Winter's Beauty

 Even though we have to deal with finger numbing, ear freezing, bone chilling wind and cold, there is always something lovely to see. 

The sun rising low on the southern horizon, 8:49 am.  (Yes those are round bales in the back field)

The trees across the river aglow in the late sunrise . We often see deer over there.

Even cranky mares telling me I am too slow opening the gate to their fresh hay! 

We were down to -33 Celsius last night but a balmy -13 C now . Warmer temps coming but still sub zero. This too shall pass.....

Happy has adapted to the herd quite well. Gussie still chases her at morning feed time but they all hang out as a group during the day.  Velvet has buddied up with her.

Christmas day was sunny and cold. Velvet and Gussie were dozing alongside the big barn.

That is, until Velvet saw me coming and had to investigate. 

And headed to the shelter in case, just maybe, I would put extra hay out.... 

The mares are wintering well despite the cold. They have 24/7 hay as well as heated water. 

I did some checking on due dates, it looks like Happy is due around two weeks before Gussie. End of April to mid May should be busy for me! 

Happy Christmas

 The weather outside is frightful ... well maybe not but it is cold! There was an awful snowstorm a few days ago that piled up a lot of vehicles on the freeway, but roads here were no problem for us ole snow plow operators!

We have been below - 20 Celcius for about a week now. The barn cats are snugged up and thriving, I take them fresh water twice a day. The kittens are getting big now and lost their interest in milk, so water it is for them 

Timbits, the male kitten, is very friendly.

The grey mare has settled in with the herd fairly well. Gussie still bosses her at feeding time but overall they get along; Velvet of course buddied up with her right off the bat. Which probably made Gussie jealous!

I got ahold of the people who raised her and had her until she was 15 as I wanted to know her foaling history and what her original barn name was. 

She has 12 registered foals, and 1 more that will be registered, but from 2021 to 2024 nothing- she may have had a couple paint foals with her 2nd owners. So she is currently on at least foal #14. 

Her barn name was Appy 😑 which doesn't work for me as it is slang for Appaloosa and she sure is not an Appy! So I modified it... 

Her name is Happy!

I am happy with Happy, she is a sweet mare and hey- Happy Christmas to me! She is my Christmas gift to myself. 

I had a nice Christmas visit with my sister M, and the rest of my family is all spread out having family Christmas visits. We all live so far apart now, we will probably never have one of those large family Christmas gatherings we had back before everyone went their separate ways. A lot of precious memories there!

So to all my blog friends, may you all have a blessed Christmas, my prayers go out to those who are having health problems or are lonely this season. 

Well..... I did a thing....

 What's better than 2  old roan mares in the pasture? Well, 3 of course! 

I saw an ad for a mare that has the same sire as Gussie, so I checked her out. The price was right, her ad info was good, so I called and went to see her. She was less than a half hour away. 

She is 20 years old, was born a bay roan and has gone grey (her dam is grey, her sire a red roan) and she is confirmed in foal to an up and coming running bred stallion. She is a big mare like her sister Gussie, good bone, and black feet that need a trim ( imagine that...) She was standing quietly tied, and has a perfect swirl and a kind soft eye. 

So I did the sensible thing and bought her!

She will fit right in my little herd . 

Who dat?

First greeting

Velvet earned a squeal from the new mare

You can clearly see in the above photo just how big this mare is; she is a touch bigger than Gussie. 

One more visit with Gussie, and making sure she knows where the water tank is

Nice big soft eye and a bit of a dished face

Surveying her new abode

It may look sunny and nice but it was -28 C this morning. I waited until it came up to -18C to haul her the relatively short distance home. 

She is a nice calm easy to get along with mare. 

She hauled well, (yay) leads well, and so far, no drama. (Double yay). I will give her a few days separated from the other girls before letting them mingle. Still waiting on a report from AQHA on how many foals she has had; the folks I bought her from only had her for about a year so didn't know much of her history. Apparently she was broke in her younger years and used for roping. 

Also, they said she didn't have a name when they got her so they just called her after the dude they bought her from. So I will be pondering an appropriate name for her. 

The stallion she is bred to

Wordless Wednesday

Ready or not....

 Getting there ....

Christmas checklist:

Baking- almost done

Viennese crescents and chocolate chip cookies. 

Most of those will go in the freezer to be brought out if we have company. 

Tree is up... 

I went with green and white this year. Thanks, Shayla, for the tree!

