at this end of the hayfield it looks pretty much the same. Which is bad! Snow, snow, wherefore art thou snow?!

Around here snow is important. It insulates plants & roots and contributes to our spring moisture.
Sure the city people are happy, they're not shovelling or dealing with crappy roads. But will they be happy if we get a lot of extra rain this spring & summer to make up for no snow this winter? NO. And its not like that's a guaranteed trade off anyway.
Whenever they give me grief for missing the snow and say we don't need it I always say "Well, do you like to eat? Because the farmers need it!"
I know not every area gets lots of snow (or any snow) for the winter, but for the places that do (like here) this is not a good sign. Compare those above pics to this one below, taken early November 2011:

*just a random shot towards the neighbour's arena

the hayfield is off to the right of where I'm standing to take this*

Not a lot of snow, but its there and more came later.
At the rate this winter is going I'm getting concerned about my pasture & hayfield for this year.

Sunday Stills ~ Light Painting

2012-01-08T02:02:00.000-06:00

When I read this week's Sunday Stills challenge my first thought was "yikes!" Well I played along, not sure how well I did though.
"This weeks challenge is a fun one. Set your camera on a slower shutter speed…….or just turn the flash off on a point and shoot, find some lights and shoot them moving your camera as you do. You can also find some moving lights (traffic for instance) and photograph those (a tripod or setting your camera on something and using a remote or the timer works well for this). You could also have someone (even yourself-using your cameras timer and a slow shutter speed) use a flashlight in the dark. The challenge in this is to play with aperture and shutter speed. Be creative"

Anyone know what this is?

What about now?

Look almost like the lights are sparks

O' Christmas tree

Street, business, traffic lights

Big rig

Fast car

Hay, I've got a question for you

2012-01-07T02:01:00.000-06:00

I always wonder - when I hear people talking about hay prices, what do they mean? Whether hay is at $3 a bale, $10 or $16 (or more), what size bale is that? What kind of hay is that?

So I'd like to hear from you guys. Tell me about your hay. Even if you usually lurk, speak up!
Where do you get it? What kind is it? How big is your bale? About how long does it last you?

I'll start off with my hay. When we bought our place we were very fortunate that about 30 acres of our land is hay field. Where we're not so fortunate is we don't have the equipment to hay it ourselves so we have to find someone to do it (its just not financially feasible, at least for now, to buy the equipment ourselves)
Last year (our first year here) we had more than enough hay for the year. It was baled in squares and rounds. The rounds are soft core and small (about 800lbs).
I sold about 20-30 round bales to a neighbour friend. We went into this winter with some squares & rounds left. Our hay last year cost me about what I paid for 3 months board for 3 horses when we were boarding.
This past year we had to get someone else to hay for us (the neighbour that did it before had medical issues) He wanted hay in trade, about 2/3 of it - which is the going rate. Well we need our hay! We ended up settling for some hay & some cash for payment. There are a few squares from this year's crop and the rounds which are still soft core but slightly larger (about 1000-1100lbs)
Our hayfield is mostly prairie wool, with some brome & a bit of alfalfa.

When we got the Dexter babies this winter we bought some hay for them. Rounds, about 800lbs, that are grass/alfalfa mix. We paid $25 a bale for them, delivered and unloaded.
(for our rounds I could probably have got about $30-40 a bale for them last year and this year)

Okay guys, your turn... go comment! :)

Friday Funny ~ Joining the Marines

2012-01-06T01:41:00.000-06:00

Dear Ma and Pa:

I am well. Hope you are.

Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late.

Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water.

Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, and stuff, but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon, when you get fed again.

It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route" marches, which the Platoon Sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat.

The Sergeant is like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move. And it ain't shooting at you, like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in little metal boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home.

I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. He joined up the same time as me. But I'm only5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and weighs near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,
Gail Ann

In Moose's words

2012-01-05T00:00:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, we've taken on a 'boarder' over the winter. Moose is an Arab X Standardbred gelding and he belongs to our small animal vet Dr L. He's in a pen with Rootbeer for now. He wanted to meet you all and tell you about the almost very traumatic day that he almost starved.

**eyeroll**

So without further ado here is Moose:

Hi everyone, my name is Moose but I see that Cdn already told you that. I'm staying here for the winter because there's an indoor arena right next door. Personally I wouldn't mind if I never stepped hoof in there and spent the whole winter in this pen with Rootbeer and the never-ending hay!

Except the other day I thought the hay was ending!! I thought I was going to staaaarve to death!!

Then I saw them all coming down to the barnyard and they started the tractor. I made sure to prance around and flag my tail so they would notice that my our hay was GONE! It was here last night and earlier this morning but now it was g.o.n.e!!

Wooohoooo they're getting a bale!!

Ummm, excuuuuse me!! What is taking so long!?

Hmmm I wonder how those controls work?

Maybe I can squish into the cab and bring that bad boy in here myself?

What the?!?! Did you see that Rootbeer?! This is NOT acceptable!

Those COWS got a new bale before I umm we did!!!

That next bale BETTER be coming in here!!!

There ya go... those are the horse bales.

Pretty sure those other horses have hay. That's gotta be for us!

Oh thank goodness, Rootbeer we're not going to starve!

Are you coming to get some little buddy?

Nom nom nom nom

Wordless Wednesday ~ Feathers of Frost

2012-01-04T00:00:00.002-06:00

Come tour The Ranch

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-06:00

We jokingly call our place "The Ranch", at 74 acres it doesn't really qualify. Not to mention the fact that we don't make a living off it or really raise anything, although we DO have the cows now lol

I've told you guys a bit about our place and shown some pictures but today I thought I'd show you a picture of (almost) our whole place. I took a pic of the aerial photo we have and added some labels (I'm pretty sure you can 'enbiggen' the pic if you click on it, if not let me know)
In black around the outside I've added directional letters for you guys. (E, W, N, S)

There are a few things not labelled in the pic that I should mention.
Between the hay field & arena and barn & hay barn are the pens.
To the East of the pen beside the hay barn is a small pasture then further East of that is the large pasture (which also has the track & Cessa's grave), to the South of the arena is the mid-sized pasture that is also used for parking during horse events (hence all the tracks in it, this pic was taken the day after I hosted a jackpot)
To the North of us is Neighbour Tom and his indoor arena. If you go across the hayfield there is a gate between his place & ours, handy!
There is a mixture of trees on our place, but in the trees to the South of the driveway is a little Saskatoon berry orchard, pretty popular with those that like the berries.
So there you have it, a closer look at our place... I just won't give you the alarm code to the house & outbuildings ;)

Sunday Stills ~ 2011 Favourites

2012-01-01T16:50:00.000-06:00

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was to post your favourite photo from 2011 and your photographic goals for 2012.

I cheated, I couldn't pick one. These three are my favourite "Sunday Stills" photos:

I wasn't sure if the challenge only applied to photos from Sunday Stills or if it was open to other pics, so I'm adding these two that I had posted on Wordless Wednesdays.

Which photo do you like?

Now on to goals... I'm really hoping to improve both my basic skills and to learn how to edit photos better. Pretty much all I do is crop and add my little watermark. Sometimes I'll tweak the colours a bit, to make the pic more like how it appeared to me in person or to bring out some definition. However sometimes I'd like to be able to do a bit more... there are some pics that I'd like to share that need "stuff" in the background removed (or foreground.... helllloooo poo piles lol) or they need to be straightened a bit, that kind of thing.
Also, I managed to find a class that was affordable AND fit my odd schedule (Sundays starting in February) so I'm really looking forward to that.

I had mentioned awhile ago that other than my Nikon D90 I don't really have a camera that I like. My favourite point & shoot (Nikon S210) was knocked off a shelf in the barn (bad barn kitty), then we got a Canon Powershot something that I liked and it died while we were on vacation. We replaced it with a Canon Elph that I just really haven't gotten along with (seriously, that camera does NOT like me). Shopping with hubby I was pretty sure I'd end up with a camera for Christmas (he likes the Elph so it will be his) Imagine my surprise and delight to get TWO new cameras for Christmas!! (yep, spoiled lol) I now have a silver Nikon S9100 and a red Nikon P500 - 36x zoom!

Its 2012!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.002-06:00

Καλη Χρονια!!

Nouvelle année heureuse!!

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!!

Glückliches neues Jahr!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Nuovo anno felice!!

Ano novo feliz!!

С новым годом!!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Recapping the year

2011-12-31T00:00:00.019-06:00

This year brought some highs and some lows. I thought I'd run through the highlights and the not so great moments that 2011 brought us.

The most tragic event of the year was right at the beginning. January 3rd Pie's cousin Sofia was hit by a water delivery truck and killed. Also, this summer my Grampie passed away.
January/February saw Pie sick, again. Thankfully he didn't get to the point where he had to be hospitalized but it was scary. I still get worried anytime he coughs or is phlegmy. We realized that last fall he didn't get his flu shot so we made sure he got it this year, so far he seems fine. Lets hope he gets through the winter without getting sick

**knock wood**

A good, young friend of mine lost her talented barrel horse in a freak accident at home. Mattie was a sweet horse and L still misses her.
The colts got their official papers from AQHA and I was pleased to see that both boys were granted my first pic of names.
Saskatchewan's horse community had a pretty bad scare of Rhino EHV-1, in fact it was a scare that hit some of the states and other provinces as well. As a result some events I had planned to attend were cancelled and others I opted out of.
I got hit by some trolls this year due to things ranging from a couple of my Friday Funny jokes to the fact that I DARE to get my fat ass up on a horse and ride. When I finally blogged about it I was amazed at the outpouring of support from my blogger peeps

(I'll say it again, you guys rule!)

May 31st we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of our move to the acreage... still loving it, no regrets :)
I had my scariest horse accident yet. July 1st Voodoo went down as we were leaving 3rd barrel. I managed to avoid having him land right on me, he only landed on my lower leg, but it was still frightening. And up to that point it was such a good run!

I reached a blog milestone this year, 500 posts!

