The End of an Era

 Christmas Eve we lost our long time friend and amazing pony mule. 

Fred stood 13 hands and was probably the toughest equine we'd ever had. Rich got Fred 34 years ago. He was part of a driving team of matched small mules. Fred rode and drove and Rich kept Fred and sold Jenny.

A life long journey was started. Fred helped a veteran with his PTSD. Mules became my husband's passion. Every other mule we ever had was compared to the tough little pony mule. 

If you were a novice rider or a child, he'd take care of you. He'd walk as if he were on egg shells. If you were balanced and experienced...he was quick and light. He was a trickster. He was quick and won me a lot of placings in poles and barrels against big horses.

We team penned with him and lent him out to a young girl for a year to ride in competitions.

We hunted at night off from him. He was an expert at finding treeing hound dogs. He could take you home or back to the trailer if you lost your way. 

Fred taught me about mules. He was so much smarter than I was and he outwitted me so many times.

Fred on the water road KVR 1996

Me 1997 Morel Hunting

on Fred.

Fred after taking a novice

on a ride. 

Fred carries my Stepdaughter

on one of our many Mule Parades of two mules.

Rich and his favorite mule.

Little Mule. Tons of Heart.

Fred taught all the grandkids to ride and
many others.

Ride this fall. Fred leads with me.
He was spunky and ready to rumble.

Ariel got the last ride with Fred.

He may have been the smallest, 

however, he was leader of the 

pack until the very end.

I know in the past I've used the Rainbow Bridge Poem. 

I can't bear to even read it right now.

So I will say this.

Fred you stole my heart and are the sole reason I met The Mule Man and fell in love.

You showed me that adversity is something to embrace 

and get through no matter how tough it is.

You taught me that in order to get along with a mule

one had to gain that mule's respect.

You often thought that humans were beneath you

yet you would open your heart to me.

I wish you happy trails and green pastures.

I know you are running with Cheyanne your love mare and 

that she has been waiting for you for a long time.

Long live long ears

you shall always be in my heart

until we meet again...

Fred

Our visit with Kat and Colin was amazing and fun. Kat was fascinated by our mules and I decided to take her riding. She has previous riding experience while Colin really doesn't. He rode our Billy Bob mule when he was 12 around our yard.

Rich suggested I pull Fred out of retirement and saddle him up with my lightweight saddle and take them on a short ride.

Fred was ridden for the last time in 2016 by kids in the pasture. The past winter seemed hard on him and he'd lost condition and weight. All this summer I've been soaking alfalfa pellets and Senior Feed for him twice a day.
His coat is back to glistening and he has gained conditioning. He even gets bossy with the other girls out in the pasture and lopes up to the gate when he sees me coming at any time of day.

His teeth are probably just about worn out, but his attitude is the same little determined pony mule he has always been.

We know he cannot live forever soooooo....I commissioned Kat to do a portrait of Fred for Rich. Here is one she did of our Sundance mule as a gift.

Here are some shots the 'kids' took with their cell phones of our nice little ride.

That's me on Fred. Bad me. I totally forgot to put on my helmet when I was helping my guest riders get ready. 
Oh well.

Kat and her hubby on Sunshine and Siera:

Then Colin took a short video while riding. 

I'm so tickled that Fred seemed so eager to be on the trail and lead the pack as he as always done. He never even broke a sweat while the two Fat Bottom Girls did. 

Here is Fred in the pasture. He is 13 hands and 37 years old. 

One of the reasons this little mule is so special is because he is the reason I met my hubby.

He was riding Fred when he admired my horse. I recalled his mule's name but not his. The little mule impressed me so much 28 years ago, that I had to find out more about him.

And so it goes...

Wicked Wicked Winds!

Ever try stapling hay down to feed equine? Gusts were said to be something like 45 mph!

Dang! 

The winds were incredible today and happened just to come the right way down through the hollow. The pines did the Hula, and the Locust trees whirled like dervishes.

I swear, it sounded as though we had a freight train running overhead.

Lil Richard is indoors as his pen had no place for him to get out of the wind. He is my only equine that doesn't mind being penned indoors. I put out a fresh pile of shavings for him to spread out.

Funny pony! He deposits his manure directly on the pile of shavings and beds down in the dry dirt. 

