A Fowl Friend

Lately, we have been having many visitors. They come and go as they please, take what they want and leave what they don't want. They are very partial to the horses and what they leave "behind". I wonder if some of them aren't lost because they have bands on their legs. Yes, pigeons and some days lots of them. I've been able to get really close to some of them.
Here is the near future there will be lots of feathered friends running around as we are in the process of getting ready for chickens. Bryan is currently working on the coup so hopefully we will be taking care of little chicks in a couple weeks.

Pickin' through....... for breakfast(yummy!!)

Pose for the camera

Good Boy!

Feeding Frenzy III

This is the equine version of the feeding frenzies that happen daily around here. These where taken after the excitement of "meal time" and they were all chowing down like "little ladies".

Lena was kind enough to look at me for a second to get a picture.

As you can see she likes her food all around.

Okay, time to get focused on her food and not on the camera.

This is what Riata thought of me during her breakfast.

I'm not looking

Still not going to look at you.

They really like to get into their food--How can they breath like that?

Oh, so sorry that I disturbed you, please don't let it ruin your day.

Nina gettin' into her breakfast too. What is it about the hay that is on the bottom anyway?

Ahhh, its the alfalfa and the little leafy stuff that is so worth 'diving" in to.

She's "eyeing" me. Did you know that horses can only see the same thing with both eyes if they are looking down their nose(out in front); otherwise they are looking at two different things. How would you like to be able to see what was going on to the right and left of you at the same time?

While yes, she looked at me, I don't have her full attention as her left ear is cocked back, however, I'll take what I can get.

Feeding Frenzy II

Every morning is always entertaining in its own way. All of the animals, with their own "personality," are very eager to get breakfast. The dogs are barking and "attacking" each other, the cats are running me over in their excitement to get a little bit of canned food, the horses whinney as soon as I step outside and then commence to running, bucking , rearing and squealing and the goats......get "stiff"(they're fainting goats) and then run around after they relax.
The goats have a pecking order too but the order is constantly tested. They butt heads like they are "big goats" and like to play "king of the platform". They are quite the little characters.

This here is Sysco. He's the boss goat and don't you forget it!

This here is sweet, "little" Isaac. He just wants to be loved.

Sysco takes care of Sysco and when there is food around, nothing else matters.

Here is shy little Liberty. Once you catch him, he's a nice goat too but he just hasn't quite realized that you are not out to "eat" him until after you have caught him. I'm convinced its a game with him.

Liberty again-he won't eat until I'm gone-doesn't like an audience.

The goat in the front that is about half/half black and white is Justice, Liberty's brother, and he doesn't want anything to do with anybody. He is an extremely shy goat.

Did you know that goats develop dread-locks in the spring? I will show you this here soon.

One of the Joys of Home Ownership

Guess what I did today? I'm sure you will be jealous-not. It involved lots of dirt, some water, mixed together to make mud, rocks of all sizes, pvc pipe, water hydrants, shovels, post-hole diggers, buckets, sweat, muscles(which are screaming at me now), and good friends and family. If you haven't figured it out by now, well, ..........contact me and next time I can make sure that you have no doubt, what-so-ever about.....replacing broken water hydrants!!! I am so thankful that this happened today and not yesterday or back when our high temperatures were at freezing.
What happened? We knew that this water hydrant was going to need replacing but these things never wait until you're ready for it-if it really waited then it would never get done-duh. We noticed that it had a crack on the top of the nozzle a while ago that would leak a little when the water was on but of course it always stopped when the hydrant was turned off. Well, I sent the girls outside to go get the garbage can and next thing I know, Marisa came running in with something very important o tell me but she couldn't just tell me what. It went like this..

"Mom, mom, you have to come see this"

"Just tell me what it is.

"No, you have to see this, hurry"

" Okay....(I'm walking outside and out to the front of the house) ahhh....did you guys turn it on?!!"

"No, we haven't touched it."

There was water spraying out of the crack, which had grown a lot all of a sudden, all over the place. Of course, Bryan would be in Elko today. I tried calling him but had to leave a msg. I ran down to the pump house to turn the water off-had a slight scare there too. I forgot that we had to put a ball valve on the main line because the other valve didn't work. I sat there and turned and turned the broken valve wondering how I was going to get the water off because this valve wasn't working-ahhhh!!!!!! I tried Bryan again and this time he answered and so kindly reminded me of the other valve-whooo.....that one worked.
Judy came and got the girls and I got to digging. Bryan was going to be in Elko all day so I needed to get as much done as I could so that he could finish it before it got dark when he got home. Digging was about all I could do and there was a lot of dirt to move. The bottom of the hydrant was down 4ft and the digging area was very limited due to the deck on one side, concrete sidewalk on the other, sprinkler system valves and controls on another side and the lawn and sprinkler system on the other side-completely surrounded be stuff!
My neighbors were very helpful and came over to help. We got the hole dug-it was a pain, literally all over, but Bryan was able to come home a bit early so yippeee!!! I had went to the hardware store and picked up a new hydrant so he was able to get right to taking the old one off and putting the new one on. It didn't go quite that smooth though, of course; we got it all together and when I turned the water on..... it blew apart. By now I am getting really, really tired. So, we bucketed the water out, dug a bit more, changed a couple things and tried it again. This time it worked!!!! Yeah!!!!
However, because the pipe came apart and this water hydrant line is connected directly to the main line to the house there is that chance that rocks and sand got inside and will cause problems in the house. Yep, it did; I had very little water pressure. Thankfully, this was an easy fix and all is well now. Good thing too because I am beat!

Here is the old pipe still connected to that little pipe that is connected to the bigger pipe in that little hole in between the deck, sidewalk, sprinkler system, etc......

Another view

That just doesn't look comfortable!

