He was a good dog...

even if he did spend the first 8 weeks of his life behind bars.  Along with the rest of his brothers and sisters.
Pie & I had just bought our first home together, we knew we wanted a dog so we went to the local animal shelter and that's where we first saw the cutest little lab cross puppy.  The whole litter had been dropped off right before Christmas so they were named after Santa's reindeer.  Comet had our hearts right from that first day.
That was way back in 2001... and now it has finally come to that inevitable end, we had to say goodbye to our first "child".

(it's taken me almost a week to be able to write this post, I'm only this far and I have tears rolling down my cheeks)

Not only was Comet our first pet together as a couple, he was also Pie's first ever pet. 
He was a great dog, I have tons of wonderful memories of him.
Like when he & I broke the basement window, pretty much in the first week we'd lived in the house ... and Pie walking out the door at just the right moment to witness it.
How he liked to help garden, by digging up freshly planted flowers and following me around the yard with them.
The time he tore the front license plate holder (and license plate) off my car and brought it to the door.
How he loved to help, he'd carry or fetch anything he could.  He knew "remote" and "phone" and would get either one if you asked him to.  He was so obsessed (yeah, that was the Lab in him) that he would follow me around the house when I was cleaning, just waiting for me to drop something so he could pick it up.
He knew how to recycle, when he knew a bottle or can was empty he'd take it to the blue recycling bin.
He wasn't bad too often, but when he was the harshest punishment for him was to put him in time out.  Sit him somewhere out of sight and tell him to stay... that was almost a death sentence to him.
Comet never met a toy he didn't like.  Balls, squeakies, stuffies.   He would play fetch as long as you'd throw.
You could leave food anywhere near him and he wouldn't touch it unless you told him it was okay.  Heck he wouldn't touch the food in his bowl unless you gave him permission. 
His absolutely favourite treat was McDonalds fries.
Even as he got older he still tried to help whenever he could.  He'd carry pails & baskets, the feed scoops, pretty much anything he could.  But old age was slowing him down.
He was having trouble climbing the stairs. He was becoming incontinent.  His hind end was pretty much shot, he had to use his shoulders & front end to drag himself to standing and he was losing weight.  He was easily knocked down by the Bostons and I was worrying about him breaking something if he fell and landed badly.
(one time he fell and landed so awkwardly I thought he may have broken his pelvis, thankfully he didn't)
So we prepared to say goodbye to our boy.  On a particularly bad day last week I told him he only had to hold on for a few more days, I could swear I heard/felt him say Thank You.
Monday our vet (who is amazingly wonderful) came out to our place so we didn't have to try to get Comet in the truck (he could no longer get in the truck).
On that day Comet got his very own order of McDonalds fries all to himself.  Doc gave him a shot to make him drowsy and then walked away to let us say goodbye.  Comet laid down in the grass with his head in my lap while Pie & I talked to him and told him how loved he was and how grateful we were to have had him in our lives and Comet dozed off in the sunshine. 
Doc came back and gave him the lethal dose, he was gone before it was done. 
Thankfully it was perfect, for what it was.  There were no seizures or spasms, he didn't even let go of his bowels or bladder.  After dealing with how badly Cessa's end was I was extremely grateful that Comet's passing was textbook perfect.
We buried him out back in a spot of honour.  I hope he's over that rainbow bridge, running & playing free from pain.

Projects

There have been a lot of projects going on here this summer/fall.  Nothing huge, some downright little...

The chicken coop was a bit too cold last winter, so we've added some insulation.  Shavings getting into the corners of the door were a problem last year, they'd freeze and cause the door to not close properly.  Also we put in some roosts and took out the pallets that the hens had been using as roosts, holy smokes that made it seem SO much roomier in there!

Pie wanted an outhouse due to hosting jackpots and now having a boarder.  So he & J started building one (almost finished, just a few touches left)

Pie also wanted flags around the arena.  Seriously, he wanted them around the whole arena.  We compromised on two (it went something like "NO.  You can have two or none, your choice" lol)  So now there is a flag on each side of the gate.

The announcer booth got a coat of paint (white).

Corral panels were removed and a gate put in going from the arena to the pen beside it.

An electric waterer was put in the cow pasture.  This was probably one of my fav projects to have done as it means no more hauling water!

Not really a project, but Norman the runty little "let's give it a gamble" bull was sold and we have a replacement bull, Baxter.  Baxter is a papered Dexter, black and naturally polled (yay!  that means there's really good odds his calves will be polled too!)

A head gate was put in to make handling the cows less redneck and easier on everyone, human and bovine.

