My gosh it has been a month since I have updated.  Shame on me.  :)

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

Hey all,

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.  :)))))

Hey all,

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.

Hey all,

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 

Well I have finally accomplished my first task.

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