Friday 31 October 2008

It is Halloween here in the USA, we don't celebrate it and being in the coutry we don't get any trick or treaters.

I drove past the Elk Farm today after I had taken the trailer back to Pepper (the owner). There were 3 nice males with big racks of horns but they were right on the fenceline and under the trees and I had nowhere to pull over, it is a busy road. I got a shot of the white elk and friends that I photographed earlier in the year, they sure have grown up, but they were basking in the sunshine. This is one of the males that I could take pics of but the horns weren't as big, the two behind him are in a depression which has a pool of water in it, they were standing chest deep in the water LOL.

Another shot of Goldie, I didnt get much time to spend with her today but will tomorrow again. She is starting to come around and is going to be a real little tyrant.

On Thursday I went through to the campgrounds where we ride with Val and Stan to drop off some wood and hay as they were going to spend 4 days out and needed the extra supplies This is their 3 month old pup who runs in the forest with us while we are riding, absolutely loves mud and water and keeps up with us for hours!! Her name is Shami. Before I left I snapped this shot of her sitting with them at the campfire they had started, if you click on it you will see a larger version and can see the flames jumping up.

Well that is about it for today, it has been a beautiful day we toppoed out in the upper 60s and it was lovely out, pity I didnt get to spend more of it out there or riding LOL. I find that I am regressing now that Larry has found the help, he has given him all the feeding and cleaning duties, that is what kept me getting up in the mornings so now of course I hibernate inside. I don't like the cold so it is easy to let him do it, but it is not doing my mental health any good. I don't mind the feeding, it is just keeping up with 16 horses and cleaning stalls and the hauling and maintenance work around here that has got to me. We will have to see what happens long term, the young man, Adam, who comes over is excellent with the horses and loves animals and the animals love him back and respond really well to him which is great. He has never been around horses before but has got all three of the two year old fillies halter broke, saddled and backed with no problems at all. He just has a very quiet laid back personality and they seem to respond to it well.

That is it for today. It looks like I am only getting a post done every second day, but that is better than nothing. I have just realised that I posted a picture in my last post which I have entered into a Free Study challenge on DP Challenge site, so please anyone who comes here and frequents there as well, I would ask you to vote the photo on it's merits, not because you know whose it is. Thanks ((((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xx

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Been a bit of a yuk day today, pretty cold, woke up to below freezing, but we have a warm up on the way for the weekend. Battled to get out of the 40s the last few days but weekend should be in 70s (Indian Summer). I still haven't been able to get good pictures of my new baby Goldy (how original LOL) but got this shot of her little face, she is sooooo cute, but still trying to make friends with her she is very wary, loves her butt being scratched but when you get up to the neck and head she pulls away. Considering she has never been handled I suppose it is to be expected. She is VERY fuzzy with her baby coat and now the winter coat on top of it makes her look like a teddy bear!

(Click on pictures to see larger versions)

I am going to try to get them outside tomorrow to get a few better shots of her, will brush her a bit if she will let me first. She also has burrs in her mane and tail.

The mare that we took on to fatten up a month or so ago, BJ, got her first outing in the field today. She is stilll very thin and it doesnt show the full extent in this picture but it makes her look a bit better and I havent been able to post a pic of her othr than her portrait a while back. She was checked today and is not in foal so she will have a bit longer to recuperate and then I am not sure if Judy will try to breed her again as she is 23 years old already.
I was trying to get some motion blur shots for the one site I frequent and this is a long exposure of some autumn leaves on some trees down the drive blowing in the wind. It almost looks as if it has been painted, I was very pleased with the results. I got a few others which I will post when I am short of pics.


This was the sunset here last night, it was really pretty so I snapped it, despite the power lines.

This is DB April Dawn, the other mare that we brought back from Iowa, she was backlit nicely so I took this of her. I will get some bettter shots of her too when I have removed all the burrs from her mane and tail. I put her out in the field with BJ because Lori, Cayenne and Wiggle are being really mean to her and chasing her all the time so I thought I would give her a break from them. Worked out pretty well. I am going to start turning them out again tomorrow and leaving them out at night because the freeze has gone for now so I may as well take advantage of it. I will usually leave them out if it is above freezing and not raining.

I didn't have such a good day today and Larry isn't feeling too great either, with the colder weather it is harder for him to spend any length of time outside so he gets cabin fever from having to stay in. The next few days should be okay for him to get out and about.

Thats about it for today. Hope you are all well ((((Hugs)))))

Lori

xx

Monday 27th October 2008

It has been 10 days!!!! I wish I could update you here on everything but I just can't at the moment, not enough time. I just spent two days driving over to Iowa to collect our mares and the one palomino baby and we ended up coming back with two other weanlings as well. 12 hours drive each way and we had headwind going there but on Sunday the gusts had got up to 40 - 50mph but were fortunately behind us but nonetheless it was a hairy trip with 5 horses in the trailer. Fortunately the friend who was with me (we used their truck and anothere friend's horse trailer) drives 18 wheeler trucks for a living so she is used to the towing and weather and unfortunately ended up doing nearly all of the driving, but it was nice to just chat and relax for 2 days but I am very tired today so am trying to catch up

We first saw the horses on Sunday morning at sunrise as we only got there at about 11.30 at night, and when I first went out the sun was rising on the other side of the trees, the wind was howling and it was FREEZING. I liked the view so shot a few frames then went on over to see our horses.

