Sunday Stills- Black and white

 

Summer winds down

 Whole lotta nothing going on here. The weather is great- enough rain to make the lawn start to green up again. 

I have been doing some harvesting- the elderberries are ready so I picked some to dry for tea.

Also made an oxymel out of rose petals and bee balm petals.

Once they dried I mixed them with honey and cider vinegar; should be ready by the end of September.

I am preparing Dally for weaning which is coming up in 3 weeks. I separate her into the foaling pen to give her grain, and leave her in there for about half an hour. Mama hangs around across the fence while she eats - probably wishing she could have a few bites-  but I have cut Jayne off grain to help decrease her milk production. 

Dally has graduated to the next size halter now. She is really starting to grow.

 One thing about this program, it makes the foals easy to catch and lead when they know they are going to get their nummies.

And a photo of Mr. Handsome. Just because. 

Sunday News

 Well I just couldn't come up with anything worthwhile for the Sunday Stills Challenge (abstract) this week, so instead lets read the Sunday Newspaper. 

First article of interest....

Just found out that Nitro is being sold. 

Now that is exactly what my breeding program is all about! Good minded, athletic, versatile horses. I hope he tops the sale! (For those of you who don't remember him, Nitro is the 3rd of the Beamer /Belle geldings)

Now on to the next bit of news.

I have officially taken Dally off the market. The person who claimed to really want her has not followed through- which is quite all right with me, because little Dally Darlin' is really growing on me.

 

Look at those muscles!

Airborne! Such a floaty mover.

"I am special!"

"I can't believe she wanted to sell me!"

Guess you'll just have to put up with me Dally!

Dally at 3 months

 Today Dally turned 3 months old so y'all know what that means- photo shoot time! 

It's tough to get action shots of her- by the time I get the camera focused on her, she's done. Short athletic bursts like this one:

She's looking pretty good if I do say so meself!

She has been getting some camelina oil in her grain, just a little bit,, along with grass hay- we have no pasture, it's all burned off. 

She is basically pretty quiet, always coming to check out what I am doing. 

She's growing pretty good too. 

And she is a pretty mover. Very self possessed filly.

Pretty relaxed. I actually really like her and hope she doesn't sell! I am waiting to hear back on the person who checked her out the other day. If that's not a go, I may take her off the market and see how she works out for me. We have some changing circumstances that may allow me to send her to a trainer when she's 2. 

Sunday Stills- Summer

 This is going to be a summer to remember, all over the world. From the extreme weather to the extreme measures some governments are taking in an abuse of power, it will not soon be forgotten. 

The extreme heat we have been subjected to in our corner of the world has filled the skies with smoke from hundreds of fires, many of which are out of control. Two towns have burned to the ground in our Province of B.C. , one of them not far from where my brother lives- they have been on evacuation alert for most of the summer. Very stressful. 

Clear skies are a blessing these days, as we haven't seen many of them. This is our typical sunrise:

My camera didn't capture the red of the sun, only the red aura around it. 

Last night I got this shot of the setting sun, much closer to the actual colour.

The smoke has kept me from a lot of activity this summer, and proximity of fire had me cancel a trip I planned to go and see Shayla and the rest of the Diamond Lazy H herd. Looks like I won't get to see Derby before he leaves for his new home. Probably a good thing though, because I know I'd fall in love with him and regret selling him!

Summer is always about the flowers, and I was happy to see the bees are as happy with my flowers as I am- I have heard that it's been a tough year for bees. 

My Morden Blush rose has come back into its second blooming

For more Sunday Stills

A Pow Wow, a pile, and a perhaps

There is a whole lotta smoke in the area these days with one new fire in the area. We had a couple of days of lovely clear weather and then -Boom! it looked like this the next morning:

I have another sun photo but I am saving it for tomorrow's Sunday Stills Challenge, which is all about summer.

I am looking forward to the rain they predict for early next week. This too shall pass....

