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. 

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. 

Sunday Scenes

 It is a sunny Sunday.... O how needed is the sunshine!

We are in a warming trend, finally. But this morning it was -24 C. I looked out the window and saw one of the cats that was a kitten when we moved here. You may remember Smokey, and his sidekick Bandit ( who disappeared). Smokey is 4 yrs old now and is quite big now. 

I felt so sorry for him, his whiskers were all frosted up. 

The other male cats here beat him up and run him off so he is quite wary. I put some food out for him.

Meanwhile in the warmth and comfort of the house.....

Miss Minou was all snuggled upon her couch pillow. Barn cat no more! She leaves for her new home next weekend. 

It was so nice out this afternoon, I went out to spend some time with the mares. 

Happy is doing well, her foal is very active and I love watching it bumping around in there.  I sure like that mare. If she does well this year and her melanoma doesn't get any larger, I will send her to Shayla after weaning  where she can live out her days and as long as she is healthy will be bred to Shayla's stallion for 1 more foal. I think she deserves as much of a chance we can give her. Such a sweet mare. 

As I walked back up the hill, my shadow walked with me. 

Weird camera angle, the barn is not tilted!

Velvet loves to walk beside me wherever I go. She always has to inspect everything I do too. She is not pushy with me, politely lets me go first through the gate or around the corners- stops when I stop, walks when I walk . It is very endearing! Interestingly enough, she is the boss mare. One flick of the ear or toss of the head and Gussie gives way; but on the other hand she is the one who always welcomes the new mares in the herd and often eats out of the same pile with them, and Gussie never does. 

That patch of bare skin on Velvet is from a bout of ringworm earlier this winter. It has been many years since I have had to deal with that. Our vet sold me a spray that worked really well. Fortunately it didn't spread to the other horses.

Linda did a wonderful post on getting back to our childhood joy with horses. Lets all go and rekindle that happiness that just being with horses gives us! I try to live that joy every day when I go out to do chores in this interminable winter we are having, and am so looking forward to spring and being able to do more things with them. 

Signs of spring

 As you can see by these photos.... 

Winter still has us in its chilly grip. However, the mares are shedding and the days are getting longer. So there are some signs of spring such as:

Misty the mama cat has come into heat... again...

She is currently holding court to the 4 male cats, poor thing. She is on our left in the photo, then in the line up are Boris, Harley and Tom, with Ollie on the ground. I haven't yet been able to catch her to get her to the vet, so looks like there will be one more litter. I won't spay when she is pregnant, but I will still work on getting her used to feeding in the kennel so I can eventually catch her. 

Whole lotta...

 Nothing, really. Just waiting for the weather to break; can't do much outside in stupid cold. Morning chores, evening chores, rinse and repeat....

The kitten Minou has been keeping me entertained. She goes in for spay on the 26th; I have been keeping her indoors and working on socializing, which is coming along nicely. She finally decided today that she likes Thumper's company, and he condescended to allow her to introduce herself. 

This afternoon, she even tried to get him to share his pillow. 

Which he tolerated for about 15 seconds....

Minou will be leaving the second weekend in March to go live with her full siblings from last year, Tiger and Lily. 

Not much going on with the mares. Happy is getting bigger, Gussie is not.  

Sisters from different mothers

We do have some horse plans for this year, will do a follow up post on that when things are sorted out. I should have a couple young horses of Shayla's to play with come spring, as well as Happy's foal. 

Until then, I have cabin fever! 

Kitten update

 I put the kittens on kijiji a while ago, and last night  young family came to see them and took Timbits home with them. They have a 16 year old female cat who is the exact same color as him so that was pretty cool. Timbits let the parents hold him and even let their 4 yr old son pet him, so I think they will give him a great home. 

That leaves Minou; the most timid of them alI. I have her in the mud room bathroom and ever since she has been by herself she has really come around. She is still a bit scared and nervous but is really responding to attention and petting. 

The best part is, she will be going to live with my sister in Sechelt who also has Tiger and Lily from last year's litter. We will get her spayed here first and then off she goes for her next big adventure! 

Queen Minou in her basket, purring and snoozing

Sunday Silence

 

Those barn cats

 Rub-a-dub-dub...

3 kittens in a tub!

This tub is half full of straw and they like to cuddle in it and keep warm. I have been able to pet all 3 of them as of today. 

Timbits

Timbits absolutely loves pets. He must have pets before eating and drinking and purrs loudly all the while.  He also leaves the barn and comes to greet me when he hears me leave the house to come do my barn chores. 

Matilda

This gorgeous girl is the spittin' image of her mama, Misty. She is tolerating being petted lately but not as eager as her brother. She plays mostly with her sister.....

Minou

This tabby female is the most feral of the kittens. Slow to trust humans, but has recently decided that I have earned the Minou Badge of Approval as the designated Hand That Feeds and therefore will Allow one second of petting. So far. She is a work in progress! 

I got a quote from the vet on the cost of spay/neuter for them and their mama, around $1000 if I bring all 4 in at the same time for a 20% discount. ( This is why we like horse vets over small animal vets!) The trick is going to be gathering all 4 at the same time but if I start feeding them in the big carrying kennel I might be able to pull it off. Timbits and Matilda I can likely just pick them up and put them in but Misty and Minou, not so much at this point. The kittens are 4 months old so I have 2 months to get that program working. The key will be whether or not Misty gets pregnant before then, I sure hope not!

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. 

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.

A few good things

 How to cheer oneself up when autumn turns to the dreary pre winter days:

Look for cool things and loved things....

like blue snow

Unedited photo, the snow had become icy and was reflecting the blue morning sky. 

Have a close up visit with Gussie. 

And Velvet....

Watch the kittens play with the light bulb

Admire the artistry of frost on a foggy morning

Drive on the hayfield and go deer spotting, yes that is our farm in the background. This is why we don't want hunters on that field, that is Velvet by the barn, right in line with the deer. 

Play peekaboo with Minou

And as always, cuddle with Thumper.