Barrel racing, I didn't make it to a lot of jackpots. Between EHV and my schedule I barely made enough to qualify for Provincial finals. I ended up missing the short go by 15 slots, the closest I had ever come! And I'm pretty sure if I'd had my head on straight I would have made the short go, I totally blew my second run and I know Voodoo & I could do better than we did on our first run. Applejack had stage fright and we were no where near the short go. However he improved immensely on his second run so I was happy with him.
District finals, Applejack was sore so I scratched him. Voodoo ran nice but not in the money. He was extremely consistent though, hopefully with some practice we'll add a bit more speed and stay consistent.
I also (finally) stepped down from the district board. After 5 years it was more than time.
The colts became geldings this year (yay!) Animal losses, more serious than pairs of nutters, were Mom's dogs Mack & Holly RIP big guy and little girl. Our dog Echo (who we had got this spring) went missing, we still haven't found him and I really think that someone took him. But the saddest of all, for me, was putting down my beloved Cessa.
An interesting event, that probably won't happen around me again, was the "homeless lady with a horse". Jeanne was making her way across Canada, a homeless wanderer who preferred to not live in mainstream society. There are plenty of people like that but she 'dared' to do it with a horse

*gasp* <-- totally sarcastic

I happened to be one of a small group of people that supported Jeanne's dream and pitched in with aid and moral support.
Another item was scratched off my horse bucket list, I went for a ride at night. Voodoo & I shared that moment under a beautiful full moon.
I took Rootbeer to a pony playday at my friend Jo's. Dave was there to help us with driving and through some trial & error we figured out that my little guy was broke to drive!

(now to get a cart and proper fitting harness)

After keeping our eyes open for a "company's here" horse we found Smudge (or rather my horse dealin' friend Mr Tim found him and called us) Thanks to Smudge my mom is riding and having fun.
This fall I went to another Ed Wright clinic, and I'm even happier that next year Ed will be here in the summer! It will be nice to get some Education and be able to put it to use during the season.
For the first time in 10 years Pie got a vacation!! We took advantage of it and went out East... New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia. It was wonderful.
December saw some new additions to the ranch, we got ~~moos~~ cows. Four heifers and a steer, in partnership with my Mom & Stepdad. And Pie got a puppy, Walter, for Christmas!

and here is my year according to Facebook:

Friday Funny ~ Dentist

2011-12-30T00:55:00.000-06:00

At the busy dental office where I work, one patient was always late. Once when I called to confirm an appointment, he said "I'll be about 15 minutes late. That won't be a problem, will it?"

"No," I told him. "We just won't have time to give you an anesthetic."

He arrived early.

Walter

2011-12-29T00:02:00.001-06:00

Our newest little family member is fitting right in. There was surprisingly little drama introducing him to the rest of the dogs. He & Tucker started playing and napping together pretty much right away. Misty feels the need to monitor the boys play time and play mother to them, Comet would really rather they both just leave him alone (which is pretty much his general attitude to almost anyone/thing these days... he's a grumpy old man)

Potty training is going so-so. He's having some accidents but not a lot. What's actually most difficult for me is to not cuddle him too much... I really want to give Pete the chance to develop a bond with Walter. They cuddle whenever possible and that bond is growing.
Speaking of Tucker, we've made sure that whenever Walter has gone somewhere we also take Tuck. Whether that be to the vet or into the city to get used to car rides and some socialization.

Walter seems to have a bit of a dominant personality, he gets very upset if they're wrestling and he hasn't had his chance to "win", then he gets a bit aggressive. Tucker is so happy go lucky he'll play with almost anyone, even if they're kicking his butt. Which explains the bite marks on the side of his face (Walter, bad puppy!) Other than that they play together really well. Tucker is a great "big brother", he takes turns letting Walter win at tug of war and wrestling (although like I said if Walter feels he should be winning and doesn't get to he pitches a fit) Its quite cute to see Walter on the dog bed holding a toy with Tucker holding the other end dragging Walter AND the bed around the living room lol And Tucker is teaching Walter all about his crazy tearing around the house, Walter just needs to get coordinated enough to keep up.

Probably one of the funniest things that's happened is Tucker realizing that Walter can't get up on the furniture yet. So when he sees Walter playing with something he doesn't feel like sharing (usually that's Pig) he takes the toy and puts it up somewhere, usually the ottoman. Then he carefully positions and repositions it until its as close to the edge as possible and just out of Walter's very ungraceful leaping efforts to get it... and he sits back and watches Walter try to get it (I swear you can tell Tucker's pleased with himself! lol)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Farm Girl

2011-12-28T15:53:00.000-06:00

A Message from George & Rootbeer

2011-12-24T18:11:00.001-06:00

From everyone here at Home on the Range!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Pete's Christmas present :)

2011-12-21T00:02:00.000-06:00

Sunday Stills ~ Happy Anniversary (Pets)

2011-12-11T19:07:00.000-06:00

This weeks Sunday Stills challenge: Three years ago this week will be the third anniversary of Sunday Stills. The very first challenge was Pets……so in honour of Ed and Sunday Stills lets do it again.

Okay so they're not really pets, but my camera died before I could get decent pics of the "real pets" and the cows were the only furry things around that I managed to get some decent pics of.

The World

2011-12-11T01:31:00.000-06:00

Belongs to Lindsay Sears & Martha!!

Sears was #2 going into the NFR. At the end of 10 rounds she was #1 in the average and took home the championship buckle. Way to go Martha!! 10 clean fast runs in a tough pen.

** picture borrowed from Lindsay's site lindz.ca **

Something's missing

2011-12-10T00:47:00.000-06:00

I took this pic of the hayfield

Friday afternoon.

I noticed the sky was all grey and moody

but there was light shining out on the field.

Its really beautiful when it does that in the summer

just before or after a storm, over a canola field :)

Anyway... I like this pic but it also makes me a bit sad

because there's something missing.... any guesses?

Snow!

There's just a few patches of snow here and there.

Its looking like its going to be a brown Christmas.

And in Saskatchewan that just ain't right.

Catching up with the colts

2011-12-09T14:18:00.000-06:00

It was farrier day the other day and when I brought Tavi in the farrier said "Holy s---! He's getting big."

*small aside: I was very proud of Tavi when I caught him. I'd grabbed the wrong halter and it was way too small, so I looped the lead rope around his neck and he led in like an old pro :) Pretty good, I haven't done a lot with them... they've been mostly turned out "being horses" for now*

I'd noticed he was getting quite big too, especially when I saw him standing next to Voodoo:

Now Voodoo isn't a "big" horse, he's about 15hh. But keep in mind that Tavi is only a long yearling (born late June 2010)
Here's a 3/4 view, without that black ham:

I really need to bribe my "assistant" to come out so we can halter both colts, square them up and get some 'real' pics.

Then there's Odin, he's maturing but he won't be as big as his brother (that's not a bad thing). I like how he's coming together, he had some "issues" with his hind legs that good farrier work and growth has improved.

Its interesting to watch the differences in size, build and (even more so) in personality as these two grow up. They have different sires and their dams are full sisters. They were born with in a week or so of each other and at the same farm, were brought here at the same time so they've pretty much had the same "life experience". But man oh man they are total opposites!!

Friday Funny ~ Santa Knows

2011-12-09T01:11:00.000-06:00

As we were putting out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve,

I accidentally dropped one.

"No problem," I said, picking it up and dusting it off before placing it back on the plate.

"You can't do that," argued my four year old.

"Don't worry. Santa will never know."

He shot me a look. "So he knows if I've been bad or good,

but he doesn't know the cookie fell on the floor?"

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sunset (from roundpen to front yard)

2011-12-07T15:09:00.000-06:00

All the moos that's fit to print

2011-12-04T18:42:00.000-06:00

aka "We've got ~~news~~ moos"

Okay enough punny stuff... meet the herd:

My stepdad B & I have gone partners on some cattle!
Last week I went with my friend Jo to look at some Dexters. Today B, Mom, Jo and I went to pick them up (Pie was at work). We got 4 heifers and a steer.

(yes all 5 are in that pic, the fifth one is hiding behind the others)

The plan is to butcher the steer, probably next fall, and to breed the heifers. Unless of course by that time we're thinking "oh crap this was a bad idea" ;)
We decided on Dexters because they're small, therefore easier on your equipment (waterers, fences, etc), they're hardy enough for our winter cold & summer heat (don't laugh!), they are good beef & milkers, good mothers and calve easily.

Yes, of course I've named mine. The steer (B & I are sharing him) is Chuck and 1 of my heifers is Tasty (because one day she will be) ;) My other heifer will probably be Nelly (because of a longstanding joke with Pie) The only thing is that, for now, they're pretty hard to tell apart. We know who the steer is, because he's the only boy lol. And I can tell which one is Tasty, her original ear tag ripped out so she has a torn ear and she's the only one tagged in the right ear. That's Tasty in the front in the above pic.

Friday Funny ~ Circle Flies

2011-12-02T00:39:00.000-06:00

A farmer got pulled over by an RCMP officer for speeding, and the trooper started to lecture the farmer about his speed and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the farmer uncomfortable.

Finally, the officer got around to writing out the ticket. As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head. The farmer said, "Having some problems with circle flies there are ya?"

The officer stopped writing the ticket and said, "Well, yeah, if that's what they are called... I never heard of circle flies."

So the farmer said, "Well, circle flies are common on farms. See, they're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."

The officer said, "Oh," and went back to writing the ticket. Then after a minute he stopped and said, "Hey, wait a minute... are you trying to call me a horse's rear end?"

The farmer said, "oh no, officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement to even think about calling you such a name."

The officer said, "Well, that's a good thing." and went back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the farmer said, "Hard to fool them flies, though."

Wordless Wednesday ~ No Smoking!

2011-11-30T00:16:00.002-06:00

Something I haven't told you...

2011-11-29T00:41:00.000-06:00

This guy

... is missing.

Echo went missing shortly after we got back from our trip East. We've had no luck looking for him, no responses to our ads or posters (with a reward offered). Nothing.
I really think that either somebody shot him or somebody took him. :(

Lucas & Abby, and Tucker

2011-11-28T03:23:00.000-06:00

We wrapped up our time off by going to Edmonton to visit my sister and her family. As I mentioned previously Tucker ended up going with us. My nephew Lucas was thrilled.

