Pot Luck of Pix....

Wyoming was peeking in the barn door at me....look at the boo-boo on his nose.  Don't have any idea how he did it.  Almost perfectly round (and almost healed).

We went to an auction and the place had this neat windmill.  It actually worked!  The faster that thing turned the more water came out of it...beautiful day....  

Halo and I were playing on one of the nice sunny days.  She thinks it is a good idea to rest her head on mine....

Okay, enough games....time for a Horsey Diva pose....Halo, not me!  :-)

She wanted me out of the picture....did not want me to distract you away from her total cuteness.

Joker wants to join in the fun!

Millie says "WHAT ABOUT ME???"

Susie and Rico...Mom and son....

This is going to be a bookmark....

After a nice sunny day what do we get?  Snow!  This has been a weird weather season so far.

Even Millie is sick of snow....she was snoozing under the canopy when I came out that morning.

It was snowing and so pretty out!  Time for a smoochy self portrait!  I have to confess it really is hard not to laugh when we do this!  :-D

\

Snow from my view in the passenger seat....

Brian clearing the car windows....

 Wyoming wanted you to get a better view of his boo-boo.  He still won't tell me what he did.  Something about not being a tattle tale!  Ha!

The weather has really been up and down.  Cool sunny days, warm sunny days, cold and windy cloudy days, then more snow.  We got more this past weekend and have more forecasted tomorrow night...but no accumulation.  Whew!  Flowers are starting to bloom so I am getting excited for Spring!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Until later...Karen and Tripp who is worried about my talk of 25 and 50 mile rides!  :-)

An array of the past couple of weeks...

We get some of the best sunsets....the beauty of them just makes me swell with awe and happiness inside.


Wyoming....

Boom....he is his old self.  Most of the time looks away when he sees me pull out the camera.

Chase the Drama Llama, or the Jolly Llama....just depends on his mood.  This time he was the Drama Llama...I was hearing him singing "I'm - too sexy for the sunset - too sexy for the sunset too sexyyyyyy!" 

Ajax and Zjax are letting me know to hurry up...we are losing the pretty colors in the clouds and they are feeling a little short changed.  Wyoming is in the background like the little kid who jumps in a picture at the last minute...minus the funny face.

WYOMING:  "Hey!  Watch this!"

WYOMING: "Rolling, rolling. wiggling to get the itch, rolling some more...."

 Batman is a trouble maker.  He and Chase were playing on a gorgeous afternoon and Chase was feeling more energetic than Batman.  Batman, being the smart little guy that he is, pulled in and parked  behind Boom, knowing that Chase will get popped if he pushes the issue! 

Boom and Batman hung out for a while...

We put a Bale Buddy out for the burro/horse/llama group, and once it got eaten down a bit, Chase used it as a pedestal.  He likes to be tall.
The Bale Buddy was a test for this group - we used this, and we used the round bale feeder that Brian made.  There was MUCH less waste with the Bale Buddy.  We will be putting a 2nd one in and pulling out the other feeder.  I pull the sides down so the shorter ones can reach.

This is Chase giving his "I am cute and innocent and would never chase Batman to exhaustion" look.

Ahhhh yes, signs of Spring!

LOOK!  It is a 2 headed horse!

Guineas on alert! 

Nevada smooching on Brian....

Batman....this little guy is so cute and sweet (most of the time) that he literally brings tears to my eyes. I was sitting on a barrel reading a book, and he came up and watched...

I am reading The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young.  I am almost half thru the book and I am loving it!  Anyways, the day was gorgeous so I put up a barrel to sit on to enjoy the weather, enjoy the horses, and to enjoy the book.  Batman cracked me up...it was like he was the little kid listening to the best story in the world!  Even Wyoming came up and stood next to him for a while...that was before I was smart enough to grab the camera.  :-)

Weather was good...running and playing was in the cards!

BOOM:  "Yee Haw!!!!  Out of the way!!!  Coming thru!!!!"

WYOMING:  Whew, that was a good run!  Hey, look at us looking good!

