Ends & Odds

Thank you everyone for your kind and helpful thoughts. I really appreciate it. :)

It's been extremely hot here! We've been under heat advisory for a couple of weeks now with a heat index of over 105F everyday. I actually really enjoy the hot weather and was outside mowing today when I suddenly felt very dizzy and also felt like I was going to puke. I didn't feel very hot, but had a hard time making it back to the house. When I finally collapsed on the couch my heart was pounding as though I'd been running for twenty minutes straight.

After my heart rate returned to normal I took a cool shower, but it still took almost half a hour to cool off. It was pretty scary because I never even felt it coming on!! I'll never ignore a heat advisory ever again. Wow! Lesson learned, but I'm okay.

On a different note my husband and I have been working on building a turkey house so the baby turkeys can move into a grown up house instead of the little brood box. They'll be so happy to be able to move around and grow. Here's what we have so far . . .

Yep, the floor. :) Between the heat and my husband's work schedule (twelve hour days, seventy hours a week) we just haven't had time to do much. Luckily the roof is already built. Remember that triangle goat house I showed you? We're putting walls up and putting it on top to make the roof. :) I'll post pictures whenever we finish it.

Anyway below are a few more pictures for your enjoyment. :)

Can you see the dressage horse potential in him??

Click to enlarge this shot. You have to see his lips!!

Well Zep says it's time to eat, so see you later!!

A question (or a few) for my readers . . .

Okay, now that Jasmine is better I'll go back to my regularly scheduled program lol. I wanted to ask my readers a few questions. I originally started my blogs basically as journals to keep track of my pets' lives and training, so I worry that they may be a bit boring for everyone to read. So please if you have a moment, comment and tell me what you like about my blog, what you don't like (be nice please) and any suggestions that might make it more interesting. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me make my blog more enjoyable.

Good News About Jasmine!!

Jasmine is up and walking around, drinking water on her own and showing an appetite!! Normally she's really loud, to the point of being obnoxious, but today I was soooo glad to hear her hollering at us for food when we got home instead of being annoyed. :) What a relief. And for those of you who asked she had a stomach upset called bloat (dog owners know of a similar condition). In goats it can be just as fatal because they have four stomachs like a cow and when they bloat the bacteria in their rumen that digests the food dies and the food ferments. Very, very serious condition. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I'm amazed by this sudden turn around when it was looking so grim and I know it's because of you guys. Thank you!

Turkey Pics, Answers & More Bad News

Jasmine is very, very sick (which is why I didn't post yesterday) and we're still not 100% certain she'll pull through. If everyone would please keep her in their thoughts I would appreciate it.

I promised to show you pictures of my baby turkeys. They are so ugly at this age lol. They look like little vultures.

Also in answer to Wednesday's question . . .

It was a lawnmower that Chrome was looking at. :) Zep tried to tell him it was no big deal.

While we mowed the pasture I also turned my fatty Jackal out to run around some. Chrome had fun following him around. Jackal was so into his sniffing that he barely paid attention lol.

Jackal ran around some but he spent most of his time sniffing out chicken poop lol.

And being a true farm dog he had a drink out of the horse's water trough. :)

Anyway sorry the bad news kind of puts a damper on things, but I'm sure with continued treatment and all of your good thoughts that Jasmine will pull through. I'll update as soon as we know something.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Bet you can't guess what he's looking at!

Belated Chrome Progress Report

I was going to post about the turkeys today, but I completely forgot to do Chrome's progress report yesterday. He turned fourteen month old yesterday. I'll post about the turkeys on Thursday.

Date: 7-19-10 (just posting a day late)
Age: 14 months
Height: Just shy of 14.1hh (a little over 4ft 8in/56.7in/144cm/1.44m)
Height Gain: Almost three quarters of an inch.
Weight: Approx 650lbs (294.8kg)
Weight Gain: About thirty pounds. Can you tell I increased his feed?
Progress: Chrome is doing great. He's on free choice hay and I ran out of beet pulp so I haven't been feeding it anymore. He's gained weight and looks great. I've taken him for a few walks and he's done fabulous. I've also loaded him on the trailer a few times and he did good. I haven't really worked on anything else. Oh wait! I did fly spray him while he was eating without having to put a halter on him! :D
Goals: My goal for this month is to start introducing him to things like saddle blankets, plastic bags, etc. The crazy thing is he does most of his de-spooking by himself!! Check out the hard work (I took pictures and he played hard) we did with a box yesterday below . . .

He completely destroyed the cardboard box. And thoroughly enjoyed it lol.

Here he dropped it and then walked through it. He actually put two hooves in it. I just missed the perfect shot. Learning to walk over unfamiliar objects and surfaces is a great lesson! Good thinking Chrome! ;)

Stuffing your face in a box is not something I would have thought of. :)

Even Zep got in on the action.

Zeppelin showing off his pretty neck action too. :)

One last thing before I go. We were weighing the goats so that we could give them their wormer and Storm was standing there watching so I told my husband to grab her. She weighed FORTY SIX POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!! She's never weighed over thirty nine pounds in her entire life! And she's not fat either. Check out these pictures.

Can you believe she's nine? If it weren't for her eye problems you would never guess.

My Mighty Hunter

Note to the squeamish: If you are squeamish about blood, dead animals or opossums in general please do not read any further and definitely do not scroll to the end of this post.

The dogs have been doing a LOT of barking lately. To the point where I've become so fed up of it that I won't even go see what it is they're barking about. A couple of nights ago I sat a bag of trash outside my front door while I finished up a few chores. When I went out after dark a few hours later to carry it down to the garbage can I found an opossum chewing through the bag. I squealed and ran inside for my twenty two, but it ran off. We've been having reports of confirmed rabies cases in raccoons in my area, so I'm paranoid about the possums, not to mention they can give EPM to horse and they enjoy dining on my cat's food and will also kill chickens, so I definitely planned on killing it if I saw it again.

Last night I was in the shower and when I turned off the water I heard desperate barking from Jackal. It sounded very different from his usual bark. I threw on a robe and grabbed the flashlight and ran out the front door. I didn't see anything so I went around to the back deck to see which direction he was looking in. I was shocked to see he was barking at the back door very aggressively. I leaned around the corner and there it was. The same opossum from a few nights before. Jackal had it cornered between two boxes near the back door and was barking at it hardly a foot away. I was terrified it would bite Jackal so I ran back into the house and grabbed my twenty two. I peeked out the back door and could hear the little critter growling! Very unnerving. Every encounter I had with them as a kid they were already playing dead so I'd never heard one growl.

As soon as Jackal saw me coming out the back door he ran off into his yard. It was like he'd called for backup and when backup came he hightailed it out of there lol. I shot the possum and called Jackal inside. I was very relieved to find that he'd not been bitten. Anyway below is a picture of Jackal's first hunting prize. He may not be much of a squirrel dog but he can catch an opossum by cracky. :D


Keep an eye out tomorrow for pictures of our turkeys. They're so cute!!!

Good news and bad news . . .

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that Chrome has decided to use our sheet metal feed shed building as a scratching post, so now there is a horse butt size dent in the side of my building!! Luckily it isn't damaged to the point that it can't be used and the door still slides, although not as well as it used to be. It isn't anchored down yet so I'm hoping we can move it to a new location, or maybe build a fence around it. I'm really not sure.

Now the good news is that I loaded Chrome on the trailer again to eat his dinner yesterday and we actually closed the door. He freaked a little bit for a second because it startled him, but he settled quickly. I can't believe how much bigger he's gotten. He can barely turn around in it now. :)

Also I've been petting Zeppelin's cheek! I've been able to pet his nose for a while, but now I can reach the side of his and scratch his cheekbone. :) I think he likes it he's just still a teeny bit nervous. I'll keep trying.

Our Walk Yesterday

I did finally take Chrome for a walk yesterday. It's cooled off some since we had all the rain but it's still muggy. The weather and Chrome's adventure yesterday didn't phase him at all! He was full of himself!! Last week at work I was writing lists of things I wanted to teach Chrome and I realized I hadn't had him tied up in a long time. I decided to tie him up yesterday while I groomed him before the walk. I want him to learn patience now, not after bad habits kick in. He already dives for the grass when we leave his paddock.

He tested the rope several times, but he never put enough weight into pulling that it worried me at all. As you can see by the close pictures (was not zoomed at all) I was still close enough that I could grab the rope if he started to panic, which he didn't. :)

Looking cute.

He paced around the tree a little bit but as soon as I started grooming him he stood still. Being his typical self though his mouth was busy the whole time. He chewed on the tree and moss (no picture sorry).

Oh and he's definitely going to be a yawner like my Appaloosa mare I had growing up. He yawns when he's anticipating food, when he's bored, when he's tired, when he's frustrated, etc. :)

He chewed on the rope.

Here he is after being groomed. He looks so sleek and shiny. I am so happy he's going to be built athletically. He has his conformation faults like most horses but overall I think he's put together well.

He's not afraid of water. In fact he has fun pawing in it.

I forgot to flip this picture as you can see by the house in the background but I took it to show how much he splashed his face while playing in the puddle. :)

Doing his pretty neck while checking out the trash can.

He is soooo gorgeous. If he ends up built like this when he's grown (minus the butt high lol) I won't be disappointed at all. I've been told he doesn't have enough bone in his legs for a Friesian cross, but I'm not too worried about it. He's going to be a trail horse mainly, so it shouldn't be a problem. It's not like we'll be scaling the Grand Canyon. :)

Like I said he was full of himself. He was shaking his head, crow hopping, just being so silly.

I love how he can flex through his neck!

I'm so happy he's developing such nice self carriage. I love watching him when he's feeling his oats. He's so much fun.

Looking at the dogs further down the road.

Playing with his rope.

Some more goofing around.

This one almost looks like an oil painting. I didn't edit it. It just came out blurry and rich.

This one is blurry too but he's just so cute!

More goofing around.

Blurry again, but I just couldn't delete it.

He's definitely going to be very well collected. Here he was cantering beside me while I ran (and not very fast). He's going to be pretty typical of the Friesian (and the Arab too really) I think where he can collect easily but it'll be a challenge to get him to work long and low and to extend. Gotta love dressage and the challenge of a baroque breed. :)

As always we had to stop and check out the sign on the corner before going home.

He surprised me today by grabbed it and pulling it right off it's stakes! Most horses would be thinking "ahhh it's a bright yellow horse eating monster" and Chrome thinks "yay it's a bright yellow horse toy!!!!!"! LOL Crazy horse. I love that curiosity and confidence. :)

Still playing with the sign.

This is like my new favorite picture. I am so putting it on my desktop background lol.

When we got back he wanted a drink, but he was a little nervous because I had the water on and the hose has a leak so it was spraying water in the air.

But he was brave and got a drink. As you can see I forgot I had the water running so it ran over the whole time I was walking him. Ugh! What a waste.

And yawning again. Maybe he is a little wore out from his great adventures yesterday! :) Hope you enjoyed.