My little niece Abby was enthralled with Tucker too. And I have to say I'm pretty impressed with my little guy. He's rarely around children but whenever he is he's a perfect gentleman, even with Abby pulling on his tongue and poking about his face.

We had a nice visit, did some shopping... I even get to say that I'm DONE Christmas shopping, and its not even December yet! This is huge because I am a notorious procrastinator lol

(to be honest I have to get some stocking stuffers for Pie and there's a couple people I may buy something little for, but for all intents & purpose I'm done)

Little kids and the stuff they say & do cracks me up. This for instance:

Lucas put his two stuffed dogs beside Tucker and said "Look, its a family" He did make sure to tell us that they couldn't go home with Tucker, but he did try to get us to let Tucker stay with him lol (or Tucko as Lucas says)
Lucas kinda wished "Uncle P's donkey" could have come to visit too. And he missed Comet, but we told him that Comet & Misty had to stay home to guard the house and horses.
Something that I think is a pretty good idea for those of you that have kids and far-flung family... use FB to keep your kids in touch. My sis shows her kids pics on FB so they stay familiar with who their family is, it really seems to work for them.
I happened to be on FB one day while I was there and Lucas crawled up onto my lap to look at the horses. I showed him the new guy Smudge. The pic happened to be one of my mom riding so I told him it was grandma riding Smudge. He got this funny look on his face and said "Is this a new kinda grandma?"

Yep, it was a good way to end our vacation and head back to the real world...

Friday Funny ~ Pocketbook

2011-11-25T01:39:00.000-06:00

As the bus pulled away, I realized I had left my purse under the seat. Later I called the company and was relieved that the driver had found my bag. When I went to pick it up, several off-duty bus drivers surrounded me.

One man handed me my pocketbook, two typewritten pages and a box containing the contents of my purse. "We're required to inventory lost wallets and purses," he explained. "I think you'll find everything there."

As I started to put my belongings back into the pocketbook, the man continued, "I hope you don't mind if we watch. Even though we all tried, none of us could fit everything into your purse. And we'd like to see just how you do it."

Wordless Wednesday ~ Missing her

2011-11-23T00:24:00.000-06:00

Cessa, last winter

Going Home

2011-11-21T16:41:00.001-06:00

Today I got a message for a nationwide (actually international as its for Canada AND the USA) plea for transportation for rescued horses. Rather than explaining it myself I'll repost it:

A VERY IMPORTANT REQUEST: If you own a horse trailer and a rig, and would be willing to assist with the transporting of a newly rescued equine even for just a short distance, in order to get them into permanent homes, please come to our page and add your information to the appropriate Doc list (divided by USA and Canada, Pro Haulers and Non-Pro Haulers). We intend to turn that information into a huge database of people all over North America who will do their part to help get as many of our at-risk equines into safe homes as possible. Honestly- if we do a great job here, there may be NO horses left to slaughter!

What can you do? 5 miles? 50 miles? 500 miles? Whatever you can offer will be a wonderful service that you can provide. You may be asked to transport for a discounted rate, just for gas money, or for free. the financial arrangement is ALWAYS determined by YOU on a case-by-case basis. You may be asked if you're available to haul a horse from a rescue to a home... or, you may be asked to just haul the horse from one point to another in a series of 'freedom train' style transporters working together to move a horse across the country. You decide what you can do if you're called.

SO many at-risk horses in North America are not adopted ONLY because the willing adopter is unable to cover the very high costs of commercial shipping to get the horse to their home. This is how we can solve that problem! Thanks!

Contact: Going Home

Leaving

2011-11-17T01:51:00.000-06:00

Not on a jetplane though... Instead we're driving. Pie & I are wrapping up our (much needed, well deserved) time off from work with a visit to Edmonton to see my sister & her family. :)

When Pie & I flew east at the beginning of our vacation I missed this little brat so much that I had a very tough time sleeping the first few nights.

And while he was well behaved for "grandma & grandpa" (at least to my knowledge) it was pretty evident he missed me too. (after all I'm his "momma" lol)
The 2 big dogs, Comet & Misty, are going to stay with my friend Jo. While she has them she's going to trim Comet's nails, the big wuss. The horses are all on round bales & free feeding (for now, that may change with some of the chunkier guys when we get back) so I just need my neighbour girls to pop over every day to make sure the waterers are working and everyone is accounted for and healthy.
Tucker... well he was going to get 'babysat' but that neighbour is going to be out of town for a meeting so instead... he's coming with us! Yay!! I won't have to miss this little guy and I'll have my snuggle buddy :)

While I love Edmonton c'mon, how could I leave this face for days on end again?! There's some really good shopping there... including "horse stores" that Pie & Day have both agreed to indulge me with. As well as other shops that we just don't have in our smaller city.

I'm kinda sad though... our dog Echo went missing 2 weeks ago and there's been no sign of him. I've pretty much given up hope of him coming home and now that we won't be here I'm wondering what if he DOES come back but we're not here?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T00:00:00.005-06:00

Saturday Silly ~ Horse people

2011-11-12T00:03:00.001-06:00

**because Friday was Remembrance Day I postponed Friday Funny to Saturday**

You know you are a horse person when:

-You cluck to your car when you go up a hill.
-Your horse's hair is in better condition than your own.
-You refer to your car as "my portable tack room".
-You are exited when your friend tells you that there is a huge sale at the bridle shop, then you are disappointed when you realize they mean the bridal shop.
-You have the vet's number but not your kid's pediatrician on your speed dial.
-Your spouse can track dirt into the house all they want, but God help them if they muddy up the tack room.
-Your house is a mess, but the barn is as neat as a pin.
-Your nice clothes are the ones without horse hair all over them.
-You have to go to your friend's wedding in riding clothes because you took too long at the barn.

-Only horse people would spend hundreds of dollars on a show for a 95 cent ribbon

How many of the above apply to you?

MY poppy is RED

2011-11-11T00:00:00.001-06:00

In Canada it is tradition to wear a red poppy in the days preceding November 11th, Remembrance Day.
The poppy symbol reflects the over 6000 Canadian soldiers that died and were buried in a poppy field in Ypres in 1915 (over 100,000 Allied casualties in that 48 hour period)
The poppy pins are worn to show our respect and appreciation to those that have put their lives on the line, and for some to have made the ultimate sacrifice, to protect our rights & freedoms.
Some people are countering that war is wrong and the red poppies celebrate violence & war and therefore they are wearing white poppies to represent peace. I agree that war is not pretty, that sometimes it can seem pointless, however sometimes it is a necessary evil. And because I appreciate my freedom I wear my RED poppy as a visible sign of my thanks.
Some of the white poppy people are the same people that bash our military and to them, and anyone else that wants to bash those men & women making so many sacrifices for us, so they can enjoy their freedom and sit on their asses, I'd like to say:

If you don't want to stand behind our military,

then feel free to stand in front of them!

"In Flanders Fields" was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae during the Second Battle of Ypres. It is a famous war memorial poem and has become almost the written/oral symbol of Remembrance Day.
To me it is a hauntingly beautiful poem that came out of a terrible time.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scare heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago,

We lived, felt dawn, felt sunset glow,

Loved and were loved; and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Wordless Wednesday ~ I married a giant!

2011-11-09T19:01:00.002-06:00

Friday Funny ~ A history lesson

2011-11-04T00:00:00.001-06:00

Not necessarily my fav type of music but I love Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake's "History of Rap"

HoR 2

And of course they did a part 3! However the best quality clip on Youtube had embedding disabled, so if you want to watch it here's the link:
History of Rap part 3

No Place Like Home

2011-11-03T01:16:00.000-06:00

There really is no place like home :)

It was great to get away for a couple weeks, although I missed my ponies, puppies and kitties terribly. Coming home and being able to sleep in our own bed was one of the best parts of coming home, and only partly because it meant Tucker was snuggling up with me again.
Seriously, 5 different beds while we were gone and only one really comfy bed. Not great when I have a bad back.

Mom picked us up at the airport and brought us home (thx Mom!). She & B had been house sitting for us (again, thx!) Knowing our home & critters were in good hands made going away a tad easier.
When we got home we let the big dogs out of the kennel and said hello to them before we let Tucker out from his crate in the house.
Pete stood in the yard & I hid around the side of the house while Mom let Tuck out, he saw Pete and went running to him... until he caught sight of me as he passed the house, at which time he turned in mid-air and flew to his momma :D

Last night's sleep was the best I have had in weeks, snuggled up with my babydog and all the other critters nestled in for the night.

Sunday Stills ~ 25 & 50 Steps

2011-10-30T12:39:00.000-06:00

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: "Choose a starting spot, walk 25 steps in any direction and take 3 photos. The 25 steps can be outside your home, inside your home, in your neighborhood or away from your neighborhood. Once your steps have been counted out, you must anchor one foot, you can pivot on that foot but your anchor foot may not move."

These 3 pics are for the '25 steps'. They were taken at Cavendish Beach, PEI (Prince Edward Island)

These next 3 are for '50 steps' and were taken among the rocks/boulders at Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

On to PEI!

2011-10-28T19:19:00.000-06:00

From Dad's place Pie & I went on to Miramichi to visit my cousin Drew & his family. It was just an overnight stop but a great visit! We adults went out for supper at a fantastic little, old pub called O'Donaghues. Good food & atmosphere. Then we went back to Drew's to visit before going on to stay overnight at the Rodd Miramichi.... omg I fell in LOVE with the bed. Hands down THE most comfortable hotel bed I've ever slept in.
The next day we got up and drove to Prince Edward Island (PEI).

We had decided to take 'the bridge' from New Brunswick to PEI and then the ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia. Wow, what a bridge! The Confederation Bridge is the longest bridge in the world that crosses ice covered water (although this time of year there's no ice) If you click the link you can find out all kinds of interesting things about the bridge and building it. For example it was quite a controversy over whether or not to build a fixed link from PEI to the mainland, it was passed with a vote just under 60%.

