Thursday March 18, 2010

It has been a tumultuous week. This poor little guy has been singing his heart out to attract the perfect mate to no avail for about two weeks now. It is the closest I have been able to get to a Cardinal, he is so absorbed with his song that he doesnt mind me. They usually disappear in a flash when I want to try to photograph them. Unfortunately it was overcast and raining.

It had been raining for over a week when last Friday night we were hit by a severe storm. I am usually always keeping tabs on the weather so I know whether to close barn doors etc. but missed this one and when it hit at about 10pm it was too late to go out. My barn was a bit flooded the next morning but not as bad as I have had it before. Those who have been following my blog for a while will have seen the scenes below a few times over the past 3 years LOL. This is my "pasture". This is how it looks after it has rained heavily. We had 1.5 inches in about 8-10 hours and it rained the whole day on Saturday afterwards!!!

Cat (the B&W mare) and Piglette loved the water, Piglette loves to roll in it despite the just above freezing temperature.

This is what it looks like from the road looking back up my field, the house it out of frame on the right!!!! Waterfront property!!!! You can see the two horses in the distance and the railroad runs along the top of the frame.

Here is my oldest mare, Sonnys Copper Gal (Barn name Girl Sonny). She is 20 years old now and has borne many foals for me, and Larry when he was still with us. Here she is peering out of the barn doorway as I was walking up the lane. The mud was too terrible!!

We have a small farm down the road from us which I pass on the way to feed my friend Judy's horses every morning and evening. The sheep are always so shaggy and they have started having their little spring lambs. Quite a few sets of black twins this year. With the dreadful weather I havent had much chance to photograph them yet but shot a few frames a few days ago. The gese were chasing the little lambs LOL.

I think this is also a twin because it has white paint on its head, even on the black twins one has a bit of white paint on its head. It is very new because you can still see the umbilical cord hanging underneath it.

On Monday the weather improved dramatically and I got to let Judy's and my horses out for the first time in over a week on Tuesday morning when things had dried a bit and the temps had risen a bit. They are very muddy and dirty but were very happy to be outside. Here are 3 of Judy's brats (she has 11). L-R Snickers, Rain and Red.

Here are some of my brood next to the "Lake" L-R Piglette, Blue, Kooter, Wiggle and April (Kendal's filly). Top right of frame is where our road crosses the railway track. They have installed booms now which is great because I got tired of watching people come flying over the tracks, sometimes with all 4 wheels off the ground, never even slowing to check for trains even though there were warning lights, what the heck would they do if they werent working, and often I would see people taking really unneccessary chances to cross the tracks despite the close proximity of the train. This photo is looking north and sometimes the trains travelling south to north are speeding down this track, it makes me cringe. How we have not had an accident here I have no idea. Now the booms come down but I have seen people weaving in and out to cross the track anyway!

The lake has nearly dried up now and we have had a wonderful week of beautiful weather. We are expecting freezing temps, rain, wet snow and cold again from Saturday evening onwards. We always get these few cold snaps before spring sets in for real so I suppose I should have expected it. It just sucks because it has been so nice after the dreadful February we had.

Judy's one mare tried to jump over the stall wall into the aisle on Monday and I found her on Monday night with her two front legs and one back leg in the aisle and her one back leg stuck straddling the wall and in great distress. She has obviously been there for more than a few hours. The boards had pulled out of the wall with her stuggles and there were 6 inch nails protruding. Thank God she didnt get into those and was so exhausted that I somehow managed to get her off of the wall, still dont know how, just shoved loads of hay over the protruding nails, tried to get something bulky under the hoof to give her some footing and leverage to get up and out and she eventually lost balance and got her leg out without more damage. Her leg was severely grazed and the inside of the leg that was stuck has a long laceration right up by her udder where her legs rub together, only the skin fortunately, and a bad cut and grazes on the top of the leg on the front. By the time I had got help to get her to the vet and got her back home it was 3am Tuesday morning. She was so sore she couldnt or wouldnt move, poor little thing. Long story short, with cold hosing of the leg twice a day, lots of penecillin, pain killers and salve she is doing really well today and I am hopeful that there will be no permanent damage, but infection and the possibility that she has done nerve and tendon damage are still there which will leave her with a limp, so we are hoping for the best. She is only 2 so this is a big blow. I would post pics but they would probably gross you out. I will try to find a photo of her, she is called Jeannie.

So that is my week in a nutshell. Got hay in today, I am running a bit short but this should carry me through until we start our own baling Mid to end of May. Everyone else is well and enjoying their time out. (((((Hugs)))) and I hope you are having a good week. Have a great weekend!

Lori
xx

A Better Day

We got hit quite hard with a storm yesterday evening at about 4.30pm, just over half an inch, then at 3am this morning we got slammed with another one which yielded just over an inch and 60mph winds or something rediculous!!! I have a horrible suspiscion my little grass seeds were not established enough to hold them in place during that deluge and had been washsed away but the oats is still there LOL.

No horses to photograph today, they are all muddy and looking terrible but I noticed this bush growing out the back of the cabin with this fruit on it. I am sure it is a mulberry bush, time will tell if they turn darker, a sort of purplish color. It is definitely a tree and not like the black or blue berries and raspberries that grow on vines.


We hae been lucky because most of the state has been declared a disaster area and there are thousands of people with their homes still under water. We can only hope that the rain will calm itself down so that everyone can get their lives back together in some sort of way.

So nothing exciting I am afraid but I thought they were quite colorful. I have some peacock feathers which a friend gave me that I have been dying to photograph forever but havent had the time to set it up the way I want to so hopefully I will get to that tomorrow.

