Horse Cuteness Overload

 The day came and we have returned to work. But before I resume travel posts, I had to share one more blog post laden with cute horse pictures.

And the travel posts may still be delayed a bit longer. We got a new laptop a couple months ago and I've been fighting a battle with Windows 8 trying to get my pictures loaded where I want them off the camera. I'm losing the battle so far. It's very frustrating. And I can't access them, or rather I can't figure out how to, in order to upload them to the blog or facebook. I've been posting pics on facebook from my phone, and then saving them from facebook onto the computer where I want them to be located, so that I could then come post them on blogger. It's a pain and it's frustrating and I know I'm not computer savvy and that's the problem. I do not like Windows 8! What was wrong with Windows 7? I got along really well with it and I'd like to have it back please!

Anyway....

Fancy's little man is growing fast, as they all do! At day three he scarred the living daylights out of me by accidentally jumping the water tank. He was running and didn't have his "stop" down pat yet, so when he couldn,t get stopped he just hopped over it. But I saw it coming and fully expected my weekly disaster, which seemed to be the trend this past month. (I'll fill you in on that later, if I can remember)
Thankfully, Fancy gave birth to a natural athlete full of grace and more coordination than I gave him credit for!

We also have come up with a name that seems to be sticking.
Meet Midas!

Hopefully he'll have that golden touch!

I'm leaning back towards thinking he's going to be palomino, and thus the golden name. We will still have to wait till he sheds his baby fuzz in a couple months to know for sure. But either way, I think Midas has stuck to him like glue, cause that's how we refer to him now.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got an email from Dawn and Gemma's new owner announcing the birth of Dawn's foal....EXACTLY 24 hours after Fancy foaled.

Another colt, and a very unusual color! Isn't he gorgeous though?

And also a comic?
One thing Lisa (his owner) pointed out right away is how remarkably similar his markings are to Gemma. And she's right! Compare this little guy to his big sister Gemma at that age. Just about the only way to tell them apart is the color, because the markings are nearly identical! He's even wearing Gemma's black lipstick!

Speaking of Gemma....

Last we saw her was in October when we handed her and Dawn off to their new owners. Here's a picture of Gemma late last summer in her yearling year.

Lisa has been working with her and started riding her a couple weeks ago. The report is she's very smart, quick to learn, and hasn't even considered a single buck or trick to unseat her rider! She's everything I had hoped she'd turn out to be, so much like her big brother, Sky, in attitude and brains, but with the looks of a super model thrown in.

I'm glad she and Dawn are in such a good home and I love getting the updates and pictures from Lisa.

 I'm in love with her mane and tail, so long and thick for a 2 year old (at least in my experience). I told Lisa she's going to need to braid that main when she rides. Otherwise she'll have a face full of it when they get going good.

We are hoping that one of these days we'll get close enough to their home where we can stop and visit Lisa and Dave and see the girls. I'd really like that.

Back at home, we finally had to pack up and get back to work. We left on Wednesday. We haven't had a chance to get another pasture fenced off at home, so we had to move Fancy and Midas to a new location. I couldn't take a chance putting them in with Sky, since your not really supposed to mix geldings with mares and foals. Sky is just a love bug and wouldn't hurt a fly, but I wasn't going to take a chance that his natural curiosity and pushy affection caused problems.

It was a problem that I'd been pondering, and then a couple days after Midas's birth, we had some visitors, and I realized I might have my answer.

My sister-in-law came over with her girls, and her sister and nephews, the grandparents, AND her parents.....who happen to have some acreage and a few horses and her dad's a horse nut like me! We all had a wonderful visit and the kids (and adults) all loved Midas, of course! Who wouldn't?

Well turns out, my nieces are horse nuts too, and even my sister-in-law is a bit of one. Funny the things you don't know about the people close to you. I had an idea that my older niece was, but I've learned a lot about my family this spring and summer, and the discovery that I have multiple horse loving relatives was a delight!

