...and they're off !

This weekend, while Ali is at home doing things with her soccer team, her sister Dani is visiting us. Yesterdays storms prevented much outdoor activity, but today is bright and sunny. After church Dani wanted to ride Maggie. Her is a rare photo of her slacker face. (Comedian Tim Hawkins says it takes more muscle to frown than smile, so smiley people are slackers.) Usually Dani is wearing what she calls her default face... This photo is proof that Maggie does know what the word whoa means...

Since it had rained over two inches yesterday, we had to stay in the back pasture that is already destroyed. Good thing! If it hadn't been for the rain, they would have probably been in an open area outside the fence.

I led Maggie out of the paddock to the grassy part to let Dani mount up. I envy how easily these young girls can pull themselves up onto this tall thoroughbred. Dani has a smashed toe and can only wear flip-flops right now, so she had to ride barefoot. Not my top choice, but barefoot is safer than flip-flops. Unless they're just walking in the round pen or being led by me, I usually have them wear a helmet... But it's Maggie, right? She's so gentle and sweet, and at 28 isn't really in a hurry to go anywhere.

After I watched her circle and stop several times, I was confident that Dani could easily handle Maggie. I went in the house to get my camera. I didn't want to be gone too long, so I went out the bedroom door near where Dani was riding and walked over to the fence. It was wonderful watching her trot and circle. It was a little hard for her to post with the sore toe, but I think she did great. I love watching Maggie trot; Her long, slender legs are so graceful. As you can see, I shot these pics and video from outside the electric fence.

My camera shut off at this point The batteries were too low to take any more video, so you'll have to take my word for what happened next... Well, I'm not really sure what happened next... Either a wild spirit horse possessed Maggie or a horse fly bit her on the behind. Whatever it was, it scared the bejeebies out of me! Papaw had just come back outside and got to witness it too.

All of a sudden Maggie took off like the racehorse she used to be! I screamed instructions to Dani, but she was doing the best she could to hold on for dear life! I screamed at Maggie to whoa... Remember, she knows what it means. I could see the devil in her eyes as she stole my firstborn grandchild from my sight. She barrelled down the straight track and headed for the gravelly paddock. It was a nightmare! My heart raced as I ran toward the barn, screaming Dani's name. Maggie and Dani disappeared behind the run-in shelter, still going full-steam ahead! There's only a few feet on the other side before the fence closes off the paddock. My best hope was that Maggie would spin and toss Dani off into the manuer pile. Not a happy thought, but at least it's softer than landing on hard packed clay and gravel. I was in a panic!

Then I heard her voice... that tiny, soft, delicate voice I love saying, "I'm OK." Then she appeared... still on Maggie... walking back toward me with a huge smile on her face! It was one of those smiles you see on people as they exit the latest thrill ride at the amusement park. Her legs were trembling as she led Maggie back to the barn door. I laughed and asked her if she was done riding for the day. She laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired now."

Horses & Chickens & Kids, Oh my!

Yesterday was wonderful, despite having to deal with the nursing home issues mentioned in my essay's blog. I thank God for the good times that balance out the bad.

I gave Maggie a few days to settle in, but yesterday I brought out her old saddle. I was going to sell it since it didn't fit my other horses. Maggie has extremely high withers (horsey tech) and I had to shop for the right fit. I kept putting off taking the saddle to the tack shop. It's been three years and the saddle is still here. I guess somewhere deep inside I knew she'd come home.

She's a lot taller than my other horse and I always mounted her from a rock or fender... whatever was handy. I had taught her a cue that swung her around beside whatever object I chose to climb up on. She has since forgotten the cue, but I will refresh her on that later. I walked her over to my sitting rock in the iris bed. I tried cuing her but she didn't understand what I wanted. She ended up swinging around in the other direction, her hind feet stepping into the irises. As graceful as she ever was, she walked back around out of the flower bed without so much as a bump to a blade. She knows where her feet are and steps ever so carefully. I don't know of many horses that could walk through a flower bed without doing at least a little damage. Hubby came to the rescue and coaxed her to sidestep toward the rock. It felt good to sit astride her again. She's got a super easy walk and trot. I have never used a bridle and bit to ride her... Only a halter with reins clipped on. She doesn't need anything more. I've ridden her in traffic, on trails and the bike path that way. She's what horse people would call bomb proof.