I've FINALLY started getting my barn more organized.  The tack room is okay, Pie bought me some sweet saddle racks last year so that made a huge difference. Then I got the storage/feed room cleared out, shelves and counter wiped down and floor swept.  Organized it and it looks much better. Still have two piles of miscellaneous stuff to go through and keep/donate/sell/toss, then decide where to put the keep stuff.  That will be a relief to have done!

I know, I know, some of this needs pics... hope to get some soon.

Wilder

George & Rootbeer are in a pen (too much grass for those little guys is no bueno) but the big horses are all turned out together (my 6 and KD's 2) 

Well the horses were all putting on a show the other day when Pie & I were out doing chores.  We had to just stop and watch them... it was hard not to, it's quite a sight to see that colourful herd in motion!

(black, bay, varnish roan, grullo, sorrel with a ton of chrome, a white grey, a steel grey and a palomino, it's so pretty to watch them all together)

They were all ripping around and then breaking off into little groups to play.  Snaking heads, rearing, dancing and prancing in little circles, bucking and then the whole herd would tear off again only to start the cycle again.

While it was entertaining it was also nice to see how much Wilder is changing (KD's steel grey).  When she brought her horses here KD & I both basically described him as socially stunted... it was like he didn't know how to speak horse. That was something that caused problems for him in the past.  He would get picked on or bullied because he couldn't read what other horses were telling him.  Tizzy (KD's palomino) thankfully understood he was her "little brother" and watched out for him & tolerated him.

Being turned out with my herd in a fairly big pasture has been good for Wilder though.  He's made at least one friend (Applejack, KD& I both called that one on the first day! lol)  He's gradually learning how to get along with everyone else (even Voodoo! :o ) and he's no longer constantly glued to Tizzy's side :)

During playtime the other day Wilder's progress really showed.  He didn't just run with the herd, he took turns playing too.  Instead of sticking with just Tizzy and Appy (like I was guessing he would) he alternated partners like everyone else - yay Wilder! 

There were a few times where he seemed a bit confused but he would just move a few steps away and you could almost see the wheels turning while he figured out what was going on and then he would join back in.  So while I wouldn't exactly say he's fluent yet, it's sure good to see Wilder learning how to speak horse :D

2013 Haying

No, we didn't just finish.  I'm just a little late getting around to posting... this season instead of a field of dreams it was more a field of nightmares.  The hay itself looks good, but getting it down, baled and put up...

First the new to us swather we bought last fall.  Yeah, we pretty much bought a POS.  We knew it wasn't great, it's pretty old.  But it was in our budget and with a little bit of work it should have been fine.  SHOULD have.
Instead it got a few feet and kablowey... the header deck came loose.  The good news is there is a very small chance it is fixable if someone who knows how to weld decently and knows farm equipment can fix it without it costing a fortune she'll get another shot at life.  The better news?  Our neighbour asked if it's still drivable and when we said yes he replied "Well bring it over, pretty sure I can fix it!"

The swathing was done by the same neighbour that cut & baled for us last year.

The square baler worked fine, until we were almost done.  Seriously, we were thisclose and it calved.  Good news though, it's fixable.  In the meantime neighbour that is going to look at fixing the swather came by and baled for us (rounds).

So we ended up with 6 rounds and hundreds of squares... with only Pie & I to put them away.  Once again good neighbours played a role.  My friend/neighbour SD runs a group home and he let us hire one of his guys to help pick and stack bales.  It still felt like forever getting them put up though because we only had a few hours each day before it was time for Pie & I to go to work.
One of the guys from work came to help one day too.  He worked his butt off and wouldn't take a dime, he just came to help because he's never done it before!

In the end it all worked out, with the blessings of good weather, family and good neighbours we have a hay barn filled for the winter :)  I just hope it's not as long as last years!

Wordless Wednesday ~ First Peep!

(sorry for the grainy quality, cell phone pic)

Small victories

I'll take 'em where I can get 'em!
We just wrapped up this barrel season, our district's mini finals were this weekend. Saturday & Sunday, all day in the blazing heat. It was fun though, I got to catch up with old friends and made some new ones!
I haven't been out to a lot of jackpots this year (or last), I also wasn't able to ride as much as I'd hoped this summer so I went with a very out of shape Voodoo.
Darn I love that little black horse!!  He may never be more than a 3D horse, but he tries for me every time - even when I haven't been fair to him and expect him to run his fat little ass off in the heat.
What I don't love, is the gate drama he's acquired.  Little hops & spins... he's not sore though thank goodness, he's just so amp'd up to get in and run.  Fortunately there were girls that were willing to help.  Voodoo had a couple pony friends walk him to the gate his first three runs (there were 2 runs each day).
We didn't clock that well, but I wasn't expecting to considering everything lol
Then on my final run KD asked if I wanted her to walk us up.  She was on foot so I said "Sure, if you're willing.  No promises that he won't rear, or maybe squish you."
I was up right after a rake, so while the quad was running KD just took hold of the cheek piece of his bridle and led Voodoo around in big circles, slowly getting closer to the gate.  When the rake was done and the gate opened we were just a dozen or so steps away. 
Voodoo didn't try to spin, pop or rear at all.  He just calmly walked forward and then a few steps away I said "OK I think we're good now."  KD let go and Voodoo entered the arena just fine.  I put my hands forward and he shot off for first.
Seeing as I didn't have to worry about getting him in the gate, or even toward the gate, I was sitting ready and was able to get both Voodoo and myself properly prepared as we ran for first and we had a nice barrel.

small victory!

We had our best 2nd barrel out of our four runs too.  I had been anticipating the turn a bit too much and rating too soon.  We'd been clean on 1st and 2nd for all the runs, they just weren't too pretty. 
This time, it was nice!  I remembered to ride to were I needed to be and not worry (anticipate the turn), we just ran to our spot and turned.

small victory!

We'd knocked 3rd on our second run the day before.  Our first run we had a nice 3rd barrel, and it was pretty ugly on our first run Sunday.  This time it was nice!  We rounded it and headed for home, kicking all the way to the timer (another problem for me lol)

another small victory!

 I came out of the arena pretty happy with my run, it was definitely the best of the four.  Voodoo had run pretty consistent all weekend but I was really quite surprised to hear the time... a full second faster than my other runs!

small victory!

I was even more surprised though when at the end of the day the day monies for both days were being doled out and we actually won some!  Last paid spot in 3D, and hardly any cash, but we still got some money! :)

small victories indeed!

Role Reversal

For the vast majority of my horse owning life I was a boarder. 

(18 of 21 years!)

Then in 2010 we bought our acreage and I (finally!) had my horses at home.
And now, now we're in a new phase... a role reversal.  We're the "barn owner" and we have a boarder.

Since we bought our place Pie & I have talked about maybe one day have a boarder.  Weighing the pros and cons.
We knew we wouldn't bring in enough money to make money but we were hoping to get enough to help offset some costs. (pro) 
We knew it would mean a little less privacy (con). 
With the right boarder I'd have someone willing & able to lend a hand with some horse stuff and maybe someone to ride with, and sometimes haul with (big pros!)

Late this spring/early this summer we had the perfect situation lining up.  A friend was looking to move her horses.  She was someone that we both trusted to be around when we weren't, that had similar horse interests, and that would be willing to trade off blanket duty in the winter! (I'd ride during the day, put my horse(s) in stalls with coolers.  She'd come out to ride in the evening, put my ponies out with proper blankets, leave hers in stalls with coolers and when I got home from work I'd turn hers out)
Then there were some big changes in her life and she did indeed move... hours away!

This Sunday I got a text from another friend.  She was asking if we'd thought about boarding and if we might have some space.  KD & I shot some messages back and forth "talking" things over.  I had a quick convo with Pie and then msg'd her "When do you want to move your ponies?"
I did some research on boarding agreements, drafted one and emailed it to her to check out (yes she's a friend but best for all parties if we have our butts covered in writing) ;)
Then Monday she showed up with her horses.  We decided that going for a ride around the pasture would be a good way to show her horses where the fence line is, and as a bonus it was a start to introducing Voodoo to his future pasture friends. 
(Voodoo was the one I had the most concern about, after all he is King of the World lol)
After our ride we grabbed a couple drinks, turned Voodoo, Tizzy & Wilder out in the pasture... no fireworks :)  Then we got the rest of my kids and turned them out.  Again no fireworks :D
We watched them for quite awhile.  There was a bit of moving around.  The "No this is MY buddy!  YOU stay over THERE" kind of stuff.  No real skirmishes (although Wilder did show that he can kick his heels up v.e.r.y. high) and absolutely NO squealing.

 The board is low cost and in return pretty basic.  We're planning on getting a shed for her stuff, she has use of the arena and a spot to park her trailer.  Horses are provided with hay/grass, water, salt/mineral. 
KD is willing to help out with little stuff (like turning out horses and I do the same for her).   She also barrel races in SBRA and is interested in going to team penning this winter. 
I'm hoping this works out for both of us, it could be a good situation.