Saturday, January 30, 2010

Knock, knock

Not my favorite thing to wake up to at 610am
on a Saturday morning (also 5 wildly barking dogs didn't help).

As I peal my eyes open and try to figure out what is going
on I hear it again.

Knock, knock.


Not the door bell, but someone actually
knocking on my door and
it's really just a little after 6a.


I stumble around looking for a robe and the hubby
says, don't answer it - probably someone wanting
something - What? He turns over and goes back
to sleep. Big help he is right?


I make it downstairs and the dogs are just freaking out.
I turn on the light and they instantly become silent.
That is strange, never happened before.


I peer out my door and see some man standing
there that I've never seen before and he is saying something
I can't hear/understand - no coffee yet -
I figure well if he is an ax murder I'm in trouble cuz the
hubby is currently snoozing in bed, but hey this is WI
and surely this guy isn't an ax murder and the odds are good
the dogs will protect me - insert big laugh here -.


I open the door and this guy says
"You got a couple of mini horses and some big horses?"
I stammer out yes, he says "Well, they are up on the highway
racing up and down it and I almost hit the big white one."


OMG!!


I hurriedly thank him, slam the door and run for some clothes!
Heart pounding, I race up the stairs to get dressed and
meet Chyann and Caden as they are coming down.
I yell out what is going on and they run to put their winter stuff on.


In record breaking time we are out to the barn with flashlights
to see what's what. I'm glad we had that full moon
shining because it really lit everything up.


Sure enough only Gypsy is at the barn
(I was really hoping this guy was wrong and it was the neighbors
horses that were out - they have a big Appaloosa that
might be mistaken for Jenny) and she was just frantic!


I grab some halters and ropes while the kids look for any
downed fence. They find the section that is down back
by Copper and Scotch comes running from out of no where
scarring the crap out of the kids. I threw out some hay for
Gypsy and Scotch hoping this would keep them at the house
while we looked for the others.


Chyann said there were tracks from our house to Coppers'
owners place on a trail that runs between our homes.
When we reach the neighbors place they are coming
down their driveway and stop to see what we are doing (they
are going to a wrestling tournament) said they'd keep an
eye out for the horses.

The kids and I head back to our place
on the trail, Chyann takes the low trail and Caden and I
are on the high trail (small ridge) when Caden says I think I see
one of them on the road. Sure enough off in the distance,
maybe 200 yards, in the moonlight we can see the three of them
running down the highway away from our house.
I whistle for them (I have an amazingly loud whistle) and they
turned around heading back our way right down
the middle of the highway!


I shout for Chyann that they are headed home and we race
for the barn.

Holy cow, do you know how hard it is to run with snow
pants and bunny boots on through approximately 6" of snow?
Well, it's not a pretty sight let me tell you.


Finally making it back to the barn they are at the gate,
freaking out! Gypsy and Scotch are racing up and down
the fence also freaking out. When I notice headlights coming
down the driveway. Oh, no. I'm scared. I hope no one is hurt.
I can just picture someone trying to avoid hitting one of our
horses and driving off into a ditch or hitting a telephone pole.
But, thankfully it's just the neighbors wanting to let us know
they saw them heading our way and asking if we needed help.
Nope, so they left. That was nice of them though.


Chyann grabbed Casper to lead him back to the barn and the
others followed her. It was like a huge happy reunion when
they were all back together. Everyone running around, rearing
up on each other and all that.


So, I fed the animals.
The kids went inside to warm up and I fixed the fence.


Did I mention it was about -15 this am?
I'm so glad the wind wasn't blowing.
I got back inside at 730a.


I just get my stuff off when the dogs start going nuts again.
I look out the window and see it's the Sheriff.


Oh, shit.


I'm thinking all sorts of scarry stuff now.


He comes in and asks if those were our horses out on the highway.
Yes and I just got them in and fixed the fence.
He wants to know my name, phone number, exact address and
a bunch of other stuff. I think he is going to give me a ticket
for the horses' getting out, but no he just wants the info
incase they ever get out again and someone reports it they
can call us to let us know.

Apparently a lot of folks called 911 to
say they were out on the road.


I am sooo Thankful no one was hurt!


The Sheriff finally leaves, but sits in his cruiser for about 15 min
before actually leaving. That was weird.


Heart finally slowing down I take my first sip of coffee.


Wow, what a way to start a Saturday.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Ouch!


Everyday is a surprise around here.


I went out to feed the animals the other morning
and notice poor Casper has blood all over his face and leg.


