Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Answer Has Come...

For those who read my blog regularly, you know that Collette has been driving me crazy. I have posted about her several times. I finally asked for opinions on March 18th. You can see the pictures of her in that post: Doe Opinions Please.

The answer came last night. She hadn't been eating well for the last couple of days. When I started to bring her to the barn for the night, I noticed that she looked like someone had deflated her somewhat. I thought at first maybe she had just dropped but on closer inspection, she just looked a little thinner.

I tied Calico at her feeding station and put Collette in the stall with her grain and she wouldn't touch it. She just stood there and cried. I waited for awhile and kept an eye on her. She doesn't like to be separated from Calico but she is used to it at feeding time.

I commented to my DH that she just might be in heat. I finally went out and put a lead rope on her and opened the gate to see where she wanted to go. She drug me towards Rancid instead of going the opposite direction towards Calico. When we arrived at Rancid's pen, he didn't act that interested at first because she has put him in his place too many times. I decided after watching and waiting for awhile that she would stand for him.

I took her back to her stall and asked my Husband to bring Rancid to the barn. We put them together in the stall and we discovered that she will kid on September 9th, 2010.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Babysittin'

This week was Spring Break for my oldest Grandson. His Mother had to travel to another state, so he has been here for four days, he is going home tonight.

My other Son and his Wife traveled to another state today to attend a gun shoot. So I am watching their two youngest children for the day, ages 17 months and 3 years. They arrived at 5:30 this morning and will be picked up late tonight or during the early morning hours.

I woke up this morning early to receive the kids and had a terrible headache. Thankfully both went back to sleep after their parents left. My head hurt so bad that it made me sick to my stomach. I didn't have anything but Aspirin to take and I couldn't hold them down long enough to help. I finally went back to sleep but my headache has continued all day.

This is my 17 month old Grandson's first full day without his Mother. He is still nursing and has never had a bottle in his life. He has only recently, like in the last two weeks, learned to drink from a sippy cup.

Since his Mom knew that she was leaving him she tried him on Cow's milk yesterday and he wouldn't drink it. He did drink it for me this morning but very slowly and with disgust. His Mom pumped and left about 5 ounces of her milk for him. When I offered it to him he chugged it and cried for more even though it was ice cold. Nothing like Mother's milk! More later...(kids to take care of)

...It is now 11:00 pm and his sister is fast asleep after a busy day with no naps, he on the other hand had an early evening nap and isn't ready for bed. He keeps going to the door and looking up at it, waiting. At one point he laid down in front of the door and I thought that he might go to sleep but I think that he is just watching and waiting for the return of his Mother, he has surely missed her today, poor thing.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Horse - Unwanted Horses

The Horse | Unwanted Horses an Urgent Issue, Survey Says

Zircon Memories

It was a lovely day today, warm, sunny, a nice breeze. The horses and goats are all shedding, so there was hair in the air. I let my two does out in the yard for some green, tender munching and some exercise this evening. They kept their noses to the ground, so I worried that they would get too much of a good thing.

When my DH got home from his job, he worked with a new 2 year old filly that we just got in, she really needs some work! The only lesson she has been getting so far is how to be caught without tearing down fences.

Then he brought Zircon to the barn to trim his feet. With 30-something horses, hoof trimming is going to go on and on for awhile. He managed to get Zircon, a 2 year old and Sky, our only yearling done this evening.

I took some new pictures of Zircon, he is such a good boy. I remembered back two years ago this June when I helped bring him into the world. You can read that story here.

Zircon has gone from being an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. I knew he would!




When the horses were trimmed, I casually said something about trimming Rancid's feet. My wonderful husband whose back and legs were already hurting from the work involved in trimming two horses, one of which was an inexperienced yearling, told me to go get him. Well, I jumped at the chance to get my doe's hooves trimmed and brought out Collette instead. When he finished with Collette, I put her up and brought out Calico. He is an absolute perfect Husband. Rancid will have to wait, I didn't want to push my luck too far.

The last few days have been such perfect weather that I hate for it to end but from the look of the weather map and the forecasts, we are in for some stormy weather. There may be some severe storms tomorrow. I haven't had to shut my computer down because of lightening for months, unfortunately with the Spring weather comes the Spring thunderstorms.

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