It's a Filly!

I had a plan, was looking forward to working the plan but Jetta didn't want to cooperate. I stayed up with her all night on Tuesday night. I had the new Mary Higgins Clark book, so I sat in my lounge chair out in the barn with my headlamp on, reading. She was anxious and nervous all night. This is just not her character, so I thought that she might be in early labor. We had tasted her milk, it had turned white and was just slightly sweet, so it was possible.

She had calmed down by morning and by around 10:00 a.m., she had waxed.When my DH got home from work he put her back out in the dry lot, so he could clean out her stall. I decided to take a nap to prepare myself for a long night. Before I laid down I took her picture eating some hay.While I was napping, my DH came in to get something to eat and the next thing that I know he is waking me up saying that it is a filly and she is already dry. I jumped up feeling cheated and mad. I wait all year for this and then miss it because I take a little nap!

If this had been twins we would not have been there to get the second one out quickly and since we knew this one was going to be really big, she probably could have used a little help. It helps to get the baby out as quickly as possible because they just get up faster and learn to nurse easier. With slow, hard labors the foals can have dumb foal syndrome and just have a little more of a struggle in the beginning.

This is what I found when I arrived on the scene...I named this filly "Sky" on the spot because of her unusual eyes that were the first things that I noticed about her. She is very large and didn't want to nurse as quickly as we would have liked but with my Husband's great skill at getting a newborn foal to nurse, she was nursing within a couple of hours.

She is a dark brown or bay with roan mare and tail, blanket with black spots and she has partial blue eyes. This is the first blue eyes that we have ever had here at Pintura Springs other than Grandkids.The above photo was taken as she first found her feet.



There will be no running under Mommy's belly to hide from danger with this big filly.
And last but not least a Family Picture that includes Sky's sire who came to look her over and pass out cigars.
It is dark and rainy here today, so Sky and her Mother are still in the stall and it is too dark to get any new pictures unless the weather changes.

Calf Bloat Update

Welcome To Wilmoth Farms posted on her blog some tips and a link in my comments about Angus' bloat and I am sorry that I haven't left you a comment, well actually I tried but it just wouldn't work.

I am so happy that you got DSL, some of us are going to be on Dial-up forever it seems.

Angus hasn't had another episode of bloat, just those three times, I doctored him like I would a goat with bloat which was baking soda, veg. oil and bouncing his belly.

I talked to a neighbor who raises around a 100 bottle calves a year and he said that he has a chronic bloating calf right now that he put a plastic valve in. He said that she was the first chronic bloater that he has ever had. He has only had to tube a few on rare occasions in the past.

I am not sure what caused this in Angus but he is over it now, he may have just gotten too much green grass because we were in the process of weaning him. He may have gotten into the goat mineral also.

I am not too happy with him, he nearly killed me yesterday trying to get me to give him a bottle. He is too big to punch and butt me. I couldn't get away from him, he kept circling me and spinning me around. I got so tired and dizzy that I thought that I would go down.

I am on foal watch with Jetta right now, she is waxed and ready to go. I set up with her last night and hopefully she will go early this evening or early tonight.

Calf Bloat

Angus is now 12 weeks old, he looks really good and has been very healthy but yesterday evening he developed bloat. I gave him baking soda and a little veg. oil. My DH bounced his belly around until we got some good burps.

I checked on him at around 2:00 am and he was bloated again, went through the same process plus gave him yogurt and he responded well again.

I just went out and he looks bloated again. Any ideas what I can do and what we are doing wrong to cause this??

My DH is still giving him a bottle once per day just to get rid of the replacer that we have. He has free choice calf starter, calf manna, hay, grass and water.

Morel Season

Let me just begin by saying that it is not my intention to provoke any feelings of jealousy here, I am only trying to once more offer my services for the betterment of my reader's lives.

On Sunday afternoon I took less than 30 minutes of my valuable time to run down the hill to the old sink hole to find some mushrooms for my breakfast on Monday morning. This sink hole is not located on our farm, so don't get any ideas! As a matter of fact, we have never found even one mushroom here. This is the first farm that I have ever lived on that doesn't have mushrooms.

I have been a avid mushroom hunter all of my life. I spent hours everyday during the season when I was young and I am talking about from Elementary to High School and beyond. I went alone, no one shared my desire to bag the big ones.


Somehow my life has gotten to complicated to have time to hunt for mushrooms. My priorities are really messed up. For the last several years I have promised myself that I will make the time to go but when the next season arrives, there are too many other commitments that demand my attention. Foaling, kidding, Spring halters sales, tomato plants, shoveling manure, fixing fences, laundry, dishes, new websites, etc...

I am sure that I am not alone in this dilemma. So in order to inspire you to forget all of the other demands on your time and hit the woods, I offer you these pictures and the memories of my Monday morning breakfast. I only found 9 but they were of decent size and extremely flavorable. I find it impossible to eat mushrooms without eggs of course.
Please get out of the house, rearrange your busy schedule and go find some Morels. We have always called our edible shrooms; Black, Gray or Yellow Sponge Mushrooms, also we are never disappointed in finding Snake Heads and Elephant Ears, they are just as tasty. The word "Morel" was just a little to sophisticated for us Hill people.

If you don't take the time to go this year, you may not get another chance next year. Things can change, you may be living in the Antarctic, you could be sick or injured next season. It is important to put the best things in life first. Forget about fixing meals, going shopping, doing laundry, mowing the grass or taking a nap.

**Remember to use a very large mesh bag to bring your bushels of Mushrooms home in, so that the little spores will happily fall all over the ground as you walk about to ensure Mushrooms for future generations.

The Wonders of the Internet!

Jiller left a comment on yesterday's post that really hit home. Since I am feeling particularly thankful for the information that will hopefully help our mare. It is hard to imagine what it was like without the internet.

Her comment was this: "The wonders of the internet! Just think 20 years ago we had to drive to a library to find information and most of that was from out of date books! So glad you found something that will help Trouble!"

It truly is a marvel. I know sometimes it seems like a negative thing and certainly can be a dangerous thing but overall it has made us smarter and simplified life overall.

Sharing information that will help others or encourage others is important to me. I love finding things that work and posting them on my blog. I am anxious to get my herbal remedy order for more than one reason, not only did I order the Chaste Tree Berries for Trouble but also for me. Plus I ordered a few other things that I will be trying for pain, inflammation and some other nagging ailments that I have.

Cushings Disease

Our first experience with Equine Cushings Disease has arrived. Our best foundation Appaloosa broodmare has Cushings.

We rescued Trouble many years ago along with her yearling daughter after she had just lost a foal, she was in horrible shape, running with a stallion and pregnant again. She also was unsound in a front leg, she has always had a slight limp that gets no worse or better. She lost the foal that she was pregnant with when we got her and we nearly lost her. A kind Vet spent a lot of time with her that night through the early morning hours. The foal was a gorgeous black and white leopard filly.

Trouble has given us some of our best foals and we never have a problem selling her babies. She has produced a black filly with large spots on her rump, a black colt with blanket, a palomino leopard, a palomino few spot (Ranger, my gelding), a blanketed Buckskin colt, a sorrel blanketed filly (when bred to a sorrel AQHA stallion), and her last foal was a blanketed Buckskin filly. In addition to the beautiful babies that she gives us, some of them are Indian Shufflers like my gelding Ranger.

We bred her back last year after a year's rest and this winter she has started showing all of the signs of serious Cushing's Disease. She has a long wavy coat that will not shed this spring, has lost muscle tone and stands at the water trough most of the day. She is drinking tons of water. She has not gotten laminitis (founder) yet, but from what I have read about horses with Cushings, it is just a matter of time.

There is no cure, it is a tumor that grows on the pituitary gland. However, you can treat the symptoms, give them back a normal life and extend they lives with treatment. In researching the disease, I found that normal Veterinarian treatment is very expensive on a monthly basis. But I found many good reports on a natural treatment that works just as well without any complications.

The treatment I found is Chaste Tree Berries, I could buy a liquid form that is as expensive as the other chemical medicines that I have researched. So I thought surely there must be a cheaper way to go. Then I found this rescue site: Eye of the Storm. I am thankful for the information that I found there.

I began my search for whole Chaste Tree Berries in bulk that I could grind myself. I would also have to buy a coffee grinder since I don't have one. Then I looked on eBay and found a powdered form of Chaste Tree Berries from as seller who sells natural remedies. I purchased 3 lbs. for $9.40 per lb. I think she will only have to have 1 Tb. once or twice per day, so this will be a very cheap alternative treatment.

According to what I have read, we should start seeing results very quickly, so I will report how she is doing, along with pictures, here on my blog from time to time.

Elvis Has Left The Building

After having Elvis and the Mutt in cages for a few days right outside our bedroom, I decided it was time to get rid of them. Their crowing was about to drive us crazy. So I listed them on Hoosier Topics, Bedford Connect and Craigslist. Within an hour I had someone claim these two free roosters.

Now I am looking at the eggs that I am using and none of them are fertilized. So if I have a hen go broody, none of the eggs will be fertile except for my Bantams. Rudy, my Mille Fleur D'uccle is busy fertilizing the banty eggs and trying to do the same with the big hens when Rocky isn't looking. Rudy is just a little rooster and scared to death of Rocky. It's a big job but someone has to do it.

I don't know why Rocky isn't doing his job but he isn't. Maybe he is too big or too old. I am in the market for a new rooster, a young, standard breed. I love Rocky because I can trust him with my Grandkids and this disappoints me. I really don't need baby chicks right now other than it is just fun but as my hens grow older I will need to replace them and would like to grow my own.

Tea Party

I am so happy that these tea parties are going on. There wasn't one going on where I live unfortunately, at least that I know about. It is about time that we try to take back our lives. Government is getting out of control and way too big. They are intruding in our lives too much.

There seems to be an attitude of self preservation out there and that is good. We have to start fighting for ourselves. We have to start taking care of ourselves without politicians making our decisions and deciding what is best for us. We work hard for our money and should be able to decide what to do with it.

If we own land and livestock we shouldn't have to ask permission before doing anything with it. We are adults and shouldn't be treated like children. I know that we have to have laws and a governing body but some laws and lack of laws are just ridiculous.

For instance, why do we have laws that require child restraints in cars but no laws against stupid parents smoking in that car with the windows rolled up and children strapped in those car safety seats. I don't have a problem with cigarette taxes because I don't smoke but as long as cigarettes are legal, then people have a right to smoke but not if it is interfering with my clean air or the air that an innocent child or infant has to breathe.

I suppose that taxes are the main reason for these tea parties but I think that it is a good sign that we aren't as complacent as I thought the general US citizenry was getting to be. We still have a little fight left in us.

Wrinkled Egg

I found this egg Saturday, I would call it a wrinkled egg. I have found similar eggs before but not as bad as this one. This can be caused by Infectious Bronchitis in hens which is caused by the Coronavirus. There are other things that can cause wrinkled eggs too but I am thinking that this hen has had IB in her past and she has permanent damage to her oviduct.

Since I don't have any chickens with respiratory problems right now or runny eyes, I think that this was in her past. The good news is that once they have it, they have permanent immunity to it. This is probably just one hen because there is always one very long brown egg that is occasionally misshaped.

Our Chickens are currently giving us 12 to 17 eggs per day. All of my bantams are finally laying. So far no one has gone broody, if I weren't wanting baby chicks they would all be hiding nests and setting.

Make Your Own Deodorant

Along with my recently acquired weird green thinking comes the worry that my antiperspirant may increase my risk of Alzheimers or Breast Cancer. If you read on the label of your antiperspirant you will see that the active ingredient is aluminum (insert really long word here). Which blocks your pores from doing their normal job of allowing you to perspire.

Now, I do not know why the good Lord gave us armpits but he did, so they must serve some vital function. I would think that stopping them from doing their job might not be a great idea anyway, but stopping them with Aluminum just does not sound good at all.

The common consensus is that Aluminum can be a cause of Alzheimers. Since they think that eating out of Aluminum cookware may be one of the causes of this disease, what about rubbing it under your armpits everyday? With my family history of Alzheimers, seeing it up close and personal, I do not want to get this disease.

So how do I eliminate antiperspirant from my life now that I have eliminated shampoo (see previous post)?

I could just use deodorant instead of antiperspirant. Deodorants just mask or kill the bacteria that cause odors while allowing you to sweat. But then I read where something in deodorants can cause breast cancer.

I am not being paranoid here, but this line of thinking makes me wonder if I could just make my own and save some money as well as my life. So it is off to Google I go. I found some recipes, tried one and found that it didn't last until evening. So I tried another recipe and it seems to be working for me.

Here is the recipe:
Equal parts of Baking Soda and Cornstarch.

A few drops of an essential oil of your choice.
(Tea Tree Oil is best but do not use Tea Tree Oil or Lavender Oil if you are a man or a man will be using it.)

If you don't have essential oils lying around the house, you can also add a little bath powder for scent or you don't need any scent at all.

Mix in as much Coconut Oil as it takes for the powders to dissolve but for the mixture to be firm and spreadable. Coconut Oil for those who do not use it, is a dietary supplement that can be found at Wal-Mart and is a sweet smelling lard like substance.

You can pack this mixture into an empty stick deodorant container but leave the lid off, so that it will continue to harden. You will have to apply gently and carefully because it will not be as firm as regular deodorants. I haven't tried this yet, I have just been applying it out of a bowl with my fingers tips. You do have to be careful to apply only a thin layer because it will cake up and fall off it you apply it too heavily.

I have not tested this deodorant in a hot summer hayfield yet, but will let you know how it holds up under these extreme farm conditions as soon as hay season begins.

No Poo

If you are not up to date on what is going on in the world today, you will not understand my title but if you are keeping yourself current on current events you will know that it is just cool to be green.

Being green makes everyone feel better about themselves as they try to leave little impact on the earth, so that the earth will still be here and going strong long after they are buried and forgotten.

I am normally not a very green person, I figure that the earth was here when I was born and it will still be here after I die. I don't suppose that I make too much of a carbon footprint or have too much of an effect on the ozone or global warming. I try not to emit greenhouse gases like cows do.

I have recently started doing some things that I find interesting and maybe even saving a few pennies now and then. I have taken the No Poo Challenge. This was mentioned to me by my cloth diapering Daughter-in-law. If you would like to learn more about it all you have to do is a Google search for "No Poo".

It is basically getting rid of the shampoo in your life. There are two different methods that I have tried. One is using Baking Soda to wash your hair, then rinsing in Vinegar. I didn't like this method and it made my scalp itch. The method that I am using is simply washing your hair with a good quality hair conditioner.

I don't know why exactly that shampoo is bad for the environment but I was intrigued by the fact that it gets rid of greasy hair. I started my adventure going poo-less around the first of February and I love the results. My hair looks cleaner longer between washings, it is softer, I have no more dandruff and it is easier to style.

I use the conditioner just like I would shampoo. I have to use a lot because of my long hair and I spend quite a bit of time massaging it into my scalp. Then I rinse my hair thoroughly. Combing my hair out after washing it is so much easier with very few tangles and I have hardly any hair in my comb or brush when finished.

Now here is the trick, you won't see these results until you have used this method for around a month or so. Shampoo dries the scalp and therefore causes oil production. Your scalp has to have time to adjust to the change. So for awhile you will still have oily hair.

My DH decided to try it and after doing it for a few weeks, he reported that his hair was not falling out as bad. He normally left a lot of hair in the tub after his showers.

In addition to this I have also purchased some cloths to use as wet-ones and have been experimenting with different recipes for the wet part. I am also going to stop using paper towels and am looking into alternatives. You can actually get cloth towels that fit right on your paper towel holder and snap apart. I may end up liking this green stuff, who knows. After all, money is green and I do like that.

Horse Owners Stampede

I was shocked when I read the following article, has this country totally lost its mind? Our Government is sticking its nose into every area of our lives. We can kill our unborn children and I am sure that infanticide of aborted babies who survive the abortion process and euthanasia of the sick and elderly will soon be accepted practices.

The sanctity of human, God given life is no longer guarded or respected by our Government but the life and health of animals are becoming ridiculously guarded by our fearless leaders.

Oklahoma horse owners stampede Capitol | NewsOK.com

When you read the above article you will see that Oklahoma has made it a Felony to float a horse's teeth without a Veterinarian license. What you may not notice is that the law also includes shoeing horses and transferring embryos in cows.

A horse's teeth continue growing throughout their life and can get sharp edges, making it difficult for them to eat. This is corrected by a simple filing of the sharp edges. As far as shoeing goes, I don't know of any Vets who would even want to do that hard and back breaking job.

My Granddaughter currently has a loose tooth. We don't have to take her to a licensed Dentist to pull that tooth, we can pull it and it can cause her pain and it can bleed without being charged with Child Abuse or any type of felony. Oklahoma's horse owners cannot file their horse's teeth or hire someone other than a Licensed Vet to file those teeth. Floating teeth might be annoying to a horse but is not painful and there is no blood. What is wrong with this picture??

Can you even imagine a farrier being arrested and charged with a felony for putting shoes on a horse?

Due Dates

Everyone is having babies and I am getting a little jealous. At this time last year We already had one set of twin kids and a set of twin foals. I checked my due dates again just to make sure I was clear on when to expect some action and was surprised to find out that somehow I had my dates mixed up on when Calico got loose with Cooter.

After referring back in my blog archives, I realized that she got out with him in December instead of November. So her due date is May 10th instead of April 10th. Now that is even more disappointing. She is getting so big that I fear she might have triplets.

I checked our mare's foaling dates also and it looks like Jetta will be the first to foal. She is due on May 4th and is huge.

This is Dandee last year on the day before she foaled twins on her actual due date.

And this is Jetta last week. This picture really doesn't show how big she really is. But she sure looks bigger than Dandee did to me. She also looks like she is going to foal earlier than her foal date. Her hips are already hollowed out and her tailbone is pronounced. She isn't strutted yet but has a good start on a full udder.

The possibility of having another set of twins after having twin foals last year is nearly impossible to imagine and it is scaring me to death. My DH says not to worry that when the first one is born he will know whether it is a twin or not by its size and will try to get the next one out as quickly as possible, to avoid the problems of last year.

If this is a single foal, I am afraid that it will be a very large foal and that could also cause problems. Below is another picture of Jetta after we cleaned her up today.

For those who have goats and want to calculate due dates, if you will look at the bottom of the side bar on this page you will find a Goat Gestation or a Doe Due Date Calculator. All you have to do is put the last date your doe was bred in the first text box then click the Calculate button for the due date to appear.

Roosters, Angus and a Jailbreak

Meanwhile back at the ranch, life has settled down somewhat and returning to normal. I had been keeping my D'uccles in a large dog taxi for the cold winter months. They don't do cold weather very well.

During those months the mutt red banty rooster continued to harass and otherwise torment Rudy my D'uccle rooster. He was always challenging him at the door of the taxi. There was nothing Rudy could do about it but tell him that though he was caged he still had the prettiest hens caged with him.

The worm has turned, I have finally released Rudy and his two D'uccle hens. I put the mutt and Elvis in cages, so there is no chance of them fertilizing any eggs that any of my hens might go broody over. It is now Rudy's turn to challenge and otherwise torment the mutt and he has been doing just that all morning.

Angus is doing very well and growing, he stays in our foaling stall at night and in the goat lot on sunny days. Sometimes we just turn him loose and he goes where he wants to go, which is usually around Cooter's dog kennel.
Speaking of Cooter's dog kennel, I never knew what a billy goat could do with his bare teeth. For those who don't know, goats only have bottom teeth in the front like cattle, with no teeth in the front top gums. So when they bite you it doesn't hurt that bad unless they are like Calico who has learned to scrape with those bottom teeth. Her mother always did the same thing, if she bit you she meant it to hurt.

Cooter has been planning a jail break for quite a while but he was waiting for just the right time. He wanted us to be away from home when he took off. He got his chance last night, he knew that we would be away for several hours so he put his evil plan into action.

There were signs that something was in the works...But he looked so innocent, like it was all just an accident.
When I caught him in the act, he started chewing on something else to make me think he was only chewing because he was bored.
When the work got hard he thought about trying to jump but his big, muscular body just couldn't get off of the ground. The awful truth was staring me right in the eye but I refused to believe it.
Then when we came home last night something just didn't look right.
You are probably thinking that he got out just to visit his girlfriends but you would be wrong. He was partying with the horses at the hay ring again.