Dog Food?

I've never fed the guard dogs anything but dry dog food.

 Today however, I thought I would try to get rid of some nasty gluten free tortillas I bought by accident.  Surely, it couldn't be any worse than some of the rotten dead stuff they find.

 First, they had to scoot them aside to get to their regular Pedigree.

 Then they checked for any additional bites they might have missed. (we just feed them on the ground wherever they are with the goats at the time.  It's usually a different spot every day.)

 Finally, a tentative taste.

 OK, maybe this is edible.

Looks like I'll be able to get rid of the whole package in a few days.

Halter Breaking

V is showing 2 steers this year.  We have had them up and on feed since November.  The show is not until May but they are getting pretty big so it is time to start halter breaking them.

 We rub on them in the chute then put the halter on.

 V thought maybe the smaller steer would be easier for her to handle.

 So J worked on the larger one first.  He really didn't put up too much of a fight.  At about a thousand pounds he was content to stand still.

 The smaller one on the other hand was a bit rowdy.

 V gave it a good try but he got his head down and jerked away.

 He still gave J quite a fit.  J sometimes has a hard time understanding that a 100 pound girl doesn't have as much strength and grit as he does.

After a little leading it was time to stand tied and get brushed.  They had their second lessons today and showed a lot of improvement.  J said he could probably have them broke to lead in a week.

Saddle Time

Doesn't Otoelene look good with a saddle?  I've had it on her a couple of times and she has done perfect. 

 Usually I lunge her first, then saddle, then lunge some more.

 Today I decided to just skip the first step and saddled her right after I finished brushing while she was still tied.

Once again, no problems.  She is so accepting of everything.  I lost her attention a couple of times when the wind was really howling but got it right back with her continuing to stay calm.  I even put my foot in the stirrups on both sides and put some weight in them.  I've been riding her bareback some with just a halter at the walk. So far so good.

More Fussin

J is forever fussing about the steepness of our farm and constantly scouring ads for ranches in Nebraska. 

 Today when he went to unroll a bale of hay for the cows, it got away from him and went through the 2 strand electric cross fence.  It rebroke the top wire which had previously been broken by a cow trying to jumping it.

 So, had to go back to restretch it

 and splice it back together.

On a different subject, the neighboring farm that planted Christmas trees about 7 years ago is now cutting them all down after only selling about half.  Apparently, they can make  more using it as a tax loss than as the actual crop.  What a waste.

Liebster Blog

Thank you 50+ Horses for my first blog award!

Liebster seems to be German for dearest, beloved or favorite.

The award comes with these directions.

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award
3. Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

and so, in no particular order, 

The Japanese Redneck

Fern Valley Appaloosas

Wrangler and Ribbons

Happily Married to the Cows

Double H Photography

Thank you to these bloggers for keeping me entertained and inspired.

Frustration

J made an announcement a couple of days ago.  "Be prepared, we are selling the goats sometime this year."

 He is very frustrated that the goats continue to get into and onto the hay.

 They tear off the net wrap and destroy the bales.  I said, "How about putting the electric netting around the hay."  J decided this might be a good idea.  (previously, we only had one strand of electric wire to just keep the cattle out)

 So now the hay is protected.

And maybe J's frustration level will decrease enough to keep the goats.

Pennies

What do you get when you take this,

and add these?

Here  is a sneak preview. 

I'll let you know what it looks like when I'm done. 

Winter Cattle Drive

We always have a mini cattle drive in the winter.  We have to move the cattle from land we rent back to our farm to help consolidate feeding groups. Plus, the landlord doesn't like us feeding hay on their property. 

 The pens at the rented land are in bad shape.  J has to bring in 5-6 panels to make it work.

 He sorted out 5 to add to the farm about a mile up the road.

 The others plus the bull came back here,

 through the gate

 then turned around and up another little road.

With V and E's help everything went smoothly and J had one less place to have to feed.

Kit Cat Killed a Mouse!

"What's that you have there Kit Cat?"

 "Just this little toy."

 "I found it over there

 in the front yard."

 "It use to move around,

 but now I have to help it."

"But don't you dare touch it.  It's mine."

Update

Guess I left out some critical info on the camera.  It is just a Canon Power Shot A3300IS with 16 mega pixel and 5x zoom.

  It is half the size of my previous Canon power shot.

  I've always had Canons for some reason.

  My first good camera as a teenager was a 35 mm Canon sure shot, 

 which I still have of course.

 V bought herself a very nice Canon EOS with her Christmas money.  We are expecting some great thing from her with this one.

 My father used this 35 mm canon.

 Then he got this one with the telephoto lens to take better horse show pictures for me.  Looks like I could start a small Canon museum.

New Camera

I got a new camera for Christmas and I'm trying to decide weather or not to keep it.  Sometimes I think my original 6 mp camera is fine then other times I think I need something better.  This new one is 16 mp.

 Here is regular,

 full optical zoom,

 full digital zoom.   All from the same place.

 Same here, regular,

 5x optical,

full digital zoom.  Could you even tell those were cows in that first one?  I have to say, the zoom is much better.  It would probably do great taking horse show pictures.  Can you tell I'm dreaming of the upcoming season?