Restricted

Draper has started her restricted diet.  In an effort to keep her off of fescue I am keeping her up and feeding what is supposed to be fescue free hay.  My plan is to switch her to alfalfa for the last 30 days. 

I have reconfigured the new barn to where she can just be loose in the whole thing. I have a stall area I can move her to if I want to ride a different horse. Right now Clyde is being restricted too.  I have started limiting his access to spring grass. I think he has foundered some in the past. 

At least he can keep Draper company through the fence. Hugo is on the other end of the barn for the time being. And at some point Otoelene will need to start her restricted diet.  Maybe I should have just built stalls for everyone.  But I just hate stalls. 
 

Guest Trainer

I got to keep Sadie and Allie again yesterday. 

We started out playing outside. We were trying to do some shadow tracing but had to keep waiting for the sun to pop out. 

After we did the tracing, the girls added some details like hair and faces. 

After lunch our guest trainer arrived and we headed out to catch Clyde. 

Linda taught me how to ride, now she is working on a third generation. 

I think Sadie and Allie enjoyed the change up 

And I know Linda was in heaven. 

After letting Clyde go we went to check out the new calf. 

Allie actually wanted to pet her. 

Sadie opted for picking flowers. 

No flower is safe from Sadie. 
 

Jacked

Not jacked up, jacked out. 

It is usually not a good sign when this comes out.  

When Joe was checking the cows yesterday evening, a second calf heifer didn't look right to him.  He got her up to the barn lot and she started eating, yet she had some discharge.  She didn't act like she was in labor.  He waited an hour and checked again, nothing.  So it was my turn.  We got her in the chute and I said that looked like trouble.   It ended up being a backwards calf with only the butt coming.  

Thankfully, my epidural worked and I was able to get the chains on and the feet pulled out.   This is where the jack came in handy.  Joe and I can't pull as hard as we use to.  And amazingly,  

The calf was alive. It was less than 30 minutes from the time we got her in the chute until we got the calf out.  And she was standing in another 30 minutes.  The cow took a little longer.  She went down in the chute.  We had to open the side and she rolled out and got stuck.  We had to put a halter on and ropes on her rear legs to drag her around until she could get in a position to stand.  She just didn't try.  Joe said it was one of the problems of having cows that were too tame.  When we turned her out this morning she went right to eating again.  

 

Crafts And Clyde

Friday for the first day of Spring Break and I got to keep Sadie and Allie. 

They wanted to do a craft. So I pulled out a couple of coaster kits I had gotten on clearance at DG. 

It was a hit. 

But after crafting it was time for Clyde. 

It is amazing how confident they have become working with Clyde. 

Allie is even wanting to ride by herself without us leading her.  But she still doesn’t want to trot. 

Sadie on the other hand only wants to trot. 

And I get a good workout chasing a lazy pony around so Sadie can trot. 

 

New Store

Well, new to me anyway. Looks like it opened Black Friday but I just found it last week and went to it yesterday.  It’s t called Big Bin Dealz.  They are closed Thursdays to restock.  Then the prices go down until they are at $1 on Wednesday.

And yesterday was Wednesday. I decided it was better than Goodwill because the price was so much cheaper and all the stuff was new.   I might have gone a little overboard in buying 9 things. 

D

But I couldn’t resist this bird wall sconce. I thought I would use it as an outdoor decoration. But after seeing it on eBay for $60-$100 I am torn about what to do with it. 

Other items include a box of balloons

Butterfly cape

And big roll of paper for the girls. 

A bunch of envelopes that fit my string are cards perfect. 

 And a pink swim shirt.  There may be a few other things that I will try to hold off until Christmas.   I have a staff meeting in town next Wednesday. Guess where I will be going first. 

Hugo and Daffodils

The weather was nice enough and I had some time so I decided to ride Hugo for a little bit yesterday.  

You can see that Hugo was not being a fan of getting caught, as usual.  After about 20 minutes of this, and Clyde never joining in, Hugo finally gave up and let me catch him.  He was a gentleman from then on.  

The last cold snap did in my hyacinths but the new miniature daffodils that I planted last fall were not far enough along to get damaged.  I have Minnow Rock Garden daffodils that have multiple flowers on each stem. 

I don't recall the name of this one, but it is stunning with it's white color and thin petals.  I don't see it on my order from the bulb company last year so I must have bought it on clearance and it probably had already bloomed.   I think it turned out to be a good purchase.  

And this daffodil that looks like a dandelion is called Rip Van Winkle.  It is very different looking.  But I am thinking that the flowers are proving too heavy for the stems.   A lot of them are pretty saggy.   

It had been fun watching all my new flowers pop up.  

Better Start

A first calf heifer calved right on time a couple of days ago. 

So today, Joe got them up and I moved them into the lot behind the house so we can keep a close eye on them.

The first calf is a beautiful bull calf.  

 A much better start for the heifers than the cows.