Corb picks a family

Today a family came out to look at the pups; originally they said they were looking for a female, but as soon as they went in with the pups, Corb picked them. And how could you not fall in love with that sweet face? They are going to consider doing agility with him, which is a good family sport, and they may even meet up with Janice and Kali, and Jenn and Abby, if they do that- it'll be litter mates competing!

I have their permission to post their photo here:

Corb and his new family!

I promised to put up a photo of Moss, the sire of these pups, so here it is:

He is a handsome fellow! Love those ears! I got another call today from a lady coming out tomorrow, they may take two. I only have three left for sale, so they are going fast!

True colors

Kai is starting to show his true color- losing that dun colored baby hair that Beamers babies are born with, and coming out black where he's rubbed out. The pale color on his face tells the story though, he will be a dilute.

I think he is going to be a sharp looking boy next year! I'm glad he will be living locally so that I can visit with him as he grows up. I got an email a while ago from Peppy's owner who said she would try to get some photos for me; as soon as I get them I'll put them up here.

Rode Beamer at the local arena today, but first we had a discussion about loading. It went something like this:

Beamer: I don' wanna leave my girls.

Shirley: You have to.

Beamer: What if I just refuse?

Shirley: You will have to work.

Beamer: Nanananana I can work all day as long as my girls are close by!

Shirley: I'll get my Big Stick.

Beamer: Don't care!

Shirley: And I'll tan your hide too!

Beamer: Ok Ok! Just keep that stick down please!

I didn't have to use the Big Stick -much- (it's a fiberglass stock stick that I use during breeding season when his attention is on his hormones). One thing about stallions, you can't let them start getting pushy or pretty soon they lose all respect for you and do what they want- and they are much too powerful to argue with.

At the arena Beamer got a little excited as it was his first time out since breeding season, but I took him down to the end away from the other horses and put him to work; then we hung out by the cows and watched some young girls getting a lesson on shoulder control for barrel racing. It was good for Beamer to have to stand quietly and be well behaved; he "talked" a couple of times but it earned him work, so he decided it was easier to stand around and do nothing. I was hoping to get to work the cows today, but I guess I'll have to wait until next week.

Raindrops keep falling.....

If you want a chuckle this morning, you need to check out this video of Sammi playing.

She is a real little bundle of energy right now. She has really strong herding instincts, and I plan on taking her to visit a sheep dog trainer in September to check out her aptitude. Right now she "works" Reba and Tess, stalking them in that low-in-the-front Border Collie posture.

I've been trying to get some photos for the Sunday Stills Challenge, which is "Go low, shoot high" but every time I look up all I get is raindrops in my face! I think I missed the opportunity earlier this week.

Lake Beamer is back,

and it's raining so hard I don't want to put the horses out; they have no shelter out there and Kai spends a lot of time lying down; I don't need him getting sick. That's his owner in the Wordless Wednesday photo below, she's pretty happy with him.

I hope someone somewhere is dry and warm, a lot of blogs I read are talking about heavy rain and flooding. I think the look on Beamer's face says it all:

Wordless Wednesday

And then there were 5....

I sold Ruby tonight; the cool thing is that it put me in touch with an old friend. Ruby is going to live with my ex brother in law. This will be a good home; he is looking for a dog with loyalty that will be able to go with him when he rides. I think he picked the right pup.

Interestingly enough, Reba and Tess always bark when someone drives in the yard, and especially when they come up the steps onto the porch. This man didn't get a peep out of them til he knocked on the door; he just has that quiet way about him. Ruby is a quiet pup too, so I think they are well matched.

And then there were 5, but only 4 left for sale as one is spoken for.

Roses

Morden Sunrise

The roses Janice gave us are blooming now, apparently being pruned by deer didn't hurt them too much.

Speaking of roses, there are some wild roses in this area that are spectacular;

huge bushes loaded with blooms. I have permission from the landlord to take a few shoots. They are thorny though!

So I'll have to be careful handling them. This bush is around 10 feet high and free standing.

I did manage to get my garden weeded, and it's coming along nicely.

I've had strawberries and green onions from it so far, and it won't be long before I can have some Romaine lettuce.

Sammi is learning to play with both other dogs, but she doesn't chase the ball; she thinks it's her job to protect it! I think she'll make a darn good working dog. Speaking of which, it's pretty certain that my landlord won't allow me to have sheep here; he was a little torked that I was using the pasture at all; we need to come to a new agreement with him. So I will have to see if I can make other arrangements for getting to work Tess on sheep this year. Bah!

Happy Anniversary to my husband

Today is our 14th anniversary, and it was a wonderful wedding- all horseback including the preacher- out at Anchor D Ranch.

Who says you can't ride in a dress? This photo is for Mercy!

Thanks Ted, for being the biggest part of my dreams come true!

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