Wild things and flowers

 I enjoy sitting in the gazebo in the afternoon and watching all the birds that fly along the river; the osprey diving for fish and the cedar waxwings catching bugs as they swoop down from the surrounding trees. There is a stump near the gazebo and every time I sit there the little house wren comes for a visit. 

It is the cutest tiny bird!  

     

Robin (I assume juvenile) with a white tipped tail. Sorry about the crappy photo; taken at a distance in a hurry from my cell phone. 

Then there is this fellow, pretty sure he is the same one I have seen for the last couple years. 

Other than wildlife, there are flowers happening here, finally. 

Cosmos and calendula that self seeded for the last 2  years

This is a tiny flower with foliage that is similar to maiden hair fern

Snapdragons

Portulaca

We had some dramatic clouds last weekend. 

Love it when there are fingers of light poking through holes in the floor of heaven. 

And of course, one must include horses! Dally has literally no forelock left. 

Who needs a forelock, anyway?

So far

 If you haven't entered the foaling contest yet, go to this post to read the details

No foal so far.... 

Did you see that one of the horses entered in the Kentucky Derby is named So Happy and is ridden by 60 year old Mike Smith? Guess who my pick to win is!

It would make me So Happy  if my Happy foaled on Derby day! Coyote Belle's last foal by Beamer was born on Derby day (and named Derby) . He is really doing well with his owner, the same one who owns Rio. 

Since I have no foal yet to show off, here are some of the other sights around the farm. 

First butterfly having a drink of water from the leaky hose

Shy ladybug

Feral cat Boris, who is probably the daddy of most of the Siamese type kittens

Camo deer- all that snow is gone now.

 

The first robin from a couple weeks ago

Goose steppin' on the ice- that ice too is all gone now

I do have some exciting news to share, but not quite yet. I will keep you in the dark for another week or so! 

This weekend we have the Horse Expo in Red Deer and I intend to go tomorrow and catch the demos by Warwick Schiller - and maybe do some shopping at the huge trade fair. 

Beautiful day!

 Since my photos from yesterday were rather poor, I brought out the real camera (Nikon ) and took advantage of a day that actually feels like spring. Most of the snow is gone, except for shaded areas and places that snowdrifts built up. I tried river shots of the Common Goldeneye duck but my focus was off. I did, however manage to capture the mating pair of geese as they flew overhead. 

Love that blue sky and the snow eating south wind we have today. I inspected my flower gardens, and the shoots in my previous post are tulips that my niece gave me last year, and I planted the bulbs last summer after the flowers died. Also surviving the long cold winter are dianthus and at least 1 of my 2 irises. Still waiting to see if the butterfly flower, roses, and clematis made it. 

Happy is doing great- baby has stopped bouncing around, so has probably grown enough to take up most of the room. Her udder isn't quite full but it is getting there!

If you look behind the curve of her jaw, that is the melanoma. It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all; not sensitive to touch and she doesn't react at all when I touch it. So hopefully it will just lie dormant for a long time. 

Cell phone photo

Happy is 21 this year and she looks great. As far as I can find out, this is her 13th foal. Previous owners say she has no trouble foaling, so hopefully that will be true for this one too. 

If you are wondering about that funny looking mark on her side....

it is a patch of hair  in her original color, bay. I think it looks like a cross or an arrow. Or both! 

Stay tuned, I will do the foaling contest post in a day or 2. 

Sunday Silence (aka it's time to start using my real camera!)

 

Marching on

 March has been rather lion-y all month. We just had another blast of snow and cold (-17C this morning) and I sure hope it will be winter's last hurrah and spring will get sprung!

This morning's chilly sunrise

The last weekend I had family over, and my sister from the coast picked up the last kitten from the litter, Minou. I had her in the house for a month socialising her, getting her to the vet for spay and vacs. 

It was a wonderful weekend with more family visiting on Saturday. Sunday we drove my sister and Minou to the Calgary airport. 

At least the weather cooperated that weekend. The river went out just before she got here. 

The geese are winging their way back too. 

Happy is getting pretty big now, her 320 safe date is about April 11th. I had the farrier over yesterday to trim Gussie, and Happy just hung out with us. She really is a sweet mare. 

I have a name for her foal, which will fit if it is a colt. We will be doing a foaling contest again as soon as she is a bit closer to foaling. 

I am so looking forward to April and an end to the cold and snow! So I am enjoying vicariously all the spring photos you all are posting, especially the flowers. I am itching to go to the greenhouse to get some more daylilies and some annuals for my potted flowers. 

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Silence

 

Winter is here

 And here to stay from the look of the forecast, with minus double digits in the forecast for the foreseeable future. 

Monday the 18th I turned the mares out on the winter pasture as we had a good hard freeze and their other pen was pretty much chewed down. 

Last sunny day, just after the hard freeze.

Then the snow came. 

There is a major snowstorm supposed to hit starting tonight.  Good thing we are prepared! 

The birds are busy at the feeders. We have suet for the Downy and Hairy woodpeckers and the Northern Flickers and sunflower seeds for the Chickadees  

Photo bomb by a Downy!

I hired a different farrier to do the mares as the last young lady's work didn't hold out. Gussie blew out chunks on her hind feet quarter cracks after 5 weeks. The new lady is more experienced and did some corrective maintenance on those cracks. Hopefully this one will work out! 

Velvet gave partial approval. She was a bit difficult on the first two feet but relaxed after that. Suck it up, Velvet!

Unfortunately, it looks like any winter riding for me will be on hold for a while. I'm still not 100% and being out in the cold hits me a little harder than I like. 

Seems like it is winter all over, hope you are all prepared and can hunker down and get your indoor projects done!

Nature's beauty (horses included)

 The chiro lady came and adjusted both mares. Gussie had adjustments from head to tail- poll, atlas, ribs, hips and knee and other points in between! I decided to get Velvet done too, she wasn't too bad; her neck and some ribs and a mild adjustment in her hips- the lady doesn't get too intense in that area with mares who are in foal. I gave Gussie a couple of days off to get used to it and any soreness as a result. 

I have been working on the obstacle course, only 3 things set up so far as I have to scrounge for materials ; trying to do this without buying anything. 

Shayla brought home a new filly- this one is by the same sire as Drifter (remember the palomino roan stallion we had and sold) and she is a match for Gussie!

The new filly (Patsy)

Patsy has higher back stockings and a front stocking  but they sure look similar! Patsy is a weanling, it will be fun to see how she looks all grown up. She has the same quiet disposition that Drifter had. 

I went for a walk checking fences last week and it was a bit of a nature walk for me. I got some lovely shots of the lazy Medicine River that meanders along, bordering the farm. 

 We have beavers in the area but they don't build dams. 

This is a big old poplar tree that they chewed down. 

The grass in places was 6 ft. tall, it was hard slogging! There have been a lot of geese lately, and some interesting clouds. 

The next one is a sunset. 

We have had a lot of misty mornings, and at this time of year the sunrise is right at the end of our driveway. 

Last night's supermoon arose in nearly the same place, but I waited until this morning for a photo. 

Speaking of nature....

Guess who?

Yup those marauding bandits are back. The racoons couldn't get into the cat food tote by prying the lid off (see the chewed corner?) so they tipped it over and jumped on it until it broke. I was wondering how long I would get away with having it right next to my cat feeding station. Now I have it in the feed room that so far has proven to be racoon proof. 

Gussie let Thumper back on her- it has been a while since she agreed to that!