Pretty tree angel

Beamer clock is decorated

We have been back in the deep freeze the last few days-  we had a short reprieve on Dec. 10th so took the opportunity to set the mares up with a new bale, they went 5 weeks on their last one.

New bale! Lets go see!

I set this one up with a half bale feeder around it so they don't destroy it like the last one- this one should last a little longer. 

This is really nice hay! It is mare approved. 

I love this photo! The light, the action, Gussie's breath....

Those old mares are in fine shape, they have a lot of room to move, a hill to climb for their morning grain, unlimited hay and winter grazing. They are holding their weight well and the cold doesn't seem to be bothering them. I prefer not to blanket, unless it is cold, wet and windy, and even then I could open up the barn for them. 

Well insulated with snow blankets

Snowflakes adorning Velvet's beautiful mane

So  other than a bit more baking, and maybe some Christmas shopping (I detest those crowded stores!) I think we are ready! Are you?

The Cold Moon

 December's full moon lived up to its name. The temps plummeted back to -20 C and brought a little bit of snow along with the biting south wind . 

The mares were wearing their blankets of snow and eagerly awaiting their breakfast.... although they have hay 24/7 so no fasting involved!

The moon was still hanging in the north western sky as I donned my winter layers- note to self, time to bring out the down chore parka- and I took a photo from the warmth of the house; nice to have those new clear windows!

The barn cats are faring well, they too eagerly await their milk and the kibble that I mix canned meat into.  Little Timbits is always the first to chow down, and seems to like being petted. 

Meanwhile, it is Christmas baking time! I made my sister's recipe for Old English Fruit Cake again this year. I like that it has orange juice, cocoa and coffee in it. 

Pre baking

I used the remainder of the oranges after squeezing their juice to make a healthy Christmas tea, with ginger, whole cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom seeds. The place smells great!

That should keep me going for a few days!

Since it is too cold to do much outside, more baking is on the agenda. Viennese Crescents are my go to Christmas cookie, and if I can find candied peel I will make Florentines too. Apparently the big chain stores think nobody does Christmas baking any more. They may be right, it seems to be beginning to be a lost art. 

What the!

 Driving to the cheese store the other day, Ted says, "there's a camel". Seriously, sez I, maybe it was alpaca?

We checked on the way back, laden down with our purchases of cheese curds, Havarti cheese, parmesan salami and cheddar pretzels, and sure enough - camels!!!!

We took the chance and drove into the farm, and spotted an old fellow puttering at his shop, introduced ourselves, and had a nice long chat with him. 80 yrs old, and full of interesting stories. He's the one who had the white buffalo and beefalo  that I posted about some time ago.

 Apparently he has had camels for quite some time, and raises them specifically for the dilute gene, same as he does with the buffalo. He does have pure white buffalo and recently acquired one he thinks is double dilute. He is known to movie producers in the US. He goes by the name Camel Al. 

We got permission to take a few photos. The camels were quite content on their hay pile and didn't come to greet us  

Peekaboo!

This one made me laugh!

That just made my day! They will be hauled to a town 45 minutes from us for an event on Saturday; if the weather cooperates we will go. 

Speaking of weather, we went from -24 C for a few days to plus 1 and raining today. Crazy! 

Wild things

 Or in this case,  not so wild. 

Ted and I visited the Medicine River Wildlife Center for their open house last weekend.

They had Otis the owl out for an educational talk. What a gorgeous bird- I did feature him on a previous post. Here is a writeup on him. 

   https://centralalbertaonline.com/articles/otistheowlturns-21

They let people come up to pet his chest so Ted did. 

Otis was tethered but showed off his wings a few times. 

Also on display was Bruno, a young porcupine that was rescued when he was 3 days old, found by his dead mother . I found him quite adorable, I do like porcupines!  

He loves strawberries! 

 

Also on the not quite wild side are the barn cats;  no takers for the kittens so they get to just live in the barn with the other cats. They are big enough now and are weaned. They will remain semi feral. 

 

They are so entertaining, using the bale stack for a race track and play fighting in a rolling tumbling ball of fur!

On the truly wild side we have a buck here that I hope makes it to next year..

He is pretty cagey and hunting season ends in 4 days so we just wont let hunters on the property. 

I was trying to get a photo of the kittens through Gussie's steamy breath and got this double exposure, no idea how . That is apparently Velvet who maybe moved her head in frame just as I took the shot?

Or maybe she was reflected in the steam? I don't know but it's a fun photo.