Hay Gods

Every year we face the impending day of hauling hay. In the past it was hauling small square bales which were labor intensive. But the lady we buy from sold her equipment and now has the farmer down the road bale it into big round bales for her. He takes the majority of the hay in trade. Last year we rented a large trailer and the farmer loaded it for us in the field. We hauled it with Sean's Jeep that has a decent towing capacity. It wasn't ideal though, the weight of the trailer and hay was pushing the limits of the Jeep. So we started looking for a farm truck to haul stuff around here. Enter the big black F250 we bought back in February. It's main purpose is to haul hay every year...and the occasional milling machine.

We didn't want to keep renting trailers from the rental place like we've been doing for the last 13 years of living here. Heck, we probably could have purchased a trailer with all the rental fees over the years. Oh well. So Sean researched trailers for several months before finding the perfect trailer for us. He wanted something that would be easy to load the skid steer on and found a company that makes car haulers that tilt. We ordered an 18 foot tilt and picked it up the beginning of July. So now we have a tow vehicle, a trailer and a skid steer to load the big round bales. We were set!

I was running out of hay last weekend and we decided to head over and pick up a couple of last years hay since the new hay had yet to be cut. It was also a good dry run for the big day of hay hauling. The skid steer was loaded, strapped down and we were off for the 20 minute drive to the field. I followed in my car with the kids. About half way there Sean pulls into a driveway and pulls open the hood to coolant bubbling everywhere. The serpentine belt was shredded. A quick drive into town and a new belt installed and we were on our way. We were thankful for the big driveway as doing this on the side of the road would not have been fun.

We were able to pick up two of the old bales and get home. The tilt trailer worked great, I would crank it up while Sean drove the skid steer onto the trailer. The I'd release the pressure and let it down.

So that was last weekend. The lady with the hay called Friday and said the farmer was baling the hay and we can come pick up our 20 bales whenever we'd like. So Saturday we headed out. We took our skid steer out again and loaded five bales on the trailer, two side by side in the front, one in the middle and two side by side in the back.

 I don't think I mentioned that it was 106 degrees out on Saturday. The heat index was well over that. Miserable would be an understatement. Oh and the air conditioning in the truck decided to break a week ago. The clutch and pulley went out. Sean didn't have time to fix it. So that was fun too (please note the sarcasm). We took turns driving to and from the field which was about a 25 minute drive, the other got to follow with the kids in the Ford Edge (with great air conditioning).

We got three loads home (15 round bales) and went to start the truck and it blew a spark plug. Apparently very common in the v10 engines. That was it for the truck. So we parked it and the Edge and connected the Jeep to the trailer and I followed in the F150. We didn't want to over do it for the Jeep so we did three bales and one in the back of the truck. And then a final load to bring home the skid steer. The final load was brought home at 9pm and all the rearranging of bales was done in the dark. It was the longest day. ever. We escaped with only slight heat exhaustion, one dead truck and a skid steer that is dripping some unknown fluid. So glad this is only once a year.

The Birthday Horse

When we moved out here nearly 13 years ago I knew I wanted horses. But with only 5 acres I knew those dreams might not include a full sized horse but rather a couple of miniature horses. So I brought Rocky home as a 6 month old colt and the following year I bought Desi who was 9 years old. These two little horses filled that void that I had for a full sized horse. They sure take as much care as a full sized horse....just as many visits from the farrier, just as much manure and just as much hay.

Yesterday Desi turned 20 years old. You might ask "Is that old for a horse?". Well, not really. The farrier said he routinely sees them go into their 30's without any problems. So we're hopeful little old Desi will make it at least that long. Happy Birthday little horse!

Oh and I couldn't not post the outtake from the birthday picture above. I'm crouched down trying to get a picture with Desi and Rocky was having none of it. He needed to see what was going on and investigate. Rocky usually "investigates" with his teeth. He's a mouthy horse. So he tasted my hair for awhile and showed some interest in my earrings. He did not draw blood, for a change. Desi thinks this is pretty funny stuff.

Chores

Wesley has been asking for Terraria (a video game for PS3) for a few weeks now and we decided he'd have to work for it before we'd buy it. So for the last week he's been doing all sorts of odd jobs around the house. He cleaned toilets and scrubbed down his bathroom, folded three loads of laundry, cleaned up the basement, matched a huge pile of socks, trimmed wisteria vines and washed windows to start with. Then it got harder for me to find stuff for him to do. So I drug him out while I was re-staining the swing set and gave him a paint brush. He did most of it and did a pretty good job.

Then Greta wanted in on the action and so I gave them the fun job of cleaning out the goat house. Well, not actually scooping it out (that's hard and dusty work), they got to pull the full garden cart back to the blackberries and dump it as mulch and fertilizer. They did pretty good, one pulled and the other pushed the heavy cart. They pulled five loads back there. I think they earned their prizes.

It's nice having a hot, dry spell to get outside and get chores done. The animals are all doing well and the horses are sleek and shiny after losing their winter coats. Dym, my sweet senior goat is 14 years old this year. That's pretty old for a goat. Goats have similar lifespans as dogs. She doesn't eat hay much anymore, other than just mouthing it. She loves her alfalfa pellets and is keeping weight on pretty well. She lies around and sleeps most of the time.

Thankful

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We stayed home this year and kept it small and cozy, just the four of us. We have all been battling the creeping crud and getting well is what we want to do this Thanksgiving break. I made several pounds of snow crab, a small ham and several side dishes to gobble up. It was a hit. We are now sitting here listening to the sound of ice pellets hitting the roof and thankful we have a nice warm house to stay cozy in. We aren't Black Friday people and there will be no braving the roads to get a good deal on anything. My Christmas shopping is officially done and now I get to sit back and enjoy the Holiday season.

We put up the Christmas tree a week ago and the kids really enjoyed packing the ornaments on it. We decided we might need to buy a larger tree to accommodate all the wonderful homemade ornaments that I receive every year. Our "slim" tree is a little too skinny these days. Maybe next year.

The animals are all keeping warm outside in their houses with oodles of bedding. Dym, my old goat, is going into the winter season in great condition. She's fairly fat and sleek looking which is just what I want to see. I did buy her a new coat this year, my old cut up fleece jacket wasn't cutting it any longer. I found her a Thinsulate XXXL dog turnout coat which fits her great. I can't imagine the size of dog that was made for!

I'm trying a new method of bedding in the goat house this winter. It's called the "Deep Bedding" method. Normally in the spring and fall I clean out the goat house and start with fresh bedding but this year I didn't and just kept piling on fresh straw on top of the old soiled bedding. Eventually the bottom layer starts to break down and produces heat from the composting waste. This heat travels up and warms the goats through the winter. It hasn't gotten bitterly cold yet (although 26 isn't too warm either) so we'll see how it goes through the winter.

The Birthday Horse

I was looking at some dates on the refrigerator and saw that one of our miniature horses was born on April 18, 2005 and he was turning 10 this year. I told the kids, half joking, that we should celebrate his birthday with party hats and a cake. Oh boy were they on board! Every day for more than two weeks Greta has asked me when Rocky's birthday was. Well it is today. So he got brushed out (he's still losing his winter coat) and got a lovely red party hat. Sean took pictures. Happy birthday Rocky!

Miniature horses routinely live into their 30's, so he's considered young.

Weekly Winners

The kids are doing well in school. Wesley is the class leader in Rocket Math (a timed math test). He must get his math skills from his father. :) Greta likes preschool but hates for me to leave. It's a struggle but I hope it prepares her for kindergarten next year.  She writes her name well and has even started spelling out words on her own (I'm sure it's because of her big brother). I've been blowing dry her hair after her baths and her curly hair is actually pretty long when it's straight!

We decorated for Christmas last weekend. I get just as excited as the kids to decorate the house. It's very cozy and I try to do it as early as possible (I'd do it the day after Halloween if it was socially acceptable).

I took the camera outside with me when I fed the animals on Sunday during the snow storm. The miniature horses are a bit on the crazy side normally but the snow makes them psychotic. They are entertaining little creatures.

Fur and Feathers

Usually my favorite season is Fall. I love the changing leaves and the crisp cool evenings. But I'm changing it all up this year. SPRING is my favorite season from this point on. The bulb flowers pushing their way through the dirt, the fat buds on the trees waiting for that perfect moment to erupt, the robins returning and my kids running around screaming (outside for a change). It's so nice to be on the fast rack to spring as this has been the longest winter in the history of all winters. Ever.

It's like the animals know too. The horses are already shedding their fuzzy winter coats. I let them out to run in the back yard this past weekend. They ran like crazy, kicking up their heels. It brought a smile to my face.

I'm happy to say I've kept Dym alive for another winter. The twice daily rations of soaked beet pulp, rations of high protein feed and oodles of alfalfa seemed to do the trick. She's sleek and shiny. Not fat but not too thin either. I wish she was a fat as her offspring but Nubians never seem to get as rolly polly as Boers. This is the year I'm fencing in the walnut grove for the goats (I think I said that last year but the deck took precedence). I can't wait to see her out there grazing under the shade of the walnut trees with her offspring.  I'll think they are all excited to get out of the corral.

On a sad note, last week I lost my oldest animal. Simon, the cockatiel, passed away from what I can only guess is old age. I got her back in 1997 while I was still in high school. She's been with me through most of my big life changes....college, wedding, all the moves and babies. When I got her I so desperately wanted a male bird because they can be taught to sing and talk. Hence the name Simon. He turned into a she. Therefore I got another cockatiel in the college dorms.....Luigi. Who turned out to be another female. My third attempt at getting a male was after college in our first house not far from here. I succeeded in getting a male that time and named him Waldo. He and Luigi paired up and hatched a lone egg, another girl named Ingot. Two more males were added over the years, Duncan and Eddy, both of whom wooed Simon. They all live in a giant 4 foot by 6 foot parrot cage upstairs. The boy tiels are all upstairs singing as I write this....it's never quiet in my house (I like it that way). We've lost Luigi last year and now Simon....down to four. She was 17 years old.

Loose Teeth, Zinnias and Kick Boards

I'd like to say there is something fun and exciting to blog about but alas there isn't. It's a pretty slow Tuesday morning. Sesame Street playing in the background with the super annoying voice of Elmo resounding against my ear drums. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. But it entertains the four year old while Mommy drinks her tea and catches up on the internet. I realize I haven't blogged in nearly a week because there is just not much of anything to blog about around here. Just everyday happenings. Wesley has his first loose tooth. I can't believe my oldest is old enough to be growing in his permanent teeth. That's just crazy. He's doing great in first grade. Still happy to go to school and learn. We'll get to talk to his teacher tomorrow at parent teacher conferences to see how he's doing. I'm looking forward to that.

Greta and I are a little sad to report we had our first freeze this weekend. You see, her favorite past time was running back to the garden and picking several zinnias and making bouquets for everyone she knows.

The zinnias were so pretty this year. Coming in nearly all colors and standing taller than Greta. I'm thinking next year it would be neat to have an entire garden devoted to zinnias. They are definitely my favorite garden flower. But they are all brown and dead now. It makes me a little sad. I promise Greta we will plant more in the spring and that makes us both happier.

One of my fall projects was to preserve a large amount of basil. I had researched it and decided on the food processor method where you chop it all up in the food processor and slowly add olive oil to make a paste. Then you pack that into ice cube trays and freeze it for future use in sauces, soups and (my favorite) pesto. Naturally, I kept putting it off and the freeze got to the basil before I did. Boo. That will teach me, next year do it before October.

Hubby and I did manage to get the new horse shed (nearly) completed this past weekend. It went up pretty easily and the animals seem to like it. We just extended the roof line of the existing shed and made a new 8 foot by 10 foot enclosure. So now the goats have an 8X10 building and the horses have an 8X10 building. I'll get some pine shavings down and a nice layer of warm straw spread before the frigid weather moves in. Now all that's left is to get a gallon of paint color matched to the shop color and give it another coat of paint (it already got one coat on the outside and bottom) and to put up kick boards on the inside. Kick boards are to protect the siding from the inside.....goats and horses are pretty rough on everything.

That's about all for now. I hope everyone is having a nice week!

Fall Projects

Cool fall weather means a spike in outdoor projects and activities. This past weekend was our towns little Fall Festival. It's cute and quaint and the kids get super excited about it each year. That's mainly because of the candy, but I'll take what I can get.

When that was done I hopped in the truck and filled up the back at Lowes. What do you think is being done with all this?

Five sheets of siding, six roofing panels and a couple of bags of concrete = a new animal shelter of course! The current horse/goat shelter was only meant for one miniature horse and one goat. Yeah, well now we are on two mini's and four goats. It gets a bit cramped in there in winter and a new shelter was on the list before another winter hits. Sean got the holes for the 4X4's dug and we got the framing up on Sunday. Not bad for a few hours of work (the goats were a big help...yea right!). We'll finish it this weekend if the weather cooperates.

The grass eaters

One of the many projects slated for this year is fencing in the walnut grove so the goats can graze and thus, hopefully, reduce our mowing time. It's going to be a big project and I can honestly say nobody is excited about doing it. For one, it's about 2.5-3 acres and, two, it has to be goat proof. That means you just can't string a single line of electric wire and call it a day. It's lots of t-posts and wood posts, field wire, clearing overgrown trees and a lot of labor. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the projects I want to get done but then I remember the old saying "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." So after the deck is done I'm going to go buy t-posts and slowly get all of those in the ground. One step at a time.

I know the goats can hardly wait. So for now I occasionally let them out in the back yard to go eat yummy weeds. This is doable now but as soon as I get the garden seeded, the flower pots planted, trellis with pole beans going and fruit trees leafed out it will be the end of the goats in the back yard. Have you ever witnessed a goat beeline for a fruit tree? I try to head them away but once they see them it's like a kid in a candy store. They don't just tenderly eat the leaves off of the baby trees, they eat the whole branch....until it's just a stick coming out the ground.  So I've made the decision to transplant the baby fruit trees into the front yard away from the marauding goats. That's on the agenda for this weekend (along with seeding the garden).

Very difficult to photograph friendly goats, one is always in your face.

After the frustrations of dragging three full grown nubians away from my fragile baby cherry trees I decided grazing time was over and tried in vain the get them back into the corral with the miniature horses. I had to enlist Sean's help and a small tub of feed. In the commotion Rocky, aka Satan the miniature horse from hell, decided to bite me on my hand. In the past when he's bit me I've been wearing heavy coveralls and the bites were on my thighs or upper arms and resulted in a purple mark on the skin. He's never broke the skin until now. The little punk got me really good this time, I could see him laughing as he pranced off. He hasn't been laughing this week though. He's been learning some respect from the whip whenever he gets too near me. I'm almost thinking it's time to enlist some professional help. I have no idea how to cure a horse from biting. I certainly can't have the kids playing around him. And no, I'm not Craigslisting him either. I'm not dumping my problems on someone else.

Since it was such a nice day I got the tortoises out in their enclosure. Cecil, the leopard tort, has gotten so big I can no longer pick him up with one hand. He got to ride outside on my hip. I figure it's only a matter of a year or two before Billy Bob is bigger than Cecil. BB is grown a lot over the winter. They did a great job off eating everything that has grown in their enclosure. My mother-in-law brought up some cactus pads for me to plant in their pen and only one made it through the winter successfully. I was so happy it lived and was thriving. Apparently the tortoises thought the same thing. Ugh.

Billy Bob getting big!

Cecil, the hip rider (don't mind my nasty painting clothes, we painted the south side of the house).

First Flurry

Happy new year everyone! We got our first snow of the season yesterday and today. The kids soaked it up. The animals not so much.

 Greta all dressed up like Ralphie's brother from a Christmas Story. She couldn't even sit down to put her boots on. Hehe.....Love the hat too, thanks Granny Randi!

 Rocky, Desi, Heston, Cocoa and Dym all enjoying their morning hay.

 It was the kind of flakes that are huge and wet and perfectly formed. Gorgeous snow flakes. 

 So pretty (even on my cruddy coveralls).

 Desi says Hi. He'll be sixteen years old this Spring, which is still pretty young for a mini. The farrier trims a few that just turned 30 years old.

Goat Man posing for the camera moments before trying to dispatch me. He's one ornery old feller.

The Tasting Game

The farrier was here last week trimming the miniature horses hooves. He's a young guy but I think he knows his way around horses pretty good. I, on the other hand, can honestly say I don't know horses all that well. Yes I've owned horses now for going on eight years but when it comes to training them, I know nothing. This is evident in the fact that I have a almost eight year old miniature horse that has been biting ever since I brought him home as a six month old colt. Rocky has gotten away with everything because I have no clue how to correct him. It started out as him just being "mouthy." He would put everything in his mouth.....my jacket, my shoes, buckets and so forth. I didn't mind him being curious until the mouthing turned into biting.

He liked testing his boundaries. He would stand there all innocent then casually bend his head around and bite my thigh. I would react and he would race off across the pen. It was a game, a very painful game. I learned quickly not to trust that little horse. Then the biting turned into kicking. He'd bite me, I would yell at him and he'd flip his rear end around and try to kick me. This didn't get dangerous until I became pregnant. Then I didn't get too near that horse without a whip (actually it was a riding crop). He respected me as long as I had that crop in my hands. This went on for years. He eventually grew out of the kicking. But sadly, the biting has remained.

So last Friday I'm standing there holding Rocky's halter while the farrier was trimming his hooves. Most people just hold the lead rope that is connected to the halter. Not me. I stand directly in front of Rocky, face to face, with one hand on each side of the halter. This prevents him from biting the farrier but it also pisses him off. So that little horse stands there and gets more and more agitated that he can't move his head. The farrier is getting agitated because the horse is antsy.

Farrier: "You have to stop holding his halter like that, NO horse likes being held like that."
Me: "I'm holding him like this so he doesn't take a chunk out of your shoulder."
Farrier: "You think he'll bite me?"
Me: "Um, yes? He bit the last farrier and he bites me all the time."
Farrier: "Why do you let him bite you?"
Me: "I don't know how to get him to stop."

So he instructed me to just hold the lead rope and see what Rocky does. Of course he sniffed the farriers shirt and carefully put it in his mouth. That guy jumped to his feet and pushed that horse as hard as he could. Almost pushed the horse over. Rocky had no idea what had just happened. I could hardly keep from laughing at the incredulous look on that horses face. The farrier went back to work on his front hooves as if nothing had happened and again Rocky carefully sniffed him and once again tried tasting his pants this time. Before he knew it that horse was once again being shoved five feet. Rocky didn't try "tasting" the farrier again. Perhaps I will try the shoving technique. If anything it was worth a laugh.