I got on Old Betsy and cleaned Beamer's pen yesterday- oh what fun to drive a tractor with no brakes and armstrong steering! In a pen that is on a slope!

It was a workout! I still need to pile up the mare's pen but it can wait until Monday. 

We went to the local Pow Wow a few days ago and got to see some lovely dancers and the native drumming and singing to accompany them. I found it quite moving. 

Loved the little girl and her mama in their jingle dresses. (Probably not the correct term)

Dally had a second visit today from someone interested in her. I'll keep you posted!

Trailer loading training

 Now that we have a bit of cooler weather (today is the last day of it) I have been working with Dally on trailer loading. She hasn't been out of the pen for about a month so she was a bit looky but not spooky. The first day just as soon as I  walked her over to the trailer, the neighbour kids started yelling and fighting and going past the trailer on bikes and a mini car that an adult was pushing for them.... talk about distractions....

However, Dally did well. I only asked for her to check it out and look at it, and that was enough. I brushed her as she stood with her head in the opening, and gave her some grain, which she wasn't keen on  due to all the newness and distractions. 

The second day, I picked a moment when there was no kid activity going on... that lasted for about 3 minutes. As soon as I got her to the trailer, here came the kids on their bikes going back and forth  right past the trailer.. sigh.... oh well it is good training to get her to ignore distractions and focus on what I am asking her to do. This time, she was quite happy to stick her head in and eat. I started with the bowl at the edge of the trailer.

I apologize for the twist in the halter! Bad me!

Then progressed to putting it farther in and standing inside the trailer myself. 

That was pretty good, given the circumstances so we quit there. Today I hope to get 2 feet in. 

The reason I don't load mama and then ask the foal to go in is because my trailer is not hitched to a truck and mama stepping in could tip the trailer up at the front; also because it is a way to teach baby to be more independent of mama and to trust me, and give her something to think about. 

Sunday Stills- numbers

 I have to say, all week, I had the song Heartache by the numbers running through my mind.... wondering how the heck I was going to come up with something for this week's challenge. 

Then this happened

I was bequeathed these books from my old friend and mentor, John Boe, who passed away earlier this year. 

I was a little dismayed when I opened the book...

and saw how tiny the names and numbers are!

But with the help of my magnifying glass- which, by the way, is not as effective as the zoom on my cell phone camera- I was able to find the record of the very first Quarter Horse to be registered. He goes by the unlikely name of Wimpy and he has registration number 1.

Click here for Wimpy's story.

Of note, Beamer's sire, Peppy A Poco was also born on the King Ranch in Texas and like the majority of the old horses on the King Ranch also goes back to their foundation sire, Old Sorrel. The King Ranch preferred sorrels, and sold many of the foals that weren't red, hence Beamer's sire was put in their annual yearling sale, as he was a seal brown.

Pretty things

 It seems like this summer is a broken record. Heat, smoke, wind blows smoke away, smoke comes back. Rinse and repeat. We did get some blessed rain a couple of days ago which cleared the air temporarily but alas it wasn't  enough to quench the fires. We definitely have cooler temperatures though so I am thankful for small blessings. 

My favourite daylily seems to not mind the weather! It has huge blooms. Most of my flowers are showing the effects of the weather with smaller than normal blooms despite my best efforts at keeping them hydrated. 

Dally is blooming too! Starting to really get chunky. She had her first deworming a couple of days ago. I use Safeguard for the first worming and follow it at first frost with ivermectin.

She stands tied now. I rasped her front feet when she was tied and it went fairly well. She backed up a couple of times but stopped when the rope got tight.

She will be 3 months old on the 16th, so I will be doing a photo shoot then. 

Meanwhile,

here is her latest cuteness!

Sunday Stills- look down

 

Look before you leap

Almost missed these beauties - then I looked down. One of my rescue roses finally showing its colour

Of course gotta get a Dally photo!

For more Sunday Stills posts click here.