At least he's smiling! (He didn't have to dig the hole)

After it had blew apart and we had scooped most of the water out-now its really muddy!

Ta-da!! A new, pretty hydrant!

You can see how limited we were on space here. The joys of being a homeowner!!

Feline Feeding Frenzy

Breaking News!!! My animals are spoiled!
Okay, you probably all know this already. No, they're just well loved, cared for, get lots of TLC, spoiled is really the best name for the care they receive. However, we don't compare to some owners and they're pets.
You've heard the saying, "you don't choose a cat for your pet, a cat chooses you for their owner," or " you don't own them, they own you"; well that is sort of true in my case but most of my cats, actually all of them, are all ones that were rescued; they were either sick, needing to be bottled fed, or had a death sentence in the very near future.
My cats have me trained though, Katie, the one eyed kitty(long story), knows that they get their canned food every morning and so she feels the need to start waking me up for her needed tuna and shrimp around 6:00. I think I could compare it to those of you who have to have your coffee-you're day doesn't start until you have your coffee. Katie will sit on my bed staring at me, purring as loud as she can, meowing and doing this little jaw chattering thing-its really weird but cute at the same time. She has learned not to do this on Bryan's side of the bed. All of the other cats are surrounding my bed just waiting.
Anyhow, the smell of tuna and shrimp, turkey and giblets, salmon, etc......first thing in the morning is umm........very mouth watering to them. I feel like I am wading in a sea of feline fur with all of the cats(anywhere from 4-6 of them) are all walking around my feet and meowing, down the hallway and into the kitchen. All of this for about a spoonful of food-similar to kids and candy.

Its was very hard to get a picture that had all 4 cats in it at the same time because none of them would hold still long enough. Here is Reese, Ruby and Sandy.

Reese, Ruby , Sandy and Katie waiting oh so patiently

Here is their fine china and the can of food that they are so desperate to taste its contents.

Here are the contents, yummy, fish and shrimp for breakfast.

Aww.. satisfaction is near

Ruby will not eat near the other cats and is very "lady like" while eating; little bites at a time and never in a hurry.

Enjoying peace and quite and fish!

After the plates have been licked clean, you will hardly see any of them again until the following morning. Reese, Ruby, and Sandy go outside and Katie goes to one of her hiding places either in the utility room or the bathroom.

Of course, you have to do clean-up first. Having fish on your face is just not proper etiquette for any feline.

Girly Time

The girls are growing up fast. Their personalities develop more and more everyday. Bryan got the camera out the other day(actually, it was right before valentine's day) and decided that he needed some pictures of his girls. If you don't know Jessie and Marisa very well, you could get a good idea about them from the expressions in the picture.



This is a good one-Marisa is my snuggle monster and Jessie is my "entertainer"

Ummm......not sure what Bryan said but Marisa thought it was funny

They are both really cute

Marisa striking her "cute" pose. Jessie was getting tired of posing

Smile....again......

This one I think is the best. I am very proud of my little girls. Jessie is always "bouncing with joy"(even when lying on the floor) and Marisa is just as cute as she can be.

Floating Fecal "Fun"

This past week the girls got to learn a very important skill when you are a horse owner. It involved getting right down and "dirty"-more so than brushing, picking out feet, scrubbing water troughs or scooping poop(well sort of-it did involve poop). You may be to 'afraid' to continue and if you have a weak stomach you may want to stop now. This is going to get a bit green, squishy and the smell just brings it all together but I can't 'really' share that with you on the computer.
Okay, how about some history/reasons for going into this. When horses ingest sand and rocks it can cause some major irritation-duh. Being that it is somewhat 'heavy' it has a tendancy to settle in the lower loops of bowel and not move through really well acting like sandpaper to the interior lining of the intestines-ouch!!! One of the first symptoms that you'll see when a horse is dealing with "sand colic" is diahrrea. Well, one of our horses has just that plus she has been passing quite a bit of sand and rocks(yes, I go look at the poop). Good news is that you can help horses get rid of the irritation with psyllium, lots of grass hay, exercise, and make sure that they are not eating on the ground. However, I have come to find out, this process can take quite a while-I've been dealing with it in this particular horse off and on for almost a year.(a bit frustrating).
So, why did I warn you about the contents of this post?? In order to know if your horse is still passing sand or the amount they are passing you need to look closely at where it eventually ends up-the pile of manure. It needs to be 'floated'.

I will explain as we go along......

Gloves are VERY important-even if they are a bit big, still use them.

A gallon sized zip-lock bag is important too.

By now you are getting the idea..

Its important to make sure that you take 'handfuls' of manure from the top of the pile-you don't want anything that has touched the ground-it gives you a false "reading".

That's it-good handfuls.

Don't worry-there's plenty to go around.

So now we have a bag of manure-now what?

We fill it up with water and start 'squishing' it up.

"It feels funny in between my fingers"

I'm not sure, but the thought of throwing that at me probably crossed her mind.

She's starting to look a bit disgusted-the smell gets umm.....really potent at this point.

Yep, this stinks!!! and her fingers where getting cold.

Okay, why, why, why???? By floating the manure the sand/rocks and heavy stuff settles to the bottom of the bag. After lots of squishing you start dumping out the stuff on top, add more water, mix it up and then dump again. Eventually, you are left with a fairly good idea of how much sand is being passed. Every pile can be different on the amount so you need to check a few to get an average.

GOOD NEWS!!--there was very little sand and the girls survived. They don't seem to damaged from the fumes and the fact that they where "playing" with poop. I faired well too-its tough taking pictures when your laughing at all of the eewww, it stinks, gross, eewwwww and on an on.

Marisa is still acting like a monkey and Jessie was back in the house in a flash to go play nintendo. All in all, it was a good 'experience'. I think that it is important that kids learn responsibility-in all sorts of areas of life.