The good news is that warm days are ahead, I have seen the weather forecast and it is looking very good. Sure we will have rain but rain brings grass and grass is very important to us who lived through last year's drought with livestock.
Our horses have already started leaving the hay feeders, which means that they will start losing weight and pushing on the fences but that always happens in the Spring.
When we unwrapped Morning's leg last night, it was greatly improved over the pictures that I posted yesterday that were taken two days ago. It didn't bleed when we took the dressing off, that was a first, because it has always bled before. She didn't act any better as far as manners go but we didn't expect her too. We haven't seen her knuckle over on it for a couple of days either, so that extensor tendon is healing.
Showing posts with label march. Show all posts
Showing posts with label march. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Done My Part
If you read my "Doe's Secret Code of Honor" blog then you will understand this blog better.
Everything seems to be in place for both of my does to kid in the next couple of days. My house is in chaos (which is normal), my hair is tangled (new perm), laundry is piled up, my husband keeps saying, "Oh, they are no way near ready." and to top it all off, we have a winter storm watch for Friday and Saturday. I have done all that I can to make them kid early, the only thing that I haven't done is plan a trip.
It would have been so easy this year, just to put the two does in the foaling stall and have them right outside my door, maybe I haven't mentioned that we live in the barn. Anyway we live on one side of the barn and have a nice big foaling stall right across the aisle from our living room door. However since Morning had to go and get herself injured and with her being the first mare to foal this year, she has taken up permanent residence in that stall, so my goats will have to kid in the horse trailer.
Can you even believe it? We have been having warm, sunny days, Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, our horses have left their hay feeders in search of new grass and then we get a prediction of 6 inches of blowing and drifting snow for the next two days with lows down around 14º.
The good news is that it is suppose to be 49º on Monday, so maybe there is still hope. My does will both be good girls and wait until the weather warms up to kid, breaking their own code of honor. We will have to wait and see, but to be safe, I will continue the nightly checks.
Everything seems to be in place for both of my does to kid in the next couple of days. My house is in chaos (which is normal), my hair is tangled (new perm), laundry is piled up, my husband keeps saying, "Oh, they are no way near ready." and to top it all off, we have a winter storm watch for Friday and Saturday. I have done all that I can to make them kid early, the only thing that I haven't done is plan a trip.
It would have been so easy this year, just to put the two does in the foaling stall and have them right outside my door, maybe I haven't mentioned that we live in the barn. Anyway we live on one side of the barn and have a nice big foaling stall right across the aisle from our living room door. However since Morning had to go and get herself injured and with her being the first mare to foal this year, she has taken up permanent residence in that stall, so my goats will have to kid in the horse trailer.
Can you even believe it? We have been having warm, sunny days, Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, our horses have left their hay feeders in search of new grass and then we get a prediction of 6 inches of blowing and drifting snow for the next two days with lows down around 14º.
The good news is that it is suppose to be 49º on Monday, so maybe there is still hope. My does will both be good girls and wait until the weather warms up to kid, breaking their own code of honor. We will have to wait and see, but to be safe, I will continue the nightly checks.
The Wait
The wait has begun, both Giselle and Cinder are making nice milk bags. Giselle looks like she could go at anytime. Morning still is not bagging up and doesn't look as heavy in foal as she should, so we may have her due date wrong. She was our stallion's pasture mate, so it is possible that she was bred later. Dandee is already making a milk bag, she always bags up early and gives gallons of milk. We always get extra colostrum from her to freeze in case of future emergencies.
Here is the schedule of events:
Morning (the injured Black Tennessee Walker mare) Due - March 12th (Walkaloosa Foal)
Giselle and Cinder (Does) Due - sometime around March 19th
Sissy (Chestnut AQHA Mare) Due - March 28th (AQHA Foal)
Dandee (Bay AQHA Mare) Due - April 1st (Appaloosa Foal)
Collette, Paris and Calico (Does) Due - sometime after May 11th (if they are bred)
Quizzy (Sorrel AQHA Mare) Due - June 17th (Appaloosa Foal)
Sleepless nights, flashlights, batteries, alarm clocks, homebound, nervous, anxious, impatient, cell phone, kidding kit, foaling kit, towels, iodine, enemas, tetanus shots, tail wrappings, shovel, straw, manure fork, lounge chair, blankets, long underwear, heavy socks, face mask, gloves, carhartts, I LOVE SPRING!!