Anyway, Midas was a star! Everyone fell in love! And when my sister-in-law's father started talking about wanting to breed one of his mares because he'd always wanted that experience, I started to think this might be a good thing for all of us!

So when my first plan didn't work out the way we'd hoped, I called him up and posed the question to him, "would you be willing to board Fancy and Midas for me while we're on the road?"

And of course his answer was yes! Which worked out perfectly!

So while Malcolm and I are criss crossing the nation, Fancy and Midas are staying at their new summer residence, being totally spoiled and loved on!

I told Malcolm after this, we'll have the most imprinted foal under the sun!

It is so nice to be gone from home and know that everything and everyone is being taken care of. I have no worries at all! And while it does make me kind of sad to miss so much of his growing up, just like I had to do with Sky and Gemma, its great to get so many pictures and updates.

 

 

We got off to work with a bang, which was tiring, but nice after so many months of slow work. We left Wednesday night and we've already run half way across the country and back, from Illinois to Montana, to Wisconsin and now we're back in Illinois waiting to see what's next!

north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota



 I hope there will be more motivation to share some travel posts. I think it will help once (if I ever do) I get this picture thing figured out. As long as it's a battle I'm not going to want to blog much. But maybe Windows 8 and I can come to some reasonable terms and get along. We're going to have to, because I'm pretty much stuck with it!

So that's the latest from Redbud Farm and the littlest of the big four leggeds at our place.

I have a story from the little four leggeds too, from when we were home. I'll share that with you later. Heart stopping moments and lessons learned that I think are worth sharing. Stay tuned.

The Wait...

...is over!

 

It has been in the 80's but muggy. And these last few days it has insisted on letting little thunder storms and rain showers pop up at least once or twice a day. Things have gotten soggy again.

 

Yesterday we had a nice day. When we got up in the morning it was raining which created a delay for Malcolm, who has been working on the truck brakes. So while we waited for the ground to dry up a little, we drove to Dayton to pick up some parts. It's a pretty drive and we're enjoying exploring that town and what it has to offer. It's actually about 5 miles closer to go to Dayton than to go to downtown Chattanooga, and the traffic is MUCH more enjoyable, since we're mostly the only vehicle out there on those two lanes through country.

 

When we got back home the sun was shining and there was a wonderful breeze. Malcolm went to work on the truck, and Fancy and I went for our daily foot soak in the creek. This time we had company.



He was swimming along when we got in the creek and he kept bumping into my feet. I've never seen one that was mossy! And he was big too! We visited for a little while, but Fancy was unimpressed, so we let him go on his way.

Fancy had other things on her mind. She kept looking around and turning her head to me and resting it against my side and talking to me the whole time. Not her usual creek soaking staring straight ahead bored out of her mind expression. I've been letting her graze in the back yard after our creek time and I decided that she was looking forward to that treat. So as soon as we'd been in the creek long enough, we headed for the yard.

So we went there and where she usually can be "parked" and stay put more or less, yesterday Fancy was going where Fancy wanted to go, and too bad to anyone else who had other ideas. Completely out of character for her.

After a while I got tired of it and needed to go help Malcolm, so Fancy went back to her corral and we worked on the truck and wrapped up our day mowing the yard and finishing that chore in another down pour of rain. We were drenched, but it was good to have that job done, and afterwards the sun broke through the clouds with that glorious sunset lighting, and revealed a beautiful rainbow!


We have been staying up till 11:00 or later, which is totally out of character for us! Lots of "out of character" going on around here! I have no idea why we're staying up that late, because we're both tired! But not tired enough to go to bed earlier apparently. Last night was no different. It was after 11:30 before we turned off the TV and tidied things up for the night. And on a whim I decided I wanted to go out and check on Fancy. I've not been going out at night for several days. But I wasn't quite ready for bed yet and thought an evening walk to the barn would be nice. And I told Malcolm he had to come keep me company.

