Gestational Progress

I don't remember where I found this, but this is the same picture from when Lady was gestating. Jr. is currently at around 22-23 weeks. Which means that he is about the size of a rabbit. His dad is a solid sorrel, but registered as a paint. (A paint that ain't)
There is a chance then of a paint offspring, but as mentioned in an earlier blog, Foxy has only had the one Paint filly, Lady. The other two fillies were solids.

Cowgirl Up

Christmas Break is a great time for teachers. We get to take the time off, our schools are rarely open to get work done that we really need to get done and we are still getting paid. It's pretty cool. I got to sleep in and play with all of the animals.
The kids were feeling like playing and there was no snow, so Kid #2 laid around on Foxy, just chilling. She is carrying Jr. a lot lower than she did Lady, so he is really hoping for a colt. He has had it with trying to show moody mares. He would really like an Overo colt, but he would be just as happy with a healthy solid filly. Kid #3 hung out with the big mare, Belle. He is not a fan of trying to control her, because she knows that he is a push over. As long as he doesn't try to control her, they do well. I didn't even put a halter on her, they just followed Foxy around (this would not be safe with any other horse, but Belle loves doing this and Kid #3 just laid back or across her neck and chilled out. It was awesome.) Lady and Kid #1 did some real work. Kid #1 leaned on Lady, then laid across Lady. Then She swung her leg over and sat on Lady. As long as I was scratching Lady's eyes and ears, she was fine. The next day, we did it all again, but this time, I led Lady around with Foxy, Belle and Kid #2 and #3 following like a train. It was pretty funny when the barn cats had to follow, too. I was ready to call it quits and said, "Ho," but then Lady had to pop up twice. Kid #1 hung on and calmed her down and we went for another walk. Lady did great after than and when Kid #1 swung down, she then led her around, following the two big mares, until she climbes back on and we did the whole thing again. But without any popping up. Now before anybody gets too bent out of shape over breaking Lady to saddle before she is full grown, please understand that Kid #1 may be 14, but she is built like a stick. She MIGHT weigh 90 lbs. Lady is 21 months old and 15.1 hh. These were not long rides, just teens playing. If I thought that it was going to be a rodeo and Lady might be strained in any way, I really wouldn't have done this. If my daughter was a heavy weight, I really wouldn't have done this. She was nervous, wore her helmet, but afterwards, felt great. Both girls, just had a great time.
It has finally snowed and the temperatures at night are sub zero. The low so far is -26 F. That's cold, so we have put a stop to the riding. We just can't risk sweat at this point. Pics will follow, probably tomorrow.

New Dog, What in the world was I thinking?

So, obviously, I have a new dog. My parents brought up their dog from Southern Utah. They are out of town too much to have a dog. It is a Lab cross. Lab-pit bull, lab-rott? I don't know, but the head reminds me of a Rott that I used to have. She is black and slightly smaller than Shooter. As soon as she got off leash, she jumped the fence into the turkey pen and grabbed Jack. Feathers were flying. We turned Peck out and got Jack out of her mouth, but then he disappeared. The mutt was put into the kennel while we searched for Jack. We put Peck in one of the chicken coops INSIDE the barn to keep the dog from being able to get to her. The 4 separate chicken areas are horse stalls in the barn not currently in use. Belle and Foxy share one stall and run, with a second stall for Foxy to be fed grain while Belle eats her special grain/alfalfa cube mash. Lady has her own stall and run. The Ameracauna chickens have a stall, the Silvers have a stall (Silver Cochins, Silver Wyandottes, a Buff Orpington, and two mutts), the rabbits and the Snow Owl (its a chicken)share one, the two mutt roosters and the 3 4-H bunnies share a stall and the non layers have a stall. We also have a stall as our tack room and one with the train modules that were destroyed by the flood that we just haven't had a spare minute or the desire to mess with. All in all we have 10 stalls. The mutt is now in Foxy's old stall. We just have to baby sit Foxy while Belle eats until we can get the dog trained. Its not the fault of the dog, I really did not anticipate her going over the fence into the turkey pen. Jack came back, just missing most of his tail feathers and many of his wing feathers on one side. He is now resting comfortably in the barn. He is pretty mellow and has no desire to leave the chicken coop. (He used to be excited to go out for the day)
She is very nervous around the horses. She was on a leash the first time that she met Lady. Shooter was chasing Lady and then Lady started chasing the dogs. With teeth bared, Lady went after the mutt. The mutt about drug my Dad trying to get away from Lady. This morning, the mutt followed me into Belle's stall to fill up the water trough. She took one look at Belle and backpedalled out of the stall as fast as she could. She listens well and backed off the chicken doors when told, NO! she just kept going back to a door whenever a rooster would crow (fairly often in our barn) I think that she has potential, she just needs some work. Dad would exercise her by riding in his ATV for 2 miles every morning and the mutt would run along side (Dad used to run marathons. He is now retired and can no longer run, Thanks Chemicals from Afghanistan!) Tomorrow, I will be taking her on a nice long leash run. I worry about her getting loose right now. Shooter has jealousy issues, so when the kids get out of school for Christmas break, I am letting them exercise her! Shooter has let her know that I am his person and he is not willing to share.
Well, enough drivel today.
Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving Ride