Somehow he has managed to cut his eye lid, right
where the eyelashes grow out.


Poor guy.


Chyann cleaned him all up and we felt he'd be ok.
Just needed a little antibiotic ointment and healing time.


Well, in looking at him now I'm thinking maybe
he should have gotten a stitch or two.

Sure hope those eyelashes grow back.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Goofy horse



It's winter here in WI, so the ground is snow covered.
We feed our horses heavy twice a day.
It takes time/energy to paw through the snow
to find something to eat between meals and usually
someone (your mama)
will come and push you off anyway,
So, being a goofy ass horse you will take the easy way out.

Behind the barn we have metal ramps that the Hubby
backs the truck up onto unload the hay. He puts
gates up infront of this area to keep the horses
out because they will poop everywhere and knock
over those metal ramps.
The easy way for Jenny is to lean and lean
and lean on those metal gates until her
imense weight bends the metal gate and she either
is able to step over it or give it another good
lean and it falls down.
Then she is able to vaccume up all the stray bits of
hay that have fallen off the hay fork and
as I said before poop everywhere.

She will be there until we feed the animals in the
evening because she wont cross the fallen gates.

Well, something spooked her good as we were going
out to the barn the other night and she apparently decided
that going through that gate was better than
getting eaten by whatever had scared her.
This is what is left of the gate she went through.


Now, you'd think after something like this she
would be terribly torn up and injured, but no.
Just a little scrape on her foot.
No good pic of her foot scrape, but here she
is looking pretty calm and composed.


Jenny has a lot of dumb luck that is for sure.

After the gate was destroyed the hubby put up a board

as a terporary deterent until he could get the gates welded,

but she broke that too.

Here is Casper.

He likes to walk up that ramp and paw on the door.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Can you smell that?

Lilac Tree


Wishing for spring!


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The rest of the story..


A few weeks ago I did a post about cold weather
and included a picture of our neighbors horse Copper.

A lot of you thought we should let him run with our horses.

Well, he use to.
For about two months.
Two very long months.

Copper came from a big ranch up North that kept a
lot of roping/barrel racing/all around rodeo horses.
He was a companion horse to some of their big money makers.

Not quite sure what happened, but he and a lot of other horses
were sold at fire sale prices.

Our neighbors purchased him (he is a Pony of America - POA)
and brought him to our house.
Yes, without asking us.

We had, for about a year, boarded a horse
for them named Sky. She was very old and rarely ridden.
About a month previous to this we/them made the decision
to have her put down. It was tough to have to do, but necessary.

I guess they figured since they had boarded Sky with us,
Copper could board here too.

Copper had been low man on the totem pole for all
the years he had been running with those big Quarter Horses
and he comes here with our 2minis, pony, yearling and 1horse.
What do you think happens?

He decided to kick our little herd's butt!

Gypsy was injured the first day when he nailed
her in the right knee, so we had to move
her and Jenny to another pen.

That left Scotch and the minis with him and
he beat the crap out of them so bad and ran them
through fences every day.

We put Copper in with our cows after a few days of this.
Do you think that worked?
Nope.

The cows got horrible gashes in their heads and
were not able to eat at all.

Of course we informed the neighbors of all this and
at first they though it was funny. Really they did.

After three weeks of this kind of behavior we told the
neighbors to find somewhere else to board him.

They thought we were being rediculious, saying that's what
horses do to determine herd hirearchy.
That is true and if it decreased in intensity and no one
was getting seriously hurt I might have let it run it's course.
But he seemed to be getting meaner all the time.
Jumping the cow fence and getting in with Scotch and the minis
just to have another go at them.

Copper was a gelding, but may have had a retained testicle
that made him behave like a stallion.
Or maybe not, who knows since he reportedly didn't act that
way at his previous owners place - or did he?
We'll never know for sure.

Took the neighbors a month or so to find another
place for him. He was low man on the totem pole with
big Percheron horses knocking him around at the new place.
He was there for two years while the neighbors put up
fence on their land.

Now he looks longingly over the fence towards our place.

Occasionally I'll feel bad for him till I remember how
horrible it was having him here.





Monday, January 25, 2010

New addition

Chyann got a kitten for her Birthday.
Like we needed another cat.
Only have three out at the barn - all males,
and trip, our three footed house cat.

One of her friends has an over abundance of barn cats
and needed to find some homes.
And you know Chyann's daddy, he is an ol' softy, said
yes after I said no.

So, meet Willow.

I call her Whining Willow.
She meows all the time!