That is it for today. I am having my ups and downs but hanging in here. Hope you all had a great day, thanks for visiting. (((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

Oh My Kingdom for A Roundbale

Well here are the infamous roundbales!! The one is right against the fence and Girl Sonny hogs it all to herself and the other 4 have to battle over the other one LOL.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

Piglette, Cat and the threee 2 year olds have only one between them and seem to cope with the pecking order okay but I couldnt get far enough away to get a better shot, I will try in the morning, although it is raining tonight so dont know how wet it will all be in the morning. You can just see the fillies' ears sticking up on the other side of this one LOL.

They have been having a ball with it and after two days made inroads onto the size of them LOL but we will see what they look like tomorrow.

This is going to be a short post today, not much happening. I am continuing to feel better every day and hope this gloomy weather doesnt hang around too long.

Lori's hoof looks good but I am going to keep her in with the boot on to keep it clean for a few more days so that I know it has closed up and wont get reinfected.

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

Lori
xx

Rainy Days and Mondays

It was 55F when we woke up this morning but very windy and the mud in the field was dreadful so I brought all the horses in to feed them. By the time I had achieved that I had more mud on me than the horses had on them, and then it started raining and has been on and off all day. Yukky day. The temps are going to be dropping to around freezing again over the next few days, like riding a rollercoaster!

The pic I am posting today was taken when Taxes was 5 months old after I had weaned him and he was still manageable, sort of LOL, Brat. I love this horse, his conformation and movement are beautiful but then I am barn blind! The only thing he is missing is the white spot to get him into the regular paint horse registry, in fact he couldnt have much less white if he had tried as he only has a sock on his one back leg and a thin blaze and that is it. Paint Horses are meant to have lots of chrome (that is what the call the white spots) and it has to be in certain areas to qualify.

His wound is looking okay, he is messing with it I think (licking at it) but it is looking clean and some of the flap of skin is coming away right now so hopefully this will get it moving forward and closing the gaping hole in his chest.

Well other than half of my field being under water (the fences work though I zapped myself on one today!!!!!!) and the rest being a muddy mush, it is getting colder and has been dull all day, that is about it for the day.

Hope you all had a great Monday. ((((Hugs)))) and thanks for your visits.

Lori

xx

21 November 2007

This has been a very trying year for me on a whole lot of levels and I am going through a phase of my lost childhood and family possessions, birthright and I have been feeling a bit like a nomad. Growing up in a warzone has had its effect on me and this past week it has been at the forefront of my mind. I am still struggling with the animal abuse problems and now this so I am sorry I havent been very good company. I will try to elaborate at a later time so that some of you may try to understand where I am coming from.

Today's pictures were taken yesterday when I put the 4 mares that have been down the road, in with the horses that have been here. It is always quite a stressful ordeal because when you get a routine in place for the horses it is good to stick to it as they are herd animals and have their pecking order and like to keep it with as little disruption, it also makes it far easier to handle so many horses for one person. I put Cat and Piglette (the B&W and the Black mares) in the field with the three yearling fillies. The fillies really need to get used to sharing with other horses because they have only been the three of them and before that their other 4 siblings. It went really well, Cat and Piglette ran up and down full tilt and because they remembered the field knew where the boundaries and fences are already, just needed a refresher. I put Wiggle and BB in the other field with Dosie, Girl Sonny, Cayenne and Lori. That also went really well and they settled down quickly.

Wiggle loves to roll, and as can be seen, that was one of the first things she did, after finding the muddiest spot of course LOL. Above she and Girl Sonny are feeling each other out and doing their squealing thing.
The picture below has 10 of the 11 horses out in the 2 fields in the picture. The ony one missing was Dosie who was off to the left finding things to nibble on and not too phased by all of the goings on.
Taxes had his first day out in the new enclosure yesterday. He stuck close to the barn and we didnt leave him out on his own for this first time but he did discover the electric tape so knows that it is there now and treats it with respect. I will supervise his first few excursions while he is learning where everything is, then I will be able to leave him out unsupervised.

I didnt take photos of the mares when I put them out and they were running or Taxes because I am normally more worried that there wont be a wreck than a photo op.

It has been raining all day, we have had an inch so far but has been really warm, upper 50s but tomorrow we are expecting a drop into the 30s yuk, so it has been a dull grey wet day all day. The horses are all in their new pens and stables and seem to be content and dry.

I need to go and feed the last round to all the horses right now so am going to publish this, may add to it later. Mike mentioned Victoria Falls Hotel which is in Zimbabwe and I thought I might elaborate on that beautiful place. I have a few photos that my daughter took but will have to find them.

(((((Hugs)))))) to you all.

Lori
xx

26 September 2007

I missed yesterday, am having a few hiccups in the pathway of life, hopefully will be back to my usual schedule soon. The picture today is of one of the foals (a yearling in the pic) that was born 3 weeks before I came over to USA. Her name is Christine and she was sold to people down the road from us and I see her every time I go to feed the mares. I suspect she may be in foal because she is looking like she has a bit of a belly on her!! She was born the same year as my filly Lori.

We had just under a quarter inch of rain over the past 24 hours which isnt much but we will take anything we can get. It is also starting to cool down a bit again which is a blessing but that normally means that wham bam and it is winter all of a sudden with nothing in between LOL.

I kept the horses in since last night to give the field a chance to dry a bit and also have a rest from their hooves, but I am going to have to put them out again tomorrow. I am going to leave them out as long as possible or else I am going to have a ton of stables to keep clean.

I visited a site today via another blog that I frequent as a lurker which left me even more disturbed about the abuse of horses sent to the slaughter houses than ever. It was very graphic and made me more determined to hold onto my horses for as long as I have to until I can find good homes for them. It was heartbreaking to see the photos.

So all in all I am not a very happy camper at the moment and having serious doubts about the compassion of a vast number of the human race. I wish I had space for all of those poor abused horses.

(((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx