Those wide open spaces

 I missed Alberta. As much as I  love  my home province of BC , I  do love Alberta. Maybe not so much the weather here....

We had a storm come through  complete with tornado warning the first day we were here! All we got was 5 minutes of hail some of which was quite large, but no damage done. 

Beamer has settled in, he can see some horses across the river to holler at, and we are planning to bring the mares this weekend. 

Our  hay is getting delivered today (yay) and we have other essential  things lined up to do over the next few days, so in another week it should be all about getting to know this farm and all we need to do here to make things flow smoothly for chores and do some fencing. 

Ted took the tractor ( that comes with the place! 😁) and pushed those offending boards that were  buried under the grass into a pile for later disposal. 

It's  awesome that we have the use of a big tractor!  Because this winter it will be used for plowing that looooong driveway. 

Relaxing with a glass of Malbec after a hectic day of organizing stuff

Here's  the video of the rest of the farm:

We have plenty of feral cats here, who get fed outside  with food the landlady supplies for us.  I was  exploring  the top of the barn and came across what looks like about a 3 month old kitten . Lots of pigeon poop and feathers there too . 

Plenty of deer here too. No gardens for them to get into so I  will have to  make an enclosed area when I  do build my garden beds. 

We get our internet on the 18th so I  should  be able to get back to reading and commenting  on all the blogs! 😊

We have arrived....

 And a river runs through  it. More on that  in a bit. 

Sunday we had helpers and all our stuff was out of storage and in the house by 11 am. Those guys worked hard!  

But let me back up a bit to last Friday. Ted and I  hauled the horse gear and some square bales  to the new place. While unloading I  made a bad step and sprained my ankle  hard. Ouch..... can't let that slow me down... much.... we had work to do!

So needless to say I was  happy that Ted called in some help for Sunday. 

Monday morning  it was time to haul Beamer to his new digs.  He didn't  want to load at first. Little did he know how much he would enjoy the new place! 

Beamer has access to part of the barn for his own personal space and he loves it! 

He has  plenty of  grass to  eat but he's  still getting  a flake of hay while he adjusts to his  new diet. 

The days are hot and humid so he spends a lot of time in his  stall. 

Very handy to have the best of both worlds huh Beamer? Snacking from the barn door! He is a very happy horse but he  will be happier  when I  get  his girls here in a few days . 

2 months of living in a holiday trailer was wearing a bit thin especially  because  we has two very hairy (shedding) cats in with us. Hair everywhere! Now  they are consigned  to the barn again. We kept them in for 2 nights then today they followed  me to the barn  and are now getting fed there . No cats allowed  in  the house here. 

They were so happy to get out of jail! 

Now for the "river runs through it part. 

That is the Medicine River and yes it can flood the bottom pastures here sometimes . 

The video shows the non horsey part of the  property . I will try for a video of the rest of the place soon. 

We are rather overwhelmed with the kindness of our  friends who have helped us make this move possible.  Shayla and Blake  in particular  have been so accommodating from caring for the horses to letting us plunk our freezer in their shop for the last 2 months  as well as putting us up in their holiday trailer  for a couple of weeks. And then Ted's  friend Brian letting us use his trailer for  the duration  of our homelessness! We are truly blessed in our friends. Also a hat tip to Rick and Wendy for being so helpful with the move as well as giving me Velvet! Ted's  brother and cousin both helped a lot in the initial move to the ill fated temporary  rental as well as helping on Sunday. They both drove a long way to come  help 😊

So here we are, we can breathe a bit but there's  still a lot to do! 

Velvet

 

I picked up Velvet yesterday and took her up to Shayla’s place to tease her with Beamer as we suspected she may be in heat. 

She said no not right now! Beamer however thought she should be. So we will have her visit him every day to check where she is in her cycle. 

She got turned out into a large pasture with 3 other mares, including Gussie. 

Still waiting  for that foal! 

1 week to go for move in....

Rio update

 Got some cool news from Rio's people. 

If anyone  was watching the Calgary Stampede Show Riders in their flag carrying ceremonies  or in the victory  laps for the contestants  you may have seen a familiar set of hooves. 😊

Apparently  the pick up men were eyeballing him; he's  big and powerful  enough for that job!

Rio has never carried a flag before but he took to it like a champ. And I  think  he rather  enjoyed  all the attention and  commotion  of the Stampede. 

Good job, Rorie and Rio!

Counting the days

 Yep counting the days  until we get  in our new home on the farm. 2 more weeks! Camping for extended periods is a true test of marital bliss. 

I have been busy with my "job" of teaching  Sage to load. Sage is a mare owned by the people who  gave me Velvet. She's  a grade quarter horse, 7 years old. Mostly she's  just halter broke  and stands tied. I have been working her every day, short sessions of ground work to give her the tools she needs to learn to  trailer load. 2 days of that and we worked on leading. First  time  it was just the front feet. Next day, in she went. We were using my trailer which is a 2 horse angle haul as it's  wide open. 

Front feet in....

All the way  in. This was the 3rd time in a row loading . She did great! 

She also backed out beautifully.

 

 And was quite proud of herself! 

A couple days later we loaded her in a 2 horse straight haul.  First day just the front feet, next day all the way in. Because straight hauls are more confined I  did put her treats in the manger to give her a reason to step all the way in. Viola! In she went. We will  load her in there a few more times  to make sure she's  comfortable  with it. 

Meanwhile Sophie  is turned out in a back pasture with a herd of mares and geldings; got to see her yesterday and she's  looking great. She also came up to the fence to visit which made me happy, she hasn't  gone feral on me!

Her beautiful  bay color  has a metallic sheen to it- hard to see  in a photo. She looks great! 

She's  having  a vacation!  But once we get on the farm I  will  resume working  with her.  

Some photos and some news

 Just a quick post to show off some Boe photos😊

Isn't he a chunk!

I am considering  putting  him up for sale at weaning time. I think he's  one of the prettiest  Beamer boys along with Derby, Belle's  last Beamer baby. 

Of course I  have a couple of  Scooter photos to show off too .

Such a handsome boy. Can't wait until  he is all shed out!

And a Mama Belle photo - she looks pretty good for being 18 yrs old and  working on baby # 13!

And now for the big news!  You all remember Belle's  first foal, Sparkle N Peppy  who I  had for a little while a couple of years ago. Her owner, Janice,  bred her to a grey double bred Playgun stallion last summer and yesterday at 1 am she foaled....

A filly. 

Isn't  she a beauty! Looks like she will go grey like her daddy.  I will post more photos as I  get  them. 

Beamer is a grandpa finally!

What's that smell?

 As some of you know I  had covid last August.  I recovered with the help of ivermectin although it took a while to get my strength back . One of the things about covid is that you can lose your sense of smell, which is what happened to me. Believe me that is really weird!   Anyway, I  seemed to have recovered my olfactory senses although not completely.  Like I  only got half the intensity. Then around  March this year things started  smelling funny . Like when you have something garlicy in the fridge and if stinks everything  up . Everything had a rancid smell . At first I thought it was something  going on with me because my sweat and my breath smelled like that but so did all the food and drinks even my coffee. 😟

Finally  I  googled it and discovered that its a fairly common side effect of covid  and its called Parosmia.  It is a result of damage to the  olfactory nerve. It can go away but it takes time. 

It does  seem to be slowly  improving.  Some things do smell normal now.  Like my horses!

To answer some questions  about Velvet; she was  never on my blog as I  had her before I  started blogging.  

She was born in 2000 and I  sold  her as a long yearling.  Her dam was one of my most quiet and reliable horses. So Velvet is 22 this year. 

I will be trying to get her in foal one more time to  try to preserve the bloodline; she has some wonderful old school blood on her sire's side. 

As far as  I know  she was ridden before becoming a broodmare; I  will he researching that with her previous  owner. 

She is sound, quiet and easy to handle . 

This is a photo of her mama back in the day. We were  getting  ready for a parade. She was a really nice horse.  I used her  for dragging calves to the branding fire and she was my go to horse for  giving little  kids rides. 

Anyway, I  leave you with  a photo from yesterday and hope the rains quit so we can get some summer!

Hangin' in there

The last couple of weeks  have been rather dreary and rainy. Every day I  go see Beamer and hand graze him for about a  half hour. He's  doing  fine; most of the time I  see him he has his head buried in  his timothy bale munching away. 

I did get to ride one of Shayla's  horses, checking on a little group of cows. 