Here is the schedule of events:
Morning (the injured Black Tennessee Walker mare) Due - March 12th (Walkaloosa Foal)
Giselle and Cinder (Does) Due - sometime around March 19th
Sissy (Chestnut AQHA Mare) Due - March 28th (AQHA Foal)
Dandee (Bay AQHA Mare) Due - April 1st (Appaloosa Foal)
Collette, Paris and Calico (Does) Due - sometime after May 11th (if they are bred)
Quizzy (Sorrel AQHA Mare) Due - June 17th (Appaloosa Foal)
Sleepless nights, flashlights, batteries, alarm clocks, homebound, nervous, anxious, impatient, cell phone, kidding kit, foaling kit, towels, iodine, enemas, tetanus shots, tail wrappings, shovel, straw, manure fork, lounge chair, blankets, long underwear, heavy socks, face mask, gloves, carhartts, I LOVE SPRING!!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
In Like a Lamb
March came in like a lamb, which means that it will go out like a lion. That is why I had a hard time blogging today because I was outside enjoying the weather.
I kept a close eye on my Chickens today and am convinced that they are not hiding their eggs. I got 2 eggs early in the morning. Then around noon, one of the Rhodies went into the goat/chicken shed and set on a nest for a long time but didn't produce anything. They don't seem to be molting, so I don't know why they have stopped laying with the nice weather that we have been having.
My cousin's D'uccles have started laying eggs for him, but mine are still not laying. I bought some oyster shell to put out for all of my hens but I think they are laying less since I put it out.
My mud turned slightly solid today, it was nice to walk on top of it again. However, our driveway has fallen completely through. We have put tons and tons of gravel on that thing throughout the years and it has just eaten it up or hard rains have washed it down the hill and out into the pasture. This is the first time that it has gotten so bad that you have to have a 4-wheel drive just to get up the hill when it doesn't have any snow or ice on it. It is also starting to get ruts.
The weather forecast is for hard, heavy rain for the next few days, so we need to get gravel on it Monday, but all of our savings are in our horse's bellies and we hate to put gravel on it only to have it washed down into the pasture again. Hard rains will wash even the biggest sized stone down that hill. It looks like we have no choice but to go ahead and gravel it or some unsuspecting visitor, like the Mailman or the UPS guy, is going to get hung up right in the middle of our driveway. They both hate coming down here already.
I kept a close eye on my Chickens today and am convinced that they are not hiding their eggs. I got 2 eggs early in the morning. Then around noon, one of the Rhodies went into the goat/chicken shed and set on a nest for a long time but didn't produce anything. They don't seem to be molting, so I don't know why they have stopped laying with the nice weather that we have been having.
My cousin's D'uccles have started laying eggs for him, but mine are still not laying. I bought some oyster shell to put out for all of my hens but I think they are laying less since I put it out.
My mud turned slightly solid today, it was nice to walk on top of it again. However, our driveway has fallen completely through. We have put tons and tons of gravel on that thing throughout the years and it has just eaten it up or hard rains have washed it down the hill and out into the pasture. This is the first time that it has gotten so bad that you have to have a 4-wheel drive just to get up the hill when it doesn't have any snow or ice on it. It is also starting to get ruts.
The weather forecast is for hard, heavy rain for the next few days, so we need to get gravel on it Monday, but all of our savings are in our horse's bellies and we hate to put gravel on it only to have it washed down into the pasture again. Hard rains will wash even the biggest sized stone down that hill. It looks like we have no choice but to go ahead and gravel it or some unsuspecting visitor, like the Mailman or the UPS guy, is going to get hung up right in the middle of our driveway. They both hate coming down here already.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Spring Fever
I can't wait until Saturday, not wishing my life away but Saturday will be March 1st and February will officially be over! February is always the hardest month on us, it is usually in February that we get tired of feeding and our hay supply starts getting short and we think that we will never see green grass again. March gives us hope. The new babies start arriving in March, the weather starts warming up and the winds start drying up the mud.
