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Wordless Wednesday

Friday Funny ~ Trucker

There was a man driving down the road behind an 18 wheeler, at every stoplight the trucker would get out of the cab, run back and bang on the trailer door.
After seeing this at several intersections in a row the motorist followed him until he pulled into a parking lot.

When they both had come to a stop the truck driver once again jumped out and started banging on the trailer door.  The motorist went up to him and said, "I don't mean to be nosey but why do you keep banging on that door?"

To which the trucker replied, "Sorry, can't talk now, I have 20 tons of canaries and a 10 ton limit, I have to keep half of them in the air all the time!"

A Couple of "Those Days"

The other day I was out doing the morning chores, I'd tossed the horses their hay and gave them a quick check and before I checked the pasture horses I went to check the cows... low and behold, instead of our five little cows there were five little cows and a sixth one, much bigger! (steer actually)
He was coming in from our big horse pasture (the pasture horses are currently in the small horse pasture) with two of our little guys trailing him, our other three were following on the other side of the fence (their side of the fence!)
I went into the pen and called May Belle and Chuck in and Stranger followed them.  I circled around them, keeping an eye on Stranger in case he didn't like people and closed the pasture gate.  Got out of the pen and ran to the house to grab Pie.  He came back to the pens with me and helped me get our two sorted back into their pasture while keeping Stranger in the pen.  Turns out our two must have just pushed through from curiosity over the visitor in the pasture.  I watched the cows and when the went to give the fence a look see they jumped back after touching the wire.
After that I checked the pasture horses, fed hens & gathered eggs (yes eggs!) then went for a drive to see if I could find who owned Stranger.  I was pretty sure I knew where he came from, there's a pasture with some cattle that shares a fence line on the South side of our big pasture.  So I headed South on our road and went down the first cross road to the one house I knew was there. 
The guy came to the door and I explained why I was there, turned out it was his land but they weren't his cows.  He said he'd pass the message on to the guy running cattle on his land.  And sure enough a short while later a man came to my door and introduced himself as RT.  We walked down to the pens and yeppers, Stranger belonged to him. 
A few minutes later he was back with a stock trailer and two helpers to get Stranger loaded.  Good thing he had those helpers... it took a bit of chasing to get him in the trailer.
The next day I woke up with a dream fresh in mind, in it our cows were out and Pie & the quad and me & Voodoo had to get them back in.  Well guess what I found when I went to do chores?  Yep, cows were out.  Just in another of our pastures thank goodness but their pasture is the only one with appropriate fence for little Dexter cows.
I sprinted to the house and yelled to Pie "Cows are out!  Grab the quad, I'll grab Voodoo!" while I quickly swapped out my rubber boots for cowboy boots.
As I was hustling to the barn to grab Voodoo's halter Pie ran by, "How long til you guys are ready?"
"Five minutes!" (I hoped)

I have to say, man do I LOVE that horse!

When I got to the pasture he was on the other side of the announcer's booth, as soon as he saw me coming he met me at the gate and stuck his nose in the halter without any of his usual games.
 (you must give me "x" number of cookies before you may halter me)
I ran to the barn and he long trotted on a loose line beside me.  In the barn he stood PERFECTLY still while I ran a quick brush over him and saddled up.  Usually he's a bit fidgety, and even when he's behaving he moves around me (something I've kinda taught him to do, but it works for me)
Voodoo & I came out of the barn and I got on just as Pie came back from a quick scouting trip.  Pie held the gates while I rode through and then Voodoo was off at a long trot with the quad on his heels.  I led Pie to the gate between the pasture the Dexters were in and the one they SHOULD have been in and we got the gate unwired and open (we'd already shut off the electric).
The cows like the quad so they were heading toward the sound of it, of course they didn't want to actually come through the darn gate so Voodoo and I went in to circle them and push them through, and other than Chuck it went perfect.
Darn Chuck though, just before the gate he split off and ran down the fence away from the gate.  Voodoo was on him like a duck on a tick.  He ran down the fence, got just enough ahead of Chuck to lean his shoulder in and turn him back toward the gate.  Voodoo rolled back and ran him down to the gate and through it.  I was so proud of my boy!
The cows were running back toward the haybarn and I had to get off to help Pie get the gate back up & wired, and that was the only time Voodoo was bad.  He seemed upset that the cows he'd gathered and chased were running away from him lol
We locked the Dexters in the pen by their pasture until we could get the fence fixed.  Thank goodness it wasn't anything too bad... turned out they had ripped out the ground wire, probably by rubbing on the pole.
That was one dream I didn't need to come true ;)

Sunday Stills ~ Clouds

This week's Sunday Stills theme was clouds. 
If ever there was a challenge made for me, it was this one.  After all they don't call Saskatchewan "the land of the living skies" for nothing!
We've also had a lot of rain lately, including a tornado warning Friday.  Thank goodness no tornadoes in my area (although that could have made a good photo) but there were several small ones not too far away, however I wasn't going to put myself at risk by going TO the tornado!
All these were taken either at my place or within 5 minutes of it.

Friday Funny ~ Proper Disposal

Rummaging through her attic one day, my friend Carol found an old shotgun. 
Unsure how to dispose of it, she called her parents.
"Take it to the police station," her mother suggested. 
My friend was about to hang up when her mom added...
"And Carol?"
"Yes mom?"
"Call them first and let them know you're coming."

Eggscellent!

There was a bit of shenanigans today so I was a bit later going to check the hens then usual.

