Taking the Girls for a spin!

Well Aunt Lisa brought Lizzy and Grandma over for a little while, and first Lizzy and I took Gabriel and Colby with us to Tractor Supply and Lowes to pick up some stuff and then came home and took Heidi and Bahloo for a ride. 

Lizzy hasn't been riding in a little while she tells me! 

I gave her Bahloo as Bahloo is much better trained. 

Heidi and I had to lead out at first.

Went around Alfie's yard and then headed out back to go around the barn. 

The barn was a mistake- the clover was high enough the two were giving us hassles getting their heads up and leaving the feild.  Opps!!

Us chatting on the way back- and my legs were killin me!!  I know better than to wear shorts/Capris riding but it was just so hot out. 

Went past dad and the camera and up to the road, and rode down the road to the Roarks, Abby and Nathan have been eyeing the horses, I figured to set them up on Heidi and walk them around.

Heidi was an angel (I look past the whole head down grazing while in the saddle- that bit is my fault, I let both girls do it before-unteaching is a bit more difficult).  Bahloo must have not liked the girth, she's all hot and sweaty from standing in the sun, she just stopped and plopped herself down in the Roark's front yard.  Short way down for Lizzy to get off, but I was worried that she was heat stroking.  I yanked her back to her feet, we walked back over to the water faucet, dropped the saddles on the ground and cold hosed both girls down.  I knew it was getting hot and both girls are black. 

I hope Lizzy had fun!  It was certainly very nice to have someone that loved horses as much as I do to go riding with! 

Who's next to go with me??

New Calves!

Well for starters, Dad found the ad for calves in Aberdeen last night, about 45 minutes after he had posted them.  He had calves started on feed and a few others, bulls and heifers. 

I remember Aunt Lisa telling me she had wanted a nice spotted holstein heifer for breeding in the coming years, and oen of the calves started on feed was a holstein heifer. I looked at dad and said, call him, I'll pay for her- it came out of the money intended as payment for Heidi so it'll work out in the end. 

We talked some last night on our drive over to Lisa's.  Originally we were just going to take the goat go-for.  But we were unsure of the size of the heifer, and he had $60 jersey bull calves also listed.  Dad wanted to see them before commiting after Red and Amy I understand.  They are only 10-14 days old but I figured I could give 'em a wing. So we picked up the trailer instead- knowing full well that 3 wouldn't fit in the goat go-for- and if we had that instead we couldn't get any of the jersey's if they looked okay.  It was late already so instead of making dad change the ball on his truck in the dark, we took my truck to go get the trailer.

My truck pulled it with ease, just the lack of shocks kept us bouncing a little bit. 

So this morning, we both got up early I got the horses and rabbits fed(not enough time for water bottles though) and headed up to Aberdeen. 

He kenw we were getting the Holstein, we loaded her first, while dad and the guy got her out of her pen, I looked in on the 4 little Jersey's.  1 of them didn't strike me very well but the other 3 looked great, and we dad asked if they were promised yet, he said no, so said we'd like 2 of them.  The guy must of thought they were for me or something, he let me go into the pen to pick the two I liked.  3 Came to me, 1 did not.  Out of the 3 that came two me 1 was the one I didn't like, so came the two that came home with us.

The holstein is jumpy and a bit skiddish and leaped straight up in the air when we loaded the two jersey's.  I gave them some Jump start which has vitamins, minerals and a probiotic to help settle their tummy's before we let them off the trailer:

Then after that I just let them wander around my pasture while I ran to Tractor Supply to get the milk replacer and more calf feed. 

They didn't appear to have been fed this morning, so I went out to give them a bottle as soon as I got back with the milk replacer, then after a short romp in the sun I went ahead and locked them up in the barn as I'm scared to death to not be able to get my hands back on the Holstein again and I don't have enough panels to lock them into the front of the pasture. 

Last minute updates before work starts again!

Well today being the last day off, we had mulitple things going today.  First off was Micheal showed up-hence why it rained, we ended up trimming hooves in the barn, but everyone got theirs done.

Then I took down the hanging cages and put the new ones in-all the while it's pouring outside. 

It rained real good for a little while, what had been just a tiny dribble of water going down the drainage ditch became a mini creek:

This had been dry before the rain is now ankle deep.