It had just finished raining, apparently really hard, because it was soggy and the trees were dripping enough to make it sound like it was still raining.

Fancy was out in her corral, even though her stall was open to her, and when she saw us she came over to the fence and was talking to us, and just talking and talking. I checked her and she did look a little bit swollen, but mostly normal. But Malcolm said we might as well put her in the stall. I liked the idea because it's dry in there and her abscesses have healed nicely, but I don't think the muddiness is that good for them drying out. So me and Fancy went over to her stall, her just following because she does that without a lead. And as she passed me and entered the stall I looked and did a double take.

Between the spot where we had been standing and the stall entrance, maybe 10 feet, the sack with a big sloshy water bubble had emerged!

She did a circle of the stall, laid down, and in less than 10 minutes we had a foal sitting up and looking around in dazed confusion.

I don't know what prompted me to go out when we did, well obviously it was God nudging me to go, but I'm so GLAD we went out when we did! The timing could not have been more perfect! We got to watch the birth and everything without sitting around for anxious hours worrying. It was a first experience for both of us and I'm glad Malcolm was with me to share that moment.

It was too dark for decent pictures and besides, I'd not even had time to go back to the house for my camera because everything happened so fast, but I'm sure you can figure I was out there at first light to check on things and wait for the sun to light things up.

And now for introductions!
Here's a new little guy!

It's a boy and we are very pleased!!!!
There is a diamond shaped white spot on his nose and that is all the white there is on his face and most of his neck! This really surprised me!

Fancy's past three foals all had high white legs, as does this one, with the exception of one rear, which is colored almost all the way down.
Which gave him the cutest butt ever, especially with that flashing white tail!

He has a beautiful distribution of color and white! He's just gorgeous!

And on one side he has a nearly perfect circle!

He is very active! He got up pretty fast and only fell down twice. He just hops right up this afternoon and he's in constant motion. He just paces in circles around and around Fancy. And this evening he was trying to pick up a little speed, but there's not quite room for that. I think this one is going to keep her busy!

Thoughts on Color:
Initially I was thinking Red Dun like Fancy. He is lighter in shade but kind of a reddish gold color. However, there's not a single dun marking on him. Nothing anywhere.

 

Second considered option was palomino. And that's the way I was leaning. But then a couple of friends pointed out that his mane is two colors and palominos have an all white mane. So....

And one of those friends also thought the coloring around his eyes and face was unusual. I do too.

So we will wait and see. If he's anything like his half sister, Gemma, he'll keep us guessing for a while and switch shades of color a time or two between now and later. I do know one thing for sure. He's not the buckskin I was expecting! Not a black point anywhere to be found! Not one hair!

He's a busy boy with lots to learn and explore, and Malcolm and I are both enjoying being one of those things.

It has been a beautiful day here all day long. Muggy, but sunny and pretty and it never rained so it was able to dry up a little. This evenings light was just beautiful. One of those evenings that just takes your breath away.

I am so relieved that the wait is over, that we have a healthy happy foal, that the birth was easy, and that he came in time for us to be able to enjoy him some before we return to work!

Today was a good day!

 

Growing Things

 

There are things growing all over the place at the farm! When we were home back in late January for a weekend, I had discovered the emergence of some buds.

This past week, they were making appearances all over the place.

And the daffodils are blooming. I love daffodils. Who can help but love those first bright rays of brilliant yellow after weeks of brown (or in some cases, white) on all surfaces?

While Malcolm was working on clearing the hedge out of the fence lines last week, I did some clearing of my own. Someone planted a lot of English Ivy around the house and it's lovely...

....but English Ivy is kind of like Privet Hedge, in that it knows no boundaries. And I wondered what it might be smothering. So I started ripping it out of a flowerbed last week, and made all sorts of discoveries. It was keeping so many treasures captive beneath it's weighty vines!