We have a logistics problem this year. Two mares and two goats are due in March and we have an injured horse stuck in our foaling/kidding stall. We didn't breed back many of our mares last year because of the horse crisis that is going on in this country. Fortunately, the one that is injured is the first one due to foal, so she gets priority in the stall, we can't turn her out anyway. She does present a problem for our two does that are due to kid in March.
Our first kids should be due around March 19th. We have decided to move our dog kennel inside the barn for one of the does and the other one will probably have to kid in the horse trailer.
Our other mare is not due until the end of March, so hopefully the injured mare will be well enough to be turned out with her new baby by then.
Today is the last day that we have to give Morning a penicillin shot, she has had one everyday since she was injured, she hates them. She still has to be twitched to wrap her leg. We give her an opportunity to go without the twitch each time we start, but she refuses to let us take the wrapping off untwitched. Twitches are sometimes necessary things, ours is just a soft rope and not a chain, but she is totally submissive with it on.
On another subject, just to wrap up loose ends. Maude did pass away last week, she had stopped eating and I knew that it was just a matter of time. It is true that broiler or cornish chickens rarely live to see their 1st birthday. I guess that is where the term "not a spring chicken anymore" comes from, because in the fall of your spring chicken's life they start going down hill rapidly.
We have a logistics problem this year. Two mares and two goats are due in March and we have an injured horse stuck in our foaling/kidding stall. We didn't breed back many of our mares last year because of the horse crisis that is going on in this country. Fortunately, the one that is injured is the first one due to foal, so she gets priority in the stall, we can't turn her out anyway. She does present a problem for our two does that are due to kid in March.
Our first kids should be due around March 19th. We have decided to move our dog kennel inside the barn for one of the does and the other one will probably have to kid in the horse trailer.
Our other mare is not due until the end of March, so hopefully the injured mare will be well enough to be turned out with her new baby by then.
Today is the last day that we have to give Morning a penicillin shot, she has had one everyday since she was injured, she hates them. She still has to be twitched to wrap her leg. We give her an opportunity to go without the twitch each time we start, but she refuses to let us take the wrapping off untwitched. Twitches are sometimes necessary things, ours is just a soft rope and not a chain, but she is totally submissive with it on.
On another subject, just to wrap up loose ends. Maude did pass away last week, she had stopped eating and I knew that it was just a matter of time. It is true that broiler or cornish chickens rarely live to see their 1st birthday. I guess that is where the term "not a spring chicken anymore" comes from, because in the fall of your spring chicken's life they start going down hill rapidly.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Skinny Horses
When I seen the Vet the other day, I asked him about the number of skinny horses that he was seeing. He had told us earlier that he thought that it would really get bad this year because of the hay situation. But he said that he hadn't seen any that were real bad and that things hadn't gotten as bad as he had thought that they would. Hardly any calls for neglect or abuse and the ones that he checked out were just a little on the thin side but not starved nor neglected. But then he said that he hardly ever sees real skinny horses until March and April.
So, I explained from experience why this happens. Starting in March and carrying on into April our own horses start losing weight. The reason that they do this is because the new grass starts coming on and they get a taste of it, then nothing else satisfies. You can continue to feed hay or have free choice hay out for them but they won't eat it because the grass is just so much better and they are bored with hay by this time anyway. The new grass doesn't have much nutrition and is sparse, so they start to fall off in weight.
The Police start getting a lot of calls for horses and cattle being out, because they start pushing on their fences to reach that grass that is growing thick and untouched on the other side, it is greener too, by the way.