(oh and by the way to my American friends... Confederation is a pretty big thing out here,its not a North VS South thing from the US. Confederation here refers to the birth of Canada) :)

So yes, crossing a big bridge, here's the approach

On the bridge for a few minutes, yes minutes. It takes about 10 minutes to cross... going the speed limit of 80km/hr (about 50 miles/hr). Yep, here's more bridge

When we got to PEI we decided to drive around the East side of the island. Before dark we got to the 'eastest' part, East Point, and the lighthouse there

It was getting kinda dusky but we decided to keep driving and see what we could see before it was dark. I have to admit I was surprised to see the wind turbines, for some reason I never considered that they would be here... it just didn't seem to be a coastal thing. But in retrospect there is some awesome wind here!

I found PEI to be gorgeous. Charlottetown is a nice city, and close to pretty much any point on the island. The rest of it, at least what we saw, was rural. Sheep, cows, horses... and gorgeous scenery. I would consider moving here if I ever needed to relocate, except the Western horse community doesn't seem to be very strong.

Thursday Pie indulged me and I got to fulfill a girlhood dream... I went to Green Gables!
"Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery has always held a special place on my list of favourite books.

Montgomery actually used a local home as her basis for Green Gables, enough so that locals knew it instantly in the book.
I'm not sure if Anne of Green Gables was a popular book in the USA, if you aren't familiar with the story click the link.
Here is Green Gables, the actual original home the book is based on. If they were real this is where Matthew, Marilla & Anne would have lived.

And here is Matthew's barn, sadly it is a reconstruction.

Pie & I also went to BOOMburger, fantastic, really fantastic burgers (I'm a burger girl, give me a good burger joint over a fancy restaurant any day lol). I love that they source a lot of their ingredients locally (local being PEI, it isn't a very big province) Then we went to Cows, which is right next door, for some souveniery things and ice cream. If you ever get a chance try it, its been voted the best ice cream in the world!
We also went to Cavendish and checked out the beach. Not for the beach but for the view, which was gorgeous but so bitter & cold that day.
We stayed at the Rodd Charlottetown. Its kinda the 'crown jewel' of Rodd hotels. It started out as a CN railway hotel... quite the snazzy place back in the day, it opened in 1931. The hotel itself is gorgeous but the bed was NOT comfortable at all and the staff seemed kinda snooty. (I guess maybe a plain jane burger girl isn't fancy enough for a 5star hotel??)
Thursday we got up and were on our way to Nova Scotia, last stop before we head home!

Friday Funny ~ Winter in New York

2011-10-28T00:00:00.001-06:00

We purchased an old home in Northern New York Sate from two elderly sisters. Winter was fast approaching and I was concerned about the house's lack of insulation.

"If they could live here all those years, so can we!" my husband confidently declared.

One November night the temperature plunged to below zero, and we woke up to find interior walls covered with frost.

My husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm. After a rather brief conversation, he hung up.

"For the past 30 years," he muttered, "they've gone to Florida for the winter."

Wordless Wednesday ~ Grand Lake

2011-10-26T16:15:00.001-06:00

The trip continues... Hartland & area

2011-10-23T20:49:00.000-06:00

Friday Pie & I drove down to Woodstock and returned the rental van Dad had arranged for us. We've been staying with him & S since then. Monday we'll be on the road to pick up another rental in Fredericton and heading on to the Miramichi to see my cousin Drew & his family.
There's not a lot in Dad's neck of the woods. The biggest "claim to fame" is this:

In case you can't see that sign, this is the WORLD's longest covered bridge.
This is a full shot of it from Dad's side of the bridge:

What's that, it doesn't look that long? How about a view of the whole thing:

Dad lives right at the top of the hill, and its a steep hill.

While visiting Dad Pie & I got to see Amanda, who also has a blog (hi Amanda *waves*), "big sis" Natalie, her kids Crystal & Tristan (S's family that is now part of mine) :) Uncles & Aunts (Kevin, Bob & Ruth, Marty) and Great Aunt Florence, that's a lot of family for a girl that's grown up without really having extended family around lol
GA Florence is pretty inspiring. She's 90 and lives on her own (in a regular house not a seniors unit) which is spotless. She mows her 2 acre yard, goes snowmobiling and 4 wheeling and "out to camp" (a phrase they use a lot here).

Today Dad called us out of the house to see the hang-gliders going by. During good weather its apparently not uncommon to see them. There were 7 total, I saw 5 and then thought to grab my camera, not a great shot... wish I had grabbed it sooner.

One thing we've been seeing a lot of in New Brunswick is signs of fall. Besides the wonderful colours on the trees we also came across this field of pumpkins.

I love the architecture of the older houses here. (no pics of those yet though) And there are lots of wonderful old barns. I really liked this one, partially built into the hill.

I've seen a few horses but I only took pics of this guy, he seemed like he was waiting for someone to stop and notice him.

I guess not though because as soon as my camera clicked he turned and ran away lol

Things are going well at home, Mom & B are enjoying house sitting for us, today the went for a ride. Mom even cowgirled up and made Smudge keep going when he wanted to go home (yay Momma!).

Sunday Stills ~ Rocks & Rock Formations

2011-10-22T21:14:00.000-06:00

This weeks challenge is rocks & rock formations "They can be natural, and man made and can include stone buildings, concrete, stone statues or anything modified from rock or other minerals……..including the stone in your wedding ring"

I'll start with a few man-made ones...

The walls of the Citadel in Halifax

The fire pit in front of the cabin

The next two combine man made & natural...

The stone path to the beach at the cabin

with paint left from my artistic aunt

The edges left from blasting through the mountains

to build the highway

And now for totally natural...

some rocks that have been shaped by the Atlantic Ocean

along the shore at Peggy's Cove

and boulders that were scattered

by the glaciers that shaped the land

Our trip so far...

2011-10-21T17:05:00.000-06:00

**I have a fairly decent internet connection so there's a few more pics than normal lol**

Monday we work up just before 4AM (around the time we normally go to sleep) and got the last of our stuff packed away then my Mom drove us to the airport. And yes I got teary when I said bye to Tucker, and yes I still miss my little brat.

We flew to Toronto, good flight but a bit of turbulence. Had a quick lunch at the airport, kinda funny... the waitress asked where in the states I was from. I told her I wasn't from the US that I was from Saskatchewan. She asked if I was originally from the US and insisted I sounded American. Oookay. After lunch we wandered around until our flight to Fredericton boarded.

Again some turbulence but not too bad. No in flight TV/movie even though the flight was just about as long.

Dad & Sandy, and Auntie M (my mom's sis) met us at the airport. Auntie gave us a map and tourist book, then we were off to Dad's for the night.

Tuesday we were on our way in the rental van Dad had arranged for us. We went from Woodstock to Sussex to spend a few days in that area and visiting my mom's side of the family.

This is where I'm from...

Just outside of Sussex, NB. I was born in Sussex and my family moved out west to Saskatchewan when I was very young. But those first few years, this is where I was from. My grandparents lived at the top of Kierstead Mountain. Now my Auntie S & Uncle D live there. This is the house now:

Auntie M led the way to the cabin we were going to stay at (it happens to belong to Auntie S & Uncle D) I'm so glad she led the way. Directions to the last paved road I might have been able to follow but I don't think I'd have found the little wood road off the pavement myself:

I loved the cabin, so much that I'll have to do a separate post on it lol. But here's a quick peek for you:

And here's our view!

Tuesday evening/night we curled up with a fire and a movie. Then Wednesday we went road tripping, tourist style! We drove to Fundy National Park and to St. John. Then back to Sussex, stopping at Auntie S & Uncle D's house for a visit, Pete's first time meeting them and their kids.
Have to say that I was pretty proud of myself for finding the cabin by myself in the dark. And for navigating roads like these, a bit different than what this prairie girl is used to ;)

View of the bay at Fundy National Park

More scenery from FNP

Proof that I was on vacation, Pie took this at FNP

When we toured around Sussex we looked at the murals, Sussex is the "Mural Capital of the Atlantic Provinces" They varied on subject but this is one of my fav's

** more to come! **

Leaving

2011-10-16T20:28:00.000-06:00

Not going to be blogging much for the next couple weeks... ~~Bright~~ Dark & early Monday morning Pie & I are going East to New Brunswick & Nova Scotia for a little vacation.
I will have internet from time to time but probably not enough time to blog. We'll see.
I'm pretty excited though, this is part of our 5 weeks off. Yes FIVE weeks! Pie hasn't had a vacation in TEN years, and that was 1 week. I just take an extra couple days each year to go to the Provincial Barrel Finals, and a couple years ago I got to take 2 weeks to go be with my dad for his kidney transplant.
Mom & B are ranch sitting for these 2 weeks. Pie & I have been off since Thursday. When we get back we still have lots of plans for our time off, mostly catching up on house/ranch stuff lol Plus a trip to Edmonton to visit my sis & her family.
I hope to be able to get to Twitter & Facebook even if I'm not blogging, oh and email.

Its Time for Goodbye

2011-10-13T01:28:00.001-06:00

Sometimes you need to do something you really don't want to do. And as much as it makes sense in your head it still hurts your heart. Today its my day.

After a lot of thought, and a lot of tears, I've come to the decision that its time to euthanize my sweet Cessa. It will be the hardest goodbye I've ever faced.

All the signs are there that its time. Actually its almost like 'the universe' has been trying to tell me that its time for a little while now. It seems like everywhere I turn there's something about putting down a beloved animal; an article on euthanasia, an ad for a memorial trinket, friends that are going through loss.
A couple months ago I started adding 'senior feed' (the concoction of various stuff I gave her last year) to her feed. I'd bring her in once a day from pasture and give it to her. Then I slowly increased it. I've had Cessa on what was her full winter ration last year for a couple months now. Last year she came out of winter fat, for probably the first time in her life. This year she has slowly put on weight but is no where near where she needs to be.
It takes her well over an hour to eat, in the winter it would freeze before she could eat it all. I know I could try a heated bucket but there's more. There's the cold to deal with... last week it was cold & rainy for 2 days and you could SEE her lose weight. Even with a blanket and a shelter with lots of straw she would be colder than she was last week.
She's not processing her feed properly. You can tell when you look at her manure. Also it doesn't smell right... it has a weird sweetish smell to it.
I'd like to try to help her get through another winter... but like my vet said, the last thing I want is to come out for chores and find her down on the ground, too weak to get up and freezing to the ground. And I remember the deal I made with her last winter... if she'd tough it out and pull through she could have all spring & summer to play in the pasture with her boys, I wouldn't make her try to get through another winter.

