Wednesday, December 19, 2007

19 December 2007

I managed to get the horses out for the day yesterday, it was sunny and got up to about 35F so the mud and slush is dreadful. There is still snow on the ground and now that it has partially defrosted and refrozen with the cold last night we have an ice rink outside in the drive and the lane. As a result I didn't get them out today, the field just gets torn up from their hooves, that is one problem with clay. Yuk. So here is the obligatory picture of Eb and Blaze doing mock battle and keeping an eye on me at the same time LOL. Little monsters. I put Taxes out with Blaze for a while too but again didnt get any pictures, it was so muddy outside the door that neither of them wanted to run in it so they just "played" in the aisleway. Taxes is an agressive little booger!!!! Man, he goes in there with both guns blazing, biting and jumping on Blaze and Blaze just ignores him and now and again will threaten to kick or squeal at him and he backs off. Poor boy he is such a great little horse.

I found out a few days ago that the "nests" that I can see at the tops of the trees in the forest across the road are actually made by squirrels. I was amazed because I always thought they used holes in trees and the like to live in. It turns out that they build these quite big nests out of leaves and twigs but they are very high up so I can't get a real idea of how they put them together. Today when I went to get the mail there was a squirrel running up the one tree, he ran up and on top of the nest and dissappeared!!!! I am going to have to wait for a nice sunny day and sit down there for a bit and see if I can get some shots with the squirrel in it. Of course the people driving by will think I am crazy LOL.
The icicles from the freezing rain started melting yesterday too. This is some of it on the metal roundpen bars. I caught one drip in mid drip, thought it looked pretty cool (pardon the pun).

That is about it for today. I am going to fetch 10 bales of straw for the three yearling fillies who live in the field with the tramp shed for shelter. It is turning into a dreadful mess inside the shed so I am going to throw a few bales of straw in there and hope that they wont eat it all and it will help to keep them clean and dry. Poor girls I hate seeing them looking in such a mess but there is very little I can do other than this.
Hope you are all well (((Hugs)))
Lori
xx

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love those two horses looking at your while messing around.

The squirrels build those nests (properly called summer nests) in the summer and give birth in them and hang out in them and then come winter there are no tree snags with holes and all the hollow trees are removed so unless somebody puts up a squirrel box with a 4 inch diameter hole in it, they have to live in their summer nests in the winter. Sometimes they get loaded with ice and snow and crash to the ground, killing the squirrels inside or crippling them. I can sit here and see at least 8 nests around my property.

If you read my blog this morning you could see that I made a comment back in 2005 that the ground looked like it was covered with a squirrel rug. or something like that.

So they are surviving the only way they know how.

Nice photos.

Coy Hill said...

Pretty shot of the boys "horsing" around :) I love the vibrant colors!
Salty

Julie Blair said...

Hey there Lori! Sorry I have not posted in awhile but I have been checking in and reading your blog. I can't believe it is so cold there again. Seems like it was just summer. It has been cool (cold for us-in the upper 50's/low 60's) the last few weeks and we had rain the last few days. I like the change of seasons...that is all we get really.
I did not know that about squirrels. I thought they lived in holes in trees too! The icicle shot made me get cold chills...brrr. Looks cold.
I hope you are doing well. I know you work so hard keeping the horses cared for and happy. I posted on my blog today so stop by when you can.

Anonymous said...

That's my boy, onery (sp?) as ever!

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