No photos today. I had the camera in my pocket and then it disappeared. Its in the house, but I don't know where I put it.

This morning hit -8F. I was very glad that kid #2 was not in a fun run/Turkey trot like we had been planning on. I never found out where and when it was. Belle and Foxy are back in the same stall/run because Belle has a 100 gallon stock tank with a plug heater. Foxy's stock tank doesn't have a plug and she plays with everything, so I don't want a floating deicer. It was either fork out another $120 for a stock tank and plug heater or just put them in the same stall and leave Lady on the other side of the barn with a heated bucket. (Foxy drinks too much for a bucket heater and she plays with the buckets.) The forecast said that Wed and Thursday were supposed to be super cold, so Monday, I dug out the one blue heated bucket that wasn't cracked to see if it worked, and Tuesday, I ran into town and picked up 2 new heated bowls for poultry and two heated water bottles for bunnies. They worked even in negative temperatures, which is so much better than last year. With less manpower, it is just worth it to spend the money on heaters.

We are down to 3 horses, 7 rabbits, 5 cats, 1 dog, 2 turkeys, no pigs (yeahhhhh!!!!), 3 active roosters, two roosters slated for the freezer, three unknown chicks(too young for me to figure out male and female) and a bunch of chickens(two silver laced wyandotte, two silver cochins, two buff orpingtons, four ameraucanas, 3 really nice barred rocks, 1 ok barred rock, 1 ugly, pathetic barred rock, 1 really ugly golden laced wyandotte, 1 rhode island, two black sex linked, two black sex linked crosses (ameraucana or rhode island, I don't know, and the roosters from the same nest have different dads, so these two might as well. When the eggs start coming, I might know, green or brown, but it doesn't really matter)

So after feeding this morning, we turned the ponies out for some much needed stretching. It gets dark so early that they haven't been turned out much lately. Lady is a fuzzball. She is in a really awkward stage and her conformation looks like an gawky teenager. Her run has a gate that she can see over when we come down to the barn and she waits there until we hit the wood deck and then she run into her stall to stick her head out of her stall. I need to measure her again because when they were out today, she looked almost as tall as Foxy. I think that it was just the angle because when I was ponying her today, she didn't seem too tall.

After all of the cooking and gorging, the temp was finally up to 30F, so Kids #1 and #2 and I went out to saddle. I was going to ride bareback until I decided to take Lady, too. I don't like to hang onto her and Belle at the same time because, with my luck, Belle would be obstinate at the same time Lady threw a fit and I would fly off. I rode Belle with Kid #3 and ponying Lady. Kid #2 rode Foxy. Mr. BPA and Kid #1 rode Mr. BPA's christmas present, the little green machine (an ATV). I love the fact that the horses don't care about the ATV. They went past and zoomed around on other trails and met up with us with no horsey freakouts. We trotted a little, walked alot, just enjoying ourselves. I dismounted just as the sun was hitting the mountains. Belle was the only one that was sweaty and not really bad. Lady had been dragging back and not wanting to go home since we turned off the trail, so Belle had been pulling on her. Belle was dry before I put her back in her stall, but I blanketed her anyway, since it is supposed to be super wind chill cold again tonight. Dusk was full on by the time we finished feeding, and I am sitting, eating my pumpkin and mince slices of pie as I type.

Not a bad way to spend the day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

November greys

The new bunnies are here. They are pretty cool, too. (But not really grey. They are Silver Foxes, Black with white)
Here is Snow White.

.and Sinister.

Sinister really is bigger than he appears. I need to take him over to get him weighed when I have a spare minute, but one of our vehicles had the thermostat go out and we have not had time to try and get it into town to get it fixed. I have been riding the atv to work or walking. That is pretty cold when it is between 9-20 degrees outside. I would take Belle, but she needs to eat breakfast and I would worry about where to put her at school. Once I can set up a place, then I might take her. They tore down the barn at the K-8, but even that wouldn't help because I wouldn't want to leave her over there when I am at the high school. The high school has a field, but it is not enclosed. I need to take in some panels and I haven't had time for that, either. The ATV mostly works. Hopefully better now that it has been tweeked for Wyoming weather instead of St. George weather. We have a trailer for hauling hay and cleaning stalls.
Today, a neighbor came over with his tools and we fixed fence. The cows had kept coming through it and eating the haystack. It was waking up Mr. BPA (the haystack is right by our window), and he was getting sick of getting up in the cold and now he IS sick. The fence is now fixed, but these are pretty big cows, we might have to fix more fence later.

