Sunday Stills

The eyes have it today.

Velvet looks worried here, but she was only checking out Sammi.

Sammi, in turn, was checking out Velvet.

I really think this pup, Ace, is going to have at least one blue eye.

And of course this post wouldn't be complete without Beamer's big beautiful eye!

New homes!

I was asked if we got the skunks relocated; we haven't seen them since Tuesday, but it has been rainy and cold- they might come out this weekend, as it is s'posed to be sunny and warm. If they don't show up, it could mean that owls got them or they got trapped; we don't know yet.

Two pups have gone to their new owners; Abby went yesterday; and just check out this happy owner!

They have a blog, as soon as I get the link I'll let you all know. It should be fun watching her grow up! The other pup, Kalina, is Janice's birthday pup which I delivered to her today, much to her delight.

I promised not to put a pic of her face, so all you get is her hair and the pup all snuggled up in it!

I had Reba and Tess with me so I took a 3 generation shot, pup, mama, and grandma.

So I'm down to 6 pups, 5 for sale.

The sun is out, so Ted is out mowing, and I'm contemplating the necessity of weeding my garden tomorrow as compared to the fun of riding Beamer and taking the dogs for a run. Guess what is winning?........

Here is a parting shot of my orange iris. Have a good weekend, see ya all on Sunday Stills!

Comment moderation

I hate to have to do this but I am turning comment moderation on. I keep getting spam comments in an Asian language, which is followed by a series of dots which contain a link. I don't mind comments in Spanish or French, as I can usually understand them, but any comment I can't understand gets deleted. Especially comments with incognito links!

Too stinkin' cute!

We have a little problem at the place I work; actually, five little problems! Someone trapped a skunk, and left five little orphans, who are hanging around our shop. I had to chase one away from a car so the customer could leave today, using the hose and water. But I felt bad for the little guy, it's probably only about three weeks old. I went looking for it, and found 5 of them playing. I called my husband and he came up after work to check them out. Ted being the fun guy he is... well, you just have to see the video!

Near the end of my shift, there were no customers so I went to sit outside, and darned if the little hooligans didn't spot me and make a beeline for me.

Then when I close up they were right on the step, and one of them came at me, talking up a storm. Brave little rascals! I want my husband to relocate them tomorrow, we should be able to capture them and put them in a big cardboard box to transport them to an area where there aren't any houses. Hope they make it!

Any day I get to ride...

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.

Macro flowers and 2 pups relocated!

Luke and John went to their new homes yesterday, and their new people are delighted with them. I'm happy that they went together, as they tended to hang out together.

My plans for riding were wiped out yesterday, as soon as I had time, the downpour started. Maybe today.....

I did manage to get some flower macros for today, after the rain let up.

Tiger stripe gazania

Osteo and lobelia

Shizanthus

Have a great week everyone!

Sunday Stills

Since it was so rainy here I wasn't sure I'd get good black and white photos for this week's Sunday Stills Challenge, but I persevered and had a lot of fun trying.

I had some lovely co-operative models:

Coyote Belle

Chickory and Kai

Corb and Emmy Lou

Sammi

Kali

Corb again with Billie

I also took this one of the steel wheels on our deck, I liked the contrast with the lattice behind them. And to top it off, a closeup of my gargoyle rock; look closely and you'll see why I call it a gargoyle.

After the Rain, the Rainbow

The rain finally quit last night, and we were blessed with a partial rainbow. The sun is shining today, hopefully it will dry out enough to mow the hay- I mean the lawn!

The grass in the pasture is phenomenal, in fact I've had to cut out feeding oats to Coyote Belle, she is getting quite rotund and definitely does not need any help making milk for Kai, who is growing big and strong. He is six weeks old today. His mannerisms are so much like Beamer, and he loves attention just as much as his daddy.

The pups have been taking up a lot of my time; this one is Ace, one of only 2 males left for sale.

Luke and John are going to their new home today. On Tuesday I take the other 8 across the border to Bonner's Ferry to get their puppy shots. I'll save about $100 by getting them done there instead of in Creston. I'll be taking Janice's pup to her next week-and picking up more flowers from her while I'm there!

Tuesday I start cattle work with Beamer. We'll just be working them one on one, and there are only 2 or 3 people doing this to start with, but I hope it will catch on here and we can get a full fledged cow horse event going. I'm also applying to be a volunteer for the Therapeutic Riding program here. So I hope to be busy doing horse stuff this summer.

Having fun!

The rain finally quit for a while, and when I turned the horses out in their pasture, they had a blast ripping around; Kai was showing me just how fast he was, and doing some fancy flying lead changes, which you can see in the video below.

The ground here is a clay base and it's flat too, so there isn't much drainage. Beamer's pen has a lake in it that goes right up to the gate.

The other day when I was at work, Ted saw Beamer playing in his "pool" splashing around, and then he lay in it and rolled! Silly boy! I had to hose the mud off him the next morning before I turned him out.

He has high ground in his pen, just not in the middle of it. The pen he spends his days in is nice and high with no mud, so only at night do I put him in his corral.

The puppies are getting really big and active now; I still have 5 for sale, as 4 of the people who spoke for pups have changed their minds. I hate it when that happens. Oh well, they are so cute I shouldn't have any trouble selling them!

There they are, all 10 of 'em!

Wordless Wednesday

The girls ask a question

'Scuse, us, we got a question;

Could we maybe have a little bit of oats? Pleeeeeaaaaase?

Sorry, I couldn't hear you, did you say yes?

Sunday Stills

This week's theme is company logos or signs, so I thought I'd share with you my company logo. Horses are a business for me, and have been for 12 years. I'm winding down the business a little now, but it still exists. So here is our logo, which I designed- on our jacket backs:

And on the front above the pocket:

And on our ball caps, ably modeled by Tess.

Rainy days

We have had a lot of rainy days lately, so I haven't been riding; the pups are also taking up a lot of my time right now. Sometimes when I go to catch the horses to bring them in for the night they rip around a little, strutting their stuff; the above photo was taken while I was standing in the rain, halters in hand. Couldn't help but smile at the lovely action.

Velvet was in fine form(sorry about the grainy photo, blame it on the rain!) She is starting to fill out now. I did measure her the other day, she stands 14 hands and half an inch, at one year old. She will probably be around 15.1 when she is all done growing, which goes to show that even though Beamer is only 14.2 and a quarter inch, he can throw size on his babies. He tends to throw the size of the mare on the babies.

Also, Velvet is usually the first one to stop and offer to be caught. Love those curly ears! The wet weather has also brought us a pair of visitors; this pair can be found waddling around the farmyard.

The bigger dogs leave them alone, but I think I'll have to keep Sammi in hand when the ducks are around; she goes after anything that moves!

All the veggies in my garden are up now, but I have to get more tomato plants to replace the ones the frost got. The local greenhouse has beefsteak tomatoes, which are hard to find. My dad always grew them when I was a kid.

Sammi

Now that I've gotten to know my pup, I'm discovering her personality. She is very intense, and has the border collie stare down pat:

She is very smart, and a little opinionated- I made the mistake of closing the door on the crate she was sleeping in and now she refuses to go in it! No way she is being locked in again!

She really wants to play with Tess (Reba avoids her) and sometimes Tess allows it, and sometimes she doesn't.

Sammi is very intrigued with the other pups but plays a little too rough for them. She is learning her name, and comes right to me when I call, although sometimes I have to work at it to distract her from whatever she is focusing on. She is also learning that chasing cats is NOT allowed here!

This next week I'm going to work on walking on the leash, and sit. Also need to get her some chew toys- everything goes into the mouth; typical kid! She is adept at pruning my plants!

Two more pups spoken for

Today, Janice and Dave visited. Janice had to pick out her pup, which is her birthday gift- tomorrow is her birthday, everyone! She originally picked out Emma, but I was hoping she would go for Jasmine; I thought she would suit her better- and she did pick her! Good choice Janice! Now I get to watch my favorite of the female pups grow up. Yay!

Of course, the problem here is the name, since Jazz is the name she picked for the filly she bought from me. But I'm sure she'll get a good name for her.

Also, I sold Chad today , although he won't go to his new home until July 3- and he was my pick of the litter for the male pups. He will be going to Kimberly, which is close to where Janice lives so we'll get to see him too. The new owner wants him for skijoring, and maybe dog sledding. Tess's dad, who is a sheep trials winning dog, was used for sledding this last winter and did amazingly well; maybe Chad will follow in his Grandpa's paw prints.

That's Chad on the left, along with Billie. (Isn't Billie a cutey!) So that's 5 pups with homes, and 5 to go. I still have 3 people who will be coming for a pup, so really there are only 2 left to sell.

And my name is...

Sammi!

It took me a while, but finally a name popped out for the puppy. We had a good time playing today, I put her in with Tess's pups and they had fun chewing on each other.