Wednesday 16 September 2009

Not without much battling my last show of the year is photographed and proofs posted at http://loriprophoto.jalbum.net . All four shows are up if anyone is interested in some of what I do LOL.

This morning Herbie and his daddy Blue were big buddies out in the pasture. It was so cute, momma was nowhere in sight and there were the two of them standing on the hill, when they saw me they came running towards me and then stood in the corner of the "pasture" together and later I shot another one of them grazing together on what is left in the field. As usual click on each pic to see a larger version.

Nothing much to report, just catching up on everything, the carpet that was given to me is in and I am slowly getting through all the filing and paperwork that has piled up over the past 5 months and some of it longer.

The leaves are already turning and it feels very autumn/fall like which of course it is, but it is different this year as it is every year. Stan is cutting the one large field for hay so we should be baling in the next few days again. I hope it is going to give us enough to get through winter. Then we just have the field next door to where I live to do and we will be done for the season.

I hope you are all having a good week. ((((Hugs)))) to all of you that come to visit.

Lori
xx

Wednesday 26 August 2009

A few posts ago I posted a pic of a butterfly crysalis that was just ready for the Monarch Butterfly to emerge. I took the crysalis pic and had to go out for just over an hour and this is what I found when I got back!!! The butterfly had completely emerged and dried its wings the works, I missed documenting the emergence. Anyway here is the little butterfly that came out of the crysallis, the second pic you can see its clear cocoon/crysalis right next to it.

Balieve it or not this is my little darling born this year, Herbie!!! Just look at the color he is turning. We are not sure if he is going to be tri color (brown black and white) or dark chestnut (liver chestnut), time will tell, in the meantime I can't register him cos I have no idea what color to put on his application! Just look at that attitude, reminds me of Taxes who is 2 years old now and looking awesome. Herbie is about 2 months old here, this was taken a few days ago

Gee loves water and she drinks from the hose, wish I had her with her lips going drinking it but she loves a bath too.

We finished baling and putting the hay up in the loft at 9.15pm last night!! 198 bales. Stan and I were on our own for this one and even though I did the driving of the tractor during baling it was still very tiring and hard on my back. We took this hay to Stan and Val's house (the guy who normally bales it took 108 so we only had 90 - 66 bales from that field and 24 from another small field that we did at the same time - to put up) and Stan has bought an elevator to get the hay up into the mall of his barn which is much higher than ours, so I had to lug it onto the elevator so it could go up where he caught it and stacked it at the far end of the barn. Who needs a sauna, I can tell you I was dripping by the time we were done, but really pleased that we got it done I am getting some of my stamina back at last. Needless to say I slept very well last night LOL. It could have been worse we thought we would get about 300 - 400 bales and misjudged thank heavens, we would have been out there until midnight! Must check if the tractor has headlights LOL.

Pleasant mild day today. Hope you all have a great week. (((Hugs)))

Lori

xx

Saturday 22 August 2009

Wow yep it is probably gonna rain or something (hope not though because Stan is cutting hay for us today) but I am here again.

Was editing some pictures I took about a month ago when I went to the farm where I buy my horse feed from. This little mini foal was 3 weeks old at the time and I fell in love with him.

Busy busy as usual so will cut it short and get on with some work and hopefully pay the bills.

Dont forget, if you like my photos, I am offering a very inexpensive way to have a small copy (trading card size) of them as collectors items which I am doing using my Etsy site or if you are looking for inexpensive gifts for you or family or friends please visit my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6874447 here you will find all sorts of goodies from my photo trading cards to crocheted dish wash cloths (which I highly recommend as once you have used these woollen ones you wont use anything else).

Have a great weekend all ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Monday 29 June 2009 - The Herd is Complete

I have finally managed to integrate everyone here into one field, for Blue it was the first time he had been with other horses since he was gelded earlier this year and for Goldie it was a first for her since coming home from Iowa.

Left to right BB (Big Butt!!!!), Wiggle, April (Front) Blue (Back) Cat and Goldie.

I used to have a series of names for BB while she was growing up, BB came about because she was a Blueroan Baby, then she became Bully Baby, Brat Baby, Bad baby, B***h Baby, Biting Baby or whatever fit the moment LOL.

We are having the most amazing weather, why couldnt it have been like this last week for the 4H Fair, it was lovely the week before the Fair and now the week after it is lovely again with pressure cooker temps in the 90s and humidity in between while we had to spend all that time at the Fair with the poor animals trying to keep them cool. Oh well that's how the cookie crumbles I guess.