My crossing is all wet again!

The other day when I stopped by to visit grandma the cows were calling to me to the fence- I think they just wanted alfalfa cubes . . .

The fix on my Breyer didn't hold.  I took the support bandage off after approximately 26 hours took a few quick pictures.  It felt sturdy enough.

But alas, I decided to put Cheyenne back up with the others and the Nokota horse got shoved over by Filine(who doesn't stand well to begin with-I must of bumped the shelf) and it knocked Cheyenne down and snapped the glue joint~had a minor domino effect.  So I took her down and used straight wrap on it until I can get some real Breyer resin/plastic glue and re-fix her leg, she's such a pretty model. 

But wrap and all she withstood the shelf(and I propped Filine a bit better) so it'll stay wrapped until I get the resin glue.

Model sorta day

I helped dad replace the window in my room, while he was finishing up the outside trim I took the opportunity to take down my hand painted models and get them spray coated to make them more water resistant(for future baths after they collect dust). 

Left to right: Starbuck, Tessa, Sedonia, Wonder, Jasmine, MoJo, Magic, Blaze

Left to Right: Duchess, Filine, Joyess, Angel

So after I got back inside and the last of them were drying outside, I brought the first bunch in and started to wash my shelf off and wipe down the other Breyers, and Cheyenne(the bay roan) I have I took her down and started to wipe her off and her leg snapped off.

So Super glue and some wrapping later she's standing back on my shelf again and once I know the glue is completely cured, I'll try to resculpt, sand and repaint the break in the leg.

Close up of the wrapping job.  I'm hoping to take this stuff off tomorrow afternoon, so I can see the damage that was done and get some pictures of the break.  This was what I was talking about on Facebook when I said fixing my broken legged horse. 

24 hours for the super glue to 'cure' and then I'll get some new pictures-possibly re-wrap it for support and put Cheyenne back on the shelf with the others until I get the time and putty to fully fix her. 

After visiting Aunt Lisa, Grandma, Jim and his folks, I came home and moved the horses back over to my side for Micheal to trim tomorrow(If it's not raining, if not it'll be postponed) and to let the rain and then couple days of sunshine to give it a boost to get ahead of the ponies munching.

Pheonix and Bahloo are both really sweaty as well, none of the ponies were quite ready for this heat spell.

Heidi's mane was braided to attempt to keep her neck cooler as her mane is THICK. 

Finally got the cages finished and some pony pictures!

First we'll start with pony pictures.  I finally found the Cashell fly masks in Small for Phoenix.  The 'Horse' sized one is too big for Phoenix, it fits Heidi and Bahloo.

I also picked up one of the fly sheets from Tractor Supply and I got it sized for Phoenix(since I know his size exactly) to see if it runs big or small.  Runs average sized. So as I have the extra money I'll get Bahloo and Heidi their own to be more protective of their summer coats(and bonus for fly protection!)

And after going with Aunt Lisa to pick up Charlie from Flemingsburg, I came home, got the fly stuff back onto the horses and then came back over and worked on the rabbits.  I had to tattoo 4 of the babies that are leaving tomorrow.

After I tattooed I double checked water bottles to make sure everyone had full cool water bottles, I came back over and cut the doors and feeders out of the new cages. 

I brought Zelda over to model for me and I just let her hang out over there with me, I brought her water bottle over so she could drink while I worked. 

Might have to watch where the water bottle sits so it doesn't rot the wood out or find a small peice of tin to put down on there.

Floor looks strong!!

She looks comfy in there, she may not be quite full sized yet but it's definently a good sized cage.

I put Zelda back for the night until I can find the trays for the cages and dad can help me build the supports for the trays.  I have to find more of hte wire edging to protect me, I only have it on the bottom right now, but I'll have to get the sides done as well. 

Now to just heal back up my arms and legs that met the edges of the wire, I came inside a bit of a bloody mess-hands, arms and legs were all exposed cause it was hot outside!!



Rabbits cages

We almost finished the rabbit cages today . . .  We found a few more minor miscalculations- the trays . . . . Opps. 

Without further adeu:

And Kansas and one of her babies munching.  Her babies have just started to come out of the box and sample solid food. 

A close up: