Small things

Well I got the new battery put into the truck today.  A spiffy Autocraft which is what came out dead.  The old battery lasted 5 years and several run dead's from left my headlights on ordeals.

Hopefully this battery can last at least as long!! 

Despite the rain shower that went through earlier this morning, I took the shedding blade and shed off the two horses-again.  Eventually I'll get Phoenix all shed off!

 

Coyote proofing

     Since I've had plenty of issues with coyotes, which I at first blamed on a possum, getting in and last Friday killed 7 of my good dutch rabbits(Rafik, Syd, Dalton, Leonardo, Rebecca, Zoey, and Rachel) I was pissed and upset.  I hated losing Raf, Syd and Rachel the *most*.  Rest in peace my darling babies. 
     Well last night(Tuesday), Jason, next door, actually saw the small pack of 3 coyotes back by the barn.  I've been putting the x-pens up in the doorways to keep my dutch safe, but they got in under the panels and got to my meat pen cages- killed one bunny

     Well at least I knew I had to replace the floor wire, this just speeds up that process.  I'll try to sell the last two does and rip the floor wire out and re-breed Juliet for meat bunnies.   I'll probably rebreed tomorrow. 
     So I took two of my cattle panels, since I won't need them for calves this spring, and cut them to the 10foot length to replace the corral panels so the coyotes can't sneak under them.  Then stuck the end pieces- cut to 4 foot lengths and put them over the gates. 

     So the traps are still out, since we've caught 5 stray cats so far-and popped them all!  We're decreasing the stray cat population!!  Now to get that back area completely cleaned up and use that area to put the x-pens out for the bunnies to romp in!! 

Little Storm damage

I had to take a few pictures of the storm damage from the storms on Thursday. 

Took a HUGE limb down off the maple in the back of the pasture.  It took a 12 foot section of fence with it.  Blocked it for a few days to let the horses finish up their round bale and then I'll take the panel down and re-do the fence back there.

And one of Phoenix pacing the fence, but he'ls putting weight back on!

Now to find a vet that I can haul Phoenix into that has the grinder to do his teeth. 
I took miss Connie with me today to go pick up my rabbit food-PenPals.  The guy ordered PLENTY, he has 12 bags in stock but my bin barely holds 3 so I'll have plenty for a little while(It's $20 for a 50# bag if you want some for Marty and Goldy!) 

She had to endure a small time stint sitting on my bed while I got my stuff together.  She's a bit spoiled!  Can't wait for the show on Sunday!

The evening ended as I was coming inside to a loose steer calf.  Standing next to the fence mooing at Phoenix and Heidi.

Whisman eventually came down and caught him.  Someone must have called him.

New Hay Roll!

     Dad and Aunt Lisa found some hay rolls and went to pick some up for the cows, and Dad said they looked good so I asked him to pick me one up.  I also shaved Heidi's beard off too, more to see what it would look like!

The new roll of hay is a HUGE success!!  Now hopefully we can get some rain and get the other pasture to GROW.  COME ON RAIN!

Fun Fun

Did a few things and got a little bit of fun done today. 
First thing I did after feeding was some laundry!  And while that was running, I got all my bunny water dishes cleaned and put away for the Summer. 

Then after that while the laundry was still running, I took Phoenix out for a little walk around and we even did a few short trots.  Very weird riding him again, I haven't ridden him in a saddle in a long time, first time ever riding in that Saddle! 

I got seriously covered in fur, he's STILL shedding like a BASTARD.   We did mostly walking and a TINY bit of trotting and I was able to actually keep a posting trot at the end of the mess.  I let him end on a good note for both of us, I untacked him over the drain field to graze, and carried my tack back to the barn, grabbed halters.  I haltered Heidi and let her out in the back yard to graze some more of the drain field and then put Phoenix's halter on.  I laid in the grass dozing while they ate.  Then I looped their ropes up around their necks and went to make their supper- both came running for supper.    

Afterwards I brought the blue Dutch doe baby and the two tort babies, they didn't get out of the x-pen.  Gave Heidi something to sniff!  They were both very, very good.  As well as the blue dutch baby.  I'm waiting for the tort babies to get in good shape before I separate them.  The Pen Pals' rabbit feed seems to be doing great.  Time to call and order it!

 

 

 

 

Around the homestead Fun!

Well first thing Allen hung near the house in case dad needed any help doing the pipework under the house so with the Buick backed up in the corner of the driveway Allen decided he could crawl into the trunk and figure out why the latch isn't latching and get it to latch. 

"Hi Allen!"

 

Then later in the afternoon once we here mostly done running around doing this and that, Allen brought the wheeler over and dragged the Roark's field and I seeded it. 

Some spots were seeded heavily other spots if it got a light coating was doing good.  It depended on how they looked.  So afterwards Allen and I sat outside with the horses while they grazed the drain field down again, before putting them back into my pasture.  They are very miffed at why they can't be back in the other field. I want to give it a couple of days to start growing at least and since it rained last night it should help it! 

Happy Easter to everyone!  We'll be having some fun later in the afternoon once the weather clears up! 

Overdue posting!

     Well it's a long over due posting so with as few words as possible and pictures in the middle!  Opps Definently catch up time!
     Well Friday Kylie came down for spring break and being the only decent day we went for a ride(we had intended to ride a bit more often!) Well first things first, we measured Phoenix and got the right gullet into his saddle, then as I was bringing the saddle back into the barn so we could ride, I slipped in the mud, knees down and saddle down into the mud!  Heck the poor saddle didn't even get on the horse before getting filthy!  So we rode-me filthy and all!

     After our short ride Kylie showed me how to pull her mane, so I pulled Heidi's mane basically even.
     Phoenix and Heidi were grazing across the drain feild while I did this.  You can see the mud on Phoenix's saddle now!

Then Saturday was a bunny show!  We didn't do quite as good as normal but we're improving!

     On Sunday we went around looking at boarding barns for when Kylie moves down- we found a winner! Tamarack which is about 10 miles from A.Lisa's, he's got several horses we can use for lesson mounts and then in the fall when I put Phoenix down I can move Heidi there and have a HUGE indoor to work in all winter long!  That indoor is 210'x 160' and stall board is only $400 a month. 
     Then a short blurb on Ladies Night ~Round 2~ at least for A.Lisa and me!  Kylie had never fired a gun and there was still a few spots for Monday nights Ladies Night, so we went! 
Me and the Walther PPK (380) were good buddies!  I REALLY like that gun!  Found out it was James Bond's gun too- shamefully I'm not a James Bond fan. 

Tony Pignato was the instructor- his two helpers this time were Evan and Josh.