We noted that Fred [37 yrs old] is losing condition. Poor fella, his teeth are pretty much gone [molars and premolars]. We feed him Senior Feed pellets and he still acts as if he were just a teenager. He chases the gals around and herds them when he decides their hay pile should be HIS!

Fred and Hubby 2005
Wildcat Mtn State Park

I sure would love to ride there or Duck Egg again. 
That is if I could get a truck and trailer! 

So today after checking the fences and dodging blowing branches, I settled in for the day.

I did some research on a tow behind brush mower for the 4 wheeler. I think using the scythe might be a bit much for me this summer. I would still love a UTV but I'm still working on that. It also depends on what my Bird Bone meds may cost me for the next year or so.

After reading about all my horse friends riding adventures, I get the yank to get back out and ride. I really do miss it. Worst thing now is, I have no truck to pull a trailer. 

Oh, and I completely stink at pulling anything larger than a two horse trailer. I can't really get away for a nice trail ride. I have to settle for riding around here. 

Enough of that.

I had my afternoon tea with Mr. Charlie on my lap. The howling winds didn't seem to bother him a bit!

Tomorrow is Good Friday. Have a wonderful one.

Maybe Charlie and I can get outside tomorrow and inspect pastures and take a walk!

Cold & Sunny

Cold weather and Sunshine the Mule...enjoying the sunshine.

Sundance, her sister looks over as I am doing the stock tank refill.

And Mica, the grey mule snoozes, choosing to ignore everyone else.

Fred is now 37 years old. He is the only male we have left and is his own man. He is a pony mule of 13.5 hands.

Pardon the fence lines, but they are there and there was no way to avoid them. 

This was Sunday when the warm temps got up to -4! Whoo!

Today is warm and this evening we are to get a blast of cold and winds along with some snow.

That could make things adventurous in our neck of the woods.

Good and Bad

Old Fred is at least 33 years old. You can see it in his face. The mule who hates being caught, let me approach him and give him a long grooming!

He is still the feisty little pony mule but a bit less 'full of it'. He loves his Senior Feed and comes running for it.
Here you can see the age in his face and across his back. Time awaits no one, right?

So I asked, begged, and egged my husband to see if I could get some dirt for a project that I've wanted to do for a while now. I wanted him to take dirt from an old compost pile of manure and put it under the kitchen window on the east side of the house.

Much to my surprise, while I wasn't paying attention to Rich who had been sitting on the porch...I heard the skid steer start up and viola!

The bearded wonder had not only gotten into the skid steer out in the shed, but had started it and delivered dirt!

Somehow I think this Hermit Life is working for him perfectly!
[The day after this photo, he clipped his beard and now sports a clean face with a goatee and mustache.]

Above is the area that I wanted to make into more garden. I wanted a place to put out my 'non' Fairy Garden.

First load...

 After the second and third load of fresh compost.

I had a LOT of shoveling and raking to do. I sort of had a plan, but nothing fixed in my 'head'. I knew that I wanted a walk way down the middle of it so I could weed from the middle when the plants were up. And I wanted a nice looking border, but decided to use what was available already.

So ....there are the rocks from an obscure place that I'd stored them years ago. The plastic is from old round bale covers that were shredded. I found some flat rocks to use as stepping stone and  filled the missing 'steps' for now with old bricks until I can find the perfect rocks and carry them up from the creek.

I love rocks. I'd love to display the rocks as much as the garden so it will take me a bit to get the just right rocks for the pathway.

I added some gnarly stump pieces from the woods. They will be part of the Unicorn and Dragon hideouts.
After all, can't I just be a kid and have some fun? I don't mind gnomes either, but apparently they are not welcome in this garden either....

As I said, a Dragon/Unicorn garden. The Fairies can go find another place, however they will probably show up.

A look at the walk way that needs mulch and new stones...

I had to spend most of the day waiting for a UPS delivery that has to be signed for. The new way of doing things is that the driveway physically has to see the person to make the delivery and then he signs for you so there is no contact between him and the customer.

After getting the meds, I decided to listen to some music on my phone and get down to the business of picking out the weeds from my vinca ground cover bed and dig out the areas that I'd plant 4 o'clocks in if I can't get petunias or marigolds.

The rest of the afternoon was spent planting two rather sad looking tomato plants in buckets along with moving dirt and weeding around the rest of the house.

