Wildlife refuge part 2

 Who needs TV when you have local entertainment?

Humphrey has decided he can visit while it is still light out- guess he feels right at home here.....

However, we are going to stop feeding the birds now that spring is on the way, because my cats Thumper will probably try to get in a fight with him and we can't have that. As you can see, the ferals are smart enough to leave him alone, but my cats are pretty territorial and may tangle with him. I will have to monitor the situation once the bird seed is gone and see if he heads over to the cat shelter where I have cat food. I made it deer proof and he may not be able to get in there- I'll have to set up the game cam and see if he tries. We are locking our cats up at night for the winter in the garage, but soon they will be free roaming. 

Wildlife refuge

 Sometimes that's what I think we have going on here! 

We call this doe Dot for the black spot by her eye. She is the friendliest and often peers in the window to watch us and check out the action on the tv as she munches the spilled birdseed. Here she is investigating Foose who seems quite comfortable around her. She was actually pretty much nose to nose with Foose but I was too slow in snapping the photo.

What? Does the cat smell funny? 

We had another nocturnal visitor a couple of nights ago. 

Photo taken through the living room window.  That bird seed must be quite attractive, except to the nut hatches who fling it all out on the ground as they search for the sunflower seeds in it. 

He/she stayed for over an hour happily munching; when I opened the door he skedaddled waddled over under the car for protection. 

So far, we have had the deer, porcupine, raccoon and coyotes traipsing around here. Do the feral cats count? I think so!

Mr. Fluffy (friendly but no touching thanks!)

Bandit and Smokey are really growing

There are also the other cats I don't have current photos of- Tommy White Toes, Mama Cat, Copycat, Ollie, Ringo and another fluffy cat I rarely see.  There is another Siamese who visits in the summer, I did see him the first day we came to meet the landlords to see about renting this place last summer. 

At chore time this morning, some of the deer were bedded down on the driveway leading to the barnyard, poor things had to get up and move when I went out 😆

They sure have it rough here.....

The Drafty girls

   You'd almost think it's spring, with sunshine and blue skies during the day! But the mornings , well, we still have this going on:

It warmed up beautifully for my visit to Shayla. It was a vet day, one of the Percheron stallions got his teeth floated (it took 2 people to hold his head up for the vet!) and Boe got gelded. Boe was a good boy! The vets liked how easy he was to handle for his needles and general handling. I think they expected a 10 month old colt to be almost wild. 

After that we walked down to the mare herd, visited with Gussie and took photos to compare our telephoto lenses. Shayla did end up getting the Canon telephoto that goes to 200. 

We even managed a couple of action shots, there is one weanling in the herd, Donna, who was feeling quite sassy. 

Airborne! She was also playing bitey face with Shayla's palomino quarter horse mare, Dolly.

Dolly was having none of it! Then Donna took off and that's when I got the first photo of her.

Mostly the mares were just basking in the sun. Not the crispest photo, but they look so attentive and sweet. 

They all are, or should be, in foal to one of their 2 Percheron stallions, with the exception of Eva (from my last post on visiting there) who was bred to their black Quarter Horse stallion. 

This one is Lady, a rare bay purebred Percheron:

It is quite something to stand in the midst of all these gentle giants. Several of them must be at least 18 hh if not more. 

Still no foals to report, Concho is at 353 days and holding... Daphne is at 343 and since she is a maiden, you bet Shayla has many sleepless nights going on! 

Yet another....

 Cold morning and beautiful sunrise. 

Even at -18 C I had to pop out and get this photo- the sun rises right at the end of our driveway.

I saw an owl winging its way across the pasture about that time, too dark to see detail but probably a great horned owl as we have several here. Also nice to hear the first few songbirds who are straggling back, bet they don't like these cold mornings either. 

The girls, all backlit and frosted up, vying for the best bits of fresh hay

I am getting cabin fever bad! Need to get out and do horse stuff! (Other than chores. ) 

Whatcha looking at, Beamer?

Friday I'm heading to Shayla's again; it sure would be nice if she has a foal from one of her mares- one is at 350 days and one is at 340 days, so, any time now ladies! They are probably going long because of the lingering cold weather. 

Bandit isn't concerned about anything as long as she has a spot to sun herself. 

I has a happy

 First of all, because it is officially spring!  Although this morning it wasn't very spring-y with temps of -18 C . There was a herd of mule deer does munching near my bales this morning and I paused for a while to watch them- they sure are graceful jumpers as they hopped over the fence to go down across the still frozen river. 

The day warmed up nicely though- all the way to plus 3 C- woohoo.... but it was nice enough to head out with the other thing that I am happy about- I finally got batteries for my Nikon with the telephoto lens! So of course it was time finally for some action shots of the mares. 

They were pretty lazy in the warm sun, so I led them to the far end of  their pasture, and turned them loose. Sure'nuff that woke them up and it was tails up and go time!

Power take off

Old pregnant mares can still give 'er!

Who you callin' old? 

One toe balance

Didya get all that?

Deep snow is hard work! Yes we do still have 2 ft. of snow.

Powering through!

Nothing like a good roll!

Love how uphill this mare runs

She's gonna be fun to ride!

The mares are wintering really well. I did the math and all 3 horses are getting about 30 pounds of hay a day; a 1300 lb. round bale lasts me 15 days; I fork feed, not free choice. They are fed twice a day and usually have just a few scraps left between feedings. Beamer gets a half a scoop of oats so I can give him his 2 oz. of camelina oil, and Velvet gets a pint of senior feed with a pint of oats. Hopefully we will start getting some meltdown so that they can slowly get back to grazing; I do continue to feed hay for the first month of grazing so they aren't eating too much spring grass. It's a little different here than the last 14 years where they lived on a dry lot and had minimal pasture- here, it's all pasture so it will be a learning curve on managing them. 

The saddle hunt is still on... 

Oh look, sun!

 Yesterday was a taste of the warmer weather coming; almost to the above freezing mark! Beautiful and sunny was good enough for a visit to Shayla while Ted visited his dad. 

It was mostly a visit about photography, as she has a new camera to figure out- Canon TR7. So off we went to see the horses!

Lots of straw bedding for the mares whose date is the closest to foaling. Jayne is in with Concho and Daphne, who are both beyond safe foaling date and will probably go another couple of weeks. 

Concho (MY Buckskin Concho)

Mama Belle is having trouble with an arthritic knee so she is in a different pen as she is now having a bit of trouble getting around while we wait for the knee to fuse. 

She is, as usual, hugely in foal, and we got to see her baby bouncing around! She is at least a month away from foaling; knowing her history, probably another 6 weeks. 

Then we headed to the big pasture where the Percheron mares are, along with Gussie and Shayla's palomino mare who are both in foal to her black stallion, although Gussie isn't due until later in July. 

 Enjoying the sunshine!

Gussie recognized my voice and came over to visit me and get her scratches. 

Dolly looks more like a sorrel than palomino at this time of year! She is due end of April.

Dolly (DF Sunfrosted Te)

I'm getting to know the draft mares by name now. This one is Kate:

She has the longest mane of them all! There is one mare I like the most, a 3 yr. old that looks like a blue roan but may go grey. Eva! She is so friendly and huge!

We have matching hair!😆

Afterwards we spent some time exploring photo editing; Lightroom. It was interesting! Can sure do a lot to clean up a photo. 

What programs do you, my photographer friends, use and what would you recommend? Ease of use, efficacy and budget are the needs. 

I love my telephoto lens, as I shoot mostly outdoors, but what lens do you think is best for, say, outdoor wedding portraits, horse photos both action and still, for Shayla's Canon TR7? She already has the 50 mm portrait lens and is exploring how to use it; the above photo was taken with it. 

Are we there yet?

 As we approach the tail end of winter and look out at the 2 ft. of snow and the sub zero temperatures, it's hard to find things to make your heart sing. 

My truck has been delayed, waiting for a part to come in to finish doing the exhaust. 

The cold and biting wind makes being outdoors unpleasant, even dressed warmly. 

Even as this season drags on, however, there is still beauty to be found. 

Mr. Handsome, peering over the fence at me between bites of fresh hay.

Snow has drifted over the tire tracks of the tractor from the last time we plowed

A contrast in pattern and texture on the roof of Beamer's Barn

The curl of the ice sliding off the roof of the mare's shelter

The peeling paint on Beamer's Barn; sad that these barns aren't going to be maintained now. 

Then there is this little lady, searching for spilled birdseed

That's our entertainment around here!

Fortunately, the weather forecast is looking up, warmer weather is on it's way but it will take a while for that snow to melt. 

Spring will come, spring will come....

BRRRR!

 Whatever groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter should ask for a promotion. The warm start to this month was just a teaser! 

Yesterday we woke up to -21Celcius (-5.8 Farenheit). When I did chores Beamer was standing in the back of his stall and wouldn't come out for his hay. So I checked and sure enough he was shaking and shivering. Poor boy! He has been shedding for about a month, so didn't have enough hair to make that insulated layer. I pulled down his blanket and got out the barn blow dryer and warmed it up for him. Yeah, I know, the things we do....

Anyway, he was happy to get his blankie back on! But it took him a few minutes warming up before he ventured out to his hay. I am leaving it on him until we get a much warmer trend. It was -25C (-13F) this morning. Hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be more reasonable- especially since Shayla is on foal watch now !

Today's full moon was going down at daybreak- I wasn't about to brave -25 for another moon shot but thought it looked pretty through my kitchen window. Where I was nice and snug and warm. 

By the time I got outside the sun was coming up, but it packed no warmth at that hour. 

I feed earlier on those colder days.

The mares were all frosted up again and happy to bury their noses in the hay. 

The saddle story: I ended up consigning my saddle, with the possibility of trading it in on a lower end but new saddle. They are giving me a good trade in price, so it makes sense to go that route (it's more than I paid for the saddle). I am hoping they can get me a ranch cutter. 

I asked if they can bring this one in. And hope it's in my price range! The coat hanger map I made worked really well; they had a flexible ruler that got shaped to my pattern and we tried it on a lot of saddles. Turns out I was right, she does need full quarter horse bars, and of course all the used saddles I liked that fit me weren't wide enough for Ruby. A lot of the ranch cutters they had in stock were rough out seat and fenders, which I am not a fan of, even though they do help keep you in the saddle when the horse makes sudden moves. And it may well be what I end up with. 

Lamb

 

March 1st the cold abated and it started to get warmer although not quite above freezing, but today, March 2nd what a beauty of a day!

I'm calling it in like a lamb. 

We had the warm west wind we call the Chinook wind. Chinook is a native word meaning snow-eater. Very appropriate!

I'm headed to  a tack store tomorrow to either consign my ranch saddle or trade it in on something lighter with wider bars for Ruby. 

All cleaned up and ready! Ideally I will be able to trade it straight across for a more suitable saddle but we shall see. Hard to believe this saddle is 43 years old. It should last another 100 years with proper care, it is so well made. I do love hand built saddles. 

Since I can't haul Ruby there to fit her for a saddle, I made a template with coat hangers. (Supervised by Velvet!) The store has a way of transcribing that info for saddle fit. Sure hope they have what I need!

Winding down

 February, that is. One more day! 

Mornings and evenings are much the same, foggy mornings....

and clearing off and sunny evenings. 

Routine chores get me outside twice a day, fortunately! Winter is winding down, and I sure hope March comes in like a lamb and starts melting the snow. I'm so ready to start riding! The good news is my truck is finally getting work done on it at the busy shop it has been sitting at so I'm hoping to have wheels in a week so I can start hauling to the arena. 

We had another feral cat visitor the other day, and it was pretty obvious that this one is Bandit's daddy. 

This is Ollie

and this is Bandit, who I think is in heat right now; she has some of the big tomcats following her around. I think she's about 8 months old. There may be a bunch of kittens in a couple of months because another feral female has the attention of the boys lately too. I wonder if I will be able to find them!