A Not Day

I think after I do the morning chores, and go to town for groceries, I will be coming home and I will NOT do any other physical labor.

Well, that is my good intentions, to take a day off and relax. The vegetable  garden needs a good hoeing and the flower gardens need weeding. I may get a the little squishy pad out and sit next to the flower garden and pick and poke at weeds and listen to music in the afternoon. That is relaxing.

Yesterday I walked to the meadow and fired up my Weed Eater and tore through a large patch of Canada Thistle. I know the cattle will eat the wilted thistle so last night I let them out into the meadow. My hope is that they eat it, if not that is okay. When I chopped down another patch by hand, the mules ate the chopped thistle and then stripped the remaining stalks.

My neighbor and her kids came for an afternoon jaunt down the new ridge road to the creek yesterday. We walked through the meadow and my neighbor noticed the Ox Eye daisy invasion and mentioned that her goats absolutely loved those pesky daisies.

Let's pause briefly for
Creek fun:

Back to the goats. Hmm. The Mules are natural browsers and so are the Dexters. I used to raise goats but never had them in the woods. It has been ages. I may have to see about 'borrowing' the neighbors' goats for some cleaning and gleaning. I know they eat multiflora rose bushes and those pesky berry briers along with burdock.

So last night my mind was whirring away, here I was trying to figure out a rotation to include a goat or two and wondering if I could pasture them with my Dexters. Mules are not generally happy with goats, however in the past two years the neighbor goats have been constant companions on the other side of the fence...and occasionally a wayward goat finds its way into the mule pasture.
I was sure that my red headed mules would hurt the goats.

So far that hasn't happened.

And then I wonder what I'd do with goats in the winter. Sigh. I do actually have the room to keep at least two.

Decisions, decisions.

However I've decided to NOT work on fences or thistles, or much of anything today. The yard needs mowing. Maybe I'll just trim a bit.
See? There I go again.
But I see rain in the forecast again starting tomorrow for the next two days.

Enough already!
And then I think.
Perhaps Sunday should be a NOT day.

And then there is that new fence line I thought I'd put up...and our pony who was wandering around this morning loose. He's broken his tie out...
and going to visit MIL...and...

Oh heck. Can I just have one day of doing nothing please???

Welcome Stormy & Stella

Our weekend was a busy one.  Friday was a long day heading to Madison for a follow up appointment.
The follow up went well and things are moving along as expected and a PET scan is scheduled for September.

During our last storm we of course had a calf.  Annie finally had her calf and the next morning as we were checking fences and picking up branches we were delighted to see 'Stormy' up and about.

Speedy who was born in around June 1st was checking him out.

Speedy likes to think of himself as the tough kid on the block.  Well he is as he is fully almost 8 weeks older than the others!

Then Speedy had another adjustment to make.

Stella was born during the hottest spell we've had this summer.  The heat and humidity were incredible and nasty.  Yet Stella was born.

She is our only heifer this year, but she is Dun colored and seems to be polled.

I have to admit, she is a knock out. 

Speedy and Stormy will become future meat projects and Stella will become one of the 'girls' eventually.  She and Bunny are both polled heifers.  Bunny is about 15 months old and is pure black like her father Black Bart.

It is a delight to see healthy calves in the pasture.

I imagine when the youngest calves get a bit of age on them, there will be plenty of running and chasing in the pasture.

Bully Bully!

Well I couldn't help myself with this shot.  It was taken just before we moved the Dexters to their next pasture which is a fairly large meadow.

They will eat most things that the equine won't eat so we like to refer to them as the 'clean up crew'.

They do an excellent job at eating weeds and brush.  If we cut the burdock and thistles, they gobble them up also.

Not only are they great pasture cleaners, they are very tasty for home raised beef.

Here the herd is moving through the electric gate and out into their next pasture to work on.

We have had to add extra lines much lower to the ground for these cattle but it has proven to be well worth it.

We are trying to practice good rotational grazing with them.
Next project, fencing the woods?

Afterwards...Farm Life continues...

Recovering from Opal's loss has been tough, but we realize that animals don't live forever and they cannot tell us what is the issue if they get sick.
We can guess at what happened but cannot be sure unless we would have had a Necropsy done on her.
[That is an Autopsy done by a vet]

So we move on.

I've been riding Siera a little each day.  She has been my last 'project' mule now for a while.  While she is a dandy mule, she still sometimes has some issues about leaving sight of the herd.

