Outside Ride

I have been waiting for the perfect time to ride Otoelene outside, no wind, warm and Joe being home. Two out of three ain’t bad. Joe wasn’t home but would be back pretty soon.  

Plus, I already had Otoelene up because the farrier came to reset her shoes. 

After a few minutes walking and jogging it the barn, we headed outside. 

I just stayed in the field below the barn where the first calf heifers are. Everything went fine.  I ended up riding about 25 minutes, no issues. Now I just have to keep it up. 
 

Who’s Tired Of Trees On Fences

Joe is, that’s who. 

He is getting ready to move some cattle to the rented land across the road.  Part of the process is walking the fence line.  Way in the back on a steep, steep hill, an oak tree uprooted and took another oak and a poplar tree with it. 

And they all landed squarely on the 100 year old line fence taking out about 100 feet of it. 

I went in for the first trip to watch the chainsawing. But Joe was on his own for the second trip to fix the fence. Now we just have to work the group of cattle and get them over there. 

The Perfect Perennial?

I found a flower at Lowe’s that I was unfamiliar with, scabiosa-butterfly blue common name pincushion flower.

I bought one even though it was not on the clearance table.  The sale price was only $1 more than what it would be if it ended up on clearance anyway. 

I read up on it and learned it was easy to grow, cold and heat tolerant and of course purple, Sadie’s favorite color.  They are also supposed to make good cut flowers and bloom up until frost if kept dead headed.  Then, to top it off, I was watching a British gardening show and the host said it was one of his favorite flowers. 

After learning all of this I bought two more. They look great in the rock garden. I can’t wait for Sadie to find them. I hope they like it here. 

 

Still Waiting - Day 346

There is a wide range of gestation length in horses. I was always told 11 months plus 11 days.  That was yesterday. 

Draper has decided to wait longer.  

Her udder is getting a little larger very slowly.  Anyone want to make a guess?  Her breeding date was May 11th.
 

Eggs And Goats

We had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating Mama's 90th birthday!

After lunch, cake and presents, we had an Easter egg hunt for Sadie and Allie.  

Sadie took it very seriously.  She ran like she was competing against 40 other kids and not just her baby sister. 

There was some cooperation.  

And plenty of eggs to go around.  They had a wonderful time being the center of attention to 12 adults.  

Then today, I got to see Allie and Sadie again at the farm.  Sadie was anxious to see more baby goats.  I had a set of twins in the barn that were 2 days old.  One was just a little slow to get going hence being in the barn.  

Then we walked around the field to look for more goats to pet.  Maggie wanted to make sure everything was ok.  

Allie wasn't too interested in petting the goats but she does make a good goat noise. 

Happy Easter

The King Has Risen

 

The Note

When I got home from work yesterday, this note was waiting for me on the kitchen counter. 

Cow problems never are good.  Within a few minutes while I was carrying in the groceries, Mike drove up and said Joe needed help, there was a backwards calf.  Joe had noticed the cow in the same spot a couple of times that he had checked yesterday morning and afternoon.  He got her up and called  Mike.  Then they got her in the chute and Joe discovered the problem.  They were able to get chains around both feet but were only successful in getting one leg out.  I was able to give the cow an epidural so she wouldn't strain as much, move the chain on the leg still inside for better leverage and manipulate it to get it out.  Then it was Mike's turn to pull.  They told us in vet school to not pull any harder than 3 strong men, so Joe and I did not have to help Mike.  We had the calf jack just in case but it wasn't needed.  Mike got the calf out quick enough. 

And it was still alive.  A big accomplishment for a backwards calf.  

Mike didn't look too much worse for wear, 

but I think Joe's tee shirt will be headed for the rag bag.  

This morning the calf was up and had nursed.  Joe banded him, 

and sent him on his way back to the field with mom.  Joe said he was expecting trouble because he had had 70 calves with no issues.  Maybe we will get through the rest in as good of shape.  

 

Crafting With Sadie

Sadie is off on Easter break this week.  I volunteered to help keep her some.  Aunt C volunteered too!

Sadie wanted to do crafting because C "was good with that."  It is a good thing Mimi is good at having  a lot of crafting supplies.  

I did steal Sadie for a bit to visit the baby goats.  

She was trying to get them to suck on her fingers.  The brown one is a triplet about half the size of the other two.  I have been supplementing her with a bottle.  

Then I stole this idea from Pinterest.  I also had a Facebook friend that did it and it looked so cute.  Plus, since Sadie likes to pick flowers and I don't have that much blooming right now, it was a perfect way to get her to pick dandelions.  

