Sunny days!

Hurray! A few days of sun with no rain or snow, and the muck at the farm is starting to dry up a bit. The birds are back - mallards are swimming in the big ditch and nesting on the bank.



There are frogs clucking and chirping and honking all around. Different frogs sound off at different times during the day. This one was staking his claim to a section of mud near the pasture. DD scooped him up to show me. He's a Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) according to the Natural Resources Canada website (http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/subsite/glfc-amphibians).


We see lots of different snakes, frogs and toads around the farm - most commonly garter snakes, but the occasional Brown Snake, too.

DD rode Charlie out in the sand ring for the first time this spring - it's finally dry enough. Charlie is going to make a wonderful child a great hunter horse someday. He is a willing worker and loves to be praised when he pleases you.

Charlie loves Elmo, a big Golden Retriever cross, at the arena down the road. Charlie grooms him all over if given a chance.

I finished my first pair of socks and another pair of mittens for the Snowsuit Fund. I used Patons Classic Wool on 2.25 mm needles and adapted the Suzi Knits Basic Free Sock Pattern to suit my knitting style and size. I use oddments of acrylic or wool to make the mittens - it's a great way to clear out part of my stash and benefit someone else at the same time. The mitt pattern is one that my Granny taught me 30+ years ago - basic mitts on four needles.












Syra, my dog, spends her days on the couch, curled up with an afghan.

Jerry, Grace and Will enjoy the sun from their cages. The wet-looking bird is Grace, he likes to bathe in his water dish. Willy is camera shy and hid behind the edge of the towel. Jerry is a the one with the band on his leg. Since he is banded, we know he was born in 2000. I don't know how old Will and Grace are as they didn't come with bands - and since they're rescued cockatiels - I don't know much about their history. All three came to me through a friend just over three years ago. They were not imprinted or handled properly when they were young, so they're not very friendly.













My African violets are starting to bloom, too, now that the Christmas catus flowers are finished.




Spring is wonderful - I enjoy discovering all the new and renewed life!

Visual DNA...

I found an interesting site with a sort of personality test based on images. Mine seems to be pretty accurate.


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Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

There were no horses in the selections, though. :-)

This morning I shredded a bag of old confidential papers with my cross-cut shredder. We use the shredded paper in the horses' bedding, mixed with shavings. If anyone really wants to reconstruct one of my old credit card bills, they're going to have to work for it. I took the bag out to the farm, along with some Freecycle stuff that I picked up for DD and DSIL - a briefcase, car radio, and a baby monitor.

DSIL wanted a briefcase for work stuff - and since it'll be covered in diesel and oil in no time, Freecycle was the way to go. The car radio will be installed in the tractor, and the baby monitor will help my DD keep an ear open for problems in the barn both now while Queenie is on stall rest (2 weeks for a sore foot) and later when Sheba is closer to foaling.

I also brought out two large bags of bran and a container of molasses - the horses all enjoy a warm bran mash as a special treat once in a while. It'll make a nice change for Queenie, too, as she gets powdered bute (aspirin for horses) twice a day while she's inside to try to reduce the inflammation in her foot. Horse bute has a strange strawberry smell - some horses love it, others hate it. Luckily, Queenie likes the taste.

Since Queenie is in all the time, Sheba and Reba get to trade off time inside to keep Queenie company. Bart the cat is spending extra time in the barn as he likes to be rubbed by Queenie - she strokes him all over with her muzzle - and will curl up with her when she lies down to sleep.

Today was cool, but mostly dry. The forecast for tomorrow is rain, turning to snow overnight. Just what we need: more wet stuff. DD and DSIL spend time every day digging ditches to drain the water from the road and the fields as it is - this isn't going to help them any. At least the water level in the main ditches is starting to drop and the farm's ditches are running again.

Good Friday

I have work to do, but I don't feel like working. It's far more fun to play with photos and write new text for my blog.

Here are a couple of photos of a cardinal that was singing in my hedge on Wednesday. I thought I could capture him through the window, but the flash went off and showed me that my windows need some serious scrubbing on the outside. If it wasn't fogged by the flash, it would have been a terrific picture.

After trying a couple from inside, I went out. Unfortunately, the cardinal didn't want to be on the same side of the hedge as I was, so there are branches in the way. The children were making lots of noise as they left the school across the street, so the cardinal didn't stick around for more pictures.

Sometimes we have several pairs nesting around the area over the summer - they're always a pleasant surprise when you see them at the feeder or in the hedge.

My Christmas cactus bloomed again in March. This picture was taken on March 31, 2007. The flash didn't go off, so the light is really yellow as it's reflecting from the yellow lamp and its yellow shade. I am really pleased with the blooms - until this one, I hadn't had any success with flowers on them. I had a bloom at Christmas, too.

This Christmas cactus was a gift from a friend who has since moved far away. He rooted a number of bits from his original plant and gave them away before he left for Halifax. Plants in my house survive on benign neglect - sometimes I don't water them until they look limp, and then I dump leftover tea in their pots. The African violets seem to like that treatment, as does my spider plant, but I wasn't sure it would work for a Christmas cactus.

Today is Good Friday - a paid day off for me. Yay!

It's cold and gloomy out, though, so I stayed home and did chores. It would have been a perfect day to spend in lounging and playing in bed with a significant other, but it's just not as much fun with the dog. On the other hand, the laundry is all done, the sheets changed, and my living room and guest bathroom tidied. For this evening's excitement, I think I'll run the dishwasher.

Tomorrow, I'm heading out to the farm for an Easter egg hunt. I think it'll be in the house - the forecast isn't any better for tomorrow than it was for today. Sunday will be a family dinner at my parents' place - dinner starts at 5 pm.

My horses all got their annual shots and Coggins test done on Wednesday. The vet says Sheba looks really well for this stage of her pregnancy. Only 40 days or so left before we find out if its a filly (girl) or a colt (boy). I really don't care either way as long as it's healthy. This foal belongs to my daughter, not me, so I'll have to try really hard not to get too attached.

Tinkerbelle (aka Tink) is recovering nicely from her surgery. Her stitches are starting to dissolve now and she's almost ready to start running around in the mud again. For a very active dog, she's been very good about the restrictions my daughter imposed. I'm sure that having an older, calmer dog around (Daisy) helped. Tink is very good about going in her crate and settles right down.

Someday she may be able to be loose in the house when there's no one home, but not right now. She is still testing all the limits of "house dog" behaviour. She sure does love to cuddle on the couch!

April Fools Day!

I started the morning off on the computer, chatting with a friend in New Brunswick. We've never met, but we share a love of horses and music - and can always find things to chat about for an hour or two. A half a dozen blog entries (comments on other people's blogs, not mine) later, it was time to head out for brunch with a fun bunch of friends.

When I was at the farm yesterday, I took some new pictures of the horses. I played with the settings on my camera to get some higher resolution photos that can be printed larger than 5 x 7. The sun caused a few sunspots on the images, so they're not as good as I hoped, but they're certainly much more detailed than the "standard" setting.

I took a bunch of pictures of Charlie:









and some of Ti-Buck and Sneakers playing "stallion games":








Then some of Queenie:









Sheba looks really pregnant now. The vet says that she appears to be doing just fine and everything is on schedule and developing properly.


You can really see her bad knee in the larger photo. It doesn't seem to bother her too much as long as it's not too muddy. Poor Sheba - we don't know how or when she injured it, but it'll never get better (although it is less swollen and painful than it was 3 years ago when we kept her in Smiths Falls).



S'Heir, Sheba's foal from 4 years ago, was busy looking cute for the camera. She is started at walk and trot now, and is really proud that she's a "big girl" and gets to be ridden. Sheba's new foal will be S'Heir's half sibling - S'Heir's sire is The Royal Heir. The new foal's sire is AA Decadence.

If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll post the pictures of my Christmas cactus that decided to bloom again for Easter. It's got spectacular flowers.

That's enough for today - time to do something else (like housework)!

Busy week

One of our boarder's horses, Queenie, lost her foal this week. We bred her to AA Decadence (Dekker), a black Arabian stallion, in August last year, so she was due to foal in July. Out of 5 mares bred to Dekker, only one is still in foal; my mare Sheba is on track for her foal in May.

The vet came out to check Queenie on Tuesday after she miscarried and checked Sheba at the same time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a safe birth in May for Sheba's foal. The vet says that Queenie is okay and that we can breed her again this summer.

My daughter's dog, Tinkerbelle, visited the vet on Wednesday to be spayed. She's home now and feeling good. The vet said to try not to let her do too much - she's a Border Collie cross with a strong herding instinct. She's being pretty good about it all, but doesn't understand why she can't chase the horses or play with Daisy in the fields right now.

Charlie, the 4-year old, is going to Sunset Farms just down the road for a month or so so that he can be ridden more often. The ground at the farm is just too mucky and slippery for any real work, so he'll be boarded there and worked in their indoor arena. Even when the snow was on the ground a few weeks ago, there was enough ice under it that he could only be worked at walk and trot, even on the lunge line.

Shadow, the horse that was at the farm just to be sold as her family couldn't keep her, has been sold. The new owner hopes to pick her up in the next couple of weeks as soon as she can arrange trailering. Shadow is going to be a broodmare for Canadian Sport Horses and and share a pasture and barn with a couple of other mares. She will also get some light riding work (she wants to work) but not enough that it will make her sore. Her new owner is thrilled to have her and can't wait to have her home.

It's hard to believe that March is almost over. Time is really flying this month - must be because I had so much work to do. I did the permits list for Ottawa Construction News, my regular job, and some work for a Human Resources Consultant. Add that to my "volunteer" work at my daughter's place and for the condo board, plus Plenty of Fish events, and I'm a busy person.

April doesn't look like it will be any quieter, either, and plans for May are already starting to be made. Pony Club activities are beginning to pick up, so my daughter and I will both be out testing and teaching kids and ponies on the weekends.

Pony Club Quiz is in April in Smiths Falls and the first Pony Club Rally of the year will be held at the Rideau-Carleton Raceway on the long weekend in May. Contact me if you want to volunteer - even if you're not a horsey person, we can always use more hands to build jumps.

This is a teaching and testing rally, so the kids and ponies spend the weekend taking lessons in small groups and looking after their ponies - and being judged and tested - with a riding test that covers flat work, stadium jumping, and cross country on the Monday. Everyone goes home happy, tired and dirty after a busy weekend - and most can't wait to do it all over again the next year. This will be our first time at Rideau Carleton - in previous years we held our rally on the Maxville Fairgrounds.

Well, time to start the weekend!

Snowflakes and silly horses...

March 3, 2006 - My dear daughter (DD) and dear son-in-law (DSIL) had just started moving into the farm - no horses on the property, stuff in Orleans, Nepean and at the farm - and had lots of work to do. It was pretty bleak outside. There were no fences, no shelters, and lots of snow.



March 3, 2007 - Now there are fences and horses and a shelter. You can see six horses in this picture. We have two more in the paddock behind the barn. There's still lots of work to do - it's a farm, after all, but there is progress.

I took both pictures from the same vantage point - the back door - but zoomed in a little tighter on the horses than on the empty field. The pool is still in the same place, just not visible.

Seven paddocks are fenced and hot wired. We're only using four through the winter so that there are some clean ones for the horses once the snow starts to melt. We feed huge round bales in each field. Some of the horses come in for grain at suppertime, but most are just on hay and water.

DD and DSIL took Charlie and Reba out for a ride in the snow flurries this morning. Daisy and Tinkerbelle went along for the run. They rode around the 1/2 mile track, but couldn't stay out too long as DD had to be at work at 1 pm.






Bart the cat thought about following, too, but he decided to stay behind with me while I took pictures of the horses in the paddocks.

Bart certainly has personality - and charming good looks. He fancies himself a great stalker and hunter, but we think only hunts toes and fingers. He's supposed to be a barn cat, but he'd rather loll around on the couch, or steal the dogs' toys.




Charlie decided that he was tired and hot after the ride and once his saddle was off, he had a big roll in the fresh snow in front of the barn. I was laughing too hard to get the best shot in focus - Charlie sat up on his butt and shook all over to get the snow off his back before he stood up.

You can see Tinkerbelle and Daisy watching in amazement. My DD has the reins in her hand as well as the saddle and she's laughing pretty hard, too.

There are snowflakes melting on my camera lens, as well as snow falling all around us.

Once the horses were back out in the field, my DD and DSIL fixed a fence wire that was pulled down by the silly 4-year olds (Charlie and S'Heir). Then it was time for me to head home again.

So much has changed in the last year: Fences, horses, work, and even pets. Sometimes it seems as though you're not making any progress, then when you look back at the photos, you see just how far you've really come. It's amazing!

Last day of February

The time is just flying by. Last year at this time, I was driving a bus 50-70 hours a week -- now I'm back to my chosen career, technical writing. I like this much better, although I miss the wonderful people that I met, both children and adults, while driving.

As I sorted through some of my digital photos, I found some more horse pictures (what else?). Here's one of Sheba from the really cold days in February. She's an Arabian mare, quite pregnant, and gets cold if she doesn't wear a blanket some nights.

She didn't seem too perturbed when we went down to the field to fix her blanket, although she did have a tough time seeing clearly since the eyeholes weren't lined up properly. The culprit in all the blanket mayhem was Charlie, my 4-year old Appendix Quarterhorse (photo taken in Jan. 2007).

He's for sale for $5000 if anyone is interested - he trailers, clips, ties, and has basic walk/trot and lungeing training. He's incredibly calm and laidback, too. He stands about 16 hh and is good to handle in the field and in the barn. He's on hay and water, plus the occasional handful of sweet feed. He hacks out alone or with another horse without any problems, and even the dogs running at his heels don't faze him at all.

We got him in a trade in January - I traded my Canadian cross (Simon) for him as Simon needs to be worked harder than I want to ride - and Simon doesn't think that going out through the bush is a good thing - riding should be done in a ring or an arena. He's a princess, but doing very well showing in Toronto now.

Simon is very good when he works hard, and he's busy training students to sit up, keep contact, and winning ribbons in the Toronto area now. Considering we bought him just before he was heading back to the meat auction in Kingston in Nov. 2000 because he'd already failed as a school horse, I'm pretty proud of him. His new owners are thrilled that he's doing so well.

Other horses on the farm include Queenie, a leopard Appaloosa that we think is in foal to the stallion that we had here last summer, AA Decadence (a registered black Arabian - also the father of Sheba's foal). Her idea of heaven is a hay bale and sunshine...

I'll add pictures of Ti Buck (another boarder) later. He's a chubby 5-year old Canadian-type with very little handling. Since he moved to the farm a year ago, he's learned a lot, but he still needs a lot of work.