Sonny and the baby (Herbie) are in the field next to these guys and hopefully I will eventually be able to have them all together so the baby learns to mingle with other horses. Sonny is an excellent mother and will guard him like a tiger but I dont want a repeat of the problems I had with Taxes when I had to try to get him integrated. I will post a pic of them tomorrow, not enough hours in the day.

Stan cut three fields yesterday and will turn them tomorrow with the rake and hopefully by the time he has turned the last one, the first one will be ready for baling. At least this time we wont be enduring those ludicrous temps while we are baling and loading the bales, I have to say that I did very litttle of it because I just dont have the stamina anymore, so I did the running, for water, spare parts etc. and a bit of the manual work but not much. Stan, Zack and Kami take all the credit for that.

Hope you all had a great weekend, I can't believe how fast the time is flying by, not enough hours in the day. (((Hugs)))) to all.

Lori
xx

Friday 19 June 2009 - Herbie Tests His Legs

I have had a much better 24 hours and have to say the relief of having this baby on the ground has really shown. I feel a whole lot more relaxed.

I had to wait until yesterday evening to let Sonny and Herbie out to stretch their legs and even then because of all the mosquitos she wasnt too charmed. Sonny hates the flies and bugs and would rather stay in the barn in front of the fan which is where they are now because we are expecting a heat index of 103 today. The cooler weather couldnt have held on for just one more week, it had hung on thus far and then the County Fair would have been over.

So we are starting with BB and April going with Michelle and Kendal to an open show on Sunday, which will be a test drive for the 4H show at the fair on Thursday. The horses are looking wonderful, having horses with lots of white has its drawbacks and we are trying to keep them clean but they will always find that one wet or poopy spot to lay in and then have yellowish stains on them at the last minute!!! Here are a few pics of Sonny and Herbie last night (I had to bribe her out with food) and Kendal, she is smittten with the new arrival and they make a good pair because his coat should turn the same color as his mommas which is the same color as Kendal's hair, red!

Just showing that he knows where to put all those long limbs if he needs to. He is a very sweet baby and is going to be spoiled rotten. He doesnt have the same arrogant attitude that Taxes had so I think he will be much easier and safer to be around LOL.

It looks as if we are going to have a dry spell from Saturday afternoon for 5 days so we are going to be making lots of hay if that forecast stays. We have 4 or 5 big fields lined up and are going to have our work cut out for us so if you dont hear much from me in the next week, I am still around will just be baling hay from the time the dew is dry in the am until dark at 9.30pm to get as much in as possible. Wish us luck.

Hope you all have a good weekend, think of us at the horse show on Sunday and keep fingers and toes crossed that the little darlings dont embarass us LOL. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Hot as Hades

Wow this is typical for this part of USA, the transition from the heat to cold is very quick and there is very little pleasant weather in between. We are already experiencing temps of 90 when a few weeks ago we were freezing LOL. I Got My Squirrel today on my way back from town!!!!! He was a bit far away so I had to crop the frame quite a bit but I will persist and get the shot I want. I also saw this heron and these ducks on the way back and again they were a bit far off so are cropped quite drastically but I enjoyed seeing them, and I forced myself to stop and photograph them, where I would normally just drive by and then regret not taking the photo later. There wont be much use for them except on the web but I like them to add to my collection.

Went and fetched some more hay, my supplier will deliver the trailer tomorrow hopefully but they are so busy sith their crops right now and it isnt really a hassle for me to just go a few miles to pick up a few bales at a time, only problem is that as I got back from Muncie in my truck this afternoon my brakes decided to give up, fortunately very near home and I managed to get back home safely in 1st gear and just hope it would coast to a stop where I normally park without running into something LOL.

Well that's it for today, Oh yes Abraham I found a picture I took a few years ago that I think is a holly hock, very pretty flowers thought I would post it for you.

(((((Hugs)))))))

Lori
xx

What a difference a day makes

After the sunshine on Friday and warmer (50s) temps), yesterday we had snow and didnt waver much off of 34 the whole day!!! Today again it is cold will be a bit warmer than yesterday and is very sunny!!!! The mud is drying up but it will just take one rain shower to make it into mud soup again because of all the deep hoof marks which will just fill with water again. Abraham I feel your pain although I do know that only 60 miles south of us which is more or less where you are they have been having far nore rain. We seem to be in the average belt which I am grateful for.

Expecting some hay tomorrow which I will have to unload because I just can't come up with someone to help me do it, Richard will help but lifting large bales of hay is the last thing he should be doing.