When I told Pie about the decision I'd come to his words were "I forbid it". Do you know how damn hard it is to argue FOR something you really in your heart don't want to do, no matter how much sense it makes when you just look at the facts?
I laid out everything I just told y'all. And I told him that she's always been such a proud horse and that she may not seem to be in too much pain right now and has a spark in her eye & spirit, I don't want her to be going downhill to the point that its absolutely needed to put her down. I want her to be able to go with some dignity & pride, not suffering. Thirty is a lot of years for a horse, especially a thoroughbred.
This girl means the world to me. She's been there for everything the last 18 years (I got her when she was 12). Her mane has soaked up lots of tears; happy tears, angry tears and sad tears. For years now I've told her everything. And although it may sound corny, I really believe she saved my life. I went through some bad times and depression and there were days that the only thing that kept me going was knowing I had her to take care of.
She's taken care of me & been there for me all these years, its my turn to be there for her... no matter how hard it is. I'm going to try to be the strong one tomorrow and not cry until its over, I don't want to make it harder on her.

I'm going to miss you my sweet strong girl

Wordless Wednesday ~ Because ALL stallions are wild, crazy & unmanageable

2011-10-12T00:00:00.001-06:00

Scratch this off the bucket list

2011-10-10T21:34:00.000-06:00

One of the items on my horse bucket list has always been to ride at night. Outside, not in an arena.
Tonight I did it, kinda by accident.
What's held me back before was that I boarded my horse and didn't want to bother the people that lived there by hanging around at night. What held me back after we moved to our place was fear.
Yep, fear. Most of the time that the chance to ride at night is there I'm home alone. What if something happens? (ya I know, cuz nothing would happen in the daytime right? lol) How would Pie find me when he finally gets home?
Well tonight I thought I'd pop out for a quick ride before it got dark. The sun is going down early and full dark is hitting by 8pm, although by 7:30 its pretty darn dark.
I headed out around 6:15 and got Voodoo caught, brushed & saddled quickly. We were out in the pasture in no time.
We moseyed along and when I started to feel a bit blue I asked for a lope and we flew along the track. I was walking him out after when I noticed it... the sun was almost down. I was riding during late dusk, if I stuck it out I'd be riding in the dark! So I headed back out into the pasture, I snapped the pic below to document our night ride

fyi Voodoo did not appreciate the flash lol

As we came back in from the pasture I decided that since it was just reaching full dark that I'd head out to the hayfield and ride for a bit longer. Although with the moon shining as brightly as it did it wasn't really dark, our shadows were along for the ride.

Friday Funny ~ Anger vs Exasperation

2011-10-07T02:03:00.000-06:00

A young girl who was writing a paper for school came to her father and asked, "Dad, what is the difference between anger and exasperation?"
The father replied, "It is mostly a matter of degree. Let me show you what I mean." With that the father went to the telephone and dialed a number at random. To the man who answered the phone, he said, "Hello, is Melvin there?"
The man answered, "There is no one living here named Melvin. Why don't you learn to look up numbers before you dial them?"
"See," said the father to his daughter. "That man was not a bit happy with our call. He was probably very busy with something and we annoyed him. Now watch." The father dialed the number again. "Hello, is Melvin there?" asked the father.
"Now look here!" came the heated reply. "You just called this number and I told you that there is no Melvin here! You've got a lot of nerve calling again!" The receiver slammed down hard.
The father turned to his daughter and said, "You see, that was anger. Now I'll show you what exasperation means." He dialed the same number, and when a violent voice roared, "Hello!" the father calmly said, "Hello, this is Melvin. Have there been any calls for me?"

Trying to recap my EDucation

2011-10-04T23:11:00.000-06:00

Please bear with me for a disjointed, rambling recap from the Ed Wright clinic and some advice/tips for anyone that may be taking one of his clinics at some point...
As the rider everything that happens is YOUR responsibility. Don't blame your horse... if your horse runs past the barrel/shoulders/etc it is because of something YOU are asking or letting happen, even if that's not what you're trying to communicate to your horse.

Ed recommends doing barrel work & conditioning 6 days a week with 1 day off. That doesn't mean endless drills or a full out run everyday. However he does make 1 'run' per week either at home or at a competition. Now 'run' is whatever that horse is capable of at that point in its training... trotting, a slow lope, a fast lope or a flat out 'competition' speed run (even at home).
The other 5 days he works on whatever that horse needs help with on the pattern. Moves them over from the barrel, in closer to the barrel. Speed up/slow down. Its really kinda hard for me to explain on here, sorry. Maybe one day I can get Pie to tape while I do some riding to show what I'm trying to explain. But one thing you will hear a lot at an Ed clinic is him calling out distances that he wants you to move around the barrel. "6, 10, 12, 14, regular turn, regular turn!" Meaning to take your horse into the barrel at 6 feet, move out to 10 feet, 12 feet, 14 feet, then go around again in a regular turn. It can also go the other way, you can go in close and move out as you turn. He will also call out different speeds. It depends on what your horse needs.
He only trains/practices on 3 barrels in the cloverleaf pattern. He doesn't mess with a bunch of barrels/cones set in different patterns for different drills. ie no funnel barrels, no quad barrels, etc

Hand position... put an elastic in your horse's mane at about the centre point. Practice keeping your hands in that general area. You can accomplish more with a smaller amount of hand movement forward, backward, to the side or up. In that position keep your thumbs up, elbows down (but not clamped to your side) and follow your horses mouth. Follow quicker to energize a lazy horse and a bit slower to calm and excitable horse. And that's not just a barrel racing position. He showed us pictures of a top cutter and a top working cow horse rider sitting in the same balanced position and holding their reins the way he wants us to. No more of the 'pull to your hip' style turn. A good mental image for me is how Lindsay Sears enters with Martha, minus the overbending. But picture where her hands are, midway up Martha's neck; and the balanced, forward way she's sitting.

Ed reaffirmed something I have always believed in, a barrel horse should do more than barrels... no matter what calibre of horse it is, from my little 3D horse to a top futurity/rodeo horse. He will work cows, go trail ride, rope etc on his barrel horses.

Two feet from the barrel is where you want to be in your turns. Any farther out and if you're running against good horses & bottom of the draw you run your horse through the 'drift' that's built up from the other horses. Tougher to get through, eats up your time and harder on your horse. OR you ride around it where the ground may be worse as well as costing you time. Practice, practice, practice to get that 2'.

It is amazing the things Ed will notice when he watches you ride. I got busted, several times, on little things that I had no clue I was doing. Small little things that end up making a huge difference! From blocking my horse's shoulder when entering the arena (which I thought I was doing correctly to position him but nope), to tightening my elbow, not finishing turns (that I had thought I was finishing) to looking at the wrong spot -- look where you want to go!

Here's a hard one for me to break... outside leg is a no-no in the turn. Its either inside leg to reinforce your turn, both legs to keep/increase speed, or neither leg. For a couple years now I've had friends yelling "outside leg outside leg" at jackpots because Voodoo was drifting out on his turns. BIG no no.

Besides the riding there is also a 'classroom' portion at the beginning of each day. It covers things ranging from saddle fit (you can get hands on & bring your horse & saddle up to be checked out), nutrition, feeding, hoof care, dental,etc. Anything he doesn't cover you ask him to touch on. Last year he was talking about flushing tear ducts so this year I brought Applejack over (he needs his done) and he showed us all where the tear duct is to be entered (in the nostril, did y'all know that?) and explained how to flush it and what mixture to use. I admit I didn't write down the mixture because I think that's something I'll leave to my vet. It can be delicate and you can do more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing.

I recommend if you go to one of his clinics... participate! Ask questions during the classroom, ask questions while others are riding, and ask questions before/during/after your ride, if you don't get it let him know, don't blindly agree that you get it because you're worried about looking stupid or frustrating Ed. Bring a pen & paper to take notes, and if you have someone that will tape for you bring your video camera! (sadly I didn't have anyone to tape for me, that would have been really useful) Have a sense of humour, joking around is okay at the appropriate times.
While Ed can be pretty funny he can also be really tough. And he doesn't dole out false compliments to coddle you but he also is quick to point out progress or an honest try. Oh and Ed hates bling... leave your blingiest tack and boots at home lol

After riding with Ed he calls you one of his kids (or grandkids) Usually he expects more from you, but that's a good thing. :) Even though I didn't have many competition runs this past season I let him know that Voodoo & I did better than I had hoped and he clapped & gave me a hug. He also gave me a hug hello the first day, which kinda suprised me that he remembered me with how many people he meets in a year! And on the last day when I had to cut out early and go to work I thanked him for his time and he gave me a big, warm hug goodbye. I am already excited about next year's clinic! lol

Oh a couple final things (I warned y'all this was disjointed & rambling lol)
Ed's explanation of 'rate' made more sense to me than the usual definitions. His definition of what it means when you ask your horse to rate is: Pay attention, I'm going to ask you to do something now.
Some other Edisms:
You have to ride with timing & feel.
Communication leads to Education.

Oh Wow

2011-10-02T01:21:00.000-06:00

I am tired. Wait a second, nope... I'm exhausted. Between the Ed Wright clinic this weekend and Dar being away on vacation its been a busy few days.

(don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge Dar having some time off, it would just be nice if a certain other family member would step up and help out more at work)

Thursday night I got about 4 hours sleep. Friday I got up fed horses and went to the 'classroom' portion of the clinic (it was right next door) then came home to saddle up Voodoo.
Rode/watched all day at the clinic. Came home, fed horses, showered, dressed for work and left.

Work was Busy. As. Hell.