WYOMING:  "Race you to the llama!"

WYOMING:  "It is over there!"
BOOM:  "No, it is over there!"

WYOMING:  "Maybe they won't notice I am here."

There is a lot more solid ground out there right now, which means traction is good, which means more playing!  I can really see the difference in how they have acted the past few days...they are loving life!

Until later....Karen and Tripp who thinks he would look better with a pretty sunset behind him!

The bees are getting ready for Spring...

Last year was our first year to have bees, and they have been pretty amazing to watch.  God made them with a purpose and they take it very seriously.  The girls work, and the guys breed the queen and hang out being 'comb potatoes' (you know...instead of 'couch potatoes'...ha ha!) until they are needed to breed again.  Yes...that is all I need to say!  :-) 

Winter was hard on us because we had no idea what was going on in the hives, and we hoped that the bee balls were staying warm enough and also finding time to feed.  We left the honey they produced last year for them to feed on, plus we also put pollen patties on top of the frames just in case they needed something extra.  Yep, we spoiled our bees!  :-)

Bee balls.....when the weather gets cold the bees form a ball to stay warm.  They rotate from the inside of the ball where they are warm and feed to the outside...they all take their turn.

Spring is here, and the nice days have brought them out.  They have been cleaning house...moving out all the 'junk' to prepare for the new season.  We did notice that one hive (Brian's) was weaker than the other hive, but I still thought it was okay.  They will lay enough eggs to make up for the loss as long as they have a good strong queen.  Anyways, Brian could not stand it, and he took the lid off his the other day!  YIKES!  He found out that yes, the hive was weak, but it was strong enough for a bunch of bees to come rising to the top, and they were MAD!!!!!  I turned just in time to see him put that lid back on and skedaddle himself away from there!  HA HA HA!!!!!

The weather got warmer and he planned a day for us to come home early to open up the hives and see what was going on.


Here is his hive...not many bees on the inside of the lid, and not many walking around the top of the frames, but we could see plenty between the frames.  The top box was very heavy, as it should be, so we knew they were working the way they should.  Each frame should hold about 5 lbs of honey.     

This is what had Brian stressed out...he could see a mouse nest from the entrance to the hive, and he had visions of the mice tearing apart the honeycomb.  No worries....just a nest and Brian cleaned it out.  He ended up putting some wire stuff on the entrance so the bees can come and go, but the mice can't.  It works...we found a dead mouse on one yesterday.  Made me sad...but we can't have them destroying a future food source.

Here is my hive!  I call it my hive because I was the one who dumped the new bees into this hive.  Look how many more of them there are on the top!  I have one bad a$$ hive!  :-)

Many of the bees gathered on the underneath side of the lid.

After Brian hit them with the smoker, a bunch of them went back inside the hive.  The smoke is supposed to calm them.  I don't know....they don't seem more calm to me, but I will go with it just in case.  We did not pull any of the frames this time.  Didn't need to...we knew they were full of honey because of the weight of the hive.

 
 Brian got a phone call while we were out there, and it was his bee mentor!  He suggested moving the bottom box to the top, and the top to the bottom.  Long story short - all the food supply will be moved to the bottom.  The bees will go to the top and clean out the old comb then lay eggs.  Once eggs hatch, they will start producing honey upstairs again.

Here is me moving the bottom box off the 'floor' so we can put the top one on the bottom.  We do NOT mix the hives!  If we take take one box from one hive and put it to the other, they may kill each other, not to mention we don't know where the queen is.  If both queens end up in one hive, the new one will be killed. 

  We wear rubber gloves like they wear at hospitals because the bees don't usually like to land on them.  This was the first time I had one land on my glove and she stayed there a while.  I just kept hoping she was in a good mood because she is able to sting thru the glove.  She tired of me and moved on.

Brian is putting the bottom box on top.  This is what I call the Bee Mansion.  They will lay eggs on both levels but most of the honey will be 'manufactured' in the top one.  The belief is that the queen likes to move up to lay more eggs, but doesn't like to go down.  Swapping the first and second story gives them something to do so they will not swarm.  If the queen gets the feeling that the hive is too full (like the top box originally was), she will take the swarm and move somewhere else.