Maggie is buddy sour already. This is when horses don't want to leave their pasture mates; They keep turning back to the barn. She refused to go across the creek, so we ended up walking in lots of circles. (It's kinda like a horsey time-out - they hate little circles) We rode around the front and side yards. It felt like coming home. The memories had become so faint, and now here I was... I'll never let her go again!

Ali wanted to ride her. She had never shown much interest in the horses, and since they had busy soccer schedules, hadn't spent a lot of time learning about them. For her, a ride meant being led around by me. I had other plans.

Maggie is extremely easy to handle and I trust her. She is not the kind of horse to take off on you. I kept her lead line attached where I could reach out and grab it if needed. I told Ali to mount up and handed her the reins. It took her a bit to find the gas peddle. You can see a video clip of her ride on her blog. Let her know you've visited...

Well, the chickens got evicted! FIL got tired of waiting for them to go out on their own and tossed every single one out the door. They really loved their day outside and seemed to adapt well. Here is a short clip of them running away from me:


Our four laying hens always return to their coop at dusk. All Hubby has to do is go out and shut the door so the critters can't get to them. In the morning he opens the door for them to come out. They go back in to lay their eggs in the nest.

We've read and now know it's true... You must let a chicken find it's own way out if you expect it to find it's own way back in! So after a really long day that began at the hospital, and was about to conclude with a campfire, here we are crawling around in chicken poop grass with a flashlight gathering over fifty chickens! The people steps going into the house are just stacked cinder blocks. Some of the chickens decided to roost inside them. Luckily my hands are smaller than Hubby's. It's not easy retrieving chickens from cinder blocks!

Hubby's fishing net made the job a lot easier. He could net four or five at a time, since they like to huddle. I would take one at a time from the net and carry it to the door of the house. Surprisingly, they were very calm as I cradled them against me. I expected squawking and flapping. A few of them sat in the doorway letting me pet them before joining the other rescued birds in the corner.

Too bad I don't have an infrared video camera. I'm sure the scene was quite entertaining!

Tonight the hens went into their small coop while all the young chickens were still out. Hubby waited patiently, and soon they started heading in on their own. All except one. Hubby says he was pretty fast too! Good thing he's got the net.

Farm update

All's well that ends well. Isn't that what they say?

The farrier made it over today, so both horse have pretty feet. Buddy's cracks aren't too bad. His front hooves are excellent! Hopefully, he will remain barefoot this summer. So, not much damage done by waiting an extra week. Plus the extra length gave Sadie a little extra snack! It's her favorite treat. Yep, she eats the hoof trimmings! No wonder she's overweight.

The hay was bailed today. Seemed to be plenty dry. Hubby ended up buying another parcel too, so he and his son put up 240 bales tonight. With a second cut, we will have plenty of extra hay... Enough for Maggie, too! The goats don't eat much and we've still got plenty left from last year to do the summer and fall. We'll probably end up selling some. This is an old picture, but that's about 100 bales... just to give you an idea.

If Hubby's not aching too bad tomorrow, we'll go get Maggie! I'm so anxious to see her. I'll have to remember to record the introductions when she meets Buddy. I'm sure that Maggie will be her usual Alpha mare! I remember when we temporarily housed my daughter's gelding... He couldn't blink unless Maggie told him it was OK! I love watching their societal roles evolve.

I was fortunate to miss the hay tonight! Probably would have been tough on my breathing anyway. But it was the BIG BIRTHDAY PARTY! Gracie's 5th, complete with fireworks and a very special cake! If I don't make the trip tomorrow, you'll be reading about it on my essay's blog. Everyone had a great time.

Ali is staying home with her family for the long weekend and won't be back until Monday evening. I'm going to take advantage of the time and hopefully ride, plant and write! I may have a whole week's worth of posts!

Oh yeah... the chickens are still inside!

This week on the farm...

We've had some fun and some not so fun days. Ali's 5-yr-old sister Grace came home with us Monday night. One minute they are so loving and kind to one another; the next, I want to shoot them! Fortunately, they've both had more fun than grief. They had planned on swimming non-stop, but the unseasonably cool weather dropped the bomb on that.