Which is awesome because time go faster and lets face it it means business is good & we're making money ;)
Got home from work, fed horses (yep 3x a day here, if I had the time it would be 4x) cleaned up and played/cuddled with the dogs for a half hour or so and hit the sheets.
Saturday it all repeated. Clinic was awesome, work was busy again, and I am beat.
Tomorrow is normally my day off but I'm going in to work lunch at least (I really dislike working Sunday lunches) then I hope to chill out some.
But hey at least I don't have to get up until 10AM tomorrow... I've been getting up at 7:30AM these last couple days. I know 'ooooh big deal' but my normal bedtime is 4AM and I usually get up around 11AM.

By the way the clinic was great. Ed gave me a hug to say 'hi' when he saw me Friday, a big ole hug for goodbye today and a lot of 'harrasement' and EDucation in between :)

He's City Slicker Broke

2011-10-01T01:56:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago Pie & I ran into Mr Tim at the local gas station. He gave us one of his standard greetings "Hi there, have I got a horse for you". Then he asked if we were still on the lookout for a "company horse".
He had an 8 year old, dead quiet gelding. Mr Tim called him 'cowboy broke' meaning that he was used by an old cowboy type to work community pasture. He wasn't broke with anything fancy; neck rein or plow rein to turn, go forward, go backward, stop. No buck, bolt, spook or other bad habits. The gentleman that had him before would work pasture then haul him home for the grandkids to ride. He'd get the winter off and come spring just saddle up and ride, no silliness. And he had been in some parades. Pie & I made arrangements to go check him out later that night.
We liked what we saw and Mr Tim said to take him home on trial for a few days. He was nice & easy to handle and catch. Shann came over to help me put him through his paces. I saddled him like a total dude, thumped the saddle around, stirrup got 'stuck' underneath, fumbled doing everything up... and he stood there like a champ.
The only thing that had me a bit concerned was that when we asked him to pick up a jog he automatically jumped into a lope. But oh what a nice, lovely, easy to sit lope! And as soon as you picked up a bit of rein he came back down. I kinda figured that was from his pasture riding, which is what Mr Tim said as well when I talked to him.
Another thing I liked is that when Shann was riding she 'fell' on purpose, she suddenly leaned forward onto the horn and leaned over his shoulder and he stopped.
We decided it was worth trying him out. I'm so glad we did! My mom came out and rode him for an hour. MY mom!
Now in case any of y'all don't remember, I come from a non-horse family. My mom isn't a rider. She's ridden only a handful of times, the most recently being 12-15 years ago.
Not only did my mom ride Smudge but she also trotted and loped, on purpose! Well to be honest the first time she loped it was an accident lol. But he is such a nice guy that she felt safe enough to ask him to lope again a bit later :)

Momma & Smudge :)

He introduced into the herd nicely. Even Voodoo gets along with him.

I've had a couple people ask what he is and honestly I don't know. I'm thinking he's at least part some kind of Western stockhorse (QH, Appy, Paint) and more than likely something else. It doesn't matter to me, I don't breed show and he's a gelding. Sure you can tell some stuff from papers but they're no guarantee. It doesn't matter, we were buying him for his mind and what he can do. So all I know is he's a grey 8 y/o gelding.

Oh and one last kinda funny thing. Pie just could not get that poor horse's name right for the first few days. Instead of Smudge he got called Smut and Schmuck lol

Meet Smudge

2011-09-30T17:01:00.007-06:00

He's "city slicker" broke ;)

**more later** :)

Friday Funny ~ Airman

2011-09-30T00:03:00.001-06:00

One night at McChord Air Force Base, I was dispatched to check out the security fence where an alarm had gone off. The fence was at the end of the base runway.
When I got to the scene I found a raccoon was the culprit, so I ran around and flapped my arms to scare the animal away.

Suddenly an air-traffic controller came over the public-address system and announced loudly, "Attention to the airman at the end of the runway. You are cleared for takeoff."

What is broke?

2011-09-29T00:04:00.003-06:00

Ask 5 different people that question and you get 5 different answers.

For some people its a horse that every little move, touch, shift of weight or inhale/exhale of breath you make is a different cue. Your leg touches his side here and you get reaction X, slide back an inch and its a different reaction. And that's great IF you're a rider with that much finesse.
Another broke is a horse that excels at its particular job, even if it may not be too great at a something else. Like a barrel horse that is NFR quality but you wouldn't want to take over a course of jumps, a cutter that is tough on cattle but you wouldn't try dressage with or a reiner that you wouldn't take out on the trails (NOT that any of those jobs are exclusive to doing anything else, just that sometimes a highly trained horse in one discipline isnt' really good at much else due to the focus & time training the trainer puts on their discipline)
Then there's the horse that you can toss any greenhorn or dude on, any city slicker or visitor that comes out. He's the horse that may not be 'fancy' or showy or have lots of 'buttons', but he doesn't booger at the plastic bag blowing in the breeze. He may not win in the showpen but he's the one you trust with your non-riding parents, your friend from work that wants to 'go ride a horsey' or your nieces and nephews that don't really ride but have outgrown the pony. He may neckrein or plow rein, go forward, backwards and stop but that's about it.

All those horses have their place, and they all have value... sometimes with papers and sometimes without. You just have to know what your needs/expectations are.

to be continued...

Wordless Wednesday ~ Now THAT'S a tail

2011-09-28T00:01:00.001-06:00

**sorry for the poor quality of the pic, its from my phone**

Pony Playday!

2011-09-27T00:00:00.003-06:00

Monday I got together with a couple of the girls and we had a pony playday... with actual PONIES. It was so much fun!
I took Rootbeer over to Jo's and Wan brought her two minis. Shann was supposed to come but her plumber showed up.
I didn't get a shot of Jo's minis, Mystic & Maverick, but here is the rest of the gang waiting for things to get underway:

Peppy, Pokey & Rootbeer

Another neighbour, Dave, drives & shows minis and was coming over to give us a bit of a clinic. I had gotten a pony sized driving harness from my vet. It doesn't quite fit well enough to actually hook a cart but Dave managed to size it down & rig it up enough to ground drive him. After all that's all I had in line as a goal right now... then it soon became obvious that Rootbeer must have been driven sometime in his past!

Rootbeer & Dave

He stepped out like a pro, walking at a nice, steady forward walk. No putsing around or dragging his feet. He knows 'gee' and 'haw' and best of all he seemed to really enjoy himself.
Oh boy I bet Pie is going to be sooo happy when I tell him I want to buy some new harness that will actually fit to hook with and a cart ;)

That's a content pony :)

**please forgive the poor quality cell phone pics**

Earning his keep

2011-09-26T13:18:00.006-06:00

A couple posts ago I mentioned that our little Echo has been earning his keep. Since the day we got him I've heard him bark at "things" every night. I think that usually it was deer in the bush or something innocent like that.
One night I heard him REALLY bark. He sounded like he meant business. Then I heard the coyotes start singing. And barking. And howling.
Echo kept up his "tough guy" barking and growling and after awhile the coyotes moved on.
We don't get coyotes around very much lately but when we do Echo sure puts on his game face and goes to work. Some nights its more work than others.
Not only does he keep the coyotes away but he's been keeping other varmints away too. A week or so ago I was getting ready to go out and do the horses final feed (around 2:15am, remember I don't exactly have "normal" hours) when I could hear Echo growling and barking just outside the back door.
I kept the other dogs in the house and went out on the deck with a flashlight. I couldn't quite tell what he had at first but I knew I didn't want it in my back yard!
For about 10 minutes I watched him pounce, jump and dance around this thing... about 10 feet from the deck, right where my dogs always run around.
I went back in the house and put on jeans, boots and a hoodie (thought they'd be a bit more appropriate than the shorts, flip flops & tank top I had been wearing) and managed to keep Tucker in the house while I let Comet & Misty out with me.
Echo & Thing were still by the deck so I sent Misty & Comet over to check things out. It jumped at Misty and she came back to me. At first I thought she was just a chicken but I noticed after that she kept herself between me & It no matter where It was.
Comet would go check things out then wander away, then go back. Gradually It moved across the yard, over the driveway and across the barrel patch, by then Comet was much more interested in working with Echo. I noticed that It wasn't really trying to get away anymore. I called the dogs off a few times and It would hold its ground when they came to me. It was no longer in fight or flight mode, It just wanted to fight.
Echo & Comet got It positioned between them and kept it there, It would make a few little jumps but no big moves. Meanwhile the dogs would bark and snarl, it seemed like they were trying to egg it on. Eventually that worked and It made a BIG jump at Echo. Comet darted in, snatched it from behind and gave it a couple good shakes. Yep Comet, the dog that has never shown any aggression to any other living thing, dealt the killing blow.
When he dropped it the feet twitched a bit and then Echo grabbed it and shook. When he set it down I went over, with a big metal rake, and gave it a poke or two to make sure it was dead. Thankfully it was.
Now what to do? I didn't want them to eat it or drag it off. I checked the time, saw it was around 3 and realized Pie would be home soon so I stood guard while telling the dogs how good they were. A few minutes later he pulled up to the garage and I called to him to bring a shovel to dispose of it. Then we got a good look at it and I snapped a couple cellphone pics, It ended up being a muskrat. A good size one, probably close to Tucker's size.
I was SO glad that Echo was trying to get rid of it. Something like that could have really hurt Tucker (or worse!) I'm all for wildlife, just so long as they leave my critters alone.

The odd couple, Comet doesn't usually like Echo so I was kinda surprised they worked together so well.
Both dogs were none the worse for wear. Echo managed to get by with no injuries and Comet had a small bite to the face (all the dogs are up to date on shots) I took Comet in to Dr Lorrie Saturday morning to get the bite checked and he was fine, although he did seem to have a cocky strut ;)

Sunday Stills ~ Signs of Fall

2011-09-25T16:04:00.000-06:00

Growing like a weed

2011-09-24T02:50:00.000-06:00

Remember Echo? Little, sweet Echo?
Here he was at about 3 months of age. Not a lot bigger than Tucker...