There were dozens of bulbs trying to come up through it, as well as several shrubs, and though this Lenten Rose was able to grow and bloom through the ivy, I'm sure it will by happier now that it doesn't have to compete for space.

There are other things growing around here too.

Fancy is at 8 months now, and her baby belly is making itself more noticeable.

It is sometimes lopsided, which makes me laugh. It's probably just the way she stands sometimes, but I like to think it's the baby laying on one side or the other. Let me pretend.

I think her official due date is June 13. That is 330 days from her last breeding. But according to her breeding records, her last two foals went around 345 days, so it could be later. It's going to make guessing how to be off work a little hard, with such a broad window, but I'm determined to be there for this one!
We're considering working clear through the next two months with no break at all, and then possibly taking off nearly all of June, maybe coming home a week into June and staying through July 4th or so. It shouldn't be a problem, especially since we no longer need to take off several weeks for haying like we've done the past two years. We'll just take off several weeks and use them to play on the farm and wait for Fancy's baby. I can't wait!!!

Boy or Girl? Her last two were colts, but this is a different stallion. I've only had one foal from him, and that was Gemma. It will be interesting to see what we get this year, and I'm in touch with Dawn's new owner, and looking forward to hearing from her when Dawn foals in early June. It's going to be so hard here in a few weeks when everyone else starts having foals on the ground and I'll still have weeks to wait!

Even without a foal around, we still have a baby on the farm.

I think he will always be the baby. I think he thinks so too.

He still comes running to meet me at the gate, and he's still impossible to photograph unless there's a fence between us. It's because he insists on being right next to me if I'm on his side of the fence. I used to think I was special to him, but recently I heard from a couple of neighbors who were going on and on about what an "incredibly friendly horse that black one is" and I soon realized Sky has been kissing up to everyone on the street. I felt a little bit betrayed. I wanted to be his special someone.
I know he doesn't turn down anyone with a cookie and from what I hear, several neighbors are passing them out to my little herd.

I've been on the phone a lot over the past week or so, and I think we've narrowed the search down for a trainer, as well as a new romantic prospect for Fancy.

So we're back on the road for a couple weeks, and then we go home for a break toward the end of the month.
Our plans are to enjoy the hopefully fine Spring weather, do some work around the farm, drop Sky and Ringo off at boarding school, and go meet Fancy's prospective suiter and his owners.

Hope the coming days go by quickly. I'm looking forward to being home again! So much I want to be doing, and sitting in the truck is not one of them right now! I'll have to content myself with day dreaming until we get there.

The Great Migration

Fall is the time of year when some of the greatest migrations on the planet take place.

 

Malcolm and I have been off the road and, for the most part off line, for a little over a month now. While we were off, our time was consumed with gathering, packing, loading, and then the reverse of all those actions.

 

One chilly evening we were down by the water working on getting some things loaded before dark, when a familiar but seldom heard sound reached our ears. And sure enough, when we looked, way off on the horizon we could see a long wavering line of sand hill cranes making their way towards us. Have you ever watched them in flight? They do not fly with the organization of geese and ducks. It always looks to me as if they are constantly trying to straighten their line, and failing time and time again. This particular group made their way to the lake behind the house and were well into their circling (which takes a while) and landing routine, when we noticed another line off on the horizon. And behind them, another line, and once they were landing, another line, and it went on like this for an hour or more! By the time they were finished, there must have been hundreds of them up on the lake, and it was all I could do not to abandon Malcolm to the work and sneak up there with the camera. If not for the fact that it was too dark for decent pictures and that I didn't want to risk disturbing them, I would have done it.

 

As it was I did end up with a picture of their great migration. The next morning, Malcolm and I had to run an errand and we left pretty early, just as the cranes were gathering into their various groups and heading on east.



Birds are not the only creatures that migrated south this year.

On a frosty morning in early October, we loaded up and headed out...

