I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend.  I didn't do a lot of work but I did get a few little things done.

I don't remember if I told you but Desiree is raising 3 pigs (for butcher) so I made a water barrell for her so that she would not have to carry water everyday.

We did go out and ride Saturday afternoon.  I rode Manny and Desiree rode Curly Bess.  It was a good ride and felt awsome getting out.  Manny did a great job.  I am soooooo excited because I will be able to ride him in the curly show this year.  we really need to be working on the barells.

Sunday morning we rode again.  This time I rode Peanut and Desiree rode Red.  Peanut did really well for not being ridden for a little over a year.  Red also did really good.  I am soooooo impressed with Red because she is 18 years old and hasn't had a full 6 months of riding on her in that whole time.  I was told that she had 60 days of professional training when she was a 2 year old and has been pretty much a brood mare every sense.  She wants her only speed to be a walk.  :)  But I figure if we get to riding her more and get her in shape it will be easier to get her to start fox trotting instead of just walking.   She is a very sensible mare and doesn't worry about anything. 

Hopefully I will be able to get alot more riding time in now that I have actually gotten myself going again.  :)

I will have to buckle down this weekend and get some bush hogging done.  I also have some trees to cut and need to finish cleaning out the hay loft.  I am going to be getting more square bales here real soon.

It looks like my round bales are about ready to be put in the barn also.  It is that time of year.

Take care everyone. :)

There has been so much work we have done.  I have a new 30 X 50 hay barn and it is ready to have hay put into it.

We also bought 3 pigs and are raising them to butcher.  I always said I was not going to raise a pig.  {sigh}  Well as they say "Never say Never!"  haha  They are a new experience and I am not sure that I like it.  :)  Right now they are penned next to my junior stallions pasture which for the most part is ok.  Except for when they escape and get into the pasture.  My young stallions do not like pigs in their pasture.  :)

We have cleaned out part of the hay loft and have some square bales put up in there.  Now we just need to get the rest of it cleaned and make sure the rest of the floor is good so that we can store more hay.

At this time we have 2 mares on dry lot  Suzy and Shooter.  They are both due the middle of September and are carrying Manny's babies.  This will be an exciting time.  Suzy's baby should be a gaited pony (13h-14h).  Shooter's baby should also be gaited and should reach 14.2h-15.2.  Everyone cross your fingers for curls. 

I love my smooth coats but for ICHO and research I would love to see 2 curly babies.  :)

Manny is doing wonderful in his training.  In the Curly Horse show this September 2008 I should be able to ride him.  We have gotten over talking to the girls when we are undersaddle.  :)

Well I need to go for now.  I will try to do better on updating.  If any of you ever have a question please feel free to email me.

Take care all of you

Darci

Well my head gate is up and last weekend Charlie came out and welded my chute together and it is ready to deliver babies or work the cows.  Yipeeeee!!  We have 2 cows and 3 heifers having babies between the end of January and the end of February. 

I am a little worried about the heifers.  But now that we have the headgate and chute up if there are any problems we have a place to take them to take care of it.

Last month little Roxy was out running and missed her turn and rolled over a fence.  When she rolled over it her leg hit the T post and ripped it open.  I could not get a hold of a vet so we found an embrodery needle and I stitched her up.   Roxy is such a good little pony she stood really well for me to stitch her up.  We didn't have any medicine to numb the area up either.  Now her leg is all healed up and there is just a thin line which I am sure the hair will cover up soon.  Kate has been chomping at the bit to ride.  Which she should be to do soon if the weather holds out.

We have been cutting up wood which means we are cleaning the pasture up.  Everytime we go out to cut up wood it cleans up another section.  I am also clearing alot of little trees out that are not needed and are just keeping us from having more pasture.  :) 

I am going to making the hay barn bigger (hopefully this year) so I am also clearing the trees out that are behind the hay barn.  We have found another pond that keeps water init year around but the animals have a hard time getting to it right now because of the trees that are down in it and the trees that surround plus the fence that has weeds and stickers growing thru it.   Which means pulling out the old fence and cutting out the trees.  I think this pond probably has a natural spring and will fill up further once we get all of the trees out of the way. 