The water is all gone. We have an ugly mess. Since it took so long for the water to go down, it did not have any time to grow grass again. Hopefully next year will be better.


Compare to 5 months ago.

Halloween Nightmare

Saturday I planned to drive to Jackson to pick up kid #3's new rabbits for 4-H. I found a breed of rabbit that is supposed to be very docile and mellow. They are Silver Foxes. Their fur is similar to the Arctic Fox, thus the name. Large body, good carcass to meat ratio, and thick skin and fur for tanning. They are also gorgeous. Perfect. Then I started looking for some. I finally found a breeding pair that are not related. The little doe was born July 24th, (my favorite holiday)so I had to wait until she got bigger. The buck is older so that we can breed him to the other two does that we have, just as soon as we get the Silvers. The Lady lives in Idaho Falls, and she graciously offered to meet in Jackson for the pick up. Kid #3 and I loaded up in Mr. BPAs vehicle because it gets better gas mileage than my truck and headed off. Rural Wyoming does not get great cell service, so when I got cell service part way, I had a message that she left a little late, no problem, the roads are supposed to be dry, we can head home a little late. Apparently, Wydots version of dry roads is different than mine. Two inches of packed snow is not a dry road. It was only in spots, but still. We made it to Jackson and could not find the meeting place, we found the address, but it was not a Burger King, so we just pulled in and called. She found us. The rabbits are gorgeous. The first one we saw was only 5 months old and much bigger than our current adults, and docile. It was cool. The 3 month old was not as docile, but so soft. We picked up the pedigrees and headed off. 15 minutes later, she called. "I just had an awful thought. Will you check the sex of the little rabbit?" I pulled over. Crap, it was a male. I checked the bigger one. Crap, its a female. I called her back. She grabbed the wrong ones.
So she is driving from Idaho to Wyoming again today to bring the right ones and pick up the wrong ones. Kid #3 puked his guts out on the way home. Fortunately, I was able to pull over in time. It started to snow on the way home. Lovely. I started to have a nasty hacking cough. I pulled something in my back. My dog ran off during the thunderstorm while I was gone. Bah humbug. Halloween, Go away.

About Time!!!

Ok, I have been way to busy living life to sit down and post anything. I have gotten a job, dealt with the 4-H county fair with the ponies, rabbits, chickens, and sewing. Foxy has been bred. The pigs that we bought before the flood are finally here. School is back in session.
Sergeant, Mystique, and Princess, my sister's horses, are back in Utah. My sister moves back to Utah in one week. So I will be down to three horses. My hay consumption will be much less this winter.

Kid #1 and Lady took Grand Champion in the Paint mare class. They were the only entry in the yearling class, which was good since Foxy was near, getting ready to go into the aged paint mare class. THAT was ugly. Foxy was a nasty beast that day. As soon as Foxy was done being a giant turd in the aged mares I ran her back to the trailer so I didn't get to see the championship class.
Once Lady was in the Champion class, she was up against the 1st place winners from paint 2 year olds, paint 3 year olds and the 1st and 2nd place winners from 4-5 year olds and aged mares. It was pretty cool to hear their names called out over the intercom, though.
Sergeant and the niece took Grand Champion in Morgan geldings. Sassy and nephew took reserve champion in Appaloosa mares. Kid #2 took Grand Champion meat birds and Champion Asiatic Cockerals for his Silver Laced Cochin. It was a pretty good time. We didn't even try the State fair because I had to report to my new job. I am now so ready for Bart to come live here now. (I can afford two high maintenance horses)

Foxy is due July 4th. Pretty dang late in the season, but with the flood, it was when we could get her bred. The neighbors had a baby born Labor day, that is a bit late in my book. Especially since we hit low thirties at night.

This is what we did today.



This was the first time that I have cinched up a saddle on her. Its the second time that she has worn a saddle.
This was the first. Note-- not cinched up and WAY too big.

This is one of the tiny kid saddles. I needed to lunge her and figured that we would try it with extra. Little did I know that Mr. BPA decided that since I was out playing, he would go on a killing spree with the shotgun. 50 rounds of a 12 gauge target practice. Lady jumped a bit, but it was great practice.

We are going to be putting harness on Lady next.