This requires very close work on the knees or sitting. I have to be careful to pull out last year's dead stuff and pick only the crabgrass and other tiny weeds that surround some of the bulbs that haven't come up yet.

These are blazing stars.

My daffies blossom first near the house. The bleeding hearts join in a bit later along with the irises. 

The vinca provides a pretty dark green ground cover with purple flowers.

Late summer I hope to have some pots with blossoms of some sort in them.

It all depends on how available these things are and IF I can actually shop for them safely.

I went into my seed bucket I kept in the basement. It is a bucket I use to deposit all the seeds I've picked from my sunflowers and other flowers that I gather the seeds for each year.

I was upset to find that mice had somehow found my seeds! I have plenty of orange cosmos and some zinnia seeds, but most of the 4 o'clocks were eaten along with the sunflower seeds.

Good thing I keep back up packets!
Next year...I'll keep them in a sealed container. And the mice will have traps to contend with!

I hope to get some mulch today for the 'walkway' among other things. I figured to get this done before the large veggie garden and the mowing take over my time!

Note.
Two days ago we had our first confirmed case of Covid-19 in our county. It isn't like this virus knows county boundaries.
I see some friends who are now calling the outbreak a scam and that we should all just get on with our lives. I get that. They have families to feed and their hours have been cut. Things are dire all over.

I was told that the numbers were 'fake', deaths were 'fake', wearing masks was not warranted.
Let me rant here.

I get it.
But the state numbers are still creeping up as are the deaths. I don't have the answers but I know that I am deciding to keep isolated as much as possible.
The Hermit Life has been excellent for Rich. He is doing much better now than in the past two years!

He has been operating the skid steer, taking an interest in grooming, taking an active interest in what I am doing in the yard and gardens. This is HUGE!

So keep your 'fake' deaths, drink your disinfectant, believe the liar liar pants on fire. Go ahead and protest, yell, scream, ... but don't ask me to.

I'll go ahead and plant my Dragon garden, I'll enjoy being isolated. And yes, I am one of those lucky people at least for now...that can stay home.

I have a duty to protect my husband. And I will do so.

About this and that...

Fred gets a bath and immediately does what any self respecting mule will do.
Roll in the closest dirt pile to replenish the dirt.

Here are some of the projects I've been working on. I used an old milker to plant some petunias in.

This is part of the East Garden just before I put the milker in. I needed to make a straight edge to mow a bit easier. I used landscape fabric and planted some petunias and marigolds...then added the black mulch.
I need much much mulch!

View after the mulch job. Be warned, this garden goes through many phases of re-arranging as the summer goes on. The bricks are there in place until I get some nice rocks to replace them with...

Hubby brought loads of black dirt for around the house. The ground settled after the remodel.

So I used a rake and a shovel to move the dirt to where I wanted it.

It took another day or so to get some plants transplanted around in the dirt. I don't like landscape fabric as a rule. I just crowd out weeds if I can with plants.
We will see how that works! Not too sure!

Then I found another new project. Another old chair found in the red shed.
I started this weekend with painting it. I'm not exactly sure how it will turn out.
It will be a porch chair or a chair for inside when we have company.
Last year I made the Happy Chair.

Perhaps I can make another chair ... Naughty Chair?
Lazy Chair? Thoughtful Chair?

Photo of the Happy Chair I worked on from last summer....

Here is a sample of what I've been doing.
Before....

 After...
It need improvements all around, but I like perennials. These all have come from other areas of the yard where I 'stored' them while I was waiting for the remodel to be done and the ground to 'settle'.

And speaking of gardens.
I am just about ready to start the vegetable garden.

Last but not least!
Tadah! We had too many cattle for me to take care of and last year Rich decided we should sell 6 head and keep two for eating. Another few could stay as our forest gleaners.
Rich kept putting it off and off. Part of the stroke issues is an inability to get certain decisions made.
I hooked up with a farmer friend and he arranged it.
We moved the cattle Wednesday afternoon to a small fenced in paddock with metal 'catch pen' gates.

The farm friend showed up as well as the trucker and we loaded up the little Dexters and sent them on their way.

The others tiny group is busy working at mowing and keeping the weeds under control.

And now I think I've caught up on farm work for a bit.

Have a wonderful weekend. I have company arriving tonight to prep for.....