Hard to get a good pic of her as she is always moving.
This is Trip checking her out, not sure what to make
of that noisy creature.



I must say she does have pretty green eyes tho.
I wonder if they will stay that way.


Willow loves to play with Trip.
Poor Trip with only three feet is at a disadvantage,
all he can do is head-butt her unless he is laying
down. Then watch out because he is gonna
get her then!


Willow likes to hog the food too.



And now I know what Krissy speaks of when she says
her cats tear up the house at night while she tries to sleep!

Our cats do the same thing.
Hard to believe they can make sooo much noise!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ice Skating

What yucky weather we are having today.
It rained all day yesterday and now it's snowing.
The old snow is nice and rotten with a layer of ice on top
and now new snow. Going to be treacherous later this week
if the temps fall below zero as expected.

Chyann turned the big 12 years old last week.

She had a bunch of friends spend the night and the
next day we went skating at the local rink.

When we got there only one other kid was skating, he looked
to be about five years old and boy could he skate.
Anyway, I helped all the kids lace up their skates and
was the last one out of the warm-up shack.

Took me a few minutes to remember how to skate since
we don't skate much. Actually last winter was the first time
I'd had on skates in about 20years. No kidding.

So, I'm getting the hang of it, skating backwards when that kid,
the little guy who was there when we arrived, skates up
in front of me. I say Hi, do you go to school here, and blah,
blah, blah and the kid says I'm gonna get you.
Next thing I know I'm on my back on the ice with the wind
knocked out of me. As I lay there stunned all the kids gather
around and say that kid did the same thing to them as
soon as they got out on the ice too.

As I finally get back up on my skates that kid's mother
gets out of her car and yells to her kid to apologise to me.
He doesn't and soon thereafter they leave.

Can you imagine that?
Someone could have really been hurt.
As it was I sustained the worst injuries of us all.
A horribly bruised tail bone.
And OMG did it hurt for days!



Chyann and one of her buddies.
Yes all of her friends are the same age, they are
all just giants compared to her.


I think Caden might become a whiz on skates.
This was only the third time he had done it
and WOW he was great!



He has put in a request to get some hockey skates tho.
Says it's not cool to wear the white ones.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

I know, I know...

I know.
I KNOW.
That I've been neglecting this blog lately.
I have to say that every day I think about
things that will make a good blog entry
but, that doesn't count, right.
HMMM..
Soon, I'll get a bunch of post's out
cuz lots of stuff has been happening at our house.
Have a happy day :)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Got it!

Got my new washing machine yesterday
and it wasn't nearly as painful as I expected.

It's a big ol' Whirlpool with a bunch
of bells and whistles.

Not installed yet, but hopefully sometime
this next week we'll get it in.
I just plain ran out of time to do all I had in mind for
the laundry area.

But,
I got the Christmas tree all packed away
along with everything that goes with it

AND

got the stinking refrigerator cleaned out!


Of course I had to watch a little football today too.

Can't believe the Ravens took the Patriots!
Bummer the Packers didn't win, they sure came back
and gave me some hope for a while there tho..

Saturday, January 9, 2010

It's a New Year

Wow!
Can you believe it's already 2010?!

Seems like not too long ago everyone was in a big
panic about Y2K. Remember that?
The computers were all going to crash and the world
was going to come to a screeching halt!

Anywho..

This last week has been busy.
We never made it home before dark,
therefore my evenings were crazy!

Currently our quest has been to find and purchase
a new washing machine.
Can't just go to Sears and say I'll take that one, load'er up.
Nope, we had to go to every store that sold washers.
What a pain.
I know we want to get the best bang for our buck, but
I'd have been happy with that first one we saw at Sears.
And really who is going to be using it? Me, that's who.
So, it doesn't really matter what the hubby likes, right?
Today we are going to Eau Claire and get the one HE
thinks will be best. FINE. Lets just get the damn thing!

My plan is to remove the doors in the laundry nook,
clean it up, take down the old cabinates, re-paint, put the
machines in and at some point make a curtin to hang instead
of putting the doors back on.


It's been cold here too!

This AM it was about -12.



Casper is so small that he gets hay dribbled on him
from the other horses.


This is our neighbors horse Copper.
Gotta feel sorry for the guy.
He is in a mostly wooded area with no shelter, but
trees all by his lonesome so he hangs out buy our fence
to watch our horses. He sure looks cold, can you
see the ice on his eyelashes?



The cows are pretty frosty this am too.




When I go out to feed the animals I have to keep reminding
myself that spring really is around the corner :)