So, I explained from experience why this happens. Starting in March and carrying on into April our own horses start losing weight. The reason that they do this is because the new grass starts coming on and they get a taste of it, then nothing else satisfies. You can continue to feed hay or have free choice hay out for them but they won't eat it because the grass is just so much better and they are bored with hay by this time anyway. The new grass doesn't have much nutrition and is sparse, so they start to fall off in weight.
The Police start getting a lot of calls for horses and cattle being out, because they start pushing on their fences to reach that grass that is growing thick and untouched on the other side, it is greener too, by the way.
Life's Not Fair
When I taught school the kids all loved to say, "That's not fair!", to which I would reply, "Life's not fair, so get over it!". Life certainly is proving me right at the moment. Our old bachelor neighbor was here this afternoon and he told me that he was getting really tired of this cold weather for some reason and I told him that usually happens in February. He asked me if he would get over it in March and I told him that he would, especially towards the end of March.
He also told my husband that he sounded just like his calves that he is doctoring for pneumonia. This is true, my husband seems to get pneumonia if he catches a cold. I am not complaining, well, maybe I am a little bit but I feel so bad when he is so sick and he still has to go out in the below 20º weather to feed and water. I try to help as much as I can but I am not much help.
Add to this that we have a psycho horse that has to have her back leg re-bandaged everyday and I am feeling like life isn't fair. For one thing she is without question the hardest horse that we have to handle and the injury is on a hind foot and it is difficult to wrap. She also has to have a shot everyday. She has to be kept up in a stall, so that means a stall that needs cleaning everyday. I can shovel a little manure but my back prevents me from doing much of it and there is no way that I can wrap her leg, for one thing she wouldn't let me and for another I couldn't stand in that position. So, with my husband being so sick, this is something that we didn't need right now.
The weather is another thing that we don't need right now. It is 6º at the moment and the wind chills are awful. We are suppose to get sleet and snow for the next few days and that may stop me from being able to help out at all. I hurt myself the last time that we had ice. I just feel guilty when I can't do my share of the work.
Enough whining around, Spring will be here before we know it, this cold weather can't last forever. The March winds will dry up all of the mud, the grass will start growing and the horses won't have to be fed as much. Morning's leg will start healing, the dressing won't have to be changed as often and the shots won't have to be given after Feb. 28th.
I just ran out and watched the Lunar Eclipse, I almost missed it because I didn't know it was happening tonight and since this is tomorrow's blog that I am writing now, if you didn't hear about it, you missed it too.
He also told my husband that he sounded just like his calves that he is doctoring for pneumonia. This is true, my husband seems to get pneumonia if he catches a cold. I am not complaining, well, maybe I am a little bit but I feel so bad when he is so sick and he still has to go out in the below 20º weather to feed and water. I try to help as much as I can but I am not much help.
Add to this that we have a psycho horse that has to have her back leg re-bandaged everyday and I am feeling like life isn't fair. For one thing she is without question the hardest horse that we have to handle and the injury is on a hind foot and it is difficult to wrap. She also has to have a shot everyday. She has to be kept up in a stall, so that means a stall that needs cleaning everyday. I can shovel a little manure but my back prevents me from doing much of it and there is no way that I can wrap her leg, for one thing she wouldn't let me and for another I couldn't stand in that position. So, with my husband being so sick, this is something that we didn't need right now.
The weather is another thing that we don't need right now. It is 6º at the moment and the wind chills are awful. We are suppose to get sleet and snow for the next few days and that may stop me from being able to help out at all. I hurt myself the last time that we had ice. I just feel guilty when I can't do my share of the work.
Enough whining around, Spring will be here before we know it, this cold weather can't last forever. The March winds will dry up all of the mud, the grass will start growing and the horses won't have to be fed as much. Morning's leg will start healing, the dressing won't have to be changed as often and the shots won't have to be given after Feb. 28th.
I just ran out and watched the Lunar Eclipse, I almost missed it because I didn't know it was happening tonight and since this is tomorrow's blog that I am writing now, if you didn't hear about it, you missed it too.
Think Spring!!
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