Obstacle Course

This is what met me in the driveway on my way to work recently.  

 For some reason all of the horses banded together in an effort to make me late for work.

 Brother was the leader in this endeavor, refusing to budge as I inched up to him.  

And the only reaction the horn got was for him to look up and act like he had no idea where the sound was coming from.  I finally had to get out to shoo him out of the way.

Almost Done

The fall calving cow group is doing well, just two more left to calve.  J says one looks close but the other may be awhile.  

 The weather has been good for calving, not too cold, not too hot and a little dry.

We did have one Hereford heifer that didn't breed.  J is thinking about bringing her to the house to feed for our next beef.  He's going to have to get to work on eating all of that pear sauce or there won't be room enough in the freezer for any more beef.

Pears, Pears, and More Pears

Did I tell you that I had some pears.  

A few years ago we only planted 2 trees.

 But they have been working overtime producing pears in crazy amounts.

 This is what is currently in my garage.  And this is after making several batches of pear sauce, giving away 1 1/2 gallons of pear juice, and giving away 2 five gallon buckets full and 2 bags full.

 This is what is still on the ground.

And these are still on the trees.  J has picked all he can reach from the ground and is now working on the ladder.  Anyone want to come get some?  Oh, and I have my produce drawers in the refrigerator full too.

Continuing Education

I am currently attending a CE course for my annual 16 hour requirement for my license.

I hope to be able to tell a "well cat" from a "not so well cat" by the end of the weekend.

Sunset

We had a beautiful sunset a few days ago.  Hope you enjoy.  

Brother's First Trail Ride

The weather was beautiful yesterday, perfect for a fall ride.  J has been riding Brother around on the farm but this was his first official trail ride.

 Hank waited patiently while J warmed Brother up with a little lunging,

 then flexing,

 then walking around in circles.  

 Everything checked out ok and we were ready to hit the trails.

 J wanted to take my picture to prove I was there,

 but this was my idea of a self portrait.

 Did I mention how beautiful the weather and the trees and the sunshine were?

 The views in places are spectacular.

 You can even see our farm!  I was using the 20x zoom and couldn't really tell how the picture was turning out.  I now wish that I had gotten off and framed the house through the trees a little better.

 Brother is a very fast walker and didn't know the trail but still didn't mind being in front.  He never spooked or shied from anything.  Hank, on the other hand, knows the trails and as soon as we hit the halfway point he took the lead and was headed for home.

There were even a couple of water crossings that Brother aced.  Eight miles of successful riding.  The only problem we had was back at the trailer, Brother didn't want to load.  I guess he was having such a great time he didn't want to leave.  Hank was gently encouraging him from inside the trailer with little whinnies and I was encouraging him from the outside with the lunge whip.  We finally had to spend about 10 minutes lunging and sending him toward the trailer before he loaded.  I guess that will be today's lesson, trailer loading.

Horse Hunt

My sister L is looking for a new horse.  Yesterday me and E went down to North Carolina to look at one she thought was promising.  He was advertised as a trail horse but had been trained originally in western pleasure so L thought that with a little tuning up she could bring that back out.   Unfortunately,  it got off to a bad start when they had advertised the horse at 15 hands but it was more like 15.2-15.3.  Sort of makes a difference when you are short and go to get on one 3 inches taller than you need.  

 Then from bad to worse when he started lunging.  He looked lame, possibly on the right hind at the trot. Then took off running and bucking when asked to lope.

He stayed bent to the right going both ways.  He counter cantered to the right or cross fired never picking up the right lead in the rear.

The man shoeing him to us didn't really look coordinated to ride the horse and at this point L was sure she wasn't interested.  So to save injury, we left without riding.  The hunt continues.  E said he did have a nice tail.

Just Kit Sunday #25

 Just because Kit is an A number one farm cat, doesn't mean he doesn't like a little comfort too.

 He knows the most comfortable spot in the house is where E sits, in the recliner with the electric blanket.

He is one smart cat.

Brother's Awesomeness

J has been loving riding Brother so much that any endurance riding with Jessica has pretty much stopped for this year.  

 I think J really likes the feeling of accomplishment when a horse he is training himself is doing so well.

I still get on some and help with the lope but that is a pleasure to do since his lope is so smooth.

Today we rode some in the barn then walked around outside some.  No drama from either Wrangler or Brother.  So far so good.

Happy 80th Birthday Papa R

Today was J's dad's Birthday.  He is 80 years old now.  Monday, when I had gone shopping, I saw that they had fruit trees at Tractor Supply on clearance for $10 and they were 25% off at Lowes.  I was thinking J was wanting some more fruit trees for when the economy collapses and we have to fend for ourselves. (not like we aren't already fending).  Anyway, when I told him he said,"'Daddy has been wanting a couple of apple trees."  Well, of course I couldn't get back to the store until today and they were gone from TS but guess what?   Now they were 50% off at Lowes.

 I was able to secure a golden delicious and a red delicious for Papa R's birthday.  But that also included going over and planting them.

He had a small section of the land at his house put into a conservation easement a couple of years ago.  This involved fencing the cattle out of the little creek, drilling a well, putting in waterers, and planting trees in the fenced off area.  A few of the trees didn't survive so we replaced them with the new apple trees.  Hopefully, they will get to enjoy some good apples in a couple of years.

Getting ready for winter

Around here that means cutting wood.  J has piles of wood everywhere.  We've been heating the house with wood for 14 years now.  We wonder what the farm would look like if we didn't use all of the down trees for fuel.  

 This was a pile of wood left from the State coming through and cutting the trees on the gravel road right of way.

 Emma was keeping an eye of things.

 Another truck load ready for when we start up the stove.  It's not quite time yet.  We can usually get by with just the gas logs for a while.  They just filled the tank and we used the logs twice then they quit.  We checked the tanks and they were empty (105 gallons).  Apparently, when they filled them the delivery man didn't cut off the valve completely.  Now they have to come back and check.  I was told when I called that it was probably just a blocked line that that much propane couldn't leak out without us seeing it or smelling it.  It's been 2 days now and we haven't seen them back yet.  I hope they see their mistake and I don't have to argue with the.  

Anyway, Emma's spot on the truck was safe.

Invasion!

Yes, we are being invaded.....by woolly worms.  They are everywhere. 

 There were 17 on the front porch alone.

 They are also climbing all over the house and barn.

 They are everywhere in the yard.

 They are in the driveway by the score.  A lot of them don't make it out of the driveway but I didn't think you wanted to see a picture of that.

Just about anything that sits down for a minute will have one on it or under it.  J put his boots on the other day and thought a spider had bitten him. (spiders are a whole other topic)  He then saw that it was a woolly worm.  He had a rash on top of his foot for a week.

Just Kit Sunday #24

Kit kept me company yesterday while I did some yard work.  

 It was time to cut back lots of peonies, cone flowers, black eye'd Susan's and various other things.

 Kit took it upon himself to inspect the truck load.

I guess we passed inspection but he did look like he thought something suspicious was afoot.
J and E had a good time on the 40 yard line at the Va Tech Hokie game.  Sister L gave us a free pair of tickets to the game and E wanted to go so I got to stay home and get some much needed chores done.

Friday's Fences #100

I went to the vacation archives for these fences.

 Snow fence in Wyoming at sunrise this summer.  Sorry about the blur, it was taken from the car window going 80.

Another beautiful Wyoming sunrise.  There are some fence posts in there somewhere.
For more Friday's Fences click HERE.

Breeding Soundness Exam

We normally don't do a breeding soundness exam on our bulls.  J is really good about checking the cows and knows pretty quickly if he is having repeat breeders.  This spring however, one of his favorite bulls had a breeding related injury and had to be taken out.  

It's about time to put one in for the fall cows and we were needing to know if he was recovered enough to do his job.

A friend of ours is a repo specialist and came over to check him out.  Everything was a ok.  He even said our Hillbilly Harland bull is as good as anything he had seen from Cooper Hereford Ranch in Montana.  Go Hillbilly go.