Recapping the year

This year brought some highs and some lows.  I thought I'd run through the highlights and the not so great moments that 2011 brought us.

The most tragic event of the year was right at the beginning.  January 3rd Pie's cousin Sofia was hit by a water delivery truck and killed.  Also, this summer my Grampie passed away.
January/February saw Pie sick, again.  Thankfully he didn't get to the point where he had to be hospitalized but it was scary.  I still get worried anytime he coughs or is phlegmy.  We realized that last fall he didn't get his flu shot so we made sure he got it this year, so far he seems fine.  Lets hope he gets through the winter without getting sick  

**knock wood**

A good, young friend of mine lost her talented barrel horse in a freak accident at home.  Mattie was a sweet horse and L still misses her.
The colts got their official papers from AQHA and I was pleased to see that both boys were granted my first pic of names.
Saskatchewan's horse community had a pretty bad scare of Rhino EHV-1, in fact it was a scare that hit some of the states and other provinces as well.  As a result some events I had planned to attend were cancelled and others I opted out of.
I got hit by some trolls this year due to things ranging from a couple of my Friday Funny jokes to the fact that I DARE to get my fat ass up on a horse and ride.  When I finally blogged about it I was amazed at the outpouring of support from my blogger peeps

(I'll say it again, you guys rule!)

May 31st we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of our move to the acreage... still loving it, no regrets :)
I had my scariest horse accident yet.  July 1st Voodoo went down as we were leaving 3rd barrel.  I managed to avoid having him land right on me, he only landed on my lower leg, but it was still frightening.  And up to that point it was such a good run!

I reached a blog milestone this year, 500 posts!

Barrel racing, I didn't make it to a lot of jackpots.  Between EHV and my schedule I barely made enough to qualify for Provincial finals.  I ended up missing the short go by 15 slots, the closest I had ever come!  And I'm pretty sure if I'd had my head on straight I would have made the short go, I totally blew my second run and I know Voodoo & I could do better than we did on our first run.  Applejack had stage fright and we were no where near the short go.  However he improved immensely on his second run so I was happy with him.
District finals, Applejack was sore so I scratched him.  Voodoo ran nice but not in the money.  He was extremely consistent though, hopefully with some practice we'll add a bit more speed and stay consistent.
I also (finally) stepped down from the district board.  After 5 years it was more than time.
The colts became geldings this year (yay!)  Animal losses, more serious than pairs of nutters, were Mom's dogs Mack & Holly RIP big guy and little girl.  Our dog Echo (who we had got this spring) went missing, we still haven't found him and I really think that someone took him.  But the saddest of all, for me, was putting down my beloved Cessa.
An interesting event, that probably won't happen around me again, was the "homeless lady with a horse".  Jeanne was making her way across Canada, a homeless wanderer who preferred to not live in mainstream society.  There are plenty of people like that but she 'dared' to do it with a horse  

*gasp* <-- totally sarcastic

I happened to be one of a small group of people that supported Jeanne's dream and pitched in with aid and moral support.
Another item was scratched off my horse bucket list, I went for a ride at night.  Voodoo & I shared that moment under a beautiful full moon.
I took Rootbeer to a pony playday at my friend Jo's.  Dave was there to help us with driving and through some trial & error we figured out that my little guy was broke to drive!

(now to get a cart and proper fitting harness)

After keeping our eyes open for a "company's here" horse we found Smudge (or rather my horse dealin' friend Mr Tim found him and called us)  Thanks to Smudge my mom is riding and having fun.
This fall I went to another Ed Wright clinic, and I'm even happier that next year Ed will be here in the summer!  It will be nice to get some Education and be able to put it to use during the season.
For the first time in 10 years Pie got a vacation!!  We took advantage of it and went out East... New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia.  It was wonderful.
December saw some new additions to the ranch, we got moos cows.  Four heifers and a steer, in partnership with my Mom & Stepdad.  And Pie got a puppy, Walter, for Christmas!

and here is my year according to Facebook:

Friday Funny ~ Dentist

At the busy dental office where I work, one patient was always late.  Once when I called to confirm an appointment, he said "I'll be about 15 minutes late.  That won't be a problem, will it?"

"No," I told him.  "We just won't have time to give you an anesthetic."

He arrived early.

Walter

Our newest little family member is fitting right in.  There was surprisingly little drama introducing him to the rest of the dogs.  He & Tucker started playing and napping together pretty much right away.  Misty feels the need to monitor the boys play time and play mother to them, Comet would really rather they both just leave him alone (which is pretty much his general attitude to almost anyone/thing these days... he's a grumpy old man)

Potty training is going so-so.  He's having some accidents but not a lot.  What's actually most difficult for me is to not cuddle him too much...  I really want to give Pete the chance to develop a bond with Walter.  They cuddle whenever possible and that bond is growing.
Speaking of Tucker, we've made sure that whenever Walter has gone somewhere we also take Tuck.  Whether that be to the vet or into the city to get used to car rides and some socialization.

Walter seems to have a bit of a dominant personality, he gets very upset if they're wrestling and he hasn't had his chance to "win", then he gets a bit aggressive.  Tucker is so happy go lucky he'll play with almost anyone, even if they're kicking his butt.  Which explains the bite marks on the side of his face (Walter, bad puppy!)  Other than that they play together really well.  Tucker is a great "big brother", he takes turns letting Walter win at tug of war and wrestling (although like I said if Walter feels he should be winning and doesn't get to he pitches a fit)  Its quite cute to see Walter on the dog bed holding a toy with Tucker holding the other end dragging Walter AND the bed around the living room lol  And Tucker is teaching Walter all about his crazy tearing around the house, Walter just needs to get coordinated enough to keep up.

Probably one of the funniest things that's happened is Tucker realizing that Walter can't get up on the furniture yet.  So when he sees Walter playing with something he doesn't feel like sharing (usually that's Pig) he takes the toy and puts it up somewhere, usually the ottoman.  Then he carefully positions and repositions it until its as close to the edge as possible and just out of Walter's very ungraceful leaping efforts to get it... and he sits back and watches Walter try to get it (I swear you can tell Tucker's pleased with himself! lol)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Farm Girl

A Message from George & Rootbeer

From everyone here at Home on the Range!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Pete's Christmas present :)

Sunday Stills ~ Happy Anniversary (Pets)

This weeks Sunday Stills challenge: Three years ago this week will be the third anniversary of Sunday Stills. The very first challenge was Pets……so in honour of Ed and Sunday Stills lets do it again.

Okay so they're not really pets, but my camera died before I could get decent pics of the "real pets" and the cows were the only furry things around that I managed to get some decent pics of.

The World

Belongs to Lindsay Sears & Martha!!

Sears was #2 going into the NFR.  At the end of 10 rounds she was #1 in the average and took home the championship buckle.  Way to go Martha!!  10 clean fast runs in a tough pen.

** picture borrowed from Lindsay's site lindz.ca **

Something's missing

I took this pic of the hayfield 

Friday afternoon. 

 

I noticed the sky was all grey and moody 

but there was light shining out on the field. 

Its really beautiful when it does that in the summer

just before or after a storm, over a canola field :)

Anyway... I like this pic but it also makes me a bit sad 

because there's something missing.... any guesses?

Snow!

There's just a few patches of snow here and there.  

Its looking like its going to be a brown Christmas.  

And in Saskatchewan that just ain't right.

Catching up with the colts

It was farrier day the other day and when I brought Tavi in the farrier said "Holy s---!  He's getting big."

*small aside:  I was very proud of Tavi when I caught him.  I'd grabbed the wrong halter and it was way too small, so I looped the lead rope around his neck and he led in like an old pro :)  Pretty good, I haven't done a lot with them... they've been mostly turned out "being horses" for now*

I'd noticed he was getting quite big too, especially when I saw him standing next to Voodoo:

Now Voodoo isn't a "big" horse, he's about 15hh.  But keep in mind that Tavi is only a long yearling (born late June 2010)
Here's a 3/4 view, without that black ham:

I really need to bribe my "assistant" to come out so we can halter both colts, square them up and get some 'real' pics.

Then there's Odin, he's maturing but he won't be as big as his brother (that's not a bad thing).  I like how he's coming together, he had some "issues" with his hind legs that good farrier work and growth has improved.

Its interesting to watch the differences in size, build and (even more so) in personality as these two grow up.  They have different sires and their dams are full sisters.  They were born with in a week or so of each other and at the same farm, were brought here at the same time so they've pretty much had the same "life experience".  But man oh man they are total opposites!!

Friday Funny ~ Santa Knows

As we were putting out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve,

I accidentally dropped one.  

"No problem," I said, picking it up and dusting it off before placing it back on the plate.

"You can't do that," argued my four year old.

"Don't worry.  Santa will never know."

He shot me a look.  "So he knows if I've been bad or good, 

but he doesn't know the cookie fell on the floor?"

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sunset (from roundpen to front yard)

All the moos that's fit to print

aka "We've got news moos"

Okay enough punny stuff... meet the herd:

My stepdad B & I have gone partners on some cattle!
Last week I went with my friend Jo to look at some Dexters.  Today B, Mom, Jo and I went to pick them up (Pie was at work).  We got 4 heifers and a steer.

(yes all 5 are in that pic, the fifth one is hiding behind the others)

The plan is to butcher the steer, probably next fall, and to breed the heifers.  Unless of course by that time we're thinking "oh crap this was a bad idea" ;)
We decided on Dexters because they're small, therefore easier on your equipment (waterers, fences, etc), they're hardy enough for our winter cold & summer heat (don't laugh!), they are good beef & milkers, good mothers and calve easily.

Yes, of course I've named mine.  The steer (B & I are sharing him) is Chuck and 1 of my heifers is Tasty (because one day she will be) ;)  My other heifer will probably be Nelly (because of a longstanding joke with Pie)  The only thing is that, for now, they're pretty hard to tell apart.  We know who the steer is, because he's the only boy lol.  And I can tell which one is Tasty, her original ear tag ripped out so she has a torn ear and she's the only one tagged in the right ear.  That's Tasty in the front in the above pic.

Friday Funny ~ Circle Flies

A farmer got pulled over by an RCMP officer for speeding, and the trooper started to lecture the farmer about his speed and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the farmer uncomfortable.

Finally, the officer got around to writing out the ticket.  As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.  The farmer said, "Having some problems with circle flies there are ya?"

The officer stopped writing the ticket and said, "Well, yeah, if that's what they are called... I never heard of circle flies."

So the farmer said, "Well, circle flies are common on farms.  See, they're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."

The officer said, "Oh," and went back to writing the ticket.  Then after a minute he stopped and said, "Hey, wait a minute... are you trying to call me a horse's rear end?"

The farmer said, "oh no, officer.  I have too much respect for law enforcement to even think about calling you such a name."

The officer said, "Well, that's a good thing." and went back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the farmer said, "Hard to fool them flies, though."