Sunday stuff

I opted out of Sunday Stills today- not into Hallowe'en, for me it's All Hallows Eve, the vigil for All Saint's Day November 1st, and not a day to glorify the occult, gory things, and other nasties and definitely not in favour of giving children copious amounts of candy.
Today was moving day for the cattle, Beamer got to help gather them and we ran them into the pens, which are a muddy mess right now.

Beamer was quite willing to wade through the slop to get the cows through the gate- he loves pushing cows!
The heifers will be here for another week, so we get to do this again next weekend.

Gathered in Beamer's pen and waiting for their ride home.

Still nice and green here, even if the clouds are obscuring the mountains.

Between loads I took the dogs and we headed out onto the hayfield for a ride. This is one of my favorite spots on that ride, an overflow canal that the ducks love, and there is usually a hawk hanging out in the trees.

Of course, I had to get a glamour shot of my boy:

I'm still getting used to my new pocket camera, I probably should have used flash on that photo. I got one of Merle, and used the backlit setting because of the bright background and the flash went off- I kind of like the result- talk about glamour shots!

One more shot, this time of Rio, I think I used  action/zoom for this.

Still can't get sharp focus on some shots, probably need to read the manual again.....

Happy Birthday Tess

Tess was born 6 years ago today. I tried to find puppy pictures of her, but the only one I could find was this one when she was about 2 months old.

Chewing an old slipper, I think! This dog stole my heart from the beginning, she has been a delight to me.
She was 10 months old in the next photo, alongside her littermate, Luke. Luke belongs to one of Ted's good friends and they visit us every year.

When she was about a year old, I took her for some training on sheep.

Unfortunately we moved from that area, so I didn't get to continue her training, although I do get the chance to work her occasionally when I take her to Kimberley.

She likes to be wherever I am, including in the hammock.

She always makes me smile. 

Happy Birthday, little darlin'!

Wordless Wednesday

Playin' with the new camera

 I was hoping not to have snow this morning....

But at least it didn't stay. It's pretty gray and gloomy out but at least we don't have the wind and snowdrifts that Alberta got today.
I took the little camera out and tried out some action shots with the horses, with varied results, it seems a little slow on the shutter, I would figure I had the whole horse in a shot and would get only a head or a tail, but I did get a few.

I made Rio earn his keep today- he isn't as fond of zooming as Nitro. The stop action isn't very good here.

I'm going to have to play with the settings, not happy with the focus or shutter speed in the action mode.

I have plenty of subjects though! Oh well, all I really wanted out of this camera was a pocket camera to take with me during the day. I still want to get a really good DSLR for the serious stuff.

A good weekend

The auction was a success, came home with a rubber water trough, a meat cutting band saw/grinder combo (just have to get my elk now!) a swivel stool for Ted's shop, a couple sheets of 3/4 inch plywood, a bale fork to fit on the tractor bucket, and a few more odds 'n' ends.
My sister went home today, here is a photo I took on the Kootenay Lake Ferry on the way home.

It was kind of a dreary day, and big white capped waves but you couldn't notice them much on that big ferry. We are supposed to get snow tonight- bah!
I bought the little Nikon Coolpix camera that I had my eye on, just a nice little pocket camera that should work fine for me for now- I'll try it out tomorrow, hopefully NOT on fresh snow!
The calves were sorted off and hauled out on Saturday; I couldn't help because I had to work the auction, but apparently Beamer thought he should be in there working; they were sorted in to the pen next to him. He loves working cows! The mama cows did a little bawling, but not too bad. It's funny, they are quiet uintil they see me walking out to do chores  and then they serenade me.

The bull is a handsome fellow, quite photogenic.

I won't get much time to work Rio until my hunting season is over, I only have until the end of the month so I need to get out every afternoon. He's looking pretty good though, his winter coat is nice and dark, and I have to show you what his heart marking is doing- it now looks like a shield inside a heart- how unique is that!

Sunday Stills

This week the challenge is what inspires us to take photos. (Some of these are archives- busy week!)

Beauty.....

Nostalgia and intriguing things....

Fun....

Beamer......

and documenting things, like seasons, events and the birth of foals.

Beamer update

Beamer's owwy when he first ripped his chin:

We had to cut a good chunk of that off, and I started putting Young Living's Purification oil on it, followed by Dermagel spray. This is what it looks like today:

He'll have a little divet on his chin but it should heal up without a scar. I've started putting Lavender oil on it too. He's still Mr. Handsome! This is exactly 3 weeks from the injury.
One of my sisters is visiting for a few days, and she confessed to being a little nervous around horses. So I gave her the Beamer treatment.....

and that got her over it! She has been a great help to me at chore time, and is handling the horses well at feeding time. Thanks sis! Love having you here!
Tomorrow is the estate auction, it will be interesting to see how the buggys and harness sell. There are a lot of horse people in this area, and a driving club, so they should sell well.
We've hit the rainy part of fall, hope we don't get soaked at this auction!

I'm baaaaaack!

Had to take my computer to the shop (again!) with a bunch of new viruses; the guys there said it's flu season for computers. So they cleaned it up and put a new anti-virus program in for me. His tips: Do not click on banner ads, or open links to photos because they often have viruses attached. I always tell my friends not to send me forwarded emails with attachments or cutsey photos because that's how viruses spread; the creeps who do that make sure that their product is so cute and loveable that everyone just has to send it to all their friends.... you get the picture.
Ya want cute?

Meet our new cat, Lizzie. We saw her on the side of the road, she had been injured, so we and another couple stopped to check on her, and the other folks took her to the vet. She had a bloody nose and swollen eye and a loose tooth. We aren't sure what happened to her. Anyway, we (read Ted!) told the vets that if nobody claimed her we would take her.... so here she is! She eventually made friends with our three other cats, and for now is an indoor cat.

She has made herself quite at home!
I still haven't found an elk, but I have seen some nice scenery on my hunts. This shot is from the mountain above Creston.

The white buildings at the bottom left are our place, and you can seee how close to the river we are and why I was concerned about flooding this spring.
We are working an auction this Saturday, there are some nice harness sets and buggies in it; this is an Amish surrey.

We finally got some rain- can you say muddy horse pens?- so I haven't worked Rio for a bit, but maybe today!

I'd say mares aren't too impressed with the mud either...

More Rio

Today I trimmed Rio's hind feet, so all 4 are good now. He really has nice feet. After that, we headed over to the hitching  rail, and I saddled him up there- the first time he was saddled that wasn't in the round pen after other work. He was pretty good, would have been better if my arm hadn't given out on me (torn rotator cuff) it kinda worried him a little when I was heaving the saddle up and nearly dropped it. But the second attempt was much better. Cinched him up, wiggled the saddle, flopped the stirrups- all good! So we went for a walk, exploring the yard, stopping to graze here and there, mixed in with a few "dance steps" where I stop and back up and expect him to follow my lead without resistance.... not quite there yet but we're working on it. After a bit it was back to the rail to unsaddle; he was as calm as an ole broke horse- good boy, Rio!
Sure wish my camera was working... oh well- here's one from the archives.

