Is a good day!
Headed out with Beamer today and did the loop around the hay farm west of us. This photo was taken looking straight down Beamer's right front leg; you can see that the crop is up past his legs and halfway up my stirrup fenders.
As we rode along, we could see the man who has his cows on this farm burying his bull; it's a 6 yr. old red Angus bull, they found him dead this morning, no apparent cause. Now he has to scramble to find a replacement bull; his other bull is only a 2 yr. old and has 25 cows of his own to keep him busy.
As we rode further, I found a real jackpot (for me) in this stand of stinging nettles. I don't think it will be too hard to get permission to harvest them; I dry them, strip the stalks, and crumble it up to feed to my horses, a small handful a day. It does wonders for their condition and coat, and is a good nerve tonic. Nettle tea is good for people too!
After I rode I took Sammi and went to check on the mares and get some eye photos for next week's Sunday Stills Challenge, since the sun was shining- yay!-
Of course, these two hooligans had to come and check us out. Sammi wasn't too sure about them at first, and she backed off about 10 feet and lay down and watched as I messed with them.
Quite attentive, she was. I'm really pleased with her. She has some of the usual puppy shenanigans, like shredding her blanket, and trimming all the plants that hang over the edge of my planter, and uprooting the ones that she thinks don't belong! Now that didn't please me! Guess I didn't baby-proof well enough! But over all, she is a really smart dog, and in the things that really matter she is showing good instincts and trainability.
16 comments:
A ride and a good dog, it doesn't get much better that that.
Sounds like a good day!
Poor farmer. That was rather young for that bull to die, right? I wonder what caused it to die.
Sounds like a great ride anyway.
Our grass never grows that tall here. We're just too dry.
I bet your horses are lovin' it.
I've made stinging nettle bracelets in a craft class before, but I don't think stinging nettles grows here/
~Lisa
Danged it's gorgeous up there!! Neddles?? I sure hope you harvest wearing gloves and long sleeves! They "bite" me hard! Haven't had to encounter them in years!
Oh Sammy is so cute! Looks like our Jed and Lukes' age...born in Jan??
Atinging nettles? come on down! We have lots of them , or I could try harvesting them myself I suppose. Too bad about old Bully wonder what happened ,Hope they don't loose to much time replacing him
WOW, Sammi was born on March 29.
Sherri, I wear long sleeves and gloves, and when they are flowering I pull them up by the roots and hang them upside down to dry. Then I put a tarp under them and rub them back and forth with gloved hands until all the stems are bare, this makes the nettles grind up too, and then you can handle them with bare hands. My horses love it, they'll eat it right out of my hand. When Coyote Belle came home and was looking poorly, one of the things I fed her was nettles. I'm sure it helped get the bloom back on her so quickly, along with the dentistry.
Nice, I haven,t been riding at all the weather has been so crappy. My timing is off, the day will start off nice and then when I'm free and could go it gets ugly....my poor fat horses.Sammi is so cute, loved the macro shots too.
What a gorgeous, gorgeous ride. I wanted so badly to get the saddle on Ellsworth again this past weekend, but it was soooo hot.
your title matches my sentiments exactly!
- The Equestrian Vagabond
I didn't know that about nettles...they grow here at the river...NOW I might take an interest in them.
Wow I never knew them nettles were good for anything except chasing me away from the saskatoons, but I may have to try to harvest some as well.
I sure learned something new. I also didn't know about nettles, thanks for the tip! That is if we have them here.
Everything's growin' up there! Hay, horses, pups...stingin' nettles. Didn't realize how medicinal they were!
YAY for riding. I agree! riding always makes for a good day.
I haven't been riding in MONTHS. Boo.
I buy dried nettle here to give mine. :D
If you can get fresh you don't even need to dry them. Just let them wilt and the wilting softens the spines.
I sure wish I could get fresh here.
Stinging nettle, that's one for my booK. I'm trying to do a binder of useful plants. Just starting, so this is good to know.
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