While they have remained fast friends the size difference is much more noticeable now! Here is Echo the other day, approximately 6 1/2 months old

And he's already been earning his keep :)

Friday Funny ~ Square Testicles

2011-09-23T00:00:00.000-06:00

An elderly woman walked into the Royal Bank of Canada one morning with a purse full of money. She wanted to open a savings account and insisted on talking to the president of the Bank because, she said, she had a lot of money.

After many lengthy discussions (after all, the client is always right) an employee took the elderly woman to the president's office.

The president of the Bank asked her how much she wanted to deposit. She placed her purse on his desk and replied, '$165,000'. The president was curious and asked her how she had been able to save so much money . The elderly woman replied that she made bets.

The president was surprised and asked, 'What kind of bets?'

The elderly woman replied, 'Well, I bet you
$25,000 that your testicles are square.'

The president started to laugh and told the woman that it was impossible to win a bet like that.

The woman never batted an eye. She just looked at the president and said, 'Would you like to take my bet?'

'Certainly', replied the president. 'I bet you $25,000 that my testicles are not square.'

'Done', the elderly woman answered. 'But given the amount of money involved, if you don't mind I would like to come back at 10 ' clock tomorrow morning with my lawyer as a witness.' 'No problem', said the president of the Bank confidently.

That night, the president became very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of the mirror examining his testicles, turning them this way and that, checking them over again and again until he was positive that no one could consider his testicles as square and reassuring himself that
There was no way he could lose the bet.

The next morning at exactly 10 o'clock the elderly woman arrived at the president's office with her lawyer and acknowledged the $25,000 bet made the day before that the president's testicles were square.

The president confirmed that the bet was the same as the one made the day before. Then the elderly woman asked him to drop his pants etc. So that she and her lawyer could see clearly.

The president was happy to oblige.

The elderly woman came closer so she could see better and asked the president if she could touch them. 'Of course', said the president. 'Given the amount of money involved, you should be 100% sure.'

The elderly woman did so with a little smile. Suddenly the president noticed that the lawyer was banging his head against the wall. He asked the elderly woman why he was doing that and she replied, 'Oh, it's probably because I bet him $100,000 that around 10 o'clock in the morning I would be holding the balls of the President of the Royal Bank of Canada !'

A mob of sheepeople

2011-09-18T16:10:00.001-06:00

"Judge not lest ye be judged"

**this may be a bit of a rant, and kinda long, you have been forewarned** ;)

Whether you're religious or not its a good piece of advice, and something a few local people would do well to keep in mind.

There's been a bit of a 'thing' going on in our little local community. You see there is a woman, "J" travelling across the country by foot, camping out along the way. Minding her own business and not causing any trouble. But a local 'rescue' group is stirring things up. Because J happens to have a horse with her.

"Homeless with a horse" played on the local news. The rescue lady is trying to get J's horse taken from her with all kinds of claims flying about. I happened to catch them on Facebook. The stuff being said was kinda ridiculous. It reminded me of how bad the mob mentality could get on Fugly back in the day (I haven't read there lately) and it was pretty evident that, as on Fugly, most of these people had no first hand knowledge of the situation but rather than find anything out for themselves they were blindly following along.

When the fit hit the shan about this locally J was camping at the west edge of the city. The rescue lady was stirring things up so much that J moved and now she and her mare are camped out at the 'fairgrounds' of our town. I stopped there today, which was actually kinda hard for me to do as I don't really like strangers lol

I wanted to know for myself if this lady & her horse were okay, if there was anything I could do to help them out or if maybe all the crap swirling around Facebook was actually true.

J is nice, a bit eccentric maybe but not a raving lunatic. She said that she prefers to live outside as much as possible and is originally from Quebec. She is making her way to western Alberta or BC for the winter, hoping for a milder climate where she and her horse can continue to live outside.

The horse, ah yes the horse... the reason for the drama. She may be a bit thin but more on the thin side of average than skinny, she's not "starving". J got the horse 2 months or so ago. The horse looks well, she needs muscling & conditioning to fill out more than groceries (and after all its late summer/early fall... the mare is getting plenty of grass and isn't being worked too hard)

Yes she has only 3 shoes, she just lost one recently. The rescue lady had "she's only got THREE shoes!" as part of her complaint. Oh my! Please, how many of you that shoe your horses NEVER EVER lose a shoe?

Yes there are a few sores on the mare. As a matter of fact I noticed the same type of sores on one of my friend's horses recently. They are not the kind of sores that are caused by abuse or neglect. Again, if any of you have ever had a horse that NEVER gets a scrape/bump/cut please let me know how you managed that short of covering it in bubble wrap and putting it in in a rubber padded stall.

She does seem a bit off on one hind. There is some thickening on the pastern, so it is most likely an old injury.

As for the claims that J stole this horse, or 'found it', NO it is J's horse. She has a bill of sale including a photocopy of the certified cheque. (which I never asked to see, it was information she volunteered)

The local SPCA and the local police had all been out and said there was no reason to take J's horse from her but this lady from the rescue still keeps harassing her. I'm so glad that I stopped and saw for myself that the situation seems fine. I told J (who at that time had not told me her name) that I'd be back with the few supplies that she hesitatingly asked for.

When I came back with the supplies there was another local lady ("S") there, the one I had seen standing up for J on Facebook. J introduced herself and thanked me for the stuff I brought, I introduced myself to S and while I was there the vet also stopped by, he agrees that the horse is fine (and the rescue happens to be one of his clients so he said he'd talk to her & try to get her to leave J alone) and the local news came to get some shots to finish up their update on the story - J had called them after the first story, someone had shown it to her and it did not tell HER side of the story at all but rather the rescue lady's.

Another one of the other reason's that's popped up for taking J's horse is that "its so cruel to the horse to travel that way". Umm, HELLO how the heck do you think Canada & the US were settled? By people walking, people riding & driving horses (and mules, and oxen, etc) NOT by fricking cars. Its a heck of a lot healthier for a horse for it to be out moving everyday than to spend most of its day in a stall or small pen, and how many horses live like that?!

What about Bill Inman, Bernice Ende, Rev Ken Downey, Stan Perdue, Kimber Sider, Kimball Foord, etc. I guess maybe it was okay for those people to travel across the country with their horses because they were riding them not leading them??

What I keep wondering is why these people are harassing J. Because she's different?

Vet day

2011-09-17T01:20:00.001-06:00

Thursday was vet day, The Day, the day the colts were scheduled for brain surgery. I was also getting Cessa's teeth checked and Voodoo & Applejack were getting their wiener holders cleaned (after all if the vet's already there...)

This is the face of a brand new gelding lol

Doc L decided we'd start with the colts. I told her that while they are both halter broke and will tie, Odin is a bit stubborn and doesn't lead too well. In fact if he decides not to cooperate you kinda wonder if he was a mule in a former life.

Sure enough he decided no way in hell was he leading away from everyone else and his safe zone. Doc had to smack him on the butt and encourage him along while I led. Finally he grudgingly moved along... maybe if he knew what was in store he would have refused a bit more lol

His gelding took a bit longer than usual. His 'bits' were on the smaller side and even though he was drugged he kept pulling them out of Doc's grasp. He made her work for it but eventually she got them both and it was a successful little surgery. I warned her he was stubborn ;)

Tavi went down like a cheap drunk, the drugs hit him harder than they hit Odin. He's got a couple hundred pounds on Odin but he was much easier to get down and to geld.

Next up was teeth. My neighbour Jo brought her Paint gelding and mini mare to get their teeth looked at (which was nice because then we split the call fee) :)

After they were done Doc looked at Cessa and just as I thought there was not much to work with there. Good news is there were no sharp edges, so no dentist for Cessa.

Then Voodoo and Applejack got their sheaths cleaned. I will confess that I have NEVER cleaned a sheath. Doc and I talked about it and part of it is that I'm scared. I had a gelding that even when really drugged would light up and fire at you if you dared to approach his man bits.

Also since I've never done it I worry about not rinsing enough and leaving soap/cleaner up there. That can't be a good thing. Plus it is kinda gross lol

Voodoo & Applejack are both really good to clean. NO drugs at all, they just stand there and look kinda mildly offended/embarrassed and like they're thinking "please just finish"

So Doc made me stick my hand up there after she cleaned Voodoo. Just so I'd know what a normal, clean sheath feels like.

Then before she cleaned Applejack she made me feel what a grungy one feels like. I have to admit that I went "oh yuck!" She laughed and said, "I guess you'll keep paying me to do that"

To be honest it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting it to feel more like dirt. It did not.

Both colts seem to be healing up well. They were bright eyed and moseying around today in their pen.

There was a nice surprise too, my bill was about $300-400 less than I thought it would be. I had heard that a couple years ago Doc L was charging over $200 to geld so I was thinking it would be more than that now. Instead it was $150 plus the drugs (which ended up being $30some each, so both boys were less than $190 each)

Friday Funny ~ I'm so sorry

2011-09-16T00:13:00.000-06:00

Let me apologize in advance... today's Friday Funny is gonna be bad.
Like 'oh wow she is such a dweeb' bad.
I can't help it... Dr L was out today (which will be a post in itself) and it just turns out that we have the same ~~awful~~ dorky sense of humour. So don't say you weren't warned....

What did the green grape say to the purple grape?

Breathe! Breathe!

What do you do when you see a spaceman?

You park, dude.

What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?

"Oh, dam"

Okay I'll stop now and spare you from any more lame jokes.

Remember

2011-09-11T01:03:00.001-06:00

Do you remember

Does your heart still ache

Or have you become blasé

Have you forgotten

Is today just another day

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since 9-11. For some people it's becoming just another date in the history books. For others it's a day of deep, personal grieving. And for the rest of us it's a day we will never forget even if we were fortunate to not be directly linked to it through the loss of a family member, friend or co-worker.
In my opinion we need to remember.
Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Flight 11
Flight 77
Flight 93
Flight 195
The WTC, the Pentagon
Firefighters, police, emergency responders, military & civilians.

In honor of all those who lost their lives that day. I will remember you.
Today is NOT "just another day".

Friday Funny ~ Loaves & Fishes

2011-09-09T00:36:00.000-06:00

A nervous young minister, new to the church, told the flock, "For my text today, I will take the words, 'And they fed five men with five thousand loaves of bread and two thousand fishes'."