Swarm:  Most people think of a swarm as something bad like an attack of a group of bees.  A swarm is a group of bees just like a bunch of horses is a 'herd' and a bunch of turtles is a 'flock of turtles'.  (My sisters 6th grade teachers used to say "I am off like a flock of turtles" and I never forgot it!  Thank you Mrs. Hannah!  You were an awesome teacher and I hope you are still at it!) 

I totally understand why Brian was worried.  I was too but I had to bee brave...get it?  BEE BRAVE....HA HA!  The good news is the hives are well.  Brian is ordering a couple more hives to set up this year.  He is hoping to catch a swarm out in the wild.  We met a man last Fall that has not bought bees for years.  He puts up traps (wood boxes that look like bat houses or bird houses) and catches them that way.  Cool!

I yammered on long enough...I tried not to talk so much but the bees fascinate me.

Until later...Karen and Tripp who say "The bees can stay OVER THERE!!!!"

The dry spot...

As of a few days ago....this was the inner barn lot.  It is muddy and gross, and even the critters are tired of it and we are all ready for some dry weather.

 This is what I walk thru to get to the barn....

This is from the perspective of the burros......You can count on the donks to make dry spots...here is one that was a work in progress.  Ajax is protecting HIS dry spot.

JESTER:  "Come on man, we were all raised the same way!  It is polite to share.  PLEASEEEEE can I use your dry spot?"
AJAX: "Nope, my dry spot.  We were also raised to respect hard work, so you need to go make your own dry spot."
(Jester was actually head butting Ajax, but Ajax was not having any of it!)

JESTER:  Thinking to himself...."I think there is enough room for both of us...if I just lay down and start moving my legs around a lot, Ajax will move....yeah.....this is working out just fine!"
AJAX: Thinking to himself...."WILL - NOT - BUDGE!  HOLD - ON - TO - DRY - SPOT - TIGHT!"

 JESTER:  "YES!  TOLD YOU SO!  PLENTY OF ROOM!  Oooohhhh this feels so good!"

JESTER:  "Woo hoo!!!  AAAWWWWWW....a couple more wiggles like this and I will get that itchy spot right in the middle!"
AJAX:  Insert sarcastic copy cat response here.... "Woo hoo!!!  AAAWWWWWW....a couple more wiggles like this and I will get that itchy spot right in the middle!"
 

 JESTER:  "Yep, there was room for both of us.  Thank you Ajax!"
AJAX: "On no, thank you my friend...you made my dry spot bigger and better!  MWAA HWAA HWAAAA!  Oh yeah....this is good stuff!"

 AJAX:  "The lesson here today my friends....well, I am sure you figured it out!  HEEEE HAWWWWWW SNORTTTTTT"

As of last night, there were 3 good sized dry spots out there!  Yay!

Until later....Karen and Tripp who is still giggling over the trickery of Ajax!

Snowy Monday, March 14, 2011

The night before the snow Brian and I went out to assess the mud situation.  Did we want to try to put round bales out, or wait it out until the next evening?  We were only forecasted for 2" of snow at the most....well, what was a good idea one afternoon was not such a great idea the next evening!  We did not get this much snow at our house...it was melting almost as quick as it was coming down, but we still ended up with more moisture than we thought we would get.

These pictures are from our garden at work.  When the weather is like this they do not open the gates to let people in to walk...so I made do with what I had.  It really is beautiful during all the seasons...

The main gate from the driveway side....

 Little bird tracks from the front gate....

 

To the right of the rock wall is a bridge that goes over a small running creek...to the left is a bigger pond that they put lilly pads in, and koi fish.  It also has a beautiful water fall.  But not today!  :-)

This is another angle...to the left of the arch is a small rose garden.  It is a very popular spot in the summer time...

And what is a blog entry without a self portrait?  :-)
I just could not stand it!  I was sitting inside at work and the flakes were so big and pretty, I just had to walk out to the garden to take a few pictures. 