...to deliver Dawn and Gemma to their new owners. We had decided to sell Gemma as I already have my hands full with Sky and Reba, and also she is such a gorgeous girl with so much to offer. I was thrilled when I was contacted by a couple that wanted to purchase both Gemma and Dawn! I am so happy that they were able to stay together and that Gemma didn't have to go off to her new life all by herself.

The new owners are really nice and I believe they love the girls as much as I do. Dawn and Gemma had started growing their thick winter coats getting ready for a Montana winter, but I told them to slow down on that and wait a bit. They are now living in Arizona, and I don't think they'll need much winter furr down there.

After that, there was just one more migration to get taken care of.  It involved a lot of early EARLY  mornings,

2 vehicles, and lots of miles. I drove the pickup and Malcolm drove the big truck. The girls generally road with me. We started out with everyone in the pickup with me.

Some "people" are good pickup travelers.

Some...not so much.

So there we were, going back and forth across the country. Montana to Tennessee...

...and back....

...and forth...

...and back...

...and forth...

..and back...

...and finally I'd had all I could take of Carlie Jean. So she got the boot and had to ride in the Peterbuilt with Malcolm.

After that, we were able to lay back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

All those crazy Carlie Jean pictures are actually from the first three hours of our first trip. Which should be enough explanation as to why I kicked her out into the Peterbuilt. I thought I was going to go crazy. Apparently our Carlie Jean, the big truckin' dog, is not so much of a little truckin' dog. It was a lot quieter once she was moved, but really not that much more pleasant.

It was tiring and long and tedious because it was the same trip, same scenery, and driving a pickup is actually a lot more tiring than driving the big truck. Can't explain why. It just is.

It took three trips.
Trip one was pickup and Peterbuilt and then the Pete stayed in TN and the pickup went back to MT.
Trip two I hauled the horses down with the pickup while Malcolm took the Kenworth down with the hopper. Our broker actually got us loaded for that one, so we got paid to move our stuff more or less.
Malcolm got there a day after me and the horses, but all ran smoothly and we didn't have any problems. The horses were relieved to get off the trailer and their eyes about popped out of their heads when they saw all that green grass. I don't think they came up for air for at least three days!

Ok, so I'm exagerating a bit. We kept them in stalls for the first night with hay, and then the next few days we kept them in a corral while they recovered from their long ride and adjusted to the new surroundings. And then we let them have the run of the pasture. They are now settled in, quite content, and making friends with all the neighbors. They are quite popular, which works great all the way around. All our neighbors enjoy visiting with them, the horses get lots of attention and treats, and we know we have a number of people keeping an eye on them while we are away from home!

Back to migrating:

Then there was trip three. We had moved the trucking business and our horses and tractor, but we still had to go back for our household things. We also needed to haul a couple more things with our pickup. But why drive two vehicles back empty. So, Malcolm, ingenios problem solver that he is....

...figured out how to save fuel costs on that return trip.

We loaded up in some cold windy weather, turned around, and got back to balmy Tennessee. We decided to take a couple weeks to unload, unpack, and do some relaxing before we hit the road again.

That couple of weeks is up now and we're loading this morning. Time to get back to work. We got nearly everything in the house unpacked and put into place in our new home. It's a good feeling. We got started on putting Malcolm's shop things away too, and will work some more on that when we come home for our next break.

We had not expected to be leaving Montana. It's amazing how much the road of life can turn so drastically in such a short amount of time. But we've landed solidly on both feet in a wonderful place, where we're surrounded by lots of family and have already had encounters where we've been able to get reaquainted with old friends and already began to form the bonds for new friendships. We love our new home, and are excited about our life here in my sweet home state of Tennessee!

Summer Swimming

I'm not much of a water person. Well, I like to sit next to the water and look at it. I enjoy the ocean, but prefer lakes and rivers.

I don't like to get in.
I'll dabble my toes, or wade up to my knees, or go out in a boat, but I don't like to get in the water.