Since my time lately has been limited, I decided to try her out bareback  [no extra time wasted by saddling up]. 
There are very few mules I would ride bareback. 

Badger was one, Fred is another, and Opal?  
NO never, she would spin out from under me and leave me sitting in the dirt!

She has her doubts about me using a bucket to mount her.  But we are working on that.  Twice now we have done this.

She actually isn't too bad bareback, I was pretty surprised.  Right now I appreciate the long mane to grab onto when we decide to boogie up hillsides.


For some relief over our grief with Opal, Hubby and I are going on a 'memorial' ride for her today.  Siera will now step up to the plate and take on more.  Sunshine will be moving up into our regular use line up also.

Training with Princess will continue.  The Dexter gals Valerie and Annie are getting ready to have their calves at any moment.

So while Opal's passing caused us great grief, we have new life to look forward to.

And...
I have found out that riding Siera Bareback is a great pleasure which increases my balance skills and her attitude at the same time.

I can still ride tall.

Ahhhhh, Morning All!

It is cold this morning!  Brrr!  50 degrees cold!  I still would like it to a bit warmer at sunrise!

This is predawn this morning looking through the yet developing corn.  It should be tassled out and have ears, but that is slow in coming.

Yesterday evening we moved Bart and his ladies into another area for grazing.  These Dexters do such a nice job of cleaning up weeds as well as grazing grass.  They all seemed content.

After a supper of fresh zucchini, bacon and eggs...and toast [I know breakfast for supper]... I took Morris and went for an evening walk up the road to watch the sunset.  We'd had beautiful clouds all day and poof, they were gone come sunset.
I found the prettiest sky in the east though with the layers of colors quite beautiful.

Miss Siera seems to be back to her former self.  No lameness at all.  We've had a few hikes together and today...I think I'll tack her up and take her for a short ride.
Here she was patiently waiting under the Hickory tree for me to do chores.

She enjoyed her brushing and pampering.  She is absolutely fantastic with her lead rope manners, but can get a bit frustrated when she is tied up and not accompanied by a human or other animal.
She just stood there and watched the activity in the yard.  Good Girl!

The farrier comes tomorrow for his regular visit.  She is on his list.  Also on her list is a nice haircut!

Hubby got his post pounder thingy that attaches to the skid steer all set up just about.  Now if he gets the last part together...watch out.  New wooden fence posts are going up on the farm!  [See how technical minded I am?]

I've made a deal with the nieghbor girl [and her parents].  I am going to start mentoring her in all things mule.  She was too shy to ask me and her mom said something about wanting lessons.
I'm not going to do lessons for money.  Why do something I can do that causes me to feel good and paid for it? 

If I can get a young girls [girls if her sister joins in] interested in mules/horses and be safe with them, it is a win win situation for me.
We will be doing this much like the 4H program.  It isn't just about riding.  It is about learning colors, parts, sickness, care, foot care, grooming, cleaning tack, and safety above all else while handling the animal.

Me?
I'm pretty happy about it.
Our schedules will be haphazard at best, but I am looking forward to it.

So on with my day.
Siera is waiting for a short ride to the ridge.  

She has no sign of any leftover side effects from her crisis last Monday.
I am so grateful!

Meet Black Bart

Meet Plum Creek's Black Bart.
We picked him up today from the Plum Creek Little Cattle Company.

He is to be our small herd sire for our registered Dexter cattle.

 
The owners told us that this bull would be quiet and docile, Black Bart did not disappoint us.

He pretty much ignored the 'girls' as they flocked around him.
I think the girls were so impressed by his good looks that they didn't know what else to do!
 

Black Bart was curious about his pasture neighbors.  The mules.  The mules were also curious about him.
They took a while to size each other up.

 
Pedro, the dun mule was more interested than any of the others.  

Soon after, they went their seperate ways and darkness fell.  Last time we looked, Black Bart was grazing and the girls were not far away...grazing also.

Country life is so much different than city life.  Of course that is obvious to most.
As we were coming home today we stopped in the road to talk to neighbors.

Everyone had to look at the 'new' bull in our trailer.  
Hay was discussed.
Weather was discussed.
The price of fuel was properly discussed.

Farming, cattle, crops, ... anything that had to do with farming...got a once over by all involved.

Notice in the photo that the road is blocked with tractors, a truck, and a trailer?
We leaned up against tires or trailers and talked farm talk for a good long while.

Not a vehicle came by.
Welcome to our neighborhood.

Where we all know each other and love to stop and talk on the road.

Life is good.