Wordless Wednesday

 

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. 

Buck moon

 The full moon was rather spectacular this morning. 

I managed one photo with my Nikon camera, then the battery died, I was hoping for one with more trees  but this will do!

Things are pretty quiet at the moment, but next week will be very busy, family over for the weekend and a big Thanksgiving dinner on Monday, then on Tuesday and Wednesday we finally get the new windows in. We will finally have windows that we can open! 

We are in what I have always called Indian Summer- cool nights, frosty mornings and sunny days. The farmers are nearly done with harvest, just a few canola fields left to go, and cattle to move off the depleted pastures and into the winter feedlots. 

The mares are getting pretty good winter hair coming in, and I think Gussie is starting to show her pregnancy. 

She is also starting to show her age especially around her face. I also think she is starting to get arthritis in her right knee, just a little bump at present.  I probably won't ride her much any more, but I would like to get a couple of short rides in this fall before she gets too pregnant. Then once the foal is big enough, to use her for teaching it to pony. Other than that, she is pretty much retired. I'm sure she will be ok with that! I have a lot of great memories from all the trails we rode and the fun we had over the last 22 years. I owe her a good retirement. 

The two old girls will have each other until that foal comes along!  I may or may not pick up another foal to keep it company, we shall see. 

Back in action

 I have been rather busy this last week with a family affair, so my apologies for not getting around to reading and commenting on your blogs. 

On Sunday, I finalized the agreement on the red mare, I will be buying her outright and sending her to that lovely palomino stallion. She will be headed there the last week of May to spend 2 months and I get her back mid August. So over the next 3 weeks or so, I will be going down to help work with her on trailer loading and picking up her feet. 

Gussie's leg seems to be much improved, I unwrapped it today and am giving her the rest of the day without it to see if she is still tender and if the joint has stopped clunking. She will stay on the antibiotics until the bottle is finished. 

I think those nicks are just from when they clipped her leg for the ultrasound. 

I finally figured out how to access the photos from my Nikon, thanks to help from my brother in law. Yay! Here is a moon shot I took the day after the full Strawberry moon.

The actual day of the full moon we were clouded in

So now that I have all that figured out, I will get back to using the Nikon instead of relying on cell phone shots. 

Escorted

 I have had some special moments in the last week or so. You may remember me telling you about how Velvet walks beside me wherever I go, well lately Gussie is getting in on the act too  

Gussie has been a bit stand offish for a while now; she looks away if I go to touch her anywhere on her head, so I started greeting her with a chest rub instead, and waiting for her to turn her head towards me. Apparently she approved of this new routine for she no longer looks away when I approach her. Velvet, on the other hand eagerly offers her head for rubs. 

Anyway, this has lead to Gussie no longer holding back when its chore time. Previously, she would wait until Velvet and I were some distance ahead before following. Now, it starts like this:

I always visit with them and check them over before walking down the hill to their shelter where I have hay for them. So yesterday, Gussie marched right along beside me, and Velvet on the other side.  The moon was out in all its morning glory, so I stopped to take a photo, and both mares stopped right beside me and quietly waited until I started walking again. So to test this, I stopped again in a bit, and so did they. I felt such a beautiful harmony with them!

To top it off, on my way back to the house, the female cat, Misty, escorted me to the house from the barn. She saunters out about 15 ft, stops and looks back at me, then off she goes again, repeating her actions all the way to the house. 

Well isn't that special! 

This morning, they decided to lead instead of escort, but they both stopped when I did.

Here is the moon photo I mentioned, in all it's misty loveliness. 

 

Darn deer!

 The waning full moon was setting at chore time yesterday. Love the pastel pink. 

The other day, deer got into my flower bed- little rotters stripped the bottom leaves of the sunflowers and chomped all the leaves and flowers and rosebuds of my yellow rose- and chomped all the foliage of the raspberry plant. So when I saw them the next day in the yard, brazen as can be....

I went out and hollered at them to chase them off. 

Ruby wasn't sure what the problem was, as she's used to deer in her pasture.

But when I went all gangster on them, she figured it was best to high tail it outa there!

Our pasture is holding out well, despite all the heavy frost. Now that the majority of the bugs are gone it's time to do my fall deworming program for the horses. Hopefully it will catch any bots they may have, it's probably been long enough for them to mature enough to pass from the wormer. 

Ted is building a shaping block for my bosal; I want to try it on Ruby as I think that's all she will need . If you don't know what I'm talking about, check online for how to shape a bosal. They have to fit properly to work properly, and mine is too wide without being shaped. It will be fun to see how she does in it. 

My sister with the Rough Collies is coming up for another dog show next weekend, so that will be fun. She is bringing her puppy for it's first show- a lovely blue merle named Gemma. I also have a horse sale to attend on next Saturday- not to buy, but to see how the market is. It's a dispersal sale for a Driftwood breeder- these are the horses that are popular for ranch, roping, and barrel racing. Should be a fun weekend!

Supermoon

 The Sturgeon Moon was all orange last night. I really need to use my tripod next time I try for a moon shot! 

It lay low on the horizon as I took this shot around 10:30 pm, and by 2 am on my foal check it was gone below the horizon. I may try again tonight - with tripod all set up in advance!

I think Gussie is about a week away from foaling. She is pretty quiet, and not at all concerned about the other mares when I turn her out next to them. 

Did a session on Ruby today and she was nicely improved. Like Shayla said, she's trainable 😊

I think most of my time with her will be in the fall when it's cooler out. This has been a summer of heat waves, humidity and thunderstorms. And as I get older I get choosey about where and when I ride! Age has its privileges.  I do want to go to the indoor arena, but we have had a lot of extra expenses this year that we won't be clear of until September. Including hay which is getting pricey! We are fortunate to have found a supplier close enough. The hay I bought last year isn't available this year; he said the field didn't produce enough to cut so he's grazing his cattle on it. The hay I did buy isn't as nice but it will do just fine. It's a bit coarser that they are used to. 

The doe with the twin fawns is appearing more often. 

Airborne! Love seeing them sproinging. Other wildlife spottings lately are a whitetail buck and a badger. Fortunately it isn't a resident badger. It must have been on its way through for some reason as there are no badger holes here. Have also seen Humphrey crossing the lawn half way up the driveway and one of the racoons crossing in the same spot. Must be a game trail. 

The waxwings are back too, catching bugs over the river. 

What does the pink moon bring?

 That is what this full moon is called. I took several photos of it in the last 2 days and it's interesting the differences in my 2 Nikon cameras. 

All photos were hand held. First, my D3200 with the 300 zoom. A little harder to keep it still! Shot at 1/100 , the only setting that seemed to work. 

This was the best of the bunch

That camera intensified the colour. My Nikon B500 was a little different, it tended to wash out the colour but it gave much clearer shots. It has a 40x zoom and it's my go to camera for moon shots. 

This was a quick snap as I headed back to the house, and is the truest colour. 

What else does the pink moon bring? Well, it is the full moon before Easter, and we are in Holy Week now, with Easter Sunday this weekend. It also heralds warmer weather, as we have nicer temps in the forecast. 

It also brings new life....

We welcome the first foal of the year, out of Shayla's mare Daphne and sired by the paint stallion Gold Bar Tristan. He appears to be a buckskin dun,  (dunskin) but may be a bay dun (Same colour but doesn't carry the cream dilute gene. )This colt is the first foal for Daphne and she did a great job! Thanks Shayla, for the photos! I hope to visit him in the next day or so. Her mare, Concho, is officially over 1 year gestation today and still holding her foal hostage. We are really looking forward to that foal, as it will be the first one from her black stallion Jets Givemathrashin.

That moon and camo

 The full moon on Sunday was clouded over, but I did get a Monday photo. The moon seemed small so it must be around it's farthest away from the earth cycle- but no worries, here it is all up close and personal!

I love it when the moon set happens around the time I feed my horses, cuz well, you know, I'm camera happy!

There's nothing like having a special moment with my girl Ruby just enjoying the beauty of nature. 

Having horse ears in a photo always makes for a better picture!

How about that- it's shedding time! Beamer is the first to start slipping hair here. I'm sure the girls won't be far behind, we have nice longer days now and above freezing days... so far. 

Here's another set of photos where a close up is helpful. 

Excellent camo, it's those ears that gave her away! 

Sunday Silence

 

Scenes from the summer

 As promised, here are some of the photos I took with my Nikon, so happy to get the cord for downloading!

Sunset; I didn't realize how the power towers would show up until I downloaded this photo.

The little gray kitten I call Smokey

The August *nearly* full moon

The Blue Jay with a piece of kibble in his beak

And, as promised, more shots of the Show Jumping at Spruce Meadows. 

Now that I can download them I will be sure to pack that camera around more often.

Wordless Wednesday