I  got to visit Boe the other day; I  needed to take a hair sample for DNA. 

All the horses are doing great, living their best life on all that pasture. 

 

I do have some news; we did secure the lease on the farm, so that takes a load off our minds. I  also have my winter's hay spoken for from a  farmer local to that area. The price is almost double  what I  paid in Creston! 😳

I also acquired  another horse! (Imagine that....)

This is a mare that I  raised and sold as a long yearling. She was broke to ride and used primarily as a  broodmare.  Some friends  of ours bought her about 6 or 7 years ago and she had a wonderful  life of retirement  with them. But they want to make some changes  in their  life and rehoming their  horses is part of it. 

So she will be joining my little herd; she has come full circle!  

Welcome back, San Poco Velvet!

Packing our brand😊

More info on everything  once we get settled. 3 weeks to go! 

Befuddled

 My apologies  to all my blogger friends. I find I am  unable to comment on your posts! I get asked to sign  in with Google but instead it just kicks me back to the post.   I  am reading your blogs! We are going to look into ways to get online for rural applications.  We heard about the Hub, here it's  supplied by Telus. Anyone  have other ideas?

Beamer's idea is to just chill out and eat. I  hand graze him every day. 

It  has been wet here and the horse flies are bugging the horses. I guess rolling in the mud gives them  some protection.  

Sophie is enjoying  being turned out  in the herd.  She hasn't  come back in heat so I  am calling her bred. That should be a nice foal! 

Speaking of foals.....

Scooter, Belle's  son  by Root Beers Boots  is sure looking  good! 

Scooter is shedding a lot of  that black off and coming out a metallic silvery buckskin. 

Can sure see the size difference!  He is only 4 days older than Boe. Typical big Belle baby!

Here he's  hanging out with  Shayla's  stallion  Jet.

Boe is a month old now . 

It's  nice to see  the boys hanging out together  and playing. The mamas have loosened the apron strings a bit! 

More Boe pics

 I have a few  more  photos of  Boe to share. Not much news other  than all our stuff will be in storage by tomorrow  afternoon. Our cats are getting  crabby with their extended confinement!  Little do they know they had better  enjoy it  because  once we get on the farm they will have to go back to  being  barn cats  😁

He is nearly a month old (on the 20th) 

That hip! 

Not the best photo  for lighting but I liked Jayne's  tail in there.

Shayla and I were both able to scratch his butt and then he was ok with being touched. Next time I see him I  want to get a halter on him and start his kindergarten.  

So much to do yet this summer! 

 

Unexpected

 The last couple of weeks have thrown  us a couple of curve balls!

First there was the move to the monthly  rental . When Ted did the walkthrough  before signing the  contract  there was a houseful of people - landlords, tenants etc . They  were  supposedly  cleaning the place and Ted was told that the damaged floor from a leak  in the washer hose would be fixed before we moved in. So the guys hauled all our belongings  and stuffed them in the living room. We  get there June 4th and  nothing and I mean nothing  was done. The place was filthy  and the floor  was a health hazard. A closer inspection  showed may other things that should  never have been  allowed to happen.  Needless to say we gave instant notice. That left us without a place to stay. Shayla kindly let us stay in her travel trailer for a week while we figured  things out.  

We did  secure  the farm rental  (although  we haven't  signed for it yet ) but can't  move in until August  1st  . So a friend of Ted's  very kindly allowed us to use his travel trailer for the next 6 weeks! We are blessed with all the help we are getting  from our friends!

Anyway  enough  of the downer news! I went to see Boe and he is just as cute as I hoped he would be 😊  

Then there's  Belle's  colt- oh my she sure put a nice one on the ground  this year! 

 

Close inspection  says no white markings even though he has a lot of white hair, it will all shed off. 

We still have a  lot going on but will post as often  as I can. 

Mr. Lonesome

 Mr. Handsome is Mr. Lonesome these days, and he wants to tell you all about it. 

Nobody here not even chickens. I'm alllll alooooone!

Even going out in pasture doesn't cheer me up...

There's nobody to talk to!

Nope. Nobody. No girls to show off to. Harrumpfh. 

Maybe if I call a little louder?

It's useless. Nobody cares. I'm alllll alooooone! Oh woe is me!

Cheer up Beamer! We will be reuniting you with your herd by Saturday!