A member of the flock raised his hand and said, "That's not much of a trick. I could do that."

The minister didn't respond.
However, the next Sunday he decided to repeat the text. This time he did it properly: "And they fed five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fishes."

Smiling, the minister said to the noisy man, "Could you do that Mr. Perkins?"

The member of the flock said, "I sure could."

"How would you do it?

"With all the food I had left over from last Sunday!"

Friday Funny ~ I love this kid

2011-09-02T00:05:00.000-06:00

Our teacher asked what my favourite animal was, and I said "Fried chicken."

She said I wasn't funny, but she must have been wrong because everyone else laughed.

My parents told me to always tell the truth.

I did, fried chicken is my favourite animal.

I told my dad what happened.

He said my teacher is probably a member of PETA.

He said they love animals very much.

I do too. Especially chicken, pork and beef.

Anyway my teacher sent me to the principal's office.

I told him what happened, he laughed too.

Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favourite live animal was.

I told her chicken.

She asked me why, and I told her

it was because you can make them into fried chicken.

She sent me back to the principal's office.

He laughed and told me not to do it again.

I don't understand.

My parents taught me to be honest,

but my teacher doesn't like it when I am.

Today my teacher asked us to tell her

what famous person we admire most.

I told her, "Colonel Sanders."

Guess where I am now...

Alls well that ENDS

2011-08-28T20:29:00.000-06:00

Another year, another District Finals over... and I am no longer on the board! For the 3rd year in a row I said that I'd like to step down and finally someone else stepped up, five years on the board is long enough (well last year someone did but I was 'encouraged' to let my name stand and got voted to stay on)
I didn't place in the money yesterday or today, so I didn't end up in the prizes either. However I have to say my horse was pretty darn consistent.
It was nice to have the finals right next door, my friend Jewls camped out here with her ponies staying in one of my pens. Last night after everything was said and done we had time to enjoy some adult beverages ;)
AND I was able to talk to Neighbour T about the hay situation - finally. He has agreed to take a few less bales (12 rounds instead of the original 20) and half the squares (he had mentioned that he wanted some squares at the start, just not how many) plus some cash to make up the difference. So that's a big relief -- especially since ~~fatty~~ Applejack is on a diet now!

It is what it is

2011-08-27T23:57:00.000-06:00

For starters its District Finals for barrel racing this weekend. I had, note HAD, both the boys entered. Today when I went to warm up Applejack I ended up scratching him. Which backtracks me to another "it is what it its". The saddle I'd been running him in didn't fit. Played around with some options and ordered a new saddle. A gorgeous saddle. Oh my I love that saddle. That it turns out also doesn't fit.
We went from too narrow to too wide.

*sigh*

As it happens I can't return the new saddle. I can trade it (have to find out the details to that) or try to sell it privately.
So between the saddle not fitting and a nasty crack he's got on his front left hoof Appy's feeling a bit ouchy. The kind of ouchy you can feel at a walk, if you know your horse and pay attention, and that you can see at a trot. I would have loved to see what he could do but its not worth risking hurting him more so I scratched him.
Voodoo... he still ran. And run he did! Now don't go getting the wrong idea, he's still not a 1D or even 2D horse. But holy smokes did he have wheels on! He ran SO hard to first that I literally said out loud "Oh shit, turn!" when it was time to rate. lol
His usual style is to roll in at a good clip, wrap 1st and pick up speed throughout the pattern. Not today. Today he started off hard right from the gate. Then instead of just running he picked up speed every. single. stride. to the barrel. And the arena we're running in this weekend is pretty darn big, with the pattern set deep into the arena so it was a looong way to the timers and to 1st. I had no idea if he was going to blow by it or turn, thankfully when I said "Oh shit, turn!" I followed it with an "easy" and he turned.

OMG I was so thankful lol.

Fast time up to that point was a 19 so I was hoping for a 21, which we got. Unfortunately the fast time moved up to an 18 something. Not sure where I'll end up in the payout for today, I didn't hear many 20's so there is still a (small) chance for day money. And if we can be consistent and have a nice run again tomorrow who knows, maybe just maybe we'll sneak into the prizes.

(and there are some nice prizes this year!)

Friday Funny ~ Middle aged

2011-08-26T00:14:00.000-06:00

MIDDLE AGE TEXTING CODES:

ATD - at the doctor.

BFF - best friend fell.

BTW -bring the wheelchair .

BYOT - bring your own teeth.

FWIW - forgot where I was.

GGPBL - gotta go, pacemaker battery low.

GHA - got heartburn again.

IMHO - is my hearing aid on?

LMDO -laughing my dentures out.

OMMR - on my massage recliner.

ROFLACGU - rolling on floor laughing and can't get up.

Last Words

2011-08-24T01:30:00.000-06:00

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And together we'll change the world."

Jack Layton had fought cancer once already and this summer he stepped down as leader of the NDP to fight it again... he passed away Monday.
While I may not be a fan of his political party I have great respect for the man he was. The words I've quoted above are the closing words from a letter he wrote on Saturday, which he had arranged to have released to all Canadians upon his death. They moved me and remind me of the person I try to be.

RIP "un bon Jack"

Jack Layton

1950-2011

Friday Funny ~ 100% Math

2011-08-19T00:00:00.003-06:00

Mathematics:

What Makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

How about achieving 103%?

What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that while Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and
Attitude will get you there, its the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.

Grampie

2011-08-18T00:59:00.000-06:00

**This post is NHR and might be a bit 'too personal' but I think its something I need to just get out of my system**

My Grampie has been on my mind a lot lately. It seems that every few days something happens, or I read or see something that makes me think of him. Grampie passed away July 8th. Although I wanted to pay tribute to him, I couldn't really get it together to write about him then, even now I'm sitting here with tears streaming.

He had been in a care home for some time, after Grammie passed (quite awhile ago) it was discovered that he had Alzheimer's. Mom called me at work on the 7th and let me know that he wasn't doing well and to expect the worst. We talked about maybe taking a trip East to see him but the next day Auntie M called Mom and let her know he had died. I hadn't expected soon to be that soon.

(Most of my relatives are in New Brunswick. My parents moved out to Saskatchewan when I was very young)

I think I felt guilty for not getting there to see him, the last time I had seen him was a couple years ago when I went East for my Dad's kidney transplant. And since moving here when I was little I had only seen him a few times. Until the last few years I just couldn't afford to travel like that, and then when I could I couldn't get the time to go.

Grampie was the first man in my life. I didn't have a father until my parents got married when I was about 2ish. My earliest memories are of Grampie and Grammie, playing with her Red Rose tea figurines (Mom brought a box of them back for me after Grammie passed, they were the only thing I wanted).

Gathering eggs from Grammie's hens. The day that Grampie came home with a dead rabbit, which I happened to see as he came in the door.

I remember the day that I was banned from the barn. The cows were being dehorned and they didn't want me to witness that. Afterward when I saw the cows I felt bad for them and told Grampie he had to give them extra grain lol.

But probably the thing I remember most is "helping" Grampie feed cows. Of going up into the loft and watching as he threw hay down, he was good enough to let me think I was helping with that even though I was far too little to actually help (I only found out a few years ago that Mom was always scared when Grampie took me up in the loft). Going down and sweeping the leftover bits of hay from the alleyway to the feeders in front of the cows... making sure that it was fairly distributed, except of course that my favourites got a bit more and the one cow I didn't like got a bit less (not really sure why I didn't like her but I distinctly remember strongly disliking one). And that broom, it had to have been almost twice as tall as me! I remember petting the big ol' red bull with his white curls on his forehead. Grampie was so nervous, he knew I liked the bull and that the bull was friendly and liked attention, but still he was a bull... one swing of that big head and there I'd have gone!

I have a more recent photo of Grampie, but its not 'him' to me. He had gotten thin and frail. When he passed away he was under 100 lbs, being in his early 90s he weighed just a tad more than he was old. Instead I like to remember Grampie as strong and healthy, like in the photo below.

I love you and I miss you Grampie

Wordless Wednesday ~ Duchess

2011-08-17T00:03:00.003-06:00

Time Well Wasted ;)

2011-08-16T05:02:00.003-06:00

Sunday I went and visited my friend Jacquie, she's like a big sister or an aunt. We don't get the chance to visit very often. Jacq & her hubby are farmers so their schedule is pretty busy and y'all know Pie & I have a weird schedule. Then add in that they live North of the city and we're West/Southwest of the city, so its not like we're neighbours. Usually I only get to see Jacq & Ben at sorting or penning (dang I hope there's penning this winter!)
Jacquie & I had set Sunday aside for a good visit. I ended up being gone from home almost all day and didn't get anything done at home... but like the title says it was time well wasted. :)
Its been about a year since I've been out to their farm. Zara, from yesterday's post, is a new addition since I was there last. And their heeler Ringer sure has grown up into a nice dog:

Ringer tied up out of the way

while some horse doctoring was going on

Jacq & Ben are "late in life farmers". They started 5 years ago, following Ben's life long dream. I personally think that's pretty awesome!! They raise cattle (Black Angus I believe) and sheep, and of course have horses and a donkey (I missed getting Chili's picture!) The sheep are where Zara comes in. She's not just a pretty yard ornament. She and her buddy Achmed protect the sheep.

Achmed the llaca

she's a cross of llama & alpaca

Achmed isn't as friendly as Zara. She's a bit more aloof and timid. Also whenever she got close she screwed up her face like she was considering spitting at the camera.

I personally think that Zara is prettier, then again most alpacas seem cuter to me than llamas. But I have to say that I love the little white tips on Achmed's ears:

Another look at the little beauty queen Zara

Zara also has a baby, Apu. She's not a lot bigger than the sheep she helps protect!

The llaca & alpaca do a good job protecting 'their' sheep. This spring one of Jacq & Ben's neighbours lost 25 sheep to coyotes, and they had a donkey and dogs to protect them. Jacq & Ben didn't lose one! And its not like they don't have predators. They've seen coyotes eating the placenta from when the cows calve and they even saw three coyotes playing in the straw in the field where they sometimes keep sheep!