I am going to try to get some poop out of the barn today, the horses have been living out because it hasnt been raining and they have managed really well especially since it was about 23 when we woke this morning. My poor babies had frost on their backs LOL, but they didnt seem to mind. Can't wait to see a bit of green out there although with this many horses on that small space I am not holding my breath.

On to my picture for the day. A new group tht I have joined of equine photographers have set themselves an assignment to shoot a picture that they consider abstract art or that has the potential for an abstract picture, so I spend a little while out in the cold yesterday looking for textures, it doesnt necessarily have to be a horsy image. Ths is the rust on part of my poor little pickup truck. I dont know how it keeps going but it does and has been so reliable. I am going to play with it in PS and see if I can make something interesting and appealing out of it and a few other shots I took of other stuff.

Hope you have all been having a great weeked and havent indulged in too many chocolate easter eggs. Stay warm safe and happy.

Lori

xx

The View Today of Our Estate with Horses in Sunny Pastures Next to the Lake

Okay so that is a fib, but it sounds great and is not entirely untrue because we have all three of those LOL. The horses spent the night out last night and we didnt get any rain until this evening and then it wasnt too much so they are staying outside tonight again. I have some round bales of hay coming soon to throw out in the fields so that the horses will have something to occupy them and get a bit more nutrition as hay is becoming scarce and I dont know how we are going to cope this year because all the farmers are planting corn instead of hay because the corn prices have risen so much with the advent of ethanol!!!! Here is a picture of a round baling machine so you can get an idea of how big they are if you dont already know.

I would normally never feed round bales to my horses (The ones we get are very big, weigh about 700lbs where the normal square ones only weigh about 50 or 60 lbs here) because they can have a tendancy to have mould in them which is not good for horses and that is if they have been kept covered and indoors. These havent been so lucky but the horses will stomp all over them pick out what they want to eat and have a reasonable dry place to lay when it starts spreading out. I dont have any pregnant mares either because mouldy hay can be really dangerous for them and their babies.

It is going to be a rollercoaster ride of weather over the next few days, I just dont know how to dress each day, just look outside and make up my mind LOL.

Keeping our heads above water each day, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

14 November 2007

I have missed a few days again so I am going to post a bunch of photos I took yesterday. It has been raining here and we had one and a half inches over the past two days which was very welcome. The first two pictures are again dedicated to Mike who was doing a series on porches which were fabulous. I saw this yesterday, it is one of the houses on our lane and the red bush looked wonderful and I thought it would make a good addition to this normally mundane porch.



This is a photo of Girl Sonny, she is the mother of Taxes, Lori, Cookie and Dudette. She will be 18 years old in January and has given us some of our best foals, not a lot of spots on them other than Lori, but great minded, well put together foals nonetheless.
I snapped this a few evenings ago, it was pretty dark already so it is not a great picture, but it shows the four girls down the road, all nice and muddy from rolling after the rain. They were waiting for me at the gate to get their grain and I have started giving them a bit of alfalfa hay too as the grazing is not that great now. I am hoping to get the temporary winter stalls built tomorrow and then we will be bringing them home. I am not relishing the thought of 17 stables to keep clean, I have got off lightly this summer because I have been able to have most of the horses out 24 7 because of the lack of rain which meant no mud to deal with.
Abraham commented on the last picture I posted on the blue background. That is a bit that you can see, I am not sure what type it is because there are so many LOL. Here in the USA the western style of riding can be really ornate, not in the working type horses but in the western pleasure, trail and halter classes. They have a lot of silver and bling on their clothing, bridles and saddles. The bridle on this horse has only one loop over the one ear if I remember correctly, very unusual I was quite fascinated when I first got over there and saw all the different tack. Just visit a website like http://www.smithbrothers.com/ and you will see the variety of tack and clothing (I hope that link works, will check it after I publish this).

Taxes is doing really well, he is absolutely huge and still a brat of note!!!! I still havent had him in the great outdoors, he exercises in the bottom half of the barn and bounces around like a ball, jumping on his jolly ball and playing with the three yearlings outside on the other side of the gate. He is a beautiful colt, I adore him, just needs to be gelded so he loses that mouthy stuff which makes it hard to handle him sometimes. He is happy when he is holding the end of the lead rope in his mouth but until he has hold of it he is impossible LOL. I will try to get more pics of him soon. When I build the new stalls I wont have the bottom of the barn for Gee and Taxes to exercise in so I will have to get them used to the new enclosure outside, and pray that they will be sensible and not go crazy and run through something.

Other than that it has been a pretty dull few days. I have had a few more photos to edit and print and spent quite a few hours on doing that, my motivation is still not great but I am in good health and that is the main thing. ((((Hugs))))) to you all.

Lori
xx