We did make it down the bike path today. It was Gracie's first time. Usually, that's an activity we save for the older girls. It's hard for the toddler bikes to crank out the necessary RPMs. Plus we have to go out on the highway to get to it because there is no bridge over the creek that cuts the woods in half between the house and the bike path. It's almost a half-mile trek round trip to get to the road and back down our gravel lane. They found a creature (dead butterfly) to take back and show Papaw.

Our big discovery this week is that the big sitting rock in the iris bed makes a perfect stage for impromptu performances! All you need is a push broom to amplify your voice and a sister with a couple of garden stakes to keep the rhythm.

Mommy came and got Ali tonight to give her a hand preparing for tomorrow. They are having a BBQ to celebrate Gracie's birthday (officially last Sunday) and the 4th.

Last week we had so much hot, dry weather. It was great for the farmers trying to get in their hay. Not so for us. We buy most of our hay from a neighbor two parcels over. He had arranged for the same guy to cut it that cuts the field beside us. Apparently, there was a communication problem because they only cut the field beside us. The guy finally returned our neighbors call and said he would cut & bail this week depending on the weather. I think he meant, "If it's too bad to do anything else... "

The weatherman forecasted rain. He didn't use the words slight, scattered, spotty, chance... He said there would be rain. So the guy comes and cuts the hay. Now the hay is raked into wet piles on the ground. This is not good. For you that are not country folk, would you leave your wet laundry in a heap? It molds.

It sprinkled some this morning, but I think we may be in luck. The guy turned it over to let it dry some more, and they may be able to bail it Saturday. I'm hoping they didn't ruin the hay. We won't buy wet or moldy hay. Barn fires are serious business and horses can't eat moldy hay. But even if they salvage the crop, it's still a bummer for me... Saturday, I was going to go pick up Maggie!

Even though I'm sad for my friend having to give her up, I am getting excited to have her back. Since neither my friend nor I had anything planned for the 4th, Hubby and I were going to drive up that morning to pick her up. If they bail the hay Saturday, we have to stay home and get it in the barn. I could take the trailer myself, (they probably wouldn't miss me in the barn) but hubby will probably need his truck to pull a hay wagon. So everything's up in the air!

Our horses were due for their farrier visit last week. Hubby's gelding has drier hoofs than my mare's, and we've had trouble in the past with them cracking. It was a long battle to get ahead of the problem, but finally his feet were looking terrific. Then our farrier got hurt. He called last week, the day of the appointment, to tell me that he would call back later. His back went out and he was headed to a chiropractor. Well, that was last week. We've heard he's working, but he hasn't returned our calls. And now Buddy's hooves are looking ugly. So far it's just chips and surface cracks, but if we don't get something done soon, we'll have to start all over.

That about sums up the week... Oh, except for the chick report: Nothing to report. The big green yonder is still far too threatening to venture out from the coop. Maybe tomorrow...

Taking the plunge!

Well, the pool is finally clean enough to dive in! It's still a little cloudy, but there's no green in sight! Plenty good enough for us. The water should be ready for company by Monday. These hot days have made the water temperature perfect without having to put on the solar blanket.

When I first retired 3 years ago, I babysat for my grands for a few weeks. I got one of those little $10 pools for them to cool off in. They had a blast! And they didn't care how dirty the water got!

Ali, she's going to pay you back for that!

I told you so!

G#3 seems to be getting the best of Ali here!

I told Hubby I wanted to buy a real pool. When my daughter was young I had one of those 3' deep ones that come in a box from the box stores. They don't cost much to buy or maintain, and are the perfect size to float around in on a hot day. If you knew Hubby, you'd know that it would end up beyond that...

He declared that if we were buying a pool, it would be big enough for his 6'5" frame to swim in. (He is the small one in the family.) So we ended up with this monster that comes up to my armpits! I hate all the upkeep, but I'm glad he convinced me to get it. We've had my daughter's whole family and his son & DIL all together, splashing and having fun! Worth every penny and every minute spent working on it! I wouldn't trade those memories for anything!

G#3 2007

Ali and I practiced our 'routines' today in the pool. We do these handstands and back flips, then spring up in a big Olympic style finish with our arms in the air. She scored a 9.8 on the back flip tonight... her best ever! We also do synchronize swimming. Yes, we are talented!

Ali's finally old enough that she gets I do not want to stand there and count all day. She always asked me to count how long she stays under or how many somersaults she can do without stopping. We'll never get ready for the competition that way!