Answering some questions

My last post had a few questions in the comm box, so here are the answers.
Kate wanted to know where Rio gets his height from- that would be from Coyote Belle's mama, Sundee who was 15.2 hh. She was an appendix quarter horse, so that means Belle and all her foals are too, even though the Thoroughbred is many generations back.
Kim asked if Rio is gelded- no, he isn't. No plans to geld him, in fact I think he'll be standing at stud here in the future; I had two people interested in him as a stallion, and he is good enough temperament and conformation to be a stallion. Hopefully I will be able to get him shown, but even if I don't I prefer stallions to geldings and have the ability and facility to manage him.
Lady Rider asked about Rio's colour, since he shows silver in his tail if he would roan out or go grey- no to both; he is a smokey black, with scattered white hairs all through his coat and both silver and gold with the black in his tail- probably a little rabicano from Beamer's mother who was a very typical rabicano with roaned flanks and a coon tail. Beamer got the silver in his tail and on his lip from her, and it seems he's passed it on to a few of his get.
Gttyup asked if we are keeping Rio- the answer is yes! I can't wait til he's old enough to ride, it will be the first of Sundee's line that I get to ride. She was my bestest mare ever.
Meanwhile, my camera is kaput and I'm seriously bummed! Monday I'm heading down to buy another one, so it's archives until then.

Rio at 18 months

Well, my lovely Rio turns 18 months today. Remember when?

(There's that 12 o'clock dog again!) 

The last year and a half have had their moments, he has scars on 3 legs as he went through the "wonder year" . He has grown into one handsome boy- can't call him little Mr. Handsome any more, he is taller than Beamer. I measured him today, he stands just over 14.3 and a quarter at the wither, and he is 15.1 and 3/8 at the hip. Looks like he is on track for that 15.2 hh that I predicted for him.

I worked with him yesterday,we did two new things. The first was to put him in the bosal and longe him. 

That went really well. Nice walk and trot, a couple of glitches on reversing direction, and loping both ways. 

One of the things I like about him is that he doesn't get silly and chargey; in fact if you don't pay attention, he just stops and looks to see what you want. 

Then it was time for the saddle, and this time, I had the back cinch on. I made sure he knew it was there, but the first step he took he got a little goosey . The thing I have to watch with him is that he heads straight for me if he is scared, so I was watching and stepped aside. Then longed him to the left, he walked out nice and quiet,

so I stepped him up to the trot, no problems. When I asked him to turn and change directions, he could feel that back cinch as he arced for the turn, and gave about 3 buck/jumps, then levelled out and we got some nice walk and trot work.

I'm pretty proud of this youngster, he's a really nice minded colt and downright pleasing to the eye. 

I trimmed his front feet today too, and he handles that fairly well, just a few times got a little fidgety and wanted to take his foot away, but not bad considering he's still a baby- and considering my unorthodox way of trimming; I have to squat down and lay his leg across my lap as my wore out back doesn't do well with that bent over farrier thing. His back feet will have to wait a couple of days- I MUST do Chickory's feet next.

Not so wild weekend

Our Thanksgiving weekend was pretty quiet here. I went elk hunting on Sunday, and all I saw was a great horned owl- which I always consider it a blessing to see one of those gorgeous birds. Of course, no camera! I will have to find another area to hunt, there haven't been elk in my spot since August apparently. As promised, here is my hunting rifle- a Winchester Featherweight 30-06, which we put a fibreglass stock on, and a Weaver 4 power scope. I love the fibreglass stock, she shoots exactly the same every year.

Got some of my outdoor chores done, like getting all the potatoes out of the garden, and sorting out the tomatoes. Next on the list is pulling all the dead plants out and digging out the Dahlia bulbs.
We are still getting gorgeous blue skies and crisp mornings here, I love morning chore time. The sun is just peeking over the mountain when I go out, and there was a neat cloud formation this morning.

The dogs aren't the only ones who follow me around at chore time, Foose likes to come and visit while I'm trying to get photos of Rio... at his own peril....

Run Foose, there's a cat-eatin' monster behind you!

Rio follows him and Foose better be careful- I think Rio would like to stomp him. Good thing it isn't a skunk, Rio!

Speaking of Rio....

No Rio, chains aren't edible!

He will be getting some more ground work this week. He'll get more time wearing the saddle, and we'll go for a walk around the yard saddled. He sure is a nice colt, I'm really enjoying him and I'm glad we decided to keep him. 

He's not too hard to look at, is he?