This was my first view of my new palomino filly, I have always wanted a palomino and now I have her. She is very skittish as she has never been handled until they brought her in from the big pasture they lived in last week. I didnt get any more pics done today because it has been hectic and I want her to settle a bit before I get them out for some exercise which I will try to do tomorrow. I didnt want to use flash in the barn because she really is touchy and scared.

This evening I was sitting by the stable watching her and talking to her while she was eating her hay with her momma and her name came to me immediately. Although I dont know what type of personality she has yet I am going to call her CK Golden Sunrise (if that name hasnt already been used). Her daddy is named CK Sun, and I saw that beautiful sunrise a few minutes before I saw her for the first time. Hopefully when she loses her baby and winter hair she will have the beautiful golden color that her daddy is with the white mane and tail so that is where I took the Golden from in her name. I tried to work mommas name in there somewhere but just couldnt find a fit and can only have 21 characters max. Her momma is Blueyed Kooter, larry says blue eyed speaks for itself because she has blue eyes and Kooter comes from the character on the Dukes of Hazard (I am not so sure about that LOL).

It has been pretty wet there and they were a bit muddy. The baby is 5 months old now, I normally wean at 3 months so her mother is taking a bit of strain with continuing to feed her which is why she looks a bit thin. I will let her settle in for a while before I wean her at least until I can handle her a bit in the stable at least. Not a great pic of her but the only one I have thus far, more to come.

So that is only one of the things I have been up to, it is really late already and I need to get some sleep because I feel like a zombie. I will give another update tomorrow I promise!!!!!

Abraham I am sorry I missed your birthday on Saturday, hope you had a good one.

((((Hugs))))

Lori

Friday 17 October 2008

This isn't the greatest time of the year to photograph horses so my horse pics are very few at the moment. I am afraid I will have to share the coming of winter with you all. These are two house sparrows at my bird feeder, they scatter all the seed they dont want and the feeder empties fast, then they have to rummage around on the ground, which is kitty cat territory. Fortunately we don't have to many incidents as the cats are well fed and only ever kill something to eat it. They are professional mousers LOL.

I did a shoot for a friend last week, her husband has gundogs and he wanted me to photograph two he has for sale. This little guy was one he had bought, a 10 week old pointer (I think) pup. Can't remember now if it is male or female, wil confirm that when I see them next, but nonetheless a ball of energy that was very hard to photograph LOL.
When I first arrived Vic was exercising all the dogs, these are 5 of his labrador retreivers, two of them I was going to photograph. I just thought it made such a cool photo. He had abut 5 or 6 others of different gundog breeds running around him too but I couldnt get them all in one frame unfortunately.
I heard from my step sister (my Dad's second Wife's one daughter from her first marriage) Di today, it was so cool, another person I havent seen or spoken to in many many years. Our parents were very close friends when we were little, in fact my Mom and her Mom wore the same wedding dress for their respective weddings, Marie borrowed my Mom's. We used to see them often in our younger days. They were part of a very large farming family in Zimbabwe and over time we lost contact. Marie's husband and young son were killed by terrorists on their farm in an ambush and time just flew by and it was only years later when my Mom passed away that Marie regained contact with my Dad. They hit it off from the very first. My Dad was a very soft kindhearted domestic soul and he and Marie were perfect for each other, my Dad having lost his wife after nearly 25 years of marriage was devastated and Marie had lost a big part of her family so tragically years before. We were all so happy for them.

Unfortunately they were only married three years when Marie was diagnosed with Cancer too and she passed away shortly afterwards.

So it was fabulous to hear from Di today after so long, I have a lot of catching up to do.

That's all the news for today, have a great weekend all ((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

Thursday 16 October 2008

I am very sad today as Gee, the thoroughbred filly that we have been boarding for the past 2 years and who I love to death, went to her new home today. I was very sad to say goodbye to her. This first picture is one I shot of her on one of her excursions into the turnout area, saying hello to Taxes through the bars.

I had to put a horse photo up of one of our horses as I have been neglecting them for a while. This is one of the "3 babies", Dee. She is a two year old right now and has started with her education to be a riding horse. She has a beautiful face and is very refined, almost dainty. I think Larry is wanting to keep her unless someone expresses a huge interest in her LOL.

I have been trying to get shots of the milkweed seeds suspended in the air but they always seem to blow in the wrong direction and I cant get a clear shot. This was the best I could do unless I had someone to blow on them to make them float while I shoot LOL. The Milkweed plant is a very important part of the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly.

Fall is finally coming and this is the view down part of our driveway looking towards the woods on the other side of the road and you can see our mailboxes at the end. The leaves on the trees and bushes lining the drive are starting to turn and I thought made a nice scene, despite the electric pole!
As usual you can click on any of the pictures o this page to see a slightly larger version of each one.