(you know, usual since I got them Monday night lol)  

Anyhoo, I was pleasantly surprised to see an egg when I got to the coop! I was thinking it would be at least a week before the girls were settled enough to start laying so I'm pretty happy that I got one in 2 1/2 days :)

Of course I had to take a pic of the egg

And weigh it lol

Not too bad, just 1gr shy of being graded XL!

Wordless Wednesday ~ I Feel Like I'm Being Watched

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

To come live at my place!! 

True story! Yesterday I got chickens from a friend that lives down the road aways and on the other side.
Right now they're in their temporary coop.  Its a little bit  lot, redneck. We're using the old dog kennel as their run and they have a little pallet coop and a doghouse for shelter.  There are 6 ISA hens and an ISA roo, plus a few Ameracauna pullets.

Hera seemed to realize that guarding them is part of her job, she hasn't made one aggressive move toward the coop and has chased off the cats when they get too "stalker"ish

Although that doesn't stop them from coming back to check things out.

I didn't hear the rooster at all this morning, but around 1:30 this afternoon he crowed a bit.  The ISA hens are very friendly and will even eat feed out of your hand.
We're planning a bigger coop and run, just need some time and for the weather to cooperate!

Sunday Stills ~ By the Numbers

This week's Sunday Stills challenge:
 "So for the next challenge its all about the numbers, the more the merrier. See how many numbers you can get into one pic..:-)"

Here's mine, a rather dreary looking day on our weather station.  And no, I am not in Toronto.  I think it automatically resets to that after a power outage (we had one last night)

Friday Funny ~ Horse Texting Codes

OOH - out of hay
LAS - lost a shoe
BBM - bastard just bit me
FOMHL - Fell Off My Horse Laughing
FTC -- Forgot the carrots
MIHA -- Mare's in heat, again
IPTI -- I'll pick up tennis instead
LWW -- Lesson went well
MSMBO - mud sucked my boot off
HSIH - Horse Snot in Hair
HAO - Hay All Over
HIMB - Hay in My BRA
PIHH - Poop Induced Half Halt
UD - Unplanned Dismount
PTTDG - Prayed to the Dirt God
MMM - Master Manure Mucker
OOM - Out of money
MHTS - More horses than sense.
BAHHFDP - bought another horse husband filed divorce papers
GBBF - got board bill, fainted
GFBF - got farrier bill, fainted
HRHCF - husband realized horse costs, fainted
SLH - Smell like horse
DQFOY - Dressage Queen fell off - yipee
HTNHFH - Hiding the new horse from hubby
WWFNS - Will work for new saddle
AROGC - Arena rained out - going crazy
SSB - saddle sore butt
BTLGR - B!tchy trainer left - good riddance
ALIGAR - At least I got a ribbon
NLT - No lesson today
HGR - Have a great ride!

Wordless Wednesday

Practice & Non Practice Runs

Friday night I got Voodoo from the pasture & put him in a pen for the night.  I'm very cruel, the pen has grass plus he got a very full hay bag.  Don't worry, when I went to get him Saturday morning he didn't hesitate to let me know how mean I was... he's such a drama queen lol
Anyway, I also had the truck filled & hooked up the trailer and had the trailer loaded Friday night.
Saturday morning I was up (after far too little sleep), did chores, loaded my poor abused pony and was on the road to go barrel racing.
The bad news was I hadn't figured into my travel & chore times that I needed to be there a bit early because I had all the paperwork & timers for my friend that was hosting the jackpot :o  The good news is the estimate I had for travel time of 90 minutes was WAY off and I got there in plenty of time :)

I had been doing some barrel work this last week at home and Voodoo has been working pretty nicely.  But when I went in for my first run (it was a double header, one run per jackpot) Voodoo started off at a nice, easy, slow lope for 1st barrel *headdesk*  Hmm... I guess I should have made one or two speed runs at home when I was practicing.
As we were turning 1st I felt a change in him, like he woke up and went "oh this is for reals!" and he picked up speed the rest of the run.  I was very happy with his 2nd barrel, its my nemesis but this time I managed to not start to cue him for the turn too soon and he maintained nice form around it.  The ground felt a bit iffy and I totally safetied him up on 3rd, still nice but way slow.
When it was time for the second jackpot he ran better to first but he felt stiff... I got him to soften up but he also took it as "hey lets turn here" which was about a half stride too soon, we made it around but it was NOT pretty nor was it fast.  He ran nicely to 2nd and I managed to ride him to what felt like the right spot but I think I was a little off again because he was really tight coming out which caused him to veer off like an idiot on the way to 3rd.  I was feeling better about the ground so I didn't safety up like I had earlier (the ground was harrowed every 5 riders, so by the 2nd jackpot the ground was much better)   Overall our 3rd was better, but still not great, and our 1st was worse.
I did manage to keep pushing all the way to the timers which is a huge mental problem for me.  I always think I don't have enough stopping room.  I guess its from running Cessa as my first barrel horse, being a TB she wasn't built to stop like a stock horse... that girl needed room to stop! 
The good news is Voodoo was consistent, our times had a difference of about .2 of a second.  The better news is that in the first jackpot we placed 4th in the 3D and it paid to four spots :)  For the record we placed 5th in the 3D in the second jackpot and it only paid to 3 spots. 

(how many spots are paid depends on how many entries there are)

His runs are starting to come together again, obviously we need to keep doing our slow work at home but to also add in some "real" runs once in awhile.

Friday Funny ~ Mail

Maybe snow or sleet won't delay the mail 

but there are other factors... 

like lack of faith in the system. 

The man ahead of me at the post office 

was getting forms 

for temporarily stopping mail delivery

 and change of address.

"When you've filled them out," 

suggested the clerk, 

"bring them here in person 

so they don't get lost in the mail."