I think it turned out great.  The face C drew was purrrfect.  Unfortunately, it only looked good for a couple of hours.  But there are plenty more dandelions to do it again.  Maybe Allie would like to do it when she is here next.  

And what is Easter break without coloring some Easter eggs.  Permanent markers, plastic wrap and rubbing alcohol. 

It was a pretty simple way to dye the eggs.  I did have to get some store bought ones to blow out since all of Virginia's eggs are brown.  

 

Pouring Rain and 40 Degrees

It seems like this happens every year, the goats start kidding and the weather gets terrible. 

Yesterday evening we had to wait for the rain to let up before we could do the last walk through.  We found a set of twins that were born during the down pour.  Goats can take some cold and some wet but they are not very good with both at the same time. 

Joe’s new technique to get them to the barn is to put the kids in a feed tub and drag it along for the nanny to follow. It worked well enough and we got them all in the barn. Towels, a heating pad, hair dryer, Karo syrup and tube feeding colostrum revived them in a couple of hours. They were up and nursing this morning. We should be able to turn them back out tomorrow. 

Kid count - 17 minus two of the quadruplets that I gave to the owner of the stallion I bred Draper to.  Four is just too many for a nanny to raise.  

 

Wattle Fence

Normally, when I cut the forsythias back in the spring, I just throw the trimmings over the bank.

This year, I decided to try something a little different. 

I have been growing salvia in this spot next to the house for a few years now.  By mid summer they are usually tall and spreading out over the path.  So then I take a section of a cattle panel to hold them back.  As a replacement for the metal cattle panel, I am trying a wattle fence.  

They are very popular on the British gardening shows that I watch.  I started with pressing the vertical supports into the ground.  

Then just weaved more switches back and forth through the supports.  

I then cut off the verticals shorter and bent them over to make the arches.  I think Kit Kat approves.  

We will see how well it holds up the salvia this summer.   
 

The Kidding Field

It was time today to confine the goats to one field. They are due to start kidding tomorrow. (Other than the one with quadruplets). 

You can see they had a lot of territory to spread out on. 

But they were no trouble to round up 

and herd to the barn.  There are several that look like they could pop.  We only left the Billie’s in for 40 days so at least we will have an end date. 
 

And So It Begins

The goats were not supposed to start kidding until Wednesday.  But apparently, this one just couldn’t hold 4 in any longer. 

Joe found them when he went to feed the dogs and brought them into the barn. 

Sadie was visiting for the afternoon and went with us to check on them. She said they were so cute.  Looks like we will have to be moving the herd to the kidding field soon.  Just in time for the weather to get bad. 

I also showed Sadie this nest that I found in the yard yesterday. 

It is a little difficult to see in the picture but it is a bunny nest. Cuteness overload.

 

Finally Hugo’s Turn

I finally decided that I was ready to ride Hugo again. Sometimes he can be a little jumpy and quick. I have been trying to avoid jumpy and quick while my back healed.  But I feel almost back to normal so I gave Hugo a try today. 

He did perfect. He was pretty much the same as the last time I rode him 5 months ago.  No scooting, shying or quickness. Once again, I just rode in the barn. I have to post his trot and I could start to feel that in my back after about 15 minutes.  Since he was doing so good I called it quits for the day. Another successful post trauma ride. 
 

In Bloom At The 4Rs

There have been a few warm days which have brought out the blooms. 

The hyacinths are in full bloom. 

And the different color daffodils are now blooming. 

These delicate white ones 

are hanging out in the rock garden. 

The forsythias are also in full bloom.

I really cut back on the snow drops. I dug up bunches and gave them away last year.  The blooms are just not as showy as I would like. And they really multiply and spread.

Sadie said these look like grape flowers. I said she was close, they were grape hyacinths. She said she would just call them grape flowers.  

I am trying out the old fence rails here. I will see how I like it as the flowering season continues. 

The Yoshino Cherry trees are not quite in full bloom. But since high winds are in the forecast I thought I would go ahead and take pictures now. 

The fruit trees are blooming.  This is a peach 

And these are pears  But we will be having some below freezing temperatures soon too.  Fruit can sometimes be iffy around here. 

The one remaining trunk of the hawthorn is blooming. Maybe I will get it cut down this year.

And Sadie and Allie came over this evening. This was the stillest they were.  There was so much running everywhere to see what new blooms I had.