Monday, January 26, 2015

Our Visitors Are Back!

This last week, everyone on the place that uses 4 legs was to move around has been wired for sound.
The dogs woofing and cocking their heads for what seems to be no good reason.


Abbi and all her bravery barking from the well lit sidewalk into the dark and then running back inside.
Seven at least has the "pride" in her home defense to run around the house barking before she wants to come in!


The Hee-Haws patrolling the fence line and snorting like they had a snout full of pepper....
And then rushing to the top of the pasture posturing like they are 19hh and bullet proof.


And the girls were snorting, jumping, flinching, and spooking at the slightest noise.
During the week of terror, the crows even set them running!!
Which was funny, if I do say so myself.
I'm not sure where "our birds" actually live, or where they "shop" but these three will fly in carrying strange food items...drop them in the middle of the horses and eat.
Which makes me think that they've got access to some one's trash.


Where ever it comes from they bring in apples, banana peels, partially eaten steak (some one's dog's getting ripped off!), partial loaves of bread, and in this instance part of a burger...bun included.
This bird dropped it's food in the middle of the pasture from about 12 feet up, and about 10 feet away from the Drama Queen herself, Horse Girl.


Kase and I were playing in front of the barn when the "incident occurred" and that crazy red head levitated 4 foot off the ground for about 6 seconds and all the while her feet we going as fast as they could go.  She hit the ground running and full speed, bumped into Fiona, nearly killed a Hee-Haw on the corner and motored off into the trees.
Everyone just kind of watched her go and stared off in the direction that she had gone.
She came out of the trees tip toeing looking for the attacker and trying to regain her composure.
It was pretty funny.
The bird, now joined by it's buddies even looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
(Seven broke up the bird lunch and I then took the food from her and threw it in the trash where no one could get it...)


Then finally on (last) Friday morning the moose showed themselves.
I couldn't see the cow, but the calf decided to snack in front of the house so I was able to get a few pictures of him!
They hung out in the neighborhood for a few days, and are gone now.
So the drama is gone.
For now!  (0:

Friday, January 23, 2015

FaceBook Free Fridays

It's not easy when you're addicted...
LOL!!
I actually forgot this Friday (which is now last Friday!), so I may have been on the Facebook.
But it was accidentally!
I'm trying to make Friday's my blogging day...
It's on my list of stuff to do this year.  I figure it will help me push a little harder to do horse stuff, as I'll need it for fodder on my blog!  LOL!!
We will see how that goes!
Fingers crossed it's a success.


My little helper and I have begun enjoying the extra minutes of daylight as much as we can with the winter weather that has finally settled.
Kase and I don't like to be cold...  Luckily we haven't hit any new real low temps recently.
It's hanging out in the 30's during the day and only dropping into the high teens in the evenings.
The little human refuses to wear gloves, so when his hands are too cold he will let us go inside.  Some days it's pretty quickly, other days not so much.  I've tried putting mittens on him, but to no avail.  He's not happy if he doesn't see his hands-fingers.
I suppose that we will get there eventually! 


At least twice a week we do our little ritual...
We take the Danger in the back we have some alfalfa cubes and some hay.  First we stop at the gate and feed everyone some cubes then its out to make sure that the big gate isn't snowed in after snow falls.  (We also take a shovel and course.)  Then we go into the gate and check the large bale and put out our few flakes of hay that we've got in the back. 
Then he insists we get on the tractor.  Whether we need to put out another round bale or not.
The kid loves the tractor.  
We drive it around the property checking the fences (or that's what I tell myself) and then up the driveway and through the neighborhood.  
We're weird like that!  (0:


On the occasion that the tractor won't start, he cries like his heart is broken.
It's quite funny and sad at the same time.
I still hate our tractor...and haven't given up on the thought of getting rid of the damn thing.
Maybe next year!  (0:
To keep my kid happy and my sanity I suppose, I've started keeping the batter charger in the barn...
So if it doesn't start on it's own, I hook the thing up and put it on assist to start and fire it up.
Kase likes that process, crazy kid!
I just like it when it starts and we can do our "work"!


I caught a few pretty good pictures of my two kids last Sunday.
Pretty proud of this picture...If only I would have pulled the hay string off of the gate.
I use it to pull the gate closed when I'm driving through on the tractor (yes, it's that small!) and or when I'm packing Kase through the gate.
It works good as a cheat tool, but looks like crap.
But what do you do?
It's real life!!  LOL!!


She really does love him...


And I think he loves her too!!
Will he ever ride??
Who knows, but his mom sure hopes so!!!


We're definitely ready for spring around here!  Mild winter or not.
And my sister is making it worse!
I talked to her on the phone on Monday and she already has her horse agenda worked out for March, April, and May...


Pretty sure she was talking about June and July too!  LOL!!
Busy, busy, busy woman my sister!
She's already started legging her horses up to start her barrel season.
Meanwhile at my house, my horses are still sporting snow mustaches.  


In this instance, it's about location, location, location!  (0:
Followed by drive, drive, drive!  
My sister sure doesn't lack that.
I'm hoping to be following her around with Kase taking LOTS of pictures this year.  We did't do as much traveling together last two years, for obvious reasons, but this year I'm hoping will be different!
It looks like things are going to be pretty busy at The Barrel Racing Chiropractor's place and I hope to be messing around there a bit too.



Well I've rambled on enough for today, and last Friday too.  LOL!



TTFN





Saturday, January 10, 2015

Hey! It's 2015!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
We did the usual trek to The Olympic Peninsula to celebrate with Mindy, Fred, and Wyatt.
We had a blast!