Now, my parent's swimming pool is a different story. I'll get submerged there. I guess in my adulthood I've developed an aversion to bodies of water with "things" in it. But even at the pool, I'm not a "spend the day" kind of gal. I've never been one to lay out for a tan, or float in the pool. I get bored...fast. I don't even like to soak in the tub. Boring!

And I'm way off where I was going with this, and it's getting a little too personal, so lets get back on track.

On occasion, I'll suddenly have a strong yearning to go swimming. It doesn't happen often. And going alone isn't much fun. Saturday was one of the warmest days so far this summer, and the wind was relatively calm, and I suddenly thought it would be nice to go for a swim.

I haven't done that yet here at the ranch, but Malcolm's shown me where he and his sisters would go swimming when they were younger, just above the beaver dam down by the barns. Yeah....water with "things" in it....and black stinky Montana mud. (and you  haven't smelled stinky mud till you've smelled it here. There's coal in the ground here and I'm told that is the culprit, I imagine along with all those "things" that are in the water.)

So, a desire to swim, but Malcolm was busy and I don't like to go alone. If you can't go swimming with your spouse, then who better but your best friend?

We've never done this before, but Malcolm and his sisters have in the past with their colts. I thought it sounded fun. I asked Malcolm how he used to get the horses to go in the water. He couldn't remember.

I took a handful of cookies with which to coax him in. I thought I'd have to do some persuading. Boy was I wrong!

What I had to do was hang on for dear life, because I thought we'd make a careful and gradual entrance in order to ascertain what "things" might be in there with us, but Sky stuck his toes in the water proceeded to plow on past me and drag me in with him.....

.....out into the deepest parts which I really was not prepared for! So much for my coaxing him into a gradual entrance, and I couldn't keep a good hold on the lead rope and the handful of cookies at the same time, so today some beaver or duck is enjoying some apple flavored horse cookies that are a little bit mushy.

He was absolutely hilarious! I had no idea he'd like it so much! Maybe I would have thought so if it was scorching hot, but it was only in the mid-80's, so it's not like we were suffering from heat exhaustion.

He played and splashed and even laid down in the shallows at one point. I had so much fun laughing at him. And I think he had fun too, probably laughing at me. I was not as graceful as he was.

He seemed to really enjoy it, and seemed to enjoy being in there with me, though maybe I'm just imagining that. But he had lots of slack on the lead rope, and still kept close to me, a couple times nearly running me over because I couldn't get my footing.

A few times when we were in deep water, I tried to get on his back. He was so slippery I couldn't get all the way over him before he slid out from under me. But finally I managed to get up on him almost all the way....

an attempt to get on

...and that's where the fun ended. He was not impressed with the new "game" and made fast tracks (as fast as he could through the water) for shore. I couldn't get scooted up into the right spot because he was slippery and I couldn't get seated and turn him at the same time. He got to knee deep water before I could get him turned and I decided the best choice for me at that point was to abandon ship.

I think it was a good choice, because he hit the shore at a dead run and high tailed it back to his crew waiting at the fence over by the corrals. Apparently he'd had enough swimming for one day.

Regardless, I seriously have not had that much fun in quite a while. Most of the time I couldn't get on his back because I was laughing! I had such a good time, it didn't even bother me that we were swimming with "things."

I thought we might go for another swim today, maybe let Reba and Gemma have a turn too, but the wind is wailing outside. It's nasty to be out, even if it would feel good to cool off.

Maybe tomorrow. It's supposed to hit the high 90's. Might even get into the 100's on Tuesday I read. Guess summer is really here. But we're probably returning to work on Wednesday and the wind is supposed to blow for the next several day. Maybe I'll make it home enough to get some more swim time in before fall weather arrives.

Yep, swimming with my pal, Sky. I have so much fun with him from the ground, I probably wouldn't care if I never got to ride him. He really is one of my best friends. I love that horse!