When we got home, our snow was melted out of the front yard, but only 2 miles down the road the fields were completely covered!  We must have been riding the line of the snow front.  There was a lot of grumbling from most people who are sick of snow, but I thought it was beautiful!

And for those who are curious about the round bales....no, we did not put any out.  The mud is just too deep.  I fed out of my emergency square bale stash for a couple of days.

Until later....Karen and Tripp who doesn't mind the snow...he just minds the mud after the snow melts.

Reflections of 2010...Video

FINALLY!!!  I have been working on this since January but have had computer problems...lost my photo video several times and had to start over....heck, by now most people don't remember 2010!  Ha!

Many people were so glad to see 2010 go....all for their own reasons.  The only reason I am glad it is gone is because I am excited to see what 2011 will bring. 

I have spent most of my life as a hermit.  I have done a lot of things by myself and am very comfortable doing that, while others thrive by being social.  The last year I have broke out of my 'hermit shell' and have done more things socially than I ever have before.  Most of my social adventures were fun and I can't wait to do them again, while others reminded me why being a hermit suits me.

I got to see what jealousy does to people, I got to experience people who would die before they will admit they made a mistake (always blame others), I got to experience outright meanness that hurts to the core.  One of the meanest things that has ever been said to me.....I was told that I 'tricked' someone, and if she would have known what my idea of 'rescue' was she would have let Ace go to Mexico on the truck.  No joke!  I was told that, and it broke my heart!  Her idea of an 'unwanted horse' and my idea of an 'unwanted horse' is totally different.  I am just grateful that she was 'tricked' (however that happened!) enough to save that little horse from a horrible fate, and so is his adopter!  Another sad thing...I thought we were friends, but all the signs were there.  I am a positive optimistic person and she isn't.  I should know by now that combination just doesn't work.  I hope she finds happiness somewhere.

Wyoming coming home in the condition he was in was another heart breaker.  Thankfully he is back home now and he has all the groceries he needs, and even those he doesn't need!  Ha ha!  He has really grown and matured...I am wow'd by him. 

The above things were the ones that affected me the most at the time...then I heard a story about a little girl who is very ill.  Reading the story of her and her family is a big big reminder that the above person just hurt my feelings....I healed quickly, and Wyoming might have come home thin, but he also healed quickly.  This little girl is literally fighting for her life.  A reminder of what is really important.  I say a lot of prayers for her and her family.

I am very grateful that most of my year was a great one and I got to try new things.  I volunteered for an ACTHA ride, I got to ride in an ACTHA ride, then I got to be a judge at a ride, I took a mounted shooting class, I had a couple of foster mustangs here and they went home and are doing well, we are lucky enough to have friends we can trust, which is why Flash the large pony is at his 2nd great home with kids of his own and a 70 yr old Grandma who rides him (the first home had family problems and they stuck to the verbal contract and he came back here), Tripp and I went to a couple of fun shows, one which was a charity show and to this day was one of the most fun I have been to, we went to Hutchinson, KS for the Correctional Facility Open House - the inmates work with mustangs and they adopt them out, in addition to participating in another EMM, we got to go to another one as spectators and met up with old friends and made a few new ones.

This years EMM preparation was something else!  I was doing great and got bucked off, then fell off, then half way fell off got tossed off, and now I am a big chicken.  For the first time in my life I am afraid and have anxiety attacks.  I am working on it tho.  The great thing is Boom and I made Top 10 for the in hand part of the competition!  Once it sunk in, I was so proud of myself and Boom!

One of the great friends I met is Jay Miller.  He loves Boom, and to get to Boom he has to go thru me!  Ha ha!  He really helped Boom and I a lot, and once I get over this crazy scaredy cat stuff, horsey life will be grand again.

I could go on and on but people don't like to read too much stuff....so I will sign it off here.  I put together a picture video of some of the 2010 adventures.

Enjoy!

Karen and Tripp who is going to a one day riding clinic this Saturday!  Woo hoo!