I have made some more family contacts today and am thinking of starting a journal. I am remembering experiences and people and places that I had supressed a long time ago and am finding it very therapeutic to remember right now and deal with it in order to move forward with my life.

Abraham, I meant to post a response on the fact that my leg was more leg than you had seen in a long time other than your wife's LOL, Hey I have knobbly knees as you can see and I was wearing shorts!!!! The leg has healed and I only have a smallish lump on my leg now but the bruising has gone. My neck is still a bit stiff mainly at night when I am trying to sleep.

Well nothig exciting happening, we did have two tenths of an inch of rain last night which was very welcome, not nearly enough but I am not complaining, although when it finally does start getting muddy and wet especially like it does during the winter months, I will be complaining about all the mud LOL.

Hope everyone is well (((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Wednesday 15 October 2008

It has been a long hard two weeks and more and forgive me for not updating here but I have had a lot of inner struggles to deal with, memories good and bad have resurfaced since the passing of my Dad and I have been contacted with friends of our family while I was growing up that I havent heard from in 30 years. Those days seem like just yesterday.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Above is Wiggle letting us know what she thinks of all this standing around stuff and not doing anything, she is yawning, in case you didn't know LOL.
(click on picture to enlarge)
I wanted to try to get a fall mirror image a few days ago and went down to the Lake down th road but the wind was blowing slightly so the water was not smooth and the fall colors havent come in quite yet as well as they usually do. The road runs down the centre of the two ponds and this is the view of one of the resting places along the bank with chairs to sit in and enjoy the view. A lot of people fish here, the facility belongs to a religious group and in the summer holidays it is always buzzing with activity as they organise activities for their youth all summer long.

(click on piture to enlarge)
Not such a pretty picture but I was coming home the other day and just before I turned into our drive I saw this buzzard in the middle of the road with a dead rabbit (not too sure didnt go and look closely). I had stopped and was inching my way closer to it when this car came from the other direction and the buzzard took off.

I have regained contact with so many old friends and family over the past two weeks and am sort of in a daze at the moment, Larry has taken the workload off my shoulders and we have finally found a young man who does a good job in the barn and is good with the horses. We will probably not be able to keep him on semi full time for long as we really can't afford him but he has caught up on all the heavy work and repairs that I just havent been able to do. It has been a great relief.

I will probably do a lot of reminiscing in the near future as I am finding that I am remembering things that I had suppressed from years back and am finding it to be quite relieving and healing to bring them back to the forefront and deal with them finally. I hope you will all stick with me on this journey!

((((Hugs)))))

Hope everyone is well.

Lori

xxx

Thursday 2 October 2008

A very quick post, I will get to all my replies to e-mails etc. soon.

This is the mare that I collected yesterday. Believe it or not she is a registered Quarter Horse, even though she looks like an Arabian!!! Considering she is 24 odd years old I think she looks great apart from her thinness. I wont post pics of her full ody until I have put a bit of weight on her.

She has come through her ordeal fine and seems to be eating nicely and drinking water again and I havee had her on a hay diet until this evening when I gave her a small portion of crimped (crushed) whole oats. She is a very sweet filly. Her name is BJ.
Kera, one of the ladies who helps us out every day is giving her a good scratch under her chin. She twists her head and stretches her neck out for you to scratch her under her jaw.
Thanks all for your visits and kind words again, ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Wednesday 1st October 2008

Thank you so much everyone for your messages and kind words. My Dad's passing was not the only thing that I have been struggling to deal with.

On Friday evening I decided I wanted to ride my horse Lori and while riding down the road she spooked at something in the neighbors yard. I pulled her around to stop her from bolting but there was a slight decline right next to us and she just lost her balance and fell with my right leg under her. I cracked my head really hard, stars and buzzing the works and suffered from a bit of a concussion and agony in my neck for the past 5 days. My leg that was under her is black and blue as can be seen from the picture!!!!!! That is the inside of my right thigh!!!

To cap it all off yesterday evening a friend who drives trucks for a living and has horses got hold of Larry to tell him that one of her horses appeared to have colic and had been that way for a day and a half already and she was out of town and the people feeding the horses didn't know what to do. Well she was still getting up and down this morning and wanting to roll and looking very droopy so I spent some time with her after worming her and walking her to stop her from laying down and decided to bring her home as it would be easier for me to watch her here than over there (about 5 miles away) and got the vet to come and check her. She is not a young horse probably about 24 or 25 years old, has a beautiful arabian head and neck but is a registered quarter horse!!!!

She had her foal weaned from her two weeks ago and is very thin and is in foal again, but I suspect that this may cause her to lose it. She is still not out of the woods although her tummy has worked twice this evening, but she is still wanting to lay down from time to time. So it has been a long day, in fact a very long week. Oh yes my medication for the depression came late and I had to go without it for 5 days, boy if any of you take pills for depression I dont recommend stopping them cold turkey, it makes you feel really bad. I spent most of the 5 days laying in a positon where my neck wasn't hurting me and staying there and not moving and sleeping!!

So that is my sad story!!!!! Sorry about the gross picture and hopefully I will be back in the routine (what's that) soon and have some better photos to look at. (((Hugs)))

Lori

xx