So my projects for this year are to continue clearing and cleaning up the pasture.  I want to put a new roof on the stallion barn and I want to make a bigger hay barn.  While I am out cutting up trees I will be looking for poles for the hay barn.   :)

We will also be looking for a manure spreader, stump chomper and a big sprayer.  Right now I have been using the box blade to spread the manure out into the pasture and everytime I put out a new bale of hay I move it to another area.  Lord knows with the horses and the cows we have plenty of manure it might as well be used to fertilize.  :)

I will try to get back before a month this time.  Everyone keep warm. 

From my family to all of yours we hope you have a Happy, Safe, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Take care

I am sorry it has been a little while since I have written.  It seems I never get to slow down much.  LOL  Which I am sure a lot of you can agree with.

Work continues on the farm.  We are in the process of getting the head gate up for the cows.  We will have cows delivering in January or February and unfortuneately 3 of them are firt timers and a couple of those are a little young.  When we first moved we didn't have a way to separate our bull from the rest of the herd for the first month or two.  Well he took full advantage of that.  :))  So I deffinatly want to have a head gate up in case we have problems.  I would rather be ready and not need it, then need it and not be ready.

Shooter was confirmed bred by Manny.  So we should have Manny's second baby on the ground next year.  We are hoping that the vet screwed up and Suzy is bred also.  But we will be checking this week.

The boys are getting big and they are sooo much fun to be around.  Tutt is a sweet heart and loves attention.   If you start petting him and talking to him he wont leave you alone and he can get a little pushy about wanting his attention.  We are working on that.  He has been known to nip ya if you don't pay attention to him quick enough.  [shaking my head]  We are also working on that.  Silver, Manny's son, didn't want much attention at first but he is know getting to where he will come up to me and asked to be petted.  He is curious about everything going on.  He likes to watch to see what is happening and if he wants to be involved or not.  :))

We are going to try and do some work with Pistol, Pita, Bess and Joker this winter.  Come spring I want to get serious about some saddle work with Pistol and Pita.  They will only be 3 so it wont be hard work or long working times.

We did have a little excitement last weekend.  Roxy, minimal curly pony, missed a turn in the pasture and rolled over the fence.  While going over the fence she happened to catch her leg on a T post and it ripped some skin off her leg (well not totally off it was a flap).  Thankfully Desiree saw her do it and we were able to get to Roxy right away.  I tried calling the vet and couldn't get anyone to answer my call.  So we made a decision to try and sew it up.  Okay this is the first time i have ever tried to sew up a horse.  :o  I didn't have anything to numb her leg up with so I was hoping that it was numb from the accident.  I ended up putting 7 stitches in Roxy's leg and she did an awsome job of standing while I did it.  There was a time or two when she was a little fidgety but she did an awsome job.  Desiree was holding her and my mom was putting a little bit of grain at a time in a bucket for her.  :)

Now she is up in the round pen and we are making sure she gets her penicillin and a little bute for the pain and swelling.  Hopefully she will not try and take the stitches out when it starts healing.  

We are also cutting wood which is helping to clean up the pasture a little.  I don't have to cut any trees down for fire wood.  I have plenty of downed trees to cut up.  :)  I should have plenty of fire wood for quit awhile.  :)

Well that is it for now.  Check out my web site for new pictures of the babies.

Hopefully I will get back before Christmas but if I don't Everyone have a safe and happy Christmas.  :)))))

It has been a couple of weeks since I have written.  Sorry about that.  :)

We have been super busy and alot of things are going on.  We had a cookout and my daughter had some of her new friends come over.  They went riding for 2 or 3 hours.  It was great for the horses and the kids.

Lucy, my quarter pony, was ridden by a young football player, Markus,  and her fell in love with her.   Markus asked his mother if he could buy her and she said yes.  Markus asked if he could work off part of her purchase price.  I know have a farm hand to help me around the farm.  YIPEEEEEEE 

When Markus comes over to work I try to make sure that we can get done in time so that we can ride for a little bit.  This way Markus and Lucy can bond and I putting time in on Manny like I wanted to do.  I am helping Markus learn more about Lucy and how she thinks so that they have a good relationship.

I have finished my hay barn roof and have hay stored in there.   The first weekend Markus worked we finished putting up the cross fence for the mares with babies.  Now my mommas and their babies have their own section of pasture to run in.