Went to The Game Farm and laughed out butts off at the demon Lama's, sweet talked the cute little deer of all kinds, rolled up the windows and scream/squealed at the charging buffalo, (this presented a REAL problem for Mindy and Wyatt who were in the backseats of the old cop car we were in as they couldn't control their own windows.  Chad was driving, so they were trying to direct him and their windows as he was trying to not run over the charging buffalo and keep them safe and happy.  It really made for a GREAT time!!  That car is available for purchase on their car lot if anyone's interested!  (0:  Dent free!  LOL!!!), we stopped and tossed bread balls at the bears.  It is so amazing how their paw/eye coronation is.  It honestly didn't even seem like they were looking at us and they just snatched them right out of the air!  They seem so sad, yet so happy, its odd...  When we got to the elk we kept the windows up and only fed the cute exotic deer for the most part...  They are almost as aggressive as the buffalo!!  So besides the deer, we only fed a calf elk until we were leaving their area, then a couple of cows got the rest of our bread- well except for the bread Wyatt set aside for the peacocks.  That kid loves them!  They are pretty, and he's a boy who is going to be a construction worker when he grows up and thinks so highly of those foofy birds, it just makes me smile!  (0:
Because there were 5 of us in one car, feeding crazed animals we didn't get any pictures.  But trust me we laughed and laughed and laughed!!
The weather wasn't conducive to any horse activities on the day we had "open" for such things... It's the first time since Mindy was prego we didn't ride!  Weird...  I did learn some stuff about the Back On Track products while I was there...  Good stuff for later!
We hit the black Friday sales with nothing on our lists really...  And made only a couple of small purchases overall.  We just wanted to get out to be out and say we were out!  (0:

I just loved watching Wyatt lead Kase around his yard.  It totally rocked!!

Merry Christmas!!
We did our Christmas thing and hit my parents house again this year!
I love being home for Christmas.
Mindy, Fred, and Wyatt were of course there too!
Wyatt and Kase handed out the presents.  Kase pretty much knows who everyone is and likes to give people things, BUT he was over excited after about 20 seconds of handing stuff out and started just putting the stuff you gave him in the nearest pile and then racing back for another one.  Luckily Wyatt understands the "art" of giving the gifts to the "right" person, so he would follow behind Kase and give the packages to their rightful owners.  It was pretty cute!
Kase didn't care to open presents- AGAIN!!  It was a repeat of his birthday!!
He helped open one and then he was done.

 I got a computer upgrade for my Birthday...and I'm struggling with my picture management!
The Christmas pictures are off it, everything else if from my old computer... I have to get my pictures in the gallery bigger than a thumbnail and don't know how!!  So these are all picked out on a wing and a prayer for content!  (0:

Maybe next year!!
For Christmas dad and mom had purchased a wagon/sleigh ride.
Mindy and crew left the day we were supposed to do it.
There was a miscommunication between mom and the people they got it from, so we ended up catching up to them halfway through the loop lets say...  Mom and Kase and I all got in and rode and dad and Chad took the truck back to their trailer. 
It was fun!  It was cold, with a little wind.
I was glad we got in at the half way point as I am not sure that Kase would have lasted for the whole thing.

 
All the activity pooped out Seven!  And not a single present was for her this year!
Poor little Seven!
 
Kinda bummed that dad and Chad missed out- but on the other hand, I am not so certain they were... I am not sure what they did, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and were giggling like school girls when we arrived.  As a side note, dad and Chad both really like the drafts and are on the same page that if they HAD to have a horse, they would prefer a draft.  (Yes, the paint horse is Chad's... LOL!!) 
At any rate, mom, Kase, and I had a good time and because of the miss communication they told mom that we could come out anytime and get a "re-ride".  Super nice people with a super nice team!!
 
Coming up the Weippe Prairie!
 
And a little closer!!
 
Happy New Year!!
We went to bed at 9:00 and slept in!
New Year seems to come and go whether I am awake or not...  So why loose sleep over it?  LOL!!
As per my usual, no resolutions... 
But I am working on a few lists of stuff to get done.  We will see how that goes with a toddler...  No worries though!!

Winter is being a crazy old lady this year!
I like a little snow... Pretty snow, not the ugly stuff we've got going on right now.
We started off pretty bare and dry-ish.  We got rain, and some warm temps.  Then more rain.
Then it got could.  And stayed cold.  Which is really crappy after the temp hanging around it the 40's for so long!

The gang!!

Then it finally warmed up to snow.  We got 6-8 inches and then it warmed up some.  It settled.  And last weekend we got more snow.  Around 13 inches...  Then it warmed up to rain on top of the snow.  Then we had slush.
Now it's gotten cold again.  So we have frozen slush, ice in some places, and ugly crunch, crusty snow in others.
Oh, well.  I think we've got in the neighborhood of 65+ more days of winter...  I'll survive!
I think!!

This horse and kid just melt my heart.  She will stand there all day letting him feed her snow, gross hay, sticks, hay he's taken out of her mouth, just about anything...  She doesn't mind getting slapped, poke, pinched, or jabbed.  She is just amazing, not as amazing as he is, but still amazing.

The only other picture of Remi...  She was totally anti picture when we were out.
The girls are fat and happy.
Horse Girl's lameness hasn't gotten any better or worse.  Thank God!!  I guess I was being a bit of a Debbie Downer...  I just get sucked into worrying about things I cannot change I suppose!
As I suspected, Remi's breathing issues love this weather and she is fine, fine, fine!!  Too bad summer has to come.  Lots of decisions about her definitely loom, no matter how I look at it. 
The boys are fat and happy.


Maybe too fat....


Someone mistook Patron's back for a dinner plate, he's so fluffy...
Poor little fella!  LOL!!
On the bright side, he is definitely going to stay warm for the rest of the winter!!
(0:
This spring though....
Look out for the Jenny Craig for men pen!!


Life's pretty good 'round here, cold, but good!!!