Last weekend I was able to get half of my stallion barn tinned while Markus and Desiree (my daughter) cleaned up the area that I am going to put my head gate and chute for the cows.  It looks really good in that area now.

My brother is coming down this week and we will be getting the barns wired.  Right now the stallion barn has an extension cord running to it and the barn has some wiring but i want my brother to go thru and make sure it is safe wiring and to finish it.  I still need to have lights put in a couple of stalls.

I was able to get another section of my pasture cleaned up.  But while doing so I ended breaking my brush hog. [sigh]  The weeds/briars I was mowing were about 6 to 7 ft tall and missed seeing a stump.  DARN!  I am going to try and have it welded to see if that will work if it doesn't then I already have a line on another old brush hog.  I don't want to buy a new yet.  there is to much pasture to clean up yet and I don't want to tear up a new one.

The babies are getting big and doing great.  I am still waiting for Bess to have her baby.  I sure wish she would hurry up.  :))

I have been on Manny a couple times going down the road and he is doing pretty good.  I am also trying to get a couple of mares bred.  We have found that Manny is a picky boy.  LOL  He does not like my daughters black and white mare.   It takes him forever before he will drop to breed her.  Such a picky boy.  :))

Well I try to do better about getting back to you all.  Stay safe and have a great day.

Well I finished my hay barn and I think I did a pretty decent job.  :))  I also found an old freezer to use for feed storage in my stallion barn and I have that put in also.

My first hay delivery will be tonight and we will see how well my hay fits in this barn.  I think it will only hold between 14 to 20 bales.  Maybe I can have a bigger barn in a couple of years.  :))

This last weekend Desiree and I went out and cleaned up the wood that was in the way for the cross fence I want to put up.  We also put the T posts up along the back and the top wire put on.  Thankfully we will only have to put fence on the back and one side.  I am hoping to have the mommas and their babies out in this section by the middle of October.  We have decided that we need to get some red or orange flags to put on the fence for a little while so that the horses realize that they can no longer go into this section of the pasture.  I am afraid that they have been able to wander pretty much the whole 40 for so long that they wont pay attention when they get to running and playing.  :)

Kate (my youngest daughter) wanted to ride her pony this weekend.  Her pony is Roxy.  We got Roxy out and even though Kate has not ridden much yet she did pretty good.  I was really impressed with Roxy she is going on 5yo and she is still very green.  But she is very forgiving of Kate's mistakes.  I am sure she will be extremly kid broke by the time Kate is finished with her.  I think Kate should be able to ride her for at least 3 years.

I am trying to get Desiree to put more time on Lucy.   Lucy is a registered Quarter Pony and for sale so I want Desiree to put some wet saddle blankets on her.  I have shown Lucy the barell pattern and she has been on a couple of trail rides.  I would still consider her green but she is well on her way to being broke real well.  :))

Take care all 

My stallion barn is now being occupied!!!  It has been a long project but my boys are now in their stalls at night and I believe they are happy.  When I went into check on them the first night the two youngest Flash, 2nd stallion, and Taz, soon to be gelding, were both laying down sleeping.  :))

I need to finish the feed room and put tin up on the outside but that is stuff that I can do when the boys are in the pasture during the day.

My next project to finish is getting the hay barn fixed so that I can put hay init for winter.  My daughter and her boyfriend cleaned it out and now I need to go in and put in a new support post and fix the roof.  It looks like a branch came down on it at some point in time.  With a new pole and a little reinforcement the roof should be good as new.  The I will take the box blade in and make sure it is cleaned real well.  I am hoping to get the roof done this weekend.  It is supposed to rain all weekend but maybe I can get done between rains.  :))  I will try to remember to take a picture before I fix it.  :))

Our last project is to get a fence put up so that my mommas and thier babies can have their own pasture.  :))  As you all know I have two on the ground and I am waiting for Bess to have her mule baby.  I did the nail test on Bess the other night and it said that we are going to have a molly mule.  :))

Since I got so much work done on Saturday and Sunday I decided to take part of Monday off.  I took Manny out for a ride in my neighbors pasture.  Desiree and Shooter came with us.  The neighbor's pasture houses about 15 large heifers.  These heifers were very curious as to who had come into their pasture and started charging at us.  My daughter's horse was not a happy camper about this.  Manny just ignored them.  (good boy)  We came around a hill and the cows started running at me and Manny.  Manny stood their and looked at them.  When the cows came to a stop maybe 3 feet in front of us, I asked Manny to go towards them.  He did and the cows took off the other way.  Then we went on our own way.  :))  Manny is not new to cows he has been around them quit a bit at our house.  But I am still very proud of him for not panicing with them racing towards him.

On our way back to the house I asked Manny for a little more speed, hoping to get his fox trot.  Well he went right into it.  When we left the pasture I told my daughter that we were going to go about half a block down the road and then come back.  I again got Manny to get into his fox trot.  This is very exciting to me because it is the first time I have really asked him for it.

I then stopped him outside the pasture that has his favorite mare and Manny's first son.  He immediately went to start talking.  Which I immediately told him no.  We stood there for about 30 min and he tried to talk two more times but then he realized that was a nono.  I believe he was enjoying watching the babies run around and having fun.  Now the funny part.  I unsaddled him and took him to his pasture.  When I took his halter off I told him he coulld talk to his girl friend if he wated to know.  That is exactly what he did.  :))  I believe we are making great progress and I can't wait to take him on more rides.

Hopefully this fall I will be able to ride a little more.  I also need to work with a couple of the younger ones because I need to get them sold.

Go to my web page to see pictures of the barn and if you know of anyone looking for their next partner point them in my direction.  :))

TTYL

Darci

It has been a veryyy busy two weeks.  Red and Peanut both had their babys back to back.  Click here http://www.brushcreekcurlys.com/foals07.html to see pictures.   Come back often I will be taking tons of pictures.

Peanut's son, Tutt, is a lover and wants attention everytime you walk out.  Red's son, Silver, likes the attention but at this time you have to go to him.  I think that will change with time.   I love babies they are sooo much fun to watch.  Tutt loves to check everything out and Silver is content to eat, sleep and harass momma.  :))

This last weekend I accomplished tons.  I cut down the tree that was right up against the stud barn and cleaned up a lot of the lumber and brush that was out in this area.  I had a big fire Sunday in the burn pond.  :))

Now the inside of the stud barn.  I have 5 stalls framed in, one left to put walls on.  I still have a little work to do on the walls.  I need to make a couple of them a little taller and then put cattle panels from the top of the wall to the ceiling.  The I need to hang stall doors.  I still have a little to do on the outer walls and I need to put the doors on.  I have to put one piece of tin on the roof and make sure the rest of it is nailed down securly.  Then I to put tin around the outside.  I will probably be putting horses in before all of the tin is up. 

I need to finish the alley way from the stallion pastures to the barn.  Which shouldn't take long at all.  Maybe a couple of hours.  I will do that as soon as the barn is finished. 

Before I can put the boys in their stalls I need to spray the barn for fleas and ticks.  While working in the barn I have found bunches of ticks.  So I definatly want to spray it before I put the boys in their new rooms.

I will have two rooms by the front doors of the barn one on each side.  I am going to use one side for hay and they other side for feed and tack.  Hopefully i will be able to find a chest freezer that doesn't work and I will use it as feed storage.  Otherwise I build one. 

I am soooooo close to haveing this barn done.  As soon as it gets done I want to put up a cross fence so that my mommas and their babies have a pasture of their own and don't have to worry about the other mares bothering the babies.  :))  I think I might see if my neighbor might help put this up.  It would probably go faster.  But then again we are talking about ME, the hard headed, stuborn, German, Irish and Indian that hates to ask for help.  LOL

I am going to put my daughter work on cleaning out the next barn I need to work on.  This barn is going to be for hay storage.  There is a lot of tin, hose, lumber, tires, etc.  I have pretty went through and picked anything good out of it.  As soon as it gets cleaned out then I need to put a couple of new suppot posts in it.  There is a bad spot in the roof.  This barn should be a lot easier to finish since it is just for hay storage.

After I get these 3 things done then the top priority projects are done.  Then it will be time to figure out the next projects to accomplish.  I kind of wish winter would hurry and get here.  That way I could slow down a little.  LOL  But it can't come until I finish the first three projects.  LOL

Take care everyone.  If anyone wants to come see those babies come on out.  :)) 

Well last weekend I started putting posts in the stallion barn.  I have 4 more left to put in.  I have the walls setting in place on 2 of the stalls.  I need to attach them and make them a little higher and then finish them off with cattle panels that are cut to size.

I have made the barn top priority.  I may do some brush hogging in between.  But no other project gets done or started until this barn gets done!!!  When all of the poles are in the walls will go in quickly.  I have stopped work on the main walls so that we can have a good breeze coming in.

Our last pregnant cow had her calf Saturday.  Yipeeeeeee!!  A gorgeous black baldie bull calf.  I was sitting there watching her to make sure of no problems.  I saw the feet coming out and I was looking for a head the next thing I saw was a tongue.  OhOh!  I jumped up to help her get that calf out quicker.  The head was a little tight so I put a hand in to help stretch her a little to give the calf more room.  One more push and here he came.  I cleared his nose and mouth of all slim and pulled him out of the mess and let momma finish him up.  He is on the ground alive and healthy.

Now for the mares to have their babies.  I believe Red is going to be first.  She is pretty loose in the back end and her bag is filling nicely.  Her due dated is August 24th.  We will see if she goes that long.

Tabby, blind 22 yo mini pony, has a new home.  She went to a lady in Illinois that is going to pamper her for the rest of her life.  :)))))

I bought Manny a new bridle.  It is called a Vaquero bridle.  It is made out of rope.  I really like the look of it and I am hoping that it will help his transition to being undersaddle.  While working on the ground with a rope halter Manny totally ignores the mares.  I am hoping with the rope bridle he will also ignore the in heat mares.  I took him out on our 30 acres with it the other day and had my daughter riding her mare (not in heat).  Manny did really well.  This is the first time he has been out on this part of the property.  We had to stop and look at a few things and snort at it.  When it didn't move we could then pass it.  :))  I am very proud of this boy.   The next obsticle will be going out with a mare that is in heat.  Of course we will be working in between that time.  But that will be the true test.

I wish I could take a month off work and just work at home. {sigh}  There is so much to do and so little time to do it in.  But we keep plugging away.

TTYS

It was an excellent working weekend. 

My pasture is starting to take on a new shape.  Everytime I go out to brush hog I clear out some more weeds/brambles.  I keep telling my daughter she is going to get lost because I keep changing the way the pasture looks.  lol  Next weekend I will go out with the box blade and clean up some more of the tree limbs and such that need to be burned.  When I get some more of it cleaned up then I can go back in with the brush hog again.

One of these days I need to get out there with my chain saw and start cutting wood for winter.

I also got the walls started in my stallion barn.   Yipeeeeee I knew once I got the wood in the barn it would go pretty quickly.  I think I am going to delay more work on the walls to lay out the stalls.  I am going to be putting in some more posts and I want to use cement so I figure if I get them done they can start setting up and by the time I am done with the walls then the posts should be set and the stalls should go up quickly. 

Our cow Louise had a little bull calf black baldie we have named him bandit.  Such a cute little thing.  He will be sold to pay for hay.  Now we are waiting for Wilma (cow) to have hers.  I sure wish she would hurry up.

We have also decided to sell Ollie (our bull).  We have never had a problem until now with him wanting to get out of our pasture.  Well now he is tearing up fences and I have to much work to do to be worring about what fence I need to fix next.  Come next June when the cows need to be bred again we will either lease a bull or buy a new one.

Commanches Red Beauty a/k/a Red is supposed to be the first to deliver this year.  Her due date is August 24th.  That is only about 5 weeks away.  Time to get into foal watch seriously!  LOL  Because Peanut (maden) is due a week after Red and we don't have a due date for Bess. [sigh]  Who knows maybe Peanut will deliver first.  :))

I can't remember if I told you all my bedroom is now finished and I have been able to sleep in my own bed now for about a week.  It is heaven.  My mom is getting the living room cleaned out and we can almost see the front door.  LOL 

I will be breeding for fall babies in 2008 so that means my breeding season is almost hear also.  I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly.  {sigh}  I have gotten alot of work done but I haven't worked with the horses much.  {sigh}

